>> it was a bittersweet ending for nikki's family, they will likely never see matt lyerly again, but as nikki lyerly's youngest girls left to go back north with their grandfather, it seems just as likely that they would never see them again, either. edge they were my girls but i still love them, to this day. i taught them how to read but i got them ready for school in the mornings. >> you would like to have a relationship with them? >> i would love to have a relationship with them again. i don't know that that they will ever come, but i want them to know that my door is always open. but i don't know that they will ever come. >> one murder, so many victims. that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. ks for wat. we were like sisters. hello. i'm craig melvin, and this sis dateline.

we were like sisters. we had shared so much. i told me they had found her body, and i just collapsed. she is dead, because she was my friend. first, melissa disappeared. >> that's the million-dollar question. >> i knew then that she had never made it into her house. >> signs of a struggle, and a strange orange missed. >> they didn't know what it was. >> then, her boss went missing, to. >> who was he afraid of? >> might've been afraid that he was next. >> he left behind a bigger mess. >> we three kings be stealing the gold. >> a missing fortune. >> ballpark, 1 1/2 million dollars. >> we have no clues, no leads. >> some wondered, was there a link? two crimes, one for money, one, supposedly for love, and behind both, a lingering mystery.

>> it is just so ugly, and so wrong, and i cannot fix it. welcome to dateline. hotshot florida attorney, melissa lewis was living large in ft. lauderdale. but then, her seemingly charmed life ended in tragedy when a body was discovered in a drainage canal. she had been murdered. but who would want her dead? with few clues, fewer suspects, and a scandal involving her law firm, investigators had their work cut out for them, to unravel the mystery of what had happened to melissa. here is dennis murphy, with, betrayed. >> if you ask someone in town where the busiest part of ft. lauderdale lies, they will probably steer you here, las olas boulevard. and way up there, in this high rent district, is it penthouse

office suite which was, once upon a time, home to a high- powered law firm. the boldest, brass used bunch of politically connected lawyers , the rothstein law firm. >> a gorgeous sweeping view. >> from a few guys with law degrees to age juggernaut by the mid-2000's, with a dozen attorneys led by scott rusting. >> he probably thinks, i'm king of the world. >> and, the firm is where melissa lewis, a by the book attorney found great success for herself and her clients. she was, by all accounts, a workaholic who loves what she did. no shrinking violet, either. melissa loved those splashy office parties just as much as the other lawyers. she had found herself a nice slice of the american pie. and that is the thing about a

38-year-old melissa lewis, even as she raised her voice in class, her sad end wasn't far off and her unexpected death would get caught up in a chain of events right out of a john grisham novel. murder, betrayal, and billions of dollars in fraud. melissa lewis >> it ended up being the beginning of the end. >> missy, as her family called her, had come so far. penthouse lawyering wasn't likely for a restless high school dropout. >> here was a kid who didn't finish high school, she got the ged ticket. >> correct. she didn't plan to be a high school dropout, she was in a hurry to get on with life. >> and focused enough, finally, to finish college. then, in her late 20s, to go for a law degree. she breezed past the younger law students to become the prestigious editor of the law review and she caught the eye of one of her professors, scott

rothstein, who took her on as an intern. office manager deborah vega's met her on the first day of work. >> what did melissa bring to the party? >> she was smart and capable. you know, she was everything that you would want in an associate attorney. >> she was also one of the nicest people deborah says she had ever met. the two became fast friends. >> we were like sisters. she knew all my faults and flaws. and she loved me anyways. >> deborah and melissa saw the firm grow tenfold in just a few years. their gregarious boss, scott, was the front man. he hobnob with a who's who of big deal names in sports, politics, and business, even future residence. fundraisers? scott was your man. >> once you were named there, you truly cannot imagine how many people knock on your door. >> the door scott knocked on was melissa's. >> melissa was the one, he knew that she could handle it, he knew she wouldn't let anything fall through the cracks. >> melissa specialized in

employment law, but volunteered her time for battered women and victims rights. she also worked on building a memorial garden for crime victims. >> she was always a champion for the underdog. >> melissa eventually met a lawyer from a different firm and married. but, after five years, the marriage had come undone and ended in a messy divorce. >> that divorce, just devastated her. >> after melissa's divorce, she took on a second full-time job. >> missy did not have children herself? >> she didn't want children. she wanted her career. >> when her best friend deborah's own marriage was hitting the rocks, melissa was there for her, to. playing the same great aunt role for deborah's fourth kids pick the two became inseparable at work and outside the office. >> she is cooking for me and

the kids, and we have movie night on saturdays. >> after her divorce, a still shaky melissa started dating a little, but work, not relationships, would occupy her front and center. eventually, her diligence paid off. in 2008, after seven years of the firm, the former intern was made the first female partner. >> she shared with me, early on, that she hopes to be a judge one day. >> and deborah had done well for herself, to. after all those years working as a paralegal and keeper of the supply cabinet, her boss, scott, promoted her to chief operating officer. not bad for someone who never finished college. >> things were going really well at the rothstein law firm? >> yes. >> then came march 5th, 2008. just one week after melissa had been made partner. it was a wednesday night. deborah tried to call her several times, but got no answer. the next morning, when melissa was a no-show at work, deborah called her friend repeatedly, but to no avail.

then, she got a hold of melissa's sister, carrie. >> kerry was like, we all know, something is wrong. >> deborah told her boss, scott. well-connected attorney that he was, he called the police officer he knew in plantation, florida, where melissa lived. the officer agreed to meet deborah and carrie at melissa's house. and they got there, everything seems to be normal inside the home. >> nothing was tossed, drawers weren't opened. >> nothing. the only thing i miss was in her garage. >> melissa's car was gone. that is when they all saw something bizarre. a fine mist of what looks like orange spray paint throughout the garage. >> did whatever the stuff in the garage affect you? >> yes. i started coughing and i said, that pepper spray. >> respray. like many women, melissa was known to carry it canister of it for self protection. had she been attacked? had she used it? >> i knew right then, that she absolutely never made it into her house. >> something had happened in that garage. something very disturbing, and it wasn't looking good for

rising attorney melissa lewis. coming up >> where is melissa? >> the answer comes all too soon , when dateline continues. rohns means everything to me. ♪ ♪ control is everything to me. ♪ feel significant symptom relief at 4 weeks with skyrizi, including less abdominal pain and fewer bowel movements. skyrizi is the first il-23 inhibitor that can deliver remission and visibly improve damage of the intestinal lining. and the majority of people experienced long-lasting remission at one year. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. liver problems may occur in crohn's disease. ♪ now's the time to ask your gastroenterologist how you can take control of your crohn's with skyrizi. ♪ ♪ control is everything to me. ♪

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dennis murphy: fort lauderdale attorney melissa lewis was missing, and her friends and family were in a panic. she hadn't responded to phone calls and didn't show up for work. she's not one to take a mental health day. no. no. ft. lauderdale attorney, melissa friends and family were in a

panic. she had not responded to phone calls and did not show up for work. >> she is not one for mental health days? >> no. >> this was going to be a high- profile case. melissa's boss, scott rothstein was a powerbroker attorney with a bit of extra juice with local police. plantation police detective brian kennedy. >> he was our union attorney. venue, they were friends. >> at melissa's house, the mysteries piled up in her car was gone and pepper spray was all over her garage. melissa also had a dog, and there was pepper spray on the dogs face, as well. >> our concern is raised greatly, at this point, that she is in some sort of danger. >> detectives wanted to know what melissa had been wearing the previous day at work. deborah knew exactly. in you brown pantsuit with pinstripes. sure enough, there she was, captured on security cameras in her office lobby, talking with another lawyer at 7:00 p.m.

after leaving work, her sister, carrie, says she went to the supermarket. >> how do you know she had gone to the supermarket? >> she actually called my daughter, that night, she was the last one and she said i'm going to publix. >> detectives to store surveillance video. there was melissa in the cosmetics aisle, reaching for something on the shelf. the cameras leader showed her leaving, documenting the start of her pathway to doom. >> you got the timeline? >> now we have a timestamp during which we believe she arrived home. based on the distance to publix and her house. >> it was probably around 8:30. from the pepper spray on the walls and floor, it appeared melissa came home and was attacked inside the garage. detectives also found a small button on the garage floor, perhaps ripped from the pantsuit. then, one detective had an idea. use the gps and security system in melissa's vehicle to locate her. >> it's a cadillac. the cadillac has onstar, they are able to activate the onstar. tell us the location of the

vehicle through gps, and brought us right to this parking lot. >> the car was about half a mile from melissa's house in this medical office parking lot, that melissa never went to. >> three onstar, you could remotely open the vehicle? >> they were able to remotely open the vehicle for us. >> what do you find? >> we find a suit jacket that she was wearing the night before, and on the subject if there was a missing button, significant because the corresponding button, was found on her garage floor. >> the jacket smelled of pepper spray, to. there were two shoes found in the car, but nothing else. melissa had been wearing a sterling silver ring, diamond earrings and a $5000 watch. she also had an expensive product handbag, and an iphone. >> could very well be the

target of an opportunistic grab and run. >> we have no clues or leads. >> police did find a tiny drop of melissa's blood in her car and on the tile in her house. but, there were no fingerprints other than melissa's in either place. dna testing would take longer. >> now the question is, where is melissa? >> that's the million-dollar question at this point. two days after she went missing, a worker made a gruesome discovery in a water pump at a nearby canal. >> first thing that comes to his mind is, it's just a manikin, then he realizes it's a body. >> it was 38-year-old melissa lewis. the missing person's case was now a murder investigation. >> it's still a whodunit, we have no idea. >> reporter: the news media quickly picked up on the story. >> my husband told me. he saw it on the news. >> how did he tell you? >> he came to my work, and i just broke down. i couldn't believe it. >> police called the victim's best friend, deborah.

>> i just collapsed to the ground. >> your friend, melissa, was dumped into a drainage canal. >> this wonderful beautiful person, nothing that kind. >> when the medical examiner's report was completed, it showed that she had been strangled. >> is such a personal thing to do to somebody. to have to look them in the eyes and do that. and up close and personal killing, no question. with those timeless questions of all investigations went unanswered. who? and why? coming up, a person of interest very close to home. >> i said he better not have done anything to her. and a missing sulfone of great interest to police, when dateline continues.

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dennis murphy: the hunt was on for a suspect in the strangulation murder of melissa lewis. the lawyer's body was found floating in a canal two days after she went missing. the hunt was on for suspecting the strangulation murder of melissa lewis. the lawyers body was found floating in a canal two days after she went missing. as they always do, detectives looked at the circle she moved in. >> was there something in the background of my victim that accounts for what happened here? >> we don't think so. she is a prominent attorney, she is safety conscious, she carries her pepper spray. >> melissa specialized in people with writes. employment lawsuits. detectives couldn't find any history of bad blood between

melissa and her clients or people she had sued. detectives spoke with the ex- husband, but his alibi was solid. and then, they look at the current men in her life. >> what about boyfriends. she had been dating some guys. >> we assigned detectives to go out and talk to them and they were alibi that out pretty quickly. >> they also wanted to speak with melissa's coworker and best friend, deborah. >> who better to talk to to find out what someone's habits were and what they like to do. that she have strange men coming to her home? >> far from it, deborah told detectives. most nights, melissa was either at deborah's cooking for her and her kids are at home with her dogs. still, they continued to pick deborah's brain. >> just, 1 million, you cannot even imagine the questions they ask you. >> detectives also spoke with melissa's sister, carrie, when asked who she thought might have done that.

>> who is he? >> my ex-husband, because we had just gotten divorced and he knew my sister, he got served by her for firm. >> he thought she might have something to do with it? >> she said that he had come to her house, and kind of scared her. >> detectives found out he had a record. so, they checked out the sisters ex-husband. >> he was a subject of interest early on in the investigation. he came in, he consented to any type of the questions that we asked of him, he answered them voluntarily, he had been released from prison in the past. >> so you haven't ruled him out yet? >> not yet. >> with a list of possible suspects drinking, detectives shifted their focus to something that might provide the first break in the case. detectives but in an emergency request to the phone company to see if it could help track her cell phone. when he got the report,

detective kendall couldn't believe what he saw. melissa's iphone had been active after the murder, and someone had actually gone into her voicemail and playback messages. >> to try to make sense as to what he would want to do. >> police were dumbfounded to learn that someone would know the cell phone was a detectives best friend and could be tracked with cell towers. it was bold or stupid or both. >> the self it is telling that towers, here i am? >> it is giving us the general vicinity of an area, where that sulfone communicated. >> the phone records showed that person had been on the move from the time of the murder, into the next day. >> how important is the story told by the cell phone? >> very important for cell phone is like someone dropping pieces of popcorn to leave a trail. >> but the trail was unwinding. cell phone towers don't pinpoint exact locations. >> we know from that cell phone

tower, there is a maybe three or four mile radius that we are looking to try to figure out where that phone is. >> investigators believe melissa was killed in her garage around 8:30 p.m. on wednesday. that night, her phone went south from her home in plantation, eventually stopping at an area in miami gardens. >> from midnight until 1:00 alien. >> thursday the phone went northeaster for ft. lauderdale than for the north to pompano beach. shortly afterwards, turned back towards ft. lauderdale. but, somewhere along the way, the signal was lost. either the buttery battery died or the killer dumped the phone. by thursday, the day after the murder, the phone, or whoever had it, traveled a distance of about 60 miles. >> obviously, who was with that cell phone is most likely the last person with melissa. >> detectives also focused on those five hours the phone was stationary in miami gardens.

was the killer home in bed? >> we have to identify if melissa knows somebody in this area. >> does anything, but that point? >> we have no reason to believe anyone she's dating or anybody she knows lives there. >> melissa's family confirmed that. police asked everyone remotely involved in the case, and the answer kept coming up, now. by now, police had also cleared the ex-husband of melissa's sister. did not have a connection to the area, either. but, when they asked deborah if she knew anyone around there, her jaw dropped. she said she did know someone. >> i was like, i do not think it was him. >> but cops are funny. they don't just take people's word for things. they check them out. police identified and cleared a number of potential suspects. but now there is someone new on there were radar. the revelation would rock melissa's friend, deborah. why would he want to kill her? coming up. >> you think whoever is in that

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the white house said sunday that the white house and other g-7 leaders condemned iran's retaliatory strike on israel over the weekend. destroyed that's, sources familiar tell nbc news that president biden is warning israel's leader to not let this conflict escalate into a wider war. in chicago, an 8-year-old girl is dead every saturday shooting. police say 10 others were injured in the southside incident including two boys aged one and 8 known critical condition. back to dateline. welcome back. and craig melvin. desperate to find melissa lewis's killer, police turn to technology, to help unlock the secrets in melissa's phone. what they found sent them hurtling in an unexpected direction. here, again, is dennis murphy,

was betrayed. >> melissa lewis a cell phone was looking to be the key of unlocking what happened to her the night of her murder. >> the phone stayed with a person that we believe took melissa. >> now they were focused on miami gardens, where the phone had been stationary for several hours after the murder. police asked melissa's best friend, deborah vieques if she knew anyone who lived in that area. >> debbie says, my husband, tony, who i'm going through a divorce with. >> deborah was dumbstruck. >> he would have no reason to do this to melissa. >> you are telling detectives you are looking at the wrong guy? >> yeah. >> did he know her? >> he had met her a few times over the years, but we weren't social. >> deborah told police she and tony have been married for 17 years and had four children. they had separated, more than a year earlier. tony then moved into a house in miami gardens, with a friend. for 20 years, he had worked for florida east coast railways,

hauling freight. >> basically drove a train for a living. >> police checked him out on their computer. >> any priors? >> none. no priors. >> detectives went to talk to tony, and recorded the conversation. >> how well do you know the restaurant? >> not well. i know her from her, icing her a few times. never spoke to her, more than two words. >> you know she has had anything to do with what you're going through right now with deborah? >> i don't know. i really don't care. i mean, -- >> that wouldn't bother you? >> i just want to get away from my wife. i just want peace. >> then they asked him the question. >> did you have anything to do with melissa's death? >> no. >> what tony didn't know was that before detectives spoke to him, they obtained a copy of the train route he obtained the day after the murder. and guess what?

it matched the root traveled by alyssa's phone. detectives confronted him with the evidence. >> her phone, after stolen, went to the area of your house and stayed there overnight and then came to work with you the next day, and traveled north with the train, because the train has gps. it was on the train, okay? so unless someone else here knows melissa, and is in your house,, you had the phone. okay? listen. i'll be honest with you, this does not look very good for you. >> i don't even know her. >> detectives searched tony's house, his car, and his train, but never did find melissa's phone. and, there was still a missing motivational piece to this puzzle. why in the world would tony kill someone he barely knew.

and it, tony said something during the interview that opened a window into a private side of his character. he was capable of intense jealousy when talking about his estranged wife. >> she has guys in. i always told her, i don't like lies, you know what i mean. and i love her, i give all my life to her. >> that would bother you if she spending a lot of time with melissa? >> no, nothing like that. >> despite what tony said, detectives thought the crude, it had a broader meaning, speaking to the bff relationship of deborah and melissa. >> does he feel like melissa has taken his place? >> i think he definitely believes that melissa was a catalyst to enable debbie to go forward with the divorce. he kills melissa lewis to get back at deborah for divorcing him. >> if you are lethally angry about an impending divorce, when it killed the wife? >> if he kills melissa and he's

caught, w still there to raise the kids. >> deborah said she had decided, on her own, but tony had to go. >> you thought he would physically hurt the kids? >> he's already physically hurting them. i thought he would go too far. >> debbie was scared of tony. that did not raise any suspicion as to why he would ever want to harm melissa. >> you couldn't connect the dots to put him in that garage? >> absolutely not. >> it might be senseless to the wife, but those dots were starting to connect for detectives. they shared their suspicions with deborah, and how the evidence of the traveling iphone pointed to tony. >> i wasn't able to stand on my feet. >> melissa's murder was devastating and frightening for everyone at the law firm, especially, it seems, scott ross dean. only a week before, he was

toasting melissa after making her a partner. now, he was helping her family with funeral arrangements. melissa's aunt, lynn, spoke at the memorial. >> i can look out from the podium, and see a sea of lawyers out there. >> including scott rothstein? >> he actually paid, he came to the funeral home, and paid for everything. >> three days after the funeral, detectives arrested tony vieques. he was charged with first- degree murder. >> he denied involvement. >> tony's attorney is ruth fleischer. >> they sought the death penalty. >> police and prosecutors were confident they had a solid case. something happened to throw the whole investigation into freefall. that is because new crimes were about to be revealed, and new questions were about to be raised about who really killed melissa. and in the midst of it all, scott rothstein, like melissa, disappeared.

coming up, were melissa and scott rothstein's disappearance is connected? >> we three kings be stealing the gold. >> the dark secrets buried beneath all those rothstein riches. >> he said if i don't get this taken care of, these people will put a bullet in my head. >> when dateline continues. ne be there for your loved ones. shingles could also to serious complications that can last for years. if you're over 50, the virus that causes shingles is likely already inside you. and as you age, your risk of developing shingles increases. don't wait. ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingles today.

ask your doctor or pharmacist dennis murphy: debra villegas' world had been turned upside down. her best friend, melissa lewis, had been murdered, and debra's estranged husband tony was charged with killing her. deborah's world had been turned upside down.

her best friend, melissa lewis, had been murdered, deborah's estranged husband, tony, was charged with killing her. >> people thought, deborah's psycho ex-husband has murdered melissa, you know, just overwhelmed with guilt and shame. >> melissa's murder weighed heavily on deborah's mind, as well as the mind of her boss, scott rothstein. but scott seem to be rattled by something more than just melissa's murder. for some reason, after tony's arrest, rothstein beefed up his own security. >> who was he afraid of? >> obviously, that he was next. >> but if melissa's murder had been solved, i was scott still worried? deborah knew, because she was privy to a secret that threatened to send even more people to prison, and could destroy scott ross interpretation as a high- profile mover and shaker. a walk through his office left no doubt. hero walt was plastered with pictures of him with politicians, business moguls, and movie stars. the governor was on speed dial. it had been a heady ride for

the boy from the bronx. by no means shot about his excessive and likes to joke about how he got there. >> that's right, we are breaking the law. >> he had his trophies, sure. and 87 foot yacht out behind his waterfront mansion. his cars included a bugatti, a maserati, and a lamborghini. >> what he wants all that stuff? >> he wanted people to look at him and say, that is a successful guy, and he knows everybody. >> rothstein's success and fling had already caught the attention of reporters. >> i was asking, how is are you making all this money? >> he said we come up with a formula that we are not going to trial. >> the cases were age and sex

determination lawsuits. rothstein figured out a way to file cases without the firm paying to do it. instead, he found investors willing to fund the lawsuits. >> they were promised a fantastic return for their investments, once the cases were settled. >> the investor would give the $5 million to rothstein and in turn he would say i will give you $6 million in six months. >> behind the scenes there were big problems, as deborah learned, about one week for melissa was murdered. >> he was telling me he was in trouble, he had gotten in over his head, he said if i don't get this taken care of, he said they will put a bullet in my head. >> scott asked her to cross the line and forge signatures on documents. >> and you shouldn't be going on but it's a one-time thing. >> it wasn't. scott asked deborah, his chief operating officer to do it again and again, the reason? the cases were made up, phony.

the forged documents were used to fool investors. >> the settlements were not real. >> there was no client? >> the cases were fabricated. >> it turned out it was all a ponzi scheme. mr. high flyer scott reason rothstein didn't use investor money to file lawsuits, he used that money to fund his lifestyle. in the end, it would be the largest ponzi scheme in florida history. >> how big did it get? >> ballpark, $1.5 billion. >> more than a year had passed since melissa's murder and tony vieques was still sitting in jail, awaiting trial, and another twist to the story. >> scott rothstein has disappeared. >> and like melissa, scott was not a murder victim, but he was a fugitive. a bernie made off the figure on the run. he had left the country in a private jet for morocco with $16 million in cash, and his

collections of watches and jewelry, fleeing after learning unhappy investors had gone to the fbi. one month later, he was back in florida, but not under arrest. what no one knew, was that scott had cut a deal with the fbi to act as an informant. >> he wore a wire and helped convict 26 people involved in his ponzi scheme. despite his cooperation, in 2010, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison. but, one big question emerged. speculation about that woman in the firm who had been killed. >> weather melissa knew about the ponzi scheme is one of those great mysteries. >> scott had started his ponzi scheme three years before melissa was murdered. >> is it time to take a fresh look at the whole melissa lewis murder? is there something more sinister? >> detective ryan kendrick have now had a new problem with is

fairly straightforward case against tony, the jealous train engineer. >> is this woman killed because she knows too much? >> after we thought we had this buttoned up, scott rothstein's ponzi scheme comes into play. >> the fbi come through the detective's files, looking into a link. >> they spent a week going through every inch of that case to find out if there was a connection to scott rothstein. >> with all the messy complications, tony's defense attorney, bruce lisha, thought about two words. reasonable doubt. >> a lot of people thought that because of the rothstein ponzi scheme, that he had something to do with the murder of melissa lewis. >> and debra vieques was back in the hot seat herself, being grilled by homicide detectives who bluntly asked her about scott, the ponzi scheme, and melissa's workload. she had her lawyer this time. >> was melissa aware of

anything that scott was involved in? >> no. >> was there any discussion between you and scott about having alyssa killed? >> absolutely not. >> are you aware of any discussion of hiring somebody for melissa's murder? >> no. >> but, detectives did learn one new thing about melissa and scott. some dish. >> melissa had a very brief, like, three-week fling. and i was like oh, god, melissa, that so doesn't matter. >> it had been years before, when melissa was first hired out of law school, detectives discounted it, saying it had nothing to do with her murder and was not relevant. of course, rothstein himself was grilled about melissa lewis's murder. during depositions in civil suits brought by investors. >> we asked, directly, whether or not he was involved in any

way in the homicide, and he vehemently denied it. >> how did he take it? >> he was indignant, but he was also a great actor because he was a sociopath. in the end, neither the police nor fbi could connect melissa's murder to rothstein and his ponzi scheme. so, what happened to his loyal aide, deborah? she pleaded guilty to money laundering, and the judge came down hard. >> and you went to federal prison? >> i did. with a 10 year sentence. >> the sentence was later reduced to four years. meanwhile, years have gone by and debra's ex-husband, tony, still hadn't gone to trial for murder. he sat in jail, his lawyer claiming a malady that might prevent him from ever seeing a judge and jury. finally, eight years after melissa lewis's death, tony vieques would stand trial. but, what would a jury make a such a strange murder? >> you have domestic homicides all the time, but this had this twist.

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“download the gametime app towelcome back.als investigators looking into melissa lewis's murder had been thrown a curveball. welcome back. investigators looking into melissa lewis's murder had been thrown a curveball. her boss had been running a giant ponzi scheme that also involved her best friend, deborah. both denied melissa knew anything about it. then, the massive fraud was ruled out in a factor in her death. now, prosecutors were ready to

bring deborah's ex-husband to trial. here is dennis murphy, with the conclusion of betrayed. a funny thing happened to tony vieques on the way to the courtroom. he had exhibited bizarre behavior and was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial. still in custody, he was in and out of treatment facilities for years, until doctors found him competent again. finally, in the summer of 2016, eight years after the murder, tony went on trial. >> tony vieques, the defendant in this case. >> prosecutor sherry tate argued that tony, fueled by a jealous rage, waited in the bushes for melissa to come home, followed her into the garage and then launched a brutal attack on his wife's best friend. >> is a hands-on personal murder. it takes time, it takes

premeditation. and why? because she was a friend. >> with the residue of pepper spray all over the garage was evidence that melissa had fought back, and some had apparently gotten on the killer. tony's housemate testified, the night of the murder, he saw his roommate describing his arms. >> he said that he got pepper spray on him, and that his hands were burning and itching. >> then, an expert on cell phone tracking told the jury that tony had both melissa's phone and his own personal phone with him the night of the murder, and the next day, when he was driving his train. >> they move north, and then back south along the railroad. >> but now, prosecutors had to tackle the head scratching question of motive. why would tony kill melissa in the first place? deborah testified that tony became very jealous and angry with melissa, because she had virtually replaced him in the household. >> was melissa helping you through this difficult time in

your life? >> yes, ma'am. >> that was the theory. in order to get back at deborah, he killed her best friend. >> you have these domestic homicides all the time. but, this had a twist to it, because he didn't kill deborah. >> then, tony and debra's 23- year-old son, caleb, was called to testify against his father. the usual blank stare on tony's courtroom face changed as his son recalled how his father blamed melissa for their divorce. >> did he tell you that it was melissa's fault? >> he believed that she played a part in it, yes. >> did he tell you that he was mad about this? >> he was mad about the whole situation. >> and one more thing, remember, melissa's jacket, the one found in the suv? test showed tony's dna on the jacket. police believed tony wiped his nose with it after being pepper sprayed. >> the odds of finding an

unrelated individual with that profile are rarer than one in 30 billion. >> you couldn't have had better evidence if you had a movie of him killing her? >> right. >> tony fleischer chipped away at the case starting with the guy with the scrubbing away pepper spray story. the defense said that he had 250,000 reasons to make his story up. >> there was a reward offered. who offered that reward? >> scott rothstein. >> how much was the reward in this case? >> $251,000. >> ironically, he never got the reward. the collapse of rusty's ponzi scheme put an end to that but as to the prosecution's theory of motive, pleasure argued it was as thin as it was nonsensical. >> you would think that if you were so enraged at your wife for doing this that you wanted to harm her, and not someone else. >> as for deborah vieques,

defense attorney fleischer surprised everyone when he didn't ask her a single question. but, he did go after the sun, caleb, challenging him as to why he set for so long on this story about his father badmouthing melissa. >> you didn't tell your mother about that when you first heard it, did you? >> no, i didn't see the relevance. >> and when you spend time with him, things were good? >> yes. >> yes. >> you love your dad? >> so, onto the scientific evidence, the cell phone, first. lawyer, fleischer, found a mistake in a chart the states expert had used. was the expert analysis sloppy? >> if you are such a hotshot expert, how does this error creep in? >> he said welcome it was a mistake. >> the same for the dna evidence. attack the credibility of the analysis. the defense said that dna results returned in a few days were rushed through the police lab because of rusty's connections. attorney fleischer also suggested there could have been

cross-contamination to tow the scale, so the results pointed at tony. >> our goal was to educate the jury on the rothstein connections and the rothstein influence. >> metal the physical evidence, contaminated it? >> we can only speculate, but when a man is as powerful of a guy as rothstein was, he would think that they could do things, they could conjure dna. >> and use it to frame tony vieques. the judge asked tony if he wanted to testify. >> it is your choice to testify or remain silent. >> silent. >> in closing argument, prosecutor tate said all of the evidence pointed to tony. the pepper spray, cell phone records, and the dna. there is not one other person on planet earth that could leave the dna on this jacket >> the defense reminded jurors that the pepper spray evidence was weak and that both phone

records and dna results could be manipulated. >> pieces of the puzzle do not fall into place, because a reasonable doubt prevents them from falling into place. >> the jury now had the case. outside the courtroom, deborah vieques sought melissa's family for the first time in eight years. >> all these years later and it just washed over me like it had just happened. you know? but i had caused these people kind of pain that is unimaginable. later that afternoon, the jury sent out a note. verdict. as the verdict was read, deborah sat with melissa's family, consoling her knees. >> guilty of murder in the first degree. >> before sentencing, and his aunt addressed the court said directly to tony, -- >> we forgive you, because we must, and release you into god's hands for eternity.

>> sentencing was immediate. >> your sentence to spend the rest of your life in florida state prison. >> after tony was let out of the courtroom, melissa's family went to their people and hugged them. >> my heart broke. it is a legacy for their family. >> melissa's own legacy is something called the garden of reflection. before her murder, she had worked for victims rights and raised money to build it. now, her name is inscribed there, too. the victim, as prosecutors told it, but in the end had nothing to do with knowing too much about it notorious scandal, but a victim simply of an all- consuming jealousy. that's all for this edition of dateline. and craig melvin. thank you for watching. watchin andrea canning: they were out for fun-- the beauty queen, the troublemaker, and the girl next door. she was really really-- cute blonde hair. >> they were out for fun, the