Dateline NBC - The House on the Lake

Episode Date: June 28, 2022

Keith Morrison reports on one man's extraordinary journey through the courts in upstate New York and his children who stood by him to the end. 

He's a good dad. He loves us so much. No one wants to have both their parents taken away from them. A dramatic new turn in the story of a young family facing heartache beyond measure. A mom who suddenly vanished. A dad suddenly under suspicion. You just hear the awful things they say. I knew they were focusing on me.

There was no body, no weapon, no eyewitness. There's not one doubt in my mind that he's guilty. Now after four trials, the final verdict is in. I'm not guilty. I didn't do this. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Keith Morrison with The House on the Lake. It's a long, winding ride, this tale, studded with surprises. I just felt like I was being kidnapped in broad daylight, and no one could help me.

It's the story of his life and theirs. We cannot sit here in silence and watch another tragedy of justice take place. It's about their world, the one that fell apart in a time they can't recall. Do you remember very much about your mom anymore? Not really. It's been a long time. It's about what happened on a September day the rest of the world can't forget. Is there a corner of your brain that thinks maybe it was somebody else? Not at all. Not at all. 15 years, four trials. Would it never end? I just put my head down and I went numb. I just, I went numb.

This is the climactic chapter in a family saga, one that began in a moment all but drowned out in the chaos of history. It was September 2001. The Harris kids were little, seven, six, four, and two. The family lived in this sprawling patch of wilderness with a private lake in the backyard. Living in paradise, it seems like.

Yeah. The kids still have a lot of happy memories out here. You know, it's just a very unique and special place that we were fortunate enough to purchase, you know, years and years ago. A unique and special place that only a prosperous person could afford, like the prominent car dealer Cal Harris. He loved it out here too, he said, and taught his kids to love it. You went hunting with the kids here? Hunting, fishing, you name it.

We swim in the lake, we jet ski in the lake, we water ski. My kids like to bring their friends out and really enjoy. If you like to be outdoors, it's a fun place. Christmas is always fun. I can imagine. Opening presents, playing with the new things you get. Well, I can't think of a more idyllic sort of place to have Christmas. Does it feel like that at the time?

Yeah. It was here in this patch of paradise, said Cal, that he woke up one morning years ago to find that his wife, Michelle, wasn't home. She'd gone to work the evening before, didn't come back. Mary Harris is Cal's aunt. He didn't know where she was and didn't know what had happened. It was just woke up and she wasn't there.

And honestly, he didn't, it wasn't something he seemed comfortable talking about a lot. I think it was very emotional for him. She was gone. Gone without warning. Her friends, distraught, called her cell phone. Where the hell are you? You need to call me as soon as freaking possible. I am worried to death about you. They heard her cheery cell phone message, haunting now.

Hi, this is Michelle. Leave me your name and number and I'll call you back as soon as I can. Michelle, Bob Miller. Let's go over here. There is something else about this you should know. The night Michelle Harris vanished was not just any night. It was September 11, 2001. Things are in some kind of disarray.

So they were. And so nobody was paying much attention to the disturbing events up here around little Owego, New York. Troopers have all been sent to New York City. There's a skeleton crew left at all the stations. Back then, Sue Mulvey was a senior investigator with the New York State Police. She took the call, morning of September 12th. What'd you do? I sent two investigators over to talk to Calvin Harris, and I sent a uniform trooper up to the house. Cal Harris opened up his house to them. He said, whatever you need,

look wherever you need to look. We have carte blanche. I want this to be solved. I want to know what happened. That morning, investigator Mulvey knew only this. She had a missing person case on her hands, and with luck, it would resolve itself speedily, as many do. We kept hoping, as everyone did, that Michelle would call her house or call one of her friends and show up. Cal, said his Aunt Mary, was completely focused on his four children, had to leave it to others to search for Michelle.

His thing was, okay, it's time for them to go to school. All right, now it's time for me to pick them up. I need to be sure that if this is the routine that is normal for them, we're going to keep them in that routine. But where was their mother? Here was a clue, and it didn't look good. Michelle's van had been left

at the foot of the long driveway leading up to her house, out here on that big country lot. The keys were still in the ignition. But where was she? All these investigators, video camera in hand, searched the house. Outside, those 200 plus acres to look through. That area was homesteaded heavily in the 1800s, so there's a lot of laid up wells and old foundations and things like that. Didn't find anything. No, we didn't. Not at first, and not outside. But a few days later, they did.

I entered the residence through the open garage door. Senior investigator Steve Anderson. I noticed bloodstains on the floor and on the moldings of the doorway that led out to the garage. And there was more blood, tiny stains on a kitchen rug. They sent it out for tests. Everything on the floor, on the inside walls, and on the carpet came back to being Michelle's blood.

And suddenly the case looked very different. Then we knew we had a real problem. What in the world had happened to Michelle Harris? When we come back... They have what would appear to be an idyllic life and a beautiful home and beautiful children. We learned more and more he became the focus. A husband suspected, a daughter questioned. I didn't talk.

I just sat there and cried the whole time. Michelle Harris, 35-year-old mother of four, was missing, and New York State Police Investigator Sue Mulvey felt sure of one thing. Michelle had not abandoned her children. The clear picture that we developed is that Michelle would never leave her children. Ever. So, was it foul play? After all, Michelle's van was abandoned at the foot of her driveway. And that blood on the garage floor and in the kitchen alcove. Testing proved it was Michelle's blood. There's a lot of blood in the garage and spread over a wide area and there's a

lot of blood splatter. I mean over 60 drops of blood that's been not just dripped, but splattered by some force on that throw rug. And yet, it didn't make sense. This woman, wife of an affluent car dealer, devoted mom, seemed like an unlikely victim. They have what would appear to be an idyllic life and a beautiful home and beautiful children. It got off to a storybook start. He, the attractive, wealthy car dealer. She, a pretty young woman from modest means, answering phones at a Harris family car dealership. My brother had his office across the street from mine.

And I just saw her one day and just kind of evolved from there. What attracted the two of you to each other? She was very outgoing and very attractive and good personality. She was a knockout. She was funny. She was vibrant. His Aunt Mary Harris was also taken by Cal's new girl. Michelle, she said, was a woman up for anything. Athletic, let's have a good time, you know, jump on the jet ski, jump on the four-wheeler. Wasn't a dainty wee thing, as it were. Right. And not a shy retiring type either.

No, I mean, that's part of why I thought their personalities, to me, seemed to really mesh. Michelle fell hard, too, for the man and his lifestyle. Gary Taylor is her dad. He won some dealership thing, and they went to Switzerland, I think. You know, I mean, there was a lot of perks there that she'd never had before. In August 1990, Michelle and Cal got married here beside Empire Lake. It was a great day. It was just a beautiful setting and very relaxing. Not very stressful. Just kind of ended up being a big party afterwards.

The fairy tale rolled on. Kids kept coming. They built a house in Empire Lake, and here on their private preserve, they were a family in motion. Fishing, swimming, skating, Michelle into all of it. The kids, of course, grew older. Taylor is the oldest, followed by Kayla and Jenna and Tanner.

Their mom? About her, they have no real memories. It's been a long time. Yeah, it's true. Well, most of your lives. And how old were you? I'm not sure how old I was, but I don't have any memories. Jenna is often told by those who knew Michelle how much she resembles her mom.

I've seen pictures of her. She's really pretty. She's always smiling. She seems like a really happy person. So it makes me feel good that people see me in her. And even with that terrible loss, said the kids, they've grown up happy and content for the most part, all thanks to one person. Just tell me about your dad. What kind of guy is he?

Funny. Funny? Yeah. He's funny, and he's the most caring guy in the world, and he's nice, and we're his whole world, and he's protective and just loves us so much and wants the best for us. A protective dad who said he tried to shield them best he could from the not-so-happy times. Michelle was really struggling with those kids at a young age, which I totally understood. What I noticed was that she was just drifting away from being a stay-at-home mom.

And I understood that. There was certainly friction in the Harris marriage. He loved order. She, not so much. She had a room downstairs, and she called it the chuck room. If there was going to be a party or a picnic or whatever, she'd throw it and take it down in the chuck room. And she told friends and family he had a temper, a controlling way. Once back in 1996, she called her sister-in-law from a closet,

terrified. He had the gun outside the closet and she was inside hiding. What'd you hear about that? He was out there as a pump gun, I guess, and he was racking the pump action up and down and telling her to come out. Cal later denied it was true that he'd been fighting or threatening Michelle with a gun. Then in 1999, Michelle learned Cal was having an affair. She was devastated, but not ready to end the marriage, and Cal said he wasn't either. Michelle said that, you know, we can work through this, but, you know, you got to get rid of the girl. She worked up at the Cortland dealership.

They did what they could to salvage the marriage. It didn't work. She told her family he cut off her spending money. She took up with a young man in November 2000. A month later, she told Cal she wanted a divorce. Her family said he didn't take it well. And things in that big house in Paradise grew strained indeed. Why did she stay in the house?

Her attorney had advised her to stay in the house and to not leave. So they divided the parenting duties and worked on a settlement. Michelle got a job as a waitress at a local restaurant and bar. And that's where she was the night of September 11th. She finished her shift about 9, had some drinks with two co-workers, and then she drove to her boyfriend's apartment, left there about 11. And that, Sue Mulvey believed, was the last time anybody saw Michelle Harris. We did a lot of work on a lot of different people early on

and it wasn't until they were eliminated and then we learned more and more about Calvin that he became the focus. The district attorney even tried to speak to the two eldest children. Didn't accomplish much beyond frightening them apparently. know. I just sat there and cried the whole time. I didn't talk. I wasn't allowed to be in there with Taylor. How old were you at the time? I was in fourth grade and he was in fifth grade. So, nine and ten. But Jerry Keene, then the district attorney,

said he interviewed plenty of other witnesses who convinced him that the police had the right man. In September 2005, four years after Michelle Harris disappeared, the DA charged her husband Cal with second-degree murder. Three state police personnel literally busted into my office and kicked the door open, and the three of them jumped me and handcuffed me and shackled me and walked me out the front door of my office. You got a taste of law and order up close and personal. Yeah. The DA was

going to take the case to trial even though there was no body, no murder weapon, and even though he himself was by no means convinced he could prevail. I thought that it was maybe a 50-50 shot at a conviction. I thought that a jury could go either way. Coming up. Oh, it hurts. Absolutely. All of it was just taken away. Prosecutors come on strong. He told her that he would put her body in a place where it would never be found. When Dateline continues. In September 2005, four years after his wife Michelle vanished, Cal Harris was charged with murder.

Oh, it hurts. Absolutely. You know, I had a good standing in the community. I had a successful business. Donated my time and money and resources to a lot of good causes in the community. Raised my kids in that community. And, you know, all of it was just taken away. But the Tioga County DA had become convinced that Cal killed his wife late on the night of 9-11, and as the children slept, disposed of her body. The more I met with the people that were close to Michelle and that knew something about the case, the more convinced I became that, you know, he really did this. The trial began in May 2007, with the prosecution claim that Cal Harris was a man used to being in charge of everyone and everything in his life. He's in control of his businesses. He's in control

of his wife. He's in control of his finances, his employees, and his children, and just kind of a domineering person. More than that, said the prosecutor, Calhoun Harris could be volatile. Michelle began keeping notes about what she said was abusive language and behavior. In fact, she won a temporary order of protection against him. What he said to her was, I wouldn't need a gun to kill you, and if I did kill you, they'll never find your body. In the heat of passion, people say terrible things to each other. Doesn't mean they kill them, though.

But he went beyond saying terrible things to her. He told her that he would put her body in a place where it would never be found, and that's like one of the biggest facts of the case, that we've looked and looked and looked for this woman's body and have not been able to find it. The Harris family babysitter, a woman named Barb Thayer, testified that she was the one who found Michelle's van parked at the end of the long driveway. She goes into the house and she yells, is Michelle here because her car's at the end of the driveway?

And the defendant, without missing a beat, he just said, we'd better go get the car. According to the babysitter, Cal didn't seem surprised. Doesn't ask her any questions about the keys, like he knows that the keys are in the van. This is an interpretation of a person's reaction. Yeah, you're right. But it's all these hundreds of little things that convinced me that he's just not acting like someone would act if they didn't know what had happened to their wife. Later that morning, when New York State troopers talked to Cowell, they too made note of his demeanor. He seemed kind of unconcerned He was more concerned with getting

Michelle Harris' van cleaned up And back on the lot The motive, said the prosecutor Was simply money Cal had learned that Michelle Was demanding an appraisal of the car business Did she intend to take a piece of it In the divorce?

All of a sudden, everything is out of his control. So, the argument went. If Michelle disappeared, Cal's problems did too. He was going to have his finances scrutinized. He was perhaps not going to be able to stay in the marital residence. Certainly, his children were leaving. And the next day, all those things are back in his control. Finally, that blood evidence. Prosecution witnesses called it medium-velocity spatter

that had been left there only recently. I think it could very well have been the most important part of the case as far as placing Michelle bleeding in the house with some force having been applied to that blood and no explanation for it. So what happened that night? Prosecutor Keene put his theory to the jury. She got home that night at about 1130, parked her car, went in through the garage door, and that as soon as she got inside the house, she was struck with something by the defendant. She went down on the kitchen rug, he said, was struck again, that blood spatter.

So this would put her down either on her knees or on her bottom as she's being struck, and the blood spatters on the door and on the carpet. Took her back out into the garage and laid her down on the garage floor. She must have bled some onto the garage floor because there's an area 3 feet by 6 feet where blood was found. Then, said the prosecutor, Cal tried to clean up before he disposed of the body. He would have then taken the car back down to the end of the driveway, walked back up to the house, and disposed of the body during the seven hours or thereabouts before he called Mrs. Thayer.

The defense attorneys tried to swat it all down, and Cal Harris himself was adamant he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance. It's one thing to say, look, I'm innocent, I didn't do this, but it's another thing to have so many people accusing you and pointing the finger at you. Look, I'm not guilty, I didn't do this, I didn't commit this crime. There was no body, no murder weapon,

and the defense said the forensics were unconvincing at best. But the jurors weren't having it. It was June 2007. They came back guilty. Cal Harris broke down and sobbed. Because I knew I was going to not see my kids. I knew I wasn't going home that night, you know, and I knew how they were going to be, and just was overwhelming. But in the eyes of Michelle's family, it was finally justice. And then, then an extraordinary thing happened. My first reaction was, come on, the judge is not going to accept this guy's claim. A new witness with an amazing story. And it turned the Harris case on its head. Coming up. As I was going by the Harris property, there was a blonde woman out there.

Looked like she was crying. I know it was her. Had this man seen Michelle? It was the most bizarre story that you could have ever told. Get ready for trial number two. What happened here in little Owego, New York, in August 2007 was almost unbelievable. Kyle Harris, convicted of killing his wife, Michelle, was about to be sent away for 25 to life. And suddenly, it all blew up right in D.A. Jerry Keene's face.

I came into the courtroom thinking that the defendant was going to be sentenced, and it ended up being more of my being on trial. Who on earth had the power to make this happen? He did. Kevin Tubbs. I know that she was there, okay? I know she was. Kevin Tubbs, a plain-spoken, rough-hewn farm worker back then, was hauling hay. And why was he so important? Because after six years during which Tubbs swore he barely registered the fuss over the Harris case, he picked up a paper and saw the story of Cal's conviction. And I seen that and, you know, I started, like, recalling, you know, thinking, like, oh my God. Just like that, he suddenly

knew, he said, that what he saw the morning after 9-11, the morning Michelle Harris disappeared, was important. It was between 5.30 and 6 in the morning, he said. He was hauling a load of hay.

As I was going by the Harris property, there was a blonde woman out there and a young gentleman, you know, in his early 20s. Standing by a pickup truck. My lights is right on him. And hardly more than 10 feet away, he said, he looked straight at the young man, saw he was dark-haired, muscular, and visibly angry. He looks at me like this, like, you know, what do you want? And the woman,

she was looking down. Just by her face, looked like she was crying. She was either upset or wasted. The woman, he said, he was certain of it, was Michelle Harris. I know it was her. Was it true? If Kevin Tubbs really did see Michelle in the early morning hours of September 12th, then the prosecutor's case was in ruins, because Cal Harris couldn't have murdered her some seven hours before, and an innocent man had just been convicted. And so the judge tossed out the verdict, called for another trial, and sent Cal home to his kids. Many, including Michelle's family, thought Tubbs' story was bogus.

Everybody knew he was lying. I mean, it was the most bizarre story that you could have ever told. And of course, when trial number two opened in 2009, the prosecution attacked Tubbs' credibility. Why did he wait six years to come forward? Still, for the defense, Tubbs was pure gold. The man to create reasonable doubt. There simply isn't enough evidence to convict Cal Harris of murder.

Bill Easton was one of Cal's attorneys. There's not an eyewitness to it, an earwitness to it. He didn't confess to it. None of this direct evidence is present in this case. The prosecution argued that Cal showed how unfeeling he was by failing to join the search for Michelle. Now that was nonsense, said his Aunt Mary. Cal was simply trying to keep it all together for his small children. There were dozens, maybe hundreds of experts scouring the area looking for her. And there was one person taking care of these four kids. And that alleged motive, that Cal was worried that dealerships would take a hit because of the divorce? Not so, said Cal's side.

His lawyer told him Michelle couldn't touch the business. And that anyway, before she vanished, Michelle had decided to accept Cal's settlement offer, $740,000. She had indicated to numerous people she was happy with the settlement. Besides, said Aunt Mary. There was plenty of money to go around and no amount of money would have made Cal say, aha, you know, for two million dollars, I'm just going to wipe her out. Then there was the blood, the spatter in the kitchen alcove. Could have been a cut finger,

said the defense. And anyway, nobody could really tell when it was left there. And as for a prosecution claim, the cow tried to wash away blood on the garage floor. There's a small amount of diluted blood, which was found days after the New York State police had walked through this particular area of the house while they were conducting the search. Walking on it is not going to destroy the blood cells. It could dilute it if their boots are wet. Finally, the defense decided jurors needed to hear from Cal Harris as a caring father, not as the menacing husband the state made him out to be. So the defendant took the stand.

It was nerve-wracking at first. You know, obviously, my life is on the line, and my kids are, you know, their lives are on the line. He admitted to an affair, blamed himself for the end of the marriage, but denied he'd threatened, hurt, or tried to control Michelle. If anything, he said, Michelle had been living a bit of a wild life staying out all hours just before she disappeared. She came when she pleased. She had money to spend, wasn't tracking her down. The babysitters were here. The nannies were here. She was off doing whatever she was. I didn't even know what she was doing. Was it enough? The jury deliberated for almost two days. And it wasn't. Gu your breath away. You know, it's like getting stabbed

in the stomach. Just, I'm numb. You know, I'd already been through it once. Family and friends stepped in and took care of his small kids who began a weekly ritual visiting dad in prison. Taylor, the eldest.

You go and you get to see him for two hours a week and you got a bunch of other people talking and it's loud and can't really have a private conversation. Leaving was definitely the hardest part for us. I mean, you held it together well. What was it like driving home? It was quiet. watching his kids walk away week after week said cal was unimaginably hard that was the worst i went back to my cell and just laid there for hours and hours and just closed my eyes and tried to block it out three years rolled by but then came a day in oct 2012 when Cal Harris found himself crying for joy in the prison yard. Coming up. This is rare, though.

I mean, this is really rare. A new chance at freedom. New urgency from the kids. This was kind of our time to come out and do our part. And a whole new theory of the case. It's all coming together. It's time to look elsewhere. Trial number three, when Dateline continues.

Had Cal Harris won the lottery, it could hardly have been more surprising than the news he heard in the prison yard in October 2012. This is rare, though. I mean, this is really rare for that to happen. What happened? New York's Court of Appeals overturned Cal's second murder conviction. Said the trial judge made mistakes during jury selection and when he allowed hearsay testimony. So, the appeals court ordered trial number three. And Cal once again went home to the house on Empire Lake and his four growing children. Tanner, the youngest, was in eighth grade then.

The rest were in high school. Oh, it was great. What a change, huh? It was back to normal. It was easy. Yeah? Yeah. Didn't take long to adjust? Well, he had to adjust to what our plans were. Well, you've been coping on your own for so long. Yeah. Now this time, this third chance, the kids were determined this would be different. We want to know that our dad will not be taken away from us again

for a crime we know he did not commit. It was a very public coming out. Kayla addressed the cameras. The rest of the kids and their teary-eyed dad stood by. We did not sit here in silence and watch another travesty of justice take place. The family launched a tip line asking the public to help find out

what really happened to Michelle. It was March 2014. It's time for a real investigation that will get us answers. I think that it was a good thing for us to finally come out and talk about it. How did it feel to do it?

Good. We all knew this was kind of our time to come out and give our side and do our part in this. Cal hired new lawyers, and they condemned the state for an investigation which they said was blind to any suspect but their client, lead defense attorney Bruce Barquette. They pursued this man for 14 years with scant evidence, evidence that really no prosecutor should bring a case on.

The defense went back to witnesses the police had interviewed years before, talked to others, and heard a whole new story of Michelle's last hours on earth. Earlier trials, they said, revealed the mother of four had been hanging with an unsavory crowd, co-workers and customers from her waitressing job. Attorney Aida Lessonring. There were people there that had criminal records. There were people there that were dealing drugs. There were people there that were making sexual advances. And on the night she vanished, after she left her boyfriend's place, they now knew, they said, that Michelle did not go home. Because one of those witnesses

reported seeing her later that night with another man, a local steelworker, attorney Donna Eldea. On September 11th, on that night, in a bar, in a dance club, he actually said, and that he was there, but then he left the two of them alone and he went home. The steelworker spotted with Michelle was a regular at her restaurant, said the defense. His name was Stacy Stewart. The defense said he told his friends he had a sexual relationship with Michelle. And, said the defense, Stacy Stewart appeared to be the very man Kevin Tubbs saw with Michelle in the early hours of September 12th.

There was a blonde woman out there and a young gentleman, you know, in his early 20s. Tubbs identified that man from a photograph. His physical appearance, his facial hair, his height, his age, and the type of vehicle he drove. Tubbs said the man he saw was standing beside a black truck. Stacey Stewart owned a black truck, same kind. And it's a new model, and it's a Chevy, and you look everything up, and it's all coming together. Stacey Stewart has denied any involvement in Michelle's disappearance.

He's denied he ever had a relationship with Michelle, said he was never even alone with her. Still, Cal's side was convinced that Stewart and a friend of his played some role in Michelle's disappearance. In 2015, trial number three opened in the town of Schoharie. A change of venue necessary, said the defense, because the case was too well known in Tioga County.

And the defense managed to get some of the prosecution's case thrown out. The state wasn't allowed to suggest, as it had before, that the blood was spilled around the time Michelle disappeared. To have forensic scientists get up and speculate and guess at how old blood was based upon the color from a photograph is an outrageously unsupported proposition. Also out? Here's a testimony from prosecution witnesses who said Michelle told them that Cal threatened her life.

We don't think they belonged in the evidence. It was part of the reason the case was unfair the first time or the second time. Then the defense attempted to present its evidence about that alternate suspect, Stacy Stewart. And the judge shut them down. The jury would only be allowed to hear Stewart's name, that Michelle knew him, that Kevin Tubbs had ID'd him, and that he owned a black truck at the time.

No more. Why? Because Stacey Stewart wasn't on trial. Cal Harris was. The wrong man, his attorneys insisted. Cal did not deserve to be on trial. And frankly, Michelle and her family deserve better. We all want to know what happened to her. It's time to look elsewhere. There was a new prosecutor this time, Cuyahoga County's Kirk Martin. He made the same arguments as the previous DA, saying the evidence pointed to Cal Harris killing his wife. The trial took three months. And finally, late April, the jury got it and the waiting began. Michelle's family still convinced that Cal was guilty. Is there a corner of your brain that thinks, God, maybe it was somebody else? Not at all.

Not at all. Well, Cow and his family hoped the jury had been persuaded otherwise. You know, you have been confident before when you've gone on trial because you have said, I didn't do it, I should be acquitted, and yet you weren't. So how does that impact your thinking now? Just by what Bruce and his team have done in the investigation. It's got to create some doubt, and we didn't have that before. So, uncertainty. By this time, it was a way of life for the children.

So I think, you know, if things don't go our way, it'll definitely turn all of our worlds upside down, but I think we're, I know we're tough enough that we'll get through it, but you know, you definitely don't like to think about that kind of thing. We definitely have plans of what we want to do when it's all said and done and over with, and the good end turns out. Want to talk about that at all?

Vacation. Yeah. Somewhere cool. Maybe. Maybe not. Coming up, what would happen this time? Breaking news out of the Schoharie County Courthouse. Would you believe trial number four?

Shocked. I was truly shocked. In Calharris' first two trials, jurors returned their verdicts swiftly. Third time, deliberations dragged. Finally, almost two weeks in, the jurors made it clear they simply could not reach a verdict. Breaking news out of the Schoharie County Courthouse, the third Cal Harris murder trial has been ruled a mistrial by the judge. A mistrial? It was the outcome nobody wanted. We got closer to justice, but we're not there yet. Michelle's family, convinced they knew the truth that Cal murdered Michelle, left the courthouse without comment. Not right now. And Tioga County Prosecutor

Kirk Martin vowed to do it again. There have been two guilty verdicts in this case, and I eagerly await the earliest possible trial date that fits with the court schedule. A fourth trial? Really? Yes, indeed. In March 2016, deja vu all over again. Same courthouse, same cast of characters, with one notable newcomer. Good, how are you? Judge Richard Mott. When Cal waived his right to a jury trial, the new judge suddenly had a starring role in trial number four.

He would decide the case. He'd also decide whether to hear the defense's new evidence. In the end, he allowed some, but not all. Lee defense attorney Bruce Barquette. But the truth has finally began to peek its head at this trial. We finally begin to see at least an outline of who is actually responsible for Michelle Harris's demise. A peek or two, that's all. Barquette made the most of it, quoting testimony about something that steel worker Stacy Stewart once said,

something about Michelle. He says I was the last person to be seen with her when she was alive. Defense attorneys said they wanted to put Stacey Stewart on the stand but couldn't track him down. So now, in closing, Barquette didn't offer a detailed theory about what happened to Michelle. Didn't have to. I'm asking the court to find Mr. Harris not guilty because there's not proof beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed this offense. Four trials, and now it was all on the line. And so D.A. Kirk Martin came on strong.

That whole defense theory, he told the judge, was a fantasy. There's no evidence Stacey Stewart had any sort of relationship with Michelle, let alone any reason or motive to harm one hair on her head. Finally, said the DA, after so many years, so many trials,

it was time to convict Cal Harris once and for all. Michelle died at the hands of her husband, the defendant, Calvin Harris. So, what would the judge do? We presented the evidence about what we think happened. The judge was terse. His verdict, brief, with no explanation. Just two words. Words Cal Harris and his children had waited 15 years to hear. Not guilty. When he came back with the not guilty, I was just, I was shocked. I was truly shocked.

Shocked, overjoyed, and saddened by what he'd lost. Best years of, um, my life as a parent, and I'll never get those years back. He will also never stand trial for his wife's murder again, exonerated now, and free finally to speak his mind about his terrible 15-year ordeal. From my standpoint personally, I think one of the greatest hypocrisies in our country is our criminal justice system. There is nothing fair about it. But Cal did more than just speak out. In August 2017, his legal team filed a sweeping 26-page federal complaint claiming malicious prosecution and violations of civil rights.

The lawsuit targets Tioga County and members of the New York State Police, among others. All those named in the suit have denied allegations of misconduct. But still, a mystery endures about a woman who vanished on a warm September night while the rest of the world was looking the other way. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.