Dateline NBC - Secrets in Pleasant Grove

Episode Date: April 20, 2022

A former beauty queen turns 50 and decides to have plastic surgery. The decision changes everything in her picture perfect life. Keith Morrison reports.

It was horrifying. This was my mom, a vibrant woman, just ripped out of the world. Everything that we thought in our life just all shattered. He betrayed us to our very core. They were a stunning couple, a doctor and a beauty queen. She won homecoming queen. She did modeling. But the day she was found dead in the tub... Who's in the bathtub? My wife. ...set a mystery in motion.

My father said, Rachel, come home. And then he just hung up. So many secrets locked tight for so many years, uncovered by daughters turned detectives. You hacked into his phone. Yeah. There was a lot of different things that came out.

Things like a mistress named Gypsy. Was she a motive for murder? In court, an epic showdown. Father against daughter and daughter. Why were you seeking information as to your mother's death? Because I believed my father killed her. But was the evidence on his side? The medical examiner's report listed it as a natural cause of death.

Who will you believe? I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Keith Morrison with secrets in Pleasant Grove. The story you're about to witness is all too human. Oh, what people will do to each other. And yet, well, puzzling. There were these three women. Wouldn't have a story to tell without them.

Two sisters and their aunt. And what they discovered, of course. Which might make you wonder, can you ever really see the truth in the face in the mirror? and what they discovered, of course, which might make you wonder, can you ever really see the truth in the face in the mirror or the face beside you in bed at night? The story begins with a beauty queen, or a former beauty queen, named Michelle McNeil. And she was, look at this, she was truly lovely.

But this is about what happened to Michelle the year she turned 50, the very last year of her life, though she couldn't possibly have known it. As she contemplated a question a lot of people do as youth fades, plastic surgery, should she or shouldn't she? She answered, for one reason or another, yes, yes, I will. And before long... Everything that we thought in our life is just all shattered. What happened to Michelle McNeil?

What was behind the breathless play-by-play in a Utah courtroom? The raw family drama played out in full public view, the hidden sins of... Well, you'll see. Here, this is a picture of their magical beginning. Both beautiful, Michelle and Martin McNeil, everybody liked smart, charismatic Michelle. From childhood on, said her sister,

Linda Clough. She entered different pageants. She won homecoming queen and she did modeling. She was an exchange student over in Switzerland. She excelled at everything. Martin did too, in his own way. Took a little while, but eventually he became a doctor, and then a lawyer, and then a leader in his local ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons. But before he did any of that, back when this picture was taken, it was just unstoppable love. Did they elope or something, Or just run off together basically? They got married by the Justice for the Peace.

They had four children. Eventually set up house in a place called Pleasant Grove in Utah. And loved their family life so much they adopted four more little kids, three of them from Ukraine. Alexis, from the first set of four, followed her father everywhere, was his little shadow.

You kind of idolized him, huh? I did. I wanted to follow in his footsteps in some way. I became a doctor because of him. So from people on the outside looking in, what would they see? A very happy family. A wonderful mother who doted on her children. And a father who was a physician and an attorney and present a lot in their children's lives. Rachel, the eldest, shared her father's love of books.

I remember when I was little just holding on to my father's hand and just to walk with him. And it was daddy's little girl. And their mother, Michelle. She was an amazing and beautiful person on the inside and out. And so it went for nearly 30 years. As he built a career and they together raised their big family. And then here's how Martin reacted to middle age.

Around the time he turned 50, he lost a lot of weight, started tanning. Hello. Yeah. It was very out of the ordinary, very abnormal for him. And that's when her mother, Michelle, confronted that question, the one about looking younger, getting something of the past back, the facelift question. She's like, you know, I don't really want it, but if your dad's getting all fixed up and looking good, then maybe I should. What did you say to her? I said, Mom, you don't need that. You're beautiful. I mean,

she was incredibly beautiful. But decision made. On April 3rd, 2007, you don't need that. You're beautiful. I mean, she was incredibly beautiful. But decision made. On April 3, 2007, Michelle checked into the hospital in Bountiful, Utah. The doctors worked on her for almost nine hours, long time for a facelift. Still, they proclaimed it a complete success. And the very next day, she went home again, her face covered in bandages. But otherwise, apparently, in perfect health.

Alexis had been with her mother for the surgery, stayed for a week to nurse her through her recovery, and now, relieved, Alexis returned to her medical studies in Nevada. My mom and my father dropped me off at the airport, and I looked back, My mom was doing well. I smiled. And I said, I'll call you. I'll call you soon.

Which she did. Asked her how she was doing. She was fine. She was getting up. She told me that, Alexis, your dad's being so sweet to me. He's just being so sweet to me. And that was the last time I talked to her. That was April 11th, eight days after the surgery.

When I came home from work, I checked my cell phone and saw that I'd missed, I believe it was 20-something calls, and I called my father. I said, Dad, what's happened? And he said, Rachel, come home. And I said, Dad, tell me. Tell me what's happened. It's mom. Is she okay? And my father said, Rachel, come home. And then he just hung up. When we come back, what had happened to Michelle McNeil? The events of that day would launch a long-running mystery. Who's in the bathtub?

One that would rip this close-knit family apart. It was horrifying. She was just 50 years old. She'd lived a clean, healthy, Mormon life. All she wanted was to look a little younger, a little prettier, for her husband. And now... Pleasantville Police Department. Transfer medical account. Okay, what's the problem, sir?

I need medical. Sir, what's wrong? I'm falling in the bathtub. Who's in the bathtub? Who's in the bathtub? My wife. Dr. Martin McNeil, panic in his voice, struggled to make the 911 operator understand.

I need help! Okay, sir, they're on their way. Is your wife breathing? She is not. I am a physician. I've got CPR in progress. You're doing CPR. Do you know?

No, no, no. How old is your wife? My wife is 50 years old. She just had surgery a couple days, a week ago. What kind of surgery did she have? She had a facelift. She had a facelift? Okay, do you know how to do CPR?

Okay, do not hate... Martin performed CPR on his wife until the first responders arrived. But it was too late. I called Alexis. I said, Alexis, what's happened? Something's happened with Mom. And I said, Mom's what's happened? Something's happened with mom. And I said, mom's dead, isn't she? And Alexis said, yes, she is. Martin said he left the house early in the

morning for work. Later in the morning, he accepted an award at a safety fair. Then about 1130, he left the office to pick up six-year-old daughter Ada from school. When they got home, Ada rushed up the stairs to see her mother and found her in the bathtub, unresponsive. It was horrifying. I mean, this was my mom, a vibrant, healthy woman who was just ripped out of the world. What happened? Michelle was a young 50, didn't drink, didn't smoke. She was carrying more weight than she wanted to, but the only thing really out of the ordinary was the surgery she had just had.

I wasn't concerned about the health aspect of her doing the facelift. I just didn't think she needed it. So, if a complication from the surgery seemed unlikely, perhaps this theory from Martin made more sense. Maybe Michelle had taken too much pain medication and while running a bath fell headfirst into the tub. He said she was slumped over the tub, her head down into the water and her legs out of the water. But something about that didn't sound right to Alexis. For one thing, six-year-old Ada, who also saw her mother in the tub, had a slightly different memory. She said that she found her

laying back, her head by the faucet. Facing up. Facing up, fully clothed in her jogging suit. A strange discrepancy, though not hard to explain, really, given the turmoil of that day. But then Alexis also remembered how after the facelift, Michelle's doctor prescribed hydrocodone, promethazine, and Ambien, but that her father asked him to also prescribe Percocet and Valium. To Alexis, that seemed like too much medication. He told the plastic surgeon exactly what medication he wanted him to prescribe to her. Isn't it the surgeon who usually makes those decisions?

That was strange. Stranger still was what happened after Michelle died, when Alexis went looking for those pills, asked her dad about them. Where were they? He told me that, oh, the police must have taken them. But I later found out that he had my brother and his girlfriend flush them down the toilet and throw the bottles away.

And his reasoning for that, he told them that it made him too sad looking at her, having her medication there. Some very unpleasant thoughts rattled around in Alexis's head. And then there was the business of the funeral. My father was very adamant to have her funeral right away. And at the funeral, said his daughters, Martin talked less about his wife of nearly 30 years than he did about himself. Lord, I thought I was your boy. Lord, I thought I was doing a good job.

Lord, are you there? As the hours passed last night, the answer came to me. I've had such a good life. Alexis and Rachel were appalled by that and angry. But even as they pondered what to do with their blossoming suspicion, the autopsy results were released. And to Police Chief Michael Smith, the results seemed crystal clear. The medical examiner's report indicated that Michelle had died of myocarditis and hypertension,

and it listed it as a natural cause of death. In other words, it was classic heart disease, a cause of death all too common among women Michelle's age, especially someone with high blood pressure. The daughter's suspicions, it turned out, were not based on any palpable facts. The drugs in Michelle's system were at therapeutic levels, said the toxicology report. As far as the state of Utah was concerned, the matter was closed. The medical examiner in the state of Utah was concerned, the matter was closed. The medical examiner in the state of Utah

is the ultimate say when it comes to the cause and the manner of death. But the tension in the McNeil family worsened. Martin and Alexis disagreed over how to care for the younger children now that Michelle was gone. He had started saying, I'm going to get a nanny.

We need a nanny. I can't take care of these kids by myself. Coming up, Martin McNeil hires help. Nanny or not? Oh, I found the perfect nanny. And I said, Dad, what's her name? He said, oh, it's Jillian.

And I said, Dad, I know that woman. Yes, she did. And so will you. When Dateline continues. There are many kinds of grief. Alexis and Rachel were struggling with the angry kind. Not angry with their mother for dying, no. It was what grew from the suspicion they felt

that their father was hiding something very bad. But still, there were practical matters to deal with, such as who should care for the four younger McNeil children. Alexis returned to medical school, so Rachel volunteered. But their father Martin insisted they find a nanny instead. Right away. He asked me, he demanded that we go to the temple to pray about having a nanny, which was very strange because my father was not a very spiritual person at all.

And there outside the temple, they were approached by a mysterious brunette. She said, oh, I was at the funeral, and I'm so sorry for your loss. And my father said, oh, I'm sorry, I know, I know, but what's your name? And she said, my name's Jillian. And my father said, oh, okay. About a week after that encounter, Martin hired that friendly, sympathetic woman and told his daughters. Oh, I found the perfect nanny. I found someone that's going to be great. And I said, Dad, what's her name?

And he said, oh, it's Jillian. I think it's Jillian. The name Jillian didn't mean anything to Rachel. But Alexis? I said, didn't mean anything to Rachel. But Alexis? I said, Dad, I know that woman. I know Mom was concerned you were having an affair with her. An affair? Well, yes.

Or at least, before Michelle died, that is certainly what she suspected. So worried about it, she asked Alexis to help her find out for sure. My mom confided in me about everything, all of her feelings, her concerns. And so I took his cell phone and was able to download his password. And we did see a number that my dad had been calling quite a few times. You hacked into his phone, is it? Yeah. We called the number and a woman answered and then hung up right away. So I paid for an online search and it came up with a name and it was Gypsy Jillian Willis. Gypsy Jillian Willis. Yeah, I mean at first we had

no idea, like gypsy, what kind of name is gypsy? I mean we thought maybe it's a stripper, I mean, at first we had no idea, like, Gypsy, what kind of name is Gypsy? I mean, we thought maybe it's a stripper, I don't know what. But anyway, my mom, with that information, with the lady's name, went to my dad and confronted him. Martin denied everything, said Alexis. And then the very next day, he made a curious suggestion. My father came to my mom and told her that she needs a facelift. That is... I mean, lots of women decide they want facelifts, but when their husband comes and says, you need one...

Yeah, I mean, it was really out of the blue. The facelift that preceded Michelle's death. And now, here was Gypsy Jillian, Martin's choice for a live-in nanny, someone he just happened to find. So she got the job. She moved into the house, and this was just a couple weeks after my mom's death.

Martin's daughters were furious. They wanted to know what other secrets their father had been keeping. They expanded their investigation. My sister put a blog up and was asking anyone with any information about my father to contact her. I mean, we discovered that he had had so many different affairs. There was a lot of different things that came out. With their Aunt Linda, they took all the information they had gathered on Martin

and brought it to the authorities. Pushing and pushing, yeah, to get them to investigate. The local police had never investigated Michelle's death as a crime, not from the very first day. And remember that coroner's report? Michelle's death was caused by heart disease. For us to be able to overcome something like a medical examiner's office that says she died of natural causes is a huge task. But the women were relentless. They met with Jeff Robinson and Doug Whitney, who worked for the county attorney.

You took them seriously right off the top, the daughters? Not really. But then they started to look at some of the evidence the amateur sleuths had gathered. Not evidence of murder, but still. They started to challenge a lot of things that their father, who he was, what he was, what he was doing. And so we thought, you know what, I'd like to find out if he really is a doctor. Yes, they learned. Martin did have a medical degree, but he fraudulently got into medical school by faking the results of college.

He obviously took somebody else's because there was a different date of entrance, there was a different date of graduation, and all of them were straight A's. Then they dug deeper and found that before he faked his college transcripts, Martin was convicted of forging checks. Now, to investigators, the respected doctor was looking anything but respectable. It tells me that this is not the guy that goes to church every Sunday with his family. So there are two Martin McNeils. There's two Martin McNeils. Still didn't mean he murdered his wife, did it?

No, no. But Martin's daughters? They looked at their father's list of offenses, the fraud, the infidelity, how he encouraged their mother to have surgery and take so many drugs afterwards, and they were certain their father killed their mother. He betrayed us to our very core. I mean, everything that we thought in our life is just all shattered. It's all a sham. It really shattered. It's all a sham. It really is. It's been a whole sham.

But not everyone in the family felt that way. Damien, Martin's only son, stuck by his father. He had a hard time after my mom died. You know, I talked to him about my concerns, and he didn't want to believe that my father was capable of killing my mom. But Alexis' conviction was absolute. Every time she set foot in her parents' home, only one thought went through her mind.

I was worried he killed her. And yet, there was still no hard evidence that Martin killed Michelle. Almost two years went by, Martin and Gypsy still carrying on in plain sight. But then, in January 2009, suddenly they're

both arrested. Yes. Yeah. But not for what people might have thought. Oh, no. Coming up, two lovers cook up a secret crime. He stole Giselle's identity. Poor gypsy. And two sisters suffer another heartbreaking loss.

He was such a wonderful guy. Miss him? Martin McNeil's daughter seethed. Their father had turned the family home into a tawdry love nest for a so-called nanny, the mistress, Gypsy Willis. For nearly two years, they'd been laser-focused on proving his guilt, trying to persuade the police or anyone that Martin murdered Michelle. And sure enough, they discovered a crime. Not murder, but shocking nonetheless.

It all started when Martin sent his 16-year-old adopted daughter Giselle off to Ukraine to visit her biological sister. Giselle called my daughter's phone, and then they started talking, and Giselle started crying and told her story that she got left there. Abandoned, basically. Right. Why would he do that? Well, a bit more digging revealed that Martin and Gypsy had cooked up a scheme, and it involved taking over daughter Giselle's social security number. He stole

Giselle's identity. For Gypsy. Yes, for Gypsy. Who it emerged was, how shall we say, financially challenged. The new forged identity wiped her debts away. It also gave her a brand new name, Jillian McNeil.

But the lies didn't end there. They began posing as husband and wife. Giselle's out of the picture. Martin wants to make Gypsy look like his wife. Now that was low. But even worse? They used the date of my mom's funeral as their marriage date. Martin and Gypsy were arrested in January 2009.

Not for murder. For fraud. They both pleaded guilty. Martin got four years, Gypsy 21 months. And to avoid any more charges, Gypsy promised she'd testify against Martin in any future legal action. It was a victory for Alexis. But her campaign against her father had consequences. Then it's me all by myself.

Like the wedge it drove between the sisters and their brother, Damien. Did it put a strain on your relationship? It did. Once my dad was sentenced, he kind of didn't want to have anything to do with us. And then he killed himself. Damien McNeil committed suicide in January 2010. He was such a wonderful guy. Miss him.

But the murder investigation continued. Picked up steam, in fact. The two investigators debriefed Gypsy in prison. That was a treasure trove of information that she gave us at that point. She confirmed that Chance meeting at the temple with Rachel was a setup, a ruse to get her into the house after Michelle was gone. How long had she and Martin been planning it? I said, so you staged and scripted that meeting?

Yep. And when did you script it? Was it during the funeral? Mm-hmm. Was it before the death? So? No comment. The investigators went back to the prosecutor,

over and over, urging him, charge Martin with murder. But what did the prosecutor say to you? You see this medical examiner's report? Death of natural causes. That's right. There was a new medical examiner. They showed him their report,

the files, the arrest for fraud. And I said, have you even read our reports? I've scanned it. I said, you cannot scan this report. I said, just arrest for fraud. And I said, have you even read our reports? I've scanned it. I said, you cannot scan this report. I said, just read this much while we're here. And he did, and he goes, hmm, okay, I think I want to look at this deeper. After his review, the M.E. did agree

to make one small change in the manner of death, from natural to undetermined. But that hardly broke the case wide open. He refused to call it a homicide. Sure, absolutely. McNeil was just released from federal prison. And so by the summer of 2012, Martin McNeil was once again a free man. He'd served his time for fraud. We first spoke to Alexis right after her dad was released from prison. He's a free man. How does that make you feel? Very scared. You've been his chief accuser all these years.

Yeah. I'm concerned. I'm not only concerned for myself and for my family, but for everyone who comes into contact with my father, because I know he's a dangerous man. The investigators agreed, but the prosecutor wanted more, something they could take to court. Show me how she died. Show me how she died.

I said, I believe I know how she died, but I just can't prove it yet. And then, then one little detail jumped up and said, look at me. The time that came to me is when we heard from the officers and the EMT guys when she threw up water. If Michelle threw up water when the EMTs did CPR, that meant Martin, the doctor, hadn't done it properly, if at all. Okay, do you know how to do CPR? I'm doing it.

And with that, all the circumstantial bits seemed to line up and support the idea of a planned murder, a plot that began after Martin took up with Gypsy. His wife finally finds out concrete evidence that he's doing it. He's trapped. What do I do? I can't lose my good name because I'm going to lose my job,

I'm going to lose my reputation, I'm going to lose everything else. So what does he do? Drugs are in, drowns are, they now believed. And finally, the prosecutor agreed. And so in August 2012, Martin's daughter sat in a Utah courtroom holding up pictures of their dead mother as their father appeared in court on charges of first-degree murder. If she hadn't pushed, if she hadn't started making those calls,

would this have ever gone anywhere? I don't think it would have come to me. I think... So it would have just... Probably would have closed it out as unfounded. Now, the family drama would play out for a jury. But the outcome? At that point, it was far from certain.

Coming up, a mistress turns witness. My name is Gypsy Willis. And one more secret. Mistress number two. Is it fair to say that you and Dr. McNeil began an affair? Yes. When Dateline continues. What a strange thing it was that the day Martin McNeil was charged with murdering his wife,

his daughter's only regret was that it had taken more than five years. I think my dad really got off on seeing what he could get away with. When the trial began October 17, 2013 in Provo, Utah, Martin was noticeably pale and Prosecutor Chad Grunander was a little worried. It seemed like a case where you kind of got the impression maybe the guy was guilty, but proving it was not going to be an easy matter. It's going to be difficult to wrap it all up early and give the jury this nice little box with a bow on top. The prosecution told the jury that Martin drugged and drowned his wife Michelle, that he made a plan to get rid of her when he had a love affair with that woman named Gypsy,

and that once he dispatched Michelle, he was practically gleeful, even on the day of her funeral. The defendant was jovial, laughing and smiling, again remarking that he was going to have to get used to the life of a bachelor. How callous, said the prosecutor. But as for evidence he murdered her? Remember, the autopsy said heart disease was the cause of death, not murder. This case is a puzzle with many pieces. Your wife is unconscious? She is unconscious and underwater. First piece,

they said, was Martin's behavior that morning during his 911 call. Martin seemed angry. He hung up on the operator. Okay, do you know how to do CPR? I'm doing it. Okay, do not hate... First responders had trouble finding the house. And when they finally did arrive, the police said Martin was acting so erratically, it made them nervous. I was concerned about my safety, actually. And well, Martin, the doctor, was performing CPR. He was kind of yelling at her, why did you do this, why did you do this? And then he struck her in the chest with one of his hands. But when the police took over, remember,

she expels three to four cups of water. And what would have happened had he done CPR is that she would have already expelled that, is it? Interesting. I believe so. And remember how Martin said he found CPRs, she would have already expelled that, is it what you're saying? I believe so. And remember how Martin said he found his wife, head down in the tub, her legs sticking up over the edge? Prosecutors showed how his account differed from that of every other witness, even his then six-year-old daughter, Ada. This is a police interview with Ada, recorded in 2008.

Was she all the way in the bathtub or just part way in the bathtub? All the way. Please raise your right hand and take an oath. And then prosecutors called to the stand the woman at the center of it all, the woman who so captivated Martin, the mistress. And they said, the motive. My name is Gypsy Willis. Gypsy told the jury an online relationship with Martin turned sexual.

It was a very casual thing. It's just whenever we had time and it could be arranged. Okay. And it was... Go ahead. I think we probably had sex half the time. I mean, sometimes it was just lunch. The very day after Michelle's death, Gypsy took a sexy selfie and sent it to Martin.

There's one picture where it's a little bit suggestive. It's showing your buttocks. Yeah. And as we know, it wasn't long before Gypsy moved into the McNeil house, supposedly hired as a nanny. If I told you that others have testified that you were not much of a nanny in terms of cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children, and were just staring goo-eyed at the defendant. What would be your response? My response is that when the adult children were home, I deferred to them and went back to studying my nursing.

I did actually help with the children. Though Gypsy told the jury she never did marry Martin, they did hear about all those fake documents, with a marriage date of April 14, 2007, the day Michelle was buried. And remember, Gypsy had to testify as part of her plea deal. Probably didn't want to. She clearly minimized their relationship. But I think in so doing, the jury saw that.

But just to be sure, the prosecutor had Gypsy read love letters Martin wrote to her from federal prison. I love you and miss you every minute. I can think of nothing but how wonderful you are. So Gypsy, said the prosecutor, was Martin's motive for murder. That is, if it was a murder. And if it was, was she involved? In light of all this information, are you telling us you don't know anything more about Michelle's death?

That is correct. Do you believe she had something to do with it? Well, as far as the actual death, we have no evidence to show that she did. As far as being a co-conspirator talking about it, evidence speaks for itself. And so, Gypsy's star turn was over. Outside the court, she said she was overwhelmed by all the attention. It's a frightening experience. Testifying here today?

Being in court at all. I've never had more than a speeding ticket to this point. Of course, as we know, that wasn't even close to being true. And back in the courtroom, the jury was finding out that Gypsy wasn't Martin's first mistress. Is it fair to say that you and Dr. McNeil began an affair? Yes. This woman said she canoodled with Martin before he took up with Gypsy. And their pillow talk, she told the jury, included what sounded like a prescription for murder. Did Martin ever describe to you a process

of making someone have a heart attack? Yes. Specifically, what did he tell you? There's something you can give someone that's natural so that it's not detectable after they have a heart attack. This summer's please raise your right hand. And then, then the much-anticipated showdown. Daughter versus father.

After years of digging, collecting, and persuading others that her father was an evil, guilty man, Alexis was about to take the stand. But the defense was about to argue. Alexis had her own problems with the truth. Coming up, the doctor's defense. You still conclude that the manner of Michelle McNeil's death is undetermined. Yes.

And the verdict. What would it be? When they were coming back after 11 hours, I was a little bit nervous. Ms. Summers, if you'll come forward here to the clerk's desk. For six years, Alexis Summers had been the strongest, most persistent voice arguing that her father murdered her mother. Prosecutor Chad Grunander. Her testimony was huge. Under oath, Alexis told the same story she told us.

Why were you seeking information as to your mother's death? Because I believed my father killed her. But now, the defense was going to try to prove Alexis wrong. In fact, they were going to question if there was a murder at all. And they would start by using some of the accusing daughter's own words. Remember Alexis's claim that her mother was feeling fine just before she died? Well, it turns out that wasn't what she said at her mom's funeral. Last time I spoke to my mom, she was happy. She wasn't feeling, she was feeling a little sick. She was feeling a little sick. That's what you said, right? I just don't remember her saying that she was feeling a little sick.

I remember her being up and getting ready for the day. But you remembered it on the day of her funeral, right? Three days later. And then the defense homed in on the state's biggest problem. Here they were prosecuting a man for murder when, according to the state's own medical examiner, the cause of death was most likely heart disease. Coroner Dr. Todd Gray admitted on the stand he never classified Michelle's death as a homicide, and that even his decision to call it undetermined was not exactly based on science. You met with the investigators in your office, correct? Yes, that is correct. And they worked hard to try and persuade you to change it.

They gave me an extensive and in-depth presentation of what they thought proved that this was a homicide. And when prosecutors took the very unusual step of hiring an outside medical expert to try to bolster the case for homicide? The defense showed on cross-examination he was no more definitive. When you consider all of the circumstances of this case,

you still conclude that the manner of Michelle McNeil's death is undetermined. Yes. Thank you. And remember that water in Michelle's lungs? Defense Co-Counsel Randy Spencer had an answer for that, too. Michelle was found in the bathtub, and it's very difficult to do CPR in a bathtub. So why didn't he pull her out of the tub?

He couldn't. Barring some God-given grant of superhuman strength, very few people would be able to lift a 182-pound person out of the tub in that situation. Just in that moment, in that scene, regardless of what else he may have done that impugned his character, that morning, what was the strongest evidence that he did not kill his wife? I think that the strongest evidence was likely the time of death

and where Martin was that morning. Please raise your right hand and be strong. The defense called witnesses who testified they saw Martin right about the time that Michelle collapsed in her bathtub. In other words, he wasn't there, couldn't have killed her. This is 6-year-old Ada McNeil's kindergarten teacher. And Mr. McNeil picked her up that day? Yes.

So he was there at a prop between 1130 and 1135 to pick up Ada? Yes. And all those competing facts took closing arguments to put them together. The prosecutor's was aggressive. Make no doubt, we believe he intentionally and knowingly caused the death of his wife. The evidence supports it. The motive is there. It's dripping.

The means are there. And the opportunity is there. And the defense? Had to concede Martin was a cad and a cheat, but insisted that the prosecution hadn't even proved there was a murder, let alone that Martin committed it. I submit to you that none of the circumstances that the prosecution has submitted to you is consistent with homicide. They don't rise to the level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. And then the jury began deliberating. They huddled hour after hour,

late into that Friday night. Midnight came and went. They were still talking. The longer the deliberations went, the more worried I got. Then after 11 hours, the signal, a verdict. Too quick, thought the prosecutor. When they were coming back after 11 hours, I was a little bit nervous. It was one in the morning on Saturday. We, the jury, having reviewed the evidence in the testimony in the case, find the defendant as to count one murder guilty. At that moment, Michelle's family couldn't hide their relief. Finally, after years of fighting, they had gotten what they wanted, what they demanded.

And then, according to defender Randy Spencer, Martin said something quite remarkable. This may seem strange, but he even respects what his daughters did, not because he killed his wife, but because if they really believed that he killed his wife, he would expect them to advocate for her. And so he understands.

He told you that? He did, yeah. Martin McNeil received a sentence of 17 years to life. In April 2017, he committed suicide in prison. A final ending. But for Alexis, this story has always been about one person, her mother,

and one thing, justice. It's not going to happen unless someone's pushing it. And my mom was murdered. My mom was the center of our family. She was an amazing and beautiful person on the inside and out, and she deserves to not be forgotten. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.