>> as for heidi's family, their days are all about the kids and grandchildren. parents who believe devoutly in a hereafter, always remember heidi. >> the you talk to heidi? >> i do. >> what did you say? >> we finally got the answers we were praying for. justice will be served. >> that is all for this edition of dateline. thank you for watching. watchin and this is dateline. >> what she saw was a nightmare she screamed and she yelled and she cried. it was terrible. did she fall down the steps. no one was thinking someone did this to her but did someone do

this to her? it t just unraveled from that moment on. >> the fashionista with red lipstick. she meant the world to me. >> when she walked into her room, it was like a movie star walked in. click a caring mom, a million- dollar smile and a $4 million estate. murdered. >> i ran screaming out of the house. >> murdered in her home, late at night >> where would it lead, a twisted case of the trail and greed. her own daughter, a suspect from the start. >> you pulled the life out and you tell police, oh, you're going to find my fingerprints. >> her son in law, who seemed so devoted. >> they interrogated us for eight hours. >> or maybe someone else with a

million-dollar motive. >> how many people are involved in this? >> tedious. >> somebody doesn't just turn into a murderer. ♪ ♪ >> hello, and welcome to dateline. she was a smart loving wealthy widow in the suburbs of the gap city and an unlikely target for such a brutal murder. police immediately zeroed in on the most likely suspect, but ut solving this crime would not be easy or quick. here is josh mankiewicz with the evil to come. >> it was hard to look away when police was in the picture. her beauty was captivating but she was also smart, ambitious, and she loved that little girl. police nato's image survives in homemade movies, when she was

relishing motherhood. blissfully un-aware. of the evil to come. >> i was always close with my mother. always. >> suzanne nadell was a little girl, and says her mom, police, was everything a mother should be. >> as a child, i ice skated, my mother would sit in the rink and freeze, she would sit there with her coat on, all bundled up, shivering. >> suzanne and her younger brother, jim, grew up in suburban macon county, about 30u minutes north of the rhapsody. >> we were able to go away to sleep away camp when we were little. my parents traveled. >> at first, police did what many women did in the 1960s, she stayed at home, while her husband, rob, headed off to he work. but police was drawn to something bigger when her suburban sanctuary. when suzanne was young, her mom was back in school, earning her mba.

please she was probably one of the few women in the graduating class. going into a man's business, and worked very hard. >> much like the fictional character, police olson, and the series, madmen. the real-life police broke the glass ceiling at xerox and became a member of the ca executive boys club. ann martin was in that club, too. >> we didn't have too many female managers. and police, she rose very quickly she was very intelligent. >> and always well-dressed. >> police were a lot of black, she liked to dress and wear the latest fashions. >> unlike her fashionable mom, suzanne was a blue jeans and t- shirt type of girl. please suzanne, how do i explain suzanne? she is quirky, she is outgoing. she is athletic. >> darcy greenberg is one of suzanne's best friends.

please she is spontaneous. she is talkative. she also likes to be close to home. >> after college, she came back and went to work at xerox herself. one night, in a bar, suzanne, now 21, fell for, well actually fell over, a 17-year-old race car driver named bobby steffy a. >> we are fooling around and said oh, slipping on the floor. she is picking me up and we saw each other and started talking. >> 13 years later, suzanne and bobby, who was by then a welder and steam fitter, were married. bobby made a good son in law, he was always there for police, especially after her husband died in 2003. by then, police was retired. but never slow down. d traveling the world, and

treasuring her family. now a psychologist living in florida with her wife, diana, and their two children. >> i have a feeling that jim was not as close to your parents as you are. >> i will agree to that, and why would that be >> maybe because of the distance that he was so far away. he did call, he did speak to them. but my brother is my brother, he kind of lived in his own word. >> but suzanne and her mom were very much in the same world. >> how often did you see your mother? >> almost every day. please suzanne, always on the road as a marketer for a hospital, would often drop in on her mom. and when she wasn't visiting, she would be calling. >> i would speak to her in the afternoon, in the evening, make sure she was home. >> it was almost like she was the parent and you're the kid. he would check up on her. >> oh, absolutely. >> life was good for this family until one morning in

january of 2014. suzanne went to check on her mother. >> oh my god oh my god oh my god! i need an ambulance right now! >> everything changed. coming up. >> i was screaming. please suzanne was in the driveway, looking rather frazzled. >> my first thought is oh my god, she tripped and must have hit her head. >> no way did she fall down stairs. >> when dateline continues. yeah, there he is. -there's my nephew. -very cool. i got a video of him, uh, playing piano. that's not how you take a selfie. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us. -three, two, one. -we don't need a countdown. just take the picture.

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et cetera, january 25th, 2014 started off cold and snowy. suzanne says her day started off as it always did, calling her mother, peggy. click called the cell, she didn't answer. i called the house, she didn't answer. i said all right, maybe she is in the bathroom or she went out to the garage for something. please suzanne lives in a suburb of new york city. call diana, her sister in law in florida. >> i said have used boca with mommy this morning and she said you know, i called her at 7:30 have not heard back. >> that word suzanne, got in her car and drove to peggy's house. >> as i am driving, i'm calling the house, the cell, no answer. and now i am panicking. i pull into her driveway and i saw the roof of her car. through the garage door. i said oh, this is not going to be good. please she was right. suzanne said she found peggy

crumpled at the bottom of the stairs with a knife in her chest. >> and the first thought was, oh my god, she tripped on the cat and fell and stuck herself >> then she said she saw the blood. >> said oh my god, she must have hit her head when she fell. >> and then suzanne did something that would later raise a number of questions. >> i pulled the knife, i was going to do cpr. >> you pulled the knife out of her quickly yeah, if your mother was laying there, what would you do? you would want to make that clique could you tell what she? >> when i touched her neck and she was kind of cold. please suzanne ran out of the house and called 911. >> oh my god, oh my god oh my god! >> i was screaming. i am sure the neighbors that were around heard. >> i need an ambulance right away. >> calm down, what's going on? we i think my mom fell down the

stairs with a knife in her hand and stabbed herself. please suzanne was right about one thing, peggy nadell was dead, her next call was to her brother, jim, in florida. >> i called my brother's house, i called diane on her cell and i said mom is gone and she started screaming at the other end of the phone. what you mean mommy is gone? she is gone, she died, something happened, she died. >> soon police detective, stephen cole hatcher and earl lawrence were on the scene. they notice that suzanne looked a wreck, standing in front of the house in the snow. >> suzanne is in the driveway, at the foot of the driveway kind of pacing, looking around there frazzled. please she told detectives what she told the 911 operators, that peggy tripped over the cat. >> her mother must have tunneled down the stairs and stabbed herself with a knife. >> while detective cole hatcher stayed outside with suzanne,

detective lawrence went inside the house, this is police video of the scene taken that morning. laura's knew right away, this was no accident. >> no way did she fall down the stairs and tripped over her cat. >> peggy had been strangled, then stabbed. and it also look as if she had been beaten with a statue head found under her body. a gold metal ball near her head. clear the crime scene itself was very concentrated, everything was at the bottom of the stairs and the bedroom upstairs. >> something else caught the detective's attention, two chairs were pulled out of the kitchen table, as if peggy had been sitting and talking with someone. peggy's computer, wallet, and jewelry were missing. a jewelry box late near a chair in the living room, empty. but to earl lawrence, the burglary looked phony, staged. >> the bedroom drawers, they were neatly pulled out and

neatly placed on the floor in front of the dresser. norma burglary scenes, stuff is everywhere. >> people go through it like a tornado. >> for. >> this wasn't a break and enter job, please could tell that when they looked at the fresh snow outside the house. >> there is one set of footprints and that was the responding officer checking the perimeter. >> so nobody walked around, cased the place to see who was in. >> the front door and up and jim made or broken in. >> the key and the deadbolt of the front door that is required to hold the door from the inside and that was the lock plea meeting peggy had locked it from inside please correct. plea that afternoon, the doctors brought suzanne and her husband, bobby, to the police station and started asking questions. suzanne told them contractors had been doing work on peggy's bathroom and that peggy also had landscapers and a cleaning woman working for her. >> i'm guessing the guys spend

some significant time running down all the people who worked on the house. did that go anywhere? cletus and the people, not a thing. >> who would want to kill peggy nadell and why ? assisted district attorney, richard moran, thought he had an answer for that second question. >> financially she was in pretty good shape. plea very good shape. >> peggy and her husband had built quite a large nest egg. >> about $4 million. >> will come you have probably see he will come from a lot less . >> and who would stand to benefit? clique coming up. >> i felt very most likely a female. >> a closer look at suzanne. >> you pulled the knife out and you told the police right away, oh, you're going to find my fingerprints on the knife. plea a few million motives for murder? please my mother is worth a

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peggy nadell had been murdered in her home in suburban rockland county, new york. detective stephen hatcher and earl lawrence said the team from the crime lab had shaken peggy's house to its foundation, looking for a lead.

for everybody. >> you guys got nothing off the scene? >> almost nothing. nothing. >> no fingerprints. no dna? >> no blood, no hair. nothing. >> but the scene did tell them something. >> i felt very early on that it was most likely a female, or two females. >> the fact that there were seven or eight lacerations on peggy's school from the statue head. >> that statue is heavy, and effective weapon in strong hands. >> my medical opinion is that if she was hit in the head with that statuette, that man, her head would have caved in. one or two times at the most. >> and all of that pointed straight to peggy's daughter, suzanne. not only did suzanne stand to inherit half of her mother's $4 million estate, detectives thought her behavior was suspicious from the moment they

arrived on the scene. >> she is saying my fingerprints were all over the knife, my dna is all inside the house. >> she was telling detective the same thing she said during the 911 call, that it was an accident. >> my mother fell down the stairs and a knife in her hands and stabbed herself thickly in the 911 call, you were offering a theory of what happened. that is very unusual. >> i thought she fell. >> secondly, you pull a knife out, and you tell the police right away, oh, you're going to find my fingerprints on the knife. which sounds like somebody who is thinking ahead of the fact that that knife is going to get dusted for fingerprints. please sure. sure. >> would you not agree that all that that is pretty suspicious, one thing or the other? we maybe to them, wasn't to me. i mean, obviously they formed an opinion from the get go. >> detectives thought this was odd, as well. please maybe this is a

burglary, check for any laptop or jewelry. i called earl, check for those things we came back and said hey those with only three things missing. >> and again, in those first few moments, suzanne started talking about peggy's money. >> one of the things she yelled out as my mother is worth high seven figures and this is not the way i wanted to get my money. that is the exact words she used. >> this one was to talk her way right into this. >> yeah, absolutely. >> at one point you said this is not how i wanted to get my money. i don't recall saying that. but if they have that on record plea but you believe me that that is what you told police? >> yeah. plea because, again, you are answering a question the police have not even asked yet. >> i guess i watched too many of those dateline shows [ laughter ] in the middle of the

night. plea detectives have already talked with suzanne and her husband, bobby, on the day of the murder. they questioned them for hours. >> but you have nothing to worry about. >> no, not at all. not at all. the farces thing from my mind that i would be as a suspect or my wife would be a suspect. >> police, feeling differently. and as their scrutiny intensified, bobby and suzanne decided to hire an attorney and stop talking to police. assisted district attorney, district moran said that slowed everything down. >> the best way to get information about the investigation, maybe through her. and when she stopped talking to us, it takes a lot longer. plea there is a point at which you and your wife stopped cooperating with police and hired an attorney. >> no, we did not stop operating with police, that is what they want you to believe. anything they wanted to know, all they had to do was ask my attorney. clear your wife felt the same way about that?

>> absolutely. she was scared that they were going to try and get in on her. we once again, suzanne was right. >> we had, we believed, probable cause to arrest suzanne. we just couldn't do it. >> what's wrong connecting points at her? >> an easy way out to do that, too early. >> sometimes you've got to ground ball. >> this wasn't a ground ball. >> this would be no easy out, detectives would be going into extra innings. coming up, the two final phone calls of peggy nadell's life, one came on a secret phone. >> used by drug dealers, killers. could that color be the killer? when dateline continues. monthly protection

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four days after peggy nadell's murder, family and friends gathered for her funeral. for peggy's daughter, suzanne, it was all a blur. >> what it is like to process affect the your mom was murdered and that you are the suspect? >> it is horrible. horrible. i lost my mother, i lost my best friend, and now the finger is going being pointed at me. >> is eight-year-old peggy nadell was laid to rest today,

her daughter has hired a lawyer. plea people in the area, that is all they talked about. please suzanne friend, darcy greenberg was there almost every day. >> there were people who said she did it, oh, she did it. even i heard a neighbor yell out, when are you going to arrest her for killing her mother? this is somebody that probably knew her since she was a child. >> darcy was convinced suzanne loved her mother and would never have hurt her. >> she was grieving, she was crying every day. she could barely get out of bed. she couldn't sleep that night. >> peggy nadel's murder was now the biggest case ever to hit the clarkstown police department. >> all the detectives were on this and i have never seen them work harder on anything in my life. >> perhaps because police couldn't talk with suzanne, they stayed very close to her and her husband, bobby. and very visible. >> they parked outside my house and sat.

when i left, they left, when i came home, they came home. they were following my husband. >> did you think police were going to come? >> yes, i did. i was sad, and i was scared. plea police even looked into suzanne's shopping habits and found something that intrigued them. suzanne bought her groceries at a nearby shop right, a big supermarket chain in fact, she was a creature of habit, visiting their 22 times in the month prior to peggy's murder. but on the 23rd time, the night before peggy's murder, suzanne shopped at a different store, the one near her mother's house. >> what is she buy? >> she brought to cleaning supplies. >> had the crime scene been cleaned up? detectives did not think so but still found it suspicious. just before your mother was murdered, you go to shop right,

not the one near your house, the one near your mother's house and you buy rubber gloves and cleaning supplies. >> i did? i mean, i buy cleaning supplies all the time. i have a cleaning girl, she probably needed rubber gloves, she probably needed floor cleaner. that is interesting to me. >> and detectives wanted to know more about peggy might have had contact with in the hours before her murder. so they made this list of numbers on peggy's home phone. one stood out, it was a call from an audit area code, and it came in at 1:17 in the morning. clear that turned out to be a tracfone. >> commonly referred to as burner phones or doorway phones. plea used by drug dealers, killers, cheating spouses. >> a few minutes after that tracfone call, peggy's front door was tripped, and at 1:23

a.m., the alarm company called. >> hello, this is the monitoring. >> this is peggy nadell . the code word is -- i'm sorry. >> everything's okay, have a good night. >> it was probably the last time peggy's voice was heard by anyone except her killer. police were convinced, still are convinced, peggy was letting in someone she knew. suzanne? maybe, but why would she use a tracfone to get her mom to open the door in the middle of the night? >> she wouldn't have to let me in. i have a key and i know the, how to work the alarm. >> so if you wanted to kill her you could've just went to sleep. >> and went in, there you go. there you go. plea police had warrants for all the family members phones, and a few weeks later they had boxes of records to combing through detectives analyzed

suzanne's first. cleveland could you tell about suzanne from her cell phone records? >> a lot. plea investigator, rhonda harriet from the westchester county d.a.s office specializes in phone data analysis. >> i get out a pattern of suzanne's last just based on her records. >> and on the day of peggy's murder. >> that day was like every other day. in suzanne's life. there was no change. for that particular day. >> and you would expect to see a change of someone who is in the process of committing murder for the first time? please correct. please suggesting she is innocent? >> either she is innocent or she has another phone, there certainly wasn't communication that indicated that something was going to happen. >> as hot as detectives were on suzanne's trail, they had never stopped looking at the other members of peggy's immediate family. >> son jim, and his wife, diane

. >> they came up. >> they lived in florida? were they in florida at the time of the murder? >> jim was in florida and diana said she was in d.c. we why was she in d.c.? >> she said there was a family wedding. >> and the records backed that up. when they looked at jim's cell phone, he never left florida. diana's phone records checked out, too. plea where was diana's phone? >> in d.c. >> that it did not move? >> did not move, the phone went to d.c., went back to florida. >> reasonable to assume diana never left d.c.? >> absolutely. >> you are smiling >> there was just a break, the pattern just was off. >> diana's records worse taking two areas, and detectives were about to get a break that would shift the direction of the entire investigation. let's just say this case was about to go south. that secret burner phone,

who bought it, who used it? get ready for a whole new circle of suspect. coming up. >> how many people are involved in this? >> that is the question of the day. >> when dateline continues. when enamel is gone, you cannot get it back. but you can repair it with pronamel repair. it penetrates deep into the tooth to actively repair acid weakened enamel. i recommend pronamel repair. with new pronamel repair mouthwash you can enhance that repair beyond brushing. they work great together. shipstation saves us so much time it makes it really easy and seamless pick an order print everything you need slap the label on ito the box and it's ready to go our cost for shipping, were cut in half just like that go to shipstation/tv and get 2 months free

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detectives working on peggy nadell's murder had been looking at her daughter, suzanne but now they were also

looking at peggy's daughter in law, diana. diana and peggy's son, jim, have been married for 17 years. and while he may not have been that close to his mother, diana was always on the phone. >> my sister-in-law used call every morning, my mother would be on the phone with me and say oh, i've got to go, diana is calling on the other line. >> diana was a stay-at-home mom with two kids, leah and harris. peggy doted on her grandchildren and would fly them up to new york to spend summers and holidays. detectives had already confirmed that diana's cell phone had been in washington, d.c. at the time of the murder. but when phone analyst, rhonda harriet looked closely at diana's calling record, something seemed off. >> when she was in d.c., her activity was just all over the place. kind of the frenetic field,

there is definitely something going on. >> now, area is looked at who was calling, putting names and faces to the numbers on the phone. she noticed diana suddenly seem to have lots of new friends in washington, d.c. plea a lot of people could just pop up in diana's life for a very brief moment. we areas calls them frequent users, people diana was calling repeatedly. >> what was also interesting to me about these frequent users is that they just had such different lives. >> diana was a suburban mom and some of these people, well >> a lot of them had criminal histories, living in d.c. >> remember, diana had been d.c. for a wedding, maybe these people were, those friends of the groom you have to invite. so detectives got the guest list. >> none of the high-frequency colors were at the wedding, none of those people. >> and when areas looked at

diane's phone records on the night of the murder, friday night into saturday morning. plea the time of the homicide, it was very little activity on the phone. like eerily quiet. >> what did that mean? diana's phone had been in d.c., that looked like a dead end, so detectives went back to that tracfone that had called peggy's house moments before the murder the kind of phone you can buy for cash, activate from almost anywhere, and then dump when you're done. >> a lot of times it is a dead end. a lot of times. cleanout this time. cleanout this time. >> to figure out, detectives began by using the tracfone number to find where the phone had been sold. >> and where was it? >> family dollar store in miami, florida. >> miami? >> detectives contacted the family dollar chain and that very very lucky. family dollar was able to give them security video of someone

buying a tracfone on january 23rd, just two days before peggy was murdered. >> is diane on the tape? it doesn't appear so. so into the road? >> no. >> no because the woman buying the phone was somewhat detectives recognized. cleanout diana? >> definitely not diana. >> karen hamm samuel. >> how did they know who she was? >> karen hamm was someone i had already profiled as a person who came up frequently on diana's call records. she was a high-frequency caller. >> so you got a friend of diana's buying the disposable phone that called peggy just before she was killed? >> yep. it was a big moment. clear now they knew who had bought the phone. the next step was to figure out who turned the tracfone on. tracfone's need to be activated using another phone to call an

800-number. after three weeks, detective cole hatcher finally persuaded a tracfone manager to give him this piece of paper. >> he had circled a phone number and it was the number that called to activate that tracfone. >> whose number was that? >> andrea benson. >> had that named surface before? >> yes, absolutely on diana's phone records. >> she is one of those people that walked into diana's life when diana was in d.c. and had a rap sheet. >> so what is going on how many people are involved in this? >> that is the question of the day. clear the other big question, what did diana naito do while she was in washington d.c.? detective started with her arrival at reagan national airport at 9:30 friday morning, the day before peggy was murdered. >> we had the video from the airport to follow her through the airport and then follow her outside to where she got into a

car. >> here is video of diane being picked up curbside. >> who picks her up quickly andrea benson. >> how do you know it is andrea benson? cletus her car registered to her. >> you can read a license plate with those cameras? >> pretty good. >> directives obtained data dumps in washington, d.c.. that allowed them to map the travel of the cell phones as they pinged off the towers. >> can you follow the cell phone? >> followed her around washington d.c. simultaneous with andrea's, they were together the entire day. >> violet friday, the night peggy was murdered, diana's phone stopped moving and went quiet. but andrea's phone? >> we saw andrea's phone head out of the washington area and head up i-95. plea exactly the way you drive if you are heading for peggy's house. along the way, the

tracfone was activated and at 1:17 a.m. it pinged a cell tower right near peggy's house. what was going on? was this murder for hire? did andrea benson drive up to new york, call peggy on the tracfone, somehow get to her house and murder her? assistant d.a., moran, did not think so. peggy would never have let a stranger like andrea benson into her house. >> so it had to be a friendly voice on the phone. >> yes. >> detectives thought that voice might have belonged to diana. but they had nothing to put her on the scene in peggy's house. at this point, is suzanne off the hook? >> diane is now the higher suspect. suzanne wasn't off the hook. >> they could be in this together? because they both benefit. >> absolutely. cleanout, eight weeks into the investigation, detectives still didn't know who would kill

peggy naito. with suspects in florida, d.c., and new york, detectives came up with a new strategy, and there phone expert liked it a lot. plea gutsy, a lot of people don't go to those lengths on a homicide case. they thought it was a brilliant strategy. >> but would it solve the case? coming up. >> did you have anything to do with your mother's murder? >> the daughter or the daughter in law? >> is that what you're telling me? >> was one of them the killer? >> o god, her eyes were as big as the headlight on a volkswagen beetle. >> when dateline continues. lin if this is as good as it gets. but trelegy has shown me that there's still beauty and breath to be had. because with three medicines in one inhaler,

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welcome back to dateline, i'm craig nolan. from the first date peggy nadell was found murder, police suspected her daughter now, another relatives alibi was unraveling. authorities wondered, was the daughter responsible or the daughter in law? or maybe both? here where the conclusion of the evil to come, josh mankiewicz. >> three months after the murder of her mother, suzanne nadell-scaccio was still saying she was innocent and she couldn't believe she was ever a suspect. >> all the time. >> sometimes, as you know, people look guilty but they're really not.

are you in custody right now? >> nope. >> were you ever arrested? >> no. >> did you have anything to do with your mother's murder? cleanout. >> deep into the investigation of peggy nadell's murder, the prime suspect was no longer her daughter, suzanne. it was her daughter in law, diana. detectives knew that diana's friend, karen hamm samuel had bought the tracfone that called peggy's house just before she was murdered diana had told police from the beginning that she had been in washington, d.c. to attend a wedding. her alibi was probably, diana cannot account for her time in d.c. clichi got into washington at 9:30 and didn't appear again until 8:00 the next morning. >> detectives called diane asking her to fill in the gaps. >> is there somebody i can talk to? >> why do you need? >> we had to keep it with her.

listen, we just want to get you clear. we, where did you spend the night? >> what did they not tell diana? detectives had a warrant and they were tapping her phone. police now sat back and listened as diana made multiple calls to people she knew in d.c., as she tried to find someone, anyone who would say they were with her in washington at the time of peggy's murder. >> was she ever successful to find somebody to say, yes, i will say diana, that you were with me? >> yes, she did. >> which was her third attempt >> detectives heard diana tell a female friend to say diana had been at her house in d.c.. but the woman seemed confused. >> so nine at night until six -- >> nine at night >> okay. >> disorganized crime, not the

most intelligent people. >> sure enough, detectives called diana's friend, here's what she said. >> did diana stay overnight with you? >> yes, she was with me at 9:00. >> first, detectives already knew the woman was lying, and that diana was trying to cover her tracks. but they still didn't have enough to charge diana. so they headed to miami to speak with diana's friend who thought that tracfone, karen hamm samuel. they brought karen inter miami police headquarters for questioning karen admitted she bought that tracfone for diana, and then they asked her if diana had said anything about peggy naito's murder, her answer blew them away. >> she did say that she was there, at her mother-in-law's. >> did she tell you she stabbed her? >> no. click prosecutor, richard moran

was there listening in another room. >> that is the first time we have first-hand information that diana was in the house. >> before long, diana was in that same miami interrogation room, where she recognized some familiar faces she probably wasn't pleased to see. >> yeah, why would i know her? steve and earl. >> and she knew why they were there. >> you think i killed my mother- in-law, that what you're telling me? >> yes, it was, and after five months, their investigation was about to end. >> i did not murder my mother- in-law. >> that same day, another team arrested andrea benson in d.c.. detectives lawrence and cole hatcher were confident they had the right people in custody, and suzanne was finally off the hook, she heard the news from relative. >> they said they arrested diana from my mother's murder.

and that there were other people involved in it and i was shocked. >> oh god, her eyes are probably about as big as the headlights on a volkswagen beetle, and her instant was reaction was i knew it, i knew it. please suzanne says her mom had been sending money to diana regularly to pay for home repairs and expenses for the kids. but she says diana wanted more. >> she wanted my mother's life, do all the things that she couldn't afford to do. >> all she had to do was enlist the help of a few friends and commit a murder. >> detectives did not think jim knew anything about his wife's deadly plan for his mother. what exactly was her plan? diana had stopped talking and asked for a lawyer. her friend, andrea benson did talk and told richard moran the whole sordid tale. andrea said she had never met diana before, and had been told by relative

to pick diana up at the airport and, as they were driving, >> diana said to her, i'm not really here to go to a wedding, i really here to kill my mother- in-law. >> she says this to a person she has never met before? >> yes. >> and andrea benson says okay, i meant? cleaver $10,000. be right there the deal is done in that car? >> the plan starts taking shape. >> benson said she drove the four hours up to peggy's house and that diana used that tracfone that called her mother- in-law. >> diana tells her, i'm here, don't you miss me, i want to come see you? >> at 1:30 in the morning? >> benson said she needed diana, wearing her nuts and gloves to keep from losing residents. sat across from one another and talked at one point, peggy went upstairs to call for help, she

and diana followed her. then, as peggy came back downstairs. >> that is when benson started choking. >> andrea said he was still alive when diana hit her mother in law was a metal ball and beat her with that statue had. >> andrea benson's words were she wouldn't die. at that point, according to andrea benson, diana went into the kitchen, got a knife, came over and started stabbing peggy. >> andrea benson pleaded guilty to second degree murder, the sentence was 20 to life. clear just how sorry i am. >> the lady who bought the tracfone was never charged with anything. diana, apparently not content to wait in jail for trial, was caught on tape trying to arrange for a hitman to kill karen hamm samuel in miami.

please tell him i said it's absolutely imperative. the one in miami, he's got to get rid of. the one in miami. please write. >> after that, diamine also pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. diana did not respond to our request for an interview. she did speak on the day she received the sentence of 23 years to life. >> oh have to say that i am very sorry for my actions and that i am extremely sorry for any pain i may have cost, especially to my husband. >> suzanne was there in sentencing. >> you took away and you are going to die in . i hope you stay in prison until you take your last breath, enjoy prison. click on mother's day, suzanne and bobby went to visit peggy's grave. >> head, mama. >> finally, it was all over. >> you kind of look at life a

little bit differently. life is very valuable. >> edit anything special for yourself quickly i treated myself to a car. she is a fancy german lady. that likes to go fast. my mother always said, spend a little. enjoy your money, you will have mine someday. who knew that someday was going to be so soon? >> that's all for this edition of dateline, i am craig melvin, thank you for watching. this sund par the polls, but it's president biden who has the cash advantage in the 2024 campaign. >> we have to raise a lot of money. >> as his legal bills mount, trump wants campaign donors to help pay them.