Dateline NBC - Return to the Lonely Road

Episode Date: March 31, 2020

Brittany Stork’s decades-long quest to find out more about her mother’s mysterious death leads to a dramatic courtroom decision. The man at the center of the case tells his story to Dennis Murphy. Originally aired on NBC on March 27, 2020.

I'm Lester Holt. Tonight on Dateline, a heart-stopping new turn in a heartbreaking story. I have no memories. No voice. Nothing. I want to know what happened to my mom. I didn't think it was an accident. When did the whispers start? Immediately. I believed she'd been murdered. Who? Why?

I don't know. There was a dark business going on at this nightclub. You still want to talk to me about what happened that night? You're going to be holding the skull itself in front of the jury. It was a sacred thing for us to do. I thought we were finally getting justice. I was absolutely shocked.

I was shocked. If you have a feeling in your gut and in your heart, fight, and don't ever give up. Here's Dennis Murphy with Return to the Lonely Road. A few feet from the city limits of Toledo, Ohio, a car swings around the corner onto a desolate stretch of road. It's dark, wee hours, just stabs of light spilling from the houses. Most people are asleep.

He could so easily have missed her lying in the grass on the side of the road, her knees drawn up to her chest, barely breathing. At first, he drove right by her, the story went, then doubled back for a closer look. And though no one could know it at the time, what he found would launch a 30-year journey for one lonely child.

There's all these whys that have not been answered. Why was she forgotten about for all these years? A daughter determined to find out what happened that night. What's making you go forward? Why not just let it be? Something inside of me just wouldn't, I wouldn't stop. No matter how ugly the truth. She's knocking on every door.

She's ringing every phone. Did you wish you weren't doing it, Toby? A daughter who wasn't afraid to make enemies. You are his nemesis. And I'll never go away. Brittany Stork grew up in Oregon, Ohio, a comfortable town perched on the edge of Lake Erie, where weekends meant lawnmowers, church, and softball games.

What are you happy doing? What makes you want to pop out of bed in the morning as a child? I danced. Brittany felt loved, safe, until one afternoon in kindergarten when her teacher asked her a question. She asked me, you know, how did your mom die? Was she in a car accident? I think I was like five and I remember getting really teary-eyed and going, I don't know what you're talking about. So I went home crying and asked my mom, what is she talking about? It was a horrible way to realize the person she called mom was actually her grandmother.

To be told that her real mother, 19-year-old Dana Rosendale, died in a car accident. Dana was a stranger to her. Do you have so much as a memory of your mother's smile or her touch? None. I have no memories. No voice. No nothing. I was only eight months old when it happened. So. Brittany Badger, Dana's older sister, Aunt Deb for stories. So when the curious little girl asks you, the aunt, tell me about my mother, what do you say? Just, she was a beautiful woman, you know. She loved life. And adored her baby girl. Dana was barely an adult herself, just 18

when she got pregnant. She loved that little girl to death. She was just a great, great mother. And just like Brittany, Dana loved to dance. When she wasn't at home with baby Brittany or studying, Dana sometimes headed to the South Side Roxy, a nightclub across town. That's where she'd gone a few hours before she was discovered fatally injured, lying on the side of the road. But Aunt Deb didn't tell Brittany much about that night. Did you talk about her last hours? Did she know what had happened to her? No.

But as the years passed, the silence, the mystery that weighed on Brittany was a dark one. The older I got, it was like everybody knew. Everybody knew my mom had gotten killed, however it was. Did a kid tell you something? No. I just, I could feel it. Nobody could deal with my mom's death. So something was missing in your mom's story. You didn't know what it was. Yeah. Brittany longed to know more. A child searching for answers nowadays needs only a few keywords to Google search their way to the truth. But Brittany grew up in the 90s. She didn't know what to do until that is when she learned in seventh grade that news records were kept on microfilm at the library. That same day, she headed to a local branch and went straight to the archives.

And I just started scanning all the newspapers they had on file. After I found her obituary, I found another article, and the headline was, 19-year-old found on road dead. So I read through that one, and then there was another one. Shocking to read about her mother's death in black and white. The articles didn't describe a car accident so much as her mother's battered body lying on a lonely roadway, and perhaps most disturbing...

Dana Rosendale's death ruled undetermined. The coroner had told the local newspaper he wasn't sure Dana died in an accident. He couldn't rule out foul play. Stunning news to Brittany. At that time, I was so mad that everyone lied to me, and it was just a world of emotions. Brittany wondered if her family had been hiding a secret darker than she'd imagined, that perhaps her 19-year-old mother had been murdered. How did Dana die? Did the mystery die with her when we return?

It wasn't a murder weapon. It just had her body. Just had stories and a victim on the side of the road. Right. And years later, Brittany demands the truth from someone who might know, but hits a dead end. Did he say, okay, you're old enough now, I can tell you a more complete story? Mm-mm. He said, you're not ready. commands the truth from someone who might know, but hits a dead end. Did he say, okay, you're old enough now,

I can tell you a more complete story? He said, you're not ready. 13 year old Brittany Stork felt betrayed. I was just so mad at everybody. It was just, leave me alone and you can't tell me what to do. You know, you lied to me. Brittany didn't know what to believe anymore. First, her family had hidden her mother's death from her altogether. Then they told her it was a tragic car accident.

Now it seemed as though that might not be the truth either. The newspaper article she tracked down hinted at something much more suspicious. She sent a copy to her dad, Toby. He'd been in an on-again, off-again relationship with her mom at the time of her death. And I can't remember what I wrote on it, but I know that it wasn't a very nice message. What's up with this, basically? Yeah. You know, I think I actually told him I hated him. Did he say, okay, you're old enough now I can tell you a more complete story? Mm-mm.

He said, you're not ready. You're not ready still? Mm-mm. Brittany wasn't sure her dad would ever tell her. He wasn't around much during her childhood. His parents were the ones who'd taken her in as a baby, raised her. They wouldn't talk about the past much either. So the teens started rifling

through family photo albums, old letters tucked into drawers. Brittany, you're becoming kind of a detective in this thing. What's making you go forward? Why not just let it be? Something inside of me just wouldn't, I wouldn't stop. As Brittany started searching for the truth, Aunt Deb says the very image of Brittany's mom was much closer than the little girl knew. All she had to do was look in the mirror. You look at Brittany and it takes your breath away because she's like a little clone. Dana and Deb had grown up the Rosendale sisters in 1970s Toledo. On summer evenings, you could find them twirling batons in their backyard, tossing them high above their heads. We twirled in parades and marched in a marching band called the Ambassadors. Deb, the older sister, was more serious, more competitive. Dana, the baby, was

outgoing, more interested in Barbies and makeup and her friends. Where was her life headed? She had a lot of goals. She wanted to own a boutique, get a job, be successful, have a good life. She never got there. Never got there. Everything came to a halt Labor Day weekend 1982. Deb was away camping with her family when she got word that Dana had been found lying on the side of the road about eight miles from the dance club where she'd gone with a friend. And I needed to get to Toledo as soon as possible. She was in critical condition. While Deb raced to the hospital, rookie detective Bob Bratton raced to the scene where Dana had been found. It was his first big case. So you pull up, what do you see? The squad is still there, the rescue squad. And there are people, of course, congregated at this point.

Among them, a young man named Russell Atkins, who first spotted Dana lying there in the dark. He said, I was driving by, I seen something, thought it was a body. I turned around, he showed me where he turned around, and came back, and sure as heck it was. What did you think you had? I really wasn't sure, to be honest with you. I didn't know if I had someone hit by a car or was she thrown from a vehicle. I really had no idea. So the detective

headed to the hospital to talk to Dana's family members who were gathering by her bedside. She was unconscious. Tubes, bandages, machines? Ventilator. She had severe swelling. Severe swelling in her face. Even though she was unconscious, were you talking to her? Absolutely.

You know, begging her to wake up. You know, I can remember grabbing her hospital gown and saying, you know, wake up. Just wake up. Just open your eyes, you know. Open your eyes. But she didn't. She couldn't. Detective Bratton started asking questions in the waiting room. Who'd seen Dana that night? At what time? Toby, Dana's boyfriend and Brittany's dad, wanted no part of it. He learned I was a detective. I ain't talking to you. I don't need to talk to you. He started walking away from

me. So I latch on to him. I bring him back and we exchange some words. Eventually, Toby calmed down. He said Dana had gone to the Southside Roxy without him. He said he'd stayed back at their apartment for an early night. As the detective made his rounds, Dana's mother was inconsolable. She was in pieces. Dana was her, you know, Dana was the baby of the family. Six days later, Dana died. Her family was shattered. You never heal from this. Ever. Ever. You grieve,

and you're angry, and then you grieve, but you never get over it. And beyond that unquenchable grief, something else lingered too. Questions about how Dana died. Other than Dana's serious head wound, Deb says she saw no other injuries, and that gave her pause. I can remember being in that room, and the neurologist said that it was like taking a baseball bat and swinging for a home run and hitting her in the back of her head. That's, you know, the extent of her injuries. Deb didn't believe her sister's death could be explained away as a tragic accident. And she wasn't alone in her doubts. How did the investigators regard what had happened to Dana at that point?

Did they think it was an accident and trying to prove otherwise? No, they didn't think it was an accident because everything was just suspicious. But after a few months, the investigation seemed to just sputter out. There wasn't a murder weapon. They just had her body. Technology is different in 1982. No cell phones, no GPS, just had stories and a victim on the side of the road. Right. Many years later, as she watched Dana's daughter, now a teenager, trying to find out

about her mom's mysterious death, Aunt Deb wondered if she should have pushed police harder. Do you beat yourself up about that? Sure I do. Sure I do. For not staying on top of the detectives? Absolutely. You know, I have a lot of guilt. Fear, too. Because as she watched her niece trying to piece together the decades-old puzzle,

she worried what Brittany might uncover and at what cost. Coming up, Brittany goes right to the top and isn't going to stop. I basically said, I either want someone to investigate what happened to her, or I want her file and I'm going to take it somewhere else. When Dateline continues. Brittany Stork was motherless, angry, haunted by the loss of her mother. Her Aunt Deb wished she could stop the hurt. What was taken from her, Deb?

Her mother, her mother's love. There can't be anything worse. There's nothing worse. There's nothing worse than losing your mother's love. She was always raised comfortably, had food and shelter and clothes and toys. Yeah, but it's not the same. It's not the same to have your mom, who's your best friend, when you grow up as an adult. It's gone.

Deb says Brittany's father wasn't there for her either. Toby was in and out of prison during her childhood, serving time for theft, assault, domestic violence. And before she died, his relationship with Dana had been a rocky one. It was kind of like a can't live with you, can't live without you type of relationship. Brittany had heard some of the stories about him over the years, his temper, the fights with her mom. When she was 15, she cut Toby off. I turned into, you know, just kind of severing the relationship with my dad.

So he was out of your life virtually from that point on? Yes. And yet somehow, amid all this loss, Brittany kept going. She graduated from high school, fell in love, and at the age of 19, found out she was going to have a baby girl. I wanted to name my daughter Dana. I don't know why. And everybody cried. And I understand because I don't think now I could call her Dana. It would be hard. Brittany settled on Dana as a middle name instead. And as she began to raise her daughter, her mother's death receded ever so slightly into the background. That is until 2006, more than 20 years after Dana died.

Brittany was serving jury duty at the local courthouse when a sudden impulse took hold. And one of the days on the lunch break, I just walked into the Lucas County prosecutor's office and the girl asked if she could help me. And I said, I need to talk to somebody. My mom was murdered. Brittany was given the number of an investigator in the prosecutor's office in neighboring Wood County. That was the county where her mother had been found. He said, you know, I'm sorry. There's a statute of limitations. You know, blah, blah, blah. People have died. Memories have faded.

This is a long time ago. But Brittany's desire to uncover the truth couldn't be so easily extinguished. She knew she needed to keep pushing. So she marched into the police department that had first handled her mom's case and demanded to see the police chief. You're just cold walking in on these people? Then I basically said, I either want someone to investigate what happened to her,

or I want her file and I'm going to take it somewhere else. A detective promised to see what he could find out. But apart from the odd phone call, Brittany says it felt like her mom's case went nowhere. And before she knew it, months turned into years. Brittany's life moved on. Married now, she had another baby. She was a dance teacher. Then one day she ran into the original detective who'd worked her mom's case. I'm at a restaurant with my wife eating, and this lady comes up to me, and I didn't know her, didn't recognize her, and she says, Mr. Bratton, I'd like to talk to you. Well, sure, sit down.

And I said, I'm Dana Rosendale's daughter. And all three of their mouths about dropped to the table. And I said, I want to know what happened to my mom. Bratton remembered the case, but was no longer a detective in the department. And he just said, you know, you need to keep pushing. And that's all he'd say. So she did. Brittany says she began calling the prosecutor's investigator every week like clockwork. And amazingly, he started showing some interest in the case. And he'd say, you know, nothing new or... You're looking for a killer. Right. Is he looking for a killer or just trying to find out what happened?

I think at that point at first he was just trying to put the pieces together. It wasn't going to be easy. What Brittany didn't know was that Detective Bratton had done a fair bit back in the day, chasing down leads, trying to make sense of it all. But interview tapes, crime scene photos, evidence, most of that was missing. What happened to all those boxes, the interviews, the pictures, the measurements? It seems like it disappeared, just vanished. It's the average person. That's probably unexcusable. And why did it happen? It is possible somebody looked at that,

looked at the date and thought, moldy, huh? We can get rid of that. Now that investigators were taking a fresh look at the case, they needed to rebuild what had been lost, to track down key witnesses and interview them again. That included paramedic Ron Billings. She was laying on her right side in the semi-fetal position. Billings had been one of the first on the scene that night. What he found has haunted him, he says, for 30 years. I see her laying on the side of the road

in between the pavement and the sidewalk. I put my hands behind her head and we roll her over and my hands come out and they're full of blood. The paramedic told the investigator he had worked hundreds of traffic scenes, but had never seen anything like this in an accident. Someone with a massive head injury, but not much more. We were first checking to see if she was hit by a car. Could have been popped and then... Which would have had more blood in lower extremities and things of that nature.

She didn't have any of that, nor were her clothes out of place. They were intact and not disheveled. So what did it tell you in your experience? It told me, from what I'd seen, that somebody beat her up. But this wasn't new information to authorities. If investigators back then hadn't been able to figure out what really happened to the young woman,

could a new team break the case? Or were they 30 years too late? Coming up, rumors of dark doings at a nightclub. Girls dating for money after hour parties. And a possible suspect, the man who gave Dana a ride home that night. Now we're into the mystery of what happens next, huh? Correct. Brittany Stork had done the unexpected.

Persuaded law enforcement to dust off a 30-year-old case file, her mom's. She is a force of nature, I think. She is. Doug Kinder is an investigator in the prosecutor's office. When he inherited the case from another investigator, he also inherited those weekly phone calls from Brittany checking up on him. Give me some adjectives to describe Brittany. Determined.

Unrelenting. Tough. Was she tough to deal with? No, not at all. A squeaky wheel you wish would go away? No. She just wanted answers. Kinder needed to know if the original detective had looked into anyone back in the day.

When he cracked open the thin case file, this is what it told him. Where Dana's body had been found. Who found her, that young man who'd been driving by in his car. And one lead that hit close to home. A story that Dana's mother wanted Toby to leave the hospital because she thought he had something to do with Dana's death. There were a lot of people pointing fingers at Toby over the years. If you went down to the diner and asked what happened to Dana, a lot of people would have told you Toby killed her. That is correct. Family members told detectives Toby had a temper and the couple fought a lot. There were some accusations that there was a turbulent lifestyle between Dana and Toby and that there may have been some violence in that. But Toby denied he had anything to do with whatever happened to her that night.

He said he was at home asleep. Toby, when did the whispers start? Immediately. About your involvement? Immediately. A lot of members of her family think that you're the killer here. Yes. Toby says Dana's family had never approved of his relationship with her. He was a rough and tumble character, four years older than she, fond of boxing and motorcycles. There was evil can evil, and I was considered awful can awful. Toby

admits they argued, but says the birth of baby Brittany brought them closer together. Did you think you had a future together? Oh, yes. We planned on getting married. That's what our goal was. So you were going to give it a shot? Oh, yeah. We planned on getting married. That's what our goal was. So you were going to give it a shot? Oh, yeah.

That night, Toby says, the only reason he wasn't with Dana at the Southside Roxy is because he'd come home after a hard day at work. He was beat. As Dana went to go away to go to the party and everything, she woke me up and told me, I love you. And that was the last thing I ever heard from her. woke me up and told me, I love you. And that was the last thing I ever heard from her. Investigator Kinder needed to know

more about Dana's activities after she left home, starting with the night club on the senior side of town. So what was that place all about? It was very typical, stereotypical of the early 80s and a lot of the night clubs. A lot of music, a lot of lights, a lot of people. And a hotspot well known to the city vice unit, according to Detective Bratton.

Toby had had a theory about the club he shared with police. Dana, he said, could have gotten mixed up in something. There was a dark business going on at this nightclub. Drug deals, hand-to-hand deal? Girls dating for money, after-hour parties. She come home and told me that she thought something was going to physically happen to her. But whatever happened to Dana didn't happen at the club. Dana's best friend, Roxy, who'd been with her, said they headed out together. So what is Roxy's story? It's been a

festive night, a lot of drink. According to what Roxy has told us, that Dana was pretty intoxicated, that she was not really steady on her feet. And the friends had no way to get home. They'd missed the last bus. The club's bouncer agreed to give them a lift. Is he a friend of Roxy's or a friend of Dana's, or how does that go together?

Roxy has always maintained she just knew him socially from being a regular at the club. Not intimate? That is correct. Roxy said she got dropped off first and watched the bouncer and Dana speed away. So when Roxy closes that car door and says goodnight, now we're into the mystery of what happens next, huh? Correct. But here's the thing. The name of the bouncer was one police had heard before.

It was none other than Russell Atkins, the young man who said he'd spotted Dana, a stranger in trouble, lying in the road. He'd gone looking for help. Knocking on doors. Knocking on doors. Late in the night, please somebody call 911. Correct. But it looked as though a crucial part of that story

he told at the scene had been a complete lie. Dana was far from a stranger to Russell Atkins. She'd been a passenger in his car. And he admitted as much to the original detective in 1982 when he was called in

for an interview. One of the first things that Russ said to Detective Branton was the reason I didn't say anything was because I was on parole and I was scared to have police contact. The bouncer had served time for receiving stolen property. He didn't want any trouble, he told the detective, but he did want to help.

Here was the truth, he said. He was driving Dana home, nearing a corner, when suddenly he heard the engine rev louder and his car door close. Next thing he knew, Dana was out of the vehicle. It would be such a simple explanation if true. Dana's massive head wound had been the result of an unlucky fall from a moving car, an accident. But authorities, including the local coroner, were skeptical. And that stuck out to the prosecutor who took over the case, Paul Dobson.

What did your coroner back in the day find? He found that she had, in fact, died from skull fracture, but he couldn't answer why she had died. He ruled her death as undetermined. Undetermined meant anything was possible, according to the coroner, accident or homicide. The coroner told reporters that her injuries didn't seem consistent with a fall from a car. But he couldn't say anything with scientific certainty. It would have been very easy for him to have checked the box as said by accident natural causes. That's absolutely correct. But he checked the box undetermined.

Which to us was very significant. So was the bouncer lying about the fall from the car? Or maybe that part was true, but she'd survived the fall and met her fate in another way. The prosecutor wondered if a modern-day coroner looking at the body would have better luck figuring it out. One of his investigators went to find out, seeking advice from the county's chief deputy coroner, Dr. Diane Scala-Barnett. He knocked on my door one day and he said, Doc, I have this case. It was originally ruled undetermined. The daughter has been seeking an answer. And what do you think about an exhumation? What did you tell him?

Well, I said, you never know unless you look, because you never know what the body's going to look like after 31 years down. How did you feel about this? I mean, the part of you that's investigating needs it, but the daughter in you must be just terrified that you're going to be... Well, knowing that, okay, they're going to exhume her means they're looking at her case. She's not just a paper file anymore. So they're going at her case. She's not just a paper file anymore. So they're going to look further. Brittany prepared herself to face whatever secrets had been buried with her mother. Coming up...

This was in no way consistent with her falling out of a vehicle. A new autopsy. A new case. I was ecstatic. When Dateline continues. On October 9, 2013, Brittany Stork stood vigil as a backhoe broke open her mother's grave. I think I just stared. And I wanted to make sure that no matter what you do, just please put her back exactly the way you found her.

Aunt Deb was at Brittany's side. It might have been better to leave her in the ground and just say something happened, but we just don't know, let it be. No. That's not right. That's not fair. It's not fair to Dana. Somebody's accountable for what happened to her. So if she has to come up and be exhumed and be examined,

then that's what needs to be done. Thirty years after Dana Rosendale's mysterious death, her coffin was loaded onto a truck and taken to the Lucas County coroner's office for a second autopsy. And they don't tell you anything, right? No. Then one day, she got a surprising call from the coroner, but not with the autopsy results.

Instead, the coroner said she had something for Brittany, the rings her mother had been buried with. Would you like it? And I said yes, and I wear them every day. So that was like probably the best gift I could have ever had. You know, having a piece of my mom with me every day. Brittany reburied her mom on what would have been her birthday. She laid five dozen roses on her coffin.

I stood there. And I wouldn't leave until she was back the exact way she was. I started taking the shot, and I started putting dirt back into her grave. But there was still no word from the coroner about what, if anything, she'd discovered. Brittany could only guess. An agonizing wait began. Brittany imagined that night over and over in her head. Accident. Murder. The bouncer. Her dad. Toby was still a suspect in some people's eyes, and that's who Dana's best friend, Roxy, blamed all these years later when Brittany gave

her a call. I said, what happened to my mom? And she instantly threw out my dad's name. And I said, why would you say that? Just because. I said, well, was my dad there with you guys that night? No. Well, then why would you say? Because I just know. Toby wasn't surprised his name cropped back up.

He knew Brittany's questions could reignite suspicions that he was involved. Did you wish you weren't doing it, Toby? No. When I found out what she was doing, I just didn't want her to be pushed to the side like it never mattered. And if she's kicking over this rock anew again, you know, you're going to be with a bullseye. I got another bullseye on my back.

But Toby maintained his innocence. I knew the truth. You know, I didn't do this. And Brittany believed him. Not once had he tried to stop her from investigating her mom's death. In fact, he'd been her champion. As a grown-up, she says she could finally understand what she'd failed to see as a child. My dad's had a really bad life.

And now that I'm older, I see why. My mom was the love of his life. And obviously knowing the background and hearing the stories, you know, he just, he couldn't cope with it. It's been 30 plus years, Toby. You still miss her? Tremendously. It's the love of my life. It's the love of my life. It's the love of my life.

Investigator Kinder quickly came to the same conclusion as Brittany. Toby was not a suspect. There was no evidence that he was at the scene that night, and he didn't try to shut down the new questions. I found that Toby just wanted answers for why Dana was killed as well. So father and daughter both waited anxiously for the autopsy findings, hoping it would give them the answers they craved. Three long months after Dana's exhumation, their wait was over.

The new coroner's report came out with a new manner of death, homicide. I was ecstatic. I was sad. I was, you know, it was just a mix of emotions because it was like everything I had dreamt or thought or said or anything, it was like I was right. This time the coroner had gone a step further to examine Dana's skull fracture, using a forensic anthropologist to help clean the bone. And the injuries they saw, the coroner thought it looked like foul play. This was in no way consistent with her falling out of a vehicle.

Homicide? Yes. Now that the case was officially declared a homicide, investigators were working it hard, and their focus became the bouncer. Kinder had always thought there was something off about Atkins' statement to Detective Bratton. One of the things that he said was, we weren't even fighting or anything. I've talked to a lot of people over the years, and that just kind of struck me as odd of... Introduced that thought, huh?

You introduce that thought. She falls out of your car, but yet you've got to interject, we weren't fighting or anything. The investigator also wondered why Dana would have suddenly fallen out of the bouncer's car. There was talk back in the day that the car had a defective door, but Detective Bretton told the new investigator he didn't think so. He'd taken a look for himself. I know I got in the car and I checked it because I had pushed up against it, And I'm a pretty good-sized guy. My weight should maybe tell us if that's worth it. If the door's bum, it would have popped.

I felt comfortable that I didn't see anything wrong with the door. You didn't feel you needed to get a search warrant or have this thing towed? No, not at that point. Looking back, probably in air. Was the vehicle gone? Is it in the junkyard now? We believe that's in the junkyard. As for the rest of the bouncer's story, the investigator had an idea. He'd take a fresh look at the stretch of road where it all began. I wanted to see it for myself.

Remember the bouncer told police he'd been approaching a corner when Dana fell out of his car. So you actually measured. You had one of those roll-out measuring devices. I did it the old school way. And I had a police crew behind me blocking traffic, and I got out and I walked the whole thing. The investigator figured out that the closest corner was more than 200 feet away from where Dana's body had been found. The whole thing didn't make sense. When you sit there and go,

how does she end up on the right side of the roadway? How does her purse end up in the middle of the roadway when she's going out the opposite direction? Why is he down here in the first place? The bouncer told the original detective he'd taken that particular road to get cigarettes, but investigator Kinder knew the area, and he says there were no stores open that late. So you see a guy making it up as it goes along here. Absolutely. The investigator was convinced Russell Atkins was hiding something.

His next step was to track down the one-time bouncer and get him to talk. What would his story be now? Coming up, a suspect who says he wants to help and who has a brand new clue for investigators. Do you still want to talk to me about what happened that night? This needs to be figured out because it's just stupid, you know. More than 30 years had passed since the night Russell Adkins offered two friends a ride home from the Southside Roxy.

Only one of those friends had made it home alive. With a new investigation and autopsy, Brittany was now convinced her mom's death was no accident and that Adkins was the one responsible. He ruined my life. And he needs to pay for it. If this guy did it, what would his motivation be? I don't know. Do you need motivation? I just want to know why.

You know, what led up to why he did what he did. So where was Atkins now? Investigator Kinder didn't have to look far. The bouncer was living just a few miles from where he'd grown up, not far from where Dana had been found. He was the captain of a charter boat, and people in town loved him. He comes off kind of rough, but he's a big teddy bear. He's got a big heart.

John and Patty Stahl first got to know Atkins when he started working for them in their concrete business. But he'd become more like a member of the family, watching their kids, cooking for them. Once a year, Russell would have a fish fry, and he would stand there the whole time and do nothing but cook fish. And he loved it because he was doing it for all of his friends. Vera Gregory was more than just a friend. She says she dated Atkins for years. They shared a love of motorcycles and a home. She says he was kind to her, made her feel safe. Yeah, we fought. We had problems. You know, we were a regular couple. But was I afraid of him or anything like that? Never. Hardly the portrait of a murderer. Russell's friends were shocked to hear police were sniffing at his door. We know Russell, the person he is, and there's just no way that

Russell would intentionally hurt someone. Something was said about, you know, Russ, why don't you just get out of here? Why don't you just leave? He said, why? I did nothing wrong. Did it speak something to his, maybe it happened the way he said, that he didn't leave the community? This is a guy 30 plus years later who's still around. He had changed his lifestyle and that's what these people know and that's what these, who these people love. And I understand why they are supporting him. But many of his supporters hadn't known Atkins back in 1982. The investigator tracked down some people who had,

and what they told him was ugly. An ex-wife and ex-girlfriend with tales of beatings. Work colleagues who said he was quick to throw a punch. What was the picture that came together? In that time period, very short temper, very short fuse. Finally, after 30 years, investigators believe they had enough evidence against him. Armed with an arrest warrant, investigator Kinder went with U.S. Marshals to pick Atkins up

and bring him in for questioning. And he says the man he met was polite, cooperative. Atkins seemed eager to sit down and talk. What's your strategy in dealing with him? I just wanted to go slow and easy. I wanted to go over his story. Do you still want to talk to me about what happened that night? This needs to be figured out, because it's just stupid, you know? Atkins' story started out the same way it had before.

The chick fell out of my car. I. The chick fell out of my car. I mean, absolutely fell out of my car. I don't know if she grabbed the door handle, or I still don't know how it still bugs me to this very day how she got out that door. And once again, Atkins had a ready explanation for why he'd initially lied to the cops. You originally told them, Russ, that you were just driving by and you saw our lane in the grass. We had to go scared. What were you so scared of? Just being involved with the police, period. The investigator confronted Atkins with what they'd been up to. I did another autopsy and it led us to believe that she was hit over the head, not from falling out of the car.

So then that comes to me as asking you now, then how did she get the trauma on her head? From that pole that was there where the mailbox is at, when she was leaned up against when the officer came. A mailbox? That was a new detail that didn't appear in the old case file. So she not only goes out the door, tumbles in the road, her head presumably hits a mailbox? That's what he says. Which could account for the injuries. Right, but we knew there was nothing there except for three very large trees kind of spread along the roadway. Investigator Kinder finally leveled with the bouncer. Russ, with all due respect, I'm not buying it. I'm going to treat you like a man because you're treating me with respect, too. But I'm sorry, man, I'm not buying it.

That same day, Atkins was charged with murder. When Brittany found out Atkins was in custody, there was only one person she wanted to tell. The first thing that came to my mind was, I need to get my dad. And I just said, they got him. And he said, what do you mean they got him? And I said, he's been indicted and he's in custody. And my dad just crumbled. He just kept saying, thank you, God. Thank you. Like, this is what I've wanted my entire life. But Brittany knew her fight for justice was far from over.

You have to steel yourself for this trial. And I will be there every second of it because, you know, nobody else has ever been there for her. And you know it is a cold case file. It's still mostly circumstantial. It's a tough case to make. Right. But I feel in my heart if people listen to the facts. I mean, there's facts. But if the jury doesn't see it that way and he walks, are you okay with that? I'm not, but I'm not going to stop my opinion, my heart, everything.

He killed my mom and he needs to pay for what he did. Coming up, no DNA, no fingerprints, no eyewitnesses. It was kind of shocking to stop and look and say, what actually do we have? I knew that the prosecution had a hard road. And later, someone who helped Dana get in the car that night tells her story. What do you think happened? When Dateline continues. January 2016 in northern Ohio. Winter settles in. Ice and gray skies blanket the state.

And gloom hung over the prosecutor's office, too. Where Paul Dobson and his fellow prosecutor, Gwen Howe Gabers, considered their long-shot case against Russell Atkins. It was kind of shocking to stop and look and say, you know, what actually do we have? What they didn't have stuck out. No crime scene photos, no DNA, no strong motive. But what they did have spurred them forward. The new autopsy and a fresh determination to seek justice they believed long overdue.

And so it came to pass that 33 years and four months after her mother was found by the side of that road, Brittany Stork was entering the marble hallways of the Wood County Courthouse. She'd spent so much of her life trying to find out what had happened to her mother. And now, the moment of truth had arrived. The defendant, Russell Atkins, did purposely cause the death of Dana Rosendale. The prosecution's opening statement was simple.

Common sense and science would prove Russell Atkins was a liar and a killer who'd created a story about a tragic car accident to cover his tracks. Deb, are you familiar with Dana Rosendale? I am. Dana's sister Deb took the stand to talk about her little sister, forever 19 years old. She loved life. She loved people. She loved her family. She loved her little girl. Deb told the jury it was obvious to her that Dana had not been injured in a car accident. She didn't have one abrasion. She did not have one road burn. She had nothing except for

the swollen side of her face. And I will never forget that the rest of my life. You were emotional that day on the stand. Extremely emotional. Extremely. It's like living it all over again. Almost 34 years later, just like it happened yesterday. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

The prosecution's next witness was that EMT, Ron Billings, who'd seen Dana's body with his own eyes. He told the jury why an accidental fall from a car never made sense to him either. Her shoes that she was wearing were the clog style, and she had one was still on and one was right next to her body, and they weren't scuffed up either. Another thing the prosecutor wanted the jury to understand was how many times Atkins had changed his story about that night. Detective Bratton told jurors about Atkins' story version number one, that he'd been a good Samaritan who'd stopped to help Dana. He stated that he was driving south and seeing something in the roadway. Then the detective testified came Atkins' story number two. Dana had been in his car, which had a broken passenger side door, and she'd fallen out.

The detective told the jury he didn't buy it. He checked out that car for himself. And what did you observe in doing this? I didn't observe any problems. Finally, there was Adkins' story number three, prosecutors argued, when he came up with that new detail, the mailbox. How did the back of her head get caved in? It's that pipe from the mailbox that was there. Problem was, the paramedics said there were no mailboxes near where Dana's body had been found. But if Atkins was lying about it being an accident, prosecutors needed to tell the jury what really happened,

what evidence was there of murder. And here was the heart of the prosecution's case, the forensics. This really becomes a case about science, doesn't it? If the science didn't work, if the jury didn't understand it or didn't buy into it, it was going to be a not guilty. Dr. Barnett, the coroner who had performed the autopsy on Dana's exhumed body, told the jury that with the help of the forensic anthropologist,

she'd been able to get a better look at Dana's skull. I saw separate fractures and the pattern of fractures only after the bone was cleaned. There were three impact patterns, three distinct patterns. And what would have caused those? A beating. A beating. Some sort of bludgeoning instrument. Absolutely.

Unknown. Absolutely. But there's no question there were three impact sites on the skull? No question. And this was not at all consistent with falling out of a car. Not at all. Not in my experience. Fly-shaped incision. It was gruesome testimony for Brittany to sit through.

Did they tell you this is going to be the day and you may want to step outside? They did. And I said, no, you know, I'm here from the beginning to the end every second, no matter what. Large area of bruising. But what had caused these terrible injuries? The prosecution had a theory. What we believe happened is that on the way home, he may have tried to do something to Dana that she didn't want him to do. It may have resulted in a confrontation.

She's either ordered out of the car or she gets out of the car. Perhaps more words are exchanged, but she was walking away from that vehicle, and he came up behind her, and he struck her on the back of the head and immediately dropped her to the ground. As she's laying on the ground, struck her at least two more times and fractured her skull. And the prosecution had a possible murder weapon they wanted the jury to hear about. They called a former patrol officer to the stand. Two days after Dana's body was found, he'd stumbled on something a few feet from the place where Atkins said he'd turned his car around.

I found the backside, the back end, whatever, of a pool cue. And it appeared to have a substance on it that I thought possibly could have been blood. Could a pool cue have been the murder weapon? The prosecutors asked the jury to listen to what Atkins had to say about it. Did you used to have a pool cue that you used to carry in the car? Well, yeah, I shot pool with the... Okay.

But I never carried it. it was at the bar. You never had one in the car that night? Nope. Some of the indentations on the skull are consistent with like the fat end of a pool cue. And the funny thing about that is that an end of a pool cue was found where you said you kind of went down to look for the phone. For you to say that there was a pool cue down there, that, no. I ain't going for that. I did not do that.

She fell out of my car, dude. Do you know that, in fact, was the pool cue that he carried? We can't say 100%. But circumstantial evidence and coincidence is he goes down to that location, turns around, and in a field nearby, a pool cue just happens to show up. So nearly 34 years on, had the prosecutors painted a clear enough picture for the jury of what they believed happened that night? Did they do it, in your opinion, as you sat there, or were you worried? I was a little worried, and I don't know if it was just because it was my first time hearing everything, and everything was so scrambled,

and it was so stressful. Well, I knew that the prosecution had a hard road ahead of themselves. The defense team was about to lay into the prosecution's case with a celebrity scientist and a bucket full of doubt. Coming up... Law enforcement lost or destroyed several pieces of evidence. A gap in the files and snow into the courthouse where Russell Atkins, the man accused of killing her mother, was on trial. She had vowed to sit through every moment. So too had Russell Atkins' friends.

They took turns packing the courtroom benches behind the bouncer. Everybody got together and said, we've got to go in there and show these people. Russell would never do that. Months before, the same friends had thrown a benefit to help raise money for the bouncer's legal fund. People just brought in food. There were probably five different people that got up and sang and played music. And just so many people that really have nothing, but they all pulled together and whatever they had to offer, they did. Vera wondered if her former lover was being targeted because he was a biker.

But she says his past and what people thought about him as a person were irrelevant. Whether he's a nice man or whether he's a jerk, the bottom line is there was not enough evidence to accuse this man of this. Atkins' defense attorney, Neil McElroy, couldn't agree more. My first instinct when I got the case was it's a 1982 case. There must have been a DNA hit. Something has been discovered, some DNA match. And, of course, there was nothing.

A point he emphasized in his opening argument at Russell Atkins' trial. Law enforcement lost or destroyed several pieces of evidence. McElroy and his partner Ronnie Wingate drilled into the prosecution witnesses, challenging their 30-year-old memories. But you didn't remember where it was found? No, I couldn't tell you the exact spot. I don't remember. I mean, it was 30-some years ago. As for the original detective, Bob Bratton,

the defense got him to concede just how much evidence was missing. As it relates to the clothes, the pool cue, any photos, map of the scene that was made that night, all of that information is gone. Is that correct? That's what I've been informed, yes. Okay. And the defense questioned the detective's account of checking out Atkins' passenger car door. He didn't note it in the police report. Is there anywhere in that report where you state,

I went out to the car, I inspected the car, I sat in the car, I opened the door? Is it anywhere in that report? No, it's not. Just as dubious at the defense was the prosecution's theorized murder weapon, that now long-lost pool cue. There was nothing linking the pool cue to Russell Atkins. Zip.

You can't tell this jury that that pool cue came from Russ Atkins' vehicle. No, sir, I cannot. And it didn't matter anyway, they said, because there was no blood on it. You sent them off to have them test this material that was found on the stick, and you became aware, was not blood on it. You sent them off to have them test this material that was found on the stick, and you became aware, was not blood, negative for blood. Negative for blood. Negative for hair.

Yes. What's more, it wasn't just that there was no evidence linking Russell Atkins to the murder. The defense pointed out the only forensic evidence investigators uncovered excluded him. After the second autopsy, investigators had sent Dana's fingernail clippings to the state crime lab. The male DNA found under her fingernails was not Mr. Adkins.

That's correct. Far more believable, the defense said, was Adkins' story of an accident. He has insisted since September of 1982, he didn't do anything. She fell from his car. That has not changed at all. And even if you didn't believe Russell Adkins' words, the defense said, his actions that night seemed to speak for themselves. Frankly, it doesn't make sense that someone who has just murdered someone

is then going to go door to door at 3 in the morning, pounding on doors, trying to get them to call someone to come help her. Putting yourself at the scene. Correct. And if the crux of the prosecution's case was the science, the defense was more than happy to make this a case of dueling science. You knew early on it was going to be a battle of science.

Expert versus expert. Yes, I do. The coroner who performed the original autopsy was dead, but the defense brought in its own expert to look at the case. And if weighty resumes counted, expert Dr. Werner Spitz had the edge. He'd performed or supervised more than 62,000 autopsies. The brain... Renowned for his work in historic cases like the JFK assassination, and more recent sensational cases like Casey Anthony, Dr. Spitz had even written the textbook for pathologists. And he disagreed with everything Coroner Barnett had to say. Dr. Barnett's opinion was that these fractures that you see in this photo were caused by three different impacts.

Do you agree with that opinion? No. What conclusion can you draw about how these fractures and these injuries were caused? One impact on a very hard flat surface. That's my opinion. Dr. Spitz said the science showed Russell Adkins had been telling the truth. Dana had hit her head on the road after falling out of a car. While Adept said she saw no other injuries on Dana's body, the original autopsy identified three small abrasions on her elbows and shoulder. Spitz said those bruises mattered. The abrasions were significant to him,

that abrasions to the elbows and the shoulder are indicative of a fall. Let me just say this. If this was a weapon, this whole thing would look different. Not to slight your county person, but Dr. Spitz has got a lot of credentials, a lot of autopsies, a lot of history. The concern is that the jury buys the flash and doesn't listen to the science. But before the jury could mull over the science,

it had to take into account the story of the only other person in the car that night, Dana's best friend, Roxy, who would tell her story in public for the first time. Coming up, Roxy says Dana was in danger even before she left for the nightclub. The bedding door opened, he came out, and he turned around and he goes, there, bitch, now go out. And she walked out, and she had marks on her and stuff. When Dateline continues. One woman had been at Dana Rosendale's side the night she was fatally injured. Her best friend, Roxy.

It was she who'd watched Dana drive off into the night with Russell Adkins, making him the last person seen with Dana that night. Naturally, that meant Roxy would testify at trial. But investigator Kinder knew that calling Roxy to the stand was a gamble. I think it would be safe to say that Roxy has told the same story since 1982. But I always felt that maybe there was a little bit more there. There were boundaries, you thought, to her story? Yeah.

But you weren't going to be able to crack them? No. The judge agreed with Roxy's request not to video her court testimony. Absolutely. But Roxy later decided to tell us her story directly. It was her way, she said, to talk to Brittany, her best friend's daughter. My heart breaks for her. I wish she could just see me in a different light

because she sees me as one of the bad people that I'm not. And Roxy says she has so much to share with Brittany about her close friendship with Dana. They'd made Brittany's baby book together, even talked about raising their children as close friends. But it wasn't to be. Roxy says she was at Dana's hospital bedside in her final days. She was the one who did her makeup at the funeral home.

Talking to her for the very last time, doing her hair and her makeup just like we always did. And I kissed her goodbye. Laying there on that steel table. Your friend Dana? My friend Dana. I miss her. Roxy is haunted by her memories of the night she last saw her friend. Seeing Dana across the dance floor.

Hearing her say the bouncer was giving them a lift home. So we went to go get in the car. And he said, don't forget. And I said, I know. And so we had to go through the driver's side. Because the passenger side door was broke. Couldn't open it. You could. You could open And I said, I know. And so we had to go through the driver's side because the passenger side door was broke. Couldn't open it. You could.

You could open it. Yeah, you could. But to make it close correctly, you had to kind of lift it up and close it. Was it common knowledge, Roxy, that he had a car with a bum door? Yep. And what Roxy says happened next could be the key to the mystery. According to Roxy, the bouncer stopped at her house first and Dana got out to use the bathroom. Then she helped Dana get back into Atkins' car through what she remembers as

the faulty passenger door. So I walked her out there and I put her in the car and I closed the door and I said, I'll talk to you later. Last time I seen her alive. Do you beat yourself up, Roxy, about that door and And whether you closed it correctly or... I thought about that for a long time, for a long time. What do you think happened? I think she fell out. I think it was a freak accident. But there was more to her story.

If she was wrong and Dana was murdered, Roxy is sure the bouncer didn't do it. Even though investigators eliminated Toby as a suspect, Roxy still wonders about the boyfriend. She told us Dana had confided in her just how bad the relationship with Toby had become. Anything that happens to me, it's Toby. Wow. Yeah. She said that? Yeah. Was it hands-on? Was it mental games or was it physical? Physical. Yeah. Something she saw with her own eyes, Roxy says, when she went to meet Dana before they went dancing that night.

And there was a commotion going on inside the bedroom, and the bedroom door opened, he came out, and he turned around, he goes, they're bitched, now go out. And she walked out, and she had marks on her and stuff. Roxy says Dana told her something horrific, that Toby had not only beaten her that evening, he'd raped her too. This was the bombshell testimony Roxy gave on the witness stand, something the prosecution team hadn't heard before. How much damage is she doing to your case?

Because now maybe you've got someone else who has a thing against Dana. It just didn't make sense though. It doesn't fit what we knew. She either fell out of the car or it was Russ because he's the last one with her. It was a terrible thing for Brittany to hear about her dad, but she didn't buy it for a second. My mom wasn't the one that would put up with that crap. Yeah, they fought. I've heard the stories. But if my dad beat her and raped her before she went out, she would have either fought back or the cops would have been there because she would have had him thrown out. There's something else Roxy told us when she sat down with us, something she didn't testify about at trial. She says that an angry Toby showed up at the club that night looking for Dana. It's a claim that investigator Kinder says is not corroborated by any other witnesses.

Still, Roxy says it's possible Toby could have tracked them down later that night, attacking Dana after she fell from the bouncer's car while Atkins went out looking for help. He had enough time to slam her head on that side of that road and then be gone because his alibi is four trailers away from her body. That's his alibi. Prosecutor Dobson says this theory about Toby is implausible. And Toby, of course, denies everything. When you hear the stories that you were there that night,

you're saying that's baloney. That's total crack. Not only does she say you were there that night, but she says that you violently assaulted Dana. Yeah, you know... Virtually raped her. Did that happen? No, not at all.

Anything approximating that? No, not at all. Not at all. So that's a Ro No, not at all. Not at all. So that's a Roxy story? That's a Roxy story. Brittany wonders why her mother's best friend so adamantly defends Atkins. A man Roxy has always told police was just a casual acquaintance. And yet, there's a note in the police file that Atkins might have been Roxy's boyfriend back then.

That she told Dana's mother they were dating. Clear up the issue. Was there anything between you and Russ Atkins? Absolutely not. Never. He was just the guy at the club. That's right. He was just the guy at the club. And you're not covering for him and trying to do him some good? Absolutely not. She was my best friend. We were going to raise our kids together.

No way would I ever, ever do that. If he'd been involved in foul play. If he'd been involved. There's absolutely no way. No way. What would the jury make of Roxy and all those other accounts about that night so long ago? After five days of testimony, the jury was sent off to deliberate. Brittany Stork prayed her long, lonely road to find justice for her mother and to erase the suspicion hanging over her father's head was almost over. Coming up, how Dana herself finally got to tell her story. It took me a second to process when he said, I want to have your mom there. The trial hadn't been easy for them to sit through. The autopsy photos, the expert testimony.

Brittany and her Aunt Deb had endured it together. How did you take care of one another? There were a lot of tears. There was a lot of prayers. Strength, inner strength, yeah. She might be a little bit more strong than me. Kind of like she's a lot like Dana. They waited together in the courthouse lobby as the jurors deliberated.

The longer it went throughout the day, you know, I started to get concerned. After they'd been out for more than five hours, the jurors filed back into court with discouraging news. They could not reach a decision. The judge sent them back out, but only an hour later, they returned again, still deadlocked. With that said, we'll declare a hung jury. You had pushed this thing for so long. Did you think that's all there's ever going to be?

Right then and that right second, I just kept thinking, oh my gosh, is he getting out? Is it over? Fear, disappointment, exhaustion. Brittany wondered what would happen next. Only the prosecutor could decide. His team sat down with some of the jurors, hoping to understand where the case had gone wrong. From what we were told by the jurors that we spoke to, they did not believe for a second that Dana fell out of the car. But for a few of the jurors, they just were not confident of how those injuries got on Dana's head. The jurors complained so much was missing

from 1982, reports, photos, evidence. They needed something more. The prosecutor could think of only one thing, but for that, he'd need Brittany's permission. It was a weighty conversation for me to have with them to say, it's my intention to re-exhume her body and to keep her skull out and present it to the jury. The prosecutor believed Dana's skull would do something the photos and diagrams couldn't, enable the coroner to show the jurors the distinct places where Dana had been struck.

The damage was visible as you looked at the base of her skull. You think that's the most telling injury of the day? Yes, Dana's head would have had to have been bent down with someone striking it from up here in order to get into that area and do that damage to her skull. The coroner had some reservations about that approach. I thought it was a good idea, but I was hesitant because I knew that if Dana's skull was entered into evidence, it might wind up in a locked locker somewhere for the rest of eternity. And I couldn't see that.

This is where some people believe the soul resides. I know. Was there a moment, Brittany, where you said, wait a second, enough is enough? Let my poor mother's spirit rest here. It took me a second to process when he said, I want to have your mom there. It actually took my dad to tell me it's okay. And so in April 2016, Brittany and her aunt stood by as Dana's grave was opened up yet again. I'm trying to be strong. You know, I've been wanting this for so long. And, you know, for most people, it's bringing everything back.

For me, it's just anger. I'm mad. The second trial began a few months later. Brittany's family and Adkins' supporters gathered once again at the courthouse. Was that tough to be coming up the elevators with him and seeing him in the hallways? It was very tough. But I have to tell you that there were several of them that came over to me and apologized that we had to go through this and go through the pain.

Brittany watched as the prosecution called the same cast of witnesses to the stand. The detective, the investigator, the paramedic. And I kind of stayed with her, held her hand. This time around, jurors saw Dana's injuries not on a slide, but etched in bone. To show the jury what the new examination had found, the prosecution brought a box to court. Inside it, Dana's actual skull. This has got to be just god-awful for you and the family.

They're walking around a courtroom before a jury with your sister's skull saying, here's the evidence you need. It was pretty hard for me. It seemed like forever. I mean, forever, like hours. The prosecutors weren't the only ones with something new for the jury. The defense had been fine-tuning its case too. They showed the jury photos from a French case where a man had fallen out of a minivan. His fracture was clearly bigger than Ms. Rosendale's. But it's too similar to be something more than just a mere coincidence. Dr. Spitz took the stand and said he was more confident than ever in his opinion. I believe that this is a single impact

when she either fell or jumped out of a moving vehicle. And of course, Roxy was there too. Once again, she scored points for both sides, the prosecution. Did you ever see anything in Mr. Atkins' car? A pull stick that was cut with a piece of metal on it. And points for the defense. You were aware of the difficulties with this door, is that correct? Yes, yes. And Roxy once again raised the specter of another suspect when she told her story of Toby's fight with Dana.

It was a physical fight and a rape, is that correct? Yes. Yes. The man on trial sat at the defense table as the scene played out before him. He couldn't believe it had come to this. His fate in the hands of a jury for a second time. He'd listened as the dueling expert sparred in court. He'd been silent through it all, until

now. What did you think about the cops? The prosecutors? Coming up, Russell Adkins talks. I heard the door close and she was gone. And after three decades and two trials, a verdict. Everyone kind of started scrambling. That's when your stomach starts churning and you're thinking, geez, did we do everything we could?

When Dateline continues. Russell Atkins has had more than three decades to reflect on the night he gave Dana Rosendale a ride home. To this day, he is adamant in saying he did nothing to harm her. I heard the door closed and she was gone. I mean, that fast. That's all I can really say. I don't know nothing more. Atkins didn't testify in his own defense at his first or second trial, but he did agree to sit down with us recently to talk about his case. You didn't bludgeon her head?

No. When she got out of the vehicle? No, never. He maintains her fatal wounds must have happened accidentally. How would you explain this ugly injury to the base of her skull? The mailboxes were there,

or street signs, or paper boxes, you know? Velocity, momentum are carrying her into the pole there? Oh, yeah. I mean, like I said, I didn't even see her go out of the car. I don't know if she went out head first, backwards, jumped out, was getting sick. I don't know.

I didn't see none of that. You're not chit-chatting back and forth about the night? No. And you're not making a move on her? No. Atkins says he is not guilty. He did nothing to harm Dana that night. No. And you're not making a move on her? No. Atkins says he is not guilty. He did nothing to harm Dana that night. But there is one thing about which there is little doubt. He is guilty of changing his story. Russell, let's talk about some of these inconsistencies

in your story. And the EMTs are there. Officers arriving. You tell them, I don't have any idea who she is, why she's there. Not that she was a passenger in your car. Right. Why do you leave out that important fact right there? Basically trying to get her help. Yeah, but you were concerned about your own skin there? Yeah, no. My persona with the police is they'll do anything to do whatever.

So I'll give them a story. Right. And they'll just leave me alone. And that wasn't the only time Russell's story evolved. The story about her head hitting this mailbox pole doesn't sound plausible. Oh. Is that something that you invented to explain it? No, they were all up and down the side of that road.

Wouldn't it have been better to say, I don't know, I didn't see it happen? I'm trying to come up with maybe possibilities. Trying to solve this, trying to answer all the things, does that create a problem for you? Well, it probably did, but I was trying to help. I wasn't trying to be the bad guy and be gone. Atkins says he had nothing to hide, then or now. He stayed in the area after Dana's death, carrying on with his life until his arrest all those years later. What's happened to you, your personal life there? It just stopped. I mean, I lost everything I had. I didn't have much, but I was paying the bills. Atkins says he thought it would all blow over soon. He didn't think the case was strong enough to go to trial, but he was wrong. What did you think about the cops, the prosecutors?

Hell-bent on putting me in prison. Handled it incorrectly all the way around in my book. At trial, Atkins says all he could see was what was missing, important evidence like his car. He wished he could have shown it to the jury. Russell, how much weight would you put on the bad door part of this thing? All of it. So whether she's leaning or fiddling with the door handle,

the state of that door, what's the biggest part of this thing? All of it. So whether she's leaning or fiddling with the door handle, the state of that door, what's the biggest part of it? Yet jurors had to rely upon testimony alone, and so it went for much of his case. With so little hard evidence, Atkins says all they had against him was a made-up theory about what he did, nothing more. That's how you come up with this murder charge, alphabet theory. Everything you see on TV is, I got this, I got the weapon, I have this, blood analysis, blah, blah, blah. So it's just a theory that you made a clumsy move on a drunk girl in your car? Yep. And you beat her brains in?

That's what they say. But Russell's frustrations didn't change the fact that he was on trial for murder a second time. Sitting in court near Dana's daughter, the catalyst for it all. There's her daughter accusing you. What'd you think? I can't say that on television. She's the one that got you in that courtroom, right? Yes, pretty much. That I believe.

You are his nemesis. Had you not come along, he would have gone about his life. And I'll never go away. Ever. I'll never, no matter what, I will never stop fighting for my mom. At the courthouse, all that was left was for Brittany to wait once again. The sun set one final time over the Wood County courthouse as jurors began to deliberate in the second murder trial of Russell Adkins. And then twilight gave way to blackest night. Upstairs, Russell Adkins' friends were waiting too. I took a nap on a bench. I mean, really. And when we went in there, I thought it was, it was like I hadn't woke up from a nightmare. Word came in the middle of the night, just after 1 a.m., the jury had a verdict.

And everyone kind of started scrambling, and I started texting my family. You're all filing into court, going to your table. What did you think? You know, at that time, that's when your stomach starts churning, and you're thinking, geez, did we do everything we could? Brittany closed her eyes in a silent prayer and waited. The family clasped hands as the judge read the verdict. We, the jury, find the defendant, Russell Adkins, guilty of murder.

Brittany doubled over, finally feeling the weight of it all. When I heard guilty, I lost it. I started bawling and it was almost like, did I really even hear that word? You know, it was just so crazy. You know, I was happy, but it was just like all my emotions that I kept in the entire trial came out at once. The defense team couldn't make sense of it. This was not a case that should have come back with a guilty verdict. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

Unbelievable on what? There's so much doubt. Russell Adkins was led away, an angry man. And they pronounce you guilty of this murder. Right. Take me into your head. What's going on? Wow. How did that happen? Did you think, I'm done, this is life over?

Oh, yeah. I'm going inside? Yes. A few days later, he wept as the judge sentenced him to life in prison. To Brittany, the verdict felt doubly significant. I got justice for my mom, and I got justice for my dad. So people would stop saying that he killed my mom. Because you really had two agendas here.

Yeah. Truth be told. Right. You wanted to have the person who killed your mom come to accounts. Right. And you also wanted the court of public opinion to let your father go. Right. But it would soon be clear that Lady Justice hadn't had her final say. Not just yet. Far from it. Coming up, the end. Again. Everything just come crashing down. After years of fighting for the mother she knew only through pictures,

Brittany Stork felt she had a degree of peace. Russell Adkins had been found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Brittany knew she'd always keep her mother close to her heart. She's going to be on my mind every day. I want to keep her with me. Meanwhile, the man convicted of killing Brittany's mother was now facing a bleak reality, life behind bars. You don't have no rights, no nothing, follow orders. You don't follow orders, you either go into the hole or you're going to get the kicked out of you, won't you?

But Adkins wasn't giving up yet. The Public Defender's Office took on his case and filed an appeal. They argued that Adkins had been denied his basic constitutional right to a fair trial. In the three decades that passed before Adkins was charged with murder, key witnesses died, memories faded, and mountains of evidence went missing. This unfairly damaged the case, his lawyers said, and meant that Adkins could not properly defend himself. It was a fundamentally unfair trial because of the 34-year wait. And then they expect Mr. Adkins to be able

to defend himself when all of this stuff is gone. The defense acknowledged the delay might have been justified if there had been some new advancement, like a DNA hit that led to a break in the case. But there was nothing like that here, they said. The only difference maker had been the new coroner's report. No question they did a more thorough examination, but the evidence upon which they based their findings was available to them in 1982. Could have done it back then. Forensic anthropology was around in the 80s, really got going in the 90s,

was around in the 2000s, and yet they waited until 2015. Brittany says she'd expected an appeal and wasn't too worried. It was just arguing little aspects of what they thought why the case should be thrown out. And, you know, to me it was more silly, petty stuff as, you know, well, that little thing would be no reason why he should get away with what he did. The prosecution argued that the new autopsy and the thorough cleaning of the skull had made use of advancements that came about after the early 80s. And it was that science that led a 12-person jury to convict Russell Adkins.

The prosecutors felt pretty confident that they had presented a pretty good case. Both sides briefly made arguments before the judges and then settled in to wait for a ruling. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. Finally, on June 29, 2018, the Court of Appeals ruled on Atkins' fate. The appellate court overturned it. Overturned the conviction? Yes. Go home? Right, go home. Get out. Threw me out of prison. I mean, within 10 minutes of that phone call, I was out the front door. In a stunning reversal, the court said Adkins was right. The long delay in charging him caused actual prejudice without justification.

There would be no chance to retry his case. I was absolutely shocked. I was shocked. That's when I finally broke down after all of the years. I thought we were finally getting that peace and that justice and being able to move on, and then everything just come crashing down. One thing in particular struck a nerve with Aunt Deb. In the court decision, the judges wrote that

fading memories may have impacted the accuracy of testimony so many years later. Deb says in her case, that simply isn't true. I wouldn't leave the hospital because Dana was unconscious. I would go to sleep at night thinking that that was the last thing I ever seen of her. So I will never forget that, ever. Now, in their eyes, a murderer is walking free. Russell Adkins has been able to live his life. My niece had no mother.

I believe he is guilty 1,000 percent, and nothing the appellate court or anybody can say will change that. Russell Adkins, yes, a free man, but also feeling a sense of injustice about what happened to him. Are you elated to be out of prison? Are you bitter about what's happened? Your words. Both. Elated to be out of prison, but bitter at the whole system. What do you want to do with take two here for you? Just to basically get back to where I was at, you know, fishing, hunting, things like that, you know, surviving basically. Despite the outcome, Brittany says she doesn't feel as though her efforts were all for nothing. She hopes that her drive to find the truth may inspire others.

If you have a feeling in your gut and in your heart, fight, you know, and don't. Don't ever give up. Just fight. Through everything, Brittany grew to love the mother she never really knew in life. Her baby blanket is now in her mom's coffin, and she wears her mom's rings every day. They're close, these two. I will never have regrets from pushing this. It's my mom's story, and nobody else could tell it. That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 Central. And of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News.

I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News. Good night.