Devil's Bathtub

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Speaker 15 One of the investigators brought somebody over to me saying this is our violent crime advocate. I was stealing myself for it already because of the massive police presence.

Speaker 15 They said that they believed that he had been murdered.

Speaker 16 Craig Rideout, dad of seven, cared deeply about his kids.

Speaker 15 He was a loving man, provider, warm.

Speaker 17 So it was puzzling and alarming when he vanished.

Speaker 18 She said, Craig's not here.

Speaker 15 I said, that's weird. I didn't know what was happening.
I know something is wrong. I don't know how wrong.

Speaker 16 A disturbing discovery in the basement.

Speaker 18 Blood particles were found on the walls.

Speaker 15 It appeared that there was some kind of ambush.

Speaker 16 Revelations about Craig's wife.

Speaker 15 Craig didn't want to believe there was a romantic relationship between them. It became painfully obvious that there was.

Speaker 16 And in the park, two young men acting strangely.

Speaker 20 They identify Colin Rideout and Alexander Rideout.

Speaker 15 The victim's two sons.

Speaker 8 The victim's two sons.

Speaker 16 Finally, a string of security videos would lay bare the bone-chilling truth.

Speaker 15 A diabolical plan is forming here.

Speaker 20 It appears that way.

Speaker 18 I was stunned. Absolutely stunned.

Speaker 15 I remember just holding him, crying. This is a family divided like no other.

Speaker 7 I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dayblind.

Speaker 16 Tonight, the depths of evil revealed at a place they call Devil's Bathtub.

Speaker 21 Here's Andrea Kenning.

Speaker 15 This is Devil's Bathtub.

Speaker 15 A deep, dark pond formed by glaciers millennia ago.

Speaker 15 It's hidden and secluded. But beyond the tangle and the weeds, A secret was about to be discovered.

Speaker 15 We weren't ready for this. The sirens in my head, red lights going off in my head.

Speaker 15 The discovery would tell the tale of an all-American family torn apart and a twisted loyalty hard to comprehend. It was like hitting a brick wall and life just stopped.

Speaker 15 This is the ultimate story of betrayal. Yes.

Speaker 15 Pittsford, New York, a pretty suburb of Rochester. Big houses, big families, and top-ranked schools that make the people who move here want to stick around.
In this community, you're open to bubble.

Speaker 15 The community is a bubble.

Speaker 15 The Rideout family lived in that happy bubble. Chelsea Noyer dated the oldest Ride Out boy, Colin.

Speaker 15 I remember one of the first times I went over to

Speaker 15 his house in high school,

Speaker 15 He was cooking me dinner and I was like, oh man, cooking dinner. That's pretty cool.
Very responsible. Oh, yeah.
That was one of the reasons why I fell in love with him. He loved his family.

Speaker 15 And it was a big one. Three girls, four boys.
The ride-out household was always bustling. Family dinners, holidays.
Colin's parents, Craig and Laura, embraced the chaos.

Speaker 15 This is Craig's sister, Robin Drew. Clearly...

Speaker 15 They liked being parents. They were enjoying this.
Right. Seven kids.
Seven kids. Dad Craig worked as a computer programmer and spent time mentoring kids at his church.

Speaker 18 Craig is an outwardly personable person.

Speaker 18 You meet Craig Rideout, you'll like him.

Speaker 15 Paul Tucci, better known as PJ, was Craig Rideout's best friend. PJ was there when Craig fell in love with Laura.

Speaker 18 Laura is compassionate.

Speaker 23 She's also really intelligent.

Speaker 18 I mean, she double-majored in physics and English 4-0.

Speaker 15 As for the Rideout kids, they were smart like their parents, hardworking, articulate. But while they thrived, family life took a toll on Craig and Laura's marriage.

Speaker 15 Laura had been on bedrest for some of her pregnancies, and money was tight. It circles back, I believe, to some financial hardships.
It's understandable, seven children, bills.

Speaker 15 Yeah, you know, these are real life, real life issues. Craig and Laura separated in 2014.
Craig took it really hard.

Speaker 20 He sent an email to me saying,

Speaker 15 well, it looks like I'm getting divorced because I don't think I can talk about it without crying.

Speaker 15 PJ says he wasn't surprised to see the marriage dissolve.

Speaker 18 But sometimes you got to feel. You have a lot of positives that came out of that relationship, but there's also a lot of negatives.

Speaker 15 Oldest son Colin was away at maritime college when his parents split. They asked him if he was going to be okay.
And his first thought was like, I'm going to be okay.

Speaker 15 I have you, but I'm more concerned about, you know, making sure my siblings are okay.

Speaker 15 He decided to put family first and help out his mother. He moved back to Rochester and put aside college and his goal of becoming a Navy SEAL.

Speaker 15 He left his kind of his dream to put his siblings first.

Speaker 15 What is going to be the custody arrangements? The older kids were free to make their own choice.

Speaker 15 Custody got sticky with the two youngest kids. The divorce still wasn't final in the summer of 2016.

Speaker 15 And Robin says there was tension over the shared custody of the six and 12-year-old kids, though Craig told her he was trying to make the best of a difficult situation.

Speaker 15 One of the phrases that he used most recently

Speaker 15 was that he saw light at the end of the tunnel. But it was stressing him out.
And on top of that, something weird happened to Craig that summer.

Speaker 15 Someone broke into the townhouse where he had recently moved. He thought it was no big deal.
Maybe one of his sons playing a prank.

Speaker 15 But his sister was worried, and she urged him to report it to police. My name's Craig Rydau.
What happened? I wake up at midnight with a sharp pain in my arm.

Speaker 24 I jump up.

Speaker 24 This will sound crazy.

Speaker 24 A hooded black figure, not a black man, was running out of the room. The reason I have to file a police report is my black bear, which was taken that night.

Speaker 15 Robin made a point to talk to her brother every day. July 19th, just a few days after the break-in, was no exception.
I said, I'll call you in the morning. Check on you and the kids.

Speaker 15 But morning came, and Craig wasn't returning Robin's calls.

Speaker 15 If he had been in a meeting

Speaker 15 and felt his phone go off, he would have sent a response in a meeting. Call you later.

Speaker 15 Concerned, Robin decided to pay a visit to Craig's townhouse. And inside that house, the beginning of a dark family drama that could never be unwritten.
I know something is wrong.

Speaker 15 I don't know how wrong.

Speaker 16 What was going on with Craig right out when we come back?

Speaker 17 A discovery in the basement was about to provide an ominous clue.

Speaker 20 And found what appeared to be blood spatter on the walls.

Speaker 16 What they found next would change everything.

Speaker 15 This is a big moment in this case. It is.

Speaker 21 When dateline continues

Speaker 15 Robin Drew couldn't imagine where her brother Craig was. It was a warm summer morning, Wednesday, July 20th, 2016.
You can't reach him at work. You can't reach him at home.
Right.

Speaker 15 I'm getting no response. That break-in was fresh in Robin's mind when she decided to leave work at lunch and head to Craig's townhouse.
His soon-to-be ex-wife Laura was there.

Speaker 15 She couldn't find him either. She says, oh, I figured it wouldn't be long before someone came looking for him.
I don't know where he is.

Speaker 15 Laura told Robin it had been Craig's night with the two youngest children. But that morning, Laura said the kids texted her to say dad wasn't there when they woke up.
She sent Colin over to get them.

Speaker 15 Colin was always picking up his siblings. He would drive them places.
Robin decided to look around her brother's house. She went upstairs to his bedroom.
The door was locked.

Speaker 15 I thought, that's really odd. Did you worry that he might be in the bedroom? I was worried that he might have been in the bedroom.

Speaker 15 Happened to him?

Speaker 15 Yes.

Speaker 15 Exactly what she didn't know. She called 911.

Speaker 25 My brother has not been answering texts or cell phone calls or emails. And I could be making a mountain out of a molehill.

Speaker 15 Deputies from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office arrived at Craig's, but they stayed outside, told Robin they'd need a warrant to search the house.

Speaker 15 After all, her brother was a grown man, and this was his private property. Dave Bolton was one of those investigators.
He spoke to Robin briefly.

Speaker 20 But she called a number of times, and this made her nervous, not being able to get a hold of him on an email or text.

Speaker 15 Laura had gone home, but came back to the townhouse with the two young kids to see what was going on. Does she express that she has any idea where Craig might be?

Speaker 16 She didn't.

Speaker 20 She said that she had no idea where he might be.

Speaker 15 Laura told the deputies Craig was home when the kids were dropped off the night before.

Speaker 26 Obviously, you're a little bit concerned about him, I guess.

Speaker 15 I don't even know where to

Speaker 15 think. Because he can kind of, it doesn't, his personality wouldn't be one where he'd be hurt.
Then, the investigator asked the kids some questions. First, the six-year-old daughter.

Speaker 15 Was he there when you woke up?

Speaker 27 No, that's when he woke up and his dad wasn't there.

Speaker 26 The last time you saw your dad was when, honey?

Speaker 15 Uh, yesterday.

Speaker 27 He was um playing video games on the computer. He um went to the bathroom and then he went downstairs

Speaker 27 and then that night he was downstairs and then he disappeared in the morning.

Speaker 15 The 12-year-old son told the same story.

Speaker 26 When was the last time you saw him?

Speaker 15 11:30 last night when he was going to bed.

Speaker 26 And then what happened this morning?

Speaker 20 Uh, he wasn't there, so

Speaker 15 I was just guessing he went to work. No one could find Craig.

Speaker 15 Laura texted PJ Tucci.

Speaker 18 She said, Craig's not here. I said, that's weird.

Speaker 15 Colin called Chelsea. Were you concerned just for him? Yeah, I was concerned.

Speaker 15 You know, nobody wants to hear somebody went missing from their family, and I just assumed he had to step outside or go a quick trip.

Speaker 15 Late that night, investigators finally had their search warrant. You go inside?

Speaker 20 We go inside.

Speaker 15 What do you find?

Speaker 20 On the initial walkthrough, the house is very neat, very well put together. There doesn't appear to be any forced entry.

Speaker 15 The investigators unlocked the master bedroom. It was undisturbed.
No Craig. They looked around, found nothing, then headed to the basement.

Speaker 20 What do you find? There's boxes on the shelves. They're all neatly stacked.
Everything is kind of in its home. And on the other side, it's kind kind of disheveled.

Speaker 15 It was messy, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary for a basement. Until they noticed something alarming.

Speaker 20 We more closely examined the area and found what appeared to be blood spatter on the walls and on the shelving unit.

Speaker 15 Crime scene tech sprayed the basement floor with luminol and found even more blood. Blood that someone tried to wipe away.
Then a discovery inside a garbage bag.

Speaker 20 We find what appears to be a garage. It's two handles with some paracord knotted so that you could hold on to both handles and use it as a ligature.

Speaker 15 A weapon used for strangulation. The evidence was telling them a story, one that wouldn't end well for Craig Rideout.

Speaker 20 We were pretty sure we had our murder scene.

Speaker 15 This is a big moment in this case.

Speaker 13 It is.

Speaker 5 Coming up.

Speaker 17 A bombshell about Craig Rideout's soon-to-be ex-wife.

Speaker 15 Craig didn't want to believe that there was a romantic relationship between them. I think over time it became painfully obvious that there was.

Speaker 16 And then, just off a country road, a passerby sees something that will transform the case.

Speaker 28 In the words of the body under a tarp.

Speaker 21 When Dateline continues.

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Speaker 15 It was late afternoon, July 20th, 2016. Craig Rideout, father of seven, had been missing since early that morning.

Speaker 15 Investigators had discovered a horrid scene in Craig's basement, a scene that told them he wasn't coming home.

Speaker 20 We're starting to find more and more items with a lot of blood on them.

Speaker 15 Craig's sister Robin was waiting outside, watching the police action unfold in front of her brother's townhouse.

Speaker 15 And then one of the Munro County investigators brought somebody over to me saying this is our violent crime advocate. Did your heart sink when it did.
And they told me that

Speaker 15 they believed that he had been murdered.

Speaker 15 Murdered in his own home? Investigators surmised it happened overnight while his young children slept. Who would do such a thing?

Speaker 15 Craig's sister told investigator Bolton about that break-in at Craig's home a few days earlier. I wake up at midnight with a sharp pain in my arm.

Speaker 20 He says that he was upstairs sleeping in his bed when in the middle of the night he was awoken by somebody pulling a hair from his arm. The male ran out of the bedroom and ultimately out of the house.

Speaker 15 Craig told his sister he thought it was a prank, didn't know what to make of it, nor did Robin. But she had some other information for the investigator.
Details about her brother's marriage.

Speaker 15 How long had Craig Wrightout and Laura Wrightout been separated for?

Speaker 20 About two years.

Speaker 15 And it hadn't been...

Speaker 15 A good separation?

Speaker 20 It hadn't been.

Speaker 15 The reason? Laura had a new man in her life and it was, well, awkward would be an understatement. Her boyfriend was Craig's old buddy, P.J.
Tucci.

Speaker 15 Paul Tucci goes from being Craig Wrightout's best friend to now being Craig Wrightout's estranged wife's boyfriend.

Speaker 14 Yes.

Speaker 15 So that doesn't always work out so well for relationships.

Speaker 20 Certainly not between the two of them.

Speaker 15 Craig and Laura had been close friends with PJ and his wife Jennifer for many years. All of the kids, the Tucci and the Out kids,

Speaker 15 really grew up together. They would go out together.
They had parties together. But around the same time that Laura and Craig's marriage was falling apart, PJ's wife died from liver disease.

Speaker 15 PJ says he leaned on Laura for support and Laura began confiding in PJ. His best friend.
His former best friend, yes. In a romantic relationship now?

Speaker 15 At first, Craig didn't want to believe that there was a romantic relationship going on between them. And I think over time it became painfully obvious that there was.

Speaker 31 I didn't know I was going to fall in love with Laura.

Speaker 14 But that happened over time.

Speaker 15 Does Craig know about this?

Speaker 18 Craig sent me an email.

Speaker 15 What did it say?

Speaker 18 It said...

Speaker 18 He says, I don't know if you found yourself in a damsel in distress situation and you're just helping, or you have romantic feelings towards Laura.

Speaker 22 Either way, I'm happy.

Speaker 15 That's big of him.

Speaker 18 I thought it was an interesting thing. I don't know what he was trying to elicit.

Speaker 15 It was certainly interesting to the homicide detective. But before Investigator Bolton could run down that juicy lead, he got some news.

Speaker 15 Two counties over, a shovel had been left by the side of the road. And 50 feet into the woods, a man's body was discovered.
He's coming, Evan. What?

Speaker 28 We discovered that in the woods there's a body under a tarp.

Speaker 25 Okay. Is it near your home?

Speaker 28 Just down the road.

Speaker 15 Could it be Craig? The victim's identity wasn't obvious right away. His killer or killers had used some kind of acid to intentionally disfigure his face.

Speaker 15 That sounds like someone had a major grudge with this person.

Speaker 20 It certainly seemed like they weren't interested in him being found.

Speaker 15 But even though the victim was unrecognizable, deputies were able to ID him pretty quickly. The answer was found in his pocket.
When the body was found, the victim's phone was ringing.

Speaker 15 The person popping up on the caller ID, it was Robin Drew, Craig's sister. As I was trying to reach him,

Speaker 15 the cell phone was ringing in his pocket.

Speaker 15 You're calling and the phone's ringing in Yates County and your brother is

Speaker 15 dead.

Speaker 13 Yeah.

Speaker 15 Sounds like some really dumb criminals to leave the cell phone in the pocket when they have gone to these great lengths of pouring possibly acid on this man.

Speaker 20 Does seem that they overlooked a pretty obvious thing.

Speaker 15 They had a crime scene, a body, and a marriage with a soap opera ending. And the next bit of evidence would lead this story to an even darker place, a place called Devil's Bathtub.

Speaker 15 A million things must be going through your mind.

Speaker 20 And it gets stranger quick.

Speaker 21 Coming up,

Speaker 17 a chance sighting and a call to police.

Speaker 20 They saw a couple of males in the parking lot and they saw what they believed to be garbage bags getting thrown out.

Speaker 21 Wendateline continues.

Speaker 15 The case of the missing dad was now a murder investigation. Investigator Dave Bolton had been up for 36 hours working two critical crime scenes, the basement where Craig was likely killed.

Speaker 15 and the woods where his body was found. And now the investigator was about to be called to to another location, that place called Devil's Bathtub.
It's a secluded pond set deep in a 2,500-acre park.

Speaker 15 What is going on here? Why are you called to the scene?

Speaker 20 There were some walkers in the park that saw something that they thought was suspicious.

Speaker 20 They saw a couple of males in the park in a car parked up in the parking lot, and they saw what they believed to be garbage bags getting thrown out.

Speaker 15 And why was a homicide detective getting a call about a case of suspicious littering? When deputies on the scene detained the two young men, they recognized their last name, Rideout.

Speaker 15 The same name as the murder victim in the case being worked by Investigator Bolton.

Speaker 20 They identify Colin Rideout and Alexander Rideout.

Speaker 15 The victim's two sons.

Speaker 20 The victim's two sons.

Speaker 15 Colin was in the park with his 19-year-old brother Alex, who had just graduated from high school.

Speaker 15 Investigator Bolton pulled out his iPhone, pressed record, and he and another investigator began to ask the brother brother some questions. Younger brother Alex was first.

Speaker 32 So, what's going on?

Speaker 12 You and your brother are off for a walk?

Speaker 12 Basically, that's.

Speaker 33 I mean, we were just like out, and then suddenly people show up, and it's like, well, that's.

Speaker 33 I've never really encountered police before, so it was like.

Speaker 32 You've never been in trouble before, right?

Speaker 33 No, I don't really do drugs or drink or really party. I've only.
How old are you? I'm 19. I'm doing college next year.

Speaker 15 Investigator Bolton's radar radar was up. He knew Craig thought one of his sons might be behind that weird break-in.
And now, here were his sons acting suspiciously in a secluded park.

Speaker 15 The investigator decided to ask what they thought happened to their dad. But without telling the boys, that Craig had already been found brutally murdered.

Speaker 33 He'd always, you know, he'd always threaten, you know, oh, I could just disappear. But I figured he was on the next flight to Mexico.

Speaker 15 Colin said he didn't know where his dad was either.

Speaker 33 Have you heard from these people?

Speaker 34 Well, I emailed him last night. I didn't hear from him.

Speaker 35 I heard from him Monday, and he picked up my brother and sister, I think, Tuesday.

Speaker 15 The investigator wanted to keep Colin talking, and he did.

Speaker 15 So what is Colin opening up to you about?

Speaker 20 Colin starts to talk about the family dynamic and how he believes that his father might be having some sort of mental issues or some sort of breakdown.

Speaker 35 Like, I've been kind of worried about him for, like, stuff's just been freaking me out because he's...

Speaker 15 Then the investigator asked him directly what was in the garbage bags they were trying to get rid of.

Speaker 32 I'm worried about what's in that bag, and I'm gonna tell you, if you tell me what's in that bag before I see what's in that bag, it'll be better for you.

Speaker 34 You know, I don't know what's what's in the bag.

Speaker 15 Investigators didn't think Colin was being honest.

Speaker 33 Do you believe they got I do, yeah?

Speaker 33 They seek truth.

Speaker 36 Yeah, I'm hoping maybe we can hold out truth that's there, right? Yeah.

Speaker 15 All that talk about truth worked. The The boys admitted something big.
They'd been at their dad's house the day before. And listen to this.

Speaker 32 So, anything you're talking about?

Speaker 15 Well,

Speaker 24 there was.

Speaker 35 There was a lot of blood in the basement. You know, and I was worried that,

Speaker 35 you know, something had happened.

Speaker 32 And there's a lot of blood in the basement.

Speaker 13 Yeah.

Speaker 15 They just placed themselves at the scene of the crime. And when the investigator opened up those garbage bags.

Speaker 20 No bloody clothing. There's a bloody sneaker.
There's some work gloves that have some blood on them. What would appear to be evidence of a murder?

Speaker 15 Colin, the would-be Navy SEAL who always put family first, and his booksmark brother Alex, with plans to go to college, were taken down to the sheriff's office and arrested.

Speaker 15 They weren't charged with murder, but with tampering with evidence. Something to hold the boys while the investigation continued.
How do you

Speaker 15 process that?

Speaker 15 To be honest, Shell Schacht shocked would be the best word for it. Colin, called Chelsea from jail.

Speaker 25 Hey, hi. Colin.

Speaker 24 Oh my god.

Speaker 24 I was arrested. My lawyer says that I'm just not supposed to talk about anything.

Speaker 15 What was his state of mind like? He's confused. He loves his family.
He was like a hitting a brick wall and life just stopped.

Speaker 15 Was there any part of you that said maybe I don't know Colin as well as I think? He's just the guy that had everything ahead of him.

Speaker 15 He wouldn't have thrown it away for nothing. So did you wonder then how he ended up with the garbage bags, with that evidence? I think it would give anyone

Speaker 15 just a pause to think about it and just question.

Speaker 15 But we also know him and we know the man he is.

Speaker 15 Investigator Bolton didn't know the Rideout kids, but he knew there had to be more to the story than two nice boys deciding to kill their dad.

Speaker 15 His investigation turned to their mom, Laura Rideout, the woman who had been married to Craig for more than 20 years and who had raised those sons.

Speaker 15 Robin had been telling investigators about the divorce, and it wasn't pretty.

Speaker 20 There's a contentious separation and custody bail going on where they're not really supposed to see each other even at drop-off.

Speaker 15 At the same time, Laura and her new significant other, Craig's former best friend, P.J. Tucci, were preparing for a big change.

Speaker 20 Their intention was to move as a family down to North Carolina, and that move was supposed to happen within a couple of days.

Speaker 15 But Craig had primary custody of the two youngest and wouldn't let Laura take them out of state. So then how's Laura Rideout moving to North Carolina?

Speaker 20 That's a good question.

Speaker 15 Robin was suspicious of Laura from the moment she arrived at her brother's townhouse. Remember, the day Craig went missing, Laura was there and she was inside tidying up.

Speaker 15 When I get in and I open the sliding glass door, it's Laura standing in his kitchen. That's cleaning.
That's kind of. That would be odd.
It was odd. In my head, I'm thinking, what are you doing here?

Speaker 15 Cleaning up a crime scene. That's what Investigator Bolton suspected.
In fact, the boys admitted it was their mother who gave them the bags of bloody clothes.

Speaker 2 It was just

Speaker 34 something my mom told me, like, hey, you know, when did your mom tell you to do that?

Speaker 35 It It was this morning with her.

Speaker 33 Did she give you the bag?

Speaker 12 Yeah.

Speaker 15 Just hours after arresting the two sons, Investigator Bolton headed to the home that Laura shared with PJ Tucci.

Speaker 18 I was stunned.

Speaker 18 I was absolutely stunned.

Speaker 21 Coming up.

Speaker 17 Security video from days before Craig Wrightout's murder leads to a sickening revelation.

Speaker 15 A diabolical plan is forming here.

Speaker 20 It appears that way.

Speaker 21 When dateline continues.

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Speaker 15 Laura Rideout wasn't expecting sheriff's deputies to show up at the front door that evening, wasn't dressed for a trip to the county jail, but that's where she was going.

Speaker 18 So they told her to get shoes. And

Speaker 18 Laura loves to wear heels. And they said, well, you need a different kind of shoe.

Speaker 14 So she throws on a pair of Nike golf shoes.

Speaker 18 And they came down, and then I watched them arrest her. Scariest thing I've ever seen.

Speaker 15 What did they do? And her kids are there.

Speaker 18 You know, her kids are sitting there watching their mother get arrested.

Speaker 15 Did she say anything?

Speaker 17 She said, what for?

Speaker 18 The arresting officer said, you had to have been expecting this.

Speaker 14 And she was like, no, what?

Speaker 18 She said, if I were expecting this, I would have had makeup on.

Speaker 15 Boyfriend PJ says he thought there had to be some sort of misunderstanding, a terrible mistake. Had Laura ever said, I just wish Craig was out of our lives? No.

Speaker 18 She wanted Craig to have a relationship. with the kids.
She didn't have animosity towards Craig.

Speaker 15 But when deputies searched the home where Laura lived, there were clues everywhere. Inside the master bedroom, a key fob to unlock Craig's car.

Speaker 15 In another bedroom, blue tape, identical to the tape used to make that garage found in Craig's basement. Bits of incriminating evidence in the home where PJ also lived.

Speaker 15 When Craig was killed, where were you?

Speaker 17 We were at home.

Speaker 15 You were with Laura at home? I was with Laura.

Speaker 15 The investigator believed he was with Laura, but not innocently at home. And six weeks after Craig's murder, PJ PJ Tucci was under arrest too.

Speaker 18 I can tell you this: I've never been in the guy's house. I know where it is, drop kids off.
I've never been in there.

Speaker 15 Were you part of the overall plan

Speaker 15 to cover it up?

Speaker 18 There's no plan.

Speaker 15 Four people were under arrest, and all four let out on bail.

Speaker 38 Colin Alex, do you have any comment?

Speaker 15 They were only charged with evidence tampering while investigators tried to figure out exactly who did what.

Speaker 15 No one was talking anymore. Laura, anything anything to say?

Speaker 15 All four lawyered up and presented a united front.

Speaker 15 Investigators still didn't know if this was a crime of passion or a conspiracy. And if it had been planned, who was the ringleader?

Speaker 15 Investigator Bolton says the answer to some of those questions came after analyzing items found on or around Craig's body dumped in the woods.

Speaker 20 We found the bungee cords and then we also have a tarp. And from bagtracking the receipts, we were able to find some video at a number of stores, particularly the Walmart.

Speaker 15 When investigators pulled security video from Walmart, they saw what appeared to them to be a murder plot in the making.

Speaker 15 July 18th, two days before the murder, Laura, Colin, and one of the younger kids go shopping to buy drain cleaner.

Speaker 15 Drain cleaner, which investigators believed was used to disfigure Craig Rideout's face.

Speaker 15 The next day, just a few hours before the murder, Laura and PJ are at a different Walmart buying a large tarp, bungee cord, and more drain cleaner.

Speaker 20 The tarp and the bungees matched up to the ones found on Craig's body.

Speaker 15 And the day of the murder, here's Colin buying a shovel. A shovel identical to the one left by the side of the road near where Craig's body was found.
A diabolical plan is forming here.

Speaker 20 It appears that way.

Speaker 15 Over a number of days.

Speaker 22 Yes.

Speaker 15 There was Laura on tape, looking completely relaxed. A wife, a mother, and now investigators believed a killer.
Craig's sister saw a woman who had somehow turned two sons against their own father.

Speaker 15 Honest God, I don't know how that happened. What was said

Speaker 15 that could have turned

Speaker 15 the kids against him? This is the ultimate story of betrayal. Yes.

Speaker 15 What do you believe happened that night?

Speaker 20 My belief is that the two younger children are brought over to Craig Rydout's house that evening. Laura or Paul go up to Craig's room to maybe talk about this move to North Carolina.

Speaker 20 I think Laura's the one that gets him to come down into the basement.

Speaker 15 It was in the basement where investigators believe members of Craig's own family and even his one-time best friend were there to do the unthinkable.

Speaker 20 I think the intent was to murder him with no blood at all. I think that the victim started to fight.

Speaker 20 And I think one of the suspects hit him in the head during that struggle in order to get control of him.

Speaker 15 Is there anything you'd like to say?

Speaker 15 When the charges came down, all four, including Colin, who had just proposed to his girlfriend Chelsea, were charged with murder. That was a surprise.
You have to have a million questions.

Speaker 15 Oh, yeah, a million and one.

Speaker 15 And as the investigation unfolded, authorities had more questions too, including a big one about PJ Tucci.

Speaker 15 It had to do with his first wife, Jennifer, who died from liver disease.

Speaker 15 Patrick O'Flynn, then sheriff in Monroe County, thought it was a suspicious coincidence that her death coincided with his new relationship with Laura.

Speaker 39 We spoke with the district attorney's office because we said this needs to be investigated.

Speaker 15 You learned that it would be possible to poison someone and it could look like cirrhosis of the liver.

Speaker 39 From talking with different people, that that is a potential.

Speaker 15 Did you think about that? Maybe Paul Tucci poisoned his wife?

Speaker 39 Without a doubt.

Speaker 15 Both the sheriff and the district attorney wanted to exhume her body, but the medical examiner was satisfied with the original autopsy.

Speaker 18 The medical examiner wrote on the death certificate what happened. Stop bringing her into this.
She had nothing to do with it.

Speaker 15 The questions about Jennifer Tucci's death went nowhere. The prosecutor didn't pursue it.

Speaker 15 Then, as the summer of 2017 approached, the Craig Rideout case was set to go to trial, and that pretty town of Pittsford braced to hear the story of the Rideout family. Yeah, we lived in a bubble.

Speaker 15 This doesn't happen in our bubble.

Speaker 15 We weren't ready for this.

Speaker 15 And no one was ready for what would happen in court. The family's united front was about to implode.

Speaker 16 Coming up, four defense teams are to throw each other's clients under the bus.

Speaker 23 Everyone just started pointing fingers at each other.

Speaker 16 And then the jury speaks.

Speaker 15 I hear those words and I just blacked out.

Speaker 18 I just checked a verdict sheet to make sure that I had heard it right.

Speaker 21 When dateline continues.

Speaker 15 They all had big plans. Colin Rideout was looking forward to getting married.
His younger brother Alex was planning to go to college.

Speaker 15 And Laura and PJ were preparing for a fresh start in North Carolina. But instead, in the summer of 2017, they were all going to court to stand trial for second-degree murder.

Speaker 15 And in a highly unusual ruling, the judge decided all four would be tried together, four trials in one. It's just bizarre

Speaker 15 that this family would be on trial together. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that.
Each had his or her own attorney who sat down with us. That's where I began.
Colin's attorney.

Speaker 40 There obviously was no motive.

Speaker 15 Alex's attorney. This was a lack of evidence case.
P.J. Tucci's attorney

Speaker 15 and two attorneys for Laura.

Speaker 41 It was a circumstantial case.

Speaker 15 It showed the quantity of blood. They were all prepared to argue that the prosecution had no idea what really happened in that basement.
Does anyone know who the real killer is?

Speaker 40 The real killer knows. It could have been one of many people.

Speaker 15 This is a classic whodunit.

Speaker 15 District Attorney Sandra Dorley and then Assistant DA Tim Prosperi admitted they didn't know who delivered the final blow, but that didn't stop them from saying all four defendants were responsible for Craig Rideout's death.

Speaker 15 So you can charge them all with second-degree murder, even if one of them didn't actually, you know, provide the final blow to Craig Rideout.

Speaker 22 Exactly.

Speaker 19 So an example would be a bank robbery. The driver is just as criminally responsible as the person that goes into the bank.

Speaker 15 The prosecution showed the jury those Walmart security videos and told them about the purchase of items like the tarp, acidic drain cleaner, and a shovel.

Speaker 15 And the jury learned about the garbage bags full of bloody clothing at Devil's Bathtub.

Speaker 15 The prosecution said Colin and Laura's jeans had the most amount of blood, putting them squarely in the basement at the time of the murder.

Speaker 15 But DNA from all four defendants was found on items in those bags at Devil's Bathtub. So you had DNA from all four defendants on either the gloves or the clothes and Craig Wrightout's blood.
Exactly.

Speaker 15 Yes.

Speaker 15 And the motive behind it all? The prosecution said it was simple and obvious.

Speaker 15 We believe the motive was to allow the mother to take the younger children out of the state and start off with a new life with her boyfriend, P.J. Tucci.

Speaker 15 It's just so hard to understand, though, why the sons would

Speaker 15 want to do this for their mother. Perhaps there was some underlying agreement between the son and the mother that we weren't aware of.

Speaker 15 It was now time for all those defense attorneys to have their say. Who killed Craig Wrightout?

Speaker 15 Who did it? The defense said the Walmart videos didn't reveal a murder conspiracy. The tarp, the bungee cord, the drain cleaner, all were purchased in preparation for that big move to North Carolina.

Speaker 15 And that's what PJ told us.

Speaker 18 We got the trucks coming and we've got the foosball table that we got to deal with. So I'm going to need something to strap that.

Speaker 18 These wood things on the side of the U-Haul. So I said, well, I need something

Speaker 18 big to cover the floor because I'm going to do the ceiling painting.

Speaker 15 What did you need the drain cleaner for?

Speaker 18 We have girls that have long hair and they clog up shower drains and sinks all over the place. Laura even said this stuff works really, really well.

Speaker 17 So I said, okay, great.

Speaker 15 And then the family on trial together, sitting around that defense table, went on the attack against one another. Colin's attorney started pointing fingers.
Who's getting divorced?

Speaker 40 Colin's not getting divorced.

Speaker 15 That united front that held the family together came crashing down.

Speaker 40 We pointed the finger at the person that was closest to us in terms of items of evidence. Who's moving to North Carolina?

Speaker 40 Colin's not.

Speaker 40 Colin's not moving there.

Speaker 17 Laura Rydout,

Speaker 40 Paul Tucci, they're moving to North Carolina.

Speaker 15 Laura's attorney fought back.

Speaker 41 You can't get around the incriminating evidence against Colin Rydout.

Speaker 15 So you're kind of pointing the finger at Laura on behalf of Colin. Is anyone else pointing the finger at anybody else?

Speaker 40 Everybody else and me.

Speaker 22 Yeah.

Speaker 15 Okay, so you're pointing the finger at Colin on behalf of Laura. Sure.

Speaker 18 That certainly affects the family dynamics during the trial.

Speaker 15 So we have mother and son. Sure.
And then Paul.

Speaker 22 I never said that it was Colin. I never said it was Laura.
I never said it was Alex. We just said, listen, there's evidence connecting them to the scene, not my guy.

Speaker 15 I think you need a football diagram. Yes.

Speaker 15 Yeah. All the relationships.

Speaker 40 And we had to.

Speaker 15 After a month of testimony, the case went to the jury. Colin's Colin's fiancé, Chelsea, remained his biggest supporter to the very end.

Speaker 15 Do you think that the way you've described him as being this protector of the family, do you think that's ultimately what might have got him in trouble?

Speaker 15 He's a smart guy, so no, I don't think he would ever put himself in a situation. He had a life ahead of him.
He had no need. After five days of deliberations, the jury reached a verdict.

Speaker 15 We said a prayer.

Speaker 18 Hearts racing, game face on.

Speaker 15 Tensions were high for everyone as the crowd filed back into the courtroom. The verdicts were read one by one.

Speaker 42 Alexander Rydow.

Speaker 15 Beginning with the sons. First, younger son Alex.

Speaker 42 You've been found not guilty of murder in the second degree.

Speaker 15 Alex was acquitted of the murder charge, but found guilty of tampering with evidence.

Speaker 42 Colin Rideau.

Speaker 15 Then, the oldest son, Colin.

Speaker 42 Jury has found you guilty of murder in the second degree.

Speaker 15 I hear those words, and I was just sent back. I

Speaker 15 just blacked out. Deputies led Colin away in handcuffs.
Chelsea was inconsolable as she left the courtroom surrounded by family.

Speaker 15 It was the grown-ups' turn to hear their verdicts. The victim's former best friend, P.J.
Tucci.

Speaker 20 Mr.

Speaker 42 Tucci, you've been found not guilty of murder in the second degree and tampering with physical evidence.

Speaker 15 P.J. Tucci was acquitted on all counts.

Speaker 18 I actually had to check the verdict sheet to to make sure that I had heard it right.

Speaker 13 Laura Rideout.

Speaker 15 But what about the mother at the center of it all, Laura Rideout?

Speaker 42 The jury has convicted you of murder in the second degree.

Speaker 15 Laura Rideout, guilty of murder. Not surprised at all.
What's that emotion like? Relief and

Speaker 15 justification. Laura and her son Colin were both sentenced to 25 years to life behind bars.
Younger son Alex was sentenced to a maximum of eight years.

Speaker 3 Mr. Tucci, do you have anything to say?

Speaker 15 P.J. Tucci walked out of court a free man.
Prosecutors had no physical evidence to prove that he was ever in Craig's house. Did Paul Tucci get away with murder? I believe he did.

Speaker 15 There will be people who will say he definitely had something to do with this.

Speaker 18 Half the people out there are going to think one thing, and you can't change people's beliefs that way. And half the people are going to think the other way.
I'm not here to change your mind.

Speaker 18 It's a sad story.

Speaker 18 A murder did occur.

Speaker 18 But I don't think that the whole story is out there, and I don't think the jury necessarily got it right.

Speaker 15 PJ Tucci was free, but now alone. A widower who once planned to make a new life with Laura.
And now she was behind bars for what could be the rest of her life. Does she want you to find love again?

Speaker 18 She always wants you to find love.

Speaker 18 Sure.

Speaker 18 The question is: she set a really high standard.

Speaker 15 But she's been convicted of murder.

Speaker 14 But I know in my heart, she didn't do it.

Speaker 15 Craig's sister Robin is left trying to make sense of it all. The darkness that destroyed that big family.
A family that once had so much ambition and promise.

Speaker 15 It's just

Speaker 13 heartbreaking.

Speaker 15 Nobody wins.

Speaker 15 Nobody wins in this. I mean, this is a family divided like no other.

Speaker 17 That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt.

Speaker 16 Thanks for joining us.

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