Dateline NBC - A Perfect Spot

Episode Date: April 23, 2020

In this Dateline classic, a romantic Valentine’s Day evening at the park turns into a horrifying crime scene for married couple, Stacey and Richard Schoeck. Keith Morrison reports. Originally aired on NBC on April 9, 2015.

This is the entrance to the part where Richard was killed. The gunman lay in wait in this secluded dark place at night. One way or another that's an execution. Absolutely. They were a busy married couple meeting up for a romantic Valentine's night rendezvous. They always gave each other kisses, hugs. But that night, someone had other plans. He's been what?

He's been shot! Before she even arrived, her husband was dead. You can see him laying on the ground. I couldn't think of a soul that would want to hurt the man. Then, someone let a secret slip. Soon, police were questioning a suspect with a motive who had suddenly changed his looks. And in fact, when he showed up at work that morning,

he was beardless. There was only one problem. He had a rock-solid alibi. Where did that leave you? Worried about my case. That's when the phone rang. He had no voice, and I did. A tip, a tire track, and a case one detective will never forget. It was a shot in the dark, but I took it. I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Here's Keith Morrison with A Perfect Spot. A winter's night in a southern forest. The ink black darkness parted briefly to their headlights, then closed around them like a shroud as they made their way in separate cars through the foggy overcast.

And then, here it was. The ragged clearing, the muddy patch of sand and dirt, here away from the whole world. What a place for their Valentine's tryst. As if they could see without the artificial light so much as a hand in front of their faces. Or the fate, lurking out there, in the dark, waiting. But what a way to begin a love story. Better, probably, the hot air balloons the man so loved.

And the motorcycles on which together, in daylight, they discovered their own special place, the remote forest clearing in a place called Belton Bridge Park. Though park is much too grand a word for their little pullout beside the Chattahoochee River, north of Atlanta, Georgia. I knew them both very well. They were Richard and Stacy Sheck, and it was another love, their love of scouting, that won the admiration of Greg Gogler. How'd you meet them? Both of our sons were Cub Scouts. With kids, boys especially, they were naturals.

Stacy was a ball of energy, full of ideas, would literally drag us to do things. The go-getter. The go-getter, and we also jokingly called her Mama Spreadsheet because everything that she did had to be laid out in a spreadsheet. What a planner. She was. Scouting is how Bill Fanning got to know them, too.

Richard was a good motivator, and I saw how much fun he was having. And so I kind of asked if I could tag along and got involved with Scouts myself. Stacey was a den leader for the Cub Scout Pack. She pretty good with the kids, too? She She pretty good with the kids too? She was pretty good with the kids too. Yeah, she was. She and Richard, they worked well together. As they did with her three sons. Greg was surprised, he said, when they told him that biologically the kids were Stacy's. I just naively thought that they were his children. Because it looked like that. It looked like that.

In the way he treated them and they treated him. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So when Richard officially adopted the younger two of the three boys, cousin Connie was thrilled. My heart melted. Like, I was just, I was like, that is, like, the best thing. He wanted to adopt those kids because he loved those children, and those children loved him.

Richard himself marched to the beat of his own drum. My brother was always a big kid. Ann said his sister was certainly not a suit and tie sort of person, could not sit down behind a desk. He had to be out and about. He was a very good athlete. Kind of like a pied piper to his niece. He would roller skate with us or throw a ball with us or color with us. He was our cool uncle. No wonder how many uncles take their five-year-old niece and seven-year-old nephew for a ride in a hot air balloon. I could barely see over the edge so it was just cool seeing just skies and clouds all around you. Pam Martin was one of his balloon buddies. People would fight over him. It's like, you know, can I have Richard today?

And he was just the best crew person. And we just liked being around him because he's just very eccentric and very funny. And Stacey? I liked her. She was friendly. She was nice. A happily blended family, far as anybody could see. Stacy was primary breadwinner. She administered a sizable medical practice. Richard was a maintenance manager, but remained the main caregiver for the kids. And together, the two of them were, well, people noticed. They always gave each other kisses, hugs, so they seemed wonderful together. All of which may explain why on Valentine's Night 2010, Richard and Stacey

decided to meet, maybe even make out a little, at their special place here in the woods. To say that what happened next was shocking was, of course, an understatement. The voice in the 911 call was Stacy's. The victim of whatever happened here was her husband, Richard. He had arrived at their rendezvous first. And when she got there later, he was lying on his back on the ground beside his truck. Dan Franklin of the Hall County Sheriff's Department got the call. And so there he was Valentine's night, all but groping as he drove a dark and winding road in

search of that muddy clearing by the river. It's in the middle of nowhere. And so that creates a special kind of dark that you just can't, can't appreciate until you're in the middle of it. Detective Franklin is an experienced man, and this? This was one of the very few cases where the more I dug, the less sense that it made. No, nothing made sense about this. A murder so sudden and so brutal, was it a robbery gone bad? The investigation was just beginning. When we come back. Tire tracks in the mud that belong to neither Richard nor Stacy. You can see Richard's impressions pass over those and then you can see those pass back over Richard's. That let us know

that that vehicle was here before Richard got here and then likely left after he was dead. It had to be the killer. If there is such a thing as a perfect spot for murder, then this just might be it. Wow, this is remote. Oh, my God. It's pretty secluded. If you didn't know what to look for you'd miss that sign. There's just a void on the side of the road. It's this is the entrance to the part where Richard was killed. That night, the cops lit up the crime scene

surrounded by a clearing of bare soil, sand, and muddy dirt. We got this place lit up like it's Christmas time, but if these lights weren't on, you can't see your hand in front of your face. And it was like that that night? Yes, sir, it was. We will spare you the gruesome images of Richard Sheck lying dead beside his truck. Suffice to say, he had been shot five times, three times through his body, twice in the face.

He lay on his back near the open door of his truck. Sounds like a pretty ugly crime scene, right? In terms of what happened to him. It was particularly gruesome. What did it say to you right away? That's overkill, especially with the placement of the shots. Also, it was pretty clear from the get-go that this was not a robbery. The fact that Richard had his jewelry, he had his wedding ring on.

He had a fairly expensive watch that he still had on. There was cash on the center console of the truck that was undisturbed. The truck itself was still here, and it was ripe for the taking. It was running and on, and the door was open. Something else the detective could infer from the track of the bullets that went through Richard's body. He must have gotten out of his truck and approached whoever shot him. When Stacy found Richard, his truck was running, the driver's door was open, the headlights were on, so it appeared that he had just simply pulled up and got out of his truck to approach the person that shot him, which was a compelling thing for us.

That was something that really got our attention. Who was it? Who did Richard approach? Whoever it was was long gone by the time Stacy arrived, so not much to go on. Except, when a police technician trained his lights on the clearing from the side, just so, a whole new picture suddenly emerged. A story in tire tracks, including a set of tracks that belonged to neither Richard's truck nor Stacy's SUV. You could see Richard's impressions pass over those, and then you could see those pass back over Richard's. And so that let us know that that vehicle was here before Richard got here, and then likely left after he was dead. Had to be the killer. But how could common tire tracks help them find whoever did this? Having seen what he could, Detective Franklin headed back

to the sheriff's station to meet Stacy and record her statement. It was after midnight by then. This feels unreal. Stacy explained it was her weekend to care for her grandparents, and Richard planned to come by on Sunday, Valentine's Day, to cook dinner. He arrived about 5.30. And I had my Valentine's stuff for him sitting on the desk. When he walked in the back door, he was like, oh, well, mine are out in the truck, but I thought we would do that at the park.

Because they'd already planned a brief romantic rendezvous at Belton Bridge Park on the way home to see their kids. He was like, come meet me at the park. You know, it's all secluded. You know, we'll exchange our Valentines. And when he gave me a kiss, he was like, maybe even make out with me. Day or dark night, she said, they both knew the way, intimately.

We've ridden by that park gazillions of times. I don't know, lots and lots of times. Even when we were dating, we would go and find little obscure places and make out like teenagers. So after dinner, Richard left for the park first, she said, and she followed a bit later when a night nurse arrived to look after the grandparents. I think I probably pulled out of the driveway at about 9 20 or so. I called Richard and went to voicemail and I didn't know why and I didn't leave a message and I left. And when she got there? I knew something was wrong. I could see, I saw his truck immediately, because the lights were on. And so I pulled down and I headed right towards his truck,

but as soon as I might, I could see him. I could see him laying on the ground. Ah, but. Life is a complicated business, as everybody knows. Even lovers aren't always straight with each other. These, however, were investigators Stacy was talking to. She knew they'd ferret out her secret sooner or later. So right away, she came clean.

I've been having an affair for six, seven months. An affair. His name was Juan Reyes. He worked in Stacy's office in a job she had gotten for him. You know, I'm in deep with Juan. I know that. I'm telling you. Oh, yes, she certainly was.

Stacy and Richard owned the house Reyes lived in with his family. She met Juan for sex at an apartment Stacy rented for the purpose. She paid for the truck he drove, paid his cell phone bills, and, she admitted, she had just taken him to Vegas and disguised it as a work trip. Did Juan know that you were supposed to meet Richard at the park up here? He did. How did he know that?

I mean, I had told him probably Tuesday night. It was either Tuesday or Thursday. Was Stacy saying Juan may have been the killer? No, I just, I can't, I mean, I guess I've seen enough TV to know that strange things happen. But I can't imagine him doing that. But the detectives certainly could. And so we start getting some direction.

And we have this unknown set of impressions, so we have a third party at the scene. So now we have to ask ourselves, is it Juan? Because he was looking really good at that point. Time to go and have a little chat with Mr. Juan Reyes, even if it was 4 o'clock in the morning. Coming up. We knocked for a while. We knocked on windows, we walked around the house,

and never could get anybody to the door. Where would someone be at 4 a.m. if not in bed? When Dateline continues. Richard Sheck, 46 years old, had been escorted suddenly from this life as he waited for his wife in the secluded Georgia Park on Valentine's Day. There was an outside chance, of course, that it would turn out to be a simple case of murder by mistaken identity. Maybe Richard showed up at the wrong place at the wrong time, or maybe he witnessed something he wasn't supposed to see. But when Stacey told the story of her affair with this guy named Juan Reyes, the cops knew

they were listening to a motive as old as time. Jealous boyfriend gets rid of competition. The cops showed up at Juan's house that very night. We knocked for a while. We knocked on windows. We walked around the house and never could get anybody to the door. When you say you knocked to the door, just what, politely? No, no, no, no. A law enforcement banging on the door and banging on the side of the house and that kind of thing. Had he fled? Run away? Later that morning, the detectives went to his workplace to see if he'd show there. He did. All right. But... His appearance had changed from the information that we had gathered from different sources that showed that he had a beard.

Woodrow Tripp was chief of detectives at the time and worked the case with Franklin. And in fact, when he showed up at work that morning, he was beardless. Or at least he'd removed his formerly full beard and shrunk it to an appearance-altering goatee. Now Juan found himself at the sheriff's station. He agreed to talk without a lawyer. He sat in the interrogation room for more than four hours, with several detectives having a go at him, including Franklin and Tripp. That's my understanding that you and Stacy are romantically involved. Yeah.

Okay. He spilled all of that. The affair, the love nest, the extra goodies Stacyacey showered on him. Then they caught him on something. Stacey had already told the detectives that she informed Juan on Tuesday or possibly Thursday about the plans to meet Richard that Sunday night of Valentine's Day. When did she tell you that? She told me Friday, Friday after work. Would you find it odd if I told you that she's made a statement that she told you earlier than Friday? No.

I mean, I remember the conversation on Friday. If she mentioned it before that, I wasn't thinking about it or didn't pay attention to it. Because I'm forgetful sometimes. Was he forgetful? Or was he hiding something? Okay. Well, let me ask you this.

Did you have anything to do with what's happened to Richard? No, no, no. Do you know who did? And so they asked him, where was he before and after dinner on Valentine's Day? Wait a minute if he was up tossing and turning how did he not hear the cops banging on his door i want to tell you man i was in my bed we were there yeah we rang the doorbell like hey we're here ten times we're not for up to two minutes we do sleep with friends on as i said prior, prior, box friends. I did take time off PM, as I stated to you.

But then you also said that you're light sleeper. You toss and turn last night and maybe get three, four hours and that's it. Right. I was up about four o'clock tossing and turning. I looked at the clock beginning at five. We were there. I didn't hear you. I don't know what to tell you. Juan Reyes was like a brick wall about the murder. Didn't do it, didn't know who did.

Really? The polygraphs that former chief of detectives Tripp told a different story. The polygraph results indicated that he was not telling the truth or he was not being truthful to those relevant questions posed to him about the homicide. Questions such as, did you shoot Richard Sheck? Do you know for sure of anyone who shot Richard Sheck? Were you present when Richard Sheck was shot? You know, he knows where Richard's going to be.

He's in an affair with Stacy. He's not at home at 3, 4 in the morning, the night of the murder. He shows up the next morning, altered his appearance. So when you put all of that together, yeah, there's a lot of ringing bells there. Coming up, will Juan's wife back up his alibi when she finds out he was cheating on her? If she wanted to throw him under the bus, that was the time to do it. She had a great opportunity. There can be few things in life as shocking, as disorienting, as the sudden death of a loved one.

Especially one so affectionate, so endearing, so apparently happy. And when the dreadful news came with the word murder attached... I couldn't think of a soul that would want to hurt the man. I couldn't think of anyone. Richard and his scouting buddy Bill Fanning spent the evening together the night before Richard was killed. And so Bill heard him get the phone call from Stacy about their plans for Valentine's Day. He said, we're making plans to get together up near her grandma's.

Because she was staying up there for the weekend or something, right? That's correct. She was looking after her grandmother. So was he happy about that? He thought, that's correct. She was looking after her grandmother. So was he happy about that? He thought, that's great. A week later, he was at Richard's memorial. Stacy asked Bill to give the eulogy. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done, was to get up and talk about him.

I remember looking down at the honorary pallbearers, and they were all scouts. There was not a dry eye there. At the end of the service, everybody wrote messages to Richard on balloons and released them into the air. All fond memories, said his nephew Brian. Everybody had their own personal little story. Richard helped me tie my first knots in my tent. Richard helped me tie, you know, my first knots in my tent. Richard helped me build my first fire.

You could tell the Cub Scouts he was working with that he touched their lives like he had me and my sisters. Meanwhile, the Hall County Sheriff's Department was working on their only lead. We were focusing pretty hard on Juan in the very beginning. Juan Reyes, the boyfriend. Though we thought that he was the shooter, at the same time, he deserved for us to verify his story. Remember, here's where Juan said he was late in the day, February 14th. Me and my son went up to Blockbuster. We ate dinner about, I want to say about 7.30.

And by 10.30, I was in bed. There were ways to check, of course. They talked to Juan Reyes's wife, ex-wife actually. She was living with him in an effort to reconcile. The first thing that I told her was that Juan had been having an affair with Stacy for quite some time. She wasn't happy about that. No, she wasn't. But listen to this. The woman scorned still confirmed his alibi. He'd gone to Blockbuster while I was cooking,

so between 6 and 7. He had taken 6 and 7.30. Then he came home, he ate dinner in the room. I lay down, we went to bed. What time was that? I know we taken 6 and 7.30. Then he came home, he ate dinner in the room. I lay down, we went to bed. What time was that? I know we were watching the 10.30 news. I think it was 10 o'clock. Last time I looked at the time, it was like 10.37. If she wanted to throw him under the bus, that was the time to do it. She had a great opportunity. Yeah. She didn't take it. So maybe Juan was not your guy after all. Correct. Even though he failed to answer the door, even though the polygraph result was

not in his favor, Juan Reyes was innocent. He didn't do it. Well, where did that leave you? Worried about my case. A case that had become personal for Detective Franklin. He felt like he knew

Richard, like he was mourning him somehow. I would sit at the scene, stand at the scene, reflect, and just kind of sit there and try to go over things in my head and try to figure out what direction to take. What could he do? About all Franklin had to go on was this picture of tire tracks left in the soft soil of the clearing. Could he use this to find his killer? Not so easy. Didn't even know the make of the tire. We looked on the internet and we're coming up empty. We went to car dealerships. We went to retail tire establishments. We would pull up next to cars at traffic lights and look what kind of tires they had on them. And you wouldn't see them?

No. And anybody that we talked to, we looked at their tires, just to be sure. Then one day in yet another tire store, a colleague called him to a stock area out back. He pointed at this tire and I looked at it and immediately I said, that's it. And I said, okay. So we pulled it and it was a Goodyear Integrity. Well, that whittled it down. Couldn't be more than what? Millions of cars with Goodyear Integrity tires. But just about the time Franklin was contemplating that little problem... Got a phone call from an IT technician at the DeKalb Medical Center. Just out of the blue?

Yes. That's where the office was that Stacy managed. The guy's job there was, in part, clearing the junk from employee email accounts. And he noticed that Stacy's inbox for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday had been completely cleaned out. Curious. That was the very weekend of the murder. So he thought enough to give us a call. Was Stacy, Mama's spreadsheet, the Cub Scout den leader, actually hiding something? Or did she just accidentally hit delete too many times?

Of course, all those deleted files had been backed up. So they got a warrant, collected all of Stacy's emails, not just from that weekend. 4,000 emails in all. It was quite a task. And a lot of it was spam. Except two emails seemed, well, they stood out. Request from Stacey to her bank to transfer money out of something called a real estate account. So a few weeks before the murder was the first transfer, $8,902.

The second transfer was the Friday before the murder on February the 12th of 2010, and that was for $1,100. Both times, the money went into the account of somebody named Lenitra Ross, who turned out to be Stacy's friend and work colleague and tenant. She was renting a house from Stacy, so they went to have a talk with Lenitra. How did she react? Very calm, very cool. Didn't seem to be hiding anything. Not based on what I was looking at. She just seemed very, very collected.

And so I asked her about the money transfer. He made an audio recording of the interview. So how much money did you get overall? It's been about, it was $89 at first. And then $8,900. Why did Stacey give her $89,000 at first, and then $8,900. Why did Stacey give her $8,900? She transferred some money to me for the repairs and stuff. She said that they had redone the roof, the interior of the house, carpet, flooring, and that kind of thing.

And the $1,100? Still more repairs. And then we got another leak, main water valve leak. But the story made sense. It made sense, and she was always cooperative. A simple business transaction. Detective Franklin was right back where he started. Yeah. It gets to a point where you're still, you know, looking for ways to move forward.

It was March by then, close to a month since the murder. Now they seem to be going nowhere. What to do now? How about grasp at straws? That's called a tower dump. A tower dump? It was a shot in the dark, but I took it. Coming up,

a killer with a gun and a cell phone about to make a big mistake. My way of thinking was if he's sitting there waiting in this secluded, dark place at night, is he going to sit there and twiddle his thumbs or maybe he'll make a phone call? Had no idea. When Dateline continues. One month into his investigation of the murder of Richard Sheck, Detective Franklin was stuck in the weeds. I would sit down with my supervisor and I'd say, look, I'm worried about this case. And he would tell me, just hang in there, that all it'll take is a very small piece of information

to break this thing loose. And sure enough, what do you know? The detective got a phone call. During the crime, when it happened, the car was missing. The caller was Stacy's cousin, Connie. She'd been troubled by something, she told the detective. It took me a good three weeks contemplating, you know, should I call, should I not? After all, Stacy was like a big sister, said Connie.

But there was just something wrong, like the strange business about her grandparents' 2009 Impala. Stacey was supposed to sell it for them because they were having problems and they needed money for medical bills. But after Stacey took the car... A couple weeks later, it would be back at her house. And then a couple weeks later, it wasn't.

Then it got to the point where she said that she sold it for $16,000. And yet Stacey never produced the money. The family was persistent about this car. And so finally, we're like, you know, it's likely that it was used. We don't know where it's at. Let's find this thing.

So they ran the VIN number, found the car. Stacey had sold it by then. And lo and behold, it's got Goodyear Integrities on it. So at that point, I was confident that I'd found the car that Richard was killed from. Which was great, except who was in it? No idea. Detective Franklin was still stuck. So he took a long shot.

He asked for something called a tower dump, information dump that is, from this cell tower on a farm near the crime scene. I'd subpoenaed all calls that generated from the tower that services Belton Bridge Park for the night of the murder from about 7 p.m. till about 9 30. Till 9 30 because that's when Stacy arrived and found Richard. Why start looking at 7 p.m.? It was apparent to me that the gunman lay in wait for Richard and so my way of thinking was if he's sitting there waiting in this secluded dark place at night is he going to sit there and twiddle his thumbs or maybe he'll make a phone call. Had no idea. If the killer called anybody it should show up on the tower's record of outgoing cell calls.

Four major carriers on that tower, thousands of calls. But what numbers should he look for? Why not play a hunch he'd had all along? Stacy's involved somehow. You have this third vehicle at the scene. You have overkill with the way Richard died. So based on all those things, a murder for hire starts crossing your mind. Franklin's idea was to compare the numbers from the tower dump

to the phone numbers on Stacy's personal contact list. The best source of information I felt I had was Stacy's contact list. It was 258 contacts, I think. So if you could find any phone call coming from the crime scene that happened to be on her contact list, that would give you a big... That would give me some direction. A lot of numbers to compare. But then he got lucky.

Really lucky. Maybe 150 numbers into his search. There it was. A match. It said Reggie. The call was placed at 8.40 p.m. And it was a 28 second call. So Richard left the grandparents house at about 8 15. It's about a 15 minute drive from the grandparents house to the park. Would he got there around 8 30? He would have got there at 8 30 and

we felt he was killed as soon as he stepped out of his truck. So you're looking at him dying sometime right around 8 30 to 8 45. So here's a call from Reggie in Stacy's contact list at 840 p.m. on the night of the murder. But who was Reggie? And under Reggie's company name, it said Mr. Results. So Franklin's next step, naturally. And I simply Googled Mr. Results. The first link was Mr. Results personal training. His name was Reginald Coleman, personal trainer and former semi-professional boxer.

And he held workout sessions at Stacy's office. Then Detective Franklin looked at the number Reggie called. I should have already recognized it because I already had it in my notes, because it was Lenitra Ross. Lenitra Ross, the woman who claimed she received $10,000 from Stacy for house repairs within three weeks of the murder. Now the trail was warm, very warm. He pulled phone records for all three, Reggie, Lenitra, and Stacy, combed through hundreds of calls and texts until...

A very interesting sequence of calls actually emerged from that. A sequence on February 14th. It went like this. At 6.42 p.m., Reggie called Lenitra. At 6.45, Lenitra called Stacy. At 6.48, Lenitra called Reggie back. In my mind, Reggie called Lenitra and said, are we still doing this?

Lenitra called Stacy, and Stacy confirming, yes, he's here, I'll have him at the park. And then Lenitra calling Reggie back saying, yes, go up there. And after that, no more calls. Until 8.40 p.m., when Reggie's call to Lenitra was captured by the tower near the crime scene. The call at 8.40 p.m. to Lenititra Ross was Reggie Conner saying, it's done. And then, get this. At 9 p.m., LaNitra sent Stacey a text. Happy Valentine's Day, it said.

Was that a code? It was. Code for, it's done. He's dead. Almost there now. All he needed was a money trail to prove murder for hire. So, bank records this time. It is the same tedious work as the cell phone records.

And guess what? That $10,000 that Stacy transferred to Lenitra supposedly from a real estate account for home repairs? Only $1,800 went into that. The rest went to Lenitra for cash. Lenitra wrote Reggie a check for $700. All within three weeks of the murder. That's the whole thing had come together at that point. Reggie's my trigger man. My middle person is Lenitra Ross.

And the mastermind, Stacy. Three months after the Valentine's Day murder of Richard Sheck. Your charge is malice murder. Lenitra Ross. Can we do that? Make you aware of what the charge. You're charged with malice murder. Lenitra Ross. I read you that. I can wear what the charge is. And it's malice murder. Reggie Coleman and Stacy Sheck were arrested and charged with murder.

But then... I told Stacy, we can fight this. A surprise was coming. Check that. Surprises. More than one. Stacy had a story to tell. Surprises. More than one. Stacey had a story to tell. Coming up, is there ever an excuse for murder?

Having lived through that, I was never going to let it happen to my kids. Three months after Stacey Sheck found her husband's bullet-perforated body at Belton Bridge Park, she and her alleged Confederates were under arrest for murder. It was just crazy. Didn't make sense. A mother of three? Cub Scout leader? Surely she'd come up with a defense when she met with her attorney, Max Hirsch. But no, that's not what happened. Far from it. She laid it all out. She didn't hesitate. She didn't minimize. She told me exactly what the plan was.

The plan for murder. Her lawyer, no surprise, had his own plan. I told Stacey I already know how we would defend this case. She looked me straight in the eye without hesitation and said, no, the gig is up. I did this. What I did was wrong. No more lies. Stacey wanted to confess.

It took a while to arrange it. But seven months after the murder, with the recorder running, confessed she did. I'm not going to keep lying. I'm done. I'm done, you know. It all started over lunch with Lenitra, said Stacey,

when she told her friend she wished her husband was dead. And Lenitra offered the services of when she told her friend she wished her husband was dead. And Lenitra offered the services of her sometime boyfriend, Reggie. And I was like, Reggie, really? And she was like, and she said, yeah, that's what he did. That's what he does. That's how he supplements his income. You know, he does jobs.

So, said Stacy, Lenitra arranged for the three of them to meet. And Reggie agreed to kill Richard. Then I was like, well, how much cash? And he was like, well, you know, I was thinking around $10,000. I was like, okay. That was the $10,000 Stacy transferred to Lenitra.

She gave the money to Reggie. Stacy also agreed to give him her grandparents' 2009 Impala. Yes, that Impala. And a house Lenitra was renting from her. A week later, all three went to scout the crime scene. So he was like, yeah, this would be, this is the perfect place. And he even made a comment that, you know, I might have to use this place more often.

But the night of the murder, said Stacey, Reggie botched the plan. It was supposed to be a robbery. That's what he had said. It was supposed to be one shot to the head. I said, I don't want him to suffer. I don't want him to see anything. But why would she possibly want to have Richard killed? To that question, Stacey offered this story.

Things started clicking in my brain of what was happening with my kids and my family. And I was convinced that my kids were being harmed. Stacey said she believed Richard was molesting her sons. They were acting out, and there was something one of them told her. You don't know what he does to me when you're not here. That kind of, you know, that stuck in my brain for sure.

To her, there was just one solution. I didn't want police. I didn't want a divorce. I just wanted him dead. And so here it was, her reason for murder. Stacey said she had been molested as a child repeatedly, and she knew what it was like. Having lived through that, I was never going to let it happen to my kids. Did you ask the boys? Not directly enough. Not then. I have since. It was after her arrest, her sons asked her, Why? What would make you want to hurt him?

And she explained, People touched me in a bad way when I was a kid. And I reacted in certain ways. And sometimes your behaviors made me worry that you were getting touched in a bad way. And the son, who made that earlier statement to his mother, responded, devastated. He said no. He said no. He said, I'm sorry I exaggerated. I'm sorry that I said those things. I blew things out of proportion, Mom. Stacy was wrong. There was no abuse.

Now that's a hard thing to deal with, too, because now he has guilt. But was the motive she admitted real or was a more venal truth still withheld? There would be an answer, just not quite yet. We asked for an interview with Stacey, but prison rules wouldn't allow it. So her attorney spoke on her behalf. She understands completely what she did. She understands it is her fault. Richard Sheck is dead. She doesn't have excuses.

Stacey Sheck pleaded guilty to murder. Reggie Coleman did the same. Lenitra Ross stood trial and was found guilty. And all of them were sentenced to life in prison without parole. The case solved. Three convictions for the detective who poured through reams of phone numbers and sniffed out a murder-for-hire case. You know, when your gut tells you something, you should go with it.

And if it makes sense, then that's probably what it is. Pretty obvious if I ask you where this fits in your catalog of cases. There will never be another one like it, I'm pretty sure. I hope not. And now finally, the last admission. A few days after Stacy was sent away, Richard's sister Carol went to see her, glared at Stacy through the glass partition. She didn't buy Stacy's story about her reason for killing Richard.

I said, okay, Stacy, this is it. I want to know, and I said, no bull, no lies. I want to know why you had Richard killed. There was a long pause. And then, out it came. She said, because of my actions back then, and because of the way I was living my life, I knew that I couldn't divorce Richard.

Because if I divorced Richard, he would have enough of a chance to get custody of my kids, which he had adopted legally, and I couldn't let that happen. And I just looked at her, and I said, thank you, and I hung up the phone. But if the answer satisfied some need to know, the pain was and is no different.

Richard Sheck is dead. His quirkiness, adventurous spirit, devotion to those Boy Scouts, all gone. We had a thing, it was called a Richard fire. If it wasn't stoked up and burning bright and the flames almost licking the treetops, it wasn't a good fire. So if you want a Richard fire, that's the fire you got to have. And when we're at scouting events and we see the big fire we built and the smoke coming up, we all talk about Richard. Lester Holt That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks

for joining us.