♪♪
Narrator: This is the story of a truly happy family...
My mom always filmed every occasion.
Narrator: ...Living in blissful harmony.
But behind closed doors...
To me, something didn't seem right there.
Narrator: ...A terrible darkness lurks.
Violence is unleashed...
...That spares no one.
I know I dropped to my knees, I started screaming.
♪♪
-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com
Captions paid for by discovery communications
[ children playing indistinctly ]
Narrator: It's August 1, 1987,
In the tiny rural city of early, iowa.
[ playing continues ]
Early was just a really happy, little community to me.
Everyone knew everyone.
A very close-knit, comfortable community
To start a family in and raise your children.
Narrator: Every kid in town has shown up for a very special tee-ball game
Celebrating mona wehde's son dustin's 6th birthday.
♪♪
[ laughs ]
Dustin always loved to have friends, guests, family around.
He had so much fun.
Everybody was laughing, smiling, enjoying themselves.
♪♪
Narrator: Mona met dustin's dad, brett wehde, back in 1979,
While working at a construction site
In afton, iowa.
Mona: He arrived, and I immediately had an attraction to this man,
And his job was driving the bobcat.
I always called him my bobcat baby.
He was always smiling and full of jokes.
About a year of us being together,
We married on March 14, 1981.
Narrator: The smitten couple moved to sleepy early,
Knowing it'll be the perfect place to build a happy home.
Honestly, I was ready to start a family.
It was just a long, long, long, many years
Of a dream to grow up and be a mommy.
Narrator: And it's not long before mona's dream comes true.
I found out I was pregnant. I was beyond excited.
I was just ecstatic that I was gonna have a baby.
That was, like, a dream come true.
Narrator: 9 months later, mona and brett welcome son dustin
Into the world.
I just oohed and gooed all over this little guy,
And as he was growing and learning.
It was just complete joy.
You know, I was 100% content.
Narrator: Mona and brett are completely won over by parenthood,
And in 1987, they have another baby.
I got a little girl.
[ speaking indistinctly ]
[ smooches ]
So I was real excited.
My family was growing,
And it was, like, my dream.
She was really just a happy, happy,
Bouncing, giggly, little girl.
♪♪
Narrator: As the years go by,
Mom, mona, records every milestone on her camcorder.
My mom always filmed every occasion.
It wouldn't even be a special occasion,
And she'd have the camera out.
♪♪
Pbht! Pbht! Pbht!
[ laughs ]
To me, it was just such a special time
And a special memory and, you know, a keepsake.
♪♪
Narrator: 4-year-old ashley is about to swap her doll
For the real thing...
♪♪
...Because in April of 1990,
She and dustin are filmed by dad, brett,
On their way to meet their brand new baby sister.
♪♪
Well, leave it to my husband, brett.
He gets out of a piece of wood and a can of spray paint
And paints, "it's a girl."
I'm like, "that's not very pretty."
[ laughs ]
But it was just so cute that he did it.
Narrator: Dustin and ashley seem a bit shy around their new sister,
But mona's mom, ruth, shows them how it's done.
They were both really, really careful and gentle with her.
I just remember sitting there smiling with joy,
Seeing my whole family. Just -- it was really special.
♪♪
Narrator: With the addition of briana, it's official --
Mona and brett are outnumbered.
Mona: What's daddy doing to me?
Narrator: At times the parents struggle to keep up.
Now that we were a family of 5, it was much busier.
Particularly now,
Mona's decided on a new career in real estate...
...But they work hard to rise to the challenge.
You just don't realize how much more is involved.
But it was full and fun, and it was nice.
[ laughs ]
Narrator: And no holiday goes forgotten.
♪♪
Mom went all out for Halloween.
It's probably one of her top holidays. [ chuckles ]
♪♪
Briana: My dad would always carve our pumpkins for us as kids.
We'd draw out elaborate, you know, faces and pictures,
And they would literally spend hours
Carving out pumpkins for us.
Narrator: Although dad, brett's, exhaustion is plain to see.
First, it was like, ooh and goo cleaning out the pumpkin.
♪♪
You had pumpkins and pumpkin guts all over the place.
[ laughs ]
Narrator: While it's far from easy,
The wehdes seem to have built their version
Of the perfect family.
[ laughs ]
You're remembering the time in your life
And the chaos and the craziness...
...You kind of go, "aah! Everything's nuts around here."
But I really feel...
...It was all really good.
♪♪
Narrator: In 1998,
17 years after the wehde family settled in early...
...They welcome some new neighbors --
Tracey and michael roberts.
Shortly after arriving in early, the robertses reached out to me,
And they wanted me to be their realtor.
Narrator: Tracey and michael have come from chicago,
Bringing along their 7-year-old son bert and baby noah.
We just started getting to know each other better personally,
Myself and the robertses.
Narrator: The two families hit it off.
Tracey was always kind.
She was, you know, considerate.
She just was always pleasant, nice to me,
I mean, I started feeling like
I was growing a friendship with a family.
Narrator: It's not long before tracey starts to open up to mona
About life before early.
After a few different occasions and visits down to the house,
Tracey mentioned her ex-husband.
Narrator: Tracey tells mona that her son bert
Is from a previous marriage
To a plastic surgeon named dr. John pitman.
They divorced 2 years ago,
And she soon met michael
Getting married just 18 days later.
Mona: I just thought they looked
Like the cutest little loving couple ever.
They seemed very happy.
I just really thought they had a really special connection.
Narrator: A devout born-again christian,
Michael also has his own I.T. Training company,
And he sets up shop in early.
Mona: Michael wanted to help the community
And grow the community.
He just had really high expectations.
And I was just like, you know,
They're just really nice, fun people.
Narrator: But while mona is making new friends,
17-year-old dustin is struggling to do the same.
Mona: He pretty much just started hanging out
Down in the basement in the family room down there,
And a lot of times he'd be down there by himself.
Narrator: Dustin retreats from the world, escaping to his video games.
Mona: He just felt unacceptable,
And I'm sure he felt like nobody liked him.
He looked at me one day, and he goes,
"mom, what's wrong with me?"
And I looked at him,
And I'm like, "dustin, there's nothing wrong with you."
And he just smiled, just gave me that smile.
Narrator: He might be putting on a brave face for mom,
But dustin is being ruthlessly bullied at school.
I think he was just more quiet and alone,
And that made him an easy target.
Each year, as his education went on,
I would say he started getting a little bit more outcast.
And once one person realized, "we're picking on him,"
Then another one picked up on it,
And pretty soon a whole group
That just really pushed dustin away.
Narrator: Mona seeks expert help for dustin.
We made multiple trips back and forth to different doctors
Trying to get a psychological answer or something.
Narrator: But it doesn't provide the answers mona is looking for.
Every single doctor I went to put a new diagnosis on him.
Narrator: Despite his loneliness, dustin perseveres
And graduates in may of 2000.
♪♪
Thomas.
Narrator: And while brett and mona are thrilled...
Well, dustin was at the end of the group
With the last name wehde.
We were proud parents.
Narrator: ...Dustin can't wait to leave school behind.
♪♪
By the summer of 2000,
The wehde kids are all grown up...
And taking a road trip with brett and mona.
Mona: We went out to colorado to a family wedding.
And while we were in colorado, we did a lot of other exploring.
We would stop at every mile marker and take pictures
'cause it was pretty exciting
To just go all the way up to the top.
♪♪
Narrator: But dustin almost didn't make it.
Mona: Dustin initially chose not to go with us.
We're like, "what?" you know, "come on. You got to go.
Come on. You don't want to stay home all by yourself."
And, "no, I'm staying home."
I'm like, "okay."
3 to 5 miles down the road, and dustin called.
He goes, "mom? I changed my mind."
Narrator: The vacation lifts dustin's spirits,
But mona knows her son better than anyone, and he's not okay.
Mona: I was worried that dustin was struggling.
You know, I could get that smile,
But I just felt the smile was a cover-up
Over all of his inner pain
That he really just kept to himself.
[ speaking indistinctly ]
♪♪
Narrator: By christmas of that year,
Nothing much has changed for dustin.
But the rest of the family is in a festive mood
As they gather at grandma ruth's down in creston, iowa.
We would always pile into her living room,
And there was probably like 20 or 30 of us
With all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and everything,
So it was really a tight, crowded space.
Narrator: Amongst the merry chaos, dustin is subdued.
[ laughter ]
Mona: Everybody would be so busy that dustin didn't really,
You know, interact a whole bunch.
He'd just kind of hang around and watch people.
♪♪
Narrator: By 2001, dustin's growing detachment
Is causing his family concern.
To add to their worries,
He's also recently lost his job at the local ethanol plant.
Unexpectedly, a helping hand
Comes from family friend and neighbor michael roberts,
Who's just employed mona at his I.T. Company.
I was just sharing that dustin had lost his job with michael,
And michael goes,
"you know, I can probably take dustin under my wing
And mentor him a little bit and, you know,
See if I could just get him involved in some activities
And try to get him off in the right direction."
Narrator: Michael arranges a paintballing trip for the two of them.
Dustin just lit up. He just was, like, ecstatic.
We had never done that.
He was all fired up, ready to go.
And they went off and did it.
♪♪
Dustin gets back home, and he goes, "mom, call michael.
When are we going paintballing again?"
Narrator: Mona is grateful to michael for his help,
But it means even more when dad, brett, also reaches out.
Dustin and brett's relationship wasn't really tight-knit.
Life didn't keep them going in the same direction
Together as father and son.
Narrator: Despite going their different ways,
Brett still loves his son more than anything,
And that summer, sets out on a new project
He thinks will get dustin's attention.
Brett just thought, "I want to try figure 8 racing."
Brett got this car set up,
Just an old beater car.
Narrator: Father and son may have grown apart,
But they will always share a love of cars.
My dad and my brother were really close
When they were working on cars.
They'd spend a lot of time fixing things up.
[ engines revving ]
Narrator: Brett's plan seems to be working
As proud dustin cheers his dad on from the sidelines.
Dustin is there to help when things don't go quite to plan.
Dad come off the track, and dustin was right over there.
"what happened? What's going on?
What do you got to fix? What do you got to do?"
♪♪
That was a really special bonding moment for them.
Narrator: Just as one bond is renewed,
Another is close to breaking point.
Tracey invited me to come down, and she started explaining to me
That she was a little upset with michael.
Tracey proceeded to say, "I love michael, but..."
Narrator: And she soon dragged even further
Into the roberts' problems.
I was doing a couple marketing calls.
Tracey comes flying through the back door screaming.
She's yelling at michael.
Michael just looked at me and he says,
"mona, I'm gonna have to ask you to excuse yourself."
And I just got up and left the home.
Shortly after the incident,
Michael paid me to no longer come back to work,
And to me, it just -- something didn't seem right there.
Narrator: As the end of 2001 approaches,
The wehdes see less and less of the roberts family.
♪♪
And by December 13th,
As mona shops for christmas gifts,
The clouds around dustin seem to be lifting.
Dustin had an orthodontic appointment at 1:00 that day.
I called home, and briana answered the phone,
And I asked her if dustin had got up yet.
And she goes, "yeah, he's up. His keys are gone."
I'm like, wow. He's on the ball this morning.
Up, showered, and gone.
I'm shopping and shopping and, you know, struggling,
And my phone rings, and it's my nephew brandon.
And he goes, "mona, something really, really bad happened
At your friend's house, your neighbors'."
And I go, "michael and tracey's house?"
He goes, "yeah, yeah."
He goes, "there was a fatality."
At that exact moment,
I thought michael had shot tracey
Or tracey had shot michael.
♪♪
Narrator: 7:00 p.M. On December 13, 2001 --
A 911 call comes into sac county sheriff's office.
[ phone beeps, boy speaking indistinctly ]
♪♪
The caller is 11-year-old bert, tracey's oldest son.
[ siren blares ]
Within minutes, the first deputy arrives
To find a visibly distraught tracey on the front porch.
Tracey just kept saying, "he's upstairs. He's upstairs,"
And motioning towards the second story.
The deputy made his way up the stairs.
[ camera shutter clicking ]
When he approached the roberts' bedroom,
He observed a young man laying face down in a pool of blood.
Narrator: News of the shooting at the roberts' house
Spreads like wildfire through the quiet community of early.
Brett comes flying through the door,
And he goes, "is dustin at home?"
And I go, "I don't know."
And brett goes,
"I think dustin's car is down at the robertses."
We jumped in the vehicle. We drove down to the robertses.
♪♪
That's dustin's car.
[ engine shuts off ]
♪♪
I looked at them, and I said, "is my son here?"
And they said, "yes."
I said, "is he dead?"
And they said, "yes."
I know I dropped to my knees. I started screaming,
"I want to see my son. I want to hold my son."
Narrator: Police confirm the deceased is dustin wehde.
He's been shot 9 times.
We were just so confused about how it happened
And how that could happen.
You know, we were like, we know these people.
How did he die?
Narrator: A traumatized tracey does her best
To explain to detectives what happened.
Tracey tells law enforcement that her husband, michael,
Is on a business trip in minneapolis
And was on his way home.
She was giving her young infant daughter a bath.
She heard who she believed to be her husband
Coming up the stairs. She went to greet him.
Observed it was two individuals who she didn't recognize.
Narrator: Fearing for her life, she ran down the hall
Towards her son's room.
Smith: At that moment, she is accosted by these two individuals.
Narrator: She says that one grabbed her by the hair.
The detective had noticed that she had a bruise
Or a marking across her neck --
What appeared to be a ligature mark.
Narrator: Investigators recover
A pair of pantyhose from the kitchen floor.
Tracey told the detective that the pantyhose were used
To strangle her or asphyxiate her.
Narrator: She says she briefly blacked out.
She wakes up and hears the two of them speaking,
And then makes her way into her bedroom to the gun safe
That's on the right-hand side of the bed.
Narrator: Alerted by tracey's movement,
The two attackers come at her once more.
Smith: One of the two intruders
Is pulling at her and grabbing at her.
She was able to access the safe.
She takes the pistol and pulls the trigger...
[ gunshots ]
And continually fires off round after round after round.
Narrator: Her attacker fell in a heap,
While the other fled down the stairs.
Smith: But when she goes to leave the bedroom,
The person she had shot was getting up off the floor.
Narrator: And when her attacker fails to heed her warnings,
She's forced to fire again.
[ gunshot ]
That's when bert called 911.
It's a nightmare.
It's horrifying to think that could happen to anyone,
You know, let alone an early, iowa.
Narrator: Tracey is told that the man she shot is dustin wehde.
Smith: Tracey tells the detective that earlier that day,
That dustin had stopped by the home
Asking if he could hang out with michael.
He just kind of stood on the porch, was acting weird,
And that she tried to shoo him away,
But that he just wouldn't go away.
Narrator: Hoping to assist investigators,
Tracey gives a description of the second assailant.
Smith: Tracey described the second intruder
As being 5'11'' to 6 feet, dark brown or black hair,
And older than dustin,
Say approximately in his mid to late 30s.
Narrator: As a manhunt for the missing intruder begins...
[ siren blares ]
...Technicians comb dustin's car for further clues.
In the front passenger seat,
They find a pink spiral notebook...
[ camera shutter clicking ]
...A journal written by dustin wehde.
♪♪
The journal more or less outlined a murder-for-hire plot
Where dustin was hired to follow, stalk, harass,
And ultimately kill tracey.
Narrator: An entry names the mastermind as dr. John pitman,
Tracey's ex-husband.
Investigators arranged to have dr. Pitman questioned
In virginia.
When law enforcement made contact with dr. Pitman
And told him what had happened, he was genuinely shocked.
Narrator: He does know the wehde family.
Dr. Pitman says he knows dustin's sisters
Or one of his sisters
Because that sister had been a babysitter for bert
On one occasion.
Narrator: But police can find no connection at all to dustin,
And his alibi is watertight.
He was working at a hospital in virginia
The day of the shooting.
Dr. Pitman is ruled out of having any involvement.
There seems to be no clear answer as to why dustin
Wrote the apparent plot in the journal.
Mona discloses that dustin
Did have a significant behavioral health history.
Narrator: But he has no history of violence at all.
[ camera shutter clicks ]
With the notebook a dead end,
Police focus on the remaining evidence
And continue their search for the second intruder.
Tracey's story becomes a media sensation...
There's this person who's still out there, and as a mother,
I have a natural instinct to want to protect my children.
...And soon gets picked up by "the montel williams show."
♪♪
Just been recently that I've come to terms with things
Because someone didn't lose their life.
Narrator: Michael supports his wife in the studio.
I know 'cause I was there
That that was the only thing I could do.
And I have to keep telling myself
That I did what I had to do to protect my family.
Narrator: But brett and mona grapple with the pain
Of losing their only son
And refused to believe that he was a threat to anyone.
Having dustin painted as an intruder,
You know, a robber, an attempted murderer,
Nothing made any sense.
Brett would come home, and we would just sit there
And talk about it every night over and over and over.
We couldn't get it out of our head.
We were completely consumed.
Narrator: On thanksgiving day, 2002, 11 months after losing dustin,
Tragedy strikes the wehdes once more.
Mona: The phone rang. It was the funeral director.
And he says, "so, you know I have brett."
I go, "why do you have brett?"
And he said, "brett took his life."
Narrator: Destroyed by the death of his beloved son,
Brett wehde has committed suicide on dustin's grave.
♪♪
Just...
[ sniffling ]
[ sobbing ]
♪♪
Narrator: The case languishes for years.
Smith: It just went cold.
They could not find a second person.
It was just years of questions and wondering and not knowing.
Narrator: And dustin wehde continues to carry the blame.
Mona: Brett wasn't there with me by my side.
I gave up. The fight was over.
Honestly, I convinced myself that I didn't have a son.
He was not murdered.
I have no pain. I don't hurt.
Narrator: The wehdes aren't the only family
Pushed to the breaking point.
In April 2004, michael files for divorce from tracey.
Law enforcement also has lingering questions.
Investigators were never satisfied
With tracey's version of events.
And at every stage of her story, every time she told it,
She was shoring up all the cracks
And all the the pieces of the story
That didn't make sense.
♪♪
Narrator: 9 years later, in 2010,
Ben smith, the newly elected county attorney,
Decides to take a fresh look at this case.
The lack of answers,
The lack of information in the case files
Is what motivated me.
Why does this kid have 9 shots in his body?
Why does this kid have 3 bullets in the back of his head?
Narrator: Prosecutor smith is unconvinced by tracey's account
Of a panicked showdown...
[ gunshot ]
...Crouched by the gun safe.
She was firing with expert accuracy,
Which under the conditions is just implausible.
Narrator: The nature of the bullet wounds to dustin's head
Also raise questions.
Smith: Dustin suffered what were referred to as shored wounds,
Meaning that his head had to be already on the floor
When the shots were fired.
[ gunshot ]
In every single version of tracey's stories,
He was a credible, real threat to her life and to her children.
Proving that dustin's head was on the floor
When she fired the final shots, demonstrated beyond any doubt
That he was not trying to get up.
Narrator: Prosecutor smith grows increasingly sure
That tracey's claim of self-defense is bogus.
With every unanswered question, 3 more would pop up.
Narrator: Prosecutor smith called several witnesses back in
To go over their evidence.
One of them is mary higgins, one of tracey's close friends.
Smith: Immediately, mary was guarded.
I told her that we do have new additional evidence
That, you know, is pointing towards tracey.
And mary's response was, "you mean that stupid notebook?"
[ camera shutter clicks ]
♪♪
I became very lightheaded. I pushed my, you know --
My body kind of leaned up against the wall,
Because as far as I was concerned,
This was the end game.
Never once did anybody ever disclose
The existence of that notebook.
Narrator: Totally unaware of the significance of the notebook,
Mary now does all she can to help investigators.
She explains that it was tracey who mentioned its existence
And her ex-husband, dr. John pitman.
Tracey told mary that dr. Pitman was going to be arrested,
That the investigators found in dustin's car a pink notebook
That would connect dr. Pitman to the shooting.
Nobody should have known about it other than dustin.
Narrator: Tracey's knowledge of the notebook
Leads prosecutor smith to a new scenario.
Tracey was embroiled in a bitter, bitter custody battle
At the time that dustin was was shot.
She concocted this plot to try to put dr. Pitman in check,
And it's no more complicated than that.
Dustin had no idea he was just a pawn in this scheme.
He saw the robertses as friends.
He went over to that house
Because tracey told him to come over to the house.
♪♪
When he gets over to the house,
Somehow, she gets him to be her scribe
And enter contents in this notebook.
Narrator: Then she turns on dustin.
She pulled a gun out out of nowhere
And put it in his face and started shooting.
[ gunshots ]
The last thing he ever saw was a friend that gunned him down.
Tracey executed dustin in every sense of the word.
Executed him.
[ camera shutter clicks ]
Narrator: Tracey plants the notebook in dustin's car
For the police to find before faking her own strangulation
By rubbing pantyhose up and down her neck to cause a red mark.
Smith: I showed that photograph of her in her hospital bed
To a medical examiner who said it would be impossible
For her to have ever lost consciousness.
Narrator: The marks are in the wrong place to have blocked her airway.
If she never lost consciousness, then the attacker never existed.
Narrator: On July 27, 2011,
Tracey, now known as tracey richter
Following her divorce from michael,
Is charged with first-degree murder.
At the trial, mary higgins takes the stand.
♪♪
Mary higgins' testimony against tracey was all we needed.
Ashley: The jury came back into the room,
And I remember my nerves racing,
Just praying for the outcome that we wanted,
That she wasn't gonna get to be the hero any longer.
♪♪
Narrator: Tracey is sentenced to life in prison
Without the possibility of parole.
Tracey's ex-husband, michael,
Had no involvement in the shooting
And faced no charges.
Mona: How could she do that?
That's a sick, psychotic,
Messed up evil mind and human being.
♪♪
Briana: Now people know. Now the world knows.
[ sobbing ]
The world knows that dustin didn't do those things,
And so it is justice, but it doesn't ever bring him back.
♪♪
Narrator: Today, mona and her daughters
Still take it all one day at a time, step by step.
All through his whole life, he was my everything.
I say dustin is my angel fireball.
I don't feel he went away.
I believe he will always be present.
Briana: You know, he was just always there for us.
He would help us. He would make us laugh.
So he was just a good big brother.
He was just always around being good, being caring and loving.
Mona: Smile.
She took a lot. A lot more than just my brother.
It's hard to have joy in life
When there's people missing out of it.