absolutely horrible. even talking about it gives me chills. i can't even imagine what it must be like for her living after that crime. >> i was help me, help me. >> terror came in the still of the night. >> my heart was pounding. i said please don't kill me. >> four mysterious attackers on a lonely highway. >> he grabbed my hair and cut my throat from behind and i had the conscious feeling, this is how i'm going to die. >> then something amazing happened. the woman that was left for dead fought her way back to life.

>> it was a very powerful moment. >> that's when a new night began. this one for justice. the question, who was really behind that attack? >> i was troubled. a girl sitting in prison for a crime she didn't commit. >> i stepped into some places i didn't think i would walk out of. >> would they uncover the truth? >> maybe. maybe. >> this momma won't stop. >> this is never going to be over. >> i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." here's keith morrison with "one summer night." >> here's where it happened. just over here off the edge of a country road. peaceful now, summer-lovely, boise, idaho as if the horror has never come here.

on that warm summer night in the year 2000, but there's no changing that history now or that evil act that festered unsolved for 15 years. the file was tucked neatly away, up in some computer cloud to gather virtual dust. until, well, stir up clouds of dust and there's no telling what you might find in there. boise is the big city around here, attractive, growing, newly hip, the boise state university is attractive enough to attract a student, ginny hatch is her name. it was 2007. ginny was doing some volunteer

work. for the idaho innocence project. and one day, ginny cracked open the file, launched that awful summer night by the side of the road. one of the most vicious attacks idaho has ever seen and an attack on linda lebrane. >> when you first read of the attack of linda lebrane, what did you think? what impression did it make? >> one of the most horrible, horrific experiences i could imagine a person would go through. absolutely horrible. >> hard to find words for what linda lebrane went through, but maybe the word that's most astonishing is simply survivor. it's been your companion for a good percentage of your life. >> it's been my nightmare for 12.5 years, yes. >> the 12.5 years, well, yes and more now because of what happened, yes, but also maybe

because of what ginny hatch discovered in that old computer file. it was the summer of 2000, mid june. linda said good-bye to her family in little port townsend, washington and hit the road. the mormon mother of seven, baker, poet, accomplished vi ee low -- was going on vacation. >> all by yourself? >> all by myself. i've been doing it for years. >> her practice on the road was so sleep during the hot afternoons and drive at night to enjoy the cool summer air. it was midnight when she crossed the border into idaho. >> all my windows were rolled down.

i was playing annie lennox "walking on broken glass." >> feeling good. >> i was feeling good. >> then no warning at all. there it was. >> i looked to my left and there was a car with four young people in it and i kind of speeded up, they speeded up, and then i slowed down and they slowed down. the next thing i know they were moving their car towards mine. i stopped my car and i tried to go around them from behind and they pulled their car perpendicular across the highway. >> what were you thinking? did you roll up your windows and locked your do eyour doors? >> i thought i had done that.

all except one, the passenger side window. >> they were wild. they were saying, give us your money. give us your money. >> you must have been just terrified. >> i wasn't terrified yet. i thought i could reason with them. >> they shoved linda into the passenger seat. seemed like the woman's boyfriend maybe, her brother. at the wheel, a man linda nicknamed "greasy man" using one hand to drive and the other holding a knife. >> the first time he lunged at me with the knife, i grabbed it with my hand and i pushed the knife away. he kept saying, where's your money? where's your money? all i had was $40 cash in my wallet.

>> try to put me inside your head. >> my heart was pounding. i look eed at the woman in the eyes and said, please don't kill me. take everything, but please don't kill me. she said shut up bitch. we're going to take everything and we're going to kill you. >> the woman, linda said, barked orders to one of her cohorts in spanish. >> she was the ringleader. she said go ahead, bitch, beg me for your life. >> before she could do that -- >> little boy grabbed my hair and cut my throat from behind and then greasy man took my wedding ring off of my finger and i think that hurt me more than anything.

>> the blood was pouring out of her, but maybe it was the adrenaline. linda was still fighting to escape. >> i got out of the car pleading on my knees, facing into the car. and then from behind the back of the car, i called him fat boy, he came around the back of the car with a baseball bat in his hand. fat boy swung at my head with the baseball bat, and i fell down face first in the dirt right by the open passenger side door. when i landed on the dirt, it sounded like people were pounding on my back. and i found out later that i had been stabbi inbed almost 17 tim the back. then as suddenly as they appeared, they were gone. >> i was able to sit up against the car and i had the conscious feeling, oh, so this is how i'm

going to die. then i saw headlights coming. and i waved, help me, help me. >> but it wasn't help. it was them again. coming back to finish her off. >> and i realized at that very moment if i don't pretend to be dead, they're going to kill me. i fell face down in the dirt again. the next thing i heard was this whoosh, and i realized that they set the car on fire. >> then her attackers drove away and left her in the dust to die. >> i made a pillow of dirt, and i started singing in my mind one of my hymns. and i was totally surrounded by this beautiful, beautiful white light. and then i was physically lifted in my heavenly father's arms, and it was very peaceful.

and i was ready to go with him. >> but then she heard voices again. had the attackers returned a third time? no, this time it was two young men who had seen the flames from the nearby farmhouse. >> when i yelled, help me, help me, i'm out here, they ran out to the field and dragged me from the car before the fire hit the gaslight. >> so the method they used to extinguish your life actually wound up saving it. >> those were beautiful, beautiful young boys. >> linda lebrane somehow had ginny hatch was stunned. >> for me, the worst part is she thought they were gone and she flags down her attackers again. when i saw that, gut-wrenching. gu

gu gut-wrenching. >> linda lebrane's story was a book with many chapters. ginny didn't know it yet, but it was a story she was going to help write. >> when we come back, the investigation begins. >> why would a woman driving down the road at night be attacked so viciously? you figure there would be a reason for that. >> right. yes! well, i found this new thing... called allstate quickfoto claim. it's an app. you understand that? just take photos of the damage with your phone and upload them to allstate. really? so you get a quicker estimate, quicker payment, quicker back to normal. i just did it. but maybe you can find an app that will help you explain this to your father. introducing quickfoto claim. just another way allstate is changing car insurance for good. bananas... rice cakes... raspberries... toast! [ kelly ] jif hazelnut spread makes anything your new favorite thing. spoons! which is why this choosy mom chooses jif.

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except this story was painfully true. what happened to that woman back in the summer of 2000 was beyond savage? carjacked on a quiet country road, terrorized, stabbed beaten, her throat slit, and then left to burn to death in the flames of her own car. flames two local farm boys just happened to see just in time. >> if it hadn't been for those

two boys, she would have been deader than dead. >> she would not have made it. >> i'm surprised she made it at all. >> i feel so much empathy for her. i can't imagine what that must feel like. >> she was rushed to a hospital in nearby boise. >> i kept saying get my husband, get my husband. >> did he think you would make it? >> no. he thought he would bring me home in a body bag. >> but somehow she survived the 17 stab wounds in her back, the collapsed lung, and a head wound administered by a baseball bat all because someone wanted to steal $40 and some credit cards. >> the sheriff kept coming and said, we're sorry, but we have to get information from you. >> and they did. linda was able to help a police

artist make sketches. but finding them, not so easy. >> it was one of the bigger cases during my time at the department. >> wayne christie was one of several canyon county detectives that chased what leads there were. a couple hours after the attack, a young hispanic less than five feet tall, used a washington driver's license to check in. probably linda's investigators thought. minutes later, they changed their minds and left. somebody used linda's credit card at a texaco station. the attendant remembered one hispanic female, two hispanic males. >> we stopped at all the towns

along the way, the casinos, and talked to people there. we didn't develop anything at that point. >> she went out to the crime scene. >> your crime scene was burned. you don't have fingerprints. you don't have dna. you have nothing to work with except this poor woman who almost died and her visions and her recall. >> what did you think when you heard her story? >> it was kind of suspicious at first. >> why would a woman driving down the road at night be attacked so viciously? >> right. >> you figure there would be a reason for that. >> right. well, as it turned out, these people already attempted this maneuver three times before earlier in the evening. >> a man reported seeing and

feeling threatened by two men and a young woman. >> they were out looking to score money or property or something that could be turned into purchasing illegal substances. >> highwayman, as it were. >> yes. >> the canyon county sheriff's office put out a nationwide alert describing the four, describing the woman as pretty, petite, and bilingual. she spoke english and spanish. as linda struggled to recover at home, detectives chased their tails. america's most wanted even came to town, reenacted the vicious crime using lookalike attackers. a month later after the program aired, detectives showed linda this lineup. she picked out this woman, but

no the police told her, it couldn't have been her. though she did look a lot like the america's most wanted actress, but by then the investigators turned up a possible suspect. this one no actress. not much more than a girl, really. 17-year-old erica curiel. >> did she look like the sketch? >> not a dead ringer, but there were still a lot of similarities. >> in fact, erica curiel seemed the fit the bill on many accounts. she was hispanic and pretty and spoke english and spanish and had no credible alibi. >> i mailed the photo lineup to the port townsend police. we requested they show the lineup to lebrane and she did. >> linda signed her name right

across erica's photo. so bingo, right? >> so what did you think? >> i thought there was a good likelihood of it. >> or maybe not. erica curiel denied any involvement and agreed to take a polygraph. lo and behold, the polygrapher said she passed. lead investigators, though not christie, dismissed her as a suspect in the beating of linda lebrane. years later in 2007, ginny hatch saw how after that the investigation lurched to a virtual halt. >> i think there was a lot of pressure to get this case closed up. >> and then, what do you know? a lucky break gave those investigators what they couldn't

find themselves. >> coming up -- >> thank goodness. let's get this thing on the road. >> for prosecutors, a jackpot. for someone else, the shock of a lifetime. >> i lost my ability to hear and everything started going in slow motion. that's a moment you don't forget. >> when "dateline" continues. . use with caution in dogs with a history of seizures. recommended by vets. loved by dogs. from the makers of frontline plus.

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ginny hatch, a graduate student and innocence project volunteer, was nothing if not relentless if there was a trail to follow, that is. something about the case of linda lebrane looked off to her, but by 2007, whatever trail there was, had long since grown over. >> any idea when you committed to it, how long this would take? >> no, no idea. >> or how hard it would be? >> no. no idea on that one either. >> first, it was a matter of immersing herself in the details. the case was finally broken two

years after the attack on linda lebrane. a young woman in south carolina saw the story on america's most wanted and called the police to say her boyfriend told her he was one of the attackers. this was him, 33-year-old kenneth wurdemann, who looked a lot like the sketch linda helped make of the man nicknamed "fat boy." >> remember what you thought? >> i thought thank goodness. let's get this thing on the road. let's get this going. >> and oh, things did get going then. kenneth wurdemann confessed and named an accomplice, his brother, 31-year-old, john wurdemann. john pleaded not guilty, but his resemblance to the man in the sketch linda called "greasy man," uncanny.

jeremy sanchez already facing charges that year for three unrelated violent attacks was the man linda called "little boy." detective wayne christie arrested sanchez himself. >> did he look like the sketch? >> i'd say they could be an overlay. >> but sanchez, too, pleaded not guilty. linda lebrane was afflicted with ptsd. each one was a terrible ordeal. >> every time that i had to go between 2002 and 2004, i would become just violently ill. and i'd say, i can't do this. i can't do this again. my husband would say, well, fine. call them up and they'll just let them out of jail because you're the only witness. you know, you're the witness.

>> linda's eyewitness testimony was the heart of the case. >> they were just wild and hyped up. they just acted like animals. >> john wurdemann and jeremy sanchez were sentenced to life in prison. the girl, she was all that was left to find. none of the men would roll over and tell detectives who she was. >> again, they got lucky. the detectives canvassed nearby jails and found an informant who said he once heard a young woman in a drug hangout talk about stabbing someone. that young woman ran with, that's the phrase she used, jeremy sanchez. and here she was. her name sarah pearce. but this time, she was 19, had kicked a drug habit, and joined

the job corps, where detectives arrested her. she didn't exactly fit the description. she was not hispanic and half a foot taller than five feet. she took two polygraphs though and according to the polygrapher, she failed them. they kept her in jail apparently preparing a case for seventh months, and then suddenly released her. >> sarah's mom anita brown was hugely relieved. she already told everyone who would listen that her daughter would never attack another human being. that night, she said, sarah was home with her. >> the attorney told me straight to my face, he says, that the best thing you can do with her is take her and run. >> take her and run? >> take her and run. >> run where? >> he didn't say. she will go down for this. >> did you wish you had run with

her? >> if i knew what i knew today, you're damn right. >> the attorney was right. sarah was rearrested. >> i would like you to repeat after me. >> and placed in a jailhouse videotaped lineup to speak the words which linda lebrane heard her assailant say. and linda, linda said viewing a video lineup was far superior to photographs. so did the man who witnessed the attackers at the rest stop and the motel clerks who saw them afterwards. they all picked out the same woman, sarahearce. at sarah's trial, her attorney said she didn't know any of those men, wasn't there, didn't do it. among the eyewitnesses was a young man who testified that sarah was lying, that she, as he put it, ran with jeremy sanchez.

so the verdict -- >> guilty of conspiracy to commit robbery. >> when they started reading the verdict, my stress was so high i lost my ability to hear. that's a moment you don't forget. >> the judge gave sarah 15 to life. linda joined a prosecutor and some of the witnesses for a final photograph and it was dpo done. >> what was your level of confidence about this case? >> 100%. >> but the new uninvited investigator stared at her computer screen. it just didn't make sense. >> there are so many things that are just alarming, red flags, red flags. >> but what were the red flags? how did she know? and perhaps more to the point, what, if anything, could she do about it? >> coming up --

>> oh, my god. somebody for the first time said, i believe you. >> a phone call launches a formidable new team. >> that was where the world changed. i've got one other person. that's all i needed.

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>> violence has a way of infecting a person. the kind of theft that reaches icy fingers into the victim's brain. the letters ptsd labeled for a slew of torment. >> there's a great voice, i hear, asking me to stay or leave. >> in port townsend, washington by the summer of 2007, linda discovered that writing poetry helped her calm, a little, her

anxious demons, her sometimes mortal fear. the four felons convicted by idaho juries were safely tucked away inside the state's toughest prisons. only one of them, kenneth wurdemann, himself a mormon missionary in his younger days, admitted his role. and in a rare face to face meeting, apologized to linda. >> the tears were just rolling down his face and he said, mrs. lebrane, i am so sorry for what i did, and i will try to turn my life around. and i reached up and i wiped the tears away from his face. >> as for the rest, especially that female ringleader sarah pearce, linda struggled. good days and bad days. >> it's my job to find a way to forgive them because it's not my job to judge.

>> it sounds like you've got a lot to do on forgiveness. >> i do. if those three were let out, i would be terrified. i hope the justice system keeps them in prison for the rest of their lives. >> linda had no idea that sarah pearce's mother anita brown struggled with torments of her own. her tomboy with the mischievous smile might spend the rest of her life in prison. >> if my daughter died, i would take her to the cemetery and put a headstone on her. each time i wept, i would leave some of my grief there and i could come home. it's different like this. it's like she's been taken away from me. she's in prison behind bars. on this side of the bar, i walk every step with her.

and i have no place to leave my grief. >> anita tried to tell them her daughter was at home with her the night of the crime. sarah was innocent. no one would listen. >> tuesday, i think to myself, what good is it to know where your children are whenever the authorities can come in and say, oh, no, they weren't? >> even after sarah was convicted, anita took the case to courthouse steps searching for proof of innocence. >> what's it like to do that? >> your heart is pounding. you can only hear your own heart beat and hope you're saying the right things because you can't hear what you're saying. >> scared to death? >> scared to death. >> no idea the young graduate student ginny hatch was pouring over the case and mining over

the chatter in local legal circles. >> what they were telling you? >> there was a question mark hanging over her case and dig deeper. >> so dig she did, starting with those eyewitness descriptions, including linda's. >> they maintained the female description the same. very short, hispanic, very attracti attractive, very well-kept girl. >> kind of girly girl. >> spanish speaker. all these things when you're looking at that and you see sarah pearce, she doesn't match any of those descriptions. >> not hispanic, no girly. and most troubling, sarah wasn't even close to the right height. >> linda said 5'1". i think that's something you pay attention to. when you're short already and you say someone is shorter than

you, that seemed to ring true to me. >> all she had to do was read the files of ginny to see before linda lebrane picked sarah out of the lineup, she picked two other women from earlier lineups. there was one attacker who confessed, kenneth wurdemann, testified that sarah pearce was not the right girl. still, so hard to get the feel of a case from just reading a transcript or even canvassing lawyers. >> so i thought i better call, pick up the phone, and call somebody in prison. i better call sarah's mom and see how involved she is. >> it was dark on the highway as the 18-wheeler lumbered through the night. the driver had brought his wife long, his anxious, depressed wipe. there she was, anita, in the passenger seat. and -- >> the phone rings.

she said she was ginny hatch with the idaho innocence project and could she talk to me a few minutes. when ginny started saying, we believe you, we're hear to help you in the fight for your daughter, i'm going, oh, my god. somebody for the first time said, i believe you? >> it just came on a phone call. >> and that's where the world changed. that's all i needed, one voice to join mine and then it's just become a musical. >> well, don't get too hasty. not yet anyway. >> coming up -- >> he said, you know something about your daughter. >> a tantalizing new lead and a tenacious mom. >> i remember taking my finger and stabbing him in the chest, you think you're scaring me? you are. you think you're intimidating me? you are. you think i'm going to go away?

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the nighttime attack on linda lebrane in the summer of 2000 had by 2007 spread its torments around. >> who would have thought there were so many tears in a human body? >> if the victim was still struggling, so was the mother of the young woman sent away from 15 to life? sarah pearce's mother, anita brown. two women who getting from day-to-day was no easy thing. >> it's become who i am, i think. >> ginny hatch was taken aback to say the least when she met anita brown. >> she has spent years in the slums, out there, digging, talking to people, trying to figure out. >> this came as a complete surprise to you? >> yeah, it did. she was super relieved to have me call her, but anita had already been investigating for years. >> true. >> in places where you wouldn't

think anybody's mother belongs, but anita had found out a few things. and she told ginny that maybe her best lead came shortly after sarah's trial from a man who approached her out of the blue in a parking lot in not the best part of town. >> he said, are you sarah pearce's mother? she said there's a man in jail and he's been looking for you and he knows something about your daughter. >> the man was named romeo rivera. that's a name you want to remember. >> did you rush over to the jail at the time? >> pretty much. we sat down and he kept looking over his shoulders. he said, will you come visit me again? when you come back, he says maybe bring a pencil and paper. >> when she returned to the jail the next day, she did not take a pencil and paper.

instead she wrote on her hand, a name. whose name? that very first suspect, the shorter than five feet, pretty spanish speaking hispanic girly girl who was not charged with the crime, erica curiel. anita was ushered into the visitor's room, where romeo rivera was waiting behind a glass partition. >> he took his head yes. he asked me if i knew where to get his mom and dad -- or how to get ahold of his mom and dad? >> and she did. she would only say so much, saying anything more or going to law enforcement mrs. rivera said would put the entire family in danger. after all, the family had run-s in with the law, if they were seen as snitches and any of the boys were in jail, the consequences could be fatal.

so the family would not, could not come forward. anita got a meeting with a senior detective. >> i had done what any normal person would have done. it was this female. he says, it doesn't matter. unless she walks in here herself and tells me she's the one who did it, it's hearsay. >> and nobody wants to help me with it. >> aknneita went to the riveras try to persuade them to come forward. >> you're like a rash. >> i could tell they were getting aggravated with me. i remember taking my finger and stabbing him in the chest. do you think you're scaring me? you are. do you think you're intimidating

me? you are. do you think i'm going to go away? i'm not. >> then he said something to his wife in spanish. >> she says, we'll keep a candle lit for sarah and i'll pray for h her, but it all comes down to your child or mine. and i understood that. i did. >> understood, but never stopped stalking the riveras. >> i would leave my workplace and go sit outside their house. i was kind of like a prisoner. >> once ginny hatch heard all that anita had to held her, she knew this was a mystery she just had to solve. she decided to put up an emotional fire wall. she would not visit the prison. she would not meet sarah pearce. >> i ever thought for a moment, i wanted to be able to be

objective and detach myself from the case immediately. >> she decided to call in the calvary. she went to her colleagues at the idaho innocence project where they had an idea. >> coming up -- >> i was sitting there kind of in shell shock. >> another clue from out of the blue. maybe the biggest one yet. >> you're convinced in your detective's heart that she is innocent. >> i am, yes. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. doctors have been prescribing humira for ten years. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain and stop further joint damage in many adults. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver,

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anything to protect their children. >> basically i tornted and harassed the poor people until they wouldn't come out of their house at all. >> and so it remained when the innocence project came along and ginny hatch introduced anita to a world renowned dna expert. >> they have the files.

they keep the flame alive. they bug people like me. and that's really helpful because it's very hard to say no to somebody's mother when their daughter is in prison. >> the doctor and the group came up with an idea. stop stalking the rivera family and just ask for a meeting at a safe and neutral location. no pressure, no threats. just a chat at a denny's restaurant. the thought since wwas since th weren't the law, the family might agree and lo and behold, they did. they agreed to tell their story, whatever it might be. >> we brought cameras. i brought a person who was a stenographer. we were all ready to go and they never showed. it was a terrible disappointment for her and for me. >> anita got on with life.

what else could she do? one day she just happened to be in a local dentist's office. >> one day i read a magazine. i know somebody came in the front door. she sat down beside me and said, you're sarah pearce's mother. yeah, you got me. do you know who i am? i said no. we're canyon county courthouse. >> the courthouse where sarah's trial was held. >> so she begins to just spill out. she's just talking to me about all these things that happened back then and who believes who is innocent. it was just a water fall. she was a water spout turned right open. and i'm going whoa, whoa, whoa. i'm sitting there kind of in shell shock. >> in the torrent of information, the woman mentioned a name that sounded familiar.

she was sure of it. the name? >> wayne christie. she gives me the name of wayne christie. >> he was one of the first detectives to investigate the attack on linda lebrane. anita never met him. all these years, she looked him up. he was no longer a detective, but he was still bothered, more than bothered, hasn't stopped thinking about it. >> you believed the initial investigation made a mistake? >> i told them. i don't think sarah pearce is the girl. >> did sarah look anything like the person who had been described? >> linda lebrane said the female was shorter than she was and sarah pearce is taller than lebrane, and she said she was extremely pretty. sarah pearce is more of a plain looking girl. but the main thing that lebrane has described was that the girl,

the female, was the ringleader of this bunch and she said she spoke fluent spanish. to my knowledge, sarah pearce doesn't speak any spanish. >> he thought erica curiel fit the bill on every account. some people pass a lie detecter test whether they're telling the truth or not. erica curiel was ruled out over christie's strong objections. >> shortly after that, i was transferred to the jail. >> did that come as a surprise to you at the time? >> yeah. >> had you pushed the idea that erica was the one involved? >> i wouldn't say really pushed it, but it just appeared they wanted the case to go along a certain line and i wouldn't say i agreed with the line they were going on. >> but still that bitter

feeling, as a belief that sarah pearce was the wrong woman, never left wayne christie's mind. >> you are convinced in your detective's heart that she is innocent? >> yes, i am. >> then on the outskirts of a certain small town in idaho, the fate of all men came to call. the patriarch of the rivera clan fell deathly ill. he said, i have a last wish, he told them. a request you cannot refuse. >> coming up -- >> i almost thought it was a prank. >> a deep family secret about the night of the crime and the woman at the center. >> you knew that woman? >> yes. >> you had known her for years? >> yes. >> was that woman sarah pearce?

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it is astonishing that anyone could survive what linda lebrane did, carjacked late at night. she was stabbed, beaten, robbed, and left for dead. slowly, she thought her w-- fou her way back to life. is the wrong woman in prison? here again, keith morrison. >> they weren't sleeping very well the autumn of 2008. that is, the three women so visually attached to the case of the woman sarah pearce. sarah herself was in prison

doing 15 to life for that attack to linda back in 2011. linda was still struggling with her ptsd. >> some days i don't make it out in the world. >> sarah's mother was haunting sketchy neighborhoods in an endless search for evidence to prove her daughter's innocence. >> eventually it'll come to light. it took years, but it will. >> ginny hatch tossed and turned at night and by day, was obsessed. >> i would love for someone to point to some evidence to show that sarah is guilty because they think i could sleep at night. nothing has ever led me to believe that sarah was there at night. if she was, i would be a lot easier. i wouldn't be so obsessed with this case, getting her out. >> then one day, evidence fell like sudden summer rain. ginny's boss was driving in his

car, got a phone call. >> i had to pull over and say, wait a minute, am i hearing you right? can you tell me this story again slowly? >> the call was from a woman who explained that her maiden name was rivera. yes, that rivera family. the very bunch that promised to meet with the innocence project the year before, then failed to show up for the meeting. >> i almost thought it was a prank. i was convinced we'd never see this people and then out of nowhere this woman is telling me it is her father's dying wish they all come forward with the truth. that seemed a little too good to be true. n on the phone.rue said the the secret was a heavy load for their father to bear. he gathered the family around him and made them promise to come forward and help free that innocent girl. no matter the consequences, she said, the rivera family was ready to honor his wish.

>> so you went and met with them? >> yeah, we brought the cameras and the tape. >> would you say and spell your name for us? >> the rivera family starting with matriarch and continuing from one son to another son told the incredible story of what happened at their home hours after linda lebrane was atta attacked. both visibly nervous about the negative consequences agreed to tell us the story publicly for the very first time. >> can you tell me through what you individually saw through your own eyes what happened that weird night back in -- >> it was about 1:00, 2:00 in the morning. we saw a car pull up down the alley. two of them that we knew very well popped out of the car and along with them two other

individuals we really didn't know until then. >> they wanted to wash their hands because we had a water hose in the backyard. >> wash their hands of what? >> the blood that was all over them. >> they were covered in blood? >> yes. >> did they tell you what they had done? >> they had stabbed a lady. they had taken her credit cards and started her car on fire. the man, they said, was one of the later men convicted in the attack, jeremy sanchez. and the woman -- >> you had known that woman? >> yes. >> was that woman sarah pearce? >> no. >> you sure of that? >> 100%. >> who was it? they wouldn't say her name on camera. but the family made it clear that the young woman was a close family friend, so close she had dated another one of the brothers, so close she called

mrs. rivera mom. her name? that original suspect again, erica curiel. >> how can people know that you are absolutely positive it was her? >> i can bet my life on it. >> sometime after the night of the attack, erica bragged about beating the polygraph, passing the lie detecter test, which was at least one factor in her eventual release. >> she was laughing about it. she was. she was laughing about it saying, i beat the system. i beat the system. >> but she made no bones about the fact that she was guilty? >> yes. >> the reason they finally came forward, to honor their late father. >> did you ever feel bad all those years when you were keeping the secret? >> yes. >> every day before he died. that's what he wanted us to do. to fight for sarah no matter what. that's why we're here today. >> and why they told the same

story on tape to the innocence project. a bombshell to say the least. right away, sarah's mom anita drove to the rivera house. >> and i was able to tell them thank you and we all just kind of cried and talked to one another a little bit. >> they had become your friends by then? >> oh, yeah. >> not so scary anymore. with the riveras on board, who knew who else might join them. >> coming up, a new prosecutor is in town. is there new hope for sarah's case? >> you don't get to justice by ignores pieces of evidence.

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canyon county, idaho, like a lot of places in america. in november 2008, voters backed an accomplished young attorney named john in the race for county attorney. when he took office after the new year, ginny hatch made an appointment to see the new guy about the case that sent sarah pearce to prison nearly five years earlier. >> when they first called, i took the meeting more out of wanting to be polite. >> what was your sense of it once you got a look at what they had? >> i was convinced there was

more to this case than the average case when someone came in to report they had evidence of innocence. >> something worth looking at here. >> how did the sheriff's department react to that? >> they didn't like it. they didn't like the notion we weren't letting dead dogs lie, which caused me to be even more curious about whether something had gone on. >> as luck would have it, there was one member of the sheriff's department he felt he could trust without question. you remember, the retired detective, wayne christie. >> i knew him to be a diligent and honest detective. >> what did he tell you? >> he told me there had been someone involved, this erica curiel, that he identified her as a suspect early on but she was quickly discounted during the course of the investigation. >> how did you feel about that? >> i became more and more curious and i got a little bit

angry because you don't get to justice by ignoring pieces of evidence that don't fit your theory of the case. >> did he say angry? well, yes, because there was something else the rivera brothers told the innocence project. >> at the trial, the prosecutor had to show a link between sarah pearce and the other attackers and rivera gave her that link that he saw sarah running with jeremy sanchez. now he was saying that he was a lie. he only testified that way because he was pressured to by the prosecutor, he said, who vowed to make his life difficult and his brother's lives difficult if he didn't. >> this threat, said the brothers, came directly from the lead prosecutor on the case. another face you'll recognize, virginia bond. >> did that surprise you? >> it didn't surprise me. i've known virginia. we worked together in the prosecutors' office in the late 90s. she was aggressive.

in fact, i could find it believable she would try to influence the testimony of witnesses through threats. >> i've never said one word to those people. >> bonds, for her part, vehemently denied ever having a conversation with the riveras saying she let another prosecutor handle the family entirely and they were never pressured. >> you're saying they're lying, but why would they do that? >> people that are criminals have criminal thinking problems. i have no idea. >> the brother said he was in the room and he was pressured to testify. >> i don't care what he says. i've never talked to those people. >> the prosecutor had his own opinions about virginia bond. after his election victory, he told bond there was no place in his office for her and she resigned. >> i don't think she was the kind of prosecutor i wanted working under my administration.

>> so now the new prosecutor had seen enough. he announced he was reopening the case against sarah pearce and would ask the sheriff's department help the innocence project look for hard evidence that could clear her name. what evidence could there be? well, after erica curiel and jeremy sanchez washed off the blood and changed out of their bloody clothes that night, they decided to hide those clothes. >> they got in the car to hide the evidence. not too far from the home they just washed off and apparently take their bloody clothes off, put them in a black plastic bag, and bury them under a bridge near a tree. >> nothing would be straightforward in this case. about dna or eyewitnesses or legal politics in canyon county, idaho.

>> coming up, reopening the case that might reopen some old wounds too. >> he became very emotional. >> another witness is about to break his silence. >> i couldn't believe it. tell me more. what's your story? tell me everything. >> when "dateline" continues. cheesy bites. thanks to the ninja turtles, cheesy bites are back. try one now for $11.99 or get any other pizza for just $11 online. and see the ninja turtles in theaters august 8th. pizza hut.

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2010, a decade after linda lebrane was left for dead here beside the interstate in which used to be an idaho beet field. the trauma was still very much with her. >> with the post-traumatic stress, i've been affirmed permanent and total disability because i can't be out in the world every day. >> linda's medical bills piled up tens of thousands. >> and eventually you lose your house. >> you lose your house. i had to choose between getting medicine to help me breathe this month and my heat bill.

>> it was more trauma, said linda. >> i am not wrong. i saw her eyes. i heard her voice. >> and yet ginny hatch was absolutely convinced that linda simply got it wrong. >> it's kind of complicated, isn't it? here's the vision of the case, you want to be sympathetic to her story. >> i'm very sympathetic. >> but you had to held her, you're wrong. >> she may have gotten some of that wrong. >> besides, linda wasn't the only traumatized victim, sarah's mom, anita. >> have you ever heard the saying this person died of a broken heart? he said anita that's what's going to happen to you if you don't find a way to deal with this better. i know it's stress and the grief i feel for my daughter. she didn't do it. >> now ten years after the

crime, big things were afoot. especially the rivera story of erica curiel showing up at their house to wash up and burying their clothes. >> we've been digging, a lot. >> but, how do you measure disappointment? the area is a floodplain. maybe they simply washed away. no clothes. >> i'm not done with that projt yet. >> and yet if you can't find the clothes, maybe it's a lie. >> if we can't find the clothes with all the blood, we still have enough in this case to show that sarah is innocent. >> the prosecutor was suddenly charged with misusing public funds, was forced to resign, though he would later be tried five times and never convicted of any wrong doing, the

prosecutor who has been openly working with the innocence project on sarah's case -- >> your knight in shining armor turns out to be -- >> gone. >> remember erica curiel was dropped at a suspect because supposedly she passed a polygraph. but that wasn't the actual result. the test was rescored. erica did not pass the polygraph. yet that astonishing result though available, was never revealed before sarah pearce went to prison. >> they had an opportunity to reveal that? >> absolutely. >> why would a prosecutor not do that? >> i can't understand a lot of the things the prosecutor did in this case. >> virginia bond told us she never knew the polygraph was

rescored. if some of those other witnesses felt pressured too and if she could somehow find them, the man at the rest stop and the two hotel clerks, maybe the case against sarah would fall apart. but tracking them down, easier said than done. >> you know, so many times it was, you just missed them. they just moved and we don't know where they went. >> all through 2012, ginny kept on looking. >> eventually people do not just disappear off the face of the earth. eventually they'll pop up. >> sure enough. it was april 2013. ginny found a new phone number for the witness at the rest stop. his name? keith mower. after the trial, he posed for this photo with linda and prosecutor bond. >> i called and told him who i was.

i'm with the innocence project in boise state. >> how did he react to that? >> he was very emotional. >> i had to pull over. what's your story? tell me everything. >> this is keith mower. >> what was it like to tell this story all these years later? >> it was a weight lifted. >> his story, at the rest stop, keith got a good look at the young woman with these three men. >> i thought what's that cute little girl doing with that rough bunch? >> because it didn't look right. >> she didn't look like she belonged. >> sarah was neither petite or girly cute. years later when keith was asked to look at a lineup that included sarah but not curiel, something strange happened. >> when they cleared the screen,

up pops sarah pearce's face before it started. >> for all these years, he believed he was led into a mistake. then ginny called. so he signed an affidavit recanting his testimony against sarah. >> when you think back to that night, is there any chance that sarah was that girl in the parking lot? >> i don't think there's any chance she could have been that girl. >> was it enough evidence to go back to court? only maybe, but the effort to get more was perhaps a danger zone too far. so, of course, they went. >> coming up -- >> pretty scary. i'm talking there's a chain on the front door. there's poison ivy growing on the inside of the windows, not the outside. >> where would in mission lead them next? >> this is our only chance. >> maybe, maybe. em. you want to save money on rv insurance?

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lebrane felt victimized all over again. supporters of sarah pearce were i have cried about it. i have screamed and yelled about it. i am not wrong. >> but sarah's mom anita was equally certain that her daughter was innocent. they lost every appeal that sarah ever fed. anita was over the moon when they found the eyewitness who said sarah was not the woman who attacked linda. >> did you feel like that was enough? >> no. too many times have we thought we had the golden moment and it was never enough. >> there was one more chance.

the two clerks at this motel who testified at trial that sarah and jeremy sanchez checked in after the attack using linda's driver's license. steve and joseph rupert, father and son. but the ruperts were long gone. all ginny had been able to find in her years of searching for them was a post office box in golina, kansas. >> bit a drive from here. >> about 24 hours each way. >> what did you do about it? >> luckily, i was able to find someone who was able to sit on it for me. >> somebody to sit on the place the p.o. box was? >> yes. >> how long did they sit on it? >> just a couple days, that they witnessed the ruperts check the mail. we don't know if it's any good.

we don't have a phone number, but we're going to drive across the country to find out. >> by we, she means who else i sarah's mom, anita. july 2013 they set off on a misadventure. a long night arriving finally at a trailer park in rural kansas. >> that's where our gps takes us. it drops us off in front of this residence and it's pretty scary. there's a chain on the front door. some steps are not there. there's poison ivy growing on the inside of the windows, not the outside. >> i'm going to myself, oh, my god, please let that not be it. it was hit. >> we knocked on the door and nobody answers. >> this is our only chance here. so i just get down the stairs and i just walk down the length of that big giant thing and i

was beating the tar out of it. hey, we want to talk to you. we know you're in there type of deal. still, they did not come. >> finally the two women went next door and found a neighbor who said she could help. and when the man inside heard her voice -- >> so he come out and we talked to him a few minutes. he didn't know the ruperts. >> he doesn't know steve and joseph rupert, but he knows everybody in town. he makes phone calls. he says nobody knows a steve or a joe rupert. >> that was sickening. it just felt like a kerplunk in my stomach. >> what would they do? they got in the car and drove slowly away from their last, best hope. but then -- >> we hear somebody yelling stop, stop. it was the man from the house we

just visited. he said i know who you're talking about. main street joe. main street joe. main street joe? >> somebody you never heard of? >> maybe, maybe. >> he takes us right to the doorstep. knocks on the door and they come out. >> we said we're here investigating the case of sarah pearce. the first thing out of joe rupert's mouth was, aye bei've waiting for you. i knew this day would come. what? i've been looking for you for years. >> then the ruperts told the story through tears they also told us. >> i should have just kept my mouth shut. >> joe rupert and steve identified sarah as the woman

who checked into the hotel after the attack on linda lebrane. >> i didn't know she was 5'6". i didn't know it until i was on the witness stand in idaho. >> you testified that it was the girl in the courtroom that you saw, but as you testified, you didn't think that was her? >> in the back of my mind, i was saying the girl that came into the motel wasn't 5'6". she was shorter than me. on the way home, i thought i probably picked out the wrong person, but i didn't know what to do. >> what did that feel like? >> a lot of sleepless nights ever since. >> so how have you felt all these years about that, about what happened at that trial? >> really, really bad. >> because your testimony was

very important in having sarah pearce convicted. so what was it like when ginny hatch and sarah's mother came to see you? >> surprised. >> you didn't sleep for three days? >> not a bit. >> but now, how does it feel to have gotten it off your chest? >> i mean, it feels better, but there's nothing i can repair. i mean, there's nothing i can do. >> if law enforcement or the prosecution doesn't take your story today seriously, how will that be for you? >> it would probably take another life. >> i'm sorry, joe, what was that? >> i said, it would probably take another life. i can't live with it. it's hard on my heart. inflicting this pain on all

these people. >> they've been waiting this moment to redeem themselves for what they have done. >> the ruperts signed affidavits recanting their testimony against sarah. ginny and anita practically floated back to their car. >> we have it and we want to get back as fast as we can because it is like the golden treasure in the chest and we need to get it back safe where it needs to be before something happens to it. >> did they have enough now? it was huge when the riveras came forward. but if their credibility wasn't good enough for the state, now they have found every other key eyewitness except for linda and they said, it was a mistake. idaho is not in the habit of granting new trials for convicted felons. >> coming up, sarah's mom gets surprising news.

>> i accepted the telephone call and they said canyon county took sarah this morning. >> it's nothing compared to where this story is going next when "dateline" continues. p, it's breakfast. ♪ have breakfast for breakfast. the fresh-made, from our kitchen. the egg mcmuffin. only from mcdonald's. so what are you having for breakfast? ♪ cold wind, and pollution can make all skin sensitive. that's why simple cleansing wipes are made to be kind. tough on makeup, gentle on skin. simple. the sensitive skin experts. (vo) you know that dream... where you're the hero? hey... you guys mind warming this fella up for me? i'm gonna go back down, i saw some recyclables.

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>> halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, the new year, no hearing. then suddenly, beginning of february, anita's phone rang. she saw the number.

it was a state prison, but it wasn't sarah. >> i accept the telephone call and it's an inmate at the other end that said canyon county came and took sarah this morning. >> they haven't told you about this. >> i didn't know nothing. my first thought i know this is the moment to know they didn't just drive up to get sarah in the car to have just a 15 minute court date. this is serious. there's something going to happen. >> something, yes. and yes, it was serious because that very same week, someone also called linda lebrane. >> i got a call from denise, from the canyon county prosecutors, she says, hi, linda. how are you doing? i'd like to come up and see you. what is wrong? i just need to talk to you face to face.

denise, i love you so much, but this is really bad news that you're coming to see me. so why don't you tell me right now on the phone? let me come up and see you. >> so she wouldn't crack at all? >> she wouldn't. >> linda had no choice. of course she agreed. a day or two later, prosecutors dropped the bombshell. >> what they wanted to talk to me about was a deal for sarah pearce. >> was that good news or bad news? >> it was very bad news. i didn't want her released. >> was there anything you could do about it at that stage? they were asking your approval. >> they were asking my approval and i had to sign off on it. >> sarah pearce served 12 years. she would never be paroled. why did the state want to offer a deal? >> there is no way they would

cut that kind of a deal unless they believed if the case proceeded to a hearing before judge carrick, she would have found there was a problem with the case and ordered a new trial. i think they were scared of the evidence. >> if they had to put on a new trial, they would lose. >> i believe they would lose. i believe there's absolutely more than reasonable doubt about the identification after sarah pearce in this case. >> so you're pretty sure she's an innocent woman? >> from what i have reviewed, i am convinced. if i was sitting as the judge on this case, i think there's a serious question about whether a jury would find her guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. i don't think a jury would. >> here was a choice the state offered sarah. stay where she was in prison while her mother kept fighting for some future exoneration or walk out of prison right now free, but strict parole and still labeled convicted felony for life.

>> the choice was devastating because i know we had fought a long battle. i now know with everything that's in me that the scales have just tipped in our favor. >> but -- >> we could continue on and we could have another five, six, seven years of court postponements. i've always heard that won't happen, but it did happen. it was a horrible choice. >> coming up -- >> how many different ways can i say, i didn't do it? >> what would sarah pearce choose? >> i live from any minute now to any day now to any year now. >> at last she tells her story. pizza place. how do you win, dad?

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february 2014, the canyon county courthouse, caldwell, idaho. without warning or explanation, sa

i will try to walk away from this taking more from this than what it has taken from me. >> then the parsing of things. because sarah took the deal, she could never sue the state. never erase the felony. she would be on strict parole for five years, must live with her mother, no travel without permission. on and on it went. and then from the judge, this. >> this system of justice we have is not perfect. i can't remember exactly what i said to mrs. lebrane in 2004 at sentencing, but i know a th the system cannot restore her to the way she was before. this curse, if you in fact, did not commit these crimes, one day was too many. there's been a huge loss on both sides because of this case. >> and then it was over and minutes later, out sheam