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That's what he was trying to do, is protect his family. That's all he ever wanted to do, even when the man was dying. That's what he was doing. A quiet family night at home shattered by intruders, the gun was left right here, a devoted father and husband did. She just kept saying they killed him. Someone murdered her husband but left her alive. And that left police suspicious. Was it possible she was involved in her husband's murder?

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The indicators are in cases like this that it's the spouse, not a random act. But why would she kill a man she obviously loved?

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They never thought. They always were very happy. This was a family affair, all right. But it was another family that was keeping secrets. You know, no one father who fought to save his son, another who used his son to save himself is a monster. Tonight, a mystery that changed two families forever. Here's Josh Mankiewicz. What would you do for your family? Would you lie? Would you walk through fire? Could you ever accuse them of something terrible to save yourself?

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This is a story about two very different families. It's about loyalty, terror, deception and love. I'm sure one of the families, it begins with a late night phone call, I was about to not answer it and something told me to pick up the phone.

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Christina Janosz mother was on the line. You could just hear the sirens. And she just kept saying, you have to come here. They broke into the house and he's dead.

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They killed him. He was Joseph Morrissey. He'd been married to Christina's mother, Kay, for 12 years. Their suburban Florida home, documented by police video, was now a crime scene.

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There was so much chaos going on, the whole street was blocked off. That was tons of police cars and the sirens and you could smell the smoke. And I just remember running down the street and the police officers were trying to stop me and I just kept going and she was just standing there in the middle of the street and she just looked so small and so hurt. And I just ran up and gave her a big hug and she was covered in blood.

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And she just kept saying, he's dead. He's gone. So why would they do that? He's gone. When I arrived at this house is about one 30 in the morning.

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Detective Brian Kendall of the Plantation, Florida police quickly learned the key facts. Joe Morris had been brutally stabbed to death in his own home while his wife and young son had escaped. The detective spoke briefly with King.

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She gives me a brief synopsis of what happened that night. I believe them at that point. Yes, that's the only thing that I had to go on at that point.

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He told the detective that a man had entered their home sometime after 11:00 p.m. and began a reign of terror that started with tying Joe and Kay's hands and feet with zip ties and ended with the murder of her husband and their house on fire. Case stories suggested a robbery gone bad to figure out for himself what had happened. Detective Kendel worked from the outside in.

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Would you see as you got here to the front of the house, the screen to the window right over here was leaning up against the house. There was a vertical slice down the middle of the screen and this window was wide open, and that's how I told you the guy first came into the house. That was the entry area where the suspect came in. Correct. I walked down this hallway here. On the ground, there was a pair of red handheld scissors, one of the long plastic flex cuffs was on the ground, a zip tie.

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When I walked into the master bedroom, another zip tie was on the ground at the foot of the bed. There were bathtubs laying on the ground. On the bed itself was a wedding ring, which I thought was unusual and said that the man who came in and asked for jewelry or asked for valuables, demanding cash, valuables, but he didn't take them at this point. He didn't take the ones that were in this room, at least because of way I looked at the closet.

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There was also a large, significant amount of jewelry.

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So if this is a robbery, it's kind of a strange robbery because they didn't take the stuff they supposedly wanted.

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Then he sees the blood break down on the floor here, large amounts of blood. And I could see a man's feet outside the sliding glass door. This is where Joe was who was killed right here in this room. He was murdered and stabbed right next to the self in this room.

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She said she dragged his body out of the fire and onto the patio. And that's where Joe Morris's body lay in the wee hours of April 6th, 2010, stabbing, always personal. They are there up close. There's no way to do it from a distance. So everything about that says this wasn't a robbery.

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This was somebody who wanted to kill Joe Morrissey in particular.

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In addition to that, Joe Morses daughter's wedding band on he still on his watch on valuables that if it was a robbery, it would have been taken out of the house.

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What's more, his wife, Kay, was still alive, not stabbed, not even once.

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They do a brutal, vicious murder to Joe Morrissey, why leave her alive? Why leave a witness alive?

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Why indeed, in murders like this, the spouse is often the first suspect, sometimes the only suspect. All of that became clear that night to kill his daughter Christina, I remember.

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And they took her to the police station. She asked me to stay and watch the house. And I remember sitting there and they would come up and ask me questions, the different detectives and the police officers. And, you know, they asked me, you know, did they ever fight or were they arguing or was there tension between them?

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Absolutely not, said Christina. They never fought. They always were very happy.

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Nobody nobody goes through life and never fights. Everybody fights. I mean, I remember they would fight over, you know, him leaving socks on the floor, wet towel or something like that. But I mean, if they ever had any arguments, they were few and far between. They were a very good match.

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Joe and Case started dating when Christina was a young girl. Both were divorced, single parents at the time. But it was science that brought them together. They met at a cancer research institute. She was a biomedical grad student back then. Well, Joe was a respected molecular biologist with a PhD from Stanford University. He conducted research into whether there was a connection between cell phones and cancer, among other things, and his work had taken him across the globe.

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He was a lot like my mom. He was very hard working. And he was a very, very humble, the most humble person I know. He never bragged about anything. He was just always trying to be a good guy and teach us to do the right thing.

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Joe and Kate dated for a year, and then Joe popped the question on a Roman holiday. I thought it was so cool that he proposed in the top of the Vatican and she was just so excited and it was fun to plan a wedding. And they made sure that the kids are all included. That meant not only Christina, but also a son of Joe's from his previous marriage. It wasn't just a wedding between the two of them.

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It was like all of us becoming a big family doing it. I can picture it wasn't long before Kay and Joe wanted a child of their own and decided to adopt Patrick, a baby boy from South Korea.

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He was a very hands on father. He was always doing something with Patrick all the time. It was either baseball lessons or hockey practice or going fishing. I mean, they were together all the time.

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But now Joe was gone. Patrick and Ken had survived. And Detective Kendall had some questions for Kate. How do you know if you got Linda? There are some other questions detectives would like answered. Why did the intruders demand valuables but then leave them behind? And after murdering her husband, why did they leave Kate alive? The indicators are in cases like this that it's just not a random act when behind closed doors continues. Joe Morrissey had been savagely stabbed to death in his own home.

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Now his wife, Kay, was being questioned by Detective Campbell at the police station in Plantation, Florida.

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OK, it might be just easier to start with what happened from the beginning. Last night, I was in my craft room, which is the room in the front of the house and the TV was on and I heard a noise like something fall out and I thought it was my husband going to bed.

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She told police her husband had been watching TV in the family room, their five year old son asleep in the master bedroom. Then suddenly, Katie looked up.

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I saw him in the gun was like right here. And he was right there. And I couldn't believe it. I was like, I could not believe that this was happening to me.

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There was a young man in the room pointing a gun right at her case, said the man asked her where her husband was. She told him she thought he was sleeping in either the family room or their bedroom.

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And he kept saying, if you lie to me, I'm going to shoot. You're going to kill you.

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What's your radar say at the beginning? If she's telling the truth and say, I want to believe her, but the indicators are in cases like this that it's the spouse or domestic issue or some other personal issue, not a random act.

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Then she told police the man took her into the family room where her husband was and he went after Joe.

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Joe, of course, jumped up and I said, Joe, I said, just calm down. It's OK, wake up, don't move. Just do what he tells you to do. And we're going to be OK, love. He said, I don't want you guys looking at me, don't look at me or should, so I said, OK, we will look at you.

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Kay told police she heard the intruder talking to someone she never saw via walkie talkie, someone elsewhere on the property.

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Well, if people are talking to a man, he didn't let them, he said, just listen to me. Don't talk to me, just be quiet.

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She said the assailant, a young man with a gun, then tied their wrists with zip ties.

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I thought he was going to shoot us. And then he was saying, where's the wallet? I want the wall. And then he started. You have no money and don't you have two dollars? And then I said, we will not use cash. I don't have any cash. At that point. He said he wanted to go to the ATM to get money out.

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According to Kay, the gunman cut their hands free and the three of them got into one of the Morrises cars, leaving their five year old son asleep in the house along with whoever had been on the walkie talkie on their way to the bank. Joe drove once their car managed to get them to park.

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In view of the ATM camera, as you can see on this tape, then the assailant told King what to do next.

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Get out of the car. Go get the money. Go get the money. He goes. Remember, if you do anything stupid, I have the gun and I have your kid and I have your husband and you kids with people back there.

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The man wanted five thousand dollars. Try the five thousand.

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I tried two thousand and then and only then I drove 500 and then I was crying for one hundred dollars more and he kept saying no, that was it. And he wasn't going to allow any more money out of that car because the machine said yes.

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And how much you end up getting five hundred dollars after that case said they drove back to the house, frantic to see their son. Was he still asleep? Was he OK? As they enter the house, the gunman barked out orders right behind us and said, don't pull, don't do anything stupid.

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And then doing I was kind of like looking at each other saying, like, why is he coming back? At that point? I thought he was going to kill us. I really did.

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Once back in the house, the gunman took them back to the master bedroom and tied their hands and feet with zip ties and put towels over their heads. Why would they put towels over their head if this person had already seen them?

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Then the gunman told Joe to come with him. So docos, I can walk and he goes, Well, I want to see you happy. Hop, hop, hop. And then all I heard was that Joe said, Oh, please, please don't do it. And I saw the fire. Please don't do it. He said, please, Joe did. Yeah, I thought he was talking about the fire, but I guess he he was talking about him shooting him, stabbing him.

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It was a horrifying story. And if she's faking this for some reason. It's pretty elaborate and she's doing a good job at it. She's she's quite an actress if she's not telling the truth. Kay's daughter, Christina, was there when the Q&A at the police station was over.

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We went back to my house and she didn't really say much. She was just quiet. I think she was just letting it all sink in.

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Now, police were trying to determine whether the evidence matched Kay's story.

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Coming up, she tells her story to us. And this part is really strange. He started singing and taunting us. They're coming for me. I'm going to kill you. What was that all about? And is she telling the truth when Dateline continues? Dateline is supported by Norton LifeLock this holiday season, we'll all be trying to stay connected with family and friends through our devices. And I don't know about you, but I've already started my blizzard of online shopping.

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Buckle your seat belt and prepare for a bumpy ride in the new HBO Mack's original series, The Flight Attendant, based on the best selling novel and from the cocreator of you, Kaley Cuoco, stars as a flight attendant who wakes up in the wrong hotel in the wrong bed with a dead man and no idea what happened. Get ready for a deadly mystery with a turbulent descent in this thrilling and darkly comedic new series. Don't miss Kaley Cuoco in the flight attendant now streaming only on HBO Max.

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I could not believe that this was happening to. Police investigating the home invasion murder of Joe Morrissey had to consider whether his wife, Kay, had somehow been involved.

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We conducted a comprehensive background investigation, OK? We went through all her phone records, who she's friends with, and to find out she maybe had a boyfriend or was dating somebody.

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Police found no evidence that Kay had strayed in her marriage. What's more, they were finding plenty at the crime scene to support her story. The broken window screen, zip ties and towels. Kay's story seemed to be holding up. Christina had believed from the beginning that her mother was innocent, purely a victim. But what she didn't know was how brutal the murder was. She didn't want us to know.

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I remember sitting in the funeral home and she was very firm. You know, she just kept saying it's going to be a closed casket. No one's going to see him. I want everybody to remember him as the lively person that he was. And I knew then that it was it couldn't have been good.

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And when I sat down with Kay, she told a story filled with love and courage on that awful night. You're surrounded by evil.

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My insides were shaking. I was just thinking about Patrick.

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And that was the theme of the story. Kay told me our five year old son Patrick was foremost on her and her husband's mind.

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That's why Kay says she became especially panicked when she and Joe were forced to go to the bank by the man with a gun.

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And then I said, we can't leave Patrick by himself here because, no, he stays. And he told us that there were people there and that they had guns.

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And there you are getting in the car with your husband and some guy with a gun and leaving your five year old at home with. We don't even know we don't even know who that was. It's just crazy. I mean, I'm just I'm crying hysterical in the car.

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He feared for her and Joe's lives as well as they returned from the bank to their home, they heard a siren. He thought help was on the way they would be saved. The gunman thought this might be the end of him and of them.

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When he heard the siren, he becomes very strange. He starts singing and taunting us. They're coming for me. I'm going to kill you. I was just so horrified.

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But help did not arrive once at home when the gunman forced Kay and Joe back into the master bedroom. At least they found Patrick, thankfully, still asleep. And in that moment, Katie says a father's love came shining through. That's when Joe Morrissey, tied up and helpless, made a move to save his young son's life.

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Patrick is now awake and he's now sitting on the bed. So Doe says to him, Patrick for Daddy, please do it for Daddy. Just lay down and pretend you're asleep. Do it for Daddy, do it for daddy.

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And he just lays there and pretends to be asleep.

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He says the man with the gun forced Joe to go to the other side of the house. In his final moments with his attackers case, his family was first in Joe's mind. He starts pleading, Please, you know I have kids. Please don't do it.

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Those would be Joe Morris's last words. Then Kate saw an orange glow. Their home was on fire. The attackers had fled, and now she had to get Patrick and herself out of the house. But her ankles were still tied and she could barely move. Desperate to find something sharp to free your feet, Kay hobbled to a nearby bathroom.

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I took everything under control. I mean, I just created a humungous mess, but I couldn't find the sister. So I called Patrick and I said to Patrick, You have to be a big boy. You have to help Mommy. And he did.

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Kate told him where to find a pair of scissors and Patrick brought them to her. Cutting the zip tie was difficult, but Kay was finally able to do it. The five year old boy had saved his mother. Then she had another job for her son.

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So I said, Patrick, please just go across the street, knock on the door. Mommy's going to stay here. Do it for Mommy, please. I need to go help Daddy. Remember your karate moves. Remember you come for kicks.

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Please just kick the door case or the neighbor's door open and Patrick run in. She knew he was safe. One family member taken care of. Now he was on a mission to save Joe, but she would not leave him behind no matter what the risk. And then you run back into a burning. Yes, I went back in there and when I saw Doe, it was so hard to pick him up. I remember seeing so many wounds, so, so much damage to his body.

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I couldn't even think anymore.

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He managed to drag Joe out of the burning house and onto the patio. She held out hope that while Joe was clearly badly injured, he was still alive. Paramedics arrived, but there was nothing they could do for Joe Morrisey. Kay's beloved husband was gone at the age of only forty six.

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And that was the last time I saw him. You saved yourself. You saved your son. But I didn't save Tom. I just couldn't the most horrible thing that ever happened to me to learn that he was that it was a heartbreaking story and one that police came to believe they cleared.

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Kay, we found no evidence that would support us to believe that she was involved in any way in this murder.

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Now, it was up to investigators to find out who had done such horrifying things to this family. A family detective, Kendall, believed that had been targeted, but so far it wasn't making any sense.

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If it was just something personal in nature, why not just come in and kill him and leave?

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The search for answers was on and it would lead to a very different kind of family. Coming up, police closing in on a suspect. Honestly, I think you give your mother. I never thought that it was somebody who they knew. When behind closed doors continues. Joe Morrissey had been savagely stabbed to death in a home invasion that ended with his family's house set ablaze. Now police were trying to figure out who could have committed such a brutal crime.

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King's daughter from her first marriage, Christina first thought it might have something to do with the renovations her mom and Joe were having done at the home.

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I honestly thought maybe it was the contractors because they had had a lot of people coming in and out of their house doing work.

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I never thought that it was somebody who they knew, like some random thing in which people came in to rob the house. And that was my first. And everything went wrong. Yeah, that was my first guess. Who didn't like Joe? The only person that I knew of that did not like him was his ex-wife and her family. It was a nasty divorce. So it's just bitter feelings there.

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Police looked into Joe's previous marriage but determined it had nothing to do with the crime.

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Investigators did have one narrow thread to pull off, something Kay had mentioned to them.

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The only thing she was able to tell me was a brief description of what the suspect who first entered the house looked like.

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Kay had not recognized that man at the time.

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Only later did you realize she might have seen him once. Several months earlier, Joe had been a scientist, a husband and a father, but he was also a landlord and he thought the man might be related to the tenants at a townhouse they owned. I found a family member who could match the description of what Kay gave me in her initial statement. Checking more into this person, I found he had a warrant for his arrest. What was his name?

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Randy Contadora Jr..

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And with that name, the investigation was now heading from the loving Morrissey family to the other family. In this story, Randy turned the door. Junior was 21 and into drugs with an arrest warrant for violating his probation on a burglary rap. Did you go talk to him?

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We couldn't find him, but detectives could find his father, Randy Senior at the townhouse. Randy Senior said he hadn't talked to his son in a while.

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And when police went looking for Randy Jr. at the family window tinting business called Gater Tent, an alert officer noticed something suspicious.

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Canine Sergeant C's stuck between the lid of the dumpster and the dumpster itself.

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A zip tie I drive down there. I immediately identify it as the same make size of the ones used in the murder. That's a solid piece of evidence.

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That's your first break? Yeah. Randy Senior, allow police to search the business without a warrant immediately. We see there's a bag of the same type of wire ties that were used to tie up Joseph Morrissey. They also sell knives at the business. There's a empty box that holds a 15 inch Bowie knife.

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When he's asked where's the knife that belongs to this box, he tells it should be there needs to know where it is.

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You think at this point he's covering up for his son?

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I think that he's aware that things are not going good for his son, but it doesn't seem like he wants to cover for his son.

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So this is a good citizen letting the police do their investigation. Correct. And if the chips fall on his son, then. And they do.

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Correct. OK, Randi, investigators eventually located Randy Junior and brought him in for questioning.

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Randy Junior seemed composed, very interested to know what information they had about the case, very, very willing to talk to me if I didn't have a warrant.

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I want to freely talk to you guys. OK, no problem. I don't have no connection with this murder. I don't know who did it. I want to clear my name because I did not commit this murder.

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And as for that knife that was missing from his dad's shop, Randy Junior had an explanation for that.

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He had stolen that knife weeks earlier and had sold it to a friend of his that he was on the street, used to buy dope.

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So I'm positive he still has it.

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I ask him to further describe the knife and he draws a picture and it's an exact replica of the knife that we believe to be used in the murder.

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Over the course of two days of interrogation, Randy Junior denied any involvement in the murder.

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It could have been a random hit. You never know what it is. It's not random. It's going to be a random place. It couldn't be a random time random, Anderson. It's not random.

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But he seemed to know details of the crime that only someone involved would know.

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So is Randy Jr. trying to cover his own tracks or somebody else?

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I think he's trying to do both as investigators continue to focus on things found at the tent shop, including a large burn mark behind it and what looked like burnt scrap. Some evidence from the crime, Randy Junior went out of his way to keep his father out of it, to protect him. He's been a good father, but he's really a good man.

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He's a very hard worker. He's a stand up guy. He tries to direct me the right way. And I go believe he would never do nothing like this. Honestly, I think you may be involved in it. OK. That's why I was just going to clear the air. And I understand, you know what I mean? That we definitely have to. Yes.

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Detective Kendall really suspected Randy Jr. and one of his buddies had committed the murder.

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You are also the person I'm looking to make somebody quick when you're desperate. All right. OK. You confront the people of the house because you think maybe they have money. Things get a little out of control. And someone ends up being stabbed. OK, you said then the detective pulled out the heavy artillery, he tried to crack Randy Jr. by telling them his own father thought he did it.

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What do you mean, a lie? Your dad your client was of the columns because of what you did. Come on, dude. I feel bad for your dad. If police thought they had this case solved, if they thought Randy Jr. and a drug buddy had committed this crime, they were in for a shock thanks to a most unusual informant, Randy Junior's brother, Randy, seniors, other son.

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Coming up, a sibling steps in to save his brother, pointing his finger at who he says is the real killer.

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I say fix this. That's what you said. Your father to try to fix this or I will.

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When Dateline continues, we get support from ETSI. I love the holidays. And while I've made my peace with the fact that they're going to look a little different this year, I'm still very excited to get my loved ones some incredible gifts from Etsy. Etsy is perfect for sourcing gifts you can't find anywhere else, from creative handmade pieces to one of a kind vintage to things that are personalized just for the people on your list. I found some of my most treasured items on Etsy.

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And in a world of mass production, it's nice to give my friends and family things that really hold meaning. My husband and I are proud cat parents and I found a seller that does gorgeous custom pet portraits. I know he'll love. Fin and Poe are going to look great hanging above our fireplace this holiday season. Shop Etsy to gift like you mean it. Go to Etsy, dotcom gifts to shop meaningful gifts for the people you love this holiday season.

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That's Etsy E. S y dotcom gifts.

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As police investigated the home invasion murder of Joe Morris, his widow, Kay, was dealing with not only her own grief and trauma, but also with her son Patrick's, when Patrick would ask you what happened to his father, what would you tell him?

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I tried to answer him thinking age appropriate because he was five years old. And I would say, you know, Daddy had a little bit on his heart and he died.

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I mean. Kate was still trying to protect her son, just as Joe had done on that terrible night, and even when the man was dying, that's what he was doing.

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He was fighting for his life and trying to protect my mom and Patrick.

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In the days after the murder, police were zeroing in on Randy Tandoor Jr. when they received an unexpected phone call from his younger brother, Sean Tandoor.

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He tells us his brother is not involved. He actually provides his brother with an alibi. Randy Junior with me. He didn't do this.

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You're about, what, 99 or 100 percent convinced that Randy Jr. was, in fact, at the Morency house that night? Oh, definitely. Yes.

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So, Sean, lying to you? We know Sean's lying about that part of it. Yes.

[00:32:54]

Police knew Sean had an alibi for the night Joe Morrissey was killed. He was not his brother, Randy's accomplice.

[00:33:02]

It turned out that Sean came in not only to give his brother an alibi for the murder, but to tell a story that shocked the officers. He wasted no time basically admitting that his father, Randy Senior, it was a bombshell.

[00:33:19]

We were surprised that we were hearing the father was actually at the residence.

[00:33:23]

And then Sean Tom, didor proceeded to tell a chilling story about his father, how his dad felt wronged by his landlord, Joe Morrissey, and went to Joe's house to kill him. He tried to shoot Joe, but his gun wouldn't go off, so he repeatedly stabbed Joe. Sean said his father was even able to recite Joe's last words, said, I got kids.

[00:33:48]

I think I'm dying.

[00:33:49]

According to Sean Randy, Senior War, Sean's brand new white sneakers during the murder.

[00:33:56]

And he said, trust me, they weren't white when I was done with them.

[00:33:59]

Sean painted a very different picture of his dad than his brother had. Sean said his dad was a violent man.

[00:34:07]

My father used to be this bad. I mean, really bitter with a violent past. My father was just known to be one of the crazies. They used to call him Rampage. I used to call the guys go on stage.

[00:34:24]

And Sean said his father had been trying to scam Joe Morrissey out of money by breaking light switches at the rented townhouse and by faking a slip and fall injury so he could sue Joe.

[00:34:36]

There was nothing with life. And so this fall down the stairs as if it was yet despite all that.

[00:34:43]

Sean said his brother, who he describes as having the mind of a child, looked up to their father and would do anything for him.

[00:34:52]

He's going to do anything and everything he has to do to make sure my father just does he loves.

[00:34:58]

But if his father loved Randy Jr. back then, why would he get him involved in the crime in the first place and even go a step further? But his own son take the rap for it.

[00:35:09]

My son was already caught, so I won't go to jail. I mean, just everything. Sean says he was more than disgusted.

[00:35:17]

He loved his brother and had been protecting him since they were young. Now, Randy Jr. needed protection more than ever, which Sean felt required him to turn in his own father for a crime of which he was not even suspected. He went there to kill.

[00:35:34]

Sean says the murderous scheme was set in motion when his dad received a letter from Joe Morrissey and informed him that he owed just over six hundred dollars and his lease would now be month to month. That letter arrived the day of Joe's murder. How did your dad react to that letter?

[00:35:53]

Like, I'm not going to do it because it was like an insult to him.

[00:35:57]

He took it like that. It really wasn't. It was a man wanting his money.

[00:36:01]

But your dad saw it as provocation. And I'm going to teach him a lesson.

[00:36:06]

Well, then he says his dad roped in Randy Jr..

[00:36:10]

My brother didn't know whose house he was going to, and my brother didn't know that somebody was supposed to die and only to turn his back on him afterward and let Randy Jr. fall under suspicion for the murder.

[00:36:24]

He says they caught him, not me. I said, fix this. I will. That's what you said to your father, told him to try to fix this or I will.

[00:36:34]

And that's when Sean turned his back on his father and went to police trying to save his brother by informing on his dad. If that didn't stun the officers, then what Sean did next did before we could even ask them to wear a wire.

[00:36:51]

He offers to wear a wire. He wants his father to be held responsible for this. You ever seen anything like that before?

[00:37:00]

Now, this son was going to become a police informant, wear a wire and try to get his own father to admit to a murder. The sound quality on the wire is poor, but for police, Randy, seniors guilt came through loud and clear.

[00:37:17]

What's the part of that conversation that says to you, guilty? We got him.

[00:37:22]

I think when he tells Sean that we have no case, our case is weak. He tells Sean that she can't identify me. She can't even identify it. Randy. Putting himself there.

[00:37:35]

What's more, this security video from the business next door to Randy Seniors Window Tint Shop shows a man behind it tending a big fire a couple of hours after the murder, exactly where police had found burned evidence from the crime.

[00:37:52]

You can't make out the person's identity. It's definitely a large person, Randi. Seniors all over, you know, probably three hundred pounds. We suspect him by Friday night.

[00:38:04]

Four days after the murder, both Randi Senior and Junior had been charged with a slew of crimes, including murder, attempted murder and arson that Randy Senior would let his son take. The fall was all the evidence Kay's daughter needed. He's a monster. You don't care about your own kids. You're not going to care about somebody else's life.

[00:38:27]

Case closed. Not by a long shot.

[00:38:31]

Coming up, two very different families meet in court for justice who wanted to kill this morning. He said they got to go to. I told. No, I believe God has a plan for us.

[00:38:45]

And that's why we survived when behind closed doors continues. On a quiet April night in Florida, intruders had invaded the home of and Joe Morrissey and committed. Runs the worst case scenario you can imagine, you're living your life the way you think you're supposed to. And evil just walks in, rips your life apart. Assistant state attorneys Tom Coleman and Steven Zacker prosecuted the case against Randy Townsend or Senior and his son, Randy Jr..

[00:39:28]

There are no circumstances you can look at and say maybe if this had gone differently or they had done this differently, it would've had a different result. There's nothing the Morrises could have done that would have prevented this other than never meet the standards. But these two families did intersect with disastrous results. All prosecutors say, because a tenant got angry at a landlord who is this little scientist and think he's going to mess with me and no one was going to mess with his family and I was going to take care of it.

[00:39:59]

That's what this was.

[00:40:00]

But in the end, Randy turned the door, didn't seem to care about his family.

[00:40:05]

In fact, prosecutors say he tried to pin the blame on his son, Randy Jr. And it's the phone calls to Detective Kendall about test shirt for DNA.

[00:40:15]

And that's your killer. And I mean, just piling on him, just trying to get himself out of trouble.

[00:40:21]

Randy Jr. won't give them up. No, doesn't give them up. Randy Jr. stuck by his dad, even though his father pretty much threw him under the bus as soon as he came under suspicion and never stopped back that bus over every time he could.

[00:40:37]

So the son's loyal to the father, but the father is not loyal to this guy. Absolutely. Pretty much the opposite of the way Joe Morrisey treated his son. Exactly. Which was to protect him. We kept waiting for Senior at some point in time to come forward and say, let me cut a deal, let me take life in prison, let me do something, let me take the weight off.

[00:40:57]

My kids didn't happen. Never going to happen.

[00:41:00]

Finds the prosecutors thought it might be a tough case against Randy Senior. But then something surprising happened after swearing to police that his dad was not in any way involved. Randy Junior took a deal and agreed to testify against his father, as did Sean murder.

[00:41:19]

Randy Senior's trial was held two years after Joe's murder. He faced the death penalty case, desperately wanted to make sure he received it. And her testimony in court was powerful.

[00:41:32]

I was like, so sick. He never I'm sorry I kept calling him. That's the man on the stand.

[00:41:42]

Randy Jr. told the jury how his dad intended to inflict even more harm on the Morrissey family.

[00:41:49]

He said he wanted to kill his mercy and he said they got to go to. I told him no. I was told, you can't do that if you want to kill him.

[00:42:04]

You know this from Randy Seniors primary defense was that he was not involved, but the father went far beyond that.

[00:42:15]

We went to trial and he buried both of his sons or tried to because it wasn't just junior. Once we got to trial, it was that Sean was the other person involved and it was Sean trying to steal my business. He can't ever accept responsibility for anything in court.

[00:42:29]

Randy Jr. lashed out at his father.

[00:42:32]

The fact that he would see here and say that it was me and my brother who did this and planned this, I feel like that's wrong. You should and shouldn't do anything to hurt your kids. I think the father's job is to protect his kids, not to hurt his kids after five and a half hours of deliberation.

[00:42:53]

The defendant is guilty of first degree murder.

[00:42:56]

The jury convicted Randy Senior on all charges when they say guilty.

[00:43:02]

I felt my heart. I couldn't breathe. I was overwhelmed.

[00:43:09]

He was sentenced to death and is still seeking to overturn that conviction due to his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel and other issues. Randy Jr., who pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors, was sentenced to 40 years in prison and came. Morrissey is angry about that.

[00:43:28]

I believe that the crime was going to happen one without the other one. They both those are the death penalty. Kay Morrissey says she's not imprisoned by fear. Instead, she says the nightmare has made her fear less. She even sent a letter to Randy Senior saying as much. You are a coward and I am not afraid of you. Yes, I am never leaving and will always be here. So, like you're saying, come and get me right.

[00:44:00]

Tough guy. I am not going to be fearful. I mean, they attacked us in our house, which is the safest place to be. And so I started to become extremely fearless the last time we spoke.

[00:44:14]

She said she was struggling to put her life back together, especially financially, because Joe Morrissey didn't have life insurance and so she was losing what was once their happy home to foreclosure. His daughter said she could see the pain even as her mom held Patrick close. It's hard to watch my mom with Patrick because you can tell they miss him and they should have him. They shouldn't have to figure it out without him. They still have each other.

[00:44:43]

I believe God has a plan for us and that's why we survived. And she has many memories of her. Dear Joe, after he died. He wrote about it and to him in a letter.

[00:44:55]

Joe, I know we will see each other again. In the meantime, please do watch over our children and do protect them from harm. Joe, I thank you for being such a great, loving husband and loving father. I love you so much and will love you forever. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt, thanks for joining us. Hi, I'm John Thrasher, and I'm Daryn Kagan, and we're the hosts of Oxygen's True Crime podcast, Martinis and Murder.

[00:45:40]

Are you like us and always looking for a new true crime podcast, a bench? Well, you're in luck. Martinis and murder is a perfect blend of true crime.

[00:45:49]

Good laughs and of course, delicious drinks that you're going to want to enjoy while listening to the show from high profile cases everyone has heard of to tiny, lesser known ones that have gone under the radar. We are breaking down all the details of a new case every week.

[00:46:03]

And not only that, we're interviewing some of the biggest names in the true crime world, people like Nancy Grace, Paul Holes, and, of course, the king of true crime himself, Keith Morrison. So what are you waiting for? Come have a drink with us.

[00:46:16]

Yeah, come join us, download and subscribe to martinis and murder wherever you listen to podcasts.