The Killer Among Them
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The real first memory I have is jane telling me my father is no longer here.

My girlfriend said Lance was killed, and I just lost the .

first thing you think who did this and .

why Lance .

loved women and women like glands .

to lands, had a secret life.

multiple secret lives.

One of the women on your list was Lances x wife .

gene recently divorce to accuse lands of infidelity. Tata and lands were friends for a very long time.

The police were looking at you. How did that make you .

feel a little angry?

The on indicated that Lance absolutely loved her.

You wear the videos S.

I guess we could call Cathy this main girlfriend.

And SHE doesn't seem overly upset.

SHE wasn't upset at all.

We get a phone call that changes everything. Caught in another life.

What were your last words to him?

Be careful.

So many lives, so many lovers, one knew the truths, unless her hope. And this is deadline.

Here's andrey accounting with the killer among them.

A night to remember, a lavish birthday party high, a topic land is Hilton hotel IT was to celebrate a leader and to CEO a man respected, charismatic at the very pinacle of his career, exactly the evening he wanted. After all, Lance honden throw IT for himself. What did he tell you about the party that going .

to be the best party alone .

has every sa Lance was turning forty one?

We talk about some forty first birthday party. It's all through the lens of almost this great gatsby level of character.

Hundreds of people were there to wish him well. IT was a whose who of a land of society.

He loved being surrounded by a lot of movers and shakers. He loved entertaining. He was in his element.

Lance had more than just his birthday to celebrate. He'd risen from humble beginnings to become one of america's most successful black entrepreneurs, earning millions along the way.

IT really is that american rag. To reach a store, you know, you can work hard, you can get a good degree, you can build a business in your wealth america.

In that moment, thirty floors above the city, Lance honden seem to be on top of the world. No one there could have known that in just months Lance would be dead, or that the perpetrator was among them. That very night, so chilling when you think that Lance was face to face with his killer at that birthday party.

Extremely chilling. Everybody happy he was in the limelight. And four months later, please no longer with this.

August eight, one thousand and ninety six, holy stuber pulled up to Lances large colonia on this cold attack. And the tony at lana suburb bb. Roswell IT, was where he ran his lucrative computer company, access inc.

holy. One of a handful of employees who work there unlocked the door to the home office at precisely A. A. M. The business was in the basement of the house.

Yeah, he had an office himself, beautiful, the decor ated. He had an office for the rest of us that we shared as a large room. What was the business?

He had an I T. Consulting firm. He provided I T. Consultants for local businesses.

Among those companies, bell south, delt airlines and cola cola. So Lance was doing well.

He was very much that morning .

inside the office, holy was surprised to find no sign of our boss.

He was usually in the office around five years. He did a lot of work for the day early before everybody came in.

SHE also noticed something else that was a miss. Normally, Lance left audio tapes on each employees desk. First thing.

he would leave A A smoke asset with his instructions for the day. Those are your marching orders for the day, correct? I never started the day without that. And yet that was not on the desk, neither for myself or my co workers.

Holy thought, maybe lands had an appointment out of the office. SHE chucked his daily calendar.

IT was blank. There was not one item on IT. Again, very unusual for someone who .

is very schedule, Lance SHE says, was a stickler for time. He also wanted everything in its place.

If you put a stamp on a letter and needed to be straight in right position, if you were designing a business card or a brochure.

that had to be perfect. So this is a guy who knew what he wanted .

when he wanted IT. Yes, that an appropriate character.

zia, had, he overslept not likely employee in front to, on a, carey says, lands made sure of that. He said.

three alarm clock. He had one beside the bed that would go off first. And then there was another one on the chest or something that would go off. Dex, and then there was another ago. But by the time the third got, he was up and ready to move.

And he would get up really early, right?

Oh, gautier four o clock. Oh.

that's early.

He got up early because he said that when he gets up at that time, the world on the other side is already awake.

Holy page, your boss? No reply. By now, another coworker had arrived. Holy page, them again, still no response. So this is the man who is on top of everything, is suddenly nowhere to be found correct.

At ten.

I am Lance's mother got to the house. Jackie honden was a fixture there, regularly pitching to help out with the business.

When SHE came down the steps, we both asked her if he knew where lanes was. We have been able to get touch with them.

We haven't seen him. How did he take that? But SHE concerned, he .

immediately ran back upstairs, up very quickly.

Seconds later, holy heard something that stopped her cold.

SHE started screaming.

wow. Lance's mother had found him in bed unresponsive, his head and face badly injured. In a panic, SHE called nine, one, one. You can hear his mom calling one, one, one. Yeah, I mean.

I could not hear everywhere .

he says she's frantic. What had happened to Lance? tell.

The when SHE was initially screaming, I thought, oh, he must have fall in or he's hurt .

or something like that. But this was no accident and he was beyond hurt, beyond help. Who would anna kill? Lance honden, the millions e entrepreneur? This mystery would take nearly a decade to solve, with no shortage of suspects.

SHE certainly had the motive to want to do this.

or secrets.

I've always described lantern in this sort of a iceberg. What we saw on the surface was just a very small percentage of what was going on in his life.

The first thing I thought was, this is unbelievable. This cannot be happening.

News of land herd's death spread fast through his tightened ed community, those close to him like friend to on a caraway. We're devastated. How do you find out what has .

happened to lands? My girlfriend calls and SHE said, have you heard the news? I said, what news? SHE goes, stop.

He says, sit down. And I said, what is going on? SHE says, Lance was killed and I just lost. You've lost somebody .

that you love. You have lost somebody that was really a pillar to the community. IT was horrible.

Long time friend ivan Allen also struggled to comprehend the news.

What happened? How could this have happened? Who did this and why?

Key questions also on the minds of roswell detectives as they worked the crime scene and spoke with witnesses. Employee holy stuber was one of the first to be interviewed. What kind of questions were they asking? And did they tell you exactly what was going on with Lance.

what had happened? They did not tell us what was going on. They just ask us who we were, what we were doing. They are our relationship with Lance. Did we here see anything unusual?

Also on the scene, forensic experts from the georgia bureau investigation to collect and analyze evidence IT was obvious to everyone. Lance had been .

blogging to death, taken some serious trauma to his face and his head talking. We wanted to detect us, he said. Nobody could have survived what this man went through.

retired brisbane police officer Tommy Williams says IT was an especially .

brutal attack. Blood's Better was to the right and to the left. And IT was all over the headboard, all over the bed, all over pillow cases.

Investigators on the scene took note the unusual position of Lance's body.

He was lying on his back. He was covered up with his comforter and his hands were like crossed, kind of on his stomach.

Like last rights?

yes. Like he's just got his hands across like he's lane.

And cause did the killer do that?

That's something that only the killer would know.

A grow some scene. But investigators didn't find any bloody footprints or fingerprints. They checked land's bathroom.

There was a pillow case found, you know, in the toy, but still had blood on IT, which was collected when .

they pulled back the shower curtain. The tub was wet that LED them to believe the killer had run off. So this person had time to .

clean up .

and plenty of time to wash away evidence. Investigators took a closer look at the bed, hopeful of the killer had left something behind.

There were hair followers found in the bed and on .

the sheet that would be tested.

Yes, all of those things were collected as evidence and submitted to the crime lab for testing.

Next to the bed, investigators found an entries clue on the nights and a picture frame placed face down. IT was a black and White photo of a woman posing in loja ray.

We idea who I was. I've heard of that before. In different cases where people go to the house and neither remove photos completely or face them down or try to destroy them, those are all clues. Those are all things that we need .

to look at something else. They needed to look at those three alarm, cox lands, religious ly set. They were unplugged.

There were two digital alarm clocks and one old flip style clock with what the numbers click down. That one is frozen in time at four ten in the morning. Four ten is when that clock was and put IT .

provided investigators with a possible timeline of one length, was murdered. But the bigger question was, why any thought that this could be a robbery since Lance was a wealthy man and would have items that might be we're stealing?

There was no things missing throughout the home that were visible to us, like TV, or, you know, things of value, silver ware, things that people can pon pretty quickly to make a quick. But all this stuff was there.

including Lances wallet and a stack of credit cards on his dresser IT.

Let us to believe that this was just strictly somebody taking care .

of business on mr. on. They noted there was no force entry, but downstairs, holy stuber knew one thing was missing the office laptop, a black IBM thinkpad. The case, however, was still there. Something holy thought was strange, because land side, a strict rule, never leaves the office without the case.

And that's the thing you have to remember about landis that he is not kidding about, says something .

like that to holy IT meant the laptop might have been stolen by late morning, investigators were finding out across Lances property. In the drive way near the garage, they noticed something odd. They found gum rappers outside the house.

Yes, they found gum rappers, a lot of a silver foil like rolled up and somewhere just propped up all around the the drive with.

They continued searching for a critical piece of evidence, the murder weapon. What do they believe he was killed with? Was there an object anywhere around? There was a like a blind type object, given that he was beaten.

We never found an object on the scene that would or could have been used to cause the injuries to mister herd's head face area.

With little to go on, investigators needed to dig into Lance hardon's life, and they were about to find something big. Turned out lands had a secret. Did you get a sense that something was wrong with them? Maybe yes as well.

Not a sense. But kind of wondered if maybe something was. And was he going to reveal something almost like he had some type of prominent about what was going to happen to him? That's what IT felt like.

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A true crime story never really ends, even when a case is closed. The journey for those left behind is just beginning.

Since our dateline story aired, Tracy has hard her outrage into a mission. I had no other option. I had to do something.

catch up with families, friends and investigators on our bonus series after the verdict. Ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with strength and courage.

IT does just change your life, but speaking up for these issues helps me keep going to listen .

to after the verdict subscribed a deadline premium on apple podcast spotify or a deadline premium dot com.

The murder of a millionaire entrepreneur in one of its land as wealthiest suburbs made big news. Police say the murder of lands hendon is unusual. Killings like that just don't happen here in roswell.

In fact, the city's last unsolved murder was in the early ninety eighties, just months after his forty first birthday. Friends and family gathered once more in Lance herd's name, not to celebrate, but to morn Lances longer friend either. Allen says that amid the shock and grief, many there felt another emotion, fear.

Lances killer was still at large. You go to the funeral is the person here. You know, this person has not been caught, and we are lencs friends, and we're altogether celebrating his life. The killer could be .

among exactly, and that was frightening. And I think everybody there that cared about him had those thoughts either .

did her best to comfort her friend jane heard IT lenses x wife.

This was someone that sh'd been married to three years. Recently, divorce had a child with .

lands engineer shared custody of their only child, Harrison, who was four at the time. Today he's thirty three, but can still recall the day he learned about his father's death.

And I remember, what do you mean that's not here anymore? I think as a kid is very hard to understand that things are gone forever.

but the memories of being with his dad, or are still very much alive.

being taken around the house, my father being able to see his walk in main frame computer, being able to take car rides in the volvo, in the jack war, I remember watching top gun that was his favorite to play for me.

Harrison grew up hearing many grand stories about his father, the pilot, the world traveler, the car collector.

He had a new notices, spay at the time, which was supposed to be like one of the most bike. Fantastic notices you can.

And he was well aware of all his public achievements. He was appointed by president clinton as a delegate to the White house conference on small business. He was given a national service award by president George H.

W. bush. Your dad was a trailblazer, absolutely, for a lot of people.

absolutely. You're an entrepreneur. S do you believe because of your dad?

One hundred percent. He was my father and he's a guy posed for how .

I want to live my life with lands gone. Even wondered if the killer was somehow involved in Lance's professional life.

The first thing I thought about was maybe IT was a business rival that was jealous ous, someone with an extra ground. absolutely. He did a lot of a work with a stata georgia, and a lot of times he would win a bid and he would make a commit such in sea. I know they're going to be upset that I won again .

had lands crossed the wrong rival. Not only did investigators have to consider that while looking into his business dealings, they found something hard to believe.

Everything's not what IT appears on the outside. You know, mister hardon fit that profile of being the millionaire, having all of these things, having his bills, taking care of, having a nice home, nice cars. But in reality, IT was debt lands .

turned IT IT turned out, was heavily in debt. You were aware of lenses, financial troubles?

Yes.

Tyler was one of the few who knew his secret.

What did you know? He told me I don't have the money that I used to have. I'm not getting the business that I used to get.

The client list was going down. The number of people that we're out working on assignments had gone down.

Employee holy study says Lance appear to lost focus on his IT company.

His interest seem to not be with the business the way had been for the previous years.

His eye, he says, was on another business altogether. At land is thriving hip hop scene.

he seemed to be interested in a relationship with this growing music scene.

He had a business partner that wanted to open a club, and at the time, you know, in the nineties, clubs were really hot in atlanta and quite profitable. So he and his partner open the club, call the vacation.

Eric bosman says the club had problems from the beginning. She's the host of the true crime podcast sinister and covered Lances case. On a recent episode.

there was a murder tied to the vacation club that had very similar characteristics to Lances murder.

SHE learned that several months after he opened a DJ was bludgeon to death in the VIP room. The murder went unsolved. A couple of years after that, the club closed and investigators discovered lands had a falling out with his partner lenses.

X wife actually said later that he had a lot of enemies and business .

you're going to start looking at, who did you own money to? Maybe he had some paper notes written down somewhere that, I, O, S, there may be other things that you have to look at that would have caused you somebody to do this.

Investigators, we're finding out all kinds of things connected to landa's business, including this the day before the murder, a man showed up at a local festival looking for lands.

This guy was really, really upset. One thing in particular that he said there was very chilling was lands has no idea what i'm capable of.

Days before he was killed, lands called his friend to rest a stovl. The two met years before when he moved to atlanta, and lands offered to give a tour of the city. Now he was on the phone.

I ll never forget how he sounded. We caught up a little, and then that the tone of the call shifted, his energy shifted, and he just said, I really want to make sure you take care of yourself. You take care of your family.

And I was like, OK did you to get a sense that something was wrong with them? maybe? Yes, a, well, not a sense book. Kind of wondered if maybe something was, and was he going to reveal something almost like he had some type of premining about what was going to happen to him, that what I felt like, not only that, in the months before his death, officer Williams s. Says Lance asked roswell police to do a nightly check of his.

we would go back and get out of our car and go do a specific homework, walk around the extern of the home.

What issues was he having that? He needed these these random checks by police of his house.

That's wonder the things that we weren't informed of at the time. I was just a patrol and not a supervisor. He would have told the supervisor that i'm having trouble with an x wife.

I'm having trouble with a girlfriend. I'm having trouble with employees. I've had death rats, whatever IT may be. So we would you have to go by routinely and shackle that home.

As investigators continued their dive into a Lance's stormy business life, they looked into his personal relationships too. He had some financial motives, haps, to want him dead.

I do know that he was a beneficiary, very large life insurance policy.

With little evidence at the crime scene, no fingerprints, no murder weapon, investigators were counting on Lance herd's autopsy to give them a lead at first plants. The report didn't surprise them.

The medical exams said that lands died from blunt force trauma to his head.

He determined lanson received a single non fatal blow to the back of his head and multiple blows to the front and right side of his face that ultimately killed him. Whether any defensive wounds on Lance did he have a chance to even fight for his life.

there was nothing visible. So like, he didn't know that this was coming.

Do you think he was asleep when the attacks started?

Yes, because he was laying on his side of the bed where he always slept. I believe that the first blow that was delivered to him, what been a blow that probably just would have kept you in the unconscious state ah because .

anyone who is awake is onna fight.

Yes, you're onna fight for your life.

Investigators learn something else from the autopsy. They got a description of the murder weapon. The medical examiner determined IT was solid and heavy with a rounded surface and occurred edge, and he made IT guess as to what IT could be.

Our medical examiner had actually worked the case similarly to this, where adjustable range or a resent range had been used. So the detectives went back to the scene and searched his home. A housekeepers told the .

Lance had been using a wrench to assemble a piece of exercise equipment in his bedroom.

so they go down to the basement area, to his shed. And liance was very meticulous. He was very neat person. He had every single tool drawn on his backboard. The only tool that was missing was a sixteen inch adjustable precision.

I mean, that is the fact that the medical examine, I thought I might be a ranch, and then a ranch is missing from his OK long enforcement doesn't believe in coincidences.

No, there was a mark on his forehead where the little adjustable part from the middle low spiral part IT left that imprint on his forehead.

Police needed to find that missing brunch. So once again, they searched every inch of Lances four thousand years foot colonel and the surrounding area, including the chattahoochee river behind his house.

They didn't find IT, if I had to guess, and was a bet in man, and I would bet that that range is still in the bottom of chat oig room.

The autopsy contained another major clue based on the report from a blood's batter expert, the M, E determined the likely position of the killer during the attack.

The only way to reproduce the blood spatter evidence that we found that the crime scene was the position of the killer had to be on top of lands in a struggling position, striking him.

Clinton roker, then an assistant district attn y join the case early on. To him, a killer struggling Lance didn't sound like an angry business associate.

This was a person at Lance would have been very familiar with. He was naked from head to toe, lying face up in his bed.

Fair to say then that you're narrowing IT down to a female likely who Lance was intimate with.

The .

investigators quickly learned that lands had quite a few girlfriends. These were girls at. Lance was calling regularly. He kept a card in his wallet with a few numbers on IT of women that he would like to call Lance. Loved women and women like lands too.

You're gona start going through lady by lady by lady down in your left. That's right. One of the women on that list was Lances x wife jane. yes.

And when we looked at genie, certainly there were some obvious motivations. Recently divorced a sheet, accuse lands of infidelity.

IT was the whole reason their marriage had ended. But like so many failed relationships, investigators learned that started IT out with such promise. Their sun Harrison describes how his parents first met.

My parents met in brazil. They met under the statue of Christ, which I find to be pretty fantastic.

Janine was a flight, attended on a layoff. ver. Lance was on vacation, Harrison says for his mom.

IT was love at for site. Your mom was quite bold. Yes, he was the one who approached him.

Yes, she's like I saw, told dark and handsome man over there and decided to go say something. And as soon as I heard I am speaking english, I had to go say something. So that's pretty call story.

Tiana remembers lands telling her about this new woman in his life. He considered gene marriage .

material most beautiful, very exciting, very poison, very confident, really a sweet person. I do believe in her heart. SHE love lives.

But not long into the marriage, janie found out about her husband's wandering. I lands cheated. Engineer, yeah. How did SHE handle that?

I don't SHE was upset, but I think he had a lot with a lot of Grace compared to what he had to deal with.

After Harrison was born, jennie took her son and moved out eight months before Lance was killed. SHE ended there six year marriage.

and I guess he was just a little fed up.

investigators wondered, fed up enough to kill him. Officer Tommy Williams said they discovered janine might have had another reason to want land's dead. SHE had some financial motives, perhaps to want him dead. What did detectives learned about her?

SHE was the benfica al area very large life insurance policy.

Even though they were divorced, SHE was now set to collect seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Jane admitted to investigator SHE knew the security code to land his house, but when they asked her where he was on the ninety was killed, SHE said he was nowhere near his place. SHE was at her home, a twenty minute drive away.

SHE had a company from a male companion who was a new person in her life who had come to the house and spent a the evening with her there.

While detectives track down gene's alabi, they moved on to other women in lasse's life, in particular the one in the photo that was face down on the nights.

And if SHE had to be categorized in Lance's life, I guess we could call her perhaps his primary or his main girlfriend.

her name Cathy Collins, and her behavior at the crime scene put her front center in the investigation. She's his girlfriend and doesn't seem overly upset that .

he's that man. He is upset at all.

Investigators were under pressure to solve the high profile murder case of lands honden weeks had passed with no arrest Lances inner circle wanted answers. I felt unsettled. I was upset.

And you want someone to be held accountable. Ever did this? And neighbor's and roswell, the upscale and a suburb, were on edge with a killer on the loose.

I've noticed my son, whose nine years old, has actually asked for a nightlight for the first time in years. And of course, my wife is his double check in the doors.

let his friend at lana mir, bill cambell, stepped in at a press conference with Lance's mother, jackie. By aside, the mere offered a twelve thousand dollar reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.

As anyone that investigates a homicide knows, the longer you wait.

the more difficult is to find those who responsible.

Police were working tireless, the running down leads and interviewing possible suspects. Based on the medical examiner theory that Lances killer struggled him during the murder, they focused on women who knew lands intimately. One in particular was Cathy Collins, the woman whose photo was found face down at the crime scene. Land's family and friends considered her his primary girlfriend.

the one that he spent a considerably amount of time with. He was known to be a person, but he was actively involved with.

Investigators learned SHE was one of the women lands had been sleeping with while married to genuine. The two had met at a music industry party in los Angeles where he lived.

SHE was kind of a go getter. She's like, I know what I want and .

this is how i'm gonna get IT. And Cathy, despite also being married, apparently wanted when Lance tells you that he's seeing cafe while he's married to gene, do say anything. You have advice for him.

Yeah, I always did, but he did.

Listen what you do as just like.

let's okay, you that's not something you should do and always and i'm gonna, i'm going to do this. I'm going to go to therapy. I'm doing this.

So he knew that he was wrong.

but he could not help himself.

Cathy ended her marriage and after that split with his wife, SHE relocated from the west coast to atlanta. SHE was the woman on his ARM at his big birthday bash. Cathy graduated essentially from the other woman to the main woman. Is he buying her gifts and go?

That's the way he expressed himself, is buying and giving things. And he had a lotus, and he would drive IT.

SHE moved up onto her stuff, into his house clothing.

yeah. SHE had brush. yeah. He had everything there that SHE because shit stays there for a lot of times.

Nance's friend eva was never thrill about his relationship with Cathy. To hear IT seemed purely transactional.

I just saw Kathy is someone that was involved with him and enjoying the benefits of being with somebody that was powerful and had money.

SHE was the one he took to public events.

Absolutely, absolutely. I think that was more of this is a person that looks good on my ARM. And we travel together, we attend parties together, and we look good together. Was he .

interested in settling down with her?

He has other women in between.

okay. So the wondering, I doesn't go away with coffee. Investigators worked to determine if Cathy had any reason to want lands dead. There was some talk that lands might be cooling things off with Cathy, that he was maybe no longer going to be his main person.

And maybe that would have been the source of Cathy consternation.

a possible end to the lavish lifestyle lands provided her. And investigators learned of another possible motive.

SHE could have found out that Lance was .

was cheating. Both motives were being investigated. The focus Cathy had started the minute he showed up at Lance's house the day he was murdered. Cathy Collins did something that got the detectives attention at the crime scene.

Miss Collins showed up at the scene demanding all of her personal property from a crime scene and SHE was didn't seem to care that lands, uh, had been murdered. She's his girlfriend .

and SHE is shit doesn't seem overly upset that he's did no man .

SHE SHE wasn't upset at all. He was more upset that he couldn't get her personal property back from a crime sea.

and police say Cathy's demanding behavior continued. Just six days after Lances murder, he sent a letter to the roswell police requesting, quote, property from the lands h hn. Den home. SHE asked for dozens of items, including clothing, sunglasses, photos and bottles of expensive .

merit was just a very odd response from a person that we believe would have been closed with lands. But certainly IT did suggest us that perhaps there was more than meet the eye about the nature of their relationship. And so IT really did cause us to take a real heart look.

Investigators grilled her about where he was on the night of the murder. There was a bit of a secret woven into Cathy alibi, something that lands didn't know about.

Cathy had begun in another gentleman.

He was her family, at least that's what he told police.

On the night of this incident in which lands would have been murdered, SHE travelled to the home of this gentleman and split the rest of the evening.

Investigators set out to confirm Kathy story. In the meantime, they turned their attention to someone else on their list. The last person known to have seen lands alive did they ask you, did you have anything to do with Lances murder?

Nobody does selling Better than sharply fy home of the number one checking on the planet. The shop pay feature even boost conversions up to fifty percent. So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform Better be ready to sell wherever your customers calling or strolling, upgrade your business and get the same check out. Top brands like all birds use sign up for you one dollar per month trial period and shop fied that comes slash podcast free. All lower case go to shop lifed that comes slash podcast free upgraders.

Selling today a new horror movie with the promising Young star, he was so good at playing a killer. But where did the performance and reality began? A story was .

surprised even hollywood .

couldn't have imagined. I'm he's Morrison. Think you ve heard every deadline story.

Think again, listen to killer role and a dozen other revenge series. When you follow the deadline original podcast, I have nowhere there. IT was .

sudden, shocking, terrifying.

I have never in my life felt fear, like thinking .

he killed him and .

he had .

filled the murder of and this is a lines newest podcast, the man in the black mass. All episodes are available now to listen ad free subscribed a date line premier among apple podcasts, spotify or deadline premium dot com.

In the days after Lance harden murder, investigators focused on his x wife and all the women he'd been dating at the time, but former prosecutor rocker says there was one woman, police were, and who fell into a different category. You've already matter to long a caraway.

We learned at lantana had been friends for a very long time. Initially they started out as as lovers to lana freely.

admits SHE enlaced, where sometimes more than friends.

we wear friends with benefits for minute.

So things turned romantic for a hot minute, a hot minute, SHE says. Her eleven year friendship with Lance began when he was working as a bank teller. He came to her window to make a deposit. Do you remember that very first moment when he walks up to your your station?

I do. He had um he told me his name and he looked at me. He because you're really pretty us like cool. Thank you. And I just because no one has ever really said that .

land sent her flowers and later asked her the lunch things progressed from there, but he said he never thought of him as a boyfriend. According to to lona, their relationship evolved from romance to friendship.

IT was almost like we were girlfriends. We would talk every day. He would not necessarily talk a long conversation, but always such .

base lancy the loan to long as boyfriend cash to pay off a car. And when he was in need of money, plant offered her part time job, and IT was that job that put her in police cross hairs. Turns out he was in Lance's home office the night of the murder. You're the last person or one of the last people to see that you were in a relationship with him at one time. You work for him.

right?

So naturally, you're someone that the police need .

to look out.

Sure enough, a few days after the murder, police came to her door, startling her.

I'm in the shower and I hear this begging on my door like they were trying to break IT down and um i'm like i'm working when i'm not going out there but going into the door and so when I got the shower, the first idea was called my turney and let him know what was happening.

You weren't ready to talk them right then. And there in .

a surprise as that.

what were you concerned about their .

aggressive? If you heard the making of my door the way you do, I don't think anybody work up with the door.

Did IT scary.

You is scared real a lot.

Your attorney calls the police for you and I made a point to you to come in so you go in with the atterley. Did the police think that was odd?

Yes, you had they like you have to try already because you guys don't always fear so um and I don't I don't want my worst twisted so at least that I had to witness there with me. There would be IT will be okay.

Did IT raise a rud flag that tana already had an attorney when the police came to her place to talk to her?

I will say that this is kind of a feeling amongst investigate, is that if you are truly an innocent person, you, you, you should not need the protections of an attorney that kind of help you navigate your rights.

Went to law a SAT down with investigators at the roswell police department. They asked her to tell them everything he could remember from the night of the murder, starting with when he arrived at Lance's home office.

I don't go round dusk. I went into the office. He had to take for me. I listen to that to see what I needed to do. And a lot of IT was like a little data entry work, made some phone calls to leave messages, and then IT was anyone else working?

I just see you.

I was just the only one in the office at that time.

Did you see lands at all?

yes. That night, yes.

he says he came down to the office a few times to check in. What's less is demeanor, like on the evening oh.

he was very relaxed. He was excited because he was telling me me about the woman that he had met um that was a teacher and he wanted me to write this card you know, like I needed I A I need a nice .

a new woman so you're like a ChatGPT said we were just .

going over scenario. So what? Because they know how he would have this person would receive IT in all of that to.

Luna finished writing the card, and Lance went back upstairs. Do remember approximately what time you left?

I just know what was late because I was dark.

SHE recalls. IT was raining, and Lance was worried about her driving home. He checked up on you, oh yeah.

He had told me, because especially that project nize like you call me when you get home. And he called me before, I actually called him around.

What time does .

he call you? IT was closer to midnight, almost.

I think he said she's made at home by then, but missed the call because he was in the shower. Lance left a message on her machine. And what did he say on your machine?

And I just want to make sure you got at home safely. I think I called him back and get the message that was home. And we think briefly.

So this is around like eleven thirty midnight. And that part of our story was easy enough to verify. Investigators not only pulled her phone records.

they pulled the phone records of lands harden, both calls going out from his house and calls coming into his house.

Investigators weren't ready to clear her, but SHE given them an important piece of the time line. And another thing he told them about the night of the murder pick their interest a woman had called asking for lands repeatedly as SHE annoyed that he's not calling her back rides annoy enough to show up at his house to lana was sure the woman was on her way over.

Lencs on Harrison has only vegan memories of the dark days surrounding his father's murder. Just a little boy at the time. He mostly remembers how he wasn't allowed to watch T. V. Because IT was everywhere.

Yeah, I was. I gon TV was like, everywhere. And I think my mother, my grandmother, did a very good job of trying to shield me from light the horrifies of my dad's matter bRicky.

Meanwhile, investigators were working around the clock trying to solve the murder, interviewing possible suspects and examining evidence. But so far none of IT had brought them any closer to making an arrest in the brutal murder of the millionaire business man. Police were hoping DNA from the crime scene might give them the break they needed.

There is a lot of evidence ultimately that they're asking us to test.

Barber retta, a forensic biologist, worked the case at the georgia buren investigation crime lab, where they were testing those hair samples and other evidence connected to the case. One of the things that was important to this case, where the fingernail clippings from Lance herding.

yes, they want to know, is there any foreign DNA present under the nail that could help them? You point to what happened or who possibly committed the crime?

Investigators knew Lance had no defensive wounds, so he would not have gotten DNA under his fingernails from fighting back. But rector says there still could be DNA if land touched his killer. When the analysts ran the test, he found nothing of interest from Lance's left hand.

but then he found that on three of the fingernail ls from his right hand that there was a mixture of DNA and IT was from land hurdon and an .

unknown individual, only trace amounts, but still a potential break in the case. Now investigators needed to compare that DNA to their list of possible suspects. There was gene, the x wife, who started to collect three quarters of a million dollars. Cathy Collins, Lance's main girlfriend, who we seem to be facing out, and tella, blanc's close friend and confident to police, thought might be more than that.

We know SHE was the last person to see lands alive before he was murdered.

Investigators asked to long of her samples of her DNA SHE agreed.

They took examples of the hair.

We got the DNA of all of the women that were potential suspects to look at whether not they matched any of this evidence.

but to ana told him about about yet another woman, SHE said. While SHE was working at Lancers office that evening, the phone rang several times.

There were three separate individual calls that he reported to investigators that they were really interested in trying to determine who this person was and what is IT that they want IT with Lance harden. And could they be involved in his murder?

The first time the phone rank to luna says Lance was upstairs.

I ask the phone and SHE said, may I speak with mr. harden? And I said, i'm sorry he's sign available. Would you like leave a message? He said, tell him my call I said and your name is and um he said dion and OK let him know and so wrote the time down, wrote the message about .

an hour later if he calls back, if he annoyed that he's not calling .

her back right I am assuming did I .

feel like that based on the voice between .

the fact that he wasn't there and I was answered in the phone, there was definitely a home in her voice and so the next time he called, he said, may ask because mr. r. Hg, I said, i'm sorry, he's sign of people. Would you like to leave a message and he said, um this is his girlfriend I said in your name.

wait again the second time yes, how did you take that?

He was very happy, but he still game her name. So I let me know, you call you like .

to store the part a little bit, but you know to las says the woman tried a third time. By then, Lance was back in the office and took the call. And what did you over here?

I didn't. He stepped out of the rule. I didn't hear anything to luna .

suspected the woman was making plans to come over that night. Did you see Lance? Yes, I did. Was he was.

he was moving catheters closed out of the main bedroom and to the hall. Cause what does that mean? I just looked at, I shook my head because I knew exactly what I meant. I meant that he was, have.

and IT wasn't the kind of company to long to wanted lands to keep. SHE thought this was a bad idea and told him, so what were your last words to him?

Be careful, literally Better .

be careful. You didn't realize how important those words would be.

No, I didn't. I did not.

So who was this mystery woman? Police were about to find out.

A true crime story never really ends, even when a case is closed. The journey for those left behind is just beginning.

Since our dateline story aired, Tracy has harness her outrage into a mission. I had no other option. I had to do something.

catch up with families, friends and investigators on our bonus series after the verdict. Ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with strength and courage.

IT does just change your life, but speaking up for these issues .

helps me keep going to listen to after the verdict subscribed the date line premium apple podcast spotify, or a deadline premium dot com.

Black friday is almost here in our shop today. Experts, have you covered an irie on a brock up today editorial? Al director, my teen creates stand out savings from the biggest shopping day of the year, all in one convenient place, find great deals on get still love for home tech beauty and wore so you can save money and time and kick off your holiday season right head to to date up com slash black friday to start shopping early deals now.

I'm kiss Morrison from deadline nc. If you're not already hooked on peos dark comedy called based on a true story now is the perfect time to dive in the new season is out now and it's an unbelievable unpredictable ride based on a true story starts Kelly, coco and Christmas. Sina is new parents, eva and Nathan, who are eager to be done with the world of true crime and their friendly neighborhood, al killer. But when new body start turning up, IT seems the world of true crime isn't done with them. Based on a true story is dreaming now only Young cock.

To luna care way had told investigators about another one of Lance herd's girlfriends SHE thought they should focus on. She's the one to lana was certain was coming over that night who called Lance three times in the hours before his murder.

I knew her name is don ball.

so she's the frustrated color.

SHE is, in fact, the frustrated color.

After hearing about her from to luna, police went to don boz's home to speak with her.

SHE lets them in and they sit down. They begin to question her about her relationship with lands.

Diane cried as he told him about her time dating the tech .

mogo SHE indicated that lands heard and absolutely loved her. They were in a romantic, intimate relationship.

But dion said he wasn't at his home the night of the murder. He was at pers that he'd come by a lunar as laptop, the same laptop detectives had been looking for. SHE told them he was a college student and needed IT for homework. Investigators collected as as evidence and left her apartment, determined to learn more about her. Diane was twenty seven, and originally from jamaica, he'd been living in atlantic for four years, attending georgia state university.

SHE was in school. He worked as an administration of assistance or executive assistant, or something like that.

That assistant job was at marter, at landa's transportation agency. Dion was also married with a Young daughter.

When I force met her, I was on an impression that he was single, and then I found out later that he was actually married and that her husband was quite handsome, quite. Her husband .

would often got of town for weeks at a time as a pilot. And so SHE kindly got to live her own second life. Dion, second life always involved trying to get in with the beautiful people.

like the time he scored an invite to land his big birthday bash four months before he was killed. Don wasn't on the original guest list, but her boss was.

He felt comfortable asking her, boss, what is this party and can you help me get in? He really didn't see an issue with IT and kind of helped her finagle her way into getting an invite .

to london police. That's where Lanced first met dion. And from the beginning he wine and dine her, showered her with expensive gifts. He even leased a new silver Mercedes for Diana to drive to luna. So he picked IT up.

So I drove the Mercedes to his health. That's okay. That was one of my errands.

A short time later, Lance introduced to dion.

My take on her was immediately jealousy. You've got a bad .

vibe immediately, immediately.

Yes, I mean, he was like, quisling y me as if I was going taking exam on lands and I was like, don't ask me, I say we're friends that's IT and .

he told Lance what he thought.

never get I tell him that day as like he is not the one I said he is a jealous woman and he said, yeah, but he lets me do anything I want to in bed hearing .

all of this, the detectives ask on to come to the station for a formal, recorded interview.

No is going to go. Camera look Better.

They go all away back to the beginning, and they talk to her about the development of her relationship with land.

You could give.

Me money every week.

I mean, I was fifty.

Working with the Bella, do this much me.

Lazed grocery now sometimes .

still be set a hundred, sometimes to be five hundred.

sometimes every way.

Embarrass, I hope this .

not in camera.

The detectives thought dion's giggly demeanor seemed strange for someone who had just lost a boyfriend. SHE told them that at first he believed he was the only woman in land's life, but then he realized .

he was seeing others 配 了。

Now discuss .

them.

not, not just discuss that. When a man put on a Better stall and treat to like that, you'd like to think that you really only one.

SHE even caught him .

with one woman at his house. But I just go in and the SHE had her head wrapped in a toil, one told, like here, I could tell that SHE and have any close down to the toes right here. And when I saw .

her two investigators, don did appear to be a jealous woman, but jealous enough to kill lanes. They needed more details about her timeline for the night of the murder, SHE told detective SHE dropped off her husband and daughter at the airport around seven P. M, then headed home. That's when he says land stopped by her place to bring the laptop.

What time did you come over to your home?

I don't remember the exact time. I think IT was somewhere between nine and ten thirteen, but I can't remember the exact time.

This timely doesn't match up with what to lona said about how late lands had been working.

right? Because in speaking to tana caraway, SHE indicate that he was at the home consistently from about six pm until ten thirty P. M. When he leaves, and SHE indicates that lands never left her house during that time period.

Investigators believe they're caught dion in a lie. They they kept pressing zero in .

on that laptop. In the case, the government to .

no that job with what .

Lance's employees had told them.

People later said that the laptop is never, ever, I mean, never, ever the office.

the cover.

That's not true. They them .

that is natural. I've borrower that locked up on several location at most of the time when I give IT to me is, other than .

dion was on the defensive, they didn't believe Lance ever left his house that night. If there was a time to play hardball, police thought I was now is .

about four people like the square that he was at his house, working in his office until ten thirty.

I don't know what to tell you. I know he came out there. He gave a computer, then you, and that was IT .

that possible? He is. 是 what？

But I never, I never do I need to get .

turn yourself.

SHE maintained consistently that he was not in Lances home on the night that he was murdered.

So detectives pushed IT even further by saying.

this are you wear? That he is videos? Rivals cameras? no. In this office.

IT was all a ruse. Land didn't have any surveilLance cameras at his home. Detectives were lying to her to try to get a confession .

right once is showing that he was air until ten thirty if it's showing that he was a deer at the office of all afternoon evening until ten thirty. And and see how he could be a your house too.

Well, maybe be wrong. I mean, I be specific. About time then.

just decor thought they were closing in. Dion, turn the tables on them.

Did you see me?

The civilian, and with the currently is is in all the other stuff. So I get good for them when I get these things.

and I gna see you on.

And of course, he wasn't caught on tape because there never were any cameras.

So at the end of the interview, law enforcement officers did not have enough evidence at that time to charge her with any crimes, and so he was released from custody.

Detectives believe dye was lying, but had no way to prove that they were stuck.

Until we get a phone call that changes everything.

Clint rocket tick through his list of possible suspects and began a process of elimination. The first person he could cross off lenses x weight jenne detectives learned he'd been taken .

good care of her lands was consistently paying a good bit of money in monthly and monthly child support. And so we just found that there really wasn't a solid financial motive for gene.

Detectives also looked into her ali and confirmed he was at home with her new boyfriend on the nightline ds was killed. Alii made sense.

her alibi completely made sense, and he was eliminated as a suspect.

Then there was Cathy Collins. Police thought her behavior in the wake of Lance's death did appear in sensitive, but they concluded IT wasn't really proof of anything. Allan's friend eva had a theory about that picture of Cathy that had been turned down in his bedroom that night. Would that said you that the picture was down?

Apparently Cathy wasn't the most important person in the room.

So IT says Cathy probably wasn't there that night .

that he killed. Yeah, yeah.

Police agreed Cathy had a solid alibi too. They track down that secret boyfriend of hers. He said they'd spent the night together .

because of her alibi. With her new found gentleman friend, we were able to liberate her as a suspect.

As for talana caraway, detectives had found IT strange that SHE showed up with a lawyer when they interviewed. Did they ask you, did you have anything to do with .

Lance's murder? yes. Point like, yes, they did. And the answers, no. Those phone records police .

obtained showed Lance called to lana at home at eleven thirty one P. M. And spoke with her for several minutes, just like SHE told detectives.

we were able to eliminate her based on the phone records and in her alive.

So police were able to clear genee, Cathy and tiana.

Then that kind of left us with the on ba, who we put a bit rate circle around, because we were not able to eliminate her.

Dion bw landseers newest girlfriend, who'd been tough in that interrogation room.

SHE had the opportunity to do this. We, uh, her and civilized.

And that was in all they had. Police arched their files and learned last had reported a trust passer outside his house a month before he was killed.

One, nine, one, one. Hey, this is somebody knock at my book over the night.

You want to expect, get anybody, I think, at the matter, town or anything.

Just take to go on OK. Do you know with the male or female? I don't know.

okay. Officer Tommy Williams responded to the call on one of his regular drive buys that night.

As I was pulling on to mister herndon street, our dispatcher gave a call saying that someone was at the home banging .

on the door. Williams approached a car. He saw Lances driveway.

and I happened to sham, a flash lide into car, and I saw partial of a person's armor leg sticking out from the need, the black coat on the back, floyd of this car. So I immediately stepped back, gave verbal commands to he or SHE, whoever IT was to display your hands.

IT was dion. But that incident and her lies in the interrogation were enough for police to pin a murder on her with no evidence to put diane at the crime scene. Rocker in his team were at a stand stall, and the case dropped out of the news. I mean, more than a year and a half goes by, and there's no arrest.

IT was horrible. We just felt like nothing was being done. And I can remember, you know, reaching out to the roswell police department. And they had already interviewed a suspects that they had, and IT just seemed like nothing was being done.

And the fact that this person is still out there so that there may be .

free to kill again or it's .

a huge puzo, it's a thousand people puzzle or more. And you know, we put everything together the best that we could to try and solve this case. We just needed a little break.

Then in january nineteen ninety eight, a year and a half after Lances murder, they got a big one. A phone call came in on the line. Dion's husband, Shawn Nelson, he told police that he and his wife were getting a divorce and one recent argument had turned ugly.

SHE made a statement to, uh, her husband that he was an intimate with mister horton and and that they had a argument and they had a fight and then SHE said SHE would kill him, her husband, same way he killed lanes.

I was absolutely shocked .

if this is true. IT is huge, can change everything for you now with the course .

of this investigation right because now i've got a statements out of the mouth of dion bar herself um which are very incriminating .

but the prosecutor still needed more after speaking with dion's husband, rocker learned SHE was set to testify in an atlantic divorce court so he went to the trial to be a fly on the wall and heard this .

curve ball during her testimony under oath SHE maintained to the judge after vigorous ous questioning that her relationship with Lance harden was merely platt onic that .

completely contradicted the relationship SHE described to detectives caught in another lie.

caught in another lie. IT was just a friendship. He was like a mentor and that .

he began testifying about the night of the murder. He told a whole new story. IT was a wapper.

SHE now told the judge in divorce court that SHE actually traveled to land this house to obtain a laptop computer. And by saying that, he then put herself at the crime scene.

a complete reversal of what he told police. Now rocker believed he had enough evidence, but time was ticking. He feared dion might had back to her native jamaica. After the divorce case.

there was A A large concern that he would flee the country and then be unavailable to us for prosecution. And so the decision was made to arrest ba as SHE left the courthouse on the evening of her testimony during a divorce trial.

You don't mess around.

This was quick. Well, IT was important.

Police set up a traffic stop along dion's root home from court, pulled her over and arrested her. What was that moment like when you ve got that word of that?

Basically is about time. Finally.

you thought all along that don was responsible. Frances murder.

I did. We were just so related because we felt like finally, finally, she's arrested, thank god.

But the prosecutor knew getting a conviction wouldn't be easy.

There was no direct evidence, there were no I witnesses, there were no fingerprints, there was no murder, wet and found in her possession. And so IT was a real appeal.

Battle up hill, battle with the defense team geared up for war.

They all know if last warned was modeled by a jealous husband, but then a number of women he was day. They all know.

Entrepreneur Lance herdin was only forty one when he was beaten to death in his bedroom.

the state verses mrs. And ray ball.

Five years later, his lover dion bw was on trial for his murder. Eva Lance's lang time friend, was there for at all.

IT was pretty difficult to sit there in the court room with witnesses and kept looking over to the left saying, dion.

celine record was the lead prosecutor. What did you want the jury to know in your opening statements right off the bat? In this case.

the thing I worked to communicate to the jurors is that dion bw. Actually targeted Lance harden. 小叶 rocker told .

jurors in his opening reMarks that don was pure evil， a woman who had an ugly thirst for the finer things in life, a description that didn't sit well with her.

This is a great case.

I agree.

and .

controlling women targets a rich and powerful may.

Dion's attorney fired back in his opening statement, telling jurors the state's case lacked a key element.

evidence the state cannot tell you on older weapon that killed lanthorn. They have no finger press of my life. They have no avoid evidence related to my client.

As the trial got underway, rocker argued his theory that dion felt Lance was done with her. So SHE killed him in a fit of rage.

then stalled from him. There were three things of real high value and significance that proved to be missing, and all consistently in the possession of dion bar. Arc arises them as the three seas.

Each one gave rocker a chance to tell jurors a story. He said the first sea was for land, this computer, that expensive laptop. The jury heard don tel police in her interview that Lance dropped off the laptop at her house.

What time did he?

I don't remember exact time. I think IT was somewhere between nine and ten.

thirteen that couldn't have happened. Record told the jurors because phone records backed up to lona's version of events that he answered three calls from diane between nine and ten thirty. When lands was home, the second sea was for one of lone's credit cards that police discovered was .

missing from his bedroom. A few hours after Lances body had been found, there was a very expensive credit card charged for dining room furniture to the tune of several thousand dollars that was made by Diana.

If she's the gillers and she's taken the credit card, that is cold if you're out shopping for furniture after you bludgeon demand to death.

right? Everything about this case, that this was done by cold blooded, a calculated, a heartless individual.

Then came the third sea, the fancy car.

Dion bahaa position of Lances brand new Mercedes bans prosecution had evidence .

dion may have been scheming to keep the car. A state special agent testified about an unusual letter he found.

IT was dressed to whom IT make concern and said Lance was not able to update as well but in the event of his death, the mercy should be released to dion. IT was unsigned .

exhibit one, seven.

six and the agent found something else in her purse, physical evidence that he believed .

tied her to the crime scene, large mt. Of gum rappers .

contained in her purse.

he told the jury.

Investigators found similar rappers littered across Lances driveway the morning of the murder.

It's very heavy and it's also somewhat of a broad surface.

The medical examiner are showed jurors the type of heavy wrenched the prosecution claimed killed lands. As eva said in the courtroom, SHE remained hopeful, even though he knew he was an entirely circumstantial case.

I wanted to believe so badly that justice would be served and he would be convicted. I think knowing that circumstances, evidence, there is a chance he would get off. I didn't really want to believe that .

three days into the trial, the prosecutor launched into the forensic evidence.

I can determine whether a hair could have or could not have originated from a particular source.

He called an expert who said two of the hairs founded Lances bed were likely matched to dion hair and barber wta, the state forensic biologist testified about that DNA found under Lances fingernails. What did you find when you compared don boz DNA to the DNA sample from under lenses, fingernails? Well, on those .

three fingernails s lantern in matched part of the mixture, and don boss DNA matched the remaining mixture.

The chances of this DNA being from someone else, the stats are pretty clear.

About one, one hundred billion.

There were no matches to tana, gene or Cathy. Still, the expert couldn't pinpoint one. Dion DMi got under lenses.

nails between the night of the murder in a few days before, I couldn't .

say the prosecution knew that DNA result was in a slam dunk. After all, lands and dion had been lovers shared his bed.

I believe I was around .

five fifty two .

in the morning.

But then officer Tommy Williams took the stand. He shared that story about diane bagging on Lances door one month before his death, he testified. That was actually the second time police were called that night about the banging. So he told the on SHE was under arrest for trust passing. That's when he said he snapped.

And the five was on. I mean, IT was, IT was, oh yes. Once we get her in the car, SHE beaten and bang and and kick in the cage in the .

windows and stuff, what did you learn about why don was so upset?

Dim a was peering into Lances windows, and SHE saw Kathy Collins walking through the home in a town. And that's what had to upset.

And this story gave the prosecutor yet another motor for why don killed lass. He told the jury he was to appear in court for that trust passing incident the day he was murdered.

speaking with people very close to Lance, he was going to use this criminal trust past cases a way to say, hey, if you don't leave me alone, i'm going to go forward with these charges.

Prosecute record or udon was worried Lance wasn't going to help her out of those charges, so he went to his house looking for assurances. When he refused, he waited for him to fall asleep and then use that rent from his bedroom to repeatedly strike him in the head.

The actions of beyond bob really pain IT for the jury. A picture of who don ba really was, a really violent, a very obsessive person with respective Lance home .

in as the state wristed its case, the defense was ready to fight back, and IT had something up its sleeve for ran sic evidence that raised the question, was there someone else lenses bad that night?

That's almost the definition of reasonable doubt, right?

The animal.

The animal on ball was facing the prospect of life behind bars, and her defense team was determined to stop that from happening. Her attorneys told jurors, investigators zero and too quickly on diane, that lands lived a risky double life with a lot of enemies.

They don't know if last harned was murdered by one of his other girlfriends, buy a jealous husband for any number of women he was dying, whether he was killed by somebody that was mated him in conjunction with his business, they all.

any number of people, might have had a motive to want Lance dead.

We that absolutely.

Lance had a secret life.

multiple secret lives. yes.

Dion's attorneys hired criminal defense investigator Charles's middle start to dig into the case.

I've always described the lantern in this sort of an iceberg. What we saw on the surface was just a very small percentage of what was going on in his life.

The defense press that point during cross examination of Lance's x wife jane honden.

And you also told that the dancers o that he had a lot of enemies. yes. Did you know particular people that we were talking about.

people who disliked to .

him um with the of a personal nature of business nature, a combination .

I I would think more a .

little bit about. Take landseers company, the one most thought was successful but was .

actually fAiling while he had a very crafted persona. There were things behind the scenes that perhaps, but not as good as he'd like other people to think.

Holy super said her boss had been dealing with some questionable business associate, and one person stood out.

I believe. That said, he thought the man was very good.

correct? Dion's attorneys .

argued the police didn't take that lead seriously or do a deep dive into some of his other business dealings, like that nightclub they press loves his girlfriend Kathy Collins about .

the club are some problem.

Yes, and .

IT was any .

yes? To establish more reasonably out, the defense pointed the finger at the last known person to see lands alive to long a caraway. Hear the alternate theory here for the defense as as a killer. All people, you know.

the thing about is I wouldn't have a reason to kill him because he was always, always on my side, always help. So why would I want to take that away? I would.

But maybe to long as the boyfriend would the defense mature. Jurors heard about that money. He oed lands and one of lencs neighbors testified that he saw a suspicious man in a light colored compact car around four forty five A M near Lances house the morning he was killed to. Lana had a similar looking car.

What kind of cord you have back in August .

nineteen nineties?

Light dion attorney pressed the lead detective on why he didn't investigate the boyfriend.

And you do know that her boyfriend had barked the money from .

her .

and he had a criminal record for what I understand, didn't go out and interview the criminal girlfriend.

No, did I didn't .

t besides, the defense argued, police didn't look for other women in lenses, life beyond to long a gene and cafe.

The police department only five essentially know three women that he was involved with as deventer .

ties chipped away at the state's case, they also pointed out police never found the murder weapon. In fact, the french prosecutor showed in court IT was a prop they picked up at home.

Deepo mean they literally bought the murder weapon because IT simply didn't exist.

the medical examiner testified, even though he theorized a wrench was used to kill Lance, he couldn't a hundred percent sure.

So you're not telling this jury to a reasonable degree of medical certain that range. Oh no, not at all. I cannot tell you that now don't be a stress with yes.

then evidence dion's, a torney said, was a game changer. Two unknown strands of hair found in lands is bed.

We just know that actually from the the two uni dense fied hair that wearing as bad that he had other intimates that they never could match to anybody, so not to any of the other known lovers. And so that automatically, that's almost the definition of reasonable out.

right? Asked for the hairs that wear a matched don and her DNA under lenses, fingernails. The defense argued that should surprise no one in the courtroom.

They were lovers. And so that's just circumstantial evidence that does not in any way time stamp when they were together, when he was last there.

And lizz laptop, the one the prosecution made a big deal about, even its own. Witnesses admitted Lance often lent to deon and freely let his girlfriends uses credit cards.

Were you aware that he had land or loud many people that he data to use his create cards?

Yes, so that was .

not an unusual thing that he did. no. Had defensive .

tourneys .

created enough reasonable doubt for diane boat to be found not guilty as they rested, there would soon be a verdict. But would that be the end of the case?

The first thing I thought was, this is unbelievable. This cannot be happening.

Closing arguments were underway in the fulton county.

georgia, courthouse decision. You, in this case, for fact, this moment every day, rest for life.

the last chance to convince jurors of dion's innocence or guilt.

Where is the evidence that she's killed him? Defensive tourneys .

return to their main argument, prosecutors lacked evidence. Take the violent crime scene. They asked, why didn't the police have any blood evidence connected to dion?

There is no blood on the finance car, close shoes or the laptop. In this case, there are no fingerprints of blood, all the things of the bed sheet, the clock, there's none of that.

The issue for me has always been that the violence and the gruesome s that um is associated with this crime, you would have been covered in blood. You would almost have to be of a csi clean up expert to be the perpetrator and walk away from that scene, get in your own vehicle, get back your own home, and have no trace of that, no DNA, no biological evidence transferring. It's almost unbelievable.

And dion attorney told jurors, despite what they heard from the prosecution, dionne lands were on good terms.

No prior threat of no SHE did not cure lands earned prosecutor record would have .

the final word in his closing arguments.

The killer sits in this courtroom. He stitched together .

all the crime scene evidence, taking the jury through a dramatic step by step narrative of how he believed an unhinged ed don bar killed Lance.

SHE arrived at the house sometime after midnight. They would have had sex. I believe that last drifted off to sleep. I believe that he would have obtained that ranch.

SHE would have crawled onto the bed, startled him, and he would have used her hands to strike him in the head in the face. After SHE killed the lands, SHE unloved the alarm clock SHE turned the picture of Cathy covin down on the nights. And I believe he went through Lances wallet and a removed the credit card.

SHE went t down into the office. He decided to take the laptop computer. SHE went out through the garage. I think that he dropped a series of silver chilling gum rappers. As SHE got the keys out of her purse to get into her car to leave, SHE went home and pretend IT like SHE didn't know anything about IT.

With that, the case was in the jury's hands. Were you feeling confident when the jury went out to deliberate?

I was feeling confident. Yes, I was.

After about five hours .

of verdict, I guilty of murder.

Dion was also found guilty of theft of the laptop and financial fraud for using Lancers credit card.

IT was one of the greatest days of my life. He was convicted of murder. I felt like justice has been served. She's going to prison for the rest of her life.

Did you look over at the end.

as you did?

But was the look on her face? I think .

he was so solum. IT was as if he wasn't affected by any of IT.

Everyone thought that was the end of IT. But two years later, a huge development Georgeous supreme court overturned the conviction. It's at the trial court allowed improper hearsay evidence from the lead detective.

And the first thing I thought was, this is unbelievable. This cannot be happening.

In october two thousand, three, dion went on trial a second time.

I thought that nothing really had changed in terms of our theory, and I didn't believe that the defense tourneys had really come up with an explanation that would adequate explain being consistently in dion testimony, her statements and her possession of the laptop computer.

Jurors deliberated for five days. Then they sent the judge a message I note just few minutes ago, and. That says judge backs to the jury is hopelessly deadlocked sound by the four person, and I will bring him out clear .

midrib the jurors were eleven to one rocker.

says that was eleven to one guilty.

So the only thing we have left is to try and take up a third time and have a third .

of unbelievable.

It's one of the most unusual in bizarre experiences i've ever had professionally.

But rocker had a problem. The special agent on the case had passed away, and lenses mothers said he didn't want to go through another trial, so he offered Diana.

please dial. We would resolve the case by allowing dion bota pleaded guilty and receive a senate much less than he would ordinarily ily receive if SHE were found .

guilty of murder.

Ten years. We agreed to serve to give her a sense of ten years on a charge of manslaughter.

Lances friends were devastated that diane got such a light sentence.

Too short, way too short. You took somebody y's life. You took somebody y's father. You took somebody's son. Today.

dion is a free woman. SHE was released from prison in two thousand eleven, and now so many years later, Lances son has a message about his father's legacy.

This is not the story of a negative. This is not the story of a murder and how our family was destroyed. This is a story of Lance heard and created a path of ultra newera for african americans that maybe wasn't there. And look how we're continuing this.

Harrison horton is married and is now CEO of his own marketing agency. There is a whole other .

world out there where you can be a very successful interpreter and am happy to tell that story. I can be very for like looking, don. I can be said, I last baby, the man that I am today. And I am so proud.

happy to be here well, and I think your doud would be so proud of you. Thank you.

Seeing lands and making lands proud is the most important thing for what I do in my life. I really is.

That's all for this edition of deadline and check out our talking deadline podcast. Andrew, a canning and jush maker, will go behind the scenes of tonight episode available wednesday in the date line feed whereever you get your podcasts. I'm lester. Hold for all of us that nbc news is good night.

A true crime story never really ends. Even when a cases closed. The journey for those left behind is just beginning.

Since our dateline story aired, Tracy has harness her outrage into a mission. I had no other option. I had to do something.

catch up with families, friends and investigators on our bonus series after the verdict. Ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with strength and courage.

IT does just change your life, but speaking up for these issues helps me keep going to listen .

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