- I'm kate snow, and this is dateline: Secrets uncovered.
- I don't even think I asked him what happened
Because you don't want to hear details.
That was the worst day of my life
That I found out about my mom.
- A loving couple, a romantic hike,
A secluded spot.
- She was trying to look at the bird.
It's like her feet just went out from under her.
- All of a sudden, I hear yelling
Coming from downstream.
There was mrs. Muller, floating face up.
- A wife falling to her death,
Her husband falling apart.
- He was panicking. He was shaking and crying.
- The evidence at the scene makes us believe that
Something entirely different happened.
- He told me she fell 20 feet.
Where were the injuries?
Why did I not see what I expected to see?
- A search for the truth in the woods and water.
- If your theory is right, that is almost like
She was being hunted.
- It's a little like a hare and a wolf.
- Two chilling accounts of what happened
To the mom they all adored.
One seemingly unsolvable mystery.
- Either you believe crazy story a
Or you believe crazy story b.
Both stories are crazy.
Which one do you want to go with?
♪♪
- Hello and welcome to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
Dr. Leslie mueller was a pioneer in her field,
And an inspiration to her kids.
Then a freak accident took her life.
Or so officials thought.
But a closer look raised a disturbing question--
Were secrets lurking below the surface
Of the river where she died?
The investigation took years
And few were prepared for the stunning outcome.
Here's andrea canning with "the secrets of cottonwood creek."
- Winding down a mountain in southwest colorado,
Waterfalls spill over granite
And sunlight filters through aspens and evergreens.
Cottonwood creek, an only in the west
Sort of backdrop.
These snapshots, barely capture it,
But who can resist trying?
What a spot to preserve a memory.
Careful, though.
This is wilderness, the dangerous kind.
The frigid currents here can take a life
And also, maybe, sweep away secrets.
- It was the perfect place to commit a murder,
Where nobody would see you.
- If you go into it looking for trouble,
You're gonna find it.
- And up in those mountains,
Sometimes questions are left behind.
- I don't have an explanation for this,
But certainly, it does truly haunt me.
- The story begins with those pictures.
Together, they form a couple.
Husband and wife, lesley and fred mueller,
Married for almost 27 years.
- They were always super affectionate.
Um, they acted like they were two high school kids
That were-- had just started dating.
They were all over each other.
Um-- - we were like, "ew!"
- These are the mueller's three children,
Amanda, the eldest, then ariel,
And alex, the youngest and only boy.
They were brought up in texas, near the town of san angelo.
But for fun, the family headed out to their second home
In lake city, colorado.
Those photos of their parents were taken nearby.
- They both loved the cabin and going off to colorado.
- It was so pretty. - Mm-hmm.
- It was in a valley, and there were--
Just you could look and look at postcard of mountains.
- There was a river running right near there.
- Their rockies getaway was a family place to relax
And escape their busy lives back home.
- What was life like up at the cabin?
- We would usually go in the summers.
We would just go hiking together or horseback riding
And just kind of hang out as a family.
- Did you feel like there was a lot of family bonding
That went on at the cabin? - Yes!
- Yeah, definitely.
We ended up having a lot of fun, you know with board games
Or going out hiking
And doing all these different activities together.
- In texas, leslie had an ob/gyn practice
And worked long hours delivering babies.
And she was the area's first ob/gyn-- female ob/gyn.
- She was. - Mm-hmm.
- She was very much a-a pioneer in that sense.
Like, I think, the more people told her,
"you can't do this." she wanted to do it.
- Mm-hmm. - Yeah.
She was very strong willed and definitely a feminist
In a way that she was all about, like,
"I can do anything that any man can do
"and I can do it better."
- In 2004, leslie decided to make a change in her life.
She retired from medicine
And devoted her time to the church.
She even studied theology.
But most of all, leslie loved the outdoors,
Especially riding horses.
- I think, if she had a choice,
She would be riding horses every day
And then practicing theology.
And I'm sure she wished the days were longer.
- She's like superwoman. - Yeah.
- Their mom embraced adventure
And she wanted her kids to, as well.
- One time, mom and I went, just the two of us.
I hadn't been horseback riding in a while.
And so I told her I didn't want to go more than
Maybe five, six miles.
And she goes, "okay, well, I found this trail.
"it's eight miles, but you can do it."
And by the time it ended, it was 16 miles.
She misread the map.
- So, she tricked you. - Yeah.
But we had such a wonderful time.
But the next day I was not moving.
- As for fred, he owned a multimillion dollar company
Importing steel for construction.
Still, their dad wasn't all business all the time.
- In the traditional motherly roles,
He would definitely step up and he wasn't afraid to be mr. Mom.
- The mueller kids say
Their parents fit one another perfectly.
- He'd make a point of, every night,
To try to do something nice for her.
- He was so proud of her, too.
They'd talk all the time.
Um, any time that there was any type of disagreement
About, you know, who-- the dishes were done
Or some honey do chore kind of a thing,
They would talk about it
Until they were completely resolved.
And then the next second,
They'd be all over each other again
And be perfectly happy.
- It was a happy weekend at the mueller's colorado cabin,
May 3rd, 2008.
Now that leslie was no longer working,
She was spending much more time up here.
That Saturday, the spring day was sunny.
The high altitude air still chilled.
Morning began with chores.
- I think we were unloading some hay.
Doin' stuff kind of like that around the house.
- So was this just a very typical weekend
In colorado? - Yeah.
- It was just alex, then 14,
Up with his parents on this trip.
That afternoon, the three went to mass in town.
Later, after a snack, his parents suggested
They cap off the day with a hike
To photograph some stunning waterfalls nearby.
- I was pretty wiped out by that time
And I just kind of wanted to hang out in the cabin
And read a book or something like that.
So I turned them down, um, on going for the hike.
Fred and leslie headed off with her dog, gracie,
A border collie pup.
- I think she was only six months old.
- Yeah, I was-- - was she rambunctious?
- She was rambunctious for sure.
She's the type of dog that,
When the ceiling fan would be going,
She would try to jump up and, like, follow it around.
- Fred and leslie parked at the base of the trail,
Snow still covered the ground in patches.
They hiked up past a series of waterfalls,
Up until they found the perfect spot for pictures.
They had arrived at cottonwood creek.
Fred struck a pose first. Next leslie's turn.
One more of fred, big smile. And then leslie again,
This time with her beloved gracie.
Then something went wrong.
In an instant, leslie was gone.
What happened at cottonwood creek?
Coming up...
- Is she dead?
I tell him it's too soon to know.
- The hunt for answers would start with a frantic search.
- At the waterfall.
She fell and they can't find her.
- It's his wife? - Yes.
- Where was leslie mueller? And did she survive?
- All of a sudden, I hear yelling.
And the yelling is coming from downstream.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Alex muller was alone at his family's vacation cabin
In colorado.
His sisters weren't on this weekend trip.
And that Saturday afternoon,
His parents went out for a hike without him.
- Do you remember the last words you said to your mom
As she was leaving the cabin?
- They were just, "see you later," you know?
- Just a normal like, "of course, I'm going to
"see my mom in an hour." - yeah, exactly.
I mean, not-- nothing really memorable, so--
- And so then there's a whole period of time
That they're gone.
What's the next thing you remember?
So reading kind of hanging around.
I think the first time I kind of noticed that it was getting
A little late, it had gone dark.
And, you know, no, I should be kind of hiking
Or walking around and it's dark.
Alex had no inkling of the tragedy unfolding
At cottonwood creek.
It started right after his dad took this picture
Of his mother, leslie.
Leslie and gracie posed here.
You can see it's a stunning setting,
But just about an arm's length behind me is a cliff,
A steep drop off to the granite below,
And the icy cold waters of cottonwood creek.
Right after fred snapped the picture,
Leslie fell and was swept away in the water.
Unable to find her, fred raced for help,
Driving more than a mile to the nearest house.
- With no cell service up by the creek,
The owner of the house, justin sparks,
Was the first to call 911.
- The homeowner offered right away to help fred.
They sped back up the mountain and fred dropped him off
At a spot to begin searching.
Just down the road, physician's assistant
And ems volunteer michael golab was on duty.
- A call went out over the radio for a female drowning victim.
- Golab headed over to the base of the trail.
There he ran into fred.
- He comes barreling down at a very high rate of speed
And kind of slams on his brakes and starts yelling at me,
"let's go, let's go, let's go."
- The ems responder noticed this man he was trying to help
Could also be injured. Fred's face was scratched up.
- He has some superficial lacerations.
And so I take a minute to
Make sure this isn't my second victim, to make sure he's ok.
And he assures me he's fine, he's fine.
Just kind of wants to keep-keep going.
- But then, as fred drove, he seemed disoriented.
He pulled over, but he couldn't seem
To find where leslie fell.
- I start to unload from the jeep.
He says, no, this isn't it.
And we get back in the jeep
And he continues upstream or uphill.
- After another stop, they found the right place
And hiked toward the creek.
- All of a sudden, I hear yelling,
And the yelling is coming from downstream.
- It was the homeowner, justin sparks.
Michael golab took off toward him.
He was in a knee deep pool down below the waterfalls.
- There was mrs. Mueller.
She's dressed in a lime green jacket,
And she's floating face up. He actually found her.
He-- I believe he used the word "pinned" under the log
And face down.
- Leslie had no pulse.
But golab thought there was still hope she could be revived.
Fred had caught up, towering over them
From the creek embankment.
- He says, is she dead?
Tell him it's too soon to know.
- Golab sent fred back down the road to look for more help.
By then, a small village of first responders
Had assembled at the start of the trail.
Among them was hinsdale county sheriff's deputy at the time,
Justin casey.
- We had other officers responding,
But we also had the ems personnel coming in ambulances
And we had fire personnel coming with the fire trucks.
- Dispatch put a call in to then local sheriff, ron bruce.
- We had gotten report of a drowning
Up on cottonwood creek,
And, uh, they said they'd keep me advised.
- By then, a group of medical responders made their way
Up to the creek to help, but still no heartbeat,
Not a breath from leslie. And it was clear she was gone.
- We were not going to be able to bring miss mueller back.
- At the cabin, alex was wondering
Why his parents weren't back yet.
Their hike was only supposed to last an hour or so,
But they'd been gone more than three hours.
Were you worried? - Not really worried
As in "something happened to them."
It's more like, you know, it's kind of weird
That they would, you know, stay out past dark,
Uh, if they're going for a hike.
- It was past 8:00 p.M.
When his dad got home without his mom.
- It's my dad and the, uh, deputy.
And, um, yeah, they come in, and it's kind of a shock
To see, you know, when you're expecting somebody,
To see strangers coming in instead.
- What do you think when you see that?
- Not a whole lot of time to think, honestly.
You kind of go into shutdown mode.
- Alex recalled, his dad seemed like he was in shock.
- He was very disheveled, had been crying a lot.
Then he, you know, gave me a big hug,
And that was kind of how it broke.
- I-I can't even imagine getting that news
When you just thought
Your parents were going for a-a quick hike.
- It's kind of disbelief, really.
- Like, the whole thing just seemed so surreal.
- Then, father and son
Were shuttled to the sheriff's department
Where fred could file a report about the accident.
- I remember them saying, you take fred
And I'll take alex.
- Sheriff bruce was at the station to meet them.
- My initial reaction to fred was he was a victim,
A grieving husband.
- Fred gave a brief handwritten statement.
- We want to make sure we've dotted the I's
And crossed the t's
Because we're dealing with the death of a woman.
- Then fred and alex headed back to their empty cabin
And there in that home that had, until then,
Been full of such happy memories,
Fred and alex endured the longest night
Of their lives.
- We stayed together in the same room the whole night.
- And did your dad sleep at all?
- It was it was a very long night.
- But they had no idea,
It was just the first sleepless night
In what would become
The longest ordeal of their lives.
Fred gives investigators a detailed account
Of what happened to leslie.
And he's very clear on who's to blame.
What would police think of that?
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
Fred and leslie mueller's daughters, amanda and ariel,
Were hundreds of miles away from colorado
When it happened.
Their dad had to break the terrible news
To them by phone.
- He said, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."
And I said, "what happened?"
And he said, "we were hiking.
"I was trying to take a picture.
"she fell."
And I remember saying that she's going to be ok.
And he said, "no, she's dead."
And I kind of lost it, started crying terribly.
And-and he said, "I'm so, so sorry, mandy"
- What did your dad say to you when you got him on the phone?
- I don't even think I asked him what happened.
Because you don't want to hear details.
I mean, I could easily say
That was the worst day of my life
That I found out about my mom
And, um, all-- the only detail that matters
Is she was gone.
- The tragic details, however, were the business of
Hinsdale county sheriff ron bruce.
He and his small office have the huge job
Of patrolling more than 1100 square miles
Of potentially dangerous wilderness and wildlife.
Should they have not gone on that area?
- No, no, it was-it was perfectly fine.
I think-- yeah, he related
It was something of an idyllic day.
- The day after leslie died, sheriff bruce stopped by
The mueller's cabin to get a more precise account
Of what happened during that hike,
Bruce's undersheriff and a state investigator
Talked to fred.
The conversation at the kitchen table was recorded.
Fred described in detail
How that kodak moment went wrong.
Fred said the rambunctious border collie got startled.
Fred said he witnessed leslie free-fall.
Fred said he lost sight of leslie in the water,
So he ran down to where he thought
The current would take her, said he got scratched up
As he stumbled up and down this embankment,
Navigating rocks and running through bushes.
He told how he had left the camera
With those last images of his wife behind.
Unable to locate leslie, he abandoned his search
Of the creek bed
And made the decision to go for help.
After listening to fred's story,
The sheriff wanted to go up to the site of the accident.
You take fred back up to the mountain.
- Yes, we did a walk through on the scene.
- Up at the scene, fred repeated how the dog seemed to
Cause leslie's fall.
Gracie ran off into the woods right after the accident.
A member of the sheriff's department
Later found her and took her back to his house.
- Everything changed that day.
- Changed forever in ways the kids could not,
In their immediate grief, begin to grasp.
That's because while their father
Was on that mountain talking to authorities,
Seeds of doubt were being planted
Right in the landscape around cottonwood creek.
- All the alarm bells were going off.
Even to this day gives me the chills.
- And a family worries about their grieving father.
- I had never seen him so sad.
You just didn't know if he was gonna do something crazy
Or, you know, if he was ever
Gonna get over this and be able to move on.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm kate snow.
Fred mueller told police his wife, leslie,
Fell off a cliff, plunging to her death
In the icy water below.
But investigators were about to uncover
Troubling clues, suggesting a darker version
Of the events.
Fred's behavior, in the minutes and hours
After leslie's death was now under scrutiny.
Back to andrea canning with
"the secrets of cottonwood creek."
- Fred mueller spent the day after his wife's death
Talking with investigators about the accident
On cottonwood creek.
The next day, he and his son, alex,
Flew home to texas,
Ferried by a friend in a private plane.
- You never think it would, you know --
It could happen to you there.
- There, fred and alex were reunited
With amanda and ariel, alex's older sisters.
- You hear horrible stories and you feel for these people.
It was surreal that we were now that family now, you know,
Just trying to get through it.
- So many came to pay their respects,
But mourning took its toll.
- I would hold myself together in front of people or visit,
And then I would go in the other room to cry
And break down.
And it's kind of just saving face a little bit.
- Leslie, the horse lover, was buried on the texas ranch
Where she grew up riding.
When the blur was over and you finally had time
To process what had happened,
What did you think about with your-your mom
And your future? - I was angry.
I was really looking forward to being pregnant
And calling my ob/gyn mom any time I had
Any kind of little odd thing happen.
- It was like two weeks before my graduation.
It was like a week before my prom.
Like, all these big things that aren't the biggest
Things in the world, but it was just
Like things that your mom should be there for.
And, I mean, seeing us grow up, it's--
- The kids weren't just grieving their own loss.
They felt their father's, too.
- I had never seen him so sad. Or, you know,
You just didn't know if he was gonna do something crazy,
Or, you know, if he was ever gonna get over this
And be able to move on.
- And up in colorado, sheriff bruce wasn't
Moving on, either. He still had questions
About the accident and fred's story.
He'd sent then-deputy justin casey
Up to cottonwood creek to document the site.
Casey brought his brother with him.
They snapped photos and shot video along the way.
- We started below where mrs. Mueller's body was found
And took photographs below as we progressed upstream.
- As the casey brothers moved up the creek,
They noticed that the creek's flow
Didn't seem very strong.
- It didn't push us around as we were walking.
We were careful with our footing in the sense that
There's slippery rocks underneath the water,
But it wasn't hard to go against the current.
- The deputy couldn't help but wonder--
How had leslie's body floated so far?
- The water is coming down, but it's not
A raging river. It's not fast moving.
- Deputy casey reported back to sheriff bruce,
Who by that time had talked to the couple
Who lived by the trail and had helped fred
In those first frantic moments.
What they said cast a new light
On fred's story of that awful day.
- A little tickling at the back of their neck
Was-- had sent up some red flags to them.
- They told sheriff bruce that as they called 911
And set out to help in the search, fred was
Frantic one minute and seemed calm the next.
- They said the vibes were all wrong from him.
They became very uncomfortable.
- Did they kind of like, in hindsight, think back,
Or was it right then?
- They were immediately concerned
That something was amiss.
- It was the husband, justin, who found leslie's body
In the creek, but he told the sheriff
That initially fred had sent him off
To search too far downstream.
- He drove up a short ways.
He said he was sure that
His wife's body was somewhere in that area.
Justin thought that was odd.
- Was it possible that fred was disoriented?
It's-it's kind of a tough area to navigate.
- It's possible.
- Yet sheriff bruce said he, too, got a strange vibe
From fred the night leslie died, and again
The next day when they went back up to cottonwood creek.
- His emotions and his responses to everything
Seemed to be extremely flat, and I thought almost rehearsed.
- Is that fair, though, with everyone being different
In this world and everyone reacting differently
To tragedy? Is it fair for you to judge him
Based on how you think he should be acting?
- I don't know if it's fair, but in my business
It's realistic, uh, because you have to look at
All angles of an event and make sure that
You're uncovering everything that's there.
- On a ledge near where fred said leslie fell,
Investigators found fred's camera
And the photos of leslie's last moments alive.
As he stared at leslie, the vibrant wife and mother,
Sheriff bruce's gut told him, "keep looking."
- The vibes were all wrong.
All the alarm bells were going off.
Even to this day, a little bit gives me the chills.
- Coming up, vibes are one thing,
But investigators thought they also had evidence
That fred wasn't telling the truth.
- He told me she fell 20 feet.
Where was the trauma? Where were the injuries?
Why did I not see what I expected to see?
- There were no broken bones, uh,
Any substantial abrasions, or contusions.
- What really happened to leslie that day?
If your theory is right,
That is almost like she was being hunted.
- It's almost like a-a-a hare and a wolf.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- For the folks charged with keeping the woods
And waters around cottonwood creek safe,
Leslie mueller's drowning was a tragedy,
But also a mystery.
- You know, I put myself in fred's shoes,
And-and-and they didn't fit.
- Sheriff ron bruce had thought fred's demeanor
The day leslie died was unusual.
Fred to him showed a lack of emotion.
But what really spoke volumes to the sheriff
And his team was something they knew well:
The terrain around cottonwood creek.
As fred told them, leslie did a swan dive
From up there, landing on her head and shoulders
On this rock, then she slid into the water.
A horrible accident.
But to local law enforcement, something seemed off.
The first trained rescuer on the scene noticed it first,
What appeared to be a major inconsistency in that story.
After such a treacherous fall, leslie's body,
When pulled from the creek, didn't look at all injured.
- He told me she fell 20 feet.
Where was the trauma? Where were the injuries?
Why did I not see what I expected to see?
- One look at that drop-off,
And sheriff bruce was wondering the same thing.
And when the autopsy report came back,
It only heightened his suspicions.
- There were no broken bones,
Uh, any substantial abrasions or contusions.
They simply weren't there.
- Every accident is different. Every fall is different.
Is it possible that she just fell
In a certain way that just didn't produce
Those injuries you were looking for?
- No. If she landed head first,
As he told us she landed, she would have had
Head injuries, facial fractures, uh, spinal trauma.
None of that was present.
- So sheriff bruce made a quick conclusion.
To him, no injuries meant no fall.
Fred had to be lying.
- What you see here-- - we went back
To cottonwood creek with the sheriff in may 2014.
That's the same month leslie died.
- We had a late snowstorm this year.
- A spring storm had just blanketed the woods and rocks.
I have to say, I'm honestly nervous just standing here.
- It's, uh-- - this is very steep.
- Yeah, it-- that's a sheer drop off.
- It was up here where they had posed for pictures
That sheriff bruce showed me what he thought were
Key pieces to their puzzle.
- The evidence here at the scene makes us believe
That something entirely different happened.
- They found trampled bushes, what they thought
Looked like scuff marks, and a pair of broken glasses
That turned out to be fred's.
- There was evidence of a struggle in there,
And that's where fred's mangled glasses were found.
- Sheriff bruce formed a theory that
After snapping those photos,
Fred and leslie got into a physical fight.
- We think that at that point-- I think, anyway-- uh, that
She was able to break free of his grasp at that point,
And she ran back this way, and down paralleling this path,
It goes down and eventually meets up with the stream.
- You think he chased after her?
- I think he parallelled her down that road
Till he got to the point where he could easily intercept her
As she's going down by the stream.
- If your theory is right,
That is almost like she was being hunted.
- It's almost like a-a-a hare and a wolf.
- And according to bruce's theory, fred chased his wife
Right into the shallow pool where she was found.
- That's where he held her under the water and drowned her,
And then placed her right by the submerged log.
- But bruce admits investigators lack
Some evidence to back up that scenario.
What about footprints?
There were no footprints in the mud, or?
- No, and by that time, we had investigators in here
And it'd been tracked up pretty good.
- So the evidence was ruined, essentially,
If there-- if there was evidence.
- Yeah, right.
- The sheriff and agents from the colorado bureau
Of investigation, the cbi, worked together
Investigating what they now thought was a homicide.
They went down to where the muellers lived
In wall, texas to poke around in fred's life,
But they couldn't find anyone
To say anything bad about him.
- We found that the interviews were largely unproductive.
- You were hitting walls. - In wall, texas, which is
A outlying community outside of san angelo.
It's a pretty closed community.
- And inside that community, none of leslie's friends
Or family doubted fred, and couldn't understand
Why folks up in colorado were asking questions.
- Yeah, people love dad.
That's why he had immense amount of support.
- And then 10 months after leslie's death,
Fred mueller got an invitation from the cbi.
An agent wanted fred to come back up
To colorado for a talk.
- You know, he casually mentioned like,
"oh, yeah, I'm going out to colorado.
"they wanted me back up there."
And he was just saying, like, you know,
"I don't know what they're doing, either,
"but it's just-- we got to cooperate.
"they're doing their job.
"let's just get past it so we can move on."
- I just wanted to first, fred, thank you for coming.
- You're welcome.
- Again, he shared his recollections
About that day at the vacation home.
- It was a beautiful day, and it went to hell.
There's so many things I wish I'd done differently.
- And again, described what happened to leslie
After she posed for that last photo.
- She was flailin' in the air, screamin'.
And I was screamin', and she hit,
And never made another peep.
- If fred's account of the accident was the same,
The tone of this interview was different.
The cbi agent made it clear they didn't believe his story.
- And, you know, I wanna take this opportunity
To ask you everything that's making me think
That this may not have been an accident.
- Ask me anything you want. - Because--
- They questioned fred about those broken glasses
Found at the scene.
- And I'm just gonna say it. I'm thinking
You two had an argument by this bush.
- No, ma'am. No, ma'am.
My wife and I did not have an argument
Anywhere that day. That was the best
Day of our lives until that accident.
- The best day of their lives? The agent clearly suspected
There had been trouble in the mueller's marriage,
A suggestion fred coolly dismissed.
- Yeah, so I can see after 27 years,
The two of you grew apart.
- No, I think we made a hell of a good pair.
- And you don't know quite how to deal with that.
[ scoffs ]
- Or, or-- - or?
- One could say that after 27 years,
We were looking forward to retirement.
- And fred insisted that on the day she died,
He found her more attractive than ever.
- She was beautiful. And she knew that.
And I would tell her that. She became more beautiful
From being already beautiful in my eyes,
Became more beautiful as she became older.
And we had a very-- it's probably
None of your business-- we had a very active sex life.
And we-we got along great. And if you did a good autopsy,
You would know that. You would know that.
- What are you trying to tell me?
- That we made love that morning.
- But even as the seemingly confident fred grew
Clearly irritated, the agent wasn't deterred.
What about those scratches on his face
The day leslie died?
- So these vertical scratches, you're saying
You got from bushes, or-- - bushes or that ground,
Or running down this hill, fallin' a few times,
Which-- I did fall, but it had to have been
From some of that. There's no other explanation.
- Okay, well-- - that's fac-- that's factual.
- There was no altercation up there?
- No, ma'am. No, ma'am.
- 'cause it looks-- see this? - Look underneath
Her fingernails if you think there's something
Underneath her nails that's missing off my face.
- There was no-- - it didn't happen.
There was no altercation. Write it down-- none.
- For now, it seemed that was all the agents could do--
Document fred's story and let him leave.
- You know, I'm-I'm sorry to be a crude open book.
- Time is 11:23. I'm turning off the recording.
- Investigators had their theories,
But did they have a case? Fred went home to texas,
Where his family thought that would be the end of it.
- His entire philosophy through all of this was
It was an accident. I'm telling the truth.
So he-- - and he wanted to cooperate.
He wanted to help them see that.
- But investigators hadn't seen that, not at all.
And if fred couldn't answer their questions,
They'd head back to cottonwood creek
And hope that the water could.
- Coming up-- - she was my constant reminder,
And that photo was the nudge that
Kept me going on this case.
- Fred has always said that water carried leslie away
To here, where her body was found.
Now investigators put that story to the test.
- We had to go back and try to duplicate
The water flow as it was on the evening of the event.
They said there was no way that her body could have
Ended up under that log unless it had been placed there.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Time went by and the muellers didn't hear anything from
The colorado investigators. The kids assumed
The sheriff and his team had finally decided
To believe their dad, too.
- We didn't hear from them for three years after that.
- I just thought it was done. - And so I thought that,
I guess, you know, they finished up
Their paperwork or whatever they needed to do.
- Cross the ts, and-- - and then it was over.
- It wasn't over. - I am an open book.
- In fact, after fred's interview with the cbi,
Investigators kept working. What drove them was
Their theory about a possible struggle,
And that curious lack of injuries on leslie's body.
But the sheriff knew they needed more,
And he put that photo of leslie behind his desk.
- She was my constant reminder, and that photo was
What was-what was the nudge that
Kept me going on this case.
- Investigators decided to zero in on one aspect
Of fred's story. Was it really possible
For leslie's body to float from where he said she fell
To where she was found, 150 feet
And three waterfalls downstream?
- You know, when we brought in
The really top notch, uh, water flow experts,
We had to go back and try to duplicate
The water flow as it was on the evening of the event.
- In August 2009, 15 months after leslie died,
Investigators headed up to cottonwood creek
To conduct some tests.
They dressed a woman around leslie's size
In similar clothing to what she wore
The day she died,
And positioned the female stand-in on the rock ledge
Where fred said leslie landed
Before sliding into the water.
- The forensic people tried to float her from that location,
Where-where he alleged that she fell.
Uh, the water did-- barely-barely touched her body.
- So investigators put her in the water
To see what would happen.
- Uh, she was then moved into the very center
Of that stream, and it wouldn't budge her.
- Finally, they went down to the pool
Where leslie was found.
- They then put her in a wetsuit,
Which gives her buoyancy.
- She was able to float, but unassisted,
She had a hard time making it all the way to the log
Where leslie's body had been pinned.
This meant something big to the investigators.
- So it belied what he told us about this raging torrent,
Tearing her away from his view.
They tried it all again with a mannequin, and again,
What they saw did not match what fred recalled.
In the deeper pools, the mannequin sank,
And it got stuck at the falls.
- Each time, she had to be physically moved
Over the lip of those waterfalls.
The stream would not move her.
- Did you feel like because this case was
Hard enough as it was, that this testing had to be
Just as perfect as it could be?
- Of course. With no witnesses,
We're dealing strictly with circumstantial evidence.
And-and circumstantial evidence is often
Enough to get you a conviction.
But we knew we had to have a lot of it.
- To investigators, these tests confirmed their suspicions.
To them, fred's story of leslie's accident
Was impossible. - They said there was no way
That her body could have ended up under that log
Unless it had been placed there, that
The forces of nature would not have put her under there.
- But were these tests enough to make
A full fledged criminal case?
The first person they'd have to convince
Was the local district attorney.
- He was quickly brought on board as to
What we were investigating and what our thoughts were.
- It turned out to be a hard sell.
- For whatever reason, we could never pique his interest.
He never said no, but he just-- I didn't find
The enthusiasm. - Even after those tests,
The d.A. Wasn't ready to press charges.
Months went by, then a year.
Lesley's picture was still there,
Right behind sheriff bruce's desk.
But the investigators weren't about to shelve their case.
Are there things happening? Are the wheels turning?
It was constantly on our radar screen
That there were things yet to be done,
But the months did run on.
- All this time, fred was a free man in texas.
- His business ventures were-were moving on.
And at home, we were all saying,
"fred mueller believes he got away with murder."
- But sheriff bruce says fred mueller may have
Underestimated the hinsdale county sheriff's department.
- I think that was w-what he thought.
He was gonna get some kind of bumbling buffoon
To show up, and he was gonna walk away on this.
- What do you say to someone who says
You're a small town sheriff who got tunnel vision,
Who focused on this rich outsider and just
Like a dog with a bone would not let go?
- I-- well, I'd say they're wrong.
And-and I've got thick skin.
There-- we did the right thing.
- They kept working and testing and poking around,
Not sure if it would ever amount to anything.
As the years moved on, investigators were continuing
To build a case against fred, though his children were
Unaware their father was under such intense suspicion.
They were trying hard to remember
The happy moments with their mother
And put the colorado tragedy behind them.
What became of the cabin that held so many memories
For all of you?
- Um, I think after the accident,
It wasn't gonna be a happy place for us anymore.
And so dad decided to sell the place
Shortly after mom died.
- I would imagine that whole area is
Just kind of bittersweet now, and--
- Yeah, unfortunately. It's a beautiful area.
It's just... - Not for us.
- For the mueller children, life seemed to be stabilizing.
Amanda was settling in with her husband.
Ariel was in college.
And alex, a high school student, was dreaming
Of a career in the navy. But as alex said,
His dad was having a harder time of it.
- He married mom when he was 18 or 19.
He depended so much on my mother, and then
All of a sudden to be kind of just cast adrift.
- Eventually, fred's counselors and friends suggested
He was ready to meet someone new.
- He finally started getting back on his feet
And started thinking about moving on, and he met wendy.
- Wendy and fred were introduced through old family friends.
- She came into a very tough situation.
But she also-- she brought my dad out of
A very dark place. She saved his life,
Essentially, because he was so depressed.
- After two years as a widower, fred married wendy.
- She was really great and understanding,
And helped him move-move forward.
- A fresh start, such a long way
From fred's tough grilling in colorado.
He had good reason to think it was all over.
- There were times where we were real frustrated.
Uh, when they say the wheels of justice turn slow--
We felt like they were turning too slow this time.
- All the while as the years are passing,
You're looking at leslie's photo
In your office every day. - Yes, I am.
- Is that keeping you going focused?
- Absolutely. - Then in 2011,
Two and a half years after leslie's death,
A new d.A. Took office
And the sheriff lobbied him to take action.
- We were able to get 30 minutes of his time
And-and say, "here's what we're looking at.
"here's what we think occurred."
He said, "let's go."
- The d.A. Assembled a team to look into the case.
Matthew durkin, a deputy colorado state attorney general
At the time, came on board. He was later joined
By ryan brackley, then with the boulder county d.A.
What was your first impression?
- Very tough case. - They combed through
The case file, fred's statements,
Leslie's autopsy, and all those tests
Conducted at the creek.
- This location was a breathtakingly beautiful
Place in the middle of nowhere.
It was the perfect place to commit a murder
Where nobody would see you.
- Coming up--
Authorities take a close look at the scene.
- The defendant's story did not match up.
- And for the mueller kids, a shock.
- I was just like, "why?"
And then they said, "oh, well, we can't tell you that."
- A new chapter opens.
But nothing in this case will go the way
Anyone thinks.
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
Welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm kate snow.
Years after losing his wife, leslie, to a fatal fall,
Fred mueller finally appeared to be moving on.
But what may have been case closed to fred,
Was anything but to authorities in colorado,
Where they believed the woods still held secrets.
Back to andrea canning with
"the secrets of cottonwood creek."
- In 2011, fred mueller was happily remarried,
And running his successful business in texas.
But up in lake city, colorado, there was a new d.A.,
And he assembled a team to look into
The mysterious death of mueller's first wife, leslie.
They began to see what the sherriff had suspected
From the start.
- The defendant's did not match up with the landscape,
The-the scene and all of the other evidence
That were--
That the colorado bureau of investigation
Was able to develop.
- At what point did you finally, all of you say,
"we got enough, let's go get them."
- I think it was when we felt like
We had tested this thing to death,
That we had absolutely everything
We could possibly put together to take to the jury.
- February 6th, 2012,
Just over three and a half years since leslie muller died.
On Monday, fred was at his office
When a texas ranger showed up with an arrest warrant in hand.
Sheriff ron bruce down from colorado stood a few feet away.
- He looked at us almost in shock and he said,
I can't believe you people are taking this serious.
How was that for you to finally make that arrest?
- It felt great.
It felt great, and at that point I said, "leslie,
"we're going to make this right."
- Alex was in school when he was suddenly pulled out of class.
- Now there's some texas rangers, um,
Here to talk to me.
And I kind of asked, you know, "what's going on?
"why are you really here?"
"your father's been arrested."
- Did you say anything back to them when they told you?
- I was just, like, why?
And they said, "oh, well, we can't tell you that.
"it's this-- we just-- we just have some great proof."
And I said, "well, it took you four years.
"what exactly are you doing?"
And they said, "well, we just can't tell you that."
- Did you ever think for one second,
Well, there must be something. - No.
- He must have done something for him to be arrested
To be going through this. - Never.
We never doubted his story. We never doubted it.
We never thought that he would have done anything wrong
Or anything to hurt mom, ever.
That's something that I can't even fathom
Because you would have never done anything like that.
- The kids believe the authorities had it in for their dad
And trumped up things that weren't true,
Like that their father showed no emotion
After their mother's death.
- He was obviously panicked. He was he was panicking.
He was shaking. He had been crying profusely.
Remember, only alex was in colorado at the time.
And thinking back, he got angry about the way
He and his dad were treated.
They separate us like you would with criminals,
Separate myself from my dad, put us in separate vehicles.
- To the kids, it all pointed to a rush to judgment
That turned into an obsession.
- If you go into it looking for trouble,
You're going to find it.
- We were also, as a family, um,
Never informed what they were doing at cottonwood creek,
That they were paying for experts.
- We didn't know what was going on.
- Doing all kinds of tests on the water
And all these different things like that.
This is all like a closely guarded secret
That they never felt they should share with either him
Or are the family, you know, of the victim, of my mother.
- Fred mueller spent the next year in jail
In gunnison, colorado, awaiting trial.
- He sunk into such a deep depression
Right after mom died. - Mm-hmm.
- And he kind of sank back into it
While he was sitting in jail.
- And no one could get to him. - And we couldn't help.
- It was more of the fact that he was completely cut off
From his family for a year. - Isolated.
- The kids were eager for their dad
To take on his accusers.
Attorney roger sagal was part of fred's legal team.
After reading through the discovery and the evidence,
What were your first thoughts?
- Why was this guy arrested for murder?
It was my first thought.
It was a question, uh, from the very beginning,
As to what evidence did they really have.
- He'd soon find out in court.
More than four years after leslie drowned
In cottonwood creek,
Fred mueller would stand trial for murder.
- The prosecution challenges fred's entire story,
Including, stunningly, the one thing
That never seemed in doubt, his rock solid marriage.
- Fred was telling people that, in fact,
The marriage had gone stale
And that he did have a wandering eye.
- He had just kind of mentioned that their interests
Had kind of grown apart.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Four and a half years after leslie mueller's death,
Her husband fred's murder trial began in gunnison, colorado.
Their children and fred's new wife
Dropped everything to be in court
And to pray that their dad would soon be cleared.
Are you all just anxious for this trial to start?
- Yes, definitely. - You're on pins and needles.
- I want to see why they put us through this.
What do they think that they have?
- As the trial got underway, that frigid January 2013,
Inside the courtroom, the prosecution felt
An icy chill.
Normally when you walk into a courtroom
During a murder trial, it's very divided.
I walked into that courtroom
And everybody was on fred's side,
Leslie's family included.
Was that daunting to you at all?
- I wouldn't say daunting. It was certainly unique.
But we had to stay focused on what we thought, uh,
What we needed to do.
We believe that the defendant is responsible for, uh,
His wife's murder.
- It would all come down to two competing versions
Of what happened here.
Fred's story,
Leslie accidentally went over this cliff
And was swept away by the current,
Or the prosecution's, that fred was lying
To cover up leslie's murder.
- Two people went on a hike,
And only one person came back.
- The prosecution began its case with testimony
About fred's behavior that day.
They called jennifer sparks, whose house fred drove to,
Looking for help.
- Did you observe him become emotional at any time?
- No.
- She told the jury fred's lack of emotion concerned her.
- What conversation did you have with your husband
At that time? - I told him,
"something's not right. Be careful."
Her husband, justin, testified that fred's demeanor
Seemed staged as they drove together to look for leslie.
- Just, it sounded like somebody was crying,
But there were-- there were no tears.
He acted like he was very, very upset.
And then a few-- few seconds later,
He'd act like we were kind of buddies
Driving down the road in the car.
- The prosecution had hoped to bring the jury
Up to cottonwood creek, but in January,
The terrain was virtually impassable with snow and ice.
So it was up to the prosecutors
To set the scene and show why they thought fred's story
Defied common sense and science.
- Injuries are gonna tell you a story
That leslie muller was drowned
By her husband.
- Solemnly swear or affirm--
- Prosecutors called michael golob,
The first trained rescuer on the scene.
- I'm asking him what happened.
Tell me how-- what happened.
And he relates that she apparently had fallen off
Of a waterfall.
- Fred told golob the same thing
He told investigators.
He'd watched leslie swan dive off the cliff, hitting granite,
Before sliding into the water.
- All of a sudden, I was struck with the fact
That this didn't-- there was no trauma.
- Did you see any blood on leslie muller?
- There was no deformities. There was no blood.
- Even leslie's clothing seemed unscathed.
- Do you notice any markings, tears, scrapes
On the jacket, on the coat.
- There was none. It was remarkably pristine.
- The pathologist who performed leslie's autopsy
Was also surprised by the lack of injuries
To her body.
- Did you observe any injuries to mrs. Mueller
That were consistent with breaking a fall?
- No, I did not.
- Did you observe any consistent with falling
On her head and shoulders off a cliff on the granite,
As described here. - No.
- And what's more, investigators found
No forensic evidence that leslie ever hit that rock.
- There's no fibers on this rock.
There was no blood on this rock.
There's no hair on this rock.
- This is a very unique case in the sense that the evidence
Is lack of evidence. There's no evidence.
- That's the tough part of the case.
What we have is a lot of evidence
That what the defendant said is impossible.
- And here was the heart of the prosecution's case.
- Those tests investigators conducted up at the creek,
Tests they said proved fred's story was a lie.
They showed the jury the video of those tests,
Pointing out in one how the female stand in
Wasn't swept downstream and in another,
The mannequin wasn't washed over the waterfall
And eventually sank to the bottom.
- Are you seeing any sliding of the mannequin
Into the water? - No.
- Any gushing or oozing? - No.
- The prosecution's drowning expert was blunt.
To her, fred's story was pure fiction.
- The water-- there's nothing in that environment,
Water wise, that could have gotten her to that spot.
A human being had to physically put a body in that position.
- So what really happened?
In court, the prosecution could only hint
At the dramatic story the sheriff told us,
His theory of a struggle, a chase and a drowning.
Well, there were no witnesses for any of that,
So it never actually was presented as evidence,
But an investigator who searched the area
Where fred said leslie fell did testify about finding
Fred's broken glasses.
- This side was broken.
The left hand side was sticking in the dirt.
- Did you see any-- anything on the ground?
- Four foot, uh, from the glasses.
- There were what appeared to be scuff marks,
As if somebody had slipped and had moved the dirt.
- And on the stand, this witness, the coroner.
- Those are the gloves that leslie was wearing.
- Tried to connect those scratches on fred's face
To the plastic bumps or nubbins on leslie's gloves.
- To me, those, uh, plastic nubbins
Are a lot more consistent with the scratch marks
On mr. Muller's face than branches and twigs.
- However, after a defense objection,
The judge ruled the coroner's statement conjecture,
And told the jury to disregard it.
So even though the prosecutors
Were not allowed to tell the jury
How they thought the murder happened,
They still had a theory to present for the why
- They were high school sweethearts.
He had never abused her to anyone's knowledge.
He had no life insurance policy out on her
That he was trying to collect.
What is the motive?
- Fred was telling people, um, one being an employee of his,
Another being a close friend,
That, in fact, the marriage had gone stale,
That, um, there was the same old same old
Between he and leslie,
And that he did have a wandering eye.
And according to the prosecution,
His eye had wandered here.
- Um, we were very good friends.
Jeanne barnes, fred's former assistant,
Testified that fred called and texted her a lot
Outside of work.
- Did that ever make you uncomfortable?
- A little bit.
- And once fred talked to her about leslie and divorce.
- He had just kind of mentioned that their interests
Had kind of grown apart.
- So according to the prosecution team,
Fred picked an idyllic spot in the middle of nowhere
To find a way out of his marriage
And then concocted the story of her fall as a cover.
- Two people went up. One came back.
And we've only got his story,
And we know that story is false through and through.
- The defendant has asked people to believe
What is impossible.
Impossible.
- But fred's lawyers were about to turn
The state's case on its head.
Those tests at cottonwood creek,
In fact, any so-called evidence of murder
Just didn't hold water at all.
- I don't see how you could rule out a fall,
Uh, from, uh, from any of the circumstances
Or injuries I've seen.
- Defense experts tell the jury the way leslie died
Is absolutely clear.
- What was it in my opinion?
Accident.
That's what I would have put on the death certificate.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- For three cold colorado weeks,
As prosecutors laid out their case for murder,
Fred mueller's defense attorney,
Roger sagal, sat by his side.
How was fred feeling throughout the trial?
- He was nervous. His life was on the line.
It was tense. There's no doubt about it.
It was stressful.
- Fred's children found it especially hard.
It was the worst experience you can imagine,
The worst day of your life, imagine that,
Being analyzed by a room full of people,
And drug out publicly, and scrutinized,
Your personal, private tragedy being exposed to the world
And picked apart.
- To the siblings, each day in court felt like
An unrelenting attack against their family
And their father.
- You can't react. You can't say anything.
You just have to sit there and take it,
And watch them say all these horrible accusations
About my dad.
- You're looking for one person to stand up and say,
Like, this is-- this is preposterous.
This entire-- there is no evidence.
He's a-- he's a good guy.
He's never shown any history of violence.
And, you know, and it was his wife, for goodness sake.
And can we just-- let's-- we're stopping this.
- Now, fred's lawyers were ready to push back.
Defense counsel mike degeurin told the jurors
There was an obvious rush to judgment
That contaminated the entire investigation.
- Kind of an evil suspicion from the get go.
- First responder michael golob testified
That neighbor justin sparks started
Making accusatory comments while they were still trying
To revive leslie.
Justin at one point turned to me
And said something along the lines of,
"I never trusted that sob."
- I think that the suspicion started with mr. Sparks
And never stopped.
- You think it was somewhat of a snowball effect?
- Yeah, I do.
- And even though golob was a prosecution witness,
He admitted he personally didn't find anything odd
About fred's behavior that day.
- He just kind of seemed to have trouble focusing,
He seemed panicked.
Everyone deals with tragedy different.
I felt in the context, it seemed appropriate.
- But what about that important evidence against fred,
The apparent lack of injuries on leslie's body?
Did you wonder at all why your mom didn't have
More injuries, as-as some people feel she should?
- I don't know-- - no.
- No, you can't say what people are supposed to--
- She was bundled up.
She was in cold water.
We've thought about this more than anyone
Should ever think about,
What their mother's body did after she died.
- The defense called its own forensic expert,
Veteran pathologist werner spitz.
He testified there were some injuries,
Bruising on her hand,
And an apparent small skull fracture
That no one else had highlighted.
- If you look carefully at this,
You would see that there is an area here
That is not like it should be.
- After looking at the medical examiner's report
And leslie's x-rays,
Dr. Spitz said there was no evidence
This was a homicide.
- What was it, in my opinion? Accident.
That's what I would have put on the death certificate.
- A veteran emergency room doctor
Backed up spitz's conclusion,
Saying not all falls are catastrophic.
I don't see how you could rule out a fall, uh,
From, uh, from any of the circumstances
Or injuries that I've seen.
- And then it was time to counter
All those prosecution water tests,
The backbone of the state's case.
The defense saw major problems with those tests
And called its own water expert,
A hydrologist who had been measuring current flows
For forty years.
- Increase of stream flow, and as a general rule,
That increased the stream flow
Comes in the late afternoon and evening.
- The defense expert pointed out
That water in the mountains changes constantly.
And in 2008, the year leslie died,
There was more snowmelt than usual.
- Was 2008 a high water year?
- It was a tremendously high water year.
- Those prosecution tests were done more than a year later
And in a different season,
Not spring, but summer, when the creek's water level
Is usually lower.
- The flows on August 4th and 5th '09 were less
Than the streamflow was on may 3rd and may 4th '08.
- All that so-called evidence that proved fred's story
Was impossible?
The defense said it was useless.
- The testing that you do in 2009
Is not necessarily going to be reflective
Of what did or did not happen in 2008.
The bottoms of the creek changes.
The walls of the creek can change.
There's erosion up creek.
And you can see it as the more times you go up there,
You can see-- every time it seemed
A little bit different.
And the defense attacked the state's expert
For what it said was another flaw with the mannequin test.
- They did not start that test with the mannequin
Falling from the ledge, right?
- Absolutely not.
- And therefore, your testing did not account for
Any kinetic energy that would have been
Initiated from the fall, correct?
- That's correct.
- And what about fred's story?
A jumpy dog distracted by a blue jay,
And a swan dive toward the rocky water.
The defense said it was the truth
And not at all farfetched.
- It is steep and angular.
There's ice on the rocks. It's slippery.
So it seemed perfectly plausible
That she had fallen and floated.
- The defense brought in a canine behavior expert
Who analyzed that last photo of leslie
And said the young border collie looks spooked
And ready to bolt.
- The dog is under stress.
Uh, the dog is pushing back,
Or he's pushing back from mrs. Mueller.
She's trying to control him with the ear pinch.
And the dog is looking totally off
In another direction.
- To the defense, it was clear,
Fred's story was entirely plausible
And the prosecution's was not.
- Why would he do this?
Why would a guy who was married for 27 years
With no history of violence,
No history of any sort of domestic disputes,
All of a sudden decide, on his vacation,
That he was going to murder his wife with his bare hands?
I mean, it just seems that part of the case
Seems so farfetched.
- Friend after friend arrived from texas to support fred.
Even his in-laws took the stand.
Leslie's own mother, jenny,
Vouched for her former son in law's character.
- All those years, any signs of fred being abusive
Or violent to leslie?
- No, I never saw a sign of fred
Being violent, um, to anyone.
- And each of fred's children also face the jury to tell them
About their parents' long and happy marriage.
Ariel described one nightly routine.
- Mom and dad would walk to the pond, um,
That was in front of our house, about 200 yards,
Holding hands, may be out there for thirty minutes or an hour
While the sun would be setting.
- Amanda recalled how devastated her father was
In the wake of her mother's death.
- I know he wasn't sleeping well.
He was stay in bed a lot during the day.
He cried all the time.
- And alex's testimony brought out an emotional response
From fred in court.
- Did you ever see your dad
Able to get over it?
- No.
I'm looking at him right now and he's not over it.
- But what about fred's former assistant,
The woman who'd given prosecutors
A semblance of motive?
In fact, during cross-examination,
The assistant said fred and his wife showed
Affection for each other all the time.
- She would-- if he was at his desk,
She would come in,
She goes straight to his desk,
She give him a kiss and she would go back
To her desk in the back.
- The absolute bottom line is there was no affair
With jeanne barnes, and fred did not kill his wife,
And he certainly did not kill his wife or jeanne barnes.
- The defense was sure it had shown the jury
Who fred really was.
The people who knew him best said no way in the world
Could he have killed his wife.
But now it was up to 12 people who didn't know fred at all
To decide whether he did.
- That is the toughest time of the trial.
You're literally in this holding pattern.
- Waiting for a verdict.
- The longer it took,
The more we were getting nervous.
- Please rise for the jury.
- And then a bombshell.
- I was almost in tears.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back.
More than four years after leslie mueller's tragic death
On a colorado trail, her husband fred was about
To learn his fate in the courtroom.
His defense said he witnessed an awful accident,
But the prosecution portrayed him
As a cold blooded killer.
It was now up to jurors to decide.
Back to andrea canning
With "the secrets of cottonwood creek."
- After a contentious five week long trial,
The murder case against fred mueller
Finally went to the jury.
What was it like waiting
For that so important verdict?
- Butterflies? Tension? - Yeah, we were all nervous,
But we were also--
I think we were all pretty confident
In our gut that there's no way
That he will not be, you know, acquitted.
- Day one of deliberations came and went
Without a verdict.
As the waiting spilled into day two,
The defense and prosecution agreed on one thing.
- That is the toughest time of the trial,
Is the waiting.
You're literally in this holding pattern.
- That's the worst part of any trial,
Just not knowing what the result was gonna be.
- Sheriff bruce was back in his lake city office
Waiting by that photo of leslie.
- I had no concerns.
I mean, I thought-- we just--
We were going through the process
And then-and then I'll admit a little--
I question why it was taking so long,
Because I thought we had a--
I-- it wasn't a slam dunk,
But I thought we had a solid case
- At the courthouse, the jury was still out.
Three days, no decision.
- The longer it took, the more we were...
Getting nervous
Because it seems so clear cut.
- It seemed obvious to us.
- It was the fourth day of deliberations
When the jurors sent out a note.
Everyone gathered in the courtroom
To hear what they had to say.
- We are at an impasse.
- The judge offered them lunch and asked for one more try.
Fred's future was in their hands.
- Please rise for the jury.
- Ten minutes later, they passed on the free food
And were back.
- Uh, ladies and gentlemen,
I do have another note, uh, from you folks.
And it indicates that, um,
We are deadlocked.
- Hopelessly so.
The judge had no real choice.
He declared a mistrial.
- It was extremely disappointing.
- Very disappointing. - Yeah, extremely disappointing,
Because it was not the-not the answer
That we thought we deserved, that we did deserve.
- Mostly, I felt for fred, you know.
Um, ultimately it's his life that's on trial.
And so I felt sad for him
That, um, we couldn't get this resolved for him
In the form of an acquittal.
- In fact, the defense had been very close.
11 of the 12 jurors voted not guilty.
- I heard the jury vote.
Uh, I was almost in tears.
And I thought, how did they miss--
How did they miss what we were trying to say?
- After the mistrial,
The defense argued for his release on bond,
And the judge granted it.
- I just-- I can't wait to be able to
Give him a hug and to just talk to him
Whenever I want.
- Now, one full year after losing his freedom,
Fred was going to get out of jail.
His daughters and new wife, wendy,
Gather to embrace him.
Son alex, who was traveling, called in for an update.
- So we're all at the jail right now,
Just, um, waiting for your dad.
It's alex.
- We hadn't given him a hug in a year.
We haven't been able to see him in person
In a year.
- There he is. - Yay!
- Can you open the door for him?
- [indistinct]
- God his bags packed and ready to go.
- Yay! - Yay!
- I love you guys.
- I love you too.
- It was so wonderful to get that hug
That we waited for.
- Do you remember what you said to him?
- I love you. - I love you, I love you.
- Let's go home.
When's the next flight out?
- Come on. Let's go home.
- It was so emotional.
It was-- we were all so excited.
We finally got to take dad home.
- Home to texas, but for how long?
Fred was only out on bond.
He still was charged with murder
And had the threat of a retrial
Hanging over his head.
- We were extremely hopeful
They could change their minds
And decide not to go forward again.
- And we were really hoping for that.
- Mm-hmm.
- More than just hoping.
In fact, the family actually met with prosecutors
And lobbied against another trial.
Does-- did that weigh into
Whether to go to a second trial at all?
The-the fact that
This entire family, leslie's family included,
Did not want... A trial?
- Absolutely, we have to consider, um, their position.
We have to consider where they're coming from.
- Then one part of the decision was made for them.
The judge threw out the most serious charge,
First degree murder. Why?
The judge ruled prosecutors didn't have enough evidence
To establish premeditation.
- We did manage to get an acquittal
In the first degree murder charge.
- Prosecutors could still move ahead with second degree murder,
But would they?
That 11 to one vote surely made a retrial daunting.
- Eleven to one is not a great outcome
For the prosecution's perspective.
- But the prosecutor spoke to some of those jurors
And found out, to many of them,
"not guilty" didn't mean "innocent."
- And kind of behind those numbers
Were a group of people who, by and large,
Felt that something had happened here,
That fred mueller was not telling the truth.
- Prosecutors weighed it all and made their decision.
Fred would stand trial for murder again.
- I remember having a moment thinking I can't do this again.
And my mom always would be like,
"well, you're gonna. Do it."
And I felt like she was going to be fine.
And it's going to be good.
- Like your mom was kind of-- - --guiding her head.
She was always kind of "suck it up, you can do it."
- But the second trial would by no means
Be a carbon copy of the first,
With new attorneys and new witnesses.
Both sides hope that this time they'd see a different result.
Coming up...
The defense comes out swinging.
- What the prosecution asks you to believe
Is that fred mueller went from this
To a homicidal maniac within seconds.
- But then a defense witness says something
That might do fred more harm than good.
- Fred is very successful. He could sell anything.
- Would jurors think fred had sold everyone a lie
About what happened to leslie?
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- October 2013 felt like a grim groundhog day.
Fred mueller, again in court,
His family supporting him from the gallery.
Did you feel at all like, ok, we know how this works now?
We're a little stronger this time around.
- I did feel that way.
We can cut out the extraneous stuff
And really focus on the-the-- no case.
- But there were differences from the first trial
To ensure an untainted jury pool.
The case had been moved northeast to suburban denver,
More than 250 miles away from cottonwood creek.
- And the evidence in this case is that leslie mueller
Did not fall off a cliff.
- This time from the prosecution,
Jurors heard a streamlined version of events
And how, according to the state,
Fred mueller told a story that defied logic.
- Like most murders, this one is hard to explain.
Doesn't make sense.
Does it make sense how and why this could happen.
- The witnesses to that awful day again came forward.
Neighbor jennifer sparks again told how she thought
Fred was acting strangely when he pulled up to her house.
And she added this new detail.
- He was, um, petting my dog.
- When he was squatted down, petting the dog?
- Yeah, the dog was right s-- here
And he was just petting the dog.
- She felt that the defendant's demeanor
Was-was oddly calm, that he bent down and petted the dog.
She felt like his demeanor was-was misplaced.
- For the prosecution,
This trial was a second chance to explain to the jury
How fred story didn't match up with the landscape.
- This area was not vast. It wasn't huge.
It was-it was actually quite tight
And it was actually quite small
And making the defendant's statement impossible.
- Our primary goal in the second trial
Was to get that jury to the scene.
- The judge considered a visit to cottonwood creek,
But ruled it was too expensive and impractical
To bring the jury that far.
- Not being able to do that,
We did our best in the second trial
To bring the scene to the jury.
- This second jury had a new 3-d model of cottonwood creek
To examine and fresh testimony to consider.
That apparent small skull fracture of leslie's
That the defense highlighted in the first trial?
No way, said the state's new witness,
Who was an expert in reading x-rays.
- Could you determine that there's any evidence
Of a fall from 20 feet onto a hard granite surface?
- Um, I didn't see any evidence of-of that kind.
I didn't see any other fractures.
- Prosecutors hammered home their key points:
Leslie had no injuries from a fall
And tests showed she could not have floated downstream
As fred said she did.
- Just doesn't seem as a likely scenario.
- So they argued fred must have drowned her
Right where she was found,
Right after a violent struggle.
- It was our intention to streamline the second trial
As much as possible,
And-and focus in on the critical points of the case.
- But fred mueller also changed things up in this trial.
He hired a new powerhouse attorney, pamela mackey,
Who had a roster of high profile clients, like kobe bryant.
- What the prosecution asks you to believe
Is that fred mueller went from this...
To a homicidal maniac within seconds.
Fred's new lawyer argued
That the state's case was beyond flimsy,
- Their theory that
Because leslie mueller
Did not suffer any significant injuries
In her fall from the ledge...
Fred mueller must have drowned her.
That's their case.
They won't give you the why of that theory,
They won't give you the how.
- The defense again criticized the prosecution's recreations,
And told this jury there was no way
Anyone could know for sure what the water flow
And depth were on the day leslie died.
- If someone measured the actual stream flow of cottonwood creek
Within days or a week of the incident,
It would have been informative.
- And several new defense witnesses took the stand.
There was a biomechanical engineer
Who'd examined the mannequin used in this test.
- Well, frankly, I mean,
It-it's not even right to call it testing.
- According to the defense's new expert,
The state's test had a big flaw.
That dummy couldn't sink or float in water
The same way a human does.
In fact, it wasn't even designed for this sort of experiment.
- As far as buoyancy is concerned,
It is not a scientific instrument
For determining that. So it's the wrong tool
For, uh, scientifically probing.
- And this time, the defense brought in a memory expert
To explain away possible holes in fred's story.
The experts said extremely stressful situations
Can play tricks with memories.
So maybe fred didn't actually see leslie fall on her head
As he said he did.
- False memories happened to us all the time.
That's not a lie.
It's just a memory that happens to be incorrect.
- But no expert could help the jurors understand
How fred truly felt about his wife
Of almost 27 years.
To wrap up their case,
The defense brought up fred's family
To talk about how happy the muellers had been.
- Did you observe anything that led you to believe
That your folks
Were having difficulty in their marriage?
- No, never.
- Leslie's mother, ginny, again defended fred.
- I've always had a good relationship with fred.
- But the prosecution's ears perked up
When she offered a new detail about her son in law.
- Fred. Fred is very successful.
He could sell anything. He-he's a wonderful salesman.
- In final statements,
The prosecutor used those words against fred.
- What we learned about the defendant yesterday
Is that he can sell anything,
But he can't sell you the impossible.
From our perspective,
That's what he tried to do, as a he tried to sell
The emergency responders, cbi, the sheriff's office.
Uh, and-and, quite frankly, these, you know,
These juries tried to sell something,
A-a story that was just simply impossible.
- Could this jury rise to the challenge
And once and for all
Make sense of what happened at cottonwood creek?
- Coming up...
Jurors get the case.
- Either you believe crazy story a,
That she fell off that cliff and down the three waterfalls,
Or you believe crazy story b,
That fred, who has no history of violence, killed his wife.
Both stories are crazy.
Which one do you want to go with?
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- It took more than five years, dozens of witnesses,
And hundreds of pieces of evidence
In two colorado courtrooms to get to this moment.
- Again, 12 men and women were trying to decide
If leslie mueller was murdered
Or a victim of a freak accident.
- We all agreed that the accident, the fall
Was a c-completely crazy.
And I just kept thinking, well, crazy things happen
In life all the time.
- We spoke to seven of the 12 jurors.
- Either you believe crazy story a,
That she fell off that cliff and went down three waterfalls
Or you believe crazy story b,
That fred, who has no history of violence,
Killed his wife. Both stories are crazy.
Which one do you want to go with?
- What were the key pieces of evidence for you
Or the lack thereof?
- Lack of injuries.
- You felt that she should have had more injuries?
- Absolutely. I mean, to-to-to fall
15 to 20 feet into a granite platform--
- Face-first.
- To go down headfirst, down three waterfalls,
And be pulled out and be described as pristine.
- Show of hands of who believed fred's story?
- It's kinda-- yeah. - We-we did take--
At-at one point in time- at one point in time,
We all said, all right, let's vote and see
Who-who thinks he's lying, and we all raise his hands.
Ok, we convicted him of lying. - Right.
- The question beyond that was my question is,
If we don't believe his story, does that make him guilty?
He is not on trial for lying. He's on trial for murder.
And I need to know how and why.
- The jurors wondered
Where was the evidence that fred drowned her
If he really did kill her?
Prosecutors never provided any clear explanation
Of how he did it. - There was no evidence
To put him down at the recovery site.
There were no footprints in the snow,
And there was no defensive wounds on her.
If-if there was a scuffle,
I would think she would have some bruises.
She would have fought back.
- They pored over technical testimony
About water in the creek.
To them, that flood of data and expert testimony
Was a complete wash.
- Can bring all the experts in and all the water tests.
And it's just pointless, because they'll always
Poke a hole in it because it wasn't done may 3rd, 2008.
- Like the jury before them,
This group's first day of deliberations
Ended without a verdict.
- As the deliberations took longer and longer,
It became clear that we needed to be nervous again.
- While sheriff bruce felt more confident than ever
This time around.
- I slept well, I ate well.
I went about the rest of my normal duties at work here,
Uh, without the-- a whole lotta concern about it,
And just expected that phone call to come in
To say "we got him."
- The 12 jurors returned the next morning,
Determined to make a fresh start.
Was anyone here consistently thinking about leslie,
The mother, the wife, the doctor?
- We had all the pictures up and everything.
And I made the comment like, leslie, talk to me,
Say something,
Because she can't speak. - Right.
She needed us.
- After two days of intense debate,
The 12 jurors thought they were done.
They sent out a note
And the judge called everyone into the courtroom.
- Ladies and gentlemen, you have sent me a, uh, final note
Indicating that you do not believe
That you can reach a verdict.
Uh, mr. Foreperson, is that correct?
- That is correct, your honor. - Ok, I am going to declare
The jury deadlock in this case.
- Hopelessly deadlocked.
A second jury unable to say for sure
Fred mueller had killed his wife or not.
When you hear those two words, again, "hung jury."
- Crushing. - Absolutely crushing.
- Disappointment again on both sides.
Do you ever look back and think, you know, what?
Maybe we shouldn't have done this?
It wasn't there from the beginning?
- Absolutely not. - No.
- Both these trials were-were worthy of prosecution.
A woman was murdered, and, uh,
Both the efforts were-were more than worth it.
- So how close was the jury's vote this time?
Eight jurors believed fred was guilty
And four voted to acquit.
- I have too many questions that are unanswered.
Therefore, I have reasonable doubt.
- We just couldn't come to-to an agreement.
You know, I was steadfast guilty,
And he was steadfast, not guilty.
And we tried to get everybody's, um, impression
Of what happened or what they thought.
The prosecutors wondered, could one decision by the judge
Have changed at all?
- To this day, uh, I believe that
Had either one of these juries been able to go to that scene,
Perhaps it would have been a different result.
- And then, three weeks after the second mistrial,
An announcement: The state dropped all charges
Against fred mueller.
- When we finally got the news, it was-it was, like,
Overwhelming with joy.
We finally can rest at ease and my dad can move on
With his life, and we can finally just
Move on and-- - --relax.
- Fred and his wife wendy have returned to texas,
Where fred still runs his thriving business.
- In colorado, the case officially remains open.
- Without any further investigation,
Without any further witnesses that could come forward
To provide, uh, some new bit of evidence, uh, at this point,
The case is, uh, just simply remains open.
- So fred will, essentially, have this hanging over his head,
Potentially forever?
- At this point, the case remains open.
- Fred told us he's well aware of this legal limbo.
He said he wanted to do an interview with dateline,
But is concerned that anything he says
Could be distorted by the prosecutors
And investigators, who still believe
He did something wrong. - Leslie, got to me.
- And that picture of leslie
Was prominently displayed in sheriff ron bruce's office,
Until he retired in early 2019.
He says the photo is still with him.
- I think it was just the magnitude
Of the terrible tragedy that stuck with me,
And-and will stay with me the rest of my life.
- You get teary eyed when you talk about this woman
You've never even met. - Correct.
- Who's not even
A member of your family. - I do.
- What is this connection you feel with her?
- I don't have an explanation for this.
I can't-I can't put a finger on it.
But certainly it-it, uh, it-it does truly haunt me.
Yeah, I feel like I let her down.
- Leslie's family chooses to remember her vividly,
Not as a victim,
But as a cherished wife and mother
They lost too soon. - We don't want people to forget
About how wonderful of a person she was
Before the accident
And all the great things that she did,
- All the babies she delivered,
And-- - lives she saved.
Yeah, she's a great, great person.
With a vacation home the mueller's once loved
Long sold, they are making new memories
As a family far from colorado,
And in those magnificent rockies, seasons change,
Waters rise and fall,
And some believe the secrets of cottonwood creek
Will remain a mystery forever.
- That's all for this edition of "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm kate snow.
Thank you for watching.