The Premonition

Summary

Dateline NBC – Episode Summary: "The Premonition"

Release Date: January 28, 2025

Introduction

In the gripping episode titled "The Premonition," NBC News delves into the chilling true-crime story of Dr. John Yelnick, a beloved dentist from Blairsville, Pennsylvania, who not only predicted his own murder but also foresaw its unsolved aftermath. Host Lester Holt and correspondent Andrea Canning guide listeners through the intricate investigation that unravels deep-seated secrets within a small community.

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Background: John Yelnick’s Life and Marriage

Dr. John Yelnick was a respected family dentist known for his dedication to his patients and his gentle nature. His personal life, however, was fraught with turbulence. John married Michelle Kamler, a former Budweiser promotional worker, and stepfathered her two children. The couple dreamed of expanding their family, eventually adopting a son, J.J., from Russia, which brought immense joy to John.

Notable Quote:

• "He was making you laugh, he was making you smile." – Dennis Vaughn, friend of John Yelnick ([10:10])

Despite the outward appearances of happiness, underlying issues began to surface, particularly surrounding their inability to conceive biological children and escalating marital conflicts.

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The Marriage Breakdown and Premonition

John and Michelle's marriage deteriorated over time, marked by constant disagreements and accusations of infidelity. Michelle accused John of child abuse, a claim that John vehemently denied, maintaining his innocence and his role as a loving father.

In a startling development, shortly after his relationship with Michelle became strained, John had a premonition that he would be murdered and that his death would remain unsolved. He attempted to preemptively address this fear by offering $10,000 to Andrea Canning to investigate his potential murder.

Notable Quote:

• "He was convinced that he was going to be killed and that his murder would be covered up and that the evidence would be buried along with him." – Lester Holt ([01:25])

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The Murder: April 13, 2000

On the evening of April 13, 2000, John Yelnick was brutally murdered in his modest home. Nine-year-old Zachary Yus discovered his body with horrific signs of violence—bloodstained clothing and a slit throat. Initial reports mistakenly identified the incident as a heart attack, delaying the realization of the true nature of the crime.

Notable Quote:

• "He had fought fiercely for his life." – Lester Holt ([44:50])

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Initial Investigation and Suspects

Blairsville’s police, led by Patrolman Don Isherwood and Corporal Janelle Lydic, began canvassing the neighborhood. Despite extensive efforts, no arrests were made initially, causing unease within the community. The investigation highlighted several financial disputes, primarily focusing on Michelle Kamler and her boyfriend, Kevin Foley, a Pennsylvania state trooper.

Notable Quote:

• "This was clearly a killing of passion." – Lester Holt ([04:00])

The discovery of blood-spattered divorce papers in John’s home pointed to the timing of the murder coinciding with the finalization of his divorce from Michelle.

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Community and Psychic Involvement

With police progress stalling, Michelle turned to unconventional methods, inviting psychic sisters Suzanne and Jean Vincent to assist in the investigation. Despite their efforts, the psychics provided vague insights that failed to yield concrete leads, frustrating both the police and John’s family.

Notable Quote:

• "I had to eliminate everyone else first." – Janelle Lydic, Police Officer ([57:55])

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Escalation and Arrest of Kevin Foley

After enduring months of a stagnant investigation and growing suspicions around Kevin Foley due to his hostile relationship with John, Michelle’s relentless advocacy led to increased scrutiny. Deputy Attorney General Tony Krastic took over the case, uncovering critical evidence linking Foley to the crime scene. Notably, DNA analysis of John’s fingernails and unique shoe print patterns provided substantial evidence against Foley.

Notable Quote:

• "Foley is 189 billion times more probable than a coincidence." – Lester Holt ([79:35])

In September 2007, nearly eighteen months after the murder, Kevin Foley was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, marking a pivotal moment of justice for John’s family.

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The Trial: High-Tech Evidence and Conviction

The trial in March 2009 introduced groundbreaking DNA analysis techniques, led by Dr. Mark Perlin, which significantly strengthened the prosecution's case. Prosecutor Krastic utilized 3D animations and compelling forensic evidence to illustrate the brutality of the crime and Foley’s motive rooted in financial disputes.

Notable Quote:

• "Kevin Foley had the means, motive, and opportunity to kill John Yelnick." – Tony Krastic, Prosecutor ([77:14])

Despite defense efforts to discredit the DNA evidence and introduce alternative theories, Foley was found guilty of first-degree murder after the jury deliberated for several hours.

Notable Quote:

• "It was a real sense of satisfaction. I don't have any doubt that he did it." – Lester Holt ([85:46])

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Aftermath and Unanswered Questions

While Kevin Foley was convicted, lingering questions remained regarding Michelle Kamler’s role and potential involvement. Despite a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Maryanne Clark against Michelle and Foley, no charges were brought against Michelle. She relocated out of state shortly after the trial, leaving the community with unresolved tensions and lingering grief.

Notable Quote:

• "If I had the evidence to charge her, I would have done that." – Lester Holt ([87:14])

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Conclusion: Lasting Impact

"The Premonition" not only recounts the harrowing journey to justice for John Yelnick but also highlights the profound emotional and social impacts of such a violent crime on a tight-knit community. The case underscores the complexities of marital discord, law enforcement challenges, and the enduring quest for truth and closure.

Notable Quote:

• "I don't think you ever get over a murder. You learn to live with a new reality, but it's always with you." – Lester Holt ([88:50])

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Key Insights:

1. Premonition and Fear: John Yelnick’s foresight into his own demise adds a haunting layer to the narrative, suggesting premeditation or acute awareness of impending danger due to personal conflicts.

2. Marital Turmoil: The toxic dynamics between John and Michelle were central to the motive behind the murder, highlighting how personal vendettas can escalate into tragic outcomes.

3. Investigative Challenges: The intersection of local and state law enforcement, compounded by potential internal corruption and code of silence, exemplifies the hurdles in solving crimes within small communities.

4. Forensic Advances: The utilization of innovative DNA analysis techniques played a critical role in securing a conviction, illustrating the evolution of forensic science in criminal justice.

5. Community Impact: The murder left lasting scars on Blairsville, affecting perceptions of safety and trust within the community, and emphasizing the lingering effects of unresolved tragedies.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• "He was convinced that he was going to be killed and that his murder would be covered up and that the evidence would be buried along with him." – Lester Holt ([01:25])

• "It was clearly a killing of passion." – Lester Holt ([04:00])

• "He probably was one step ahead of me every time." – Lester Holt ([49:32])

• "Foley is 189 billion times more probable than a coincidence." – Lester Holt ([79:35])

• "I don't think you ever get over a murder. You learn to live with a new reality, but it's always with you." – Lester Holt ([88:50])

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Conclusion

"The Premonition" is a compelling narrative that intertwines foresight, personal strife, and relentless pursuit of justice. Through meticulous storytelling and impactful interviews, Dateline NBC delivers a poignant exploration of a community grappling with loss, betrayal, and the quest for truth.

Transcript

[Lester Holt]

DATELINE is sponsored by Capital One. Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One bank guy. It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capitalone.com bank capital1na member FDIC brought to you by the Capital One Venture X Card. If you love to travel, the Capital One Venture X Card is perfect for you. Earn unlimited double miles on your purchases and turn them into extraordinary travel. Enjoy premium benefits at a collection of luxury hotels when you book through Capital One Travel and get access to over 1,000 airport lounges worldwide. Capital One what's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capital1.com for details. Tonight on Dateline, he had a premonition.

[Andrea Canning]

He believed someone was plotting his murder. I wonder what it must have been like when he saw the face of the person who was about to end his life.

[Lester Holt]

I saw John laying right there. His clothing was drenched in blood. You could see the bloody footprints that.

[Andrea Canning]

Went through the hallway and out the back door.

[Lester Holt]

This was clearly a killing of passion.

[Andrea Canning]

You're talking about someone who is a very strong, powerful, aggressive killer. You're in charge of the investigation. You really cast a wide net.

[Lester Holt]

I did. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. No arrest came. Something's not right. This had the whole town just uneasy. The dentist who predicted his own death and the loved ones who would not stop until the case was solved.

[Andrea Canning]

What are you thinking? I mean, he could be our prime suspect and I'm being told not to interview him.

[Lester Holt]

I just had to keep going. He probably was one step ahead of me every time. I'm Lester Holt and this is dateline. Here's Andrea Canning with the premonition. He told me that he wanted to send me $10,000 to hold to investigate his murder because he was convinced that he was going to be killed and that his murder would be covered up and that the evidence would be buried along with him and that it would go unsolved.

[Andrea Canning]

That's one of the craziest things I've heard in this job.

[Lester Holt]

It's almost like he was writing a story about his life.

[Andrea Canning]

Yes, a terrible premonition. It all happened here in the town where he grew up. John Yelnick's life story came to an end in Blairsville, Pennsylvania. It was April 13, 2000. A little boy from next door, nine year old Zachary Yus, was the first to discover the awful thing that happened to the 39 year old dentist. I know this is really hard. Why did you go over to John's house that day?

[Lester Holt]

That day I was just looking for somebody to hang out with.

[Andrea Canning]

Zach was hoping to see John's son. They'd been such good friends. Instead, Zach saw something no child should ever have to see.

[Lester Holt]

So I'm walking up to his porch and I noticed the broken glass on the steps. He had red carpet, so I didn't notice the blood at first, but I noticed that his panel side window on the left was broken and there was blood kind of smeared a little bit going down the front.

[Andrea Canning]

He was scared, but he kept going.

[Lester Holt]

I put my hand through the window, I unlocked the door, went inside and I saw John laying right there.

[Andrea Canning]

How bad was it?

[Lester Holt]

He had a slit on his throat. His clothing was drenched in blood.

[Andrea Canning]

You see this horrific scene and do you run home?

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, I run to my porch.

[Andrea Canning]

He wanted to tell his big brother to come.

[Lester Holt]

And I was just like, Craig, Craig, Craig.

[Andrea Canning]

In minutes, the family was on the phone with 911 when dispatchers put out the call. First responders were mistakenly told it was a heart attack. So when Blairsville patrolman Don Isherwood pulled up, he was surprised by what he found.

[Lester Holt]

Well, as I approach, the neighbor kids and the father were on the porch. And then as you approached the stairs, you could see the broken glass from one of the window panes. And the glass was out over the steps and onto the porch.

[Andrea Canning]

What are you thinking now?

[Lester Holt]

Well, you can see blood rolling down from the shards of the blood.

[Andrea Canning]

So this was no heart attack.

[Lester Holt]

Doesn't look like a heart attack now.

[Andrea Canning]

No, the terrible truth was on the other side of the door.

[Lester Holt]

So you walk in here and you see the struggle and the poor doctor's body was lying right here.

[Andrea Canning]

So that must have been a real shock to the system because you didn't know yet that a man's been stabbed to death right here.

[Lester Holt]

It was pretty gruesome.

[Andrea Canning]

There was.

[Lester Holt]

You could see the bloody footprints that went through the hallway and out the back door.

[Andrea Canning]

Are you thinking right away that those footprints likely belonged to the killer?

[Lester Holt]

Yeah. The first thing I looked at was the doctor was in bare feet. So you know that someone else was in here.

[Andrea Canning]

He knew he needed help right away. His superior, Corporal Janelle Lydic, was driving around with her kids when she got the call. And even then the details were confusing.

[Lester Holt]

They said there's a cardiac arrest.

[Andrea Canning]

Is that kind of weird that you're being requested for a, for a cardiac arrest?

[Lester Holt]

For a cardiac arrest? It is. So I actually turned the car around with my whole family in it, four kids and my husband, and just pulled up in front of the house.

[Andrea Canning]

What do you see?

[Lester Holt]

Blood is the first thing that I noticed on the walls. And I stepped in a little bit further, and I saw a body on the floor. And I'm like, okay, you go clear the house.

[Andrea Canning]

It would be Lydic's first murder investigation, and events were unfolding quickly. She and Isherwood were the only officers there, and she was afraid the killer was still nearby. Not only this is a crazy scene, but your four kids are out in the car and your husband.

[Lester Holt]

Yep, this was. I don't know if somebody else is in a house. So I stood between the house and them and waited.

[Andrea Canning]

So you're protecting the scene and kind of protecting your four kids who are.

[Lester Holt]

Out in the car? Exactly. And then after I come down, she.

[Andrea Canning]

Sent Patrolman Isherwood room to room to look for the assailant. And that's where he found another horrible sight.

[Lester Holt]

So as I come down into the basement to clear, the first thing I notice is a. A large puddle of blood in this area here. Starting to think, well, did the scene begin down here? And then when I looked up, I realized that the blood was dripping through the floor. So that's.

[Andrea Canning]

That just tells you how gruesome it was that there was that much blood.

[Lester Holt]

Correct.

[Andrea Canning]

At about the same time, John Yelnick's cousin Maryanne Clark was running some errands. Easter was just three days away, and.

[Lester Holt]

As I'm driving through Blairsville, I hear fire whistles blowing. And I didn't think anything of it. I went home. But as I'm going into my house, my phone's ringing. And it was a good friend of mine who lived by John. And she said, something bad's happening at John's house. And I said, well, it can't be. He should be at my parents now. And she said, no, there's something bad. So I went over what happened when.

[Andrea Canning]

You approached the house.

[Lester Holt]

I see the local funeral director walking my way. And when we confronted each other, I said, you know, did John have a heart attack? And he said, no, it's much worse.

[Andrea Canning]

Who finally told you what had happened inside that house?

[Lester Holt]

Janelle Lydic, an officer with the Blairsville police came out and said that John had been murdered.

[Andrea Canning]

That premonition about his own murder had come true. But he also predicted it would go unsolved. Would he be right? Not if John's loved ones had anything to do with it.

[Lester Holt]

I was determined it's not going to happen. It's not going to go away. When we come back, who would want to kill John Yelnick?

[Andrea Canning]

Do we now lock our doors? Do we now get security systems?

[Lester Holt]

This is unheard of. The case of the small town dentist would take some strange turns.

[Andrea Canning]

Your mom had the medium psychic sisters come over to help out.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah. Unusual investigators and an unbelievable obstacle.

[Andrea Canning]

Did you quickly start to have an uneasy feeling about the thoroughness of this investigation?

[Lester Holt]

Yes, almost instantly.

[Andrea Canning]

Blairsville is a little town about an hour from Pittsburgh. Not a place where big news stories are a common occurrence. But a prosperous young dentist had been murdered in a horrible way and that got people's attention. Jennifer Mealy, who was a local TV reporter in Pittsburgh, was among the first on the scene. I still remember being taken back by what I saw. Not only were there people everywhere, there were police and firemen and ambulance everywhere lining the street.

[Lester Holt]

After the scene was secured, that's when I began canvassing the neighborhood and talking with the neighbors to see if anyone heard or saw anything during the night.

[Andrea Canning]

One thing seemed clear. The neighbors were terrified because no one in this community wants to think this was a random crime. Do we now lock our doors in Blairsville? Do we now get security systems in Blairsville?

[Lester Holt]

This is unheard of. Things like this don't happen here.

[Andrea Canning]

Most of the neighbors could only tell police that John Yelnick was a nice guy. John's closest friends, like Dennis Vaughn, would agree.

[Lester Holt]

I Met John in 1985. We were both attending the same college and I was struck immediately by his personality. You always knew where John was at a function or at a party, usually because there was a crowd of people around him.

[Andrea Canning]

Maggie McCarten met John later in life, but they had a lot in common.

[Lester Holt]

Anytime you were around him, it was. He was making you laugh, he was making you smile. He had. He and I kind of shared that same affiliation for old tv. So, you know, we try to one up each other on TV trivia.

[Andrea Canning]

Was he kind of old school, given his choice in tv? And was he kind of old fashioned?

[Lester Holt]

He was very old fashioned. He literally was born too late in a lot of ways. All of his entertainment choices, movie, television, music, all tended to skew towards older things. And in his personal life he was old school too. Did not own a cell phone up until the day he died, he didn't own one.

[Andrea Canning]

John's friends became his family and his real family, well, that was pretty small.

[Lester Holt]

His father died when he was just months old in a tragic car accident.

[Andrea Canning]

So for years mom was his world.

[Lester Holt]

His mother doted on him. John was smart, John was very bright. Yes. He was always on honor roll in high school, dean's list in college. And he wanted to be a dentist and he did. He ended up being a partner with his own dentist. Later, after he graduated, moved back to his small town of Blairsville.

[Andrea Canning]

His partner was his childhood dentist, the guy who inspired him to go into family dentistry. And he really liked working with kids.

[Lester Holt]

He loved working with kids.

[Andrea Canning]

Working on kids teeth.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, yes. And I think it was mutual. I think the kids enjoyed coming to see him too. He would try to make me laugh, to open my mouth, to check my teeth, but you know, sometimes it wouldn't work.

[Andrea Canning]

Was he a good dentist?

[Lester Holt]

Yeah. He pulled out a tooth. I remember that day very vividly. And he gave me a toy out of the box.

[Andrea Canning]

John Yelnick dated around for a few years but when he was in his late 20s he met the one Michelle Kamler. And his life would never be the same.

[Lester Holt]

Michelle worked for a while as a Budweiser girl, going in a bathing suit around to bars, giving samples and things, getting her picture taken with the customers. He would tell his friends and people that he finally got the homecoming queen.

[Andrea Canning]

Dr. Maria Takaleski met John in dental school and they stayed close.

[Lester Holt]

John had dated pretty girls in the past, but none that looked quite like Michelle. She was beautiful. That was the first thing he was taken with that someone that was so pretty was interested in John.

[Andrea Canning]

John brought her to Dennis housewarming party.

[Lester Holt]

I think he was very proud, walking around, having her on his arm.

[Andrea Canning]

Everyone at the party noticed John's new girlfriend, including Dennis father.

[Lester Holt]

He made the comment something along the lines of John better watch out for this one.

[Andrea Canning]

But John was moving full speed ahead. Michelle had two kids which was fine with him. He'd always dreamed of having a big family. And when John's mother fell ill with pancreatic cancer, Michelle dropped everything to take care of her and her family. Final months, Michelle stepped up to the plate and helped John care for his mom.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, Michelle pretty much provided full time care for John's mother while she was sick and while he was tending to his dental practice. She was there most of the time caring for her daily needs.

[Andrea Canning]

Michelle seemed to be everything John needed too. And in a matter of months she had a two carat diamond ring on her finger.

[Lester Holt]

Some friends felt that maybe that was a little too generous and that maybe he should have just got the smaller diamond.

[Andrea Canning]

Hey, when you're in love, you're in love.

[Lester Holt]

You're in love. So they got the big ring and the tennis bracelets and all of the lovely things that the girls like.

[Andrea Canning]

I'm sure he thought she was worth it.

[Lester Holt]

I'm sure.

[Andrea Canning]

Not too long after they met. Viva Las Vegas.

[Lester Holt]

Viva Las Vegas. Before any of us knew they were planning to go to Las Vegas and get married New Year's Eve.

[Andrea Canning]

John's happy.

[Lester Holt]

John's happy. Yes. He got his homecoming queen and bride all in one package. So yes, John was on top of the world.

[Andrea Canning]

John's new life as a husband and stepdad was just what he wanted. The one time bachelor was now involved with school, sports, travel, hockey. He even helped take Michelle's kids on road trips with the rest of their team.

[Lester Holt]

Get him out of here.

[Andrea Canning]

There's Michelle. John's behind the camera. Michelle, you wanted this on tape, but something was missing.

[Lester Holt]

He was happy as a stepfather, but at the end of the day he just wasn't fully satisfied, I think until he could have a child of his own. That was always something very important to him. And so they tried and finally they made the decision then that they would just adopt and ultimately made a couple of trips to Russia that resulted in them one time coming home with a little baby boy. Mm hm.

[Andrea Canning]

J.J. suddenly all of John Yelnick's love and hopes were wrapped up in this little boy. How excited was John?

[Lester Holt]

John was thrilled. I'd never seen him that happy ever. And John was just beaming from ear to ear, just so proud of this little boy.

[Andrea Canning]

They bought a big house with a pool, a bar and a hot tub. Life was rich and full for a while. But that wasn't the house where police were standing now. This was a small house where John Yelnick was killed. What was the house telling you about the victim as you walked through?

[Lester Holt]

It was very neat and orderly. After I went upstairs, you could see the recently renovated child's room with the new carpeting and paint and even had a TV or a video game set up to play.

[Andrea Canning]

And there among the shards of glass and blood soaked floorboards, police noticed something else. With Easter just three days away, there were Christmas presents still unopened. How had it come to this? What happened at John Yelnick's carefully crafted life?

[Lester Holt]

Coming up, a violent struggle.

[Andrea Canning]

His head is pushed through this multi paned glass arrangement on the right side of the door.

[Lester Holt]

What kind of clues would be left in the chaos? I needed any evidence they may have collected, including the fingernails of John Yelnick. When DATELINE continues. This episode is brought to you by Progressive, where drivers who save by switching save nearly $750 on average. Quote [e-mail] to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates national average 12 month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations Grand Canyon University, a private Christian university in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona, believes that we're endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit GCU believes in equal opportunity in the American Dream. Starts with purpose. Whether your pursuit involves a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree, GCU provides a path to help you fulfill your dreams, offering 340 academic programs as of September 2024. Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University Private christian affordable visit gcu.edu this cold.

[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

That reinvigorate or relieve. Delivered in as fast as 30 minutes plus enjoy. $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Excludes restaurant orders, service fees and terms apply. At first glance, the scene of Dr. John Yelnick's murder was all blood and chaos. But investigators are trained to make sense of the chaos, and that's where local legend, forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht, entered the case. This case of Dr. Yelnick was certainly.

[Lester Holt]

One of the most violent deaths I've seen.

[Andrea Canning]

Dr. Wecht consulted on sensational cases from the Kennedy assassination to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. He'd done more than 20,000 autopsies, and with his lab just minutes from Blairsville, the local coroner asked that he perform the autopsy on John Yelnick. Dr. Wecht also decided to visit the murder scene. My own inspection of the death scene indicated that Dr. Yelnick had been injured already in the back part of the house. Dr. Wecht believed the assailant then chased John Yelnick through the house. It's a very mobile situation. You're fleeing from me and I'm chasing you and I'm inflicting injuries as you go along. Dr. Wecht explained why the window by the front door was broken and covered in blood. His head is pushed through this multi paned glass Arrangement on the right side of the door. Looking at it from the inside. John Yelnick suffered massive, possibly fatal injuries to his neck when his head was pushed through the glass. But the attack wasn't over. Dr. Yelnick then finally fell to the ground, obviously, and his throat then was slashed. As a forensic scientist with more than 50 years experience, Dr. Wecht surmised the killer had to be strong and large enough to overwhelm the nearly six foot tall dentist. And to slash him with a knife, the blade would have been maybe six inches or more. And as I recall, I think a one sided blade. That was the story of John Yelnick's death. Over in Blairsville. The crime scene was also telling a story about his life.

[Lester Holt]

In the living room there were papers and maybe TV Guide and magazines.

[Andrea Canning]

There was something on the table that was very important, very telling to what this victim was going through.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, the divorce papers were on the coffee table and they were covered in blood.

[Andrea Canning]

Also, John Yelnick was literally about to get divorced.

[Lester Holt]

Like within it was the next day hours. Yes, he was to sign the papers the next day.

[Andrea Canning]

John Yelnick's dreams of a Brady Bunch family had fallen apart. He and his wife Michelle were in the process of divorcing. After they cashed in the house, John moved to this modest home and set Michelle up here with the kids. That's where Janelle Lydick sent an officer to break the news to Michelle. John shares a son, J.J. with his estranged wife Michelle. Was it imperative that you notify her right away about the death?

[Lester Holt]

They were still married, so she would be the next of kin and the person we had to notify.

[Andrea Canning]

Michelle was living in her new place with a new boyfriend, a Pennsylvania state trooper. They'd been together for nearly two years. How did you feel about her dating a state trooper?

[Lester Holt]

Well, when I first heard it, and I knew that she and John were headed for a divorce, I thought, you know what? Couldn't be any better, any better role model or better influence on John's son or on Michelle's children.

[Andrea Canning]

J.J. and the older two were in bed. By the time police arrived at Michelle's home, she had already heard that John had died, but told police she heard it was a heart attack. They let her know he was murdered. John's friends got the news the next day.

[Lester Holt]

I was picking up my children for the weekend. It was Easter weekend and I saw a lot of missed messages, texts and voicemails. So I listened to one of the voicemails and it was just somebody sobbing.

[Andrea Canning]

Who Was it who had left the message?

[Lester Holt]

It was John's neighbor.

[Andrea Canning]

What did she tell you?

[Lester Holt]

She said that John was dead.

[Andrea Canning]

Maria was home with her family. Her husband took the call.

[Lester Holt]

And I remember just looking at him and saying no. And I start pleading to God, please don't let him have been killed. Please don't let him have been killed. And I fell to the floor and just sobbed.

[Andrea Canning]

Back in his forensic lab, Cyril Wecht was saving blood samples, tissue. He collected photos and clipped Yelnick's fingernails along with the precious DNA that might be underneath them. You sent one of your officers to the autopsy of John Yelnick?

[Lester Holt]

I did. Why?

[Andrea Canning]

Did you want someone to be there?

[Lester Holt]

I needed any evidence that they may have collected, including the fingernails of John Yelnick.

[Andrea Canning]

That's when she did something unusual. Officer Lydic stashed them in the evidence fridge at police headquarters instead of immediately sending them to the state police lab. This may have been her first homicide investigation, but her instincts were telling her, protect the evidence and move very carefully.

[Lester Holt]

Coming up, neighbor after neighbor told us.

[Andrea Canning]

We needed to hone in on the.

[Lester Holt]

Next door neighborhood, what was going on next door.

[Andrea Canning]

So you just straight up asked her, were you having an affair with John Yelnick?

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

Funerals are never easy. John Yelnicks was particularly grim.

[Lester Holt]

John was wearing a turtleneck in a casket. And when I went early the next morning, I moved the turtleneck down and saw the slash ones where his head was almost severed. John never wore a turtleneck in his life, but it was the only way to cover up how he died. It was an emotional roller coaster in a lot of ways. But it was also an opportunity to get together and share John's stories, tears and memories.

[Andrea Canning]

Now it was time for friends to talk to the police.

[Lester Holt]

The morning after I was at the police station and was questioned because I was one of the last people at his house. Just a few days earlier, did they.

[Andrea Canning]

Have to look at you as someone they needed to eliminate?

[Lester Holt]

Yes. Yeah. So they asked a lot of questions of me and my relationship with John and things of that.

[Andrea Canning]

The Blairsville police spent a lot of time speaking with John's friends, neighbors, and even drinking buddies, establishing alibis and checking out shoe sizes to compare against the bloody prints left in the house. They already knew the prints didn't belong to Zach, the boy who found the body. Were you certain that those footprints were the killers?

[Lester Holt]

They had to be. I don't know who else it could have been. It had to be.

[Andrea Canning]

So find out who belongs to the footprints and you'll probably find your killer.

[Lester Holt]

It's a big clue. Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

They started with the neighbors. And in this town where everyone knows everyone, police learned a lot. Your officers are told that there was some commotion or some. Some noise at 1:30 in the morning.

[Lester Holt]

Right.

[Andrea Canning]

According to Jennifer Mealy, one neighbor said the sound was just awful. So you have one neighbor who hears what he believes to be a pig squealing. In the early morning hours of the murder, another neighbor heard what sounded like an argument. A man yelling something specific.

[Lester Holt]

I'll never loan you money again.

[Andrea Canning]

The neighbor across the street is hearing someone say, I'll never loan you money again.

[Lester Holt]

Correct.

[Andrea Canning]

Interesting. Since they're among John Yelnick's papers, police found a blood spattered check from Zachary's mother, Melissa Yus, who lived next door. Neighbor after neighbor told told us we needed to hone in on the next door neighbors. The next door neighbors had the biggest connection to John Yelnick. Did John ever talk to you about Melissa use?

[Lester Holt]

No. No. I knew that they went to high school together and I knew that Melissa was wanting to open a bakery. And I knew John being John, he didn't care about money at all. And so he was giving. Loaning her money to start up a bakery in Blairsville.

[Andrea Canning]

15,000.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, $15,000.

[Andrea Canning]

Melissa's married.

[Lester Holt]

Melissa's married.

[Andrea Canning]

But rumors start up that John and Melissa are having a fling.

[Lester Holt]

I never heard those rumors until after the murder. That there was people were seeing them on the porch or that there was, you know, neighbors paying attention and thought that something was going on because her husband was in the Navy and he would be gone for periods of time.

[Andrea Canning]

If the rumors of an affair were true, police had to consider the possibility that Tom Hughes, Melissa's husband and the father of the boy who found the body, was involved in the crime. That must have really bothered you that the fact that that was a rumor.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, John would never do that. John was never that kind of person. He would never do that to somebody. And you know, my mom was like family to him.

[Andrea Canning]

Was that something that you had to look at closely?

[Lester Holt]

Yes, I had to look at everything.

[Andrea Canning]

How do you go about that?

[Lester Holt]

What's your strategy? I was bold. I was bold.

[Andrea Canning]

So you just straight up asked her, were you having an affair with John Yelnick?

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

What did she say?

[Lester Holt]

No, we were just really good friends for a long time.

[Andrea Canning]

Did you believe her?

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

Lydic also spoke with Tom Yuse. And did he think that they were having an affair, his wife and John?

[Lester Holt]

He wouldn't answer the question directly.

[Andrea Canning]

That's kind of strange.

[Lester Holt]

He kept saying about, I have to take care of the kids.

[Andrea Canning]

Officer Lydic decided to keep Tom Yus on her list of possible suspects. Not that they were sharing this information with anyone. The police were playing this case pretty close to the vest. When a murder investigation in a rural community begins, the release of information often comes in drips. So it wasn't a big city murder. So it wasn't a big city press conference about what happened. But at one point, the police did offer information to calm the public's fear.

[Lester Holt]

And I think the first press information, if I'm not mistaken, locally in Blairsville, was a statement from the chief of police in Blairsville saying that the people of Blairsville shouldn't be worried. This is an isolated incident. And so I took that to mean, okay, they know that John was targeted, so they must know more.

[Andrea Canning]

Did police know enough that they were about to catch a killer? Not in this case. Not even close.

[Lester Holt]

Coming up, she goes, I need you girls to help me enter the investigators from another realm.

[Andrea Canning]

Psychics come into this.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, because we were so looking for clues, leads. When Dateline continues.

[Andrea Canning]

The people who lived on John Yelnick's quiet little street were startled awake by the sound of yelling, even screaming, on the night of the murder. And one of the neighbors heard a kind of argument.

[Lester Holt]

Someone yelled, I will never loan you money again.

[Andrea Canning]

John Yelnick may have loaned money to Zach's parents, but police learned he also loaned money to a number of people. One of them was a cousin, Tracy Jacobs. All right, Tracy Jacobs. Someone else you looked at.

[Lester Holt]

Why he also borrowed money. He wanted to start our lawn mowing business, or lawn care business.

[Andrea Canning]

He borrowed $20,000, to be exact.

[Lester Holt]

I didn't know anything about him, so I wanted to find out more about him and try to find out if it's a possibility.

[Andrea Canning]

Jacobs told police John had never asked him to pay back the money. And police couldn't find evidence of any bad blood there. Did you have him take a polygraph?

[Lester Holt]

I did. And he came back clear. He passed.

[Andrea Canning]

So no Tracey Jacobs. Police question other people with financial ties to John Yelnick, including his business partner. Turns out they were talking about splitting up the practice. What happened there?

[Lester Holt]

We looked into him only because he was trying to get out of the partnership.

[Andrea Canning]

In the end, police cleared the business partner, but suspicions about Tom Use seemed to linger. Had it gotten out around town at school that your dad was being looked at?

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, at school, actually. Kids would tell me all the time, you know, we heard your dad did it, and I would tell them, like, he did not do it. He did not do it. You know, like, where did you even hear that? And, you know, they're like, oh, my parents said it, or, you know, the TV said it, or, you know, they said that he was a suspect or whatever.

[Andrea Canning]

It must have really hurt.

[Lester Holt]

It did. It hurt a lot.

[Andrea Canning]

Melissa was worried about the toll this was taking on her family, so she launched a very different kind of investigation. Your mom had the medium psychic sisters come over to help out.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah.

[Andrea Canning]

Meet Suzanne and Jean Vincent, Pittsburgh's psychic sisters. How did you get involved in this case?

[Lester Holt]

We got involved in this case when.

[Andrea Canning]

We went up to a psychic tea party. Melissa Yus attended that tea party, and the sisters say they sensed her fear and despair. The police were looking at her husband Tom, as a suspect or a person of interest.

[Lester Holt]

She could not sleep.

[Andrea Canning]

She was very fearful.

[Lester Holt]

The kids were fearful. The whole family was a murder. Bloody murder was right next door to their house.

[Andrea Canning]

Melissa was so desperate to clear her husband's name, she asked the sisters for help. And she goes, I need you girls.

[Lester Holt]

To come back and help me.

[Andrea Canning]

Would you please come back to Blairsville.

[Lester Holt]

And do a walk through. Through John Yelnick's house? And we said that we would.

[Andrea Canning]

Psychics come into this.

[Lester Holt]

Yes. You know, at the time, because we were so looking for clues, leads. You know, you bring in whoever might help in that area.

[Andrea Canning]

As they walked through the house and yard, they reported feeling warm spots, cool spots, and they said they saw a black SUV and a woman with dark hair, among other things.

[Lester Holt]

As we were going through the house, we had a flash of dog tags, and then we had a flash that this person was in the military. As we were walking through the house.

[Andrea Canning]

The psychics later made a few more visits. Eventually, the media took an interest. Even the police came along to hear what the sisters had to say. What's happening in that house as you're all going through the house with these psychic sisters?

[Lester Holt]

I just kind of followed along and in the back of my mind saying, really?

[Andrea Canning]

I guess the question really is at this point, were you becoming a little bit desperate or frustrated, so maybe, maybe they could shed some light on it?

[Lester Holt]

No, I was more upset with the family pushing it to get things done when I still had more work to do.

[Andrea Canning]

So you were kind of placating them that, like, here, I'll. I'll do this for you.

[Lester Holt]

I. Yeah, I figured it couldn't hurt, and I had the time, and I'm like, okay, let's go down, listen to what they have to say.

[Andrea Canning]

Did you learn anything from them?

[Lester Holt]

No.

[Andrea Canning]

Did you feel like they were helping from what you were hearing?

[Lester Holt]

Let's say I didn't learn anything new.

[Andrea Canning]

The psychics told Melissa they could see that her husband had nothing to do with the murder. The police were already coming to that conclusion. For one, he had the wrong shoe size.

[Lester Holt]

He has like a size 13 shoe or something like that huge shoe and there's footprints were not anywhere near that.

[Andrea Canning]

Police also learned that Tom Yus had a good relationship with John Yelnick and when he passed a polygraph, he was taken off the list. So as neighbors, friends and distant relatives fell off the radar, police started to home in on someone else. Coming up, what did you learn about John and Michelle's marriage?

[Lester Holt]

It wasn't good. Stunning moments from a stormy marriage. Michelle started yelling, screaming at him, how dare you. You need to get out. The cops came to his dental office and arrested him.

[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Lester Holt]

I did. Because at that point, the neighbors could have been suspects. Anybody was.

[Andrea Canning]

It was hard not to take the murder personally. You lived just a few blocks from John Yelnick.

[Lester Holt]

I lived three blocks away from him.

[Andrea Canning]

So this murder happened in your backyard.

[Lester Holt]

And it happened two doors down from my kids best friends where they would stay or play. So I was not comfortable in letting my kids go there anymore for a while.

[Andrea Canning]

Even more reason, Lydic was keen to make an arrest, and quickly. Still, she believed this was no random killing. The more people she talked to, the more Lydic suspected John's marriage had something to do with it. What did you learn about John and Michelle's marriage?

[Lester Holt]

It wasn't good. Almost the whole way through, I've often wondered at the end of the day, when everybody else was gone and it was just John and Michelle sitting in the house after the kids went to bed, what. What would they talk about?

[Andrea Canning]

Did he confide in you about his relationship?

[Lester Holt]

Over time, he started to open up to me more and more and expressing to me that he was unhappy.

[Andrea Canning]

They were just so different. Dennis says Michelle enjoyed showing off her big house with the pool and its hot tub and wine cellar. John seemed embarrassed by it and told Dennis his favorite room was in the.

[Lester Holt]

Basement, of all things. It was. It was the furnace room. This tiny little. Wasn't much bigger than a closet. He said, you know, this is really the only place in this whole house that I feel comfortable.

[Andrea Canning]

The furnace room.

[Lester Holt]

The furnace room. This dark, dingy, spider, webby room.

[Andrea Canning]

But what did he say to you?

[Lester Holt]

It broke my heart.

[Andrea Canning]

Maria says it was obvious Michelle just wasn't that into John.

[Lester Holt]

John was affectionate toward Michelle, but I never saw Michelle be affectionate back to John. She always seemed distant or almost put off by him. It was always like. Or, you know, he was just there.

[Andrea Canning]

Four years after their quickie wedding in Las Vegas, the marriage imploded. What was causing this battle to brew?

[Lester Holt]

The biggest event that I'm aware of from what John shared with me was when Michelle came to John and said that she had been involved in an extra affair.

[Andrea Canning]

That'll do it.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah.

[Andrea Canning]

John had a confession too. He told Michelle he'd had a brief fling with someone in his office.

[Lester Holt]

According to John, Michelle just basically lost it. Started yelling, screaming at him, how dare you have an affair even though she had one. Yes. And at that point she said, we're going to get a divorce. You need to get out.

[Andrea Canning]

So he did. The day John moved out was the day Maggie McCarten met him for the first time. Her boyfriend was John's close pal and they went to help him pack up.

[Lester Holt]

I felt terrible for him and I felt very bad for jj. Both were incredibly sad.

[Andrea Canning]

Maggie says Michelle seemed anything but.

[Lester Holt]

She talked a lot about the fact that they she was seeing someone else, that he was great in bed, that he had a lot of money and was buying her all these presents. Saying this to someone she just met.

[Andrea Canning]

You're a stranger to her. You're a stranger to her.

[Lester Holt]

And in front of her little boy.

[Andrea Canning]

After the split, John moved into that modest house in Blairsville. He saw J.J. whenever he could.

[Lester Holt]

He'd go to the amusement park, he would take him to movies, he would take him on trips. Anything that JJ really wanted to do, John was up for. He was an awesome dad. JJ loved him.

[Andrea Canning]

Which is why what happened next shocked everyone. A year and a half after they first separated, Michelle accused John of child abuse, choking the five year old and punching him in the face. Maggie said it couldn't be true. So you and your boyfriend were with John the weekend that he is accused of choking his son?

[Lester Holt]

Yeah.

[Andrea Canning]

Did you see anything that would suggest that that could be true?

[Lester Holt]

Never. I never saw him raise a hand to that boy, much less a voice. He was just not that type of person. He was a very gentle, loving father.

[Andrea Canning]

A judge ordered John to stay away from JJ And Michelle. Not long after Michelle reported John for violating the order, the cops came to.

[Lester Holt]

His dental office and arrested him and kind of took him out the back. And try as he might, because he did try to keep a sense of humor about it, he called me and said, hey, I was just in the clink, you know, they hauled me away in silver bracelets trying to make light of it. But I knew that that for him was a turning point.

[Andrea Canning]

John denied everything, but after months away from JJ agreed to take anger management classes so he could see him again. He also got himself a hotshot divorce attorney. When Michelle tried to stop John from taking JJ on a trip to Disney World, Effie Alexander was ready to fight for him in court.

[Lester Holt]

Coincidentally, John's son went to the same school as the judge's children. So every excuse that Michelle threw at the court as to why he shouldn't go, the judge literally picked up the phone and called the principal during the hearing. And it was all, it wasn't true that he can't miss school, that they have A policy that he'll get behind in homework. He was 6 years old. He was in first grade.

[Andrea Canning]

The judge said JJ could go. And that's when things got weird.

[Lester Holt]

John calls me and says, hey, I went to pick up JJ for this trip and his head was shaved.

[Andrea Canning]

Did he have a theory about why, why this was happening?

[Lester Holt]

No, other than I think just he thought at least what he shared with me was she shaved his head so that, you know, he'd look like a prisoner in these pictures.

[Andrea Canning]

John's friends say the father and son had a great time on the trip. But there was something that upset John, hearing JJ talk about Michelle's boyfriend, the state trooper.

[Lester Holt]

If he was mad at John, he'd say, well, I'm just gonna go and trooper's my daddy. You're not my daddy anymore.

[Andrea Canning]

J.J. wasn't the only issue John and Michelle were battling over. They were bickering over money too. John's receptionist later told police Michelle made angry calls to the dentist asking for money. Maggie, you talk about John almost being a hostage?

[Lester Holt]

Absolutely. She'd call and scream at the young ladies who worked in his dental office. And I think he was just so embarrassed and mortified. He just kept giving her more and more to try to appease her.

[Andrea Canning]

A less than attractive portrait of the beautiful Michelle was coming together for police as they talked to some of the people who knew her.

[Lester Holt]

She was money hungry. It's the very first thing I heard about her.

[Andrea Canning]

Gold digger.

[Lester Holt]

Gold digger.

[Andrea Canning]

Which made the investigator wonder. Michelle was the beneficiary of John's will and his million dollar life insurance policy. Of everyone around John, maybe she had the most to gain from his death.

[Lester Holt]

Coming up, he was sobbing and he said, I don't know if I'll ever see my son again. An explosive new front in the battle with Michelle. And later, concern grows would John's killer be caught. Something's not going well here. There's just no reason for this to take so long. This had the whole town just uneasy. When dateline continue continuing with our story. Small town dentist John Yelnick has been murdered in his own home. I saw John Lang right there.

[Andrea Canning]

I still remember being taken back.

[Lester Holt]

He had fought fiercely for his life. And we're about to learn he had also feared his death. He wanted to send me $10,000 to investigate his murder because he was convinced that he was going to be killed. A child chilling premonition that had come true. Could police catch this killer? Something's not right. Something's not going well here. Doubts creep in about the investigation, to.

[Andrea Canning]

The family, to even people watching this, they'll say, that's Detective 101.

[Lester Holt]

He probably was one step ahead of me every time. Here again, Andrea Canning.

[Andrea Canning]

The poison in John and Michelle's broken marriage had never been more obvious to John's cousin Maryanne than on the day of his funeral. Did Michelle come to the funeral?

[Lester Holt]

No, Michelle did not come. Did she send a flower?

[Andrea Canning]

Did you talk to her? Did she give a reason?

[Lester Holt]

Nothing.

[Andrea Canning]

Did his son come?

[Lester Holt]

No.

[Andrea Canning]

The funeral director told Marianne that Michelle, who was still John's next of kin, hadn't wanted anything to do with the body.

[Lester Holt]

You know, how do you dismiss a human being, much less, you know, your husband and the father of your child, and say you don't care what happened, what they do with the body.

[Andrea Canning]

John's friends and family told investigator Lydic how ugly the divorce had been, the incessant wrangling over money and little jj. And then things got worse. The accusations got worse.

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

It was an explosive allegation. A year before the murder, Michelle said John sexually abused jj. She reported that to the Pennsylvania State Police. Six year old JJ told investigators a story that backed up his mother's allegations. People might wonder how a boy that young could come up with stories like that if they weren't true. Why would he tell stories like that?

[Lester Holt]

Right. I don't. A boy that age shouldn't. Unless he's being coached at home or being told what to say.

[Andrea Canning]

John was ordered yet again to stay away from JJ and was summoned to the trooper barracks to explain himself.

[Lester Holt]

Dr. Yonik seemed like a nice guy. He seemed pretty mild mannered. I mean, he wasn't jumping up and down screaming or anything.

[Andrea Canning]

Retired trooper Jeff Whitmer spent 15 years as a criminal investigator. He sat in on the interview as John denied everything.

[Lester Holt]

He was calm, he wrote, and like I said, I think he really wanted to at least help us get to the bottom of things.

[Andrea Canning]

John agreed to take a polygraph and passed. No criminal charges were ever filed, but it was up to a judge to say whether John could see JJ again. His divorce attorney showed the judge what she considered to be proof the abuse never happened. A home video John had made the day he was supposed to have molested jj.

[Lester Holt]

The video showed that JJ loved this day with his dad. He smiled and was so happy. And at the end, he turned around and said, I don't want to go home, Daddy, I love you. I had so much fun. And he looked right into the camera and said it.

[Andrea Canning]

The judge also spoke to JJ in Her chambers. That day in chambers, did John's son actually say, you know what? It didn't happen?

[Lester Holt]

No, John's son didn't say it didn't happen.

[Andrea Canning]

So he kept saying that it happened.

[Lester Holt]

He repeated what was alleged repeatedly.

[Andrea Canning]

And she just wasn't buying it.

[Lester Holt]

She wasn't buying it. And no judge that has experience with those types of allegations would have bought it. It just sounded too rehearsed and too coached.

[Andrea Canning]

The judge made a finding that there had been no abuse and dismissed the court order preventing John from seeing his son. How happy was John?

[Lester Holt]

John was so happy, but he was also leery that, you know, I won the battle, but I'll never win the war because I know Michelle.

[Andrea Canning]

It's not over.

[Lester Holt]

It's not over.

[Andrea Canning]

Michelle denied ever coaching jj, but John's friends were sure she had fed him the story as a way to hurt John during their bitter divorce.

[Lester Holt]

This was a way of her manipulating him to give her whatever she wanted in the divorce. She was using a child as a pawn in this game of money.

[Andrea Canning]

After so long apart, John was excited to pick up JJ for a Thanksgiving visit. Zach went with him. It didn't go well. What happened during this pickup?

[Lester Holt]

So JJ was deathly afraid. Blake was screaming, kicking, hooting, hollering. Michelle was, you know, saying, oh, you're scaring him. You're scaring him. John called me and never heard him crying like this. He was sobbing, and he said, I don't know if I'll ever see my son again.

[Andrea Canning]

So this was irreversible damage. It must have felt like, yes, because how do you. How do you turn that ship around?

[Lester Holt]

You can't. You can't.

[Andrea Canning]

John was defeated. JJ didn't visit him for Christmas that year. Those presents police found in John's house after the murder were JJ's, unopened, still waiting for him, friends say. After the failed reunion, John wanted the divorce negotiations done so he could focus on repairing his relationship with JJ. In January 2006, John and Michelle finally reached an agreement. Michelle would get 60% of their assets, and they'd share custody of JJ. That must have felt good in this ongoing saga.

[Lester Holt]

It was a relief only because I felt we had been very generous towards Michelle. I felt that the deal was fair.

[Andrea Canning]

But Michelle seemed to get cold feet. During the separation, John had been paying her spousal support amounting to $2,500 a month. The divorce agreement cut that off. Michelle wasn't happy about it.

[Lester Holt]

She had her attorney call me. That didn't work. She had other people talk to John. That didn't work. But she knew what had been fail proof in the past. When she called John and asked for money, he always gave it to her.

[Andrea Canning]

So she resorted to that. She resorted to it, but this time it didn't work.

[Lester Holt]

Well, he held his ground.

[Andrea Canning]

At my advice, not long after, someone vandalized John's car. John's divorce attorney says this incident sparked John's extraordinary premonition about his own murder.

[Lester Holt]

John called me one day shortly after his car had been vandalized and he just really blew me away. He told me that he wanted to send me $10,000 to hold to investigate his murder because he was convinced that he was going to be killed and that his murder would be covered up and that the evidence would be buried along with him and that it would go unsolved.

[Andrea Canning]

That's one of the craziest things I've heard in this job. Predicting your own murder and wanting to set aside money for the investigation. That's almost a ridiculous plot line.

[Lester Holt]

It's almost like he was writing a story about his life. Yes, it was so chilling. Coming up, a suspect gets a closer look. He would stand over John in a menacing manner and new questions about the police investigation. I thought our Are you smoking something? Because this does not make any sense.

[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

John Yell Next Divorce, had been found by crime scene investigators just a few feet from his body. He'd been planning to sign them that day and finally be free of his toxic marriage.

[Lester Holt]

They were blood splattered. They were sitting on his table.

[Andrea Canning]

I mean, that's such a. Just an eerie visual, you know, to think of the divorce papers with blood on them from this murder. Literally, literally.

[Lester Holt]

Like the blood was on the papers that he was to sign to finalize his divorce.

[Andrea Canning]

John's friends were sure his divorce battle with his estranged wife Michelle had something to do with his death. They got together after his funeral to swap theories. So is everyone kind of on the same page, their friends about who could have done this?

[Lester Holt]

I don't think there was anybody who came up with an alternate theory. If they did, they didn't voice it at that time.

[Andrea Canning]

And that theory focused not so much on Michelle, but rather her boyfriend, Kevin Foley, who happened to be a Pennsylvania state trooper. John told friends Trooper Foley didn't seem to like him one bit.

[Lester Holt]

John would go to pick up or drop off jj and from what John described, he would stand over John, you know, in a menacing manner, or stand out on the porch with his arms crossed and stare John down, things like that.

[Andrea Canning]

After Michelle accused John of abusing jj, he told friends the trooper got even more aggressive, making verbal threats. Maria says John was scared.

[Lester Holt]

I said, john, we have to do something. I'm coming out to Blairsville, and we're gonna go see the police. And he said, maria, what police could we go see? We can't go to the Blairsville Police Department. They hauled me out of my office. We can't go to the state police because Foley's one of them. He said, we don't have anyone to go to.

[Andrea Canning]

Other friends say they found it hard to believe that a state trooper sworn to protect people and uphold the law could be a danger.

[Lester Holt]

My mom would call and say, like, John's still being bothered. And my response, out of being so naive, I don't know what the word is, was always stay. Please don't do that.

[Andrea Canning]

Now John was dead, And Maryann was one of nearly 10 people who told the Blairsville police that Trooper Foley should be their number one suspect.

[Lester Holt]

We thought that that message had been received loud and clear because we spoke with law enforcement and Anybody who had listened, we were giving them all the information we had. I gave them the memo that I had put in the file after John had offered to pay $10,000 to investigate his murder, because that was the best I could do.

[Andrea Canning]

In the small town of Blairsville, where local and state police saw often crossed paths, Trooper Foley was no stranger to police officer Janelle Lydic.

[Lester Holt]

He was a criminal investigator.

[Andrea Canning]

So in a normal world, after this murder happened, Kevin Foley potentially could have been called to aid in the investigation. Yes, that's irony.

[Lester Holt]

That's why it was so difficult.

[Andrea Canning]

Lydic says the trooper was already on her list of suspects, thanks to a patrol officer who'd seen him with Michelle after the murder.

[Lester Holt]

She said that Foley had a mark on his forehead, and she asked how he got that, and he said he just came back from hockey and got hurt in hockey.

[Andrea Canning]

Did it seem like a plausible explanation given that he plays hockey?

[Lester Holt]

I don't know. It threw up a little bit of red flag.

[Andrea Canning]

Lydic listened to the friends stories about Foley with interest. But because of who Foley was and the pressure she says she was under, she made an unusual decision. Before she zeroed in on Foley, she says she wanted to eliminate everyone else first.

[Lester Holt]

I went backwards from the way I think that most people do it. I looked at everybody it could possibly have been first. I wanted to make sure that nobody else could have possibly have done it.

[Andrea Canning]

You went from the outside in.

[Lester Holt]

Correct.

[Andrea Canning]

When John's friends called police to ask for status updates, they heard the same thing. We're looking at this case outside in. Did that make sense to you?

[Lester Holt]

Not at all. I thought, are you smoking something? Because this does not make any sense. You start with and see where the case leads you. I mean, you don't have to watch cop shows to realize that's the way it's done.

[Andrea Canning]

And yet they told you it's not like you see on tv.

[Lester Holt]

Right?

[Andrea Canning]

That's the line. Many, many times it does seem outrageous that this person is not being looked at closer.

[Lester Holt]

And they want to make me or friends feel like we're expecting the impossible. Why is that so impossible to do? Why? Why is that expecting too much? I know they wanted me to go up and arrest fully right away. And it's like, you can't do that. You just can't walk up and arrest somebody when you have the possibility of it could not be him.

[Andrea Canning]

At the end of the day, Lydic admits it was hard to think of Foley as a killer in the past. She trusted him with her life.

[Lester Holt]

I've worked with him, you know, on other cases. He's been my backup. You know, I let him behind me with a gun, and I was okay with that. I was safe. And so I guess I didn't want to believe that.

[Andrea Canning]

Remember, before he was killed, John had predicted his murder would go unsolved. Now his friends and family worried he was right.

[Lester Holt]

Coming up, what was going on inside the investigation?

[Andrea Canning]

That's a real head snapper, the district attorney telling you not to interview someone who had a real issue with John Yelnick. Did you feel like it was wrong?

[Lester Holt]

Yes. When DATELINE continues.

[Andrea Canning]

Those close to John Yelnick thought his murder should be easy to solve. They told police on day one the prime suspect should be Michelle's boyfriend, state trooper Kevin Foley.

[Lester Holt]

We'd all take turns calling the police. What's the status? What's going on? Why haven't anything happened?

[Andrea Canning]

Did you quickly start to have an uneasy feeling about the thoroughness of this investigation?

[Lester Holt]

Yes, almost instantly, like something's not right. Something's not going well here because there's just no reason for this to take so long.

[Andrea Canning]

Maryanne Clark seethed. Michelle had custody of JJ and was living with the trooper.

[Lester Holt]

We'd be hearing all the stories about Kevin and Michelle adopting another child and just going on with life as though, you know, nothing's wrong.

[Andrea Canning]

Trooper Whitmer worked in the same state police barracks as Kevin Foley. He agreed with the family that Foley should have been looked at harder right away. He says Foley didn't hide his dislike of the dentist.

[Lester Holt]

You know, he'd come into work, he'd be venting, you know, like talking about John did this or John won't do that.

[Andrea Canning]

Witmer was dispatched to the crime scene within hours of John's body being found and says colleagues were already talking about Kevin Foley.

[Lester Holt]

A couple people were coming up to me and, like, making references to Kevin, like, boy, where was Kevin last night? I hope he had an alibi last night. That type of thing. You know, kind of gallows humor type thing.

[Andrea Canning]

Foley was put on desk duty back at the barracks. Whitmer says it made for an awkward working environment.

[Lester Holt]

We were told informally not to talk to Kevin about the homicide or the investigation. There wasn't anything in writing, but, you know, the word was out. Don't bring it up to him. Don't talk to him about it.

[Andrea Canning]

When an investigator went to the barracks to interview troopers about what they knew, Officer Lydic says they didn't say much.

[Lester Holt]

They may have not lied, but I don't think they gave us everything.

[Andrea Canning]

Is there that kind of code of silence with some of them, like protect the brother at all costs kind of thing?

[Lester Holt]

Yeah. And I think in my eyes, I think that's what the family thought I was doing too.

[Andrea Canning]

Does the same thin blue line apply here?

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

Trooper Whitmer believes it was complicated but not corrupt.

[Lester Holt]

There is reluctance to think the worst about someone you know, especially someone you work with, you know, because you know if you're wrong, you still got to work with this person.

[Andrea Canning]

Lydic says from the beginning, she felt in over her head and she worried what her fellow officers would think of her. How intimidating was it to be investigating a state trooper?

[Lester Holt]

Very. Because I had probably 50% of them, like, how could you possibly do this? How could you investigate one of your own?

[Andrea Canning]

Lydic says she and her chief hesitated to send a key piece of evidence to the state crime lab. John's fingernail clippings. You just. You wanted to be extremely careful about who was handling your evidence.

[Lester Holt]

Correct.

[Andrea Canning]

And something else that didn't happen, something big. A formal interview with Kevin Foley. I think to the family, to even people watching this, that they'll say, you know, that's. That's Detective 101. Interview the strange spouse and her new boyfriend, especially when there was feuding going on. This was a bitter divorce battle, but.

[Lester Holt]

He'S a state trooper. It's not like I could walk up to him and he knew it. He knew what I was planning. He probably was one step ahead of me every time.

[Andrea Canning]

But why not even try that first day to interview them?

[Lester Holt]

I don't know. I don't know why we didn't do that. I didn't because I was with the scene. I was there for 24 hours.

[Andrea Canning]

Lydic says the decision to not interview Foley right away wasn't her call. It was the decision of then district attorney Bob Bell. I mean, that's a real head snapper, the district attorney telling you not to interview someone who had a real issue with John Yelnick.

[Lester Holt]

I don't know his reasoning behind it. I didn't ever ask.

[Andrea Canning]

Did you push back at all?

[Lester Holt]

No. He was a district attorney. He was there for years. He knew. Hopefully he knew what he was doing.

[Andrea Canning]

Did you feel like that it was wrong?

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

The da, Bob Bell, knew there were suspicions about Foley right away. Foley's supervisor in the state police called the DA that night as soon as he heard about the murder, telling him to get a search warrant for Foley's house. But he didn't. John's family and friends wondered if DA Bell was giving the trooper special treatment. So you asked the DA what his relationship was with Trooper Foley.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, I just finally raised the question with him. Have you worked with Kevin Foley before in cases? Do you have a relationship with him? And he said, no, I don't know him.

[Andrea Canning]

Maryann says she heard the same thing when she spoke to Bell at the crime scene.

[Lester Holt]

I told him that we felt strongly that Kevin Foley was behind it. And his reaction was, do we have a state trooper named Kevin Foley?

[Andrea Canning]

But Bell did know Foley. They'd worked cases together. Dennis did a quick Google search and found this photo of them in the local newspaper. You didn't need to be a detective to figure that out or find that photo.

[Lester Holt]

No.

[Andrea Canning]

The former district attorney denies ever saying he didn't know Foley, but told us they were not friends. As for why he didn't immediately get a search warrant for Foley's home, he says there wasn't enough probable cause. He also told us he didn't want Officer Lydic to interview Foley because she was too inexperienced. This was a tricky investigation, given the fact that this is a small area. Everybody knows everybody. We got state troopers, we got local police.

[Lester Holt]

And I, you know, having no experience in any kind of police work or anything like this, like, I had at the time, no clue of how very tricky it was and how instantly everything could just be mishandled.

[Andrea Canning]

As for the state police, troopers from a barracks not connected to Foley stepped in to help with the investigation and later took it over. They did some things that the Blairsville police hadn't. They eventually obtained a search warrant for Foley's car, but found nothing. Ditto for the house he shared with Michelle. The investigation dragged on. Months became a year, and Maryanne ran out of patience. She decided to make some noise. She organized a vigil. The vigil was to keep investigating. Was that the idea? To keep it out there?

[Lester Holt]

Yes, to keep it out there and to remember John and just to, you know, for people to. Who were still waiting. Neighbors. I mean, this had the whole town just uneasy.

[Andrea Canning]

But their wait was about to come to an end. With a big change in the case.

[Lester Holt]

Coming up. What would those fingernail clippings in the fridge reveal? And a vehicle caught on camera the night of the murder. If he's the killer, then we should see his truck. Was it Kevin Foley's?

[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

Mary Ann Clark was relentless from the beginning. She challenged and criticized the investigation into her cousin's murder.

[Lester Holt]

It was a daily battle. It really was a daily battle.

[Andrea Canning]

You weren't going away?

[Lester Holt]

No. That's what I said. I'm not going away. Whatever this takes and something has to break eventually.

[Andrea Canning]

Something has to happen to try to make something happen. Maryanne called Pennsylvania's Attorney General, the highest law enforcement officer in the state, asking him to take over the case. Tony Krastic was the Deputy ag.

[Lester Holt]

Marianne Clark had been involved in politics at the local level. She knew the then attorney general on a first name basis.

[Andrea Canning]

It's pretty admirable that she wasn't going to give up on justice for her cousin.

[Lester Holt]

She did not give up now.

[Andrea Canning]

Marianne's efforts paid off. One year after John was killed, Mariana Tony Krastic took over the case and called a meeting with John Yelnick's friends and family. How did you feel leaving that meeting rejuvenated?

[Lester Holt]

They just came in with an air about they knew what they were doing. I mean we all felt a lot more hopeful than we had in a long time. We just all felt a sense of like things are going to start happening and he had the power to do it.

[Andrea Canning]

When the Prosecutor first looked at the case, he thought it was absurd that Kevin Foley and John's wife Michelle had not been immediate targets of the investigation. Despite all the ugliness that swirled around the Yelnicks broken marriage, she spewed hate about how she felt about John Yelnick.

[Lester Holt]

That was the life Kevin Foley was.

[Andrea Canning]

Living, that Michelle was just constantly saying.

[Lester Holt]

What a horrible man he was. She fueled that hatred.

[Andrea Canning]

Investigators never questioned Michelle or Kevin. And by by the time Krastic took over, it was too late. Kevin Foley had lawyered up and wasn't talking. Why were Michelle and Kevin not taken down to the police department and questioned like other people were?

[Lester Holt]

I mean, obviously you have the two main suspects. I can't in any way excuse the failure to at least attempt to interview Michelle and Kevin.

[Andrea Canning]

Despite that, Krastic didn't see a conspiracy to protect the trooper. In fact, he says a lot of evidence had been gathered by Blairsville PD and the state police. And he wasn't sure why DA Bell hadn't done more with the case.

[Lester Holt]

Well, the case had kind of languished a bit. They were kind of treading water.

[Andrea Canning]

The DA told us he was being cautious, wanted more evidence and welcomed the AG's help. In the case file, Krasnoar saw that investigators had gone back to interview more of Foley's fellow troopers. And the prosecutor found what they said alarming. What did they learn from them about Kevin's relationship with John?

[Lester Holt]

He'd say, I wish John Yelnick was dead. I wish he died a horrible death. I wish he died in a car crash. This was daily. This was after hello.

[Andrea Canning]

Krastic was given security camera video from the two convenience stores near John's house that showed a truck passing by at around 1am about 30 minutes before John's blood curdling screams were heard by neighbors. An FBI specialist had tried to match the video to Foley's truck.

[Lester Holt]

The analysts found that there were similarities but also dissimilarities. She could not exclude that vehicle.

[Andrea Canning]

It's not perfect, but it sure doesn't look good for Kevin Foley.

[Lester Holt]

If he's the killer, then we should see his truck. We see his truck.

[Andrea Canning]

Forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht had described the crime scene as one of the most violent he'd ever seen. The killer had chased John around the house and then slaughtered him, most likely using a single edged blade.

[Lester Holt]

This was clearly a killing of passion. Kevin Foley was a knife guy. He had this commemorative state police knife, which was very sturdy knife. He played with it so often he'd Flick it open. Close it. Flick it open. Close it.

[Andrea Canning]

The murder weapon was never found. But Krastic was convinced Kevin Foley had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to kill John Yelnick. But still, it wasn't an airtight case. The prosecutor needed more. Remember John Yelnick's fingernail clippings? A year after the murder, they still hadn't been tested for DNA.

[Lester Holt]

I said, well, do I have to make a phone call? Because they're going to be tested.

[Andrea Canning]

The clippings were sent to the FBI lab. When the results came back, they pointed to Foley. But it wasn't a perfect match. Wasn't it true that the DNA really could have matched thousands of people in the Blairsville, Pittsburgh area?

[Lester Holt]

Absolutely. Yet they still included Kevin Foley along with all the other evidence.

[Andrea Canning]

That's not a slam dunk in. In a trial.

[Lester Holt]

Well, it's not a slam dunk, no.

[Andrea Canning]

Maybe not enough for a slam dunk in a trial, but altogether enough to bring charges. On September 27, 2007, nearly a year and a half after John Yelnick was killed, Kevin Foley, a Pennsylvania state trooper, was arrested and charged with first degree murder. DA Bell was there for the announcement, praising law enforcement.

[Lester Holt]

It is a testament of how well they work together and never had a give up attitude that has caused this case to be resolved as it has been today.

[Andrea Canning]

A state police commander talked about how difficult that resolution was.

[Lester Holt]

It's obviously a very dark and disturbing day for the Pennsylvania State Police.

[Andrea Canning]

Take us to the moment when you find out that Kevin Foley has been arrested.

[Lester Holt]

Well, it was my birthday. It was like the best day ever. It was such a sense of like, finally justice is being served. Coming up, the trial begins. And those bloody shoe prints make a mark.

[Andrea Canning]

That was an aha moment.

[Lester Holt]

Then a groundbreaking DNA gamble.

[Andrea Canning]

Had it been used before in court or was this the first time?

[Lester Holt]

This is the first time. Talk about questionable.

[Andrea Canning]

It doesn't sound like science to me.

[Lester Holt]

When DATELINE continues.

[Andrea Canning]

The murder trial of trooper Kevin foley started in March 2009 in the old Courthouse in Indiana, Pennsylvania, a small town best known for being the birthplace of an American icon, Jimmy Stewart.

[Lester Holt]

Drive down the street, you see statues of Jimmy Stewart. I mean, what's more American than that?

[Andrea Canning]

But this case was not going to be tried by some homespun country lawyer. The Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania had come to town with a very modern high tech presentation.

[Lester Holt]

To walk in a historic courtroom and see flat screen televisions and every kind of electronic multimedia device possible.

[Andrea Canning]

In this case, they put it to use as the trial got underway. Prosecutor Tony Krastic described John Yelnick's murder in great detail, using 3D animated computer graphics to give jurors a virtual tour of the crime scene and projecting disturbing photos of John's body on the widescreens for all to see. Dennis, you're particularly bothered by a slash on his hand.

[Lester Holt]

Yes. This was the hand that picked up little J.J. this was the hand that I shook at my wedding. That was the picture that made it seem more real to me than any of the others. The others looked like horror movies, stills, but that hand just went right to my heart.

[Andrea Canning]

Krastic addressed Foley's motive by calling his fellow troopers to the stand. They described how Foley would get enraged when talking about the unproven allegations of child abuse and said he hated John and wanted him to die on the night John was killed. The prosecutor thinks that hatred may have boiled over because John was going to sign his divorce agreement the next day, drastically reducing his monthly payments to Michelle.

[Lester Holt]

Maybe he was going there to try to bully him into continuing the alimony, trying to just threaten him in some way. All of a sudden he starts to fight him. Now we have a fluid scene. So now the passion takes over.

[Andrea Canning]

Krastic methodically laid out his case for the jury. He called Terry Shallow, a director from the athletic shoe company asics. He'd analyzed the bloody shoe prints found at the crime scene.

[Lester Holt]

We knew that it was an ASICS shoe, and we thought almost immediately that it was a particular style of shoe called the Gel Creed.

[Andrea Canning]

Shallow told the jury the Gel Creed was a limited edition shoe not sold in Western Pennsylvania. But he said there was still a way for the trooper to get a pair. We had a law enforcement purchase program.

[Lester Holt]

Where police officers and even firefighters could.

[Andrea Canning]

Order from ASICS directly at a discount. So Shallow checked asics's records, and right there in the files, he found something to connect Foley. We had direct evidence from a purchase.

[Lester Holt]

Order with his signature on it. And that was an aha moment.

[Andrea Canning]

Krastic introduced the DNA evidence from John's fingernails. Remember, the FBI analysis wasn't conclusive. They reported a ratio of 1 in 13,000. That result didn't exclude Foley, but it didn't mean the DNA was his beyond any doubt. So krastic turned to Dr. Mark Perlin, whose bio information company, Cybergenetics, had developed an innovative new computer technique for analyzing DNA data. Had it been used before in court, or was it the first time?

[Lester Holt]

It was the first time.

[Andrea Canning]

At the time of the trial, FBI DNA analysis was still being Done by agents, not a supercomputer. It's like comparing a Ferrari with a go kart. Perlin's computer analysis in the Foley case had come up with an astonishing result. The prosecutor thought it was the smoking gun. According to Perlin, this was definitely Foley's DNA. 189 DNA. Billion to one. 189 billion to one. What exactly does that mean in this case? What it means is that a match between Dr. Yellenik's fingernails and defendant Kevin.

[Lester Holt]

Foley is 189 billion times more probable than a coincidence.

[Andrea Canning]

To defense attorneys Richard Galloway and Jeffrey Monzo, the DNA evidence was more a smokescreen than a smoking gun. You tried to discredit the science, the DNA. What was your strategy with that?

[Lester Holt]

Talk about questionable science. Junk science.

[Andrea Canning]

The evidence was sent to the FBI, which is the premier lab for DNA testing. They found it to be 1 in 13,000.

[Lester Holt]

That is exceedingly low.

[Andrea Canning]

And eventually they send it to this.

[Lester Holt]

New guy, Perlin, and Perlin says, I put it into my machine and it comes out the other side, and it's 1 in 5 billion.

[Andrea Canning]

189 billion.

[Lester Holt]

Okay, if you include Mars and Venus and everywhere, that's such a disparity that.

[Andrea Canning]

It doesn't sound like science to me. Dennis Vaughn was paying close attention to the jury during the back and forth on the DNA and didn't like what he saw.

[Lester Holt]

I was watching the jury intently during that, and to me, it looked like they were a lot of glazed expressions. And so I was worried that they were going to miss the point.

[Andrea Canning]

Defense attorneys told the jury Kevin Foley was an innocent man, that on the night of the murder, he played hockey and then went home. They tore into the investigation not for the reason John's friends and family complained about. They said the opposite. This was a rush to judgment right.

[Lester Holt]

From the get go in the new they were pointing to Kevin Foley.

[Andrea Canning]

The defense pointed the finger at others, including John's neighbor, Tom Hughes, and they called a different neighbor who described hearing that argument the morning of the murder.

[Lester Holt]

He clearly heard someone yelling, I'll never loan you money again, and heard glass breaking. Of course, a window was shattered. In this case, Kevin fully didn't owe Dr. Yellenuk any money, so that certainly didn't fit in with Kevin.

[Andrea Canning]

The defense also told the jury about a convict who reportedly made a jailhouse confession that he killed John Yelnick. The state found that to be somewhat laughable.

[Lester Holt]

This inmate, that was their way of rejecting him in front of the jury doesn't seem to be something you can easily Laugh off.

[Andrea Canning]

The defense called its most important witness the defendant, Kevin Foley. The trooper acknowledged his dislike for John Yelnick, but denied any involvement in his murder. And maybe more important than what he said was the way he said it to many, Foley seemed calm and steady on the witness stand.

[Lester Holt]

Kevin was someone you believed in, and I thought it was good that the jury got to meet him, so to speak.

[Andrea Canning]

After watching Foley's testimony, John's friend Dennis was troubled.

[Lester Holt]

For me to be able to come to terms with what happened, I had to paint in my mind that Foley was a. That there was something inherently evil. He wasn't. He was just like anybody else. And I still have trouble accepting that.

[Andrea Canning]

Michelle Yelnick, the victim's wife, the defendant's girlfriend, and the woman at the heart of the story, was conspicuously absent from the courtroom throughout the trial.

[Lester Holt]

We thought, okay, maybe she'll make an appearance. Maybe they'll call her to the stand. They had said in their opening arguments that she would provide alibi witness testimony. Never showed up.

[Andrea Canning]

John Yelnick feared he would be killed and predicted there would be no justice afterward. But after eight days of testimony, his murder case went to the jury. The justice system was about to speak.

[Lester Holt]

Coming up, they came back with a question which was, please redefine beyond a reasonable doubt, an agonizing wait for a verdict. What would it be? We're sitting in that courthouse on pins and needles, and what was in store.

[Andrea Canning]

For Michelle was an effort made to try to find evidence against her. There's always more to the story.

[Lester Holt]

To go behind the scenes of tonight's.

[Andrea Canning]

Episode, listen to our talking Dateline series with Andrea and Blaine, available Wednesday. It had been a tense trial, and Dennis Vaughn was there almost every day.

[Lester Holt]

It felt like a very winding road. There were evidence that seemed kind of shaky at times. And I'm watching the jury, and I was just absolutely emotionally and physically exhausted just from going through that whole process.

[Andrea Canning]

The jurors deliberated for four hours and then asked to speak with the judge. They came back with a question which.

[Lester Holt]

Was, please redefine beyond a reasonable doubt, which is the worst possible question that a prosecutor can hear.

[Andrea Canning]

Did that make your heart skip a beat?

[Lester Holt]

Well, yeah, I wasn't feeling all that well, but it didn't improve my condition, no.

[Andrea Canning]

The jury went back to deliberations. Two more hours passed. In most of the murder trials that.

[Lester Holt]

I have covered, I could have told.

[Andrea Canning]

You ahead of time what the verdict was going to be. I really wasn't sure what the verdict was going to be in this case.

[Lester Holt]

I kept thinking to myself that how I see the world from this day forward really is in the hands of 12 strangers.

[Andrea Canning]

While Michelle never showed up in court, Marianne learned she was paying close attention.

[Lester Holt]

As we're sitting in that courthouse on pins and needles, we find out through a family member that Michelle was at home with welcome home signs and balloons and planning a big party for that night whenever he was acquitted.

[Andrea Canning]

Finally, after six hours, the jury returned to the courtroom with a verdict. There would be no welcome home party for Kevin Foley. The jury found him guilty of first degree murder. What's that moment like for you? Well, it's more one of relief than anything else.

[Lester Holt]

It was a real sense of satisfaction. I don't have any doubt that he did it. It was like, okay, we got the right guy.

[Andrea Canning]

A bad apple in law enforcement, he was. Marianne had been a passionate advocate for her cousin. For her, the verdict was an emotional release.

[Lester Holt]

You just wanted to collapse. I mean, because all of this work, all of this time, it was justice, justice, justice for John.

[Andrea Canning]

Finally, as pleased as Marianne was about the verdict, there was something that nagged her. One person she believed still had not been held accountable. John's wife, Michelle.

[Lester Holt]

I don't think she planned how it would be. I think she made it clear she wanted John gone. I think she was the one that had to gain from it.

[Andrea Canning]

In fact, before the trial started, Maryanne had filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Michelle and Foley. In a court filing, Michelle denied any involvement in John's death. She also said she was not aware of and did not fuel any alleged hostility Kevin may have had toward John. Maryanne dropped the suit after the trial, and Michelle never faced any criminal charges. Do you think Michelle Yelnick got off easy in all of this?

[Lester Holt]

I didn't have the evidence to charge her. If I had the evidence to charge her, I would have done that. To the extent that she may have provoked this, to use that expression, well, that's something that she has to live with if she can.

[Andrea Canning]

Was an effort made to try to find evidence against her?

[Lester Holt]

Oh, constantly, yes. But we took that side of the case as far as we could.

[Andrea Canning]

Not long after the trial, Michelle moved out of state to build a new life with JJ and her other children.

[Lester Holt]

As soon as he was convicted, her bags were packed and she took off to Georgia. So never, never had to face us.

[Andrea Canning]

Maria Takaleski has unfinished business with her friend John. To relay a message to JJ he.

[Lester Holt]

Said, if they have me killed, tell JJ That I loved him and that he was my whole life. And someday get in touch with him and make sure he knew how much I loved him.

[Andrea Canning]

Kevin Foley was given a life sentence for murdering John Yelnick. That ended the legal case. But what happened in court here had a profound effect on the justice system. Dr. Mark Perlin's technique for DNA analysis is now considered state of the art technology and is accepted in courtrooms around the world. And in. In the quiet community where John Yelnick lived and died, the emotional ripple effects are still being felt. It was stunning to have a state trooper from their community convicted of murder. It really is going to be decades before this community will get over something like this. It's been years since John Yelnick was killed. But for those who loved him, the grief is still very raw.

[Lester Holt]

I don't think you ever get over a murder. You learn to live with a new reality, but it's always with you. I wanted people to understand he was a good man who didn't deserve this. To make sure people understood how much he was loved. One of my favorite photographs that I have of myself and John is in a frame engraved with my brother from another mother. If there was ever a person that I knew that deserved to die peacefully in bed, surrounded by a loving family, it was John. That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again Friday at 9, 8 Central. And of course, I'll see you each week now. For NBC Nightly News, I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night. With networks like Fox News, cnn, MSNBC and more, Sling is the best way to get the news you care about, which is great for everyone. Well, almost everyone. Where's that dang paperboy? I need my news outdated and rolled up like a burrito. Finally, now I can read all about what happened forever ago. Get the most important news delivered reliably at the best price. Sling lets you do that? Visit sling.comnews to see your offer.