Talking Dateline: Deadly Swagger

Summary

Dateline NBC: Talking Dateline - "Deadly Swagger"

Date: April 22, 2026
Host: Lester Holt
Guest: Keith Morrison (Dateline Correspondent), Jessica De Vera (Producer)

---

Episode Overview

This episode of "Talking Dateline" unpacks the case featured in "Deadly Swagger"—a shocking true-crime story involving the brutal shooting of a wealthy Lake Tahoe couple, the involvement of former MLB player Dan Serafini, and the tangled web of family secrets, memory, and justice. Hosted by Lester Holt with insights from correspondent Keith Morrison and producer Jessica De Vera, the conversation dives deep into investigative twists, legal complexities, and the emotional toll on all involved.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Setting & Crime [03:03–04:33]

• Scenic yet Sinister: Lake Tahoe’s beauty juxtaposed with the darkness of a violent crime.
• The victims, Gary Spore and Wendy Wood, were a retired, affluent couple, said to be worth about $25 million (03:11).
• Their daughter Erin and her children were visiting the day of the murder.
• Details of the Attack:
  • After a family boating outing, the group returns for dinner.
  • Erin and her kids leave; shortly after, a masked shooter goes upstairs, kills Gary with a shot to the back of the head, and severely injures Wendy (03:24).
  • Wendy, though badly wounded, calls 911 and is airlifted to a hospital (03:45).
  • Despite her survival, memory loss initially prevents her from identifying the assailant.

2. The Investigation: Too Many Suspects, Elusive Motive [04:33–06:56]

• A Web of Enemies:
  • Wendy was known to be litigious, reportedly involved in some 22 lawsuits, and had antagonized neighbors (04:36).
  • Gary had rumors of a shady past linked to drugs, while family connections complicated suspicion.
• Tracking Alibis:
  • Investigators parsed family dynamics—especially the relationship between Erin and her husband, Dan Serafini.
  • All suspects, including Serafini, originally provided convincing alibis.
• Video "Swagger":

  • Security footage captured the posture and gait of the masked intruder.

  • Investigators likened the "swagger" to the athletic mannerisms of a baseball player, eventually focusing on Serafini (05:51).

    "The way he was kind of half walking, half jogging ... looked a lot the way, you know, a baseball player would run from the mound."
    — Keith Morrison [06:14]

3. Memory, Trauma, and Legal Strategy [07:06–11:42]

• Wendy's Lost & Recovered Memory:
  • Wendy’s memory gradually returned, eventually implicating Serafini, but doubts about the reliability of such memories complicated the case (07:17).
• Skepticism about Recovered Memories:

  • Morrison draws comparisons to other Dateline cases where false or unreliable recovered memories led to wrongful convictions.

    "Recovered memories are not to be trusted. A lot of the time, our brains invent things."
    — Keith Morrison [07:50]

  • He references the "black candle confession" case and other historical memory-related miscarriages of justice.

  • The prosecutors, aware of the ambiguity and potential unreliability, built a case that would stand even without Wendy’s direct testimony (11:04).

    "Exactly. And so even if they were able to put her on the stand ... it would have been powerful evidence, but maybe not as powerful as if she had not talked about those other people as well."
    — Keith Morrison [11:18]

4. The Detective's Emotional Involvement [11:42–13:49]

• Dedication & Heartbreak:

  • The lead detective invested years and deep emotional energy into solving the case, forming bonds with Wendy and her family (12:04).

  • When Wendy died by suicide, her daughter accused the detective of being responsible—a blow that powerfully affected him, though later she thanked him after the conviction.

    "He teared up a number of times during the course of the interview because he got so close to the case and because he got so close to the family and particularly Wendy."
    — Keith Morrison [12:04]

  • Morrison reflects: the hardest detectives are often "the most caring people you ever meet in your life" (13:32).

---

5. Was Erin, the Daughter, a Suspect? [15:20–16:20]

• Suspicion and Investigation:
  • Erin’s role (having brought the children that day, then conveniently leaving before the crime) was scrutinized, but investigators concluded she was not involved (15:31).
• Motives for Loyalty:
  • Keith notes the complex blend of "loyalty, denial, fear, love" possibly influencing Erin's steadfast support for Serafini (16:30).

---

6. Interviewing Dan Serafini [16:58–21:42]

• Encountering Swagger:

  • Serafini’s demeanor during his jail interview matched the episode’s title: "a kind of a swagger and arrogance ... Even in a jail cell waiting to go to prison, he was an angry interview" (17:00).
  • He was combative, threatened to leave, but ultimately stayed for tough questioning.

• Limited Time:

  • Interview time was tight—about 40 minutes versus 5 hours for the primary detective (17:55).

    "There's so many questions to ask, and you want to develop some idea of character and of attitude ..."
    — Keith Morrison [17:55]

• Serafini’s Perspective on the Trial:

  • In a never-before-aired segment, Serafini rails against the jury’s reasoning:

    "The jurors first of all said that, well, if it wasn't Mr. Serafini, who else could it be? That sounds like reasonable doubt to me."
    — Dan Serafini [20:04]

    "If you pick those three jurors examples, and then you put somebody away for four life sentences for that, you've got to be effing joking me. That's horrible."
    — Dan Serafini [20:30]

• Appeal Denied:

  • Despite attempts at a new trial based on jury errors and unreliable witnesses, the judge upheld the conviction (22:47).

---

7. The Jury’s Investigative Role [22:47–23:39]

• Jury members independently compared surveillance images—a controversial move. Serafini’s legal team argued this warranted a mistrial, but courts disagreed.

---

8. Reflections and Human Truths [23:39–24:29]

• Complicated Lives:

  • Morrison closes on the theme that even the most glamorous families can harbor profound secrets and struggles:

    "People's lives are very complicated. ... There's a whole story behind it."
    — Keith Morrison [23:53]

---

Bonus: Behind the Story with Jessica De Vera (Producer) [26:18–33:03]

1. Technical Details and Easter Eggs

• 911 Call:

  • A Dateline rerun episode ("Written in Blood") was playing on TV during the shooting—spotted by Jessica while preparing the episode (28:05).

    "You can hear... it's definitely a Dateline episode playing on the TV."
    — Jessica De Vera [28:05]

2. Viewer Questions Addressed

• Cameras and Dogs

  • Although there were cameras inside and outside, only footage from the driveway camera was used in evidence. No clear dog barking was captured corresponding to the killer’s entry (28:44).
  • One of the dogs had belonged to Erin and Dan; at 14 years old, its reaction may not have been sharp.

• Wendy’s Suicide

  • Some suspected foul play in Wendy's death, but authorities conducted a thorough investigation and ruled it a definite suicide (30:15).

• $90,000 Check to Erin

  • On the evening of the killing, Erin received a $90,000 check from her parents—testified as meant for an indoor riding arena (30:49).
  • Over time, Erin and Adrian received about $2 million in gifts and loans (31:14).

• Family & Detective Dynamics

  • Listeners commented on how wealth does not preclude family drama—echoing themes similar to the popular series "Succession" (31:32).

    "You can have a lot of money in a luxurious lifestyle, but it doesn't protect you from family drama."
    — Listener Mike, paraphrased by Keith Morrison [31:32]

• Detective’s Compassion:

  • Jessica and Keith both emphasize how emotionally invested detectives become in their cases, often contrary to the "hard-boiled" cliché (32:21).

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Deadly Swagger”:
  • "That's an inspired title... but Deadly Swagger, I wouldn't have thought of that."
    — Keith Morrison [01:47]
• On Detectives:
  • "They tend to be some of the most caring people you ever meet in your life."
    — Keith Morrison [13:32]
• On Memory:
  • "Recovered memories are not to be trusted..."
    — Keith Morrison [07:50]
• Victim’s Family and Loyalty:
  • "Was Aaron involved in that in some way? ...they did not come to a conclusion that she was involved."
    — Keith Morrison [15:31]

---

Conclusion

This episode of Talking Dateline dissects a chilling case of family, memory, greed, and justice. Through candid discussion, detailed case analysis, and listener Q&A, the episode leaves listeners with a richer appreciation for the complexity of real-world crime, the emotional investment of investigators, and the ripple effects on all connected to such tragedies.

---

For more details, watch the full episode on Peacock or the Dateline podcast feed. For future questions or to be featured, connect with Dateline on social media or leave a voicemail at 212-413-5252.

Transcript

[Keith Morrison]

With no fees or minimums on checking accounts, it's no wonder the Capital One bank guy is so passionate about banking. With Capital One, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums. He'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capitalone.com bank capital1na member FDIC.

[Lemonade Pet Insurance Announcer]

Do you love your pets? Do you love suspense? Do you love it when your pets keep you in suspense because they ate something mysterious? And who knows what the vet visit will cost? If you answered yes twice and then no, you should protect your pet with Lemonade Pet insurance. It can save you up to 90% on vet bills for checkups, emergencies, diagnostics, all the stuff that leaves you financially on the edge of your seat. Get a quick and Easy [e-mail] pet and get your suspense somewhere else, like from a riveting podcast.

[Lester Holt]

Hi, everybody. I'm Lester Holt and welcome to Talking Dateline. Today I'm joined by Keith Morrison to talk about his episode Deadly Swagger. This is a case. It starts with a brutal shooting inside a Lake Tahoe home and quickly becomes something much more complicated. If you haven't watched the episode, I invite you to do so. Go over to the Dateline podcast feed or on Peacock. You can catch it streaming, then come back over with us and listen to the discussion that follows. When you come back, we'll have much more of Keith's interview with former Major League baseball player and now convicted killer Dan Serafini. And later, we'll be joined by the producer of this episode to answer some of your questions about social media. Keith, it's great to have you here.

[Keith Morrison]

It's good to be here. Thank you, Lister. Deadly Swagger, if I may just go along on that for a minute. That's an inspired title. You know, they don't tell us what the titles are gonna be until just a days before air, and we don't think of them. It's. We have a brilliant person named Susan Null who comes up with most of these things, but Deadly Swagger, I wouldn't have thought of that, but.

[Lester Holt]

Well, you know, it becomes relevant in the first few minutes of this episode.

[Keith Morrison]

You guys.

[Lester Holt]

Oh, that's the Deadly Swagger. Got it.

[Keith Morrison]

There you go.

[Lester Holt]

Give us the lowdown. First of all, the setting for this grabs you right away. The gorgeous pictures of Lake Tahoe. If you've never been there, it is one of the great beauties, beautiful natural spots in the world. But tell us about working there and this story.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, Lake Tahoe is a place which has some really lovely and very expensive homes in some areas of the around the lake pretty well all of them, but particularly in the area where our story occurs. And one of them was a home occupied by Gary Spore and Wendy Wood, a now retired couple who had had long and interesting careers doing various things over the years. And that would actually play into our to some degree. And they had a lot of money, were said to be worth something in the neighborhood of $25 million.

[Lester Holt]

And Wendy and Gary were in their home, decided to go out with the family. And as they go out, an intruder, a masked intruder comes into the house and is apparently there while they are there?

[Keith Morrison]

Well, yes, the daughter Erin, with their two children, hers and Danny's, arrived to see the grandparents. In the afternoon. They went out boating. And while they were out boating, Danny Serafini, as you know, this is a spoiler, obviously, but Danny Serafini goes inside Aaron and the kids and the grandparents come back from their boating trip. They have dinner together. Then Aaron and the kids leave. There's a pause for a few minutes, and then up the stairs comes the shooter, immediately shoots Gary in the back of the head. He's dead. Tries to shoot Wendy, but she isn't killed. She was very badly injured, wound up in a bathroom. The shooter leaves the house quickly. She's left in the bathroom calling 911. They fly her to a hospital by helicopter, and they manage to save her life. And then, of course, they're wondering whether she can tell them who attacked them. And because she had such terrible brain injuries, she wasn't able to tell them.

[Lester Holt]

Keith, was this a case that simply had too many suspects at first?

[Keith Morrison]

It had a lot of suspects, yes. And they really didn't know who they were dealing with. Wendy, in particular, was a litigious woman. She had had disputes and lawsuits, something like 22 lawsuits. There was a. She had a dispute with a local neighbor who was a fisherman who put out his little nets to catch minnows for bait. And she would go out and lift the minnows out of the lake and throw them away. And it was a situation where she was always antagonizing somebody. Gary, the husband, had a past, which isn't in any official record, but the investigators who worked on this case certainly heard about a past involved in some drug business where there was an investigation. And remember, there are two daughters. One of them had. Danny Serafini was her husband, the person they eventually zeroed in on. So they tracked down all of their alibis, and everybody alibi'd out, including Danny Serafini.

[Lester Holt]

And I know there was great hope that that video would have taken them right to the killer. But this gets us to the title of this program, Deadly Swagger. While they don't see the face of this intruder, there is something about the walk. And tell us about how that becomes crit as this case wears out.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, at first, they had no idea who this was, this person. He came up to the house, he left the house. They saw him walk alongside the lake, but there was just no way to tell who it was. And they began to compare the way people walk. And the investigators noticed that the way he was kind of half walking, half jogging from the sidewalk up toward the garage looked a lot the way, you know, a baseball player would run from the mound, off the. Off at the end of an inning looked the way a baseball player would go and, you know, stand out in center field as he was waiting for play to begin. That kind of. Just a. Kind of a gentle jog to get to the place. And it had a kind of a swagger to it. And, you know, Danny Serafini was an ex baseball player. He was a journeyman pitcher. He'd played for several teams around the major leagues for years. And it just seemed like maybe that walk was the one. But there was no way to prove that he came into town to commit this act until they found Samantha.

[Lester Holt]

In the meantime, Wendy's memory is starting to slowly come back. Was there a aha moment when suddenly she became a star witness in this?

[Keith Morrison]

It wasn't really an aha moment. It was when she eventually said, you know, now I see him. I see Danny in a hoodie. Danny in a hoodie is shooting us. And she told that. She told the authorities that they had great hope. I think, that they could use that information. They could use her as a witness. But then she took her own life.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah. Just taking a side ramp here, if we can. You've done a lot of work in this area of recovered memories. It's a tricky one, right?

[Keith Morrison]

Very tricky. And the fact is, I mean, all evidence suggests, based on the research that I've been hearing about over the years, recovered memories are not to be trusted. A lot of the time, our brains invent things. We need to have memories, and we need to have a feel that we have a grounding in our lives and in our. You know, we have to recall something very directly and intensely that may turn out not to be true at all, that we have Simply had a false memory. That's much more common than I think most people realize.

[Lester Holt]

The black candle confession was one that you had done. How did that figure as you tried to understand this story and where it was going?

[Keith Morrison]

The black candle confession is probably not a bad one to compare it to the. But except in this case, it was a. It was a memory supposedly recovered after a couple of decades by a woman who said when she was nine years old, she attended a sleepover party at a friend's house. And in the middle of the night, she got scared or hungry or something and walked down the stairs from the second floor toward the living room and she heard something. And then she saw a woman sitting at the dining room table lighting candles and sobbing and apologetic for having killed a person. And a name was mentioned, at least in this woman's memory. Went back up the stairs all frightened, went to bed. This nine year old, well, now when she's 30ish, she gets this memory from when she was nine and she reports it to the police. And they had left the case. It was a cold case, obviously, but they opened up the case and they found the woman who supposedly was sitting at the table lighting a black candle and sobbing about having killed somebody. They questioned her. She denied it, as you might expect, but she was convicted by a jury of murder, and she's still in prison to this day denying she had anything to do with it. Was that a real memory? This was a responsible person who had it, a nurse, you know, a highly respected woman who had the memory. But, you know, we've also done stories about repressed memories of children who claimed that they had been abused by their parents back at the. This is years ago, around the time of the McMartin preschool case. And there were other cases. One of the first false convictions that I ever reported on was a man named John Stoll, who was convicted of abuse using his son. And the evidence that was used was his son's memory. And later on, it was shown through other investigation that the memory was completely false. And so, you know, he was released from prison. But memories are iffy. Memories can be true. Memories are often not true. And it's very, very difficult for anybody to know for sure which is which.

[Lester Holt]

And in the case of Deadly Swagger, I got the impression that prosecutors knew they couldn't necessarily hang their hat on whatever Wendy would be able to tell them, that they had to have a case that would withstand any ambiguity.

[Keith Morrison]

Exactly. And so even if they were able to put her on the stand and she said, you know, I now know I can see my son in law coming in the house with his hoodie on, firing a shot that killed my husband and firing shots at me. I can see him. It would have been powerful evidence, but maybe not as powerful as if she had not talked about those other people as well.

[Lester Holt]

Let me ask you about the lead detective in this case. I don't recall the top of my head a detective becoming as emotionally involved as this detective was. He wanted to solve this case, but he wanted to, to answer the questions for this family as well. Talk a little bit about him, if you would.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, he, yes, he was certainly invested in this story, in this case. He worked on it a long time. It was, it, it really took over his life. You know, if, if, if, if this was one of those detective novels that would be eating him alive, you'd hear that a lot. He, he teared up a number of times during the course of the interview because he got so close to the case and because he got so close to the family and particularly Wendy. And he talked to Wendy often. He felt very close to Wendy. And the way he found out that Wendy took her life was he got a telephone call from Adrian, the daughter who said, my mother has killed herself and it's your fault. He told me about that and he broke down. He really, really took that personally. And eventually Adrian, you know, when the conviction occurred, Adrian came back and thanked him for his work. But he became very, very deeply involved in this story. And it is something you see this Lester, Investigators, detectives are, are often, you know, they get a reputation for being hard boiled and hard nosed, et cetera. But they tend to be some of the most caring people you ever meet in your life. And they, they do become emotionally invested in their cases often. And, and if they, you know, if they take a wrong turn or don't get it right the first time, they are, they're often grief stricken.

[Lester Holt]

When we come back, we are going to hear more from Keith's interview with Dan Serafini.

[Lemonade Pet Insurance Announcer]

Do you love your pets? Do you love suspense? Do you love it when your pets keep you in suspense because they ate something mysterious? And who knows what the vet visit will cost if you answered yes twice and then no, you should protect your pet with Lemonade pet insurance. It can save you up to 90% on vet bills for checkups, emergencies, diagnostics, all the stuff that leaves you financially on the edge of your seat. Get a quick and Easy [e-mail] pet and get your suspense somewhere else, like from a riveting podcast Hi, I'm Angie

[Angie Hicks]

Hicks, co founder of angie. One thing I've learned is that you buy a house, but you make it a home. For decades, Angie's helped millions of homeowners hire skilled pros for their projects that matter. Angie the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find a pro for your [e-mail] this

[Jessica De Vera]

is a Monday.com ad, the same Monday.com

[Angie Hicks]

helping people worldwide, getting work done faster and better. The same Monday.com designed for every team and every industry.

[Jessica De Vera]

The same Monday.com with built in AI

[Angie Hicks]

scaling your work from day one.

[Jessica De Vera]

The same Monday.com that your team will

[Angie Hicks]

actually love using the samemonday.com with an easy and intuitive setup. Go to Monday.com and try it for free. Yes, the same Monday.com.

[Lester Holt]

I also want to ask you about Erin, the couple's daughter. She obviously is a large part of this story, but was she ever a suspect?

[Keith Morrison]

Yeah, she was never charged. I'm not sure how close it ever came to her being charged. I just think it was the, the people doing the investigating found it very interesting that there was a kind of a ballet that occurred here, a sequence of events. So, you know, Danny drives in from the desert. Aaron brings the kids in to see the grandparents. They go out on the boat. The house is empty. There's a way for him to get inside and wait. And then they come back and have dinner and leave. And after they leave, conveniently, the murder occurs. Was Aaron involved in that in some way? You know, they investigated that as much as they could and they did not come to a conclusion that she was involved. But you know, on the face of it, they were, they were interested.

[Lester Holt]

And when you look at Aaron, staying loyal, what did you think about that? Explains the differences. Is it loyalty? Denial? Fear? Love? What was it?

[Keith Morrison]

I wanted very much to talk to both of the daughters and we, you know, I thought we were going to have a chance to interview Aaron. She was considering it. Then I, I did an interview with Danny and afterwards I think he, he, he talked to Aaron and felt that I was a little too rough on him. But I'd like to know more about those questions as well.

[Lester Holt]

Let's talk about Serafini in that interview.

[Keith Morrison]

Yeah, sure. I'd heard other people say that he had, there was a kind of a swagger and arrogance about him. That's why Deadly Swagger is probably a good title for this episode. There was a swagger not just in the way he walked, but in his attitude. He, he was an arrogant guy. And even in A jail cell waiting to go to prison. He was. He was an angry interview. He was, you know, people wouldn't believe him or if I seemed to indicate I wasn't believing him, he was it. That made him pretty mad. He threatened to leave the interview at one point. And I said, well, you know, I gotta ask you tough questions that. Otherwise, why are we here? And so he came around and he stayed and he. He answered the questions. But he wasn't a happy camper when he left. He sort of. Yeah.

[Lester Holt]

And you made the point, we should point out here, you had a limited amount of time. A lot of times these things are, you know, we get an hour, hour and a half.

[Keith Morrison]

They'd given us a half an hour for the interview. At the end of a half an hour, the jailer said, well, another couple of minutes would be okay. And I think we went a total of close to 40 minutes. But that's. And it sounds like a lot, but it really isn't because you want to develop. There's so many questions to ask, and you want to develop some idea of character and of attitude, of the way relationships developed and what the background is and all kinds of things like that. That would be very helpful for us to understand the story and to be able to tell it properly. So 40 minutes is a very small amount of time. That interview with the. With the main detective, for example, we talked for five hours. It's one of the longest interviews ever. But you want to get all the details.

[Lester Holt]

When you. When you sat down with Serafini, how do you prepare for an interview like that where, you know it's likely going to be competitive, but there are serious questions that need to be answered.

[Keith Morrison]

You just. I never know how to do it, and I probably do it wrong all the time. But in the case of Dan Serafini, I figured there were. There were some issues that really needed to be covered. We were told we had a half an hour. I wanted to be sure I get. Got the answers to some of the questions. So I wrote them down on a piece of paper, which is probably a wise thing to do that I never usually do. And we started asking those questions and he got mad and then we kind of extemporized after that.

[Lester Holt]

Keith Morrison, not a paper and pencil guy. Okay. Noted that everyone's got their own style.

[Keith Morrison]

Yeah.

[Lester Holt]

Now we do have some extra sound. Keith, from that interview you did that did not make it into the broadcast where you speak to Dan about his attempt to get a new trial. Here it is.

[Keith Morrison]

Did you think you were actually Going to get a new trial when you tried to.

[Dan Serafini]

Yeah, I was pretty naive about it. I thought I deserved a new trial, especially after what the juror said on television.

[Keith Morrison]

What got in your crawl?

[Dan Serafini]

I'm sorry.

[Keith Morrison]

What didn't you like about what the jury said? Jurors.

[Dan Serafini]

Well, the jurors first of all said that, well, if it wasn't Mr. Serafini, who else could it be? That sounds like reasonable doubt to me. And then another juror says, well, we don't know if it's Mr. Serafini for sure, but in case it is, we want to make sure he doesn't go out and do it again. That sounds like reasonable doubt to me. Another juror says, oh, it was the shoes. The shoes that Mr. Sarafino is wearing at the hotel matches the suspect shoes that he or she was wearing on Saturday. And they weren't. They were the complete opposite, and we proved that they were. I was wearing house slippers at the hotel. And then the suspect in Tahoe is wearing Adidas running shoes. Not even close. And if you pick those three jurors examples, and then you put somebody away for four life sentences for that, you've got to be effing joking me. That's horrible.

[Keith Morrison]

So you get an idea of his attitude toward the jury and toward what happened to him in the trial.

[Lester Holt]

Sounds like he was prepared to try the case over again with you as the attorney.

[Keith Morrison]

Oh, yes. He would love to have done so and would have loved to have his own say. I think his initial attorneys felt it wise to keep him off the stand because he could be combative as you could sort of see evidence of. You know, he was holding himself back at that point because we'd already had our little tiff and he was kind of calmed down. But. But you can see that kind of. That kind of combative attitude of his.

[Lester Holt]

Did this case feel like it was on the verge of running off the rails?

[Keith Morrison]

It was. He simply would not accept that a jury would convict him. And again, that speaks to that sort of attitude that you. Why wouldn't you believe me? You must believe me. And I'm angry that you haven't believed me. And so he, you know, demanded a new trial, claimed that his lawyers, or his new lawyer at least claimed that the lawyers he had at trial didn't serve him properly, didn't ask enough questions, didn't bring in the witnesses that might have cleared him. So they had their chance to make their arguments before a judge, and they even presented a witness or two. But then those witnesses told stories that were knocked down by the prosecutor. They, you know, one of them said she saw Dan Serafina the day of the shooting miles away. And in fact, she didn't see him that day. She saw him the day after that. He really wasn't helped by that effort. And the judge eventually said, no, you don't get a new trial, you're done.

[Lester Holt]

And another side note, it didn't end up becoming a huge issue, but there were questions about the jury.

[Keith Morrison]

The jury compared videos. They took screenshots of the person who was running from the car up the driveway to the house, and they compared it with screenshots they took from a security camera video at the hotel the night before. Remember that? He stayed with Samantha that night in a hotel miles away. So they really, you know, is a jury supposed to do that sort of thing? Kind of went the extra mile to do some investigating of their own. Dan Serafini and his attorney claimed no, they were not supposed to do that. And that was a judicial error that should have had the case thrown out.

[Lester Holt]

Do you have any final thoughts about this case? We talked about how deeply it struck the detective on the case. You and the rest of the team put a lot of hours and days and weeks into this story. Where did it leave you?

[Keith Morrison]

Well, people's lives are very complicated. And no matter how shiny and successful a person's existence may appear to be, it's quite likely that there's a whole story behind it which is both fascinating and potentially something that that person would rather you didn't know about. I don't know if that makes any sense or not, but it was just. Here's another story of an apparently highly successful couple with a backstory that wouldn't quit.

[Lester Holt]

After a break, we'll come back and take some of the questions we've had about this episode on social media.

[Angie Hicks]

If you're the proud parent of a puppy or kitten, you know you can't pet proof your entire life. There simply isn't a sock drawer high enough for a couch cover thick enough. But you can pet proof your wallet with Lemonade Pet insurance. Whether it's an unexpected accident or a routine checkup, Lemonade can cover up to 90% of the bill. Plus they can handle claims in as little as two seconds. So before you turn into a complete helicopter pet parent, get a'@lemonade.com Pet hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co founder of Angie. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well. Roof repair done well. Kitchen sink install Done well. Deck upgrades, done well. Electrical upgrade, done well. Angie's been connecting homeowners with skilled pros for nearly 30 years. So we know the difference between done and done well. Angie the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find a pro for your [e-mail] Close your eyes.

[Lemonade Pet Insurance Announcer]

Focus. Listen to work getting done with Monday.com relax as AI does the manual work while your teams are aligned on a single source of truth. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform, so flexible and intuitive it feels like it was built just for you. Notice you're limitless. Now open your eyes, go to Monday.com, start for free, and finally, breathe.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, Lester had to take a flight, but Jessica De Vera is here to answer some of your questions and comments from social media. And there is no finer person to answer those questions than Jessica, who knows this story inside out and backwards and forwards. Hi, Jess.

[Jessica De Vera]

Hi, Keith. How are you?

[Keith Morrison]

We had a whole lot of people talking about how interesting the episode was. So, you know, well done. But it's just a fascinating story.

[Jessica De Vera]

Yeah, that's for sure. This one had lots, you know, lots of twists and turns and lots of twists and turns. You could probably do a podcast on this one for sure.

[Keith Morrison]

You were in the Dateline producer account when the show was on the air and you told kind of an interesting story about this episode. Can you tell me what you heard about listening closely and what was playing in the background?

[Jessica De Vera]

Yeah, so it was interesting because I first heard the 911 call played in court. It's an old courthouse. It's kind of hard to hear inside that court in the courtroom, windows are open and where I was sitting, it was, you know, difficult to, to really listen to all the details. But I remember the prosecutor pointing out that when you to the jurors, when you listen to this 911 call, you're going to be able to hear TV playing in the background and a woman moaning and gasping for air. So you can hear that very faintly. But when we finally got the exhibits from court and we're prepping to edit and write, you know, I had my noise canceling headset and listening in, and as it's playing, you know, I can hear a voice that sounded very familiar. And you can hear that it's definitely a Dateline episode playing on the tv.

[Keith Morrison]

Oh, darned.

[Jessica De Vera]

Our team did a little bit of digging around, and it was an episode titled Written in Blood that Dennis Murphy did. I believe it was back in 2012. And clearly it was a rerun that was playing that Night of the shooting.

[Keith Morrison]

A rerun, but also an appropriate title given what had just occurred in that lovely big house by Lake Tahoe. Good lord.

[Jessica De Vera]

Yeah. Pretty unbelievable.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, we have lots of questions. First of all, let's go to one from Janet Wiseman, who said, didn't they say cameras inside and outside the house? Did the dogs bark?

[Jessica De Vera]

Yeah. So there were cameras inside and out. The only camera that we were able to listen to and watched in court and what they released to us was the camera that pointed directly into the driveway. So at the point in time where the masked person enters, we could not hear the barking from at least the evidence that was presented to us and that we had access to. The prosecutor pointed out to the jurors that one of the dogs. There are two dogs inside the home, and that one of the dogs at some point in time belonged to Aaron and Dan. I think it was. I think she testified that it was her very first dog. So at that time, in 2021, the dog would have been 14 years old. But again, from the cameras that we were able to obtain, we could not hear barking at the point in time that the masked person entered.

[Keith Morrison]

So there may have been some disruption, but not much.

[Jessica De Vera]

Right.

[Keith Morrison]

Wendy took her own life sometime after she actually recovered from her, you know, covered as much as she could from the injuries she received. And a lot of people were curious about that. Haley, Jacqueline asks, did they ever question the mother, Wendy's suicide? I guess question whether or not it was a suicide, Thinking this question might be.

[Jessica De Vera]

Yeah. I mean, I think that there were definitely allegations that perhaps there was some foul play involved, but was fully investigated, and it was determined that Wendy did commit suicide, and there was no, you know, there was no possibility of foul play.

[Keith Morrison]

Right. Oh, boy. I'm not sure how you say this name. Say. So Morpheus Miller, I think it is. Erin's parents gave her a $90,000 check the evening of the killing. What was that money for?

[Jessica De Vera]

That's right. So Erin testified that the money was for an indoor writing arena that they were building. She didn't elaborate. Where that was located, I don't believe. But it was for an indoor riding arena.

[Keith Morrison]

They had given a number of gifts over the years, and I think that the prosecutors totaled it up or got a pretty good idea of how much it was altogether.

[Jessica De Vera]

Yeah.

[Keith Morrison]

Do you remember what that number was?

[Jessica De Vera]

I know that Adrian said that it was a total of like, $2 million. A lot of money over the years. Yes, a lot of money that were a combination of loans and. And gifts and. And so, but yeah, that is quite a bit of money.

[Keith Morrison]

A couple of comments From Mike underlined H 1990. All right. Case proving that you can have a lot of money in a luxurious lifestyle, but it doesn't protect you from family drama, which is very true. This reminded me in some ways of, of succession that the, the drama that played on television for a long time, they're just, you know, people, it doesn't matter how much money there is, people, some people always want more. Mike was also happy for the detective to get that hug in a full circle moment.

[Jessica De Vera]

Yeah, yeah. It's always, I always find that so interesting. Right. When you interview detectives who, you know, definitely have a soft spot and are, you know, tearful during an interview, it's

[Keith Morrison]

amazing to me that detectives are some of the most soft hearted people you can imagine and you've run into that yourself. They get so invested in these cases. They believe in them so strenuously and they work so hard, throw their whole being into trying to solve the case. And of course, they're trying to solve for the family. And so they get very emotionally attached to the families as well.

[Jessica De Vera]

They do.

[Keith Morrison]

It's quite remarkable. I just wouldn't have thought of it beforehand. You know, you read the novels about hard boiled detectives who are working to solve a crime and nothing will faze them. Well, these are humans beings and they get phased by stuff just like all of us do.

[Jessica De Vera]

No, absolutely, I agree.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, an interesting story, a sad story. That's it for talking DATELINE for this time. It's so delightful to have you here, somebody who knows this inside and out and can answer all the questions. But thank you also everybody for listening. Remember, if you have questions about our stories, you can DM us your audio or video on our socials at DatelinenBC or leave us a voicemail at 212-413-5252 for a chance to be featured right here. Also, did you know you can watch the video version of Talking Dateline? Head over to YouTube or the NBC News app and check it out. I'm a little fearful of what that might look like. You'll look great.

[Jessica De Vera]

But

[Keith Morrison]

anyway, we'll see you Fridays on Dateline on NBC. Why have I asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet hamster Nibbles in our yard for me? Because I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires, I knew I could trust him to bury my sweet Nibbles after his untimely end. Huh? Nibbles gone too soon. May he scurry in peace. Hey, sorry about your pet, but I just wire stuff. Nibbles would have loved you like a brother.

[Lester Holt]

Connecting homeowners with skilled pros for over 30 years. Angie the one you trust. Define the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home [e-mail].