Dateline NBC - The Killer Among Them

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

When millionaire businessman Lance Herndon is found bludgeoned to death in his Atlanta home, the search for his killer reveals no shortage of suspects - or secrets. Andrea Canning reports.

Tonight on Gateline... The real first memory I have is Janine telling me my father is no longer here. My girlfriend said Lance was killed and I just lost. The first thing you think, who did this and why? Lance loved women. And women liked Lance too. Lance had a secret life. Multiple secret lives. One of the women on your list was Lance's ex- had a secret life. Multiple secret lives. One of the women on your list was Lance's ex-wife, Janine.

Recently divorced, she had accused Lance of infidelity. Talana and Lance were friends for a very long time. The police were looking at you. How did that make you feel? A little angry. Dion indicated that Lance absolutely loved her. Are you aware that he has video surveillance cameras? No.

I guess we could call Cathy his main girlfriend. And she doesn't seem overly upset? She wasn't upset at all. We get a phone call that changes everything. Caught in another lie. What were your last words to him? Be careful. Oh.

So many lies, so many lovers. One knew the truth. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. -♪ I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you, I'll Here's Andrea Canning with The Killer Among Them. A night to remember. A lavish birthday party high atop Atlanta's Hilton Hotel. It was to celebrate a leader and a CEO, a man respected, charismatic, at the very pinnacle of his career. Exactly the evening he wanted. After all, Lance Herndon threw it for himself. What did he tell you about the party?

That it was going to be the best party a man has ever seen. Lance was turning 41. When we talk about, you know, it's all some 41st birthday party, it's all through the lens of almost this great Gatsby level of character. Hundreds of people were there to wish him well. It was a who's who of Atlanta society. He loved being surrounded by a lot of movers and shakers. He loved entertaining. He was in his element. Lance had more than just his birthday to celebrate.

He'd risen from humble beginnings to become one of America's most successful black entrepreneurs, earning millions along the way. It really is that American rags to riches story. You know, you can work hard, you can get a good degree, you can build your own business, you can grow wealthy in America. In that moment, 30 floors above the city, Lance Herndon seemed to be on top of the world. No one there could have known that in just months, Lance would be dead. Or that the perpetrator was among them that very night. So chilling when you think that Lance was face to face

with his killer at that birthday party. Extremely chilling. Everybody happy. He was in the limelight. And four months later, he's no longer with us. August 8th, 1996. Holly Stuber pulled up to Lance's large colonial on this cul-de-sac in the Tony Atlanta suburb of Roswell. It was where he ran his lucrative computer company,

Access Inc. Holly, one of a handful of employees who worked there, unlocked the door to the home office at precisely 8 a.m. The business was in the basement of the house. Yeah, he had an office for himself, beautifully decorated. He had an office for the rest of us that we shared as a large room. What was the business?

He had an office for the rest of us that we shared as a large room. What was the business? He had an IT consulting firm. He provided IT consultants for local businesses. Among those companies, Bell South, Delta Airlines, and Coca-Cola. So Lance was doing well. He was, very much. That morning inside the office, Holly was surprised to find no sign of her boss. He was usually in the office around 5 a.m.

He did a lot of work for the day early before everybody came in. She also noticed something else that was amiss. Normally, Lance left audio tapes on each employee's desk. First thing. He would leave a small cassette with his instructions for the day. Those are your marching orders for the day?

Correct. I never started the day without that. And yet that was not on the desk, neither for myself or my coworkers. Holly thought maybe Lance had an appointment out of the office. She checked his daily calendar. It was blank. There was not one item on it. Again, very unusual for someone who is very scheduled. out of the office. She checked his daily calendar. It was blank. There was not one item on it.

Again, very unusual for someone who is very scheduled. Lance, she says, was a stickler for time. He also wanted everything in its place. If you put a stamp on a letter, it needed to be straight and in the right position. If you were designing a business card or a brochure, it had to be perfect. So this is a guy who knew what he wanted when he wanted it.

Yes, that would be an appropriate characterization. Had he overslept? Not likely. Employee and friend Talana Caraway says Lance made sure of that. He set three alarm clocks. He had one beside the bed that would go off first, and then there was another one on the chest or something that would go off next, and then there was another one on the chest or something that would go off next, and then there was another one that would go off.

But by the time the third one got up, he was up and ready to move. And he would get up really early, right? Oh gosh, yes. Four o'clock. Oh. That's early. He got up early because he said that when he gets up at that time, the world on the other side is already awake. Holly paged her boss, no reply.

By now, another coworker had arrived. Holly paged him again, still no response. So this is the man who is on top of everything, is suddenly nowhere to be found. Correct. At 10 a.m., Lance's mother got to the house. Jackie Herndon was a fixture there, regularly pitching in to help out with the business. When she came down the steps,

we both asked her if she knew where Lance was. We haven't been able to get in touch with him. We haven't seen him. How did she take that? Was she concerned? She immediately ran back upstairs, very quickly. Seconds later, Holly heard something that stopped her cold. She started screaming. Oh wow.

Lance's mother had found him in bed, unresponsive. His head and face badly injured. In a panic, she called 911. What do you think happened? I'm bleeding in the bed. I don't know, I can't, just come and pull you. You can hear his mom calling 911? Yeah, I mean, I couldn't hear every word she's saying.

Right. Yeah, we could hear. You're just coming for you. You can hear his mom calling 911? Yeah, I mean, I couldn't hear every word she's saying, but, yeah, we could hear. She's frantic? Yes. What had happened to Lance? Tell me what's going on. I don't know. I came in the house. He's 20, 40 years old. I followed him in the bed. When she was initially screaming, I thought,

oh, he must have fallen or he's hurt or something like that. But this was no accident, and he was beyond hurt, beyond help. Somebody done killed my baby. Who would want to kill Lance Herndon, the millionaire entrepreneur? This mystery would take nearly a decade to solve with no shortage of suspects. She certainly had the motive to want to do this.

Or secrets. I've always described Lance Herndon as sort of an iceberg. What we saw on the surface was just a very small percentage of what was going on in his life. The first thing I thought was, this is unbelievable. This cannot be happening. News of Lance Herndon's death spread fast through his tight-knit community. Those close to him, like friend Talana Caraway, were devastated. How do you find out what has happened to Lance?

My girlfriend calls and she said, have you heard the news? I said, what news? She goes, stop. She said, sit down. And I said, what is going on? She says, Lance was killed and I just lost it. You've lost somebody that you love.

You lost somebody that was really a pillar to the community. It was horrible. Longtime friend Eva Allen also struggled to comprehend the news. What happened? How could this have happened? Who did this? And why? Key questions also on the minds of Roswell detectives as they worked the crime scene

and spoke with witnesses. Employee Holly Stuber was one of the first to be interviewed. What kind of questions were they asking? And did they tell you exactly what was going on with Lance, what had happened? They did not tell us what was going on. They just asked us who we were, what we were doing there. Our relationship with Lance, did we hear or see anything unusual? Also on the scene, forensic experts from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation

to collect and analyze evidence. It was obvious to everyone Lance had been bludgeoned to death. He had taken some serious trauma to his face and his head. Talking with one of the detectives, he said nobody could have survived what this man went through. Retired Roswell police officer Tommy Williams says it was an especially brutal attack. Blood spatter was to the right and to the left. Tired Roswell police officer Tommy Williams says it was an especially brutal attack. Blood spatter was to the right and to the left, and it was all over the headboard, all over the bed, all over pillowcases.

Investigators on the scene took note of the unusual position of Lance's body. He was laying on his back. He was covered up with his comforter, and his hands were, like, crossed kind of on his stomach. Like last rites? Yes, like he's just got his hands crossed like he's laying in a casket. Did the killer do that? That's something that only the killer would know.

A gruesome scene, but investigators didn't find any bloody footprints or fingerprints. They checked Lance's bathroom. There was a pillowcase found, you know, in the toilet, but it still had blood on it, which was collected. When they pulled back the shower curtain, the tub was wet. That led them to believe the killer had rinsed off. So this person had time to clean up.

Yes, plenty of time. And plenty of time to wash away evidence. Investigators took a closer look at the bed, hopeful the killer had left something behind. There were hair follicles found in the bed and on the sheets. That would be tested? Yes. All of those things were collected as evidence and submitted to the crime lab for testing.

Next to the bed, investigators found an intriguing clue on the nightstand. A picture frame placed face down. It was a black and white photo of a woman posing in lingerie. We had no idea who it was. I've heard of that before in different cases where people go through the house and either remove photos completely or face them down or try to destroy them. Those are all clues.

Those are all things that we need to look at. Something else they needed to look at? Those three alarm clocks Lance religiously set. They were unplugged. There were two digital alarm clocks and one old flip style clock with where the numbers click down. That one is frozen in time at 410 in the morning.

410 is when that clock was unplugged. It provided investigators with a possible timeline of when Lance was murdered. But the bigger question was why? Any thought that this could be a robbery since Lance was a wealthy man and would have items that, you know, might be worth stealing. There was no things missing throughout the home

that were visible to us, like TVs or, you know, things of value, silverware, things that people can pawn pretty quickly to make a quick buck. All this stuff was there. Including Lance's wallet and a stack of credit cards on his dresser. It led us to believe that this was just strictly

somebody taking care of business on Mr. Herndon. They noted there was no forced entry. But downstairs, Holly Stuber knew one thing was missing, the office laptop, a black IBM ThinkPad. The case, however, was still there, something Holly thought was strange because Lance had a strict rule. Never leaves thePad. The case, however, was still there, something Holly thought was strange because Lance had a strict rule. Never leaves the office without the case.

And that's the thing you have to remember about Lance is that he is not kidding about when he says something like that. To Holly, it meant the laptop might have been stolen. By late morning, investigators were fanning out across Lance's property. In the driveway near the garage, they noticed something odd. They found gum wrappers outside the house?

Yes, they found gum wrappers, a lot of silver foil, like rolled up and some were just crumpled up all around the driveway. They continued searching for a critical piece of evidence, the murder weapon. What do they believe he was killed with? Was there an object anywhere around there? Was it like a blunt type object, given that he was beaten?

We never found an object on the scene that would have or could have been used to cause the injuries to Mr. Herndon's head and face area. With little to go on, investigators needed to dig into Lance Herndon's life. And they were about to find something big. Turned out, Lance had a secret. Did you get a sense that something was wrong with him? Maybe, yes. Well, not a sense, but kind of wondered if maybe something was,

and then was he going to reveal something? Almost like he had some type of premonition about what was going to happen to him. That's what it felt like. The murder of a millionaire entrepreneur in one of Atlanta's wealthiest suburbs made big news. Police say the murder of Lance Herndon is unusual. Killings like that just don't happen here in Roswell.

In fact, the city's last unsolved murder was in the early 1980s. Just months after his 41st birthday, friends and family gathered once more in Lance Herndon's name, not to celebrate, but to mourn. Lance's longtime friend, Eva Allen, says that amid the shock and grief, many there felt another emotion, fear. Lance's killer was still at large. You go to the funeral, is the person here? Right. This person has not been caught.

And we are Lance's friends and we're all together celebrating his life. The killer could be among us. Exactly. And that was frightening. And I think everybody there that cared about him had those thoughts. Eva did her best to comfort her friend, Janine Herndon, Lance's ex-wife. This was someone that she had been married to for years, recently divorced, had a child with. Lance and Janine shared custody of their only child, Harrison, who was four at the time. Today he's 33, but can still recall the day he learned about his father's death.

And I remember, what do you mean Dad's not here anymore? I think as a kid it's very hard to understand that things are gone forever. But the memories of being with his dad are still very much alive. Being taken around the house by my father, being able to see his walk-in mainframe computer, being able to take car rides in the Volvo and the Jaguar. I remember watching Top Gun. That was his favorite show to play for me. Harrison grew up hearing many grand stories about his father, the pilot, the world traveler,

the car collector. He had a new Lotus Esprit at the time, which was supposed to be like one of the most fantastic Lotuses you could own. And he was well aware of all his public achievements. He was appointed by President Clinton as a delegate to the White House Conference on Small Business. He was given a National Service Award by President George H.W. Bush. Your dad was a trailblazer.

Absolutely. For a lot of people. Absolutely. Now you're an entrepreneur. Do you believe that is because of your dad? 100%. He was my father and he's a guidepost for how I want to live my life.

With Lance gone, Eva wondered if the killer was somehow involved in Lance's professional life. The first thing I thought about was maybe it was a business rival that was jealous. Someone with an axe to grind. Absolutely. He did a lot of work with the state of Georgia, and a lot of times he would win a bid and he would make a comment, such and such, I know they're going to be upset that I won again. Had Lance crossed the wrong rival?

Not only did investigators have to consider that, while looking into his business dealings, they found something hard to believe. Everything's not what it appears on the outside. You know, Mr. Herndon fit that profile of being the millionaire, having all of these things, having his bills taken care of, having a nice home, nice cars. But in reality, it was debt. Lance Hearned it. It turned out was heavily in debt.

You were aware of Lance's financial troubles? Yes. Talana was one of the few who knew his secret. What did you know? He told me I don't have the money that I used to have. I'm not getting the business that I used to have. I'm not getting the business that I used to get. The client list was going down. The number of people that were out working on assignments had gone down.

Employee Holly Stuber says Lance appeared to have lost focus on his IT company. His interests seem to not be with the business the way it had been for the previous years. His eye, she says, was on another business altogether. Atlanta's thriving hip-hop scene. He seemed to be interested in a relationship with this growing music scene. He had a business partner that wanted to open a club, and at the time, you know, in the 90s, clubs were really hot in Atlanta and quite profitable. So he and this partner opened a club called The Vixen.

Erica Bozeman says the club had problems from the beginning. She's the host of the true crime podcast Sinister and covered Lance's case on a recent episode. There was a murder tied to The Vixen Club that had very similar characteristics to Lance's murder. She learned that several months after it opened, a DJ was bludgeoned to death in the VIP room. The murder went unsolved.

A couple of years after that, the club closed. And, investigators discovered, Lance had a falling out with his partner. Lance's ex-wife actually said later that he had a lot of enemies in business. You're going to start looking at who did he owe money to. Maybe he had some paper notes written down somewhere that I owe yous. There may be other things that you have to look at that would have caused somebody to do this. Investigators were finding out all kinds of things connected to Lance's business, including this.

The day before the murder, a man showed up at a local festival looking for Lance. This guy was really, really upset. One thing in particular that he said that was very chilling was, Lance has no idea what I'm capable of. Days before he was killed, Lance called his friend, Teresa Stovall. The two met years before when she moved to Atlanta and Lance offered to give her a tour of the city. Now he was on the phone

and she'll never forget how he sounded. We caught up a little and then the tone of the call shifted, his energy shifted. And he just said, I really want to make sure you take care of yourself. You take care of your family. And I was said, I really want to make sure you take care of yourself. You take care of your family. And I was like, okay. Did you get a sense that something was wrong with him?

Maybe, yes. Well, not a sense, but kind of wondered if maybe something was and then was he going to reveal something? Almost like he had some type of premonition about what was going to happen to him. That's what it felt like. Not only that, in the months before his death, Officer Williams says Lance asked Roswell Police to do a nightly check of his property.

We would go by and get out of our car and go do a specific home check, walk around the exterior of the home. What issues was he having that he needed these random checks by police of his house? That's one of the things that we weren't informed of. At the time I was just a patrolman, not a supervisor. He would have told the supervisor that I'm having trouble with an ex-wife.

I'm having trouble with a girlfriend. I'm having trouble with employees. I've had death threats, whatever it may be. So we would have to go by routinely and check on that home. As investigators continued their dive into Lance's stormy business life, they looked into his personal relationships too. She had some financial motives, perhaps, to want him dead. I do know that she was a beneficiary of a very large life insurance policy.

With little evidence at the crime scene, no fingerprints, no murder weapon, investigators were counting on Lance Herndon's autopsy to give them a lead. At first glance, the report didn't surprise them. The medical examiner said that Lance died from blunt force trauma to his head. He determined Lance had received a single non-fatal blow to the back of his head and multiple blows to the front and right side of his face that ultimately killed him. Were there any defensive wounds on Lance? Did he have a chance to even fight for his life? There was nothing visible.

It's like he didn't know that this was coming. Do you think he was asleep when this attack started? Yes, because he was laying on his side of the bed where he always slept. I believe that the first blow that was delivered to him would have been a blow that probably just would have kept you in that unconscious state. Yeah, because anyone who's awake is going to fight.

Yes, you're going to fight for your life. Investigators learned something else from the autopsy. They got a description of the murder weapon. The medical examiner determined it was solid and heavy with a rounded surface and a curved edge. And he made a guess as to what it could be. The medical examiner determined it was solid and heavy with a rounded surface and a curved edge. And he made a guess as to what it could be. Our medical examiner had actually worked a case similar to this

where an adjustable wrench or a crescent wrench had been used. So the detectives went back to the scene and searched his home. A housekeeper told them Lance had been using a wrench to assemble a piece of exercise equipment in his bedroom. So they go down to the basement area, to his shed, and Lance was very meticulous. He was a very neat person. He had every single tool drawn on his pegboard.

The only tool that was missing was a 16-inch adjustable crescent wrench. I mean, that is the fact that the medical examiner thought it might be a wrench and then a wrench is missing from his toolkit. You know, law enforcement doesn't believe in coincidences. No. There was a mark on his forehead where the little adjustable part from the middle, the little spiral part, it left that imprint on his forehead. Police needed to find that missing wrench. So once again they searched every inch of Lance's 4,000 square foot colonial and the surrounding area, including the Chattahoochee River behind his house. They didn't find it. If I had to guess and was a betting man, I would bet that

that wrench is still in the bottom of the Chattahoochee River. The autopsy contained another major clue. Based on the report from a blood spatter expert, the ME determined the likely position of the killer during the attack. The only way to reproduce the blood spatter evidence that we found at the crime scene was the position of the killer had to be on top of Lance in a straddling position, striking him. Clint Rucker, then an assistant district attorney, joined the case early on.

To him, a killer straddling Lance didn't sound like an angry business associate. This was a person that Lance would have been very familiar with. He was naked from head to toe, lying face up in his bed. Fair to say then that you're narrowing it down to a female likely, someone who Lance was intimate with. Right, right. The investigators quickly learned that Lance had quite a few girlfriends.

These were girls that Lance was calling regularly. He kept a card in his wallet with a few numbers on it of women that he liked to call. Lance loved women. And women liked Lance too. You're going to start going through lady by lady by lady down your list. Correct. That's right. One of the women on that list was Lance's ex-wife, Janine.

Yes. And when we looked at Janine, certainly there were some obvious motivations. Recently divorced, she had accused Lance of infidelity. It was the whole reason their marriage had ended. But like so many failed relationships, investigators learned it started out with such promise. Their son Harrison describes how his parents first met. My parents met in Brazil. They met under the statue of Christ, which I find to be pretty fantastic.

Janine was a flight attendant on a layover. Lance was on vacation. Harrison says for his mom, it was love at first sight. Your mom was quite bold. Yes. She was the at first sight. Your mom was quite bold. Yes. She was the one who approached him? Yes. She's like, I saw a tall, dark, and handsome man over there and decided to go say something. And as soon as I heard him speaking English, I had to go say something. So that's a pretty cool story. Talana remembers Lance telling her about this new woman in his life. He considered Janine

marriage material. When I met Janine, I just thought she was the most beautiful person I'd ever seen. Very exotic looking, very poised, very confident. Really a sweet person. I do believe in her heart. She loved Lance. But not long into the marriage, Janine found out about her husband's wandering eye. Lance cheated on Janine.

How did she handle that? I know she was upset, but I think she handled it with a lot of grace compared to what she had to deal with. After Harrison was born, Janine took her son and moved out. Eight months before Lance was killed, she ended their six-year marriage. And I guess she was just a little fed up. Investigators wondered, fed up enough to kill him? Officer Tommy Williams said they discovered

Janine might have had another reason to want Lance dead. She had some financial motives, perhaps, to want him dead. What did detectives learn about her? She was a beneficiary of a very large life insurance policy. Even though they were divorced, she was now set to collect $750,000. Janine admitted to investigators she knew the security code to Lance's house. But when they asked her where she was on the night he was killed,

she said she was nowhere near his place. She was at her home, a 20-minute drive away. She had company from a male companion who was a new person in her life who had come to the house and spent the evening with her there. While detectives tracked down Janine's alibi they moved on to other women in Lance's life. In particular the one in the photo that was faced down on the nightstand. If she had to be categorized in Lance's life, I guess we could call her perhaps his primary or his main girlfriend.

Her name, Kathy Collins, and her behavior at the crime scene put her front and center in the investigation. She's his girlfriend, and doesn't seem overly upset that he's dead? No, ma'am, she wasn't upset at all. Investigators were under pressure to solve the high profile murder case of Lance Herndon.

Weeks had passed with no arrest. Lance's inner circle wanted answers. I felt unsettled. I was upset. And you want someone to be held accountable for whoever did this to him. Absolutely, yeah. And neighbors in Roswell, the upscale Atlanta suburb, were on edge with a killer on the loose.

I've noticed my son, who's nine years old, has actually asked for a nightlight for the first time in years. And of course my wife is double checking the doors. Lance's friend, Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, stepped in. At a press conference with Lance's mother Jackie by his side, the mayor offered a $12,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case. As anyone that investigates a homicide knows, the longer you wait, the more difficult it is to find those who are responsible.

Police were working tirelessly running down leads and interviewing possible suspects. Based on the medical examiner's theory that Lance's killer straddled him during the murder, they focused on women who knew Lance intimately. One in particular was Kathy Collins, the woman whose photo was found face down at the crime scene. Lance's family and friends considered her his primary girlfriend. The one that he spent a considerable amount of time with, she was known to be a person that he was actively involved with. Investigators learned she was one of the women Lance had been sleeping with while married to Janine. The two had met at a music industry party in Los Angeles where she lived. She was kind of a go-getter. She's like, I know what I want and this is how I'm going to get it.

And Kathy, despite also being married, apparently wanted Lance. When Lance tells you that he's seeing Kathy while he's married to Janine, do you say anything? Do you have advice for him? Yeah, I always did, but he didn't listen. What'd you tell him? I was just like, that's not okay. That's not something you should do. And I was like, yeah, I'm gonna try.

I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna go to therapy. I'm doing this. Like he knew it was wrong. He knew he was wrong, but he could not help himself. Kathy ended her marriage, and after Lance split with his wife, she relocated from the West Coast to Atlanta.

She was the woman on his arm at his big birthday bash. Kathy graduated essentially from the other woman to the main woman. Is he buying her gifts? Oh gosh, yes. That's the way he expressed himself, is buying and giving things. And he had a Lotus and she would drive it.

She even moved a bunch of her stuff into his house, clothing, toothbrush. Yeah, she had everything there because she'd stayed there for a lot of times. Lance's friend Eva was never thrilled about his relationship with Kathy. To her, it seemed purely transactional. I just saw Kathy as someone that was involved with him

and enjoying the benefits of being with somebody that was powerful and had money. She was the one he took to public events and parties. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think it was more of, this is a person that looks good on my arm, and we travel together, we attend parties together and we look good together.

Was he interested in settling down with her or? No, because then he has other women in between. Okay, so the wandering eye doesn't go away with Kathy. Mm-mm. Investigators worked to determine if Kathy had any reason to want Lance dead. There was some talk that Lance might be cooling things off with Kathy, that she was maybe no longer going to be his main person.

And maybe that would have been the source of Kathy's consternation. A possible end to the lavish lifestyle Lance provided her. And investigators learned of another possible motive. She could have found out that Lance was cheating. Both motives were being investigated. The focus on Kathy had started the minute she showed up at Lance's house the day he was murdered. Kathy Collins did something that got the detectives' attention

at the crime scene. You know, Ms. Collins showed up at the scene demanding all of her personal property from a crime scene. You know, Ms. Collins showed up at the scene demanding all of her personal property from a crime scene. And she was, you know, didn't seem to care that Lance had been murdered. She's his girlfriend and she's, she doesn't seem overly upset that he's dead? No, ma'am. She wasn't upset at all.

She was more, you know, upset that she couldn't get her personal property back from a crime scene. And police say Kathy's demanding behavior continued. Just six days after Lance's murder, she sent a letter to the Roswell police requesting, quote, property from the Lance H. Herndon home. She asked for dozens of items, including clothing, sunglasses, photos, and bottles of expensive Merlot. It was just a very odd response from a person that we believed would have been close with Lance. But certainly it did suggest to us that perhaps there was more to meet the eye

about the nature of their relationship. And so it really did cause us to take a real hard look. Investigators grilled her about where she was on the night of the murder. There was a bit of a secret woven into Kathy's alibi, something that Lance didn't know about. Right, Kathy had begun seeing another gentleman. He was her alibi. At least that's what she told police.

On the night of this incident in which Lance would have been murdered, she traveled to the home of this gentleman and spent the rest of the evening. Investigators set out to confirm Kathy's story. In the meantime, they turned their attention to someone else on their list, the last person known to have seen Lance alive. Did they ask you, did you have known to have seen Lance alive. Did they ask you? Did you have anything to do with Lance's murder?

In the days after Lance Herndon's murder, investigators focused on his ex-wife and all the women he'd been dating at the time. But former prosecutor Rucker says there was one woman police were interested in who fell into a different category. You've already met her. Talana Caraway. We learned that Lance and Talana had been friends for a very long time. Initially, they started out as lovers. Talana freely admits she and Lance were sometimes more than friends.

We were friends with benefits for a minute. So things turned romantic for a hot minute? A hot minute. She says her 11-year friendship with Lance began when she was working as a bank teller. He came to her window to make a deposit. She says her 11-year friendship with Lance began when she was working as a bank teller. He came to her window to make a deposit. Do you remember that very first moment when he walks up to your station? I do.

He had, he told me his name and he looked at me and he goes, you're really pretty. I was like, ooh, thank you. And I just, because no one has ever really said that. Lance sent her flowers and later asked her to lunch. Things progressed from there, but she says she never thought of him as a boyfriend. According to Talana, their relationship evolved from romance to friendship.

It was almost like we were girlfriends. We would talk every day. He would not necessarily talk in a long conversation, but always touch base. Lance even loaned Talana's boyfriend cash to pay off a car. And when she was in need of money, Lance offered her a part-time job.

And it was that job that put her in police crosshairs. Turns out she was in Lance's home office the night of the murder. You're the last person, or one of the last people to see Lance. You were in a relationship with him at one time. You work for him. Right.

So naturally, you're someone that the police need to look at. Absolutely. Sure enough, a few days after the murder, police came to her door, startling her. I'm in the shower, and I hear this banging on my door, like they were trying to break it down. And I'm like, I'm soaking wet, I'm not going out there, I'm not going to answer the door. And so when I got in the shower, the first thing I did was call my attorney and let him know what was happening.

You weren't ready to talk to them right then and there in a surprise visit? No, not at all. What were you concerned about? Their aggression. If you heard them banging on my door the way you did, I don't think anybody would have opened the door. Did it scare you? It scared me a lot.

Your attorney calls the police for you, and I'm assuming they want you to come in. So you go in with the attorney. Did the police think that was odd that you had an attorney? They're like, why do you have an attorney already? Because you guys aren't always fair. And I didn't want my words twisted. So at least if I had a witness there with me, there would be, it would be okay. Did it raise a red flag that Talana already had an attorney when the police came to her place to talk to her?

I will say that there's kind of a feeling amongst investigators that if you're truly an innocent person, you should not need the protections of an attorney to kind of help you navigate your rights. When Talana sat down with investigators at the Roswell Police Department, they asked her to tell them everything she could remember from the night of the murder, starting with when she arrived at Lance's home office. I know it was around dusk. I went into the office.

He had a tape for me. I listened to that to see what I needed to do. And a lot of it was like a little data entry work, made some phone calls to leave messages. And then... Was anyone else working? Or just you? I was just the only one in the office at that time.

Did you see Lance at all? Yes, that night, yes. She says he came down to the office a few times to check in. What's Lance's demeanor like on this evening? Oh, he was very relaxed. He was excited because he was telling me about the woman that he had met, that was a teacher, and he wanted me to write this card. And, you know, it's like, I need a nice voice on the card, you know, that kind of thing.

So a new woman. Right. So a new woman. Right. So you're like his chat GPT of the 90s. It's that we were just going over scenarios of what to say and how this person would receive it and all of that. Talana finished writing the card, and Lance went back upstairs.

Do you remember approximately what time you left? I just know it was late, because it was dark. She recalls it was raining, and Lance was worried about her driving home. He checked up on you? Oh, yeah. He had told me, because especially that particular night, he was like, you call me when you get home.

And he called me before I actually called him. Around what time does he call you? It was closer to midnight almost, I think. She says she'd made it home by then, but missed the call because she was in the shower. Lance left a message on her machine. And what did he say on your machine? Just, you know, I just want to make sure

you got it home safely. I think I called him back and let him know I got the message and I was home. And we talked briefly. So this is around like 1130 midnight? Yeah. That part of her story was easy enough to verify. Investigators not only pulled her phone records...

They pulled the phone records of Lance Herndon, both calls going out from his house and calls coming into his house. Investigators weren't ready to clear her, but she'd given them an important piece of the timeline. And another thing she told them about the night of the murder piqued their interest. A woman had called asking for Lance repeatedly. Is she annoyed that he's not calling her back? Right.

Annoyed enough to show up at his house? Talana was sure the woman was on her way over. Lance's son Harrison has only vague memories of the dark days surrounding his father's murder. Just a little boy at the time, he mostly remembers how he wasn't allowed to watch TV. Because it was everywhere. Yeah, it was like on TV, it was like everywhere. And I think my mother and my grandmother did a very good job of trying to shield me

from like the horrificness of my dad's murder, frankly. Meanwhile, investigators were working around the clock trying to solve the murder, interviewing possible suspects and examining evidence. But so far, none of it had brought them any closer to making an arrest in the brutal murder of the millionaire businessman. Police were hoping DNA from the crime scene might give them the break they needed. There's a lot of evidence, ultimately, that they're asking us to test.

Barbara Retser, a forensic biologist, worked the case at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab, where they were testing those hair samples and other evidence connected to the case. One of the things that was important to this case were the fingernail clippings from Lance Herndon. Yes. They want to know, is there any foreign DNA present under the nails that could help them, you know, point to what happened or who possibly committed the crime.

Investigators knew Lance had no defensive wounds, so he would not have gotten DNA under his fingernails from fighting back. But Retser says there still could be DNA if Lance touched his killer. When the analysts ran the tests, he found nothing of interest from Lance's left hand. But then... He found that on three of the fingernails from his right hand that there was a mixture of DNA, and it was from Lance Herndon and an unknown individual.

Only trace amounts, but still a potential break in the case. Now, investigators needed to compare that DNA to their list of possible suspects. There was Janine, the ex-wife who stood to collect three-quarters of a million dollars. Kathy Collins, Lance's main girlfriend who he seemed to be phasing out. And Talana, Lance's close friend and confidant who police thought might be more than that. — We know she was the last person to see Lance alive before he was murdered. — Investigators asked Talana for samples of her DNA.

She agreed. — They took samples of her hair. — We got the DNA of all of the women that were potential suspects to look at whether or not they matched any of this evidence. But Talana told them about yet another woman. She said while she was working at Lance's office that evening, the phone rang several times. There were three separate individual calls that she reported to investigators

that they were really interested in trying to determine who this person was and what is it that they wanted with Lance Herndon and could they be involved in his murder. The first time the phone rang, Talana says Lance was upstairs. I answered the phone and she said, may I speak with Mr. Herndon? And I said, I'm sorry, he's not available.

Would you like to leave a message? She said, tell him I called. I said, and your name is? And she said, Dion. And I said, OK, I'll let him know. And so wrote the time down, wrote the message down. About an hour later. She calls back.

Is she annoyed that he's not calling her back? Right. I am assuming. Did it feel like that based on the tone of her voice? Between the fact that he wasn't there and I was answering the phone, yes. There was definitely a tone in her voice. And so the next time she called, she said,

may I speak with Mr. Herndon? I said, I'm sorry, he's not available. Would you like to leave a message? And she said, this is his girlfriend. I said, and your name? Wait, again? The second time? Yes. How did she take that? She wasn't very happy, but she still gave in your name. Wait, again? The second time? Yes.

How did she take that? She wasn't very happy, but she still gave me her name. So I said, I'll let him know you called. That was it. You like to stir the pot a little bit, huh? She was just annoying. Yeah. You know.

Talana says the woman tried a third time. By then, Lance was back in the office and took the call. And what did you overhear? He stepped't. He stepped out of the room. So I didn't hear anything. Talana suspected the woman was making plans to come over that night. Did you see Lance when he left? Yes, I did.

Was he with someone? No, he was moving Kathy's clothes out of the main bedroom into the hall closet. Hmm. What does that mean? I just looked at him and I shook my head because I knew exactly what it meant. It meant that he was giving me half company.

And it wasn't the kind of company Talana wanted Lance to keep. She thought this was a bad idea and told him so. What were your last words to him? Be careful. Literally. Really? He better be careful. You didn't realize how important those words would be? No, I didn't. I did not. So who was this mystery woman?

Police were about to find out. TALANA CAROWAY TALANA CAROWAY TALANA CAROWAY Talana Caroway had told investigators about another one of Lance Herndon's girlfriends she thought they should focus on. She's the one Talana was certain was coming over that night, who'd called Lance three times in the hours before his murder. I knew her name was Dionne Baw. So she's the frustrated caller.

She is, in fact, the frustrated caller. After hearing about her from Talana, police went to Dionne Baw's home to speak with her. She lets them in, and they sit down, and they begin to question her about her relationship with Lance. Dionne cried as she told them about her time dating the tech mogul. She indicated that Lance Herndon absolutely loved her. They were in a romantic, intimate relationship. But Dion said she wasn't at his home the night of the murder.

He was at hers. That he'd come by to loan her his laptop. The same laptop detectives had been looking for. She told them she was a college student and needed it for homework. Investigators collected it as evidence and left her apartment determined to learn more about her.

Dion was 27 and originally from Jamaica. She had been living in Atlanta for four years, attending Georgia State University. She was in school. She worked as an administrative assistant or executive assistant or something like that. Atlanta for four years, attending Georgia State University. She was in school. She worked as an administrative assistant or executive assistant or something like that. That assistant job was at MARTA, Atlanta's transportation agency. Dionne was also married with a young daughter.

When I first met her, I was under the impression that she was single, and then I found out later that she was actually married and that her husband was quite handsome. Quite. Her husband would often go out of town for weeks at a time as a pilot. And so she kind of got to live her own second life. Dion's second life always involved trying to get in with the beautiful people. Like the time she scored an invite

to Lance's big birthday bash four months before he was killed. Dionne wasn't on the original guest list, but her boss was. She felt comfortable asking her boss, what is this party and can you help me get in? He really didn't see an issue with it and kind of helped her finagle her way into getting an invite. Talana told police that's where Lance first met Dionne, and from the beginning, he wined and dined her, showered her with expensive gifts. He even leased a new silver Mercedes for Dionne to drive.

Talana says she picked it up. So I drove the Mercedes to his house, and I was like, okay, that was one of my errands. A short time later, Lance introduced her to Dionne. My take on her was immediately jealousy. You got a bad vibe immediately. Immediately, yes. I mean, she was like quizzing me as if I was going to take an exam on Lance.

And I was like, don't ask me. I said, we're friends. That's it. And she told Lance what she thought. I'll never forget. I told him that day, I was like, she is not the one. I said, she is a jealous woman. And he said, yeah, but she lets me do anything I want to in bed. Hearing all of this, the detectives asked Dion to come to the station for a formal recorded interview. If I know it's going to go on camera, I look better.

They go all the way back to the beginning and they talk to her about the development of her relationship with Lance. Did Lance support you? Just kind of, to a certain degree. How so? Well, he'd give me money every week. I mean, like, was it 50, 100?

Oh, no. What can a 50 dollar do that's latching on to me? Oh, no. Well, you have to to realize that's a problem to us. 50 dollars a place. That's the wheat grocery. No, sometimes it'd be 700, sometimes it'd be 500. Sometimes... Every week?

Um, basically. I'm a nice guy. Come here. Damn. I'm embarrassed. That's OK. I hope this is not on camera. The detectives thought Dion's giggly demeanor seemed strange for someone who had just lost

a boyfriend. She told them that at first she believed she was the only woman in Lance's life, but then she realized he was seeing others. She even caught him with one woman at his house. I went up there and I don't know who the woman was, but I drove in and she had her head wrapped in a towel. One towel like here so I could tell that she didn't have any clothes on because the towel was right here. And when I saw her I just shook my head. To investigators, Dionne did appear to be a jealous woman. But jealous enough to kill Lance?

They needed more details about her timeline for the night of the murder. She told detectives she dropped off her husband and daughter at the airport around 7 p.m., then headed home. That's when she says Lance stopped by her place to bring the laptop. What time did he come over to your house? I don't remember the exact time. That's when she says Lance stopped by her place to bring the laptop. This timeline doesn't match up with what Talana said about how late Lance had been working. Right, because in speaking to Talana Caraway, she indicates that she was

at the home consistently from about 6 p.m. until 10 30 p.m. when she leaves. And she indicates that Lance never left the house during that time period. Investigators believe they'd caught Dion in a lie. They kept pressing, zeroing in on that laptop. Did the computer have the case, the cover to it? No. Nothing? No, no. He just gave it to me, just like that. That didn't jive with what Lance's employees had told them. The people in the office said that the laptop has never, ever, I mean never, ever left that

office without the cover. That's not true. No, no, I don't know why they would tell me that. That is not true. I've borrowed that laptop on several occasions and most of the time when Lance gave it to me, it's out of that case. Dion was on the defensive.

They didn't believe Lance ever left his house that night. If there was a time to play hardball, police thought it was it. That couldn't possibly be true. I think you brought him into his house because we have proof that he was at his house. There's no way you could... But I never... I never... Do I need to get him to turn yourself in? She maintained consistently that she was not in Lance's home on the night that he was murdered. So detectives pushed it even further by saying this.

Are you aware that he has video surveillance cameras? No. In his office? No, why don't say. No. It was all a ruse. Lance didn't have any surveillance cameras at his home. Detectives were lying to her to try to get a confession.

Surveillance is showing that he was there until 10.30. Until 10.30. Detectives were lying to her to try to get a confession. Then, just as detectives be wrong. I mean, I don't know. I can't be specific about the time. Then, just as detectives thought they were closing in, Dion turned the tables on them. Did you see me on the surveillance camera? On the office? I had to read all the tapes here. Because I had to go through all this rigmarand with the attorneys and all this other stuff.

So I can't go through all that stuff. When I get these things, am I gonna see you on the tape? No, you are not. I was not there. And of course she wasn't caught on tape because there never were any cameras. So at the end of the interview, law enforcement officers did not have enough evidence

at that time to charge her with any crimes. And so she was released from custody. Detectives believe Dion was lying, but had no way to prove it. They were stuck until... We get a phone call that changes everything. Clint Rucker ticked through his list of possible suspects and began a process of elimination. The first person he could cross off? Lance's ex-wife Janine.

Detectives learned he'd been taking good care of her. Lance was consistently paying a good bit of money in monthly alimony and monthly child support. And so we just found that there really wasn't a solid financial motive for Janine. Detectives also looked into her alibi and confirmed she was at home with her new boyfriend on the night Lance was killed. Her alibi made sense. Her alibi completely made sense.

And she was eliminated as a suspect. Then there was Kathy Collins. Police thought her behavior in the wake of Lance's death did appear insensitive, but they concluded it wasn't really proof of anything. And Lance's friend Eva had a theory about that picture of Kathy that had been turned down in his bedroom that night. What does that say to you that that picture was down? Apparently Kathy wasn't the most important person in the room.

So it says Kathy probably wasn't there that night that he was killed. Yeah, yeah. Police agreed. Kathy had a solid alibi, too. They tracked down that secret boyfriend of hers. He said they'd spent the night together. Because of her alibi with her new found gentleman friend, we were able to eliminate her as a suspect.

As for Talana Caraway, detectives had found it strange that she showed up with a lawyer when they interviewed her. Did they ask you, did you have anything to do with Lance's murder? Yes. Point blank, yes, they did. And the answer was no.

Those phone records police obtained showed Lance called Talana at home at 11 31 p.m. and spoke with her for several minutes, just like she'd told detectives. We were able to eliminate her based on the phone records and her alibi. So police were able to clear Janine, Kathy, and Talana. Then that kind of left us with Dionne Baw,

who we put a bit rigged circle around because we were not able to eliminate her. Dionne Baw, Lance's newest girlfriend who'd been tough in that interrogation room. She had the opportunity to do this. We caught her in several lies. And that wasn't all they had. Police searched their files and learned Lance had reported a trespasser outside his house a month before he was killed. You weren't expecting anybody, I take it, from out of town or anything? No. Just need to go away.

Okay. Do you know if it's a male or female? I don't know. Okay. Officer Tommy Williams responded to the call on one of his regular drive-bys that night. As I was pulling onto Mr. Herndon Street, our dispatcher gave a call saying that someone was at the home banging on the door. Williams approached a car he saw in Lance's driveway. And I happened to shine my flashlight in the car and I saw

partial of a person's arm or leg sticking out from underneath a black coat on the back floorboard of this car. So I immediately stepped back, gave verbal commands to he or she, whoever it was, to display your hands. It was Dion, but that incident and her lies in the interrogation weren't enough for police to pin a murder on her. With no evidence to put Dion at the crime scene, Rucker and his team were at a standstill, and the case dropped out of the news. I mean, more than a year and a half goes by, and there's no arrest. It was horrible. We just felt like nothing was being done.

And I can remember, you know, reaching out to the Roswell Police Department, and they had already interviewed suspects that they had, and it just seemed like nothing was being done. And the fact that this person is still out there. Absolutely. That they're maybe free to kill again or, you know. Absolutely.

It's a huge puzzle. It's a thousand piece puzzle or more. And, you know, we put everything together the best that we could to try and solve this case. We just needed a little break. Then, in January 1998, a year and a half after Lance's murder, they got a big one. A phone call came in. On the line, Dion's husband, Sean Nelson. He told police that he and his wife were getting a divorce, and one recent argument had turned ugly.

She made the statement to her husband that she was intimate with Mr. Herndon and that they had an argument and that they had a fight and that she said she would kill him, her husband, the same way she killed Lance. I was absolutely shocked. If this is true, it is huge. It is. This can change everything for you now with the course of this investigation. Right, because now I've got statements

out of the mouth of Dionne Barr herself, which are very incriminating. But the prosecutor still needed more. After speaking with Dionne's husband, Rucker learned she was set to testify in an Atlanta divorce court. So he went to the trial to be a fly on the wall and heard this curveball. During her testimony under oath,

she maintained to the judge, after vigorous questioning, that her relationship with Lance Herndon was merely platonic. That completely contradicted the relationship she described to detectives. Caught in another lie. Caught in another lie. Caught in another lie.

It was just a friendship. He was like a mentor. And as she began testifying about the night of the murder, she told a whole new story. It was a whopper. She now told the judge and divorce court that she actually traveled to Lance's house to obtain a laptop computer.

And by saying that, she then put herself at the crime scene. A complete reversal of what she told police. Now, Rucker believed he had enough evidence, but time was ticking. He feared Dion might head back to her native Jamaica after the divorce case. There was a large concern that she would flee the country and then be unavailable to us for

prosecution. And so the decision was made to arrest Dionne Baw as she left the courthouse on the evening of her testimony during the divorce trial. You don't mess around. This was quick. Well, it was important. Police set up a traffic stop along Dionne's route home from court, pulled her over and arrested her.

What was that moment like when you got that word of that? Basically, it's about time. Finally. You thought all along that Dion was responsible for Lance's murder. I did. We were just so elated because we felt like, finally, finally she's arrested, thank God. But the prosecutor knew getting a conviction wouldn't be easy. There was no direct evidence.

There were no eyewitnesses. There were no fingerprints. There was no murder weapon found in her possession. And so it was a real uphill battle. An uphill battle with a defense team geared up for war. They don't know if Lance Herndon was murdered by a jealous husband of any number of women he was dating. They don't know. Entrepreneur Lance Herndon was only 41 when he was beaten to death in his bedroom.

The state versus Mrs. Dionne Andrea Baugh. Five years later, his lover Deon Baugh was on trial for his murder. Eva, Lance's longtime friend, was there for it all. It was pretty difficult to sit there in the courtroom with witnesses and I kept looking over to the left, seeing Deon. Clint Rucker was the lead prosecutor.

What did you want the jury to know in your opening statements, right off the bat, in this case? The thing I wanted to communicate to the jurors is that Dion Ball actually targeted Lance Hermden. The evidence will show you. Rucker told jurors in his opening remarks that Dion was pure evil, a woman who had an ugly thirst for the finer things in life, a description that didn't sit well with her.

It is a tragic case of a greedy and controlling woman who targets a rich and powerful man. Dion's attorney fired back in his opening statement, telling jurors the state's case lacked a key element, evidence. The state cannot tell you a murder weapon that killed Lance Herndon. They have no fingerprints of my client. They have no blood evidence related to my client.

As the trial got underway, Rucker argued his theory that Dion felt Lance was done with her, so she killed him in a fit of rage, then stole from him. There were three things of real high value and significance that proved to be missing and all consistently in the possession of Dion Ball. I categorized them as the three Cs. Each one gave Rucker a chance to tell jurors a story.

He said the first C was for Lance's computer, that expensive laptop. The jury heard Dion tell police in her interview that Lance dropped off the laptop at her house. What time did he come over to your house? Um, I don't remember the exact time. It was somewhere between 9 and 1030. That couldn't have happened, Rucker told the jurors,

because phone records backed up Talana's version of events, that she answered three calls from Dion between 9 and 1030 when Lance was home. The second seat was for one of Lance's credit cards that police discovered was missing from his bedroom. A few hours after Lance's body had been found, there was a very expensive credit card charged for dining room furniture to the tune of several thousand dollars that was made by Dionne Ball. If she's the killer and she's taking the credit card, that is cold. If you're out shopping for furniture after you bludgeoned a man to death.

Right. Everything about this case suggests that this was done by a cold-blooded, calculated, heartless individual. Then came the third C, the fancy car. Dionne Baw had possession of Lance's brand new Mercedes Benz. — The prosecution had evidence Dionne may have been scheming to keep the car. A state special agent testified about an unusual letter he found.

— What was that document then? — This was in the Mercedes and her pocketbook. — It was addressed to whom it may concern, and said Lance was not able to update his will. But in the event of his death, the Mercedes should be released to Dion. It was unsigned. State Exhibit 176. And the agent found something else in her purse, physical evidence that he believed tied her to the crime scene. This is a close-up showing a large amount of gum wrappers contained in her purse.

He told the jury investigators found similar wrappers littered across Lance's driveway the morning of the murder. It's very heavy and it's also somewhat of a broad surface. The medical examiner showed jurors the type of heavy wrench the prosecution claimed killed Lance. As Eva sat in the courtroom, she remained hopeful, even though she knew it was an entirely circumstantial case. — I wanted to believe so badly that justice would be served and she would be convicted. I think knowing that circumstantial evidence, there is a chance she would get off.

I didn't really want to believe that. Three days into the trial, the prosecutor launched into the forensic evidence. I can determine whether a hair could have or could not have originated from a particular source. He called an expert who said two of the hairs found in Lance's bed were a likely match to Dion's hair. And Barbara Retser, the state forensic biologist, testified about that DNA found under Lance's fingernails. What did you find when you compared Dion Baw's DNA

to the DNA sample from under Lance's fingernails? Well, on those three fingernails, Lance Herndon's DNA matched part of the mixture, and Dion Baw's DNA matched the remaining mixture. — The chances of this DNA being from someone else, the stats are pretty clear. — About one in 100 billion. — There were no matches to Talana, Janine, or Kathy.

Still, the expert couldn't pinpoint when Dion's DNA got under Lance's nails. — Between the night of the murder and a few days before, I couldn't say. The prosecution knew the DNA result wasn't a slam dunk. After all, Lance and Dion had been lovers, shared his bed. I believe it was around 5.52 in the mornings. But then Officer Tommy Williams took the stand.

He shared that story about Dion banging on Lance's door one month before his death. He testified it was actually the second time police were called that night about the banging. So he told Dionne she was under arrest for trespassing. That's when he said she snapped. And the fight was on. I mean, it was, it was, oh yes. Once we get her in the car, she's beating and banging and kicking the cage and the windows was on. I mean, it was, it was, oh, yes. Once we get her in the car, she's beating and banging and kicking the cage and the windows and stuff.

What did you learn about why Dion was so upset? Dion was peering into Lance's window, and she saw Kathy Collins walking through the home in a towel. And that's what had her upset. And this story gave the prosecutor yet another motive for why Dion killed Lance. He told the jury she was to appear in court

for that trespassing incident the day he was murdered. Speaking with people very close to Lance, he was going to use this criminal trespass case as a way to say, hey, if you don't leave me alone, I'm going to go forward with these charges. Prosecutor Rucker argued Dion was worried Lance wasn't going to help her out of those charges. So she went to his house looking for assurances.

When he refused, she waited for him to fall asleep and then used that wrench from his bedroom to repeatedly strike him in the head. The actions of Dion Bopp really painted for the jury a picture of who Dionne Barr really was. Really violent, a very obsessive person with respect to Lance Herndon. As the state rested its case, the defense was ready to fight back, and it had something up its sleeve. Forensic evidence that raised the question, was there someone else in Lance's bed that night?

That's almost the definition of reasonable doubt, right? Dionbaugh was facing the prospect of life behind bars, and her defense team was determined to stop that from happening. Her attorneys told jurors investigators zeroed in too quickly on Deanna that Lance lived a risky double life with a lot of enemies. They don't know if Lance Herndon was murdered by one of his other girlfriends, by a jealous husband, of any number of women he was dating, whether he was killed by somebody that was mad at him in conjunction with his business, they don't know. Any number of people might have had a motive to want Lance dead.

Yeah, absolutely. Lance had a secret life. Multiple secret lives, yes. Dion's attorneys hired criminal defense investigator Charles Middlestadt to dig into the case. I've always described Lance Herndon as sort of an iceberg. What we saw on the surface was just a very small percentage of what was going on in his life. The defense pressed that point during cross-examination of Lance's ex-wife, Janine Herndon.

You also told Det. Anastasio that he had a lot of enemies. Yes. Did you know the particular people that you were talking about? People that disliked him. Were they of a personal nature, a business nature, a combination? I would think more, a little bit of both. Take Lance's company, the one most thought was successful but was actually failing. While he had a very crafted persona, you know, there were things behind the scenes that perhaps

were not as good as he'd like other people to think. Hallease Duber said her boss had been dealing with some questionable business associates, and one person stood out. I believe Lance said he thought the man was crooked. That Lance did business with you? Correct. Dion's attorneys argued the police didn't take that lead seriously, or do a deep dive into some of his other business dealings,

like that nightclub. They pressed Lance's girlfriend, Kathy Collins, about the club. To establish more reasonable doubt, the defense pointed the finger at the last known person to see Lance alive, Talana Caraway. You're the alternate theory here for the defense as a killer. — Of all people, you know, the thing about it is I wouldn't have a reason to kill him because he was always on my side. He'd always help me out.

So why would I want to take that away? I wouldn't. But maybe Talana's boyfriend would. The defense made sure jurors heard about that money he owed Lance. And one of Lance's neighbors testified that he saw a suspicious man in a light-colored compact car around 4 45 a.m. near Lance's house

the morning he was killed. Talana had a similar-looking car. Dion's attorney pressed the lead detective on why he didn't investigate the boyfriend. Besides Dion, the defense argued police didn't look for other women in Lance's life beyond Talana, Janine, and Kathy. The Roswell Police Department only identified essentially three women that he was involved with. As defense attorneys chipped away at the state's case,

they also pointed out police never found the murder weapon. In fact, the wrench prosecutors showed in court it was a prop they picked up at Home Depot. I mean, they literally bought the murder weapon because it simply didn't exist. The medical examiner testified even though he theorized a wrench was used to kill Lance. He couldn't be 100% sure.

So you're not telling this jury to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that it was that wrench? Oh, no, not at all. I cannot tell you that, no. That would be a stretch, wouldn't it? Yes. Then, evidence Dion's attorney said was a game changer. Two unknown strands of hair found in Lance's bed. We just know factually from the two unidentified hairs that were in his bed that he had other intimates,

that they never could match to anybody, so not to any of the other known lovers. And so that automatically, that's almost the definition of reasonable doubt, right? As for the hairs that were a match to Dion and her DNA under Lance's fingernails, the defense argued that should surprise no one in the courtroom.

They were lovers, and so that's just circumstantial evidence. It does not in any way time stamp when they were together, when she was last there. And Lance's laptop, the one the prosecution made a big deal about? Even its own witnesses admitted Lance often lent it to Dion and freely let his girlfriends use his credit cards. Were you aware that he had lent or allowed many people that he dated to use his credit cards? — Yes.

— So that was not an unusual thing that he did? — No. — Had defense attorneys created enough reasonable doubt for Dionne Bada be found not guilty? As they rested, there would soon be a verdict. But would that be the end of the case? The first thing I thought was, this is unbelievable. This cannot be happening. Closing arguments were underway in the Fulton County, Georgia, courthouse.

The decision you make in this case will affect this woman every day for the rest of her life. The last chance to convince jurors of Dionne's innocence or guilt. Now where is the evidence that she's killed someone? Defense attorneys returned to their main argument. Prosecutors lacked evidence. Take the violent crime scene. They asked why didn't the police have any blood evidence connected to Dion? There is no blood on the defendant's car, clothes, shoes, or laptop in this case.

There are no fingerprints in the blood. All the things, the bedsheets, the clock, there's none of that. The issue for me has always been that the violence and the gruesomeness that is associated with this crime, you would have been covered in blood. You would almost have to be a CSI clean-up expert to be the perpetrator and walk away from that scene,

get in your own vehicle, get back to your own home, and have no trace of that, no DNA, no biological evidence transferring. It's almost unbelievable. And Dion's attorney told jurors, despite what they heard from the prosecution, Dion and Lance were on good terms. There's no prior threat of harm.

None. She did not kill Lance Herndon. Prosecutor Rucker would have the final word in his closing arguments. The killer sits in this courtroom. He stitched together all the crime scene evidence, taking the jury through a dramatic step-by-step narrative of how he believed an unhinged Dionne Bough killed Lance. She arrived at the house sometime after midnight.

They would have had sex. I believe that Lance drifted off to sleep. I believe that she would have obtained that wrench. She would have crawled onto the bed, straddled him, and she would have used her hands to strike him in the head and the face. After she killed Lance, she unplugged the alarm clocks. She turned the picture of Kathy Collins down on the nightstand. I believe she went through Lance's wallet and removed the credit card. She went down into the office. She decided to take the laptop computer. She went out through the garage. I think that she dropped a series of silver chewing gum wrappers as she got the keys out of her purse

to get into her car to leave. She went home and pretended like she didn't know anything about it. With that, the case was in the jury's hands. Were you feeling confident when the jury went out to deliberate? I was feeling confident. Yes, I was. After about five hours of verdict.

We the jury found a defendant, Deon Ball, guilty of murder. Deon was also found guilty of theft of the laptop and financial fraud for using Lance's credit card. It was one of the greatest days of my life. She was convicted of murder. I felt like justice has been served. She's going to prison for the rest of her life. Did you look over at Dion?

I sure did. What was the look on her face? I think she was so solemn. It was as if she wasn't affected by any of it. Everyone thought that was the end of it. But two years later, a huge development. Georgia's Supreme Court overturned the conviction. It said the trial court allowed improper hearsay evidence from the lead detective.

And the first thing I thought was, this is unbelievable. This cannot be happening. In October 2003, Dionne went on trial a second time. I thought that nothing really had changed in terms of our theory. And I didn't believe that the defense attorneys had really come up with an explanation that would adequately explain the inconsistencies in Dion's testimony, her statements, and her possession of the laptop computer. Jures deliberated for five days. Then they sent the judge a message.

I got a note just a few minutes ago that says, Judge Baxter, the jury is hopelessly deadlocked, signed by the foreperson, and I'm going to bring them out, declare a mistrial. The jurors were 11 to 1. Rucker says it was 11 to 1 guilty. So the only thing we have left is to try and tee it up a third time and have a third trial. Unbelievable.

It's one of the most unusual and bizarre experiences I've ever had professionally. But Rucker had a problem. The special agent on the case had passed away, and Lance's mother said she didn't want to go through another trial. So he offered Dion a plea deal. We would resolve the case by allowing Dion Ball

to plead guilty and receive a sentence much less than she would ordinarily receive if she were found guilty of murder. 10 years. We agreed to assert, to give her a sentence of ten years, yep, on a charge of manslaughter. Lance's friends were devastated that Dionne got such a light sentence. Too short. Way too short.

You took somebody's life. You took somebody's father. You took somebody's son. Today, Dionne is a free woman. She was released from prison in 2011. And now, so many years later, Lance's son has a message about his father's legacy. This is not the story of a negative, this is not the story of a murder

and how a family was destroyed. This is a story of Lance Herndon created a, a path of entrepreneurship for African Americans that maybe wasn't there, and look how we're continuing this. Harrison Herndon is married and is now CEO of his own marketing agency. There's a whole other world out there where you can be a very successful entrepreneur, and I'm happy to tell that story. I can be vengeful, I can look indiana, I can be upset, or I can say, Lance may be the man

that I am today, and I am so proud and happy to be here. And I think your dad would be so proud of you. Thank you. Seeing Lance and making Lance proud is the most important thing for what I do in my life. It really is. That's all for this edition of Dateline. And check out our Talking Dateline podcast.

Andrea Canning and Josh Mankiewicz will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, available Wednesday in the Dateline feed wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lester Holt for all of us at NBC News. Good night.