- Harlan, over here.
- Ladies and gentlemen, Harlan Coben.
[applause]
- He's the greatest thriller writer.
- Oh, come on.
[dramatic chamber music]
- Coben's written over 30 "New York Times" Best Sellers.
- With over a dozen hit TV shows and movies.
[typewriter clacking, dinging]
- In all our stories, the same question--
what made the killer cross that line?
♪ ♪
[mysterious music]
♪ ♪
I'm Harlan Coben.
The best twists aren't the ones that come out of nowhere.
They're the ones hiding in plain sight,
the ones you could have seen from page one.
I thought about that when I stumbled across the case
of a man murdered in his bed, sleeping next to his wife,
with his daughter just down the hall.
No one heard a thing.
No one even woke up.
And that's where our mystery begins.
[tender piano music]
- My dad and I were best friends.
My dad, Ben, made everyone that he loved happy
and especially me. I was a daddy's girl, for sure.
My dad introduced me to Melissa,
and I was super mean to her because I didn't know her.
But she grew on me pretty quickly.
- Oh, wow.
- For the wedding dress and everything.
- Aww.
- Looking good. Looking good.
- The wedding was in Tahoe, on the beach.
I just loved getting dressed up
and being with everyone,
and I felt really pretty.
- Friends and family, may we all please rise
for our beautiful bride?
[camera shutter clicks]
- But I also think I liked
that my dad and Melissa were gonna be together.
- She gave me a bracelet to be a part of the wedding
so that I knew that I was family too.
[applause]
- Just look at each other and go,
what the hell have we just did?
- I loved every second of it.
But then I don't know if I ever really understood
what it was that happened until obviously I got older.
[tense music]
[line trilling]
- So a man was shot in his sleep,
but no one in the house woke up?
- Someone's lying. People are keeping secrets.
- She's evil. She's vile.
- Police say a source has come forward
with inside information.
[dramatic music]
- A crime happened here.
The past isn't what it seemed.
The story told turns out to be deception.
And just when you're sure have the answer...
- 911. What is the address of your emergency?
Hello? Anyone there?
- There's one final twist.
♪ ♪
[siren blaring in distance]
- It was 3:30 in the morning.
There was a dispatch to Wildhorse Lane.
So my partners and I, you know,
we raced to the scene.
- The only thing we knew, there was a gunshot.
We made entry into the residence.
It's dark.
And as we were moving down the hallway,
Melissa steps out of Alyssa's bedroom.
She's very upset, distraught, crying.
We continued down the hallway to the master bedroom,
and that's when we discovered Ben in a bed
shot in the back of the head.
[suspenseful music]
- He was laying on his stomach, and the back of his head
had been blown apart. It was open.
So I knew I didn't have a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
I had homicide.
And I could see the rest of his brain matter
projected onto the pillows next to him.
♪ ♪
Melissa told us there was two other people in the house,
Melissa's brother, Craig, 18 years old,
almost an adult, and then Alyssa Oxley,
Ben's daughter, aged six.
[radio beeps] - 782 on scene.
- 10-4.
- Once the cops came, I remember just screaming
that I wanted my dad, and I didn't understand,
obviously, what was going on and why
they were keeping him from me.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- At that point, detectives took Melissa,
Alyssa, and Craig to the sheriff's office.
- We got to the cop station.
I screamed and ran into a corner
'cause they weren't letting me be with Melissa.
[sobbing]
- Melissa was the person most close proximity
to Ben when he was killed.
She was laying in bed next to him.
- She had blood on her hands, tissue on her hands,
some on the side of her face.
- [sobbing]
- She appeared very distraught and upset.
But we were trying to figure out
who committed this heinous crime.
- Detectives scope a moment, a pristine time capsule
of everyone's movements and whereabouts.
They're searching for a contradiction in the stories,
something that doesn't align with what they've heard,
that one detail that doesn't line up.
- You didn't hear the gunshot? You didn't feel it?
I mean, how could this happen and you not be aware?
I'm thinking, eh, this doesn't seem right.
- These are things you think you should know immediately.
Your husband just got shot. Why didn't you get shot?
It was very, very suspicious.
Her calling 911 could have been a ploy
to throw us off, that she's not involved.
- She denied any allegations.
But the information she was giving us didn't make sense.
At that point, Melissa was the prime suspect.
- [sobs]
- So we're looking for motive. We're looking for reasons why.
Is this a domestic situation that got out of hand?
- So then you have to start picking apart her story,
trying to figure out where the lies are.
- We have to find the motive.
Was this over money?
- We found there was a recent life insurance policy
taken out on Ben.
It was $400,000.
- The policy was not very old, only about three months.
- Melissa being the beneficiary to it,
that could be a motive. - She'll be married tomorrow.
- People have done a lot worse for a lot less.
- [sobbing]
[gentle music]
♪ ♪
- Sometimes a case hinges on something hazy,
maybe a wife's mid-sleep memory,
a surprise witness with a crisis of conscience,
or a child's glimpse of a figure in the doorway.
♪ ♪
- While Melissa was being questioned,
one of our other detectives did speak with Alyssa in the bay,
just asking her what she heard and what she saw.
- Alyssa, how old are you?
- Six.
[somber music]
I didn't want to believe it was Melissa.
But they weren't married for that long,
and then he's laying next to her,
and now he's gone.
[mysterious music]
♪ ♪
- During the initial walkthrough of the scene,
we started seeing small shotgun-type pellets
around the bed and on the floor,
which helped us determine
this was a shotgun used in this murder.
And looking at the blood spatter
on the walls and on the bed,
You would think there would be a lot of blood on Melissa,
a lot of everything on her,
and there really wasn't that much,
which is more indicative of somebody who was a shooter
than somebody who was an unwilling participant
laying next to somebody.
[sobbing]
- Melissa, understand that--
- If she had done this and was trying
to get away with it, I would expect tears
because that's what you would think I would want to see.
She could have gotten the life insurance policy,
waited three months, and then committed the act,
making it look like a homicide by some unknown person.
So with Melissa, obviously, this was definitely looking
like maybe she is the shooter.
- But we really had to keep our minds open
to not go after just one person
without very specific physical evidence.
[tense music]
- During the search of the residence,
we were looking for any type of evidence
that might have been left behind.
- That's when we discovered weapons in the house.
[dramatic music]
We found shotguns in the garage
that matched what appeared to be the round that killed Ben.
- And then they found shotgun shells
in one of the bedrooms
that Craig was using, Melissa's brother.
♪ ♪
- The shotgun shells in his bedroom
matched the shotguns in the garage.
So you got to ask the question,
who was Melissa's brother?
♪ ♪
- The time is 5:30 a.m.
I'm here with Craig.
- Patrol officers are clearing the house.
They're making noise.
They're big people with a lot of gear on,
so they're not light and quiet.
And to find him still sleeping under a bunch of blankets
was kind of odd to us. Why are you hiding?
- Craig was an avid hunter.
So did Melissa use him as a murder for hire?
Or was there some type of issue
between Melissa and Ben
that we didn't know about,
and Craig took matters into his own hands?
- There was a substantial insurance policy,
so Craig Nichols' relationship to Melissa as her brother
meant that he, too, could be considered
financially motivated to commit this crime.
[tense music]
- Dawn was Ben's ex-wife,
and Alyssa is their daughter.
We learned that, after their divorce,
Ben got full custody of Alyssa.
♪ ♪
[soft dramatic music]
- Crimes between loved ones are tough to untangle.
The motive is rarely just money.
You can usually trace it back to something
more primitive and destructive.
♪ ♪
- My mom was a cocktail waitress at a casino,
and that's where my mom and dad met.
They did fall in love.
And they were really in love for a long time.
But that changed.
♪
My mom had never specifically talked
about why they got divorced.
But she always made sure
that I knew that she loved me so much
and that they took me from her.
[knocking at door]
- With Dawn, you know, they're called an ex
for a reason, right?
There's usually bad blood there.
- It doesn't seem like a lot of money,
that Dawn was upset having to pay.
But on principle, the custody combined
with having to pay could be a massive thing to somebody.
- Dawn got defensive with us,
but I wanted to pull out as much information
from her as possible.
- Dawn told us she was home all night,
watching a movie with her boyfriend,
James Matlean.
She fell asleep about 4:00 or 4:30 in the morning.
And the next thing she knew, officers were knocking
on her door, waking her up.
Devon, her son, corroborated,
saying that they were home all night.
- Present is Devon Mitchell.
Tell me what happened that night.
- She had an alibi, so we had no reason
to think Dawn was a suspect.
- Dawn's dislike for Ben didn't make her a murderer.
- We didn't think she had it in herself to pull the trigger.
- Yeah.
[tense music]
- Paul Littler was Dawn Oxley's ex-husband prior to Ben Oxley.
He had a lengthy criminal history.
- Paul Littler had gone to prison for crimes of violence.
- We learned through the investigation
Paul always wanted to eliminate Ben
from the picture.
So that sparked an interest.
- Is this a jealous ex-husband?
It made a lot of sense. It could fit a motive.
- We were told that Paul was in Lancaster, California.
We contacted the local sheriff's office down there,
who confirmed he was released from prison
days before the homicide.
[sirens blaring]
[soft dramatic music]
- Paul Littler was now a person of interest for us.
So he was brought in for questioning.
- Paul said he had no knowledge of the murder,
and he hadn't really talked to Dawn in a long time.
He was very open, and he had an alibi.
- We confirmed, based on the time frame,
there was no possible way for him to be in Douglas County
when the murder occurred.
- The word "victim" implies innocence.
But to find a killer in the shadows,
you must also shine a light on the victim's dark side.
- And we do what's called a victimology.
We look through the victim's past life.
So we're looking at his closest circle,
his secondary circle, third circle.
Who would want Ben dead?
- Ben had a history of being very short-tempered.
There was at least two reports on file
with the sheriff's office.
- Ben had people that didn't like him.
He had enemies. Ben owed them money.
- He'd had neighborhood disputes,
friends that were not happy with him anymore.
- In totality, we contacted 79 people
over the course of the investigation.
Yes, Ben had issues with people,
but we were able to clear them as suspects.
But we were still missing the most critical piece,
which is the evidence.
♪ ♪
- The family, we were only getting fragments,
bits and pieces.
So everybody was a suspect, Melissa included.
I didn't want to point fingers,
but people thought it was Melissa
right from the get-go.
- Melissa was never the one that actually
had custody of me. It was my dad.
So when he died, I legally went
to my biological mother, Dawn.
That's when I started having a lot more hateful feelings
towards Melissa, especially.
- Melissa and her brother, Craig,
were still top suspects.
But we lacked hard evidence,
so we did some covert surveillance
of Melissa and Craig.
- We followed them.
I talked to a lot of their friends.
Melissa appeared to be more of a grieving wife
than she did a person who's out at the bar,
you know, and partying.
We were seeing more of just that person
that lost their husband.
And Craig seemed like a really good kid,
a solid family kid.
He didn't fit the suspect mold.
- I don't want to say that Melissa
and Craig were eliminated,
but they fell very low in the case.
- A year had passed in the investigation,
and we were becoming concerned this might become a cold case.
We needed a big break.
And then came a pivot point in the investigation.
[tense music]
- Devon, thanks for coming down here to talk about the case.
- I was 15 at the time of Ben's murder.
What do you do?
What do you say? Who do you tell?
- But I felt I needed to finally tell
somebody what happened that night and who killed Ben.
- Criminal intent doesn't just appear out of thin air.
It's built in a thousand quiet moments
you never see coming, a passing comment,
a face in the crowd.
They all collide, building on each other,
until an idea is finally forged.
But here's the thing.
Every single one of those moments
had an observer, a witness,
someone standing right there in the shadows.
[soft dramatic music]
- My mom and Ben, they were perfect together.
And even though I wasn't Ben's blood-related son,
he treated me like a son.
I remember calling him Dad. He was Dad.
I didn't know any better.
But when I got older, I looked at him differently.
♪ ♪
After Alyssa was born, he cheated on my mom,
and that really caused the divorce.
Then he met Melissa,
and they started their life together.
My mom just spiraled completely after that.
I'd come back home from school,
and it felt more like a party house.
When I needed a safe space to go,
I never really had that because there was
just always people there getting
blitzed out of their minds.
It didn't have that family vibe to it anymore.
And then my world came crumbling down.
[gentle music]
♪ ♪
- Present is Devon Mitchell.
OK. Devon, tell me what happened last night.
- That day, after Ben was murdered,
the police were at our door.
- Mm-hmm.
I knew I was wrong for not telling the truth,
but I also didn't know what would happen
if I did tell somebody.
But then, over time,
I started having a lot of regrets.
Alyssa did come back to live with us after Ben was murdered
and was exposed to a lot of the stuff
that was happening in that house.
I just didn't see my mom turn over a new leaf,
like stop drinking.
It's like, things got worse.
I came to realize Alyssa deserved better,
and Ben deserved justice.
It was a year after the murder when
I felt I needed to finally tell somebody what I had heard.
♪ ♪
- I thought James Matlean was just kind of another kid
drinking at the house. He was 20.
And it turned out that he was dating my mother,
which is really disturbing.
She was much older.
♪ ♪
My mother wanted full custody of Alyssa.
And they were literally talking about going out
and killing him.
But you don't think anything of it as a teenager.
They're both intoxicated, drunk.
Nothing's gonna happen.
I did feel relief that I finally told someone
what happened that night because I knew
it was the right thing to do.
But at the same time, I was turning in my mother.
So, like, what's gonna happen now?
♪ ♪
- The interview with Devon pointed towards Dawn
and James committing the murder.
But how do we prove it?
[plucky orchestral music]
We had little to no evidence linking
James or Dawn to the murder.
We didn't have a murder weapon.
We did not have the smoking gun.
So we brought them in.
[suspenseful music]
- James and Dawn denied any involvement with the homicide,
so we released them from the interrogation room.
But as our investigation continued,
we discovered a $40 ATM transaction
was made the evening of Ben's murder
on Dawn's bank statements.
We reviewed CCTV from that establishment,
and we found video surveillance of James
at 1:30 in the morning, prior to the murder,
withdrawing cash from an ATM.
Dawn told us that they didn't leave the residence
all night, so we knew she was lying.
We needed to prosecute the person who fired the weapon.
We believe that was James.
So we considered giving Dawn an immunity agreement.
- It's a balancing act.
Am I gonna let go a person that was an accessory
to murder just to get the murderer?
What level of justice are we willing to bring?
Ultimately, the decision was made
that the family deserved closure.
Ben deserved closure.
Our best chance at getting a conviction for this crime
was to offer Dawn that immunity agreement.
By cooperating with the investigation,
providing information that we could substantiate,
she will be immune or not charged with any crimes
that she could be culpable for.
So it's a plea deal.
She made the deal with the DA's office
and agreed to tell us the truth.
- No matter how practiced the script is,
if any small detail is off, an alibi starts to fray,
pull at the right thread, and the whole thing will unravel.
- Dawn, in her story, she was frustrated
about losing custody of Alyssa.
She was venting.
And James, being intoxicated, told her,
well, I'll blow his head off with a shotgun.
- Dawn then stated that she went to bed,
and the next thing, James waking her up,
saying, it's done. Ben is dead.
- With the vague memory of Alyssa hearing someone
coming into her room, my theory was that
that would have been James looking to see if she was
in her bedroom, that she was, in fact, asleep,
and/or to ensure that she wouldn't be
in bed next to Ben or Melissa.
- At this point, we finally had enough evidence
to charge James with homicide.
But before the trial starts,
James reaches out with his attorney
and stated he wanted to talk.
[soft dramatic music]
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- Brings up the conversation they had the night before
at Dawn's residence with them drinking.
- James says he goes to the 7-Eleven,
takes out $40 in cash. He drives to Walmart.
He buys latex gloves, paper towels, shoes,
Tyvek suit, and a flashlight.
- In his statement, he said he didn't know
where the residence was or the layout,
so he took Dawn with him.
[dramatic music]
- The twist of the story is Dawn asked him
to kill Melissa as well.
- James sees Dawn stopped at Alyssa's doorway.
- James walks into Ben's bedroom,
puts the shotgun to the back of his head.
- James said after he shot Ben,
he was frightened, so he ran out of the house.
So he never shot Melissa.
- James said he threw the shotgun away
in the sheriff's office dumpsters.
I think more it was a dig at us to say,
it was under your nose the whole time.
- James was head over heels for Dawn,
and she took advantage of that.
She manipulated him into doing what she thought
would solve her problems.
- The person that planned it, or orchestrated it,
is maybe even more culpable than the person
that actually just did the job.
- But because of her agreement,
she was immune from criminal prosecution
in Douglas County for the rest of her life.
And that's a tragedy.
♪ ♪
- Ultimately, Dawn was behind this,
but, sadly, Melissa took a lot of blame.
Those early theories against Melissa,
the financial motive,
the lack of blood splatter,
those were proven to be just theories.
In reality, she was being honest.
♪ ♪
- Melissa, she's waking up to her husband being killed.
And then you got everybody saying that she did it.
What does that do to a person?
- Emotionally, the damage you have caused me
is almost unbearable.
For Alyssa, you crumbled her foundation
and everything she knew to be right and true.
- It was a lot for her,
and she stayed strong through it.
- For James, pleading guilty was probably
nerve-wracking 'cause there was only two choices,
life without the possibility of parole
or life with the possibility of parole.
- For the murder charge, you're sentenced
to life in prison.
- James was ultimately sentenced to life in prison
without parole.
[soft dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Looking back on it, I almost feel, like, at fault.
Maybe if I would have just stayed up a little later
instead of going to sleep, he'd still be alive now.
My sister, she should have a dad.
Me being the bigger brother,
I should have been the protector.
And, oh, God.
- I love my brother a lot.
And it's not his fault that any of it happened.
And it just sucks that he was going
through that by himself.
- At the end of James's sentencing hearing,
Melissa said, Alyssa has something
to say to James.
She looked up and said, I was really mad at you...
[somber music]
But I forgive you.
And I've always been impacted
by that amazing level of kindness.
♪ ♪
- I don't know if I knew what forgiveness was at the time.
I didn't feel like I wanted him to be gone for life.
- Melissa petitioned the court for full custody of Alyssa,
and she got granted it.
- When Melissa got guardianship of me,
I was really happy to be back with her.
But my relationship with Dawn was complicated.
I mean, she was my mom.
But by the time I had grown up,
I chose to not have her a part of my life.
- I just felt it was more appropriate
to cut things off from her.
She started delving more into serious drugs.
You know, that was the reason why
she got put in the hospital.
- She ended up having a stroke,
and she went brain dead,
and she died.
After all the loss, my dad, my mom,
I still have a lot to process.
And who knows how long that's gonna take?
But I've tried to hold on
to all the good memories of my dad.
[indistinct chatter]
Whoo!
[applause]
- Ben was the only father figure that I had.
He should be remembered as a loving father,
loving husband, wonderful brother,
the best friend.
He was a wonderful person who deserved life.
- For those people that are also going through stuff
like this, I hope that they know
that they have others that get it.
We are real people.
♪ ♪
- This season, we saw how an investigation can twist
from a suspected professional hit
to a reckless amateur,
how the police can twist from heroes to criminals,
how suspicion can twist to fall on one's own family
or on someone who never existed at all.
Each layer of deception we untangled
brings us closer to the truth.
And in fiction, that's where the chapter ends.
But in real life, the pages keep turning,
the twists keep coming.
I'm Harlan Coben. Good night.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪