Dateline NBC - The Sisterhood

Episode Date: October 4, 2022

After the death of 44-year-old mother Stacy Feldman in her Denver home is ruled as “undetermined,” friends and family join forces to piece together what happened. Keith Morrison reports.If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or visit www.thehotline.org.Listen to Josh Mankiewicz and Keith Morrison discuss the making of the episode in “Talking Dateline: The Sisterhood” here: https://link.chtbl.com/tdl_talkingdlthesisterhood

Tonight, on Dateline. The school was calling her, and she didn't pick up. Center 911. Please, my wife's not breathing, please! He said, Stacy's dead. I said, what? It appears she had fallen in the shower and somehow drowned. None of us are seeing anything that says, this looks like a murder.

What happened when the autopsy came back? Undetermined death. She was 44 years old, young and healthy. You don't just die, you have to die for a murder. What happened when the autopsy came back? Undetermined death. She was 44 years old, young and healthy. You don't just die. You have to die for a reason. Did you have anything to do with it? Absolutely not. I left my wife's chair with me.

There were red flags. There was a dating site open on the computer. People shower with a watch on, but I wouldn't think this type of watch. I was sitting at the grave, and I had a chill come over me. And she said to me, Susan, something's not right. Could I have done something? Could I have said something? I was not going to stop until I got justice for Stacy.

Get ready to learn about a murder that didn't look like one until someone took a closer look. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Keith Morrison with The Sisterhood. Some cases come together so quickly. The puzzle pieces just snap into place. The fingerprints. The blood spatter. The DNA.

That is not this story. At this point, it feels like a bad dream that I can't wake up from. It's been a journey. Yes, a long journey. But more than that, a fight for answers, for the truth. There's no way a 44-year-old woman who's otherwise healthy die for no reason. So then it was like, okay, something is not right. That doesn't make sense. That doesn't happen.

It would take seven years and a chorus of voices, women, friends, family, even strangers stepping up. A sisterhood bound by one goal. To answer the dreadful question, what killed Stacey Feldman? I knew immediately when I saw the date that that was the reason she was dead. She grew up Stacey Melman in Muncie, Indiana, the youngest of three sisters. In the middle was Susan. The three of us were very close. She was the baby.

And she was the baby of the family. Daddy's little girl. She was girly, reveled in it, loved the color pink, and loved to have fun. What was she like? The life of the party, giving, loving, I mean, just fun. Stacey spent her mid-twenties in Chicago, where she met Jan Goldenberg, a mutual friend introduced them. She opened the door and was so warm and welcoming that I instantly felt comfortable. And I could say that probably from that day on, we were inseparable.

In 1998, Stacey moved to Boston to help out her sister Susan Altman, who had just given birth to her first child. And she was our nanny for six months. When it came to children, Stacey was a natural. And as she entered her 30s, she was itching for a family of her own. She wanted more than anything to be a mom. So was she actively looking for a mate? She was. She was. You know, her friends were getting married, they were having children, and the time was ticking for her. It just so happened

a friend of Jan Goldenberg was eager to play matchmaker. Because as I said, everyone loves Stacey. And she lit up a room with her bright blue eyes and her blonde hair and her smile. Stacey agreed to the setup with a man named Bob Feldman. After she went on her first date with him, she came home and she was very enamored of him. He was charismatic. Yeah, he made his way into her heart. They got married at the Ritz in Montreal. It was like a fairy tale.

She had a crown as part of her veil. She really wanted that. And of course, she wanted children. A year later, she got her wish. A girl followed by a boy. By then, the family had settled in the suburbs, the Denver, Colorado suburbs, where Stacy, as usual, made new friends,

like Linda Blaustein. We were part of this Jewish baby university that they have there, which is basically just, you know, your childbirth class plus a little bit of, like, Jewish, I guess, education, you know, for parents thrown in. We hit it off right away. Stacy and Linda joined a music class with their new babies. Brenda Case was there, too.

When I met Stacy at our baby music class, you know, we all just had babies, so you couldn't fit in clothes anymore. Stacy said she needed a dress for an event. And I said, I've got this dress. It's like the amazing dress. You can wear it if you're size 6 or, like, size 14. It doesn't matter. And I said, come over to my house and try it on.

So we just kind of connected. Their very own sisterhood of the traveling dress. So she borrowed it multiple times throughout, you know, our friendship. The Feldmans doted on their children. Bob was a soccer coach for his son. Stacey, president of the parent-teacher organization of their school. I would always say, I wish Stacy was my mom. I mean, she was just good at it all. Stacy did struggle with some medical issues like rheumatoid arthritis and chronic neck pain.

She was a soldier. You know, she marched ahead. When it came to her kids and her community, Stacy was a soldier. You know, she marched ahead. When it came to her kids and her community, Stacey was all in. You were having a surgery, I'm going to cook for you, I'll come over, I'll hang out, we'll watch movies. You know, she just wanted to just do things for people. A backyard pool happens to be a bit of a rarity in Denver. But Bob and Stacey were lucky enough to have one of their own, a secluded oasis surrounded by tall trees. Their pool, I mean, it was just a revolving door of friends and family coming over. Stacey loved holidays. Doesn't matter which one. Doesn't matter which one.

Any reason to celebrate and cook and enjoy each other's company. She would make the most out of every holiday. The celebration of Purim is would make the most out of every holiday. Still in the game. The celebration of Purim is one of the most festive Jewish holidays. It's an extra special one for kids marked by costumes and carnivals. Try one more time. Special dessert treats called hamantashen. March 1, 2015 was a big day, the Purim Carnival at the Feldman Synagogue. Bob said he dropped the kids off for religious school at 8.30 that morning,

and then the plan was for Stacy to pick them up at noon and take them to the carnival. But pick-up time came and went. And she didn't arrive, and so the school was calling her, and she didn't arrive. And so the school was calling her, and she didn't pick up. So they called Bob, and he fetched the kids and took them to the carnival. He said they all got home around 3 p.m.

The shower in the master bathroom was running. Bob went upstairs. And then he says that's when he found her. What do I do? Please help me! What happened to Stacey Feldman? Help arrives within minutes and soon so does a detective. When we come back. None of us are seeing anything that says this looks like a murder. But this was odd. It's gold and silver, a dress watch. And there are people that shower with a watch on, but I wouldn't think this type of watch.

It was 3.21 p.m., March 1st, 2015. Oh my God, I need help. Please help me. Please. The man on the phone, desperate, panicked, was Bob Feldman. Please, my wife's not breathing. Please. Who told the 911 operator he'd found his wife Stacy collapsed in the shower. Count out loud so I can count with you. Over the phone, the operator instructed Bob in CPR. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

Please help me, please. Help is on the way, sir. Please help me, you're doing good. Fire and paramedics arrived within minutes. They found Stacy on the bathroom floor, unresponsive. They attempted every life-saving measure to no avail. There was no signs of life. Not from the get-go?

No. This man is Randy Dennison. He hurried over there pretty quickly when he heard. This is reported initially as some type of medical event that she had fallen in the shower and somehow drowned. Not the sort of case he'd hear about in the normal run of things, given that Randy Dennison was a veteran Denver police homicide detective. But something unusual about this medical event.

Just the fact that she was only 44 when she died and that and she was reportedly found in the bathtub. Dennison arrived at the Feldman home an hour and a half after the 911 call. I met with our officers that were on the scene and was briefed by them. Detective Dennison found Bob downstairs, surrounded by relatives and clergy members. So he pulled Bob aside, asked him what happened that day.

Bob, still upset, told what he could remember. That he drove the kids to religious school. That when Stacy failed to pick them up, he did, then took them to the carnival. He told you that he left at 8.30 that morning. Yes. And didn't come back until 3 or so in the afternoon. Right, and returned home to find her unresponsive in the shower

with the water running and the water was cold. Bob said he pulled Stacy out of the tub and called 911. But fog of panic, maybe? Details were fuzzy. He told me he couldn't remember if she was face up or face down. Bob told Denison he and Stacy had attended a party the night before and she'd taken some marijuana edibles. That was about the time, too, that marijuana was legalized in Colorado, and there was a lot of problems with it originally because people were consuming too much and having issues. Or, Bob suggested, it might have been

something deeper. After all, Stacey had a laundry list of medical problems and took several prescription medications. He said that she had rheumatoid arthritis and that she had recently had some injections in her cervical spine for nerve pain. Detective Dennison listened and then asked if he could look around, but there wasn't much of a suspicious nature to see. There was nothing to indicate that some intruder had broken in and done this, or there was no area where you saw a fight and blood spatter, or, you know, things knocked over, anything like that. So he went to the master bathroom, where Bob said he'd pulled his wife out of the tub. The floor was dry by the time Denison saw it. In the tub, a damp washcloth was crumpled on the drain.

A metal shower caddy shelf had fallen to the bottom of the tub and some shampoo bottles were scattered about. Then he went into the bedroom, where first responders had tried and failed to revive Stacy. Her body was still there. And right away, he was struck by her injuries. What kind of injuries? Mostly bruises and abrasions, just really all over her body.

Her face, her nose, her forehead, her arms under her bicep, tricep area, and then abrasions along her abdomen area. So there was quite a bit. Bob did say he had to pull Stacey out of the tub. And she had some abrasions on her body that could be consistent with being drug across the rail or the frame for the shower doors. And then he spotted them. Stuck on Stacy's body might explain everything.

She had two transdermal fentanyl patches on her. Fentanyl? A valuable painkiller, yes, and perhaps these were treating Stacy's nerve pain, the issue Bob told him about, but why two? I thought, well, maybe we have an accidental drug overdose here. Maybe

she put two fentanyl patches on and she shouldn't have had that much. So maybe this wasn't a case for him after all. He didn't see any reason to treat this as a crime scene. Seal the house, start recording interviews, nothing like that. None of us are seeing anything that says this looks like a murder right now.

And then something quite odd caught Detective Denison's eye. Stacy had been wearing a watch in the shower. Must have been. It was still on her wrist. And not just any kind of watch, either. It's gold and silver, a dress watch. And there are people that shower with a watch on. But I wouldn't think this type of watch. So, drug overdose, accident, medical issue,

or something else altogether. Detective Dennison needed to send this body to autopsy. A medical examiner could get to the bottom of things. Maybe. Coming up. I was sitting at the grave, crying, and I had a chill come over me. A message from Stacy? And she said to me, Susan, something's not right and you have to was at home outside Boston when the phone rang.

It was her father. And the news was unthinkable. He said, Stacey's dead. And I said, what? And he said, Stacey's dead. And I was waiting for him to say she was in a car accident, because I just talked to her the day before. She was going to a party. She was feeling good.

And he said, I don't know. And I hung up the phone and was hysterical. In Denver, Stacy's friends traded messages of shock and grief that within a few minutes had morphed into a plan to do for Stacy's family what she had so generously done for them. I thought, okay, what do we do? How do we help Bob? How do we help the kids? So everybody just all hands on deck, like what can we do? It was unbelievable because there wasn't really an understanding of what happened. It seems strange somehow.

Announcements of sudden death often include a reference to cause, heart attack, stroke, overdose. But not the sudden death of Stacey Feldman. Cause unknown. As her sister and family raced to Denver and struggled to make sense of it. Her health wasn't the best, and she spent the last year not feeling so great. She had a ski accident and hurt something, and she fell off a ladder at the school and, you know, broke some ribs. And the investigators found those two fentanyl patches on her skin, so maybe without intending to, she'd overdosed.

Or maybe her death was just a pure accident. Balls in the shower are not uncommon. Sister Susan heard Stacey had slipped on the ice the night before. Maybe she'd hit her head. You know, a brain injury that you don't go to the hospital, but it kills you. The list of possibilities was depressingly long. Detective Randy Dennison hoped the medical examiner's office could provide the answer. I attended the autopsy the following day.

They're examining the body and looking at everything really carefully. But they'd have to wait for the final autopsy report. And meanwhile, Stacy's family made arrangements for her funeral and gathered in Denver to say goodbye. We are spinning

from the shock of her sudden and tragic death. This is audio from the funeral service, where the rabbi sounded as lost as friends and family. There are no explanations. There is only a numb silence. Two young children, now motherless, sat beside their father. And to you, Bob, these moments are not fair.

May all that you have had with her, all those memories, may they bring you strength in days to come. All those people Stacy touched filled the room to pay their respects. I was wearing the dress for her funeral. The dress. The one they shared for so many happy occasions.

Over the years, we would always do these amazing things and wear it, and then, you know, I couldn't believe it, but I was going to wear it the day that we buried her. I couldn't own what was happening. It was watching her family and her little kids. Nobody should go through that. Susan stayed in Denver for two weeks. The day before she left, she visited Stacy's grave with one of her aunts.

One last chance to say goodbye. And I was sitting at the grave crying. And I had a chill come over me. She felt like her baby sister wanted to tell her something, almost as if she could hear Stacey's voice. And she said to me, Susan, something's not right, and you have to do something about this. Coming up. We were quite surprised to see that there was a dating site open on the computer. A marriage in trouble.

Somebody was stepping out. It was an ugly, ugly situation. Susan Altman sat at her sister Stacy's grave and thought about things, things that never did feel right, ever since Stacy married Bob Feldman. It was always a struggle for her. It was always a struggle. I do. Opposites sometimes attract, and Bob was a devoted father.

But when she thought about hard-working, community-minded Stacy, and then him? What was his level of ambition in life, as far as you could tell? He didn't have any. I mean, he was always trying to get a free buck. Little stories Stacy had told her, like how Bob would sometimes bring a broken suitcase to the airport. And then take the suitcase off, you know, the carousel. And then he would take it to the customer service and say, you broke my suitcase and I want a new one. And because of my

pain and suffering, I want a more expensive one. Would he get them? All the time. Wow. All the time. What did she think about it as she realized what he was doing? She put up blinders. She wanted those children so badly, and she was getting older, and she just wanted to make it work so badly. Bob worked for a wholesale meat distributor, but the couple struggled financially. Supposedly he was a salesman, but he never made enough money. So Stacy went back to work for a charitable organization. She stopped being a stay-at-home mom. She got herself a job. How did she feel about that? She did what she had to do. Stacey's commitment to Bob, to the kids, was never in doubt. But Bob,

on the other hand? A few years into their marriage, it was a special birthday of mine, and another girlfriend from Chicago and I flew out to Denver to celebrate. Jan and her friend decided to check the dating website they'd been using. So they borrowed Bob and Stacey's computer. And we were quite surprised to see

that there was a dating site open on the computer with his profile. His profile is somebody actively using a dating site? Actively using. In fact, he had a date that evening. Wait a minute, he's married to your friend? I was shocked. As much as I had concerns, my concerns were more, he's not holding up his end of the bargain here in a relationship. He's not working, He's not supporting his... He's gone on a date, for God's sake.

Well, and so that took it to a different level. Sure. Did you tell her? We did not. We discussed it. We discussed it with others who were close to her and decided that, let's wait. Let's play this out. Let's see what happens.

Oh, it did play out. According to Jan, Stacy said, one day a woman showed up on her doorstep and told her Bob had been giving her money. And of course, having been with her sexually, it was an ugly, ugly situation. She must have been like completely, what is it they say, gobsmacked. She had no idea. Blindsided. Disgusted. Actually disgusted. Stacy told friends she thought about leaving him. They separated a few times. She even saw a divorce attorney at one point.

He always lured her back. He would say, I'm going to change, and we're going to go to therapy, and, you know, we're going to have the life that you always wanted. You keep dangling at the thing in front of her that she wanted. I'm going to change. I'm going to change. But he didn't. Their house was only in his name. The credit card would say Robert Stacy Feldman instead of Robert and Stacy Feldman. Well, well, well. He controlled her financially, emotionally, and just had that power over her. She told her friends she was too scared to leave him. He told her that he would leave her with nothing and take the kids. He threatened her in a way that really scared her.

She was afraid. The threats were never physical, far as anybody knew. But in hindsight, Stacey's sister and friends believed she was being emotionally abused. She needed those children to live in a warm, loving home. So she just kept it at bay. And again, hoping he would change, hoping things would get better, hoping for a new lease on life, I guess. And now Stacey was gone. Susan sat at Stacey's grave and thought about all those things and knew she had to do something. The feeling she'd had for years was too strong to ignore any longer. And I got in the car with my aunt and I told my aunt and she said, you need to call the homicide department right now.

She phoned Detective Randy Dennison. I talked to him for an hour and a half and I told him why I thought Bob killed her and he probably thought I was a grieving sister. Maybe. But a few things had been troubling Denison ever since he saw that bathtub. Not exactly suspicious, just odd. It just didn't look the way he thought it would if an adult had taken a tumble in there. Sure, that metal shelf and the shampoo bottles apparently went flying, but everything else was neatly in its place. There was a towel really neatly hung there, and then on the inside railing door there was some shampoo and products still on there. You know, my thought was it's funny that these things weren't disturbed. Also, if Bob did pull his wife out of the tub, wouldn't the floor be wet?

There wasn't water on the floor that you would expect. And that washcloth sitting on the drain? If this tub had been full of water, you would expect that to be totally saturated, and it wasn't. Mind you, he'd arrived an hour and a half after Bob called 911. Still, the scene, all those injuries on her body, curious.

It's all kind of gray area stuff, right? Like, maybe suspicious, maybe not. Right, it still could be medical, So we have to really wait till the autopsy report comes out. And then two months later, it certainly did. Coming up, Stacy's friends and family grow increasingly frustrated. People don't just die. You have to die for a reason. When Dateline continues. Susan Altman suspected her brother-in-law, Bob Feldman,

had something to do with her sister Stacy's death. She thought Stacy's autopsy would prove it. It took two months. And then... What happened when the autopsy came back? Undetermined death. Susan couldn't believe it. Didn't believe it.

She was 44 years old, young and healthy the day before. People, you don't just die. You have to die for a reason. The forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy found dozens of scrapes and bruises on Stacey's body, but determined none of them would have caused her death. The autopsy did reveal Stacey had yet another underlying medical condition that might or might not have explained what happened.

Stacey had a mild case of hardening of the arteries. There was a somewhat enlarged heart. I don't think there was any medical opinion that she was in grave danger of heart failure or anything like that. There were also curious findings in the toxicology report. Bob said Stacey had taken a cannabis edible the night before she died, but there was no trace of it. And the fentanyl patches found on her body... She had no fentanyl or a system, so it certainly wasn't caused by that, an overdose of fentanyl.

A supervisor at the medical examiner's office reviewed the autopsy report and agreed. The cause of Stacy's death could not be determined. As a detective, when you get a result like that, what does that do to your investigation? Well, it kind of halts it. You know you're going to need more. What could he do? Well, for one thing, talk to Bob again, see if his story held up. So I had called him a couple of times, and he returned my call. Started recording the conversation.

Did you come, were you back at all during the day? I was. I mean, until you found your wife. The detective asked Bob to go over that day again, beginning with taking the kids to religious school at the temple. The first story was, he left at 8.30, he didn't come back till 3. Yes. But now, in this call, he added a stop or two.

What time do you think it was about that you were home? It was probably around noon. Okay. I actually cleaned up the garage. There was a shelf that fell. I fixed that. According to the friends, that garage was pretty much a mess, I guess, all the time. And when I saw it later, it didn't look very orderly.

The idea that he'd stop in the middle of his day to clean it up didn't make any sense. No, it didn't look very orderly. The idea that he'd stop in the middle of his day to clean it up didn't make any sense. No, it did not. Bob said after he cleaned the garage, he went to the park to work out. Even though it was a very cold day, there was still snow on the ground. Some jogging and walking in between,

like the benches all the way down to push up some things. Was that a regular activity of his? No. We found out later in interviewing friends and neighbors, that would have been unusual. Denison also talked to the director of the religious school, who said that when Stacy failed to pick up her kids as arranged, one of them called Bob. She tells the school, I talked to my dad, and he'll be right here to get us. According to Bob, he would have been working in the garage at home or exercising in a nearby park around that time. But almost an hour passed before he showed up at the kids' school.

Is the house a long, long way from the school? No, no, it's about a mile and a half. Certainly isn't an hour-long drive. No, absolutely not. Poppet also told him that earlier in the day, after he dropped the kids off at school, he hung around to attend a ceremony there. So the detective checked that out, too. There wasn't a service, even though he said there was.

Right. So right there is a lie. Yes. Denison wondered, why the shifting story? And why, when Stacy failed to pick up the kids at school? Why don't you go home and check on your wife? That's my thought. And even if you're not concerned about her, you might be upset. Like, hey, you messed up our day here. The detective had to put the question to Bob. Did he know more about his wife's death than he was letting on? Well, let me just ask you here, Bob, did you have anything to do with it? No, I did not. Absolutely not.

Okay. I left my wife's chair with you. Detective Dennison wasn't so sure. Before he got Bob on the phone, he had spoken with first responders, who said... It looked like he was overacting. I mean, they're constantly around families that have just lost a loved one. And they're expressing the same thing, like it was an act. All very interesting. And suspicious.

But Dennison was a homicide detective without a homicide. The autopsy still said the cause of death cannot be determined. Stacey's sister shared his frustration. I became kind of obsessed with watching murder mysteries, and I would call them in the middle of the night, and I would say, you know, of the night, and I would say, you know, please watch episode so-and-so, because maybe it's this, or maybe it's that. How often did you call that detective?

That once a week, on Friday usually. Yeah, he always took your call? Mm-hmm. Detective Dennison was good about that, taking calls just as well. After all, how else could he know about the other woman and what she was going to tell him? Coming up... He just grabbed me and kissed me really aggressively, and it just shocked me.

I pushed him back. A match made online. What was the connection to Stacy's death? I knew immediately when I saw the date that that was the reason she was dead. Detective Dennison wasn't expecting it. A message left at the office from a stranger. A woman who claimed to have an urgent story to tell about Bob Feldman and the day his wife Stacy died. Information that could shed a whole new light on the case. And I called that person, Susan Mc called that person Susan McBride.

Susan McBride. Back in February 2015, Susan was single, lived in Denver. She thought she had just met a great guy on Tinder. His name was Bob. There was a nice picture of him with a big smile and, as I recall, a green polo shirt. Looked like he was barbecuing. They swiped right on each other, and hours later, they were knee to

knee in a crowded coffee shop. He was very personable and likable, and he smiled a lot and laughed a lot. Before you met, did he explain much about his circumstances? No, I didn't find out until we met for coffee that he had been separated for a couple of years and was planning to file for divorce. Before she knew it, an hour plus slipped by. They agreed on another date. We walked outside to the front of the coffee shop,

and he just grabbed me and kissed me really aggressively, and it just shocked me. I pushed him back. But she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. And I thought, well, I'll just, you know, see how our next date goes, because I really did like him. Later, he emailed her, gushing. I think I'm supposed to wait three days before I say something.

I don't follow the rules. Wow, you're wonderful. He offered to bring wine to her place that night. She said no. I basically thought, there's no way I'm letting this guy come over until I know his last name. And so at some point in the email conversation, I said, so what's your last name? It took all day for him to answer. One word. Wolf. Bob Wolf. She googled him exhaustively. She didn't find anything with that name.

But eventually she landed on something. A LinkedIn profile came up for a Robert W. Feldman, and his picture was on the LinkedIn profile. And bingo, that was him. Yeah, that's when I discovered his last name was Feldman. She also found the name of his wife, Stacy. They seemed to still be together. I sent him a message saying,

you're a lying a**hole, Bob Feldman. Don't contact me again. Well, that's direct. Yeah, I felt it was deserved. It was warranted. Bob did not. He lit up her phone. After many rings, I finally picked up and I said, what? And he said, please let me explain.

It was a scary story. He had a stalker at one point, he told her. And that made him leery of sharing his full name. He wanted to tell Susan more, he said, so maybe over dinner. He came to her place. He brought me a salad and a half drunk bottle of wine, and I thought that was really cheesy. Anyway, we talked for a long time. He told me that his wife was an absentee mother and she just kind of did her own thing. Absentee mother. It's something you don't often hear, that phrase. That's what he called it. The phrase he used. Yeah. Bob insisted they were separated. They took turns spending time in the

house with the kids. Susan felt he was pouring his heart out. Her anger melted. He made me believe that he was a very cautious person, that he really wanted a relationship. They slept together that night and made plans for the coming weekend. But when Saturday rolled around, Bob abruptly said he couldn't make it. I immediately responded, to be honest, Bob, it seems like you were just looking for a hookup. And as I indicated, I was not. I think we better just move on. Your life seems way too complicated right now anyway. Good luck. And no response whatsoever from him. All her doubts about Bob came flooding back. She went online again, this time to check out his stories about Stacy. I found then that she was actually the president of the PTO of the grade

school. I see. That doesn't sound like an absentee mother to me. No. It just really made me angry that he would say that about her. And I thought, should I tell her? Should I not tell her? She did. In an email. I said, my name's Susan McBride. You don't know me, but I met your husband on a dating site called Tinder. He told me you had been separated for quite some time. If you're not separated, you should know that he's cheating on you. Mm, boy. She wrote back, and she said, no, we are not separated. And I wrote back, and I said, I'm so sorry, Stacy. Here's my number if you'd like to call me.

Within minutes, Stacy was on the phone to Susan. What was she like on the phone? She was so sweet and kind, and she wasn't angry. She said, I'm so sorry he did that to you. That sounds almost more like somebody who knows that's happened before, and this isn't the first time she's had to go through this. Right, and she said, I'm done she's had to go through this right and she said i'm done with him i'm sorry say what did she say to you she said i'm done with him

and that was that susan didn't communicate with stacy or bob again and then one sleepless night, months later, she got into Google, just curious, and found Stacy's obituary. It hit her like a bomb. Stacy died on March 1, 2015, the very day they had talked. I got physically ill. Physically ill. It was just, it was like something out of a movie. I mean, you didn't cause it, but did you think somehow that maybe he'd done something? Absolutely. I knew immediately when I saw the date that that was the reason she was dead.

And I didn't know if she committed suicide or something or if something else happened or he killed her. I really didn't know. She called Crime Stoppers, spoke with Detective Dennison, told her story. something or if something else happened or he killed her. I really didn't know. She called Crime Stoppers, spoke with Detective Dennison, told her story. It's like somebody suddenly opened the curtains and let the light in. Now you can see what maybe happened here. Yeah, you certainly have a motive. He also found out that Bob collected on a $750,000 life insurance policy after Stacy's death. Bob was living off the money and seemed to be enjoying himself, too. All Stacy wanted was to take her kids to Disney World.

She never had enough money to take her kids to Disney World. And then he went. And then he took them. And not only did he take them to Disney World, it was like first class Disney World. The most expensive hotel, the guide that takes you to the front of every line. So now Denison knew that Bob was a confirmed cheater who spent extravagantly after his wife's sudden death. So maybe he could prove the guy was a creep, but that didn't make him a killer. And then, another woman came forward and her story?

Creepy would be the least of it. Coming up. He says, because my house is so secluded, you could scream as loud as you would want and nobody would hear you. Alarming words.

And she says worse. At that point, I went into survival mode. When Dateline continues. It was tragedy that brought Stephanie Galvin into this story, a tragedy in her life. In 2012, my stepson took his life, and he was 13 when he passed away. And after, Stephanie and her husband separated, and her young daughters were struggling. The counselors at school recommended a center that offered grief counseling classes. And that's where Stephanie met a father who was there with his own two kids.

His name, as you may have guessed, was Robert Feldman. He was very kind, and he was very interested in having a conversation with me. He seemed pleasant with his kids. So when Bob asked for her phone number, she said yes, except he didn't call until several months later, long after the class ended. Out of the blue, he calls and says, hey, my kids are going to be at summer camp for about three weeks, and I thought it'd be nice if I took you to dinner. And then the community that I live in, we have a community pool that everyone goes to,

so we could go swimming and then go to dinner. A swimming date? Yeah, I guess so. A little unusual. It was summertime, though, so... Stephanie was game. I had the normal jitters of this, you know, this is exciting, it should be fun. But then she walked in the door.

And almost instantly, I felt something was off. For one thing, this wasn't a community pool. It was Bob's private backyard pool. And so I'm thinking, oh, I'm overreacting. I don't know him, so everything's, you know, fine. Give him the benefit of the doubt. They made their way to the backyard patio, where, she said, he told her his story.

He had told me that his wife had suddenly passed away from cancer. Cancer? Which wasn't true, of course, but Stephanie didn't know that. He was like, you want to go swimming? And so I was like, okay. At this point, I'm still very nervous and I honestly didn't know what to do. You're questioning yourself more than you are him at this point. Yeah.

And so she pushed aside her discomfort and had an awkward swim with Bob Feldman. They sat on the patio again afterward. And I noticed it was getting kind of late. It was around dinner time, and he still hadn't mentioned anything about going to dinner. At that point, my concerns started to grow. Eventually, they went back inside, and Stephanie changed out of her swimsuit in the master bathroom. No way for her to know. It was the same room where first responders found Stacy dead more than two years before.

And then when I had come out, he was in the room, and he started to kiss me. You know, I was like, okay, that's a bit fast, but... This was unexpected. It was a little unexpected. And you're in his bedroom. I'm in his bedroom. He had wrapped his arms around me and had squeezed my shoulders tight. And at that point, I went into survival mode.

I knew, okay, there was no dinner. This was his intentions all along. And now I have to do what I can to play calm and just act like I'm okay. So it happened. Bob raped her, she said. I wouldn't have been able to get him off if I tried because he put a lot of weight on me. Were you afraid? Were you terrified? I wasn't terrified at that point. I was afraid and I felt like a coward. I was like, I should have left when I first felt something was off. When it was all over, she said, he asked her to look out on his patio. And he says,

see all these houses and everything around here? Because my house is so secluded, you could scream as loud as you would want and nobody would hear you. Well, there's a message. Yes. From that point on, it was, I need to get out of here. And my way out was, he had made a comment of, oh, I'm supposed to meet with some friends tonight at the bar, but I'm having such a good time with you, I don't want to leave. And then I said, well, I do have other things planned for tonight, so you can go ahead and go with your friends, it's fine. I should probably get going.

And walked out and never looked back. Three weeks after the incident, Stephanie thought she was getting an infection. According to medical records she provided to Dateline, her doctor prescribed drugs to protect against sexually transmitted infections. The next day, she began to feel sick, went to the emergency room, where she reported intercourse against her will. They have to report any kind of rape, obviously, or sexual assault. So the police came to ask their questions and tell her something that shocked her.

One of the officers had told me that they had been investigating him for a murder. I had no idea about that. Through his attorney, Bob Feldman denied sexually assaulting Stephanie. She decided not to press charges against him. As for the murder investigation, it was stalled. Lack of evidence. Evidence that just might be hiding in plain sight.

Coming up, were Stacy's injuries caused by the effort to save her, or was it something more sinister? This was a prolonged assault with multiple blows, multiple impacts over her entire body. For more than two years, it aided Stacy's family and friends. That autopsy that labeled her death undetermined. I've been talking about this and, you know, the possibility of Bob killing her for years. But this one particular relative did not know about it. The relative happened to be a clinical psychologist. And she said, it sounds like domestic violence and it sounds like somebody

where my friend works should talk to you. Where her friend works is an organization called the Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention. Attorneys Gail Strack and Casey Gwynn

are co-founders of the institute. And they told us strangulation is a crime often missed. You can strangle someone to death and have no external marks on the victim's body. If you want to kill somebody, shooting them or stabbing them is a bad idea. But you want to kill somebody and nobody knows how it happened? Strangulation and suffocation are great go-tos for a killer. And there are many reasons why we missed strangulation. We had no training, no laws, no protocols. It wasn't on our radar screen. That's why the Institute puts on training workshops that include staged crime scenes like this to teach medical professionals and law enforcement across the country.

I was willing to let them be involved. And the more time goes by, the less likely it is you're going to be able to solve it. Right. She also alerted her pal, Detective Randy Dennison. He and a Denver prosecutor set up a meeting with the Institute's medical expert, a guy named Bill Smock. A scarf was put around her neck and she was dragged up. Smock is a doctor of emergency medicine with a fellowship in forensics.

He's participated in thousands of autopsies, crime and accident scenes. He's trained police and pathologists alike. Where do we see pressure being applied? Last year, Dr. Smock testified for the prosecution in the trial of Derek Chauvin, convicted of the murder of George Floyd. Smock agreed to review Stacy's case, which meant examining in granular detail the crime scene and the autopsy photos. I zoom in to see if there are any injuries that were missed

or misdiagnosed or misdescribed by that forensic pathologist. For example, the trauma to Stacy's face. She had a chipped tooth. What does a chipped tooth have to do with this? So something happened to Stacey Feldman the day she died that there was friction to her nose, trauma to her mouth, inside

and the outside. The injury spoke volumes to Dr. Smock. That chipped tooth, he said, was caused by a blunt force trauma. He believed someone had pressed against Stacey's nose and mouth, trying to suffocate her. He also noticed the telltale sign of strangulation

in something called petechial hemorrhages, little red dots from burst capillaries in her eyes. Why wouldn't the pathologists see that? The pathologists saw them, but called them rare. I don't consider more than 100 particular hemorrhages rare. And he said Stacey had venous congestion caused by pressure to her chest and neck, blocking blood flow back to the heart. The blood pools in the skin, and your skin will become red.

And remember all those bruises and abrasions that the pathologist identified? Most were inflicted while she was still very much alive, said Dr. Smock. You found lots and lots of injuries. Found a multitude of injuries, actually more than 80 separate injuries. The pathologist believed some of these injuries were probably the result of efforts to resuscitate Stacy or move her body out of the tub. But Dr. Smock had a different interpretation. So she had so many blows to her head, she had bleeding underneath the scalp. This was a prolonged assault with multiple blows, multiple impacts over her entire body. She took a terrible beating, said Dr. Smock.

And evidence on her body said she fought for her life. On the back of both Stacey's right and left hands were multiple bruises, abrasions. This is what you typically see as a defensive injury. How else do you get bruises? Somebody's still hitting you and hitting you and hitting you. Somebody's trying to hit you, and you're trying to protect yourself. Dr. Smock noticed more details he believed told a story. Marks from a bra strap on Stacey's shoulder

and what he called pattern imprints on her skin. Which is when you have an object that is pressed so hard into the skin, it leaves a mirror image of that object. In this case, stitching or a weave of clothing on the skin. His conclusion? Stacey was still dressed when she died. Only afterward, according to Smock, did the killer remove Stacy's clothing and place her body in the tub

on top of that collapsed shelf. On her right lateral chest was the imprint of a caddy, a metal shelf. But what's unique about this imprint is there is no bruising or abrasion associated with it, which tells you it was a post-mortem imprint. Smock studied the autopsy materials for two months and at the end came to a very different conclusion

than the medical examiner's office. The cause of death is going to be asphyxia, which means the body was deprived of oxygen from a combination of suffocation and strangulation. In plain language, murder. Coming up, would the DA see it the same way? I don't think many people in my family thought that this was ever going to happen. When Dateline continues.

It was the answer Stacey Feldman's family had been waiting for. Dr. Bill Smock called her death a case of strangulation and suffocation. And that could mean only one thing. Stacy's husband, Bob, killed her. Detective Dennison took Dr. Smock's report to the DA. Did that finally give you enough for the arrest? Yeah. After reviewing Dr. Smock's report, they said we'll prosecute, and we got an arrest warrant for Mr. Feldman. Wow, big moment after all that time. It seemed like a long time coming.

We had a plan that they were going to let us know that he was going to be arrested so that we could be there for the children. And so you got that call? So I got that call. What was that like? Best day of my life. It was February 13th, 2018,

two years and 11 months after Stacy died. Denver police have made an arrest in a mysterious death of a 44-year-old woman who died three years ago. A few days later, Bob Feldman was charged with first-degree murder. For Stacey's friends and family, it wasn't just about seeing Bob in handcuffs. It was also about the children. Since St Stacy's death, Bob would get them away from Stacy's loved ones. He saw you as the enemy. Oh yeah, I was the enemy. The children were 10 and 11 when their father was arrested. After the arrest, they went to live with Stacy's family. Was it a relief? Yeah. You know, the kids also hadn't really been in touch with her family much over the years.

So it was emotional to have the kids. It was huge. It was a long time coming. I don't think many people in my family thought that this was ever going to happen. You know, a lot of time had gone by, and Bob was a sneaky guy. Their sense of relief didn't last very long. The judge initially ordered Bob to be held without bail, but then came the preliminary hearing

where the prosecution had to show its evidence. There's nothing other than proof that this guy is a philanderer, a no-good guy, who deserves no respect, but it doesn't mean that he's a killer. Robert Gottlieb was not involved in this case, but he is a seasoned defense lawyer who tried a very similar case about a woman supposedly drowned in a bathtub. A case Dateline covered. This is him at that trial. He sees his wife in the bathtub and he pulls his wife out of the tub and he calls 911 and he applies CPR. Gottlieb said in Stacey Feldman's case there was not very

much evidence Bob killed her, but plenty of evidence something else did. You know she has an enlarged heart. You know she has hardening of the arteries. You know that she has been sick. So it makes sense, and it's not beyond reason to think that she could have been taking a shower and slipped. At the end of the preliminary hearing, the judge agreed. He ruled that the prosecution didn't have sufficient evidence to justify holding Bob without bail. He did set a high bail, $2 million, which he later lowered to $1 million. And Bob used a bail bondsman to post bail

and walked out of jail. Back to the house with the swimming pool. What was it like when you found out? Devastating. Court documents revealed Bob was using Stacy's insurance money to pay for his criminal defense. Stacy's family sued. There is a Colorado law called the Slayer Statute that keeps the killer from profiting on their crime.

Nicole Vapp covered the case as an investigative producer for NBC affiliate Nine News in Denver. A judge originally ruled in the family's favor and froze all of the life insurance money. But Bob appealed, and in 2019... A Colorado Supreme Court decision today has a lot of people angry and asking why. He won. The court ruled that Robert Feldman, a man accused of killing his wife, can use money from her life insurance policy to fund his defense. Free on bail, Bob was in no hurry to stand

trial. This case had so many delays. Every time we went to court, it seemed like there was another delay. At times, it seemed the whole world was conspiring to slow things down. Today, Robert Feldman's trial was pushed back for a fifth time due to concerns about COVID-19. There was another delay when key witness Susan McBride moved to Italy and applied for citizenship. Bagnone is the name of the town. The people were so warm and welcoming, and I have very good friends there. So many years since Susan Altman first sat by Stacy's grave and resolved to find the truth.

So many stops and starts in her long fight for justice. So what's it done to your family, to you, to have to wait all this time? It's been really, really hard. I haven't been able to breathe deeply or sleep well at night or be a good friend or a good family member. Certainly, my kids have suffered from me being absent. Every time we would get a notice that the trial was going to happen,

I would get my hopes up. The whole time, remember, Bob was at home, not in jail. Although the judge had made very strict rules. He had an ankle bracelet. He was not allowed to leave his house unless he had a medical appointment. He could meet with his lawyers. He could also go to the grocery store. But that was it.

Or was it? Coming up. That may have been one of the weirder news tips we received. A pool party hosted by an accused killer. One of the neighbors reached out to us and said, there are people in a swimming pool. I'm like, what people? 2020. Summer returned to Denver. And with it, after months of COVID lockdown, a breath of outdoor freedom. Robert Feldman, then 56 years old, was still under a kind of lockdown freedom. Robert Feldman, by then 56 years old, was still under a kind of lockdown, of course, monitored by an ankle bracelet while he awaited trial at home.

Except maybe Mr. Feldman was enjoying the outdoors too. A man accused of killing his wife is now in trouble for pool parties. That may have been one of the weirder news tips we received. 9 News producer Nicole Vapp got a curious call about some splashy activity at the Feldman home. One of the neighbors reached out to us and said, there are people in a swimming pool. I'm like, what people? And we did a Google, and we found that address on an app that was used during the pandemic to rent out swimming pools.

Stacey's friends and family knew that pool. They'd been there often. And now the man accused of killing her was using it to make money? Having pool parties. Not so much justice there. That's not how it should be. While they're still suffering without closure. Oh, but that was not all Bob was up to.

Not even close. This woman is Tracy Fagan. I've been divorced like several years and went on a Jewish dating site to, you know, just meet someone and to go on a simple date with, and he pinged me right away. Tracy and Bob met up at a local park. He'd been in the news plenty by then, but she hadn't seen it.

He seemed like a normal, regular guy, you know, showed up on his bike for the date, which, again, in Colorado is completely normal. Bob's profile noted that he was a widower, so she was careful about what she said. And then, while they were walking and talking, Bob added that he had two kids, too. And they live in Connecticut, and I thought, that seems kind of odd. Still, she decided to see him a second time. He called me and he said, can you come to my house tonight? I thought, oh, great, this guy doesn't have a car or something.

And he said, well, no, I have some legal troubles and I can't leave the house. He said, well, I can explain it to you when you come over. We can talk about it. We can sit up by the pool. Pool or no pool, legal trouble was one strike too many for Tracy. Bob was out. And I was like, yeah, no, I'm not. I just said I'm not comfortable coming over to your house.

By then, Bob didn't stay at home either. As Nicole Vapp and her colleagues learned, even though staying home was a condition of bail. Bob Feldman is charged with murdering his wife, Stacy. Still, Nine Wants to Know found he gets out, often. This anonymous neighbor reached out to us and said that Bob has been out on his bike. He writes he'll go away for hours and not come back. He's not supposed to be doing that as part of his bond. Stacey's friend Jan Goldenberg went on TV to express her outrage at Bob's escapades. Why isn't someone stopping it? A few days later, she said, there was a call on her landline from Bob.

I saw the area code, but it was too quick for me to put two and two together. And I answered, and he said, don't you think that my children watch the news? And I just hung up. So I presume he was slightly agitated, which is fine. People have been agitated by his actions for many years. The court increased its scrutiny of Bob's behavior on bail, but by the spring of 2022, more than seven years after Stacy's death, the focus shifted to his murder trial,

which was finally set to begin. Coming up... The evidence is clear. The injuries that Stacy had are the result of assault that resulted in homicide. And in the courtroom, Susan, still fighting to get justice for her sister. I wanted her to know that I was still there with her.

When Dateline Continues. Pink flags sprang up overnight in the park near Bob Feldman's house. Greetings as he went on trial for first-degree murder. Stacy's favorite color. The flags a show of support from her friends in the neighborhood. No doubt where Susan Altman had stood all along. That her sister Stacy didn't die accidentally. That Bob killed her.

And that he had to be held accountable. Nobody thought it would come to this, but I knew deep down in my heart that it was, and I never for a minute wavered from that. But, though Susan and Stacy's friends were convinced, the jury was another matter. Proving Stacy's death was murder, and that Bob did it

might not be so easy. Former Denver prosecutor George Brockler didn't work on the case but followed it for Dateline. We said Bob's prosecutors faced a significant hurdle because the investigation was not treated as a homicide at first.

When you're in the business of needing to prove somebody's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, if you don't get it right early on, the risk you run is you aren of needing to prove somebody's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, if you don't get it right early on, the risk you run is you aren't going to get it right anywhere. After all, this was a case with no damning DNA, no obvious murder weapon, no eyewitnesses. So prosecutors leaned hard on Bob's shifting stories and his behavior the day Stacey died. Starting with that 911 call. Help me!

Help me! If you listen to his words, his words are not about his wife as much as they are about him. Help me, help me, not help her. I think that could be telling. The 911 operator testified that Bob didn't sound out of breath while he claimed to be performing CPR. Please, baby, please, please, please, please. Sir, are you pumping for chest?

So in other words, he wasn't out of breath. He wasn't trying to do CPR as far as the person listening to the call could determine. That's what they're saying. And I think, too, the absence of him engaging in that active CPR, as he's being talked through it by the dispatcher, suggests that he knows she's already dead. Detective Dennison told the jurors Bob seemed disinterested in how his wife died. He said, I don't think we want an autopsy. He volunteered it.

Yeah, it seemed kind of odd. And the fact that Bob later changed his story about that day. What was the importance of that for a prosecutor? Listen, the statement that you give during this traumatic event, the moment after it happens, you would expect that one to be the most credible. And then at a later date, during a formal interrogation, to change up the facts of that, incredibly suspicious. Stephanie Galvin, who had accused Bob of rape, also took the stand.

And though in court documents prosecutors mentioned evidence of sexual assault, an assault Bob denied, they decided not to ask the judge to admit that evidence. Stephanie did testify that Bob told her Stacey died of cancer, which of course was just not true. But one witness just might cut through any uncertainty about Bob Feldman, his behaviors, and perhaps his motive for murder. Susan McBride flew in from Italy to testify for the prosecution. When they told me to point him out, as I got up on the witness stand, I pointed right at him and looked him right in the eye, and I felt strong. She rere-read her emails for the jury.

Emails that described their brief relationship and that fateful email to Stacey just hours before her death. I had every email and it's lucky I did because Bob had gone in the day of Stacey's death and deleted all the emails from me. Apparently I found that out at the trial. Susan McBride testified that Stacey told her she was done with her husband. The prosecution told the jury, Bob wasn't about to accept that. And their star witness, Dr. Bill Smock, gave his version of what Bob did to Stacey next. She has trauma to her face, particularly her nose and mouth, and she also has

evidence of strangulation. Dr. Smock exhaustively documented Stacey's 80-plus injuries, some of which, she said, the original pathologist missed, explaining how they couldn't come from a single slip and fall, but from a prolonged and brutal assault. He even climbed into the well of the courtroom and demonstrated with mannequins. A show-and-tell he repeated, for us. Stacy had some unique injuries. On the insides of both upper arms were large bruises. Dr. Smock said Bob likely killed Stacey

by straddling her body and then smothering and strangling the life out of her. Pressure is put on the insides of both arms. By the knees? By the knees. So during the assault, Stacey had both pressure on her face and pressure on her neck

and on the insides of her arms. And all those injuries you saw to her nose, to her teeth, to her... they could have been achieved that way. Yes, exactly. We have blunt force trauma on the lips. Just pushing down very hard. Just pushing down. The evidence is clear.

The injuries that Stacey had are the result of assault that resulted in homicide. Smock believed Bob then undressed St and put her in the tub, forgetting to remove that expensive watch. He told us he also had to wonder if Bob placed those fentanyl patches on Stacy's body to make it look like a possible overdose. Susan Altman, of course, was familiar with the details of Stacy's death, but she'd never seen those photographs before. I didn't stare at the pictures for very long. I needed to be there with her while that was happening to her. And I imagine that she was thinking about me and thinking about her family,

and I wanted her to know that I was still there with her. Still felt her presence at that point, huh? Yep. I needed to be with her till the end. At the end of seven days, the prosecution rested. It said Stacey Feldman died a horrible death at the hands of the man she once loved and trusted, her husband. The victim in this case had had enough, and she was made to pay for it, not just with a beating, but a beating that precipitated her death. That's the theme that they had.

But the defense had a theme too. A story with the same evidence, only different voices, whose expertise even the prosecution could not deny. Coming up, will there be justice for Stacey? The medical examiner left the conclusion that the cause of death was undetermined, which sounds like a crack in the door for a defense attorney, frankly. It's more than a crack. It is a nuclear explosion. Susan Altman led a strange kind of army in the years since 2015.

A group of people allied for her sister, Stacy Feldman. Together, they gathered on the wooden benches of a Denver courtroom to face a man they saw as a longtime enemy. He was a beast. He had no expression ever the whole time that he was there. No remorse, no guilt, nothing. The guy was stone-faced the entire time. To her, Bob's guilt was obvious.

But to a jury? After all, Bob had a crack defense team. Attorney Robert Gottlieb thought Bob's lawyers did exactly what they needed to do, reinterpret the evidence and condemn the investigation itself. Just a terrible, amateurish investigation. The defense hammered Detective Randy Dennison, pointing out he didn't even suspect foul play at first

and therefore didn't collect critical evidence. You take anything and everything, that means blood, fingerprints, any physical evidence, nothing was done here. Mind you, he wasn't there. And Detective Dennison, an experienced and competent man, was. Unless you're looking at something that really appears to apparently be a homicide, a murder, you're not going to rope everything off and kick everyone out of the house. The defense also took issue with the way the prosecution characterized Bob's behavior on

that 911 call and in the house that day, and Gottlieb wholeheartedly agreed. No one is going to convince me today that the way somebody reacts at the scene of a murder, that there's only one way for you to behave or there's only one way to respond to an EMT's question while you're there trying to save your wife. The prosecution's theory of motive was also weak, said Gottlieb. The defense argued that Susan McBride's testimony that she told Stacey about Bob's infidelity didn't prove Stacey confronted Bob, let alone that he killed her. So there was an absence of any credible testimony

that would have led ultimately to the confrontation leading to her death. I guess she had known that he had cheated on her before, and so maybe this wouldn't be terribly big surprise. Right. She knew that it had happened before. They reconciled. And if this really was the straw that broke the camel's back, you would have expected her to call her best friend. You would have expected her to call somebody.

But what then to make of Stacey's battered body? Well, here the defense turned the evidence to its advantage, saying she was likely still alive when Bob tried repeatedly to pull her from the tub to save her. And in doing that, you can be sure there would be contusions and trauma against the side of the bathtub, the faucet or otherwise. The core of the defense argument, Stacy was not murdered. And to prove it, they called a witness who would normally be testifying

for the prosecution, the forensic pathologist who performed Stacey's autopsy. One of the things that was interesting about this case was that the medical examiner left the conclusion that the cause of death

was undetermined. Sounds like a crack in the door for a defense attorney, frankly. It's more than a crack. It is a nuclear explosion. The pathologist, her supervisor, and an elected coroner from another county all told the court they could not rule Stacy's death a homicide. They continued to insist this was an undetermined death. The only thing that changes

two years after the autopsy is that at the behest of the family who did their own research, the police then contact this Dr. Smock. Dr. Smock. The defense tore into the prosecution's star witness. They called you a charlatan. So how are you not a charlatan? I have the same training that the forensic pathologists have. I have participated in thousands upon thousands of autopsies. Without ever being an actual pathologist? Correct.

The defense told jurors to see Stacy's multiple injuries as evidence of a valiant effort to save her life, not end it, and asked the jury to listen to the three pathologists, impartial government employees, who continued to insist the cause of death was undetermined and find not guilty. It had taken seven years, one setback after another, to bring Bob Feldman to trial.

It took the jury less than three hours to reach a verdict. Never in a million years did we think that that was going to come the same day that we had closing arguments. Stunned, they filed back into the courtroom. The verdict, swift, just like the deliberations within the last few minutes we learned a jury has found robert feldman guilty guilty of first degree murder i think i was living an out-of-body experience i have to tell you, I didn't burst into tears when I heard the guilty verdict. I knew it was coming.

I felt relief and justice. It's a relief, but it really isn't so much personal for me. It's not about me. It's not about the prosecutors. It's about that family. You guys in that detective business are a bunch of softies, you know. Yeah, I believe so. Pardon me. The sentence was immediate.

Life without parole. And after, the women who'd seen Bob Feldman for what he was found reasons to be thankful. Like Stephanie Galvin, who believed Bob used a grief counseling class to prey on her, and is convinced he could have done much worse. I'm okay with how I handle things because I'm alive. That's kind of important, isn't it? I did what I needed to do to get out without anything happening more than it had.

Susan McBride, too, is thankful. We met for the first time today, and it was amazing. It was amazing to be able to touch her and hug her. You're meeting now. This was the first time we got to touch and hug. That's right. Our cameras brought these two Susans together in person for the first time. Both women have suffered in these years since Stacy's death,

but also feel empowered now to help other victims of domestic violence. He was a con man, and I think he was able to con her over and over again, as well as me, as well as many other women. We need to make domestic violence in the spotlight. We need to talk about it. We need to save our loved ones. Having met, will you meet again, do you think? Is this it for you, too?

Oh, it's not it. Oh, it's not it. No. We're sisters now. Absolutely. Susan McBride is part of our family. Very nice. A family determined to get justice for Stacey and which is fighting for her still. She knows that we did right by her and that

she knows that our family is taking amazing care of her children and that they will grow up to know what an amazing mom they had. And they'll be surrounded by love and they're going to be okay. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.