You Left Me For Dead

Summary

Podcast Summary: "You Left Me For Dead" – 20/20 by ABC News

Release Date: March 15, 2025

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1. Introduction to the Crime

The episode "You Left Me For Dead" delves into a harrowing true crime case that shook the tight-knit community of Belgrade, Montana. It begins with Audrea Butler discovering her two roommates, Lauren Dewise and Ashley Van Hamert, shot in their shared residence.

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2. Discovery of the Victims

At 00:00, Debra Roberts introduces the critical moment when Audrea Butler finds her roommates lifeless:

Debra Roberts [01:12]: "Audrea Butler wasn't home when the crime occurred, but she came home that morning and found her two roommates shot."

Audrea rushes to a neighbor's house to call 911, revealing that only Ashley is still alive.

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3. Initial Police Response

Officer Jared Robinson arrives first, expressing uncertainty about the presence of an intruder:

Officer Jared Robinson [02:35]: "I just don't know what I got... I see footsteps in the snow... looks almost the same."

Sergeant Dave Keane joins, and together they begin a high-risk entry into the residence to secure the scene.

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4. Investigation Unfolds

As the police clear the house, the body camera footage captures the intense and chaotic environment:

Debra Roberts [05:20]: "Ashley was obviously fighting for her life... her vision was obviously impaired by the injury she sustained."

Despite the trauma, Ashley survives with severe injuries, becoming a pivotal witness in the case.

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5. Suspect Emerges: Paul Dewise

The investigation quickly points to Paul Dewise, Lauren's estranged husband. Within 09:46, it's revealed that murder is extremely rare in Belgrade, heightening the community's shock.

Paul is apprehended after a high-risk traffic stop, where his demeanor raises suspicions:

Paul Dewise [22:12]: "I didn't do it and I don't deserve to go to prison."

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6. Gathering of Evidence

Detectives meticulously collect evidence, including unique shell casings and distinctive boot prints:

Debra Roberts [12:00]: "You give it a little dusting and you can see where it really makes that detail stand out."

The lack of fingerprints or DNA complicates the case, pushing investigators to explore all possible leads.

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7. Critical Breakthrough: Murder Weapon Found

A turning point occurs when a Ruger .22 caliber pistol, matching the murder weapon, is discovered by a vigilant ice fisher:

Debra Roberts [60:34]: "We ultimately found through that trace of the firearm that it was in fact Mr. Dewise who had purchased that firearm."

This evidence significantly strengthens the case against Paul Dewise.

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8. Trial Proceedings

Nearly two years post-incident, Paul Dewise stands trial. The prosecution presents damning evidence, including audio recordings of his threats against Lauren:

Debra Roberts [65:06]: "You threw glasses at me. You choked me with a pillow. You beat me out of me."

Despite his defense's arguments highlighting the lack of direct physical evidence, the jury convicts Paul on both counts.

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9. Victim’s Resilience and Message

Ashley Van Hamert's remarkable recovery and unwavering spirit shine through:

Ashley Van Hamert [34:09]: "It literally plugged the hole perfectly in my carotid artery. That's why I did not die that night."

Her confrontation with Paul in court exemplifies forgiveness and redemption:

Ashley Van Hamert [79:05]: "If God can forgive me in a limited amount of times now, how can I withhold forgiveness from you?"

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10. Conclusion

The episode concludes with the sentencing of Paul Dewise to 220 years in prison, ensuring he remains behind bars without the possibility of parole. The lasting impact on the community and the victims' families underscores the profound tragedy of domestic violence and its far-reaching consequences.

Debra Roberts [80:30]: "Silence is the worst thing that you can have with regards to domestic violence... A victim is most in danger, especially when they leave the relationship."

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Key Takeaways:

• The meticulous police investigation, leveraging both traditional and innovative forensic methods, was pivotal in solving the case.
• The discovery of the murder weapon was a critical breakthrough that linked Paul Dewise directly to the crimes.
• Ashley Van Hamert's resilience serves as a powerful testament to survival and the human spirit's capacity for forgiveness.

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the key events, discussions, and emotional undertones of the "You Left Me For Dead" episode, providing listeners with an in-depth understanding of the case and its profound implications.

Transcript

[Debra Roberts]

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[David Muir]

The woman you hear in the Background on the 911 call is Audrea Butler. She lives in this house with her two roommates, Lauren dewise and Ashley Van Hamert.

[Debra Roberts]

Audrea Butler wasn't home when the crime occurred, but she came home that morning and found her two roommates shot. She ran over to a neighbor's house, notified the neighbor, and A neighbor called 911 on her behalf. Said her roommate Ashley is the one that's still alive. Okay. And she is still alive? She said she is, yes. Okay. All right. I've got the paramedics on the way. I've got the police on the way. Okay? Just let her know that help is on the way. Roommate is a female, 30 years old. She is alive. 292 9. Officer Jared Robinson from the Belgrade Police Department was the first officer to arrive. Gabby? Yeah, I just don't know what I got. I'm just pulling up on Sink. What's going on? I stayed with friends last night and I just came in and I saw that my back door had been broken in. So I went to the back and I could see footsteps in the snow. Good night. Okay, so you don't know if there's somebody else in the house? I don't think so, but I don't know. Okay. She is unsure if there's still any shooter inside the house. So I'm gonna wait for 206 to get here before we enter. Copy. 206219. You go to ETA. I'm on Idaho. I'll be there shortly. Copy. What do we know?

[David Muir]

Sergeant Dave Keane, also with Belgrade PD, arrives just moments later.

[Debra Roberts]

Ma'am, I need you inside the building. Okay.

[David Muir]

Hi there. How you doing?

[Debra Roberts]

Good, how are you? How are you?

[David Muir]

Good, good. The officers take me back to the scene to talk about that tense morning. Was it a beautiful day like this.

[Debra Roberts]

Or was it almost identical to this? Almost exactly the same. Yes, very Cold and roads were just like this driveway. Looks almost the same. Yes, it does. Kind of eerie. One apparent dead, one still alive. She said, I ran out as soon as I saw that. I have no idea if there's still anybody else in there or not. So that's what we got. That was a very high risk type of entry that they made into the residence. The body camera can describe it much better than my words could describe it. You can definitely feel the intensity of the situation. He's not sure what he's getting into. So you ready? Yep. Belgrade Police. Police Department. Anybody inside, come out. I'm going this way. I got stairwell. Police knowing already from dispatch that there's at least one deceased person in the house and another one that was al asking for help and that they were shot. It's incredibly intense, and you can see that on all the body cam footage. Where are you at? Kitchen clear. When we first made entry into the front door, Sergeant Robinson cleared the main first floor. Cause again, we had no idea if there was anybody still in the house. And I stayed at the stairwell to make sure that there wasn't anybody there. It's about as dangerous as it gets. Garage clear. All right. When they're clearing the first floor, they can hear Ashley upstairs yelling for help. How many people are inside? Up the stairs. We're coming. Okay. Please show me your hand. We got doors on the left and right. Okay, I'm in here. I went past the bedroom that Ashley was in because I had no idea whether or not Lauren was in need of help or beyond help. We have one female down, appears to be deceased. Unfortunately, she had deceased.

[David Muir]

Lauren dewise had just moved into the house less than two months before.

[Debra Roberts]

Jared. Yeah. What do we need? I start clearing the rest of the house. And Sergeant Robinson enters into Ashley's room to start helping her. Hello. Hi. What are you doing?

[David Muir]

Shooting.

[Debra Roberts]

I'm not gonna shoot. You need medical in here now. My name's Ashley.

[David Muir]

Ashley and her husky malemute Bronson have lived with Audrea for about two years. The body camera footage of her interaction with police that day is raw and graphic.

[Debra Roberts]

I am the police. I'm the police. Right here.

[David Muir]

Where are you?

[Debra Roberts]

I'm right here. Can you see me? Ashley was obviously fighting for her life. And you can tell from his video that her vision was obviously impaired by the injury that she sustained.

[David Muir]

Ashley's not only unable to see, her injuries also leave her partially paralyzed.

[Debra Roberts]

Are you the police? I'm the police, yes. Show me your face then. I'm right here. Can you See me? No.

[David Muir]

The video is chilling. She's asking you, are you really a police officer? Don't hurt me. Don't shoot me.

[Debra Roberts]

Right? I just felt for her, you know, being in that position to where you're helpless, you know? So I felt for her, just tried to reassure her that we were going to get her the help we could. We got the medical people coming in. I'm trying to figure out what happened to you. Where are you bleeding from? From? I'm not bleeding. Okay, well, how. Do you have blood all over you? Do I? Yes, ma'am. I don't know why. I do. If I can have somebody maintain the crime scene at the front door to let nobody. We don't have time to make sure that the house is completely secure. However, she needs help and she needs help now. It was apparent that she'd been in there a long time, and I don't know how much longer she has. So at that point, I made the decision to remove her. Which I understand it's against their policies and protocols. Ashley, what we're going to do is we're going to pick you up and we're going to carry you down to the. To the paramedics, okay? Can you. Oh, God. Oh, God. What do you mean? I think I'm going to have to get up here. We're going to have to carry you, ma'am. What are you doing? Sir, we're going to pick you up. We're going to carry you. Carry me? Where are you carrying me? I'm coming down. Where are you carrying me to? Stairs. Watch your step. This as far as I can get the door. Where's the cot? Straight out back. We keep going? We're not sure. We have no idea. She just keeps looking this way. I don't see any obvious. I'm not gonna go. You don't have a choice. We gotta get you up to the hospital. I'm not going. They want one of us to go with, that's fine. You want me to ride with, that's fine.

[David Muir]

Then one of you does something you don't normally do. You ride in the ambulance with her.

[Debra Roberts]

Correct. All right. Ashley. Ashley. Ashley. Well, at that point, we still didn't know where the assailant was. So again, we want to ensure her safety. Okay? Let's go. I don't want to go to the hospital. Oh, I think we need to go to the hospital. I'm refusing. You can't refuse. How old are you, Ashley? 32. 32.

[David Muir]

Can you tell me what happened and when?

[Debra Roberts]

I don't know what happened. She is transported to Bozeman Deaconess Hospital. We're going to take good care of you, okay? All right. Time is 9:41. Off recording as they're working on her in the E.R.

[David Muir]

Meanwhile, Sergeant Keane is setting up a crime scene as investigators search for clues.

[Debra Roberts]

Tracks out in the back. The doors from the back's been broken open. There was a trail of footprints that led from the front of the residence through a side gate all the way to the back door.

[David Muir]

And Ashley, she's fighting for her life.

[Debra Roberts]

She had been shot point blank in the back of the head, but we weren't even sure if she would survive. Belgrade is one of the fastest growing towns in the state of Montana. Belgrade's a very tight knit, blue collar, working class community, generally kind of a bedroom community. Our citizens, they live here and work in Bozeman. We are completely surrounded by mountains, and we have wilderness areas nearby. We get several million visitors, predominantly Yellowstone. And then for our skiing, which is some of the best, we have all of the blessings that we could ask for in the mountains.

[David Muir]

Murder is extremely rare in this town in Montana. But on that first Sunday morning of 2018, a call comes over the local police radio. Possible double homicide. Law enforcement and medical personnel rushed to this house on Idaho street preparing for the worst.

[Debra Roberts]

All right, thank you for your help. Yeah, you bet. We. We cleared everything out, so we're just gonna. I'm just gonna back everybody out till detectives get here.

[David Muir]

With the crime scene secure, detectives are able to begin their investigation into what happened to Lauren and Ashley.

[Debra Roberts]

From that first initial appearance, it didn't appear that it was a burglary. There were no open drawers. The place wasn't ransacked. There wasn't stuff strewn about. We got tracks out in the back. The doors from the back's been broken open.

[David Muir]

There was a sign of a break in.

[Debra Roberts]

Yeah, the screen door on the back had been kicked in. It was very clear that obviously they had gotten in through the backyard. There's a gate, but it's not open, but it's unlatched. They went through a gate, went around the back, and gained entry through the sliding glass door in the back. You could see that there were tracks leading around the side of the house. Ms. Butler had indicated early on that those were not made by either her or any of the ladies in the household. So those were of significant interest to law enforcement. There's trucks going around that way. Yep. We'll document all that paint.

[David Muir]

Chief Dustin Lensing trudged with me through the snow. To demonstrate the low tech tactic police used to gather highly valuable evidence. You had vital evidence right there in the snow, but you're racing against the clock.

[Debra Roberts]

Yeah. Unfortunately, sometimes in Montana, weather conditions can change rather rapidly. In this case, we knew the snow was going to be melting, so we documented everything initially with photography.

[David Muir]

I see some red paint in some of the crime scene photos. Is that some sort of high tech forensic tool?

[Debra Roberts]

I wouldn't call it high tech by any means, but we will spray paint these prints.

[David Muir]

Can you show me how you did it?

[Debra Roberts]

Yeah, absolutely. If we could use this one, maybe.

[David Muir]

Okay.

[Debra Roberts]

That detail is not going to stand out in your average everyday photograph with the, with the white and the way the light reflects. But you give it a little dusting and you can see where it really makes that detail stand out.

[David Muir]

That's amazing. You can tell the ridges and the design of the bottom of the shoe.

[Debra Roberts]

Yeah, it kind of just produces almost like this little 3D model. Right. There were two distinct patterns of boot prints, and they started doing the analysis to try to figure out what types of shoes they were actually made from.

[David Muir]

Inside the house, investigators are examining the bedrooms where the two women were shot.

[Debra Roberts]

My first inspection of the crime scene, I remember Lauren there, and she was still. She was clutching her cell phone. That's kind of a powerful image right there because, you know, she's scared and trying to call for help. Law enforcement ultimately determined that Lauren had been shot multiple times and that she had gunshot wounds to both the head and chest, and that resulted in her death. Both Ashley and Lauren had been shot in the head. For Lauren, it was fatal, and Ashley miraculously survived. As we later learned, she had been moving around in the room. And so as a result of that, there was blood everywhere.

[David Muir]

Detectives find no fingerprint or DNA evidence, but they do find shell casings, nine of them in all.

[Debra Roberts]

There were four shell casings in Lauren's bedroom and five shell casings in Ashley's bedroom. They were from as.22. There were 22 distinct brands of ammunition used. The Winchester X22 and the Gila brand.22 caliber. So we had mixed ammunition in there. So are we looking at two weapons, or are we looking at somebody who loaded their gun with mixed ammunition?

[David Muir]

While investigators piece together clues at the scene, Audrea Butler is interviewed at police headquarters.

[Debra Roberts]

I'm going to tell you right now, this is not my best moment, so. No, don't worry about it. I'm doing my best right now. We're gonna. We'll get through it. It's a very Tough time right now. I understand that Adi Butler owns the house and to help cover some of the bills, got a roommate. That first roommate was Ashley Vanheimer. She'd also recently started this friendship with Lauren dewise. And Lauren was having some marital problems with her husband. Paul dewise was Lauren's estranged husband at the time. And Paul and Lauren met when they were both teachers down in Florida. Paul was married to his wife Maria at the time that he and Lauren had first met. And when that marriage kind of started falling apart, then that's when he and Lauren got together. When he was married to Maria, he had two children, Natalie and Joe. Lauren really cared about Joe and Natalie as if they were her own kids.

[David Muir]

The couple has their own child, Jennifer. And shortly after she's born, the dewises sell everything. They get an RV and they set off to see the country.

[Debra Roberts]

They ultimately relocated to Bozeman, Montana, where Lauren was able to find employment with the local bank. And Paul did some construction type work and things of that nature.

[David Muir]

Jessica Johns befriended Lauren when she settled in Bozeman. In photos posted on Facebook, Lauren appears to be loving her new life.

[Debra Roberts]

This is actually a beautiful picture of Natalie and her brother Joe, and then Jennifer, the little girl. They just always seemed happy. I got the straight part in the basket part. I just remember her being so bubbly and so full of life. She was. That was just always so positive.

[David Muir]

No matter what, Lauren kept up appearances even though her marriage to Paul was falling apart. But then Lauren turned to Audrea for help.

[Debra Roberts]

She said, I can't believe I've never told anybody this, but I think I need to leave Paul. I said, well, you've always got. You have people. You're not alone here. You can come stay with me anytime you need to. So Lauren moved in with Audie in November. He made it really hard and it was just like, when are you moving home? Why aren't you moving home?

[David Muir]

And she's like, I'm not moving home at this point. You know you have to talk to Paul dewise.

[Debra Roberts]

Correct? So you try to coordinate that as best you can. You call in as many people as.

[David Muir]

You can in a matter of minutes. Police track down Lauren's husband, Paul dewise.

[Debra Roberts]

They pull the car over as a homicide suspect. So they are doing a high risk traffic stop. Let me see your hands. Keep the hands up. Everybody needs to keep their hands up.

[David Muir]

Ashley Van Hamert is in critical condition, fighting for her life in a hospital in Colorado.

[Debra Roberts]

She had been flown out of state. We didn't have the capacity to care for her. She had been shot point blank in the back of the head. You know, for a bit there, it was touch and go. We weren't even sure if she would survive. All I did was like, go back and forth in the bedroom, clenching my hands and just praying to God that she was okay.

[David Muir]

Ashley's mother says Ashley and her dog Bronson found their paradise on earth in Bozeman.

[Debra Roberts]

She loved it here. I mean, close to the mountains. Take Bronson out running, snowboarding. She was happy. It was what she had dreamed of.

[David Muir]

While doctors in Colorado do all they can for Ashley, law enforcement in Montana is interested in talking to Lauren's estranged husband, Paul Dewyes. Less than 90 minutes into the investigation, Bozeman PD tracks down Paul Deweiss as he and his three children are returning home from church.

[Debra Roberts]

Let me see your hands. Both of them. Roll your window down slowly. We're gonna give you some commands, okay? Turn the car off. I have any on the channel. They pull the car over as a homicide suspect. We don't know if he still has the weapon. We don't know any of that background. So it was treated as a high risk.

[David Muir]

Stop.

[Debra Roberts]

Hands up. Walk over here. Turn around. Look away from me. Walk backwards. Keep coming. Keep coming. Stop. Get on the ground. Get on the ground. Do not move. Do you understand me? It was intense. But Paul did cooperate with them. And the kids went into the care of Child Protective Services until they could find out what happened. Take him to the back of my car. And then he was brought in for questioning.

[David Muir]

Paul dewise is taken to an interrogation room like this one here at the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office. He will spend his entire Sunday answering questions about the shooting of his wife and Ashley Van Heemort.

[Debra Roberts]

It was one of the unfortunate things in this investigation is because they found Paul so quick, we didn't have any kind of real profile on him. So we kind of went into it with the game plan of we were going to make adjustments on the fly. So the reason that I wanted to talk to you is there was some issues that happened over at Lauren's house last or this morning. Sure. Right. Well, not really. She isn't. Well, the. The person that came in ended up shooting her. So she's dead? Yeah. Oh, my God. I told him she is dead. And he was all over in his chair, rubbing his hands on his legs. So that's why we're talking to you, because you guys are going through a divorce. Well, walk me through what you did yesterday. Baby breakfast. He goes through from the Moment he wakes up and has a very, very detailed explanation of what he did the entire day. During the day, Mr. Dewise had been texting Lauren. He wanted her to come back over and visit with the children. So I'll be trying to get her to come over as much as I can. She's just giving me a hard time, you know, she didn't come over. So law enforcement was able to determine that Lauren's last text message was sent just before 11:00pm that evening, where she had indicated to Mr. Dewise that she did not wish to attend church with him and the children that following day. So what about last, last evening? Last night, he basically painted a picture of staying at home and watching TV and just spending time with his family during the entire night leading up to and during the night of the incident. Nothing exciting. I mean, I was just in my chair all day. One of the only times that he expressed leaving that night was to go get beer. I went and got a six pack of beer around midnight at Town Pump.

[David Muir]

Which town Pump.

[Debra Roberts]

On Main Street. One of the things that we were fairly quickly able to identify was which gas station he went to. A detective went and pulled that video very quickly. And we did find Paul on video going to that Town Pump and buying beer. It did match up in terms of the timeline that he gave when he would have gone to the store. And you made no other trips except to go to Town Pump. Is that. Am I getting that right? So I'm going to ask you right now. I'm going to look you right in the face. I'm going to ask you, were you involved in this, Involved in this crime? Did you hurt Lauren? Oh, did you hurt Lauren at all? He adamantly denied being at Lauren's house that night. I'm gonna be completely honest with you right now. I'm not completely comfortable with where we're at in this interview. I don't think you're in a good spot. Of course. Yeah, I know. I'm the prime suspect.

[David Muir]

Authorities are talking to Paul's teenaged children, Joe and Natalie, and what they say surprises even veteran detectives.

[Debra Roberts]

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[David Muir]

When Paul Dewise is pulled over and arrested, his three children, Joe, Natalie and Jennifer are in the car.

[Debra Roberts]

Okay, we've got a 15 year old, a 17 year old and a 4 year old. You doing okay? Okay, you want to sit in the car and stay warm?

[David Muir]

While Paul is being questioned at the sheriff's office, his children talk to Child protective services.

[Debra Roberts]

So, Ms. Jennifer, my name is Erin and I talk to kids and people every day. I first spoke with Jennifer, who had just turned 4, and she had a very brief interview. I then spoke with Joseph. We asked about what had happened Saturday night. Saturday we were supposed to go. We went to church today and we stayed up way late. We shouldn't have stayed because we have to get up early to go to church. Last night you stayed up way late. We were just hanging out, watching movies. He indicated that they had stayed home and just kind of hung out. Was your dad home with you guys the whole time on Saturday we did go to the town, pump me and him for him to get beer. Oh, okay. And then we came back home. Oh, what time do you think that was? About probably around 12. Both Natalie and Joe were pretty consistent that they had been home that evening. We were watching movies, we were watching a nature show and we Watched the office, and we stayed up late. And my dad, my brother went out and got beer around, like, midnight and came home. They were all at home watching TV together all that night. And then pretty much just mirrored what dewise had said. Nothing stood out about any of their statements, about the events of the night. You know, we look at everything, but there was no aha moment there. When we were done with the forensic interviews, it was decided that we would let the kids know that Lauren was deceased. We had told Joe and Natalie and let Jennifer know that something bad had happened to Mommy and that Mommy was now in heaven.

[David Muir]

With Joe and Natalie's account of the night matching up with their father, Paul, dewise is free to go. But not to go home.

[Debra Roberts]

They're not done searching your house. Okay. And they're apparently gonna do a forensic search instead of just the consent search that we talked about on the vehicle. Okay, so you're not under arrest. Nothing's changed in that regard. But unfortunately, the car and the house are still tied up. Probably will be for quite some time. At the end of the interview, we didn't have enough evidence to hold him, so we released him because he was still considered a suspect at that time. CPS made the decision not to let the kids go back to his custody. So the kids went to a friend of the family's and stayed there.

[David Muir]

Detectives, keep an eye on Paul. At the same time, they have to widen their net.

[Debra Roberts]

You've got three people that live in the home where the incident occurred. Who is the intended victim? Or were they all the intended victim? Or was it just a random act? So now you start digging into the personal lives of the people involved, and you have to weed out each one of those potential avenues as a potential suspect. Through the interview with Paul, he brings up a couple situations where he found Lauren cheating on him despite the fact that they were separated. First one was at Old Chicago.

[David Muir]

Investigators are interested in talking to a man named Kevin Frosted. That's because of an incident that happened here in the parking lot of this restaurant where Paul says he caught Lauren kissing this other man.

[Debra Roberts]

I opened the door, and I was like, what are you doing? And I was talking to the guy. I was like, this is my wife. And the guy came around and started attacking me. So I fought him off. Did you recognize him or knowing him? No. But I found out he lives in Billings. Yeah, it's Kevin. Kevin Vrolstad. Vrollstadt. Something like that. Hey, Kevin. This is Detective Oxmeyer with the sheriff's office. Hey. Hey. You got a Little bit to talk. I do. Kevin was a co worker of Lauren's. Mr. Vrolstead and Lauren had become friendly with each other. They were at Old Chicago one night and there was some drinking involved. I mean, I had walked her out to her car and her husband jumped me.

[David Muir]

The police came and I told them.

[Debra Roberts]

What happened and they asked if I wanted to press charges and I said no. And that was really the end of it, as far as I knew. I think Mr. Brolsted's a little concerned because he is in a romantic relationship with another lady at the time. You know, I gotta ask you and I want you to be 100% honest with me. Yep. Did you and Lauren ever do anything physically together? No, we did not. Did you guys ever kiss?

[David Muir]

No.

[Debra Roberts]

I don't know that he's entirely straightforward with law enforcement about the nature of his relationship with Lauren. But it's ultimately determined that this was a one time situation where they met in the parking lot and had a kiss and that was the end of that encounter.

[David Muir]

Investigators determined that Kevin had nothing to do with the shooting.

[Debra Roberts]

Kevin actually had a fiance over in Billings at the time and was furniture shopping with her the morning after the homicide was found.

[David Muir]

In his police interview, Paul also claims Lauren had a relationship with a man named Brian Ruddock.

[Debra Roberts]

So we had to see if maybe there was some sort of love triangle gone wrong or anything like that that could have led to Lauren's death. I am calling about Lauren. It is my understanding that you guys were involved in some sort of a relationship, is that correct? Yes. We started talking and had a lot in common and hit it off. We just got along really well. We were really good friends.

[David Muir]

Brian admits that he and Lauren enjoyed each other's company, but he says their relationship was primarily an emotional one and not physical. Additionally, he had an alibi for the time of the murder.

[Debra Roberts]

Yeah, he was ice fishing with a buddy over on Ennis Lake and I called the friend and confirmed that he was there.

[David Muir]

Brian is cleared of any involvement in the shooting. But investigators are not just focused on Lauren's relationships. They look into her wounded roommate, Ashley's on and off boyfriend.

[Debra Roberts]

I mean, here you have the boyfriend who's the last person to see Ashley before she goes into the house. When was the last time he actually had contact with her?

[David Muir]

Detectives are also interested in speaking with victim Ashley Van Hamer.

[Debra Roberts]

Do you remember anything at all?

[David Muir]

The hours and days following the shooting are critical for Ashley and her survival. Tell me about the first time you saw Ashley in the hospital.

[Debra Roberts]

It was a Sight I wish I could get out of my head. Just tubes running everywhere. And the hardest thing, she was just motionless. An active girl that's usually like, can't get him stop her from moving. She was just. Just laying there.

[David Muir]

But Ashley continues to fight through her tireless efforts. And with her supportive family by her side, Ashley begins to recover.

[Debra Roberts]

Okay, Bronson, come back.

[David Muir]

Bronson.

[Debra Roberts]

Come here, boy.

[David Muir]

And today, she's back in Bozeman with her beloved Bronson.

[Debra Roberts]

I love you. I love you. Yes. Yes.

[David Muir]

Now she sits with 2020 to tell her story. So glad to meet you. How are you doing?

[Debra Roberts]

I'm doing very well. Yes.

[David Muir]

How would you describe what you've been through?

[Debra Roberts]

Hell and back. But God is good, and I'm still here. The Lord literally saved my life that night. Somehow the way that the bullet stayed prevented her from bleeding out. Really just a miracle that the bullet lodged the way that it did. The doctors told my family if that bullet would have moved absolutely anywhere in the nine to ten hours I was on the ground, I would have bled to death.

[David Muir]

It literally stopped the bleeding.

[Debra Roberts]

It literally plugged the hole perfectly in my carotid artery. That's why I did not die that night.

[David Muir]

A miracle.

[Debra Roberts]

Yes. No doubt. No doubt. A miracle, yes.

[David Muir]

Ashley was shot four times and endured multiple surgeries, including removing part of her skull after she suffered a massive hemispheric stroke. The first thing she remembers is the moment she woke up.

[Debra Roberts]

The first thing I actually remember is opening my eyes and I saw some of my family members in the room, and I gave the I love you sign to them. And that's when they knew I could see, because until then, they didn't even know if I would be able to see or not. Can you show me that again to my family? Yeah.

[David Muir]

So you survived this terrible crime.

[Debra Roberts]

Mm.

[David Muir]

Meanwhile, there's a major homicide investigation going on here in Montana. Detectives visit you. They're trying to get you to help them solve this crime.

[Debra Roberts]

Yeah, they visited me in Colorado. Hi, Ashley.

[David Muir]

Hello.

[Debra Roberts]

My name's Dustin. Hi, Dustin. We're gonna have some questions, but mostly we just want to hear what you have to say.

[David Muir]

Ashley tells Lansing that prior to the shooting on the evening of January 6, she had gone out to a movie with her boyfriend, Ralph Dennis.

[Debra Roberts]

We went and just had a good time. And, yeah, I remember driving home and he didn't get out of the car, just gave me his goodnight. And the last thing I remember is closing the door to my house and locking the door. Can you tell me, do you remember anything at all when I got shot.

[David Muir]

Mm.

[Debra Roberts]

No, I do not remember being shot at all.

[David Muir]

Investigators want to talk with the last person Ashley remembers seeing the night of the shooting. Ralph Dennis.

[Debra Roberts]

He's a pretty big guy, and he definitely would have the means to overpower these two women if that's what had happened. Okay, I'm gonna record our conversation. Would you prefer the door open or closed? Doesn't matter to me. It opens. Fine.

[David Muir]

Ralph Dennis is questioned by police the day after the shooting. He says he dropped ashley off at 9:30, and he says their relationship was coming to an end.

[Debra Roberts]

And how do you characterize your relationship with her right now? We've been attempting to break up with each other for several weeks. Ralph was very cooperative. He didn't appear to be nervous, didn't appear to be anxious. Okay. You guys didn't have a fight or anything like that? Not at all. Nothing like that. So when was the last time you actually had contact with her? When I dropped her off. There's two parts with Ralph. There's one, there's this relationship that was broken up recently that we knew of. And then as we were trying to process the crime scene, there were prints in the blood that led us to believe possibly there was a dog there. So that became a possible clue. So Bronson's the dog? Bronson is her dog. Since we started dating, I kind of took Bronson in under my wing because she works a lot, and Bronson just gets bored at the house. So Bronson stays at my place all the time. Now, the theory there was, if the dog was in the house while Ashley was bleeding and left a paw print, and now the dog is at Ralph's house. How did that happen? Right. That. That wouldn't have happened unless he'd have been there. What I'm curious about is just like, is it possible? Was the dog there? Did you come over? Did the dog leave? I mean, I'm just trying to make sense of it. No, absolutely, I can tell you. So without a shadow of a doubt, Bronson has been in my care since Thursday morning. We brought the dog in. We swabbed between its toes, trying to find any evidence of the blood from what the crime scene processing team thought was a bloody footprint. That was definitely the first time we'd ever photographed and captured the prints of a dog as part of a homicide investigation. For sure, there was no blood that was either seen or otherwise swabbed from the dog prints or anything like that. Turns out that that was just a blood pattern on the dog bed that remarkably resembled a paw print. Which turned out not to be. Turns out the dog was never there. But we had to rule that out as a possibility.

[David Muir]

Bronson's paws proved to police that he didn't leave a footprint at the crime scene. And the same can be said for Ralph Dennis feet, I think he had.

[Debra Roberts]

Like size 13s or something pretty big. And definitely not what we had seen at the scene of the crime. He was very forthcoming. He provided his cell phone data. He had in fact dropped her off at the house and then returned home that night. And so we're able to eliminate him early on.

[David Muir]

Your friend Ralph becomes a possible suspect. Did you ever think maybe he was involved?

[Debra Roberts]

No, Never, Never, never, never. Not in a million years.

[David Muir]

With their list of potential leads drying up, it's back to the drawing board. Soon, detectives discover a curious text exchange between Lauren's stepchildren, Joe and Natalie Dewise, on the night of the murder.

[Debra Roberts]

All of a sudden, just before 3am, there's this text between Joe and Natalie of I love you. I love you too. Who texts their sibling at 2 o'clock in the morning, I love you. Like, that's really bizarre. Both Dustin and I feel like something's there that doesn't make sense. We decided that we were gonna do some good old fashioned detective interviews with them, despite their age. Natalie, how old are you again? 17. Okay. You do have the right to remain silent. You do not have to answer any questions. Okay. Keeping all that in mind, you still want to kind of ask or answer a couple of questions for me, Let me know that I have a choice.

[David Muir]

No.

[Debra Roberts]

Yeah. Okay. Natalie had invoked her rights, so she actually wasn't interviewed. And then Joe was being interviewed. It's important that we're completely truthful with each other. We were really beginning to suspect at this point in time that they knew something. Help me help you. Melgra, please. Police department. Anybody inside? Come out. We have one female down and appears to be a seat. Hello? Hey, what are you doing? Shoot. I'm not gonna shoot you. Both Ashley and Lauren had been shot in the head. For Lauren, it was fatal. Joe, you've gotta help me. I don't know.

[David Muir]

What do you see when you see that?

[Debra Roberts]

Still picture a young man who had been carrying kind of the weight of the world on his shoulders. Oh, my God. I know.

[David Muir]

Oh, boy.

[Debra Roberts]

This is a big deal. The amount of man hours that went into searching trying to find the murder weapon. And I'm angry and my children are angry, my baby's angry. And it's hard for me to live with the biggest Freight train that you can see coming. I saw it coming and I couldn't stop it. That's when he started to shoot me.

[David Muir]

Horrific. How do you make sense of that?

[Debra Roberts]

Satan.

[David Muir]

It still stays with you.

[Debra Roberts]

He'll never leave.

[David Muir]

Montana. From the Spanish word Montana, it means mountainous. And Bozeman, Montana, is surrounded by the Rockies. They warn you about grizzlies and wolves out here. But in the Gallatin Valley, in the shadow of the mountains, another predator. The killer who shot Lauren dewise and left Ashley Van Hamert for dead. Authorities may have released Lauren's husband, Paul, but if he thinks he talked his way out of trouble, he's terribly mistaken. The former schoolteacher has graduated from person of interest to prime suspect with two driven detectives on his trail.

[Debra Roberts]

It wasn't work. It was. It was something other than that. It was. It was a mission.

[David Muir]

They didn't say don't leave town, but the detectives are worried he might.

[Debra Roberts]

We were starting to get worried. More and more information was leading us to Paul. And is Paul going to disappear? Are we going to lose him to the wind? Hey, Paul. How are you?

[David Muir]

A detective tries to persuade Paul to come back for another interview. But the suspect is suspicious.

[Debra Roberts]

Have you come up with any suspects besides me at this point, or am I still it? Well, we can talk about that when you come down.

[David Muir]

When police search here at Paul Deweiss's home, they find some of those unusual Aguila brand.22 caliber bullets.

[Debra Roberts]

We did find matching or like ammo in his possession at his home that matched the shell casings at the scene. Very specifically, they found the Aguila ammunition. That's not something that's common. It's not something you can buy around here.

[David Muir]

Police are poised to make an arrest when Detective Lensing gets a call. It's Paul.

[Debra Roberts]

I was wondering when I could get access to my house again. As I'm talking to him, we are literally following him in the car. He doesn't have any idea. Okay. Can you give me a call when I can go back? Yeah, absolutely. He is arrested shortly after making that phone call. He was arrested on one count of attempted deliberate homicide and one count of deliberate homicide.

[David Muir]

Paul pleads not guilty. Detectives are puzzling over boot prints at the crime scene and where those prints might lead.

[Debra Roberts]

There were definitely two distinct sets of footprints, tracks in the snow that were going into the residence. Do you have a standard pair of shoes that you use when you go out? Well, I wear these sometimes. I've got a pair of boots I wear sometimes.

[David Muir]

Detectives determine one set of Prints at the crime scene was made by Merrell hiking boots. Like these size 11.

[Debra Roberts]

What size shoes do you wear? 11.

[David Muir]

They say they find Paul wearing those Merrell boots in family photos on Facebook and in the convenience store video the night of the murder.

[Debra Roberts]

And we never found them because they were thrown away or destroyed.

[David Muir]

The footprints in the snow at the crime scene, the trail of a killer lead police here to the shoe aisle at the local Walmart.

[Debra Roberts]

One of our detectives decided that he was just going to go to Walmart and just start pulling shoes off the shelves and looking at each and every boot that he could find.

[David Muir]

The question is, do you have a match?

[Debra Roberts]

We had a match.

[David Muir]

Sure enough, the detective says he finds an interceptor Frontier tactical boot with a tread pattern consistent with prints found at the crime scene. The mystery now, who was in those shoes? Detectives turn to Paul's children.

[Debra Roberts]

We were really beginning to suspect at this point in time that they knew something. We decided that we were gonna do some good old fashioned detective interviews with them, you know, one on one, sit them down like anybody else, despite their age. You know Lauren as well as. As well as anybody. What do you. What do you think happened to her later on? What's your speculation? What do you think happened? She was in her. In her home, sleeping, and something unfortunate happened. Who do you think. Who do you think could do something like that? I have no idea. And it couldn't be my dad. He's. He loves his family too much.

[David Muir]

And then there's a commotion outside the interrogation room. Police thought those boots were one size, but a crime scene tech, Mike Gurzi, suddenly realizes that's wrong. The boots are much smaller.

[Debra Roberts]

I'm watching your interview with Joe Jr. And Gursey runs up to me and he's like, these aren't size th tens or whatever. These are much smaller. Guys, I was off on the size. This isn't a size 10. This is a size six or six and a half. And I'm like, oh, crap. And I. I get a message. Pause. Come out. Take care. Be right back. Okay. All that kind of changed everything because now I'm thinking we got a size 6 probably in this interview room.

[David Muir]

Detective Cop returns with a pair of interceptor boots. And Joe can't seem to take his eyes off of them.

[Debra Roberts]

So have you ever seen boots like that before? So you have a pair of. I did. Okay. They got messed up for me working, so they weren't doing their job anymore, so I threw them away. And we had found pictures later on cell phones that showed Joe in those Boots. What size of boot do you wear? Six regular. Okay. We are thinking that Joe Dewise was there. His shoe prints are at the scene of the crime. We decided to stop the interview because the interview was going to take a turn because now Joe is implicated somehow and I don't believe that you're being completely truthful with me. Like your favorite travel guide, T Mobile's network knows all the spots because T Mobile helps keep you connected from the heart of Portland to right where you are on America's largest 5G network switch. Now keep your phone and T Mobile will pay it off up to $800 per line via prepaid card. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com KeepAndSwitch up to four lines of a virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualified unlocked device, credit service port in 90 plus days device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required card is no cash access and expires in six months. I'm this weird part of my life. I really am. Bill Burr, Drop Dead Years, a hilarious stand up special is now streaming on Hulu. I am getting along with my wife better than I ever have. All you have to do is agree to something that you would never do. Farmer's Market. Oh boy, would I. My buddy dies, I show up to the funeral. Open cast. You told me he was dead. I believed you. Bill Burr Drop Dead Years is now streaming on Hulu. We didn't actually know what happened in that house. Without eyes on the inside or someone admitting to what happened, we couldn't put all the pieces together until Joe finally started putting those pieces together for us. Hey, mom. Hi, son.

[David Muir]

Joe dewise, an alibi witness for his dad, is back in an interrogation room for the second day in a row. The dynamic has not changed. His mom is there and you've had a heart to heart with her before this?

[Debra Roberts]

I did.

[David Muir]

When Joe's mom, Maria Fraser arrived in Montana, Detective Jeremy Kopp greeted her with stunning news. Boot prints at the crime scene suggest Joe was there.

[Debra Roberts]

That was. That was a hard conversation. Please tell me. Tell me where you are. Tell them.

[David Muir]

What do you see when you see.

[Debra Roberts]

That still picture heartbroken mom and a young man who had been carrying kind of the weight of the world on his shoulders. If I can't get you to be honest with me, I. I can't help you. Jeremy was very delicate with Joe and I don't believe that you're being completely truthful with me. We were pretty sure at that point that Joe was there at the scene. Joe, we've got to be honest with each other. Completely honest. How. How did your boots. Those same prints end up at the crime scene? Joe? Be truthful. I have a son that's similar age as Joe. And I could see you know so much of my son and him made him more personal. Joe, you've got to help me. Just tell me it wasn't you that went in and shot her. Did you go in and shoot her? No, I did not. Then who did?

[David Muir]

When does the dam finally break?

[Debra Roberts]

Several dozen denials. Deviations and. But you can see it's get. Every. Every time it gets a little heavier, a little harder. How long have you been planning it.

[David Muir]

And this is it?

[Debra Roberts]

How old that he was planning it. You don't think he was planning it? No. I think he just did it out of the blue. Why that night? I don't know. I don't know why that hurt. It's just how it happened. That's just how it happened.

[David Muir]

He's torn. Tortured by the loyalty to his father.

[Debra Roberts]

There's the weight of Joe and everything that he's carrying. And then he started to slowly share that Paul had brought him with him. Him.

[David Muir]

Joe says his father, armed with a pistol, forced him to go with him to the house. He says he was afraid his father would kill him and his sisters.

[Debra Roberts]

Stay here. Stay here. Could you see the stairs? Could you see the stairs? Sure. Yeah. Could you hear him? Yes. What'd you hear? What the hell is wrong with him? I said no. Get in the car. I did. He took me back to that office. Oh, my God. You made me God. Father of. See, I know. I need you to.

[David Muir]

It. It touches you.

[Debra Roberts]

What that young man had to endure. And I was carrying. No kid should ever be in that environment. And there's just a bunch of grown men and women in there. And tears just streaming down faces because we all know it's true, but none of us wanted it to be true. It became very obvious to me that Joe is not a willing participant. His father essentially marched him up to that residence at gunpoint. And Joe simply did not have a choice.

[David Muir]

Joe was not charged with any crime. In another interview a month later, he provides more horrifying details.

[Debra Roberts]

Then he flips on the light and this woman says, who are you? And then he yells, who the are you? And then shoots her. I just hear shots. Okay?

[David Muir]

Joe says his father then goes into Lauren's bedroom.

[Debra Roberts]

And then I hear Lauren scream. A very short, like, surprise, fearful scream. And then I hear three shots. And it's like 1, 2, 3. And then the last shot. Okay. Once they were back in Bozeman, they went to the town pumpkin and got the beer and then started disposing of evidence. We searched trash cans, we searched ditches. We tried to retrace whatever possible routes we thought that Paul might have gone. The amount of man hours that went into searching.

[David Muir]

Just when they're ready to give up hope, they catch a break. The one that didn't get away. A Montana outdoors woman is out here fishing on this frozen pond, and you'd never guess what crucial clue she reels in. A lake in Montana. Great spot skating and ice fishing. All right, there we go. Right down in from recreation to a murder investigation. Cattail Lake is about to become a critical location in the crime that shook Bozeman, the shooting of Lauren dewise and Ashley Van Hamert.

[Debra Roberts]

We still didn't have a murder weapon. Our one person that was telling us anything, Joe, he didn't know where Paul got rid of the pistol. We involved search and rescue. We searched trash cans, we searched ditches. We were. We were throwing everything we could. The amount of man hours that went into searching, trying to find the murder weapon, I mean, the state has to prove every element of the allegation beyond a reasonable doubt. Missing evidence is doubt. And not having a murder weapon is a significant piece of missing evidence. It's important. I mean, it's not impossible to prosecute a case without a weapon. But if you can get the murder weapon and you can add that piece to the puzzle and trace that weapon back, now you're pulling the case together the way it's supposed to go.

[David Muir]

Police are looking for a Ruger.22 caliber pistol. They believe Paul Dewise owns one, but when they search his home, they don't find it.

[Debra Roberts]

So when we executed the search warrant on his house, we found an owner's manual for a.22 caliber Mark 2 pistol. But we could not find the pistol anywhere in his collection of guns.

[David Muir]

And then a gun turns up in the most Montana way you can imagine. Get yourself a bucket, some bait, drill a hole in the ice, and you can catch a mess of fish here in Montana. You might also reel in a clue like that missing murder weapon. It was found right here on this lake.

[Debra Roberts]

Hi.

[David Muir]

How you doing?

[Debra Roberts]

Doing good. Beautiful day to fish.

[David Muir]

I love it out here. Look at this paradise.

[Debra Roberts]

Absolutely.

[David Muir]

The day the shootings are discovered in Belgrade, Andrea Larson is ice fishing about six miles away on Cattail Lake with her husband and their dog, Aldo. So take me back to that day. January 7, 2018. You're out here fishing?

[Debra Roberts]

Yep.

[David Muir]

Had you heard about the shooting?

[Debra Roberts]

No. I mean, my husband and I were just having a lazy Sunday morning. We got up and made a little bit of breakfast and then decided to come out here.

[David Muir]

So where exactly did you find the gun?

[Debra Roberts]

So it was kind of in this general vicinity here in the middle of the skating track that they plow every year.

[David Muir]

Kind of sitting in the snow?

[Debra Roberts]

Yeah, just upside down, mostly buried in the snow. When it immediately became apparent that it was the butt of a pistol that I was looking at.

[David Muir]

The gun found within hours of the crime. If Andrea turns it in right away, this case gets solved in 24 hours. But that's not how murder mysteries work.

[Debra Roberts]

This couple found the gun, did not think too much of it. They ended up picking it up and. And they brought it back to their house and forgot about it.

[David Muir]

You know, people watching might ask, why did you take so long to turn it in?

[Debra Roberts]

Well, at the time, I was in the process of enlisting in the national Guard, so I had quite a bit on my plate and quite a bit on my mind. And at the time, it wasn't any kind of a pressing issue. It was just a lost and found. We decided that we should probably put a press release out to the public to remind them that we're still working this case and we still have evidence we need to find, and we can't find it. I was actually reading an article on my phone about the murder, and there was a note in the article that mentioned that they hadn't found the boots or the murder weapon. And the murder weapon was a Ruger Mark 2.22 Long Rifle Pistol. And in an instant, my world shrank, and I knew that was the exact model of pistol that I had found.

[David Muir]

Andrea calls the police, and as quick as you can say exhibit A, an officer is at her front door to collect it.

[Debra Roberts]

Oh, boy. It's a big deal. I can still remember when I got the phone call from detective cop indicating that they had found that it was a big day. We didn't recover any prints, but what we did do was run an ATF trace on the serial number. We ultimately found through that trace of the firearm that it was in fact Mr. Dewise who had purchased that firearm.

[David Muir]

A firearms expert test fires the pistol and determines it's the gun that killed Lauren and wounded Ashley.

[Debra Roberts]

That was certainly a big piece of evidence that further linked Mr. Dweiss not only to the gun, but that it also linked the gun to the crime scene. It was kind of icing on that cake that that that is the murder weapon.

[David Muir]

How does it feel to be a part of such a terrible crime?

[Debra Roberts]

I'm glad I was able to add to the evidence, but it's not something I would have asked to happen.

[David Muir]

You didn't want to be involved in this?

[Debra Roberts]

No. I mean, it was a terrible tragedy. Violence against women isn't something that we want to see happening anywhere, but least of all in a town that I consider to be very safe.

[David Muir]

And what if Andrea hadn't gone ice fishing that day?

[Debra Roberts]

It was very warm that day and the slush was very thick, so it would have. Wouldn't have taken very much snow to cover it back up again, and it would have froze into the ice and then melted off in spring, and no one would have ever seen it.

[David Muir]

When we come back. A friend of Lauren's recalls an online encounter with Paul dewise just weeks before the killing.

[Debra Roberts]

The hair on the back of my neck stood up.

[David Muir]

Nearly two years after the shooting, Paul Dewise goes on trial right here in this courtroom, room 301 in Bozeman, Montana. He's charged with the deliberate homicide of his wife, Lauren, and the attempted deliberate homicide of a woman he didn't even know, Ashley Van Hamert.

[Debra Roberts]

I don't think anyone had laid eyes on Ashley since the moment since she had been injured. So her walking into that courtroom that first time was like, all right, we're here. It was a higher profile case against, I think, primarily because there were so many people in the community that liked Lauren. They're concerned about domestic violence and they want to see people held accountable after being in that courtroom. I can tell you some of the things that were said in there were quite chilling. On her work computer, we even found photographs of some bruises that she had sustained during this whole situation.

[David Muir]

Paul admits he once punched Lauren 10 times in the arm, but he denies repeatedly abusing her, and he denies killing her.

[Debra Roberts]

He threatened her constantly. He has held a gun to her. He has threatened to kill her. He has said, I know why men kill their wives. Her co workers saw bruises, and one of her supervisors actually saw a handprint on her. And at that point, she denied that it was from Paul. She said, I can't believe I've never told anybody this, but I think I need to leave Paul. He beats me all the time. Other than Paul, can you think of anyone else that would have any reason to do anyone in your house harm? Not a soul.

[David Muir]

Prosecutors play evidence of Paul's behavior for the jury recordings preserved by Paul himself on his phone.

[Debra Roberts]

And I'm angry And my children are angry. My baby's angry. And it's hard for me to live with. I would say the most difficult piece of evidence and the strongest pieces of evidence came from Paul's cell phone. You threw glasses at me. You choked me with a hotel. You beat the out of me. When I was pregnant with baby, I was four months, five months pregnant with her. His phone had so much information and it had audio recordings all kind of painted the broad picture of how violent the relationship between Paul and his and Lauren really were. Hours long audio clips of him just harassing Lauren night and day. That's what I'm talking about. I'm trying to express myself now. Is he going to do her? There were some pretty horrific recordings that he had made with Lauren.

[David Muir]

Starts threatening her, threatening to kill her.

[Debra Roberts]

He says very specifically, I think at least five times I'm going to kill you. Really hound you just because it was very, very dark. All of this evidence was really sort of piling up with regards to who it was that had a motive and desire to cause harm to Lauren.

[David Muir]

Paul's attorneys argue there's no evidence of repeated physical abuse. He cooperated with police and no experts or physical evidence, neither DNA, fingerprints nor cell phone data and tie him to the crime.

[Debra Roberts]

The bubbly, happy personality was hiding a lot of pain, a lot of fear.

[David Muir]

Lauren's friend Jessica Johns says she saw Paul's dark side when he posted on Facebook about his breakup with Lauren.

[Debra Roberts]

Along with the post was some very strong language about how horrible Lauren was and that she was a cheater and a liar and many things that were very shocking.

[David Muir]

She says she tried to convince Paul to take down that post.

[Debra Roberts]

No matter what I would say about, hey, I understand your feelings, he would just spew more and more hate.

[David Muir]

Jessica says she reached out to Lauren on Facebook.

[Debra Roberts]

She's like, I'm okay. I'm at a friend's house. I've been in a very bad marriage for a long time.

[David Muir]

Less than two months later, Lauren was dead.

[Debra Roberts]

The biggest freight train that you could see coming. I saw it coming and I couldn't stop. Was heartbreaking.

[David Muir]

Next, a courtroom surprise. A witness who claims the wrong man is on trial. One witness who claims knows for certain whether Paul dewise shot Lauren and Ashley and Paul dewise caught on tape. The phone call, prosecutors say exposed a secret plan to beat the rap.

[Debra Roberts]

He needs to just step up and do what's right so that we can be reunited and take care of ab. Don't miss good American family. We have a little girl here for adoption. She has dwarfism.

[David Muir]

Starring Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass.

[Debra Roberts]

Something is off. She's just a little girl. You think she's faking? She has adult teeth. There are signs of puberty. Inspired by the shocking stories that tore a family apart. I don't know what's going on. How old are you? You should get a lawyer. You have no idea how those people hurt this girl. The Hulu original series Good American Family premieres March 19th. Streaming on Hulu. This is a call from and paid.

[David Muir]

For by an inmate at Gallatin County Detention Center. About a month after his arrest, Paul dewise calls his daughter Natalie from jail.

[Debra Roberts]

He made a phone call to Natalie trying to convince her to tell Joe to take the fall for the whole thing. Joe said that I took him with me and I'm responsible for what happened. Well, so that means to me that Joe must have done it and it's really important that he admit it because if he admits it, then I get the out of here. You understand? Yeah. Tells his 17 year old daughter to convince her 15 year old brother to confess to the homicide of his stepmother. And it's all on the jail call. He's scared. I understand, but he needs to understand that the jail's here, they're safe, they're nice, the food's good and they don't have the rape problem. So he doesn't have to worry about that. Okay, good. Now Dewise's 19 year old daughter also.

[David Muir]

Took the stand at the trial. Natalie tells the jury about that phone call.

[Debra Roberts]

That was a damaging piece of evidence. It painted Paul in an unlikable light. I think it did hurt our case. I didn't even know if we were going to call Natalie at trial. We had her subpoenaed, but we didn't know if we were actually going to call her because it was kind of a loose cannon in terms of what she was going to say.

[David Muir]

For almost two years after the murder, Natalie had backed her dad's alibi that he was home with her and Joe when Lauren and Ashley were shot.

[Debra Roberts]

But that all changed about a month before trial. Give me your full name, please. Natalie dewise. She ended up confessing to knowing that her dad had killed Lauren, that she had stayed at home with Jennifer, and that when he came home he told her everything that he had done. He says he's done something bad. Just stay calm. You don't have anything to worry about. I need your cooperation with this. I took Joe to go kill Lauren.

[David Muir]

Paul's defense attorneys remind the jury that Natalie had changed her story. But she's not the only one of Paul's children to testify against him.

[Debra Roberts]

He had his pistol in his right hand. Our theory at the trial was that Joe gave two very inconsistent statements and tried to attack his credibility. If Joe was at the house and admitted to being at the house and there was some suspicion that he pulled the trigger. He has a motive though, there, doesn't he, to change or modify his story. And that's certainly something I think that we seized upon. It just further showed the degree of control and manipulation that Mr. Dewise had over those two children, Natalie and Joe. It was very clear that he used the kids as pawns. The most important witness to me was Ashley vanhemort. She is a miracle. I think we should do it. Okay, let's stand up. She had done at that point years of physical therapy. I'm standing loud, thank you, Jesus. And was able to walk up to the stand by herself. And that was incredible. I was shot in the back of the head. I was shot in the right carotid artery.

[David Muir]

What was it like to testify?

[Debra Roberts]

It wasn't really anything at all. They just wanted to know what my life was like before I got hurt and what I was able to do and clearly what I was not able to do now. Yeah.

[David Muir]

Ashley has no memory of it, but she now knows what police say Paul dewise did that night.

[Debra Roberts]

That's when he started to shoot me.

[David Muir]

Horrific.

[Debra Roberts]

Yes.

[David Muir]

How do you make sense of that?

[Debra Roberts]

Satan. Yeah. He got evil. Evil. Pure evil. Yes. He didn't want somebody moving on with her life without him.

[David Muir]

And sadly Lauren died.

[Debra Roberts]

She did, yes. Very sadly, yes. She left behind a three year old daughter.

[David Muir]

It still stays with you.

[Debra Roberts]

It'll never leave.

[David Muir]

The final witness to be sworn in and sit in this chair is the one witness who knows for certain whether Paul dewise shot Loren and Ashley. He's the one witness who knows for certain whether Paul Dewise is guilty or not. That final witness, Paul Dewise, I have.

[Debra Roberts]

Been in jail for 22 months waiting for an opportunity to explain to a jury that I am innocent. You got the idea that he thought he was the smartest person in the room all the time. Paul decided to waive his fifth amendment right and he testified. I have been falsely accused here. I didn't do it and I don't deserve served to go to prison. And what you've done is wrong. I think it worked out poorly.

[David Muir]

On the seventh day, the defense rested, the jury did not.

[Debra Roberts]

After two hours of deliberation, the jury found Joseph Paul dewise. Guilty. Paul was found guilty of count one, deliberate homicide. Count two, attempted deliberate homicide.

[David Muir]

Two months later, at his sentencing hearing, Paul gets another chance to talk.

[Debra Roberts]

I could go on for hours about.

[David Muir]

The injustices, but I won't.

[Debra Roberts]

I'm not guilty of what I've been convicted of.

[David Muir]

Paul dewise had his say, but he didn't get the last word. And you get a chance to speak to him directly.

[Debra Roberts]

Mm. Ashley, what are the things that you would like to say to the court and the defendant? When she said it, she was looking right at him and he was looking right at her.

[David Muir]

Ashley Van Hamer confronting the man who left her for dead. This you have to see.

[Debra Roberts]

To the charge of deliberate homicide of Lauren Dwight is guilty.

[David Muir]

Paul dewise has been found guilty of murdering his wife, Lauren, and for the attempted murder of her roommate, Ashley Van Habert. Now at his sentencing, the courtroom falls silent as Ashley takes the stand.

[Debra Roberts]

Ashley wanted to testify at sentencing, which is her right as a victim, and she got up on the stand and talked about how her life had been changed due to being shot. I've had to learn to live with only the use of my right hand and arm, so I've had to learn to dress all over again. I had to learn how to eat all over again and swallow. I can't do any of the stuff that I enjoyed doing before. She is a miracle. Degree of courage and compassion that she displayed in getting up to confront Mr. Dewise about what he did is remarkable.

[David Muir]

What was it like looking him in the eye?

[Debra Roberts]

They just walked in and I saw the back of them and I just thought, well, that's the man that shot me. And I don't know why God fully chose to save my life yet, Paul. I don't. But one thing I do know that I gained from this is I understand people's hurt on a whole new level. You may have tried to have killed me, but you don't have the final say on when somebody's life is over.

[David Muir]

Despite all the harm she suffered, Ashley's message to Paul is one of forgiveness and redemption.

[Debra Roberts]

If God can forgive me in a limited amount of times now, how can I withhold forgiveness from you? Paul, this doesn't have to be the end of your story. You can still do good while you're in prison. You can still be kind to people.

[David Muir]

She even brings with her a gift.

[Debra Roberts]

I brought a Bible, Paul, that I want to give to you. Holy smokes. You get someone that can not once but twice go to a witness stand, let alone ask enter the same room as someone who did this to you and say right to their face, I forgive you. It changed everybody in that room.

[David Muir]

While Ashley may be forgiving, Judge Holly Brown has other ideas when it comes to Paul's sentence.

[Debra Roberts]

For count one, deliberate homicide will be committed to the Montana State Prison for the period 100 years he got 220 years, no parole. So 100 years for the count for Lauren, 100 years for Ashley, and then 10 years per count for the weapons enhancements. It doesn't bring Lauren back and it can't kill his children in the way that they deserve. You know, in such a short span of time. He ruined so many lives.

[David Muir]

Both Natalie and Joe dewise returned to Florida to live with their mother, little Jennifer. Dewise now lives with her maternal grandmother.

[Debra Roberts]

I kept thinking about her daughter. She never got the chance to really know how wonderful her mom was, and that was heartbreaking. Silence is the worst thing that you can have with regards to domestic violence. Not talking about it, not bringing it out into the open, not pursuing it with law enforcement or your family members. A victim is most in danger, especially when they leave the relationship. That's the most dangerous time.

[David Muir]

How often do you think of her?

[Debra Roberts]

I think of her quite often. Most often on the anniversary.

[David Muir]

On the anniversary of the shooting, Ashley posted a heartfelt letter addressed to Lauren. She shared it with me when I sat down with her.

[Debra Roberts]

I'm sorry, Lauren. I'm sorry you're not here anymore. And I can't tell you why God didn't stop him. Believe me when I say I would trade places with you in a heartbeat. Please know you will never be forgotten.

[David Muir]

Do you think she can hear you?

[Debra Roberts]

Yeah, I do. Good boy.

[David Muir]

Today Ashley is back to the things she loves, like being outdoors with her dog, Bronson, and spending time with her family. How did it feel to be out there on the mountain?

[Debra Roberts]

It's awesome. I'm learning to snowboard again. I mean, it's learning all over again in a whole new way. Awesome. So much fun. I mean, I look pretty unorthodox going down the hill now, but, I mean, I can still do it.

[David Muir]

Are you amazed, Caleb?

[Debra Roberts]

Amazed, yes. But not surprised. Just with her grit, her tenacity, her unwillingness to give up.

[David Muir]

And, Linda, you wear a bracelet that.

[Debra Roberts]

Says what I do, and it says, you are stronger than you think you are. And she is definitely one of the strongest people that I know. I'm more vibrant today than I've ever.

[David Muir]

Been in my whole life, thanks to this horrible tragedy.

[Debra Roberts]

You know what? Yeah. Yeah. I love you. I love you. Yes. Yes. What amazing resilience. Ashley tells us that she hopes to raise awareness of domestic violence in honor of her roommate, Lauren.

[David Muir]

Paul dewise appealed his murder conviction, but it was denied. That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Debra Roberts. And I'm David Muir.

[Debra Roberts]

From all of us here in 2020 at ABC News, good night.