turned show on late but seems simple that triger was pulled with a thum

Tonight's (2/24/12) dateline showed a family with the most self-centered members I have witnessed in -- I don't know when. The 2 daughters could care less that their Mother was probably murdered. They wanted the Father, their meal ticket, free. That is how it sounded. How would the youngest go on without having the money to ride her horses? The older one saying that their Mother is dead and nothing they can do about that. The younger one saying that they're mad at their Mother (who started all of this) -- the deceased Mother is the one to blame! I don't know what's wrong with the deceased Mother's sister, except the murderer was a big meal ticket for her and her husband as well. This whole family makes me cringe. These 2 girls are without any depth of emotion and pretty much "got over" their Mother's murder like saying, "Well, let's just move one -- these things happen." Just awful genetic pool there.

I agree 100%. The daughters just threw their dead mother right under the bus. I don't know how they can sleep at night. The person they need to blame for not having either parent now, is the murderer himself.

I also don't get why there's any doubt that he shot her. If he hadn't, he would have told the 9-1-1 operator :"My wife just shot herself.", not "I just shot my wife."

This one just made me feel sick to my stomach. Did this poor woman have anyone who really loved her? Even her own sister excuses the murderer. Ugh.

Wow, these young ladies were so unemotional about their mother. Blaming her for the "mess" they are in? I agree with Aynna, bad genetic pool. I wonder what kind of hold their father had over them and her sister. sickening....

I completely disagree! What the jury lacked is anyone who has ever had a suicidal parent! I have and I can tell you much of that rings true. My mom has tried multiple times to kill herself and once even being with a gun and if someone has got a finger on the trigger and you try to pull that gun away it can more then apply enough pressure to the trigger! I've also talked to my mom in the morning and found her happy and easy-going and care-free only to get a call the next morning from a hospital bed or an institution. The anti-depressants mixed with alcohol seems to send them into a downward spiral.

I've also dealt with family in Jail and when you visit family in jail you try to keep their spirits up, you joke and tell them about the good things going on and provide them with a few minutes of relief because it's not a happy place to be and you feel like it's your responsibility to keep your loved ones spirits up.

Lastly, who calls the cops on themselves after intentionally shooting a loved one. Why Why Why would you turn yourself in unless you felt it was an accident that you couldn't be blamed for?

I know that I'm about to get a storm of comments hating on what I have to say but I've been there and I know how awful suicude is so I feel for the family and all the loss they had to go through because they not only lost a mother but their father too!

Although their way of dealing with their mother's / sister's / spouse's death may not have been what was considered "normal", I thought if anyone knew what type of man the father was & how likely it was that he had "murdered" his wife, it was the people who were personally involved. If I had been on that jury, I would have not voted to convict him. I am all for justice & have no problem punishing those proven guilty. I could see possibly an unintentional manslaughter conviction at the most. But in my opinion, there was no proof that I saw that this was intentional.

Crynomore, i totally agree with you. My estranged hubby's mother committed suicide a year before i met him. I have witnessed the wide range of mixed emotions in his family in the aftermath, it is the most unstabling thing to happen to his family, and he never got over it. The Ward family is more aware of the mother's mental illness than anyone, the fact that Ward's sister-in-law knew her sister was unstable and capable of this is the most telling thing of all. It may not be polite to say, but it is the honest truth that there is some natural degree of relief after so much mental instability ends, no matter how tragic the end. This does not mean the family did not love their wife, mother and sister! They just felt helpless in the storm. The police think they are psychiatric experts and they are not. Noone should convict someone else based on analysis of human emotions.

sorry duplicate

As I recall, there was no indication that this mother was or ever had been, suicidal. I also noted that while they talked of the mother's propensity for wine, aside from the ex-girlfriend stating that the husband's personality completely changed when he drank, nothing was said about HIS consumption of alcohol that night. I still say this family's lionizing the father/murderer and apparently coldly dismissing the mother's death as something "to move on from" was very strange, to say the least.

Too bad that NBC advertises the show all week on its video page enticing devoted viewers to keep coming back to see it and then once it's aired, takes off all trace of it, letting its viewers drop dead. Not even so much of a mention that it won't be uploaded.

And another thing, at least the mother is in heaven, away from this hell that she was living with "her family"!!!!!!!!! They make me sick!!!!!!!

Well, here is another case where people do not understand the dynamics of suicide. There is no motive or gain for murder. Many committing suicide have no history especially in some cases where an antidepressant is involved and the dose is upped. The defense should have called in a psychiatrist. Yet clearly there is more that reasonable doubt. This case should not have even been prosecuted. The cowardly prosecuters are once again going for career 'victory" at any cost and the jury went along for the ride! How do these people sleep at night?? Then we have people slandering the family of this man and of the dead women. Now if this family is as crazy as alleged then that would add credence to the suicide probability...the prosecution cannott have it both ways. The juror interviewed totally ignored the defense expert!...I would encourage the daughters to ask the sitting governer for an immediate pardon to set aside this absurd conviction.

Why isn't the February 24th Mystery in Master Bedroom available to watch online like the rest of dateline's episodes? I hate when NBC posts some, leaves out others, its so random and frustrating. I really really wanted to see this episode in particular and there's no reason it shouldn't be posted like the rest of the episodes!

Ok, after careful consideration, I've changed my mind from guilty to "INNOCENT"!!!! If I had daughters like these two, Mallory & Sarah, I probably would have shot myself in the face too, if not the HEART!!!!!!

Ok, after careful consideration, I've changed my mind from guilty to "INNOCENT"!!!! If I had daughters like these two, Mallory & Sarah, I probably would have shot myself in the face too, if not the HEART!!!!!!

the jury wanted the gun to figure out how the trigger was pulled well its simple the gun was turned around and the thum was used to pull the trigger

Ummm, it would be nice if MSNBC updated the Dateline page so I could watch this episode on the site. Two weeks ago the Friday episode was promptly uploaded by 10pm, last week it was uploaded HOURS after the show aired, and this week (on Saturday night), it's nowhere to be found!!! For the love of all that is HOLY, can someone post this episode! Thanks so much.

And sometimes it's not uploaded at all. And no one even has enough interest in keeping their viewers that they even bother to mention that it won't be uploaded for copyright reasons. They just keep us coming back to the site for nothing.

Kudos to NBC/Dateline for a job well done! I followed this case from Day One via the Orlando Sentinel and Orlando's WFTV (both of which did excellent reporting, just as they did with the Casey Anthony case). Bob Ward's little development 'empire' was imploding and there's no doubt that but for the stress involved in all of that, he likely would not have murdered his wife. But the forensics proved that suicide was implausible and Bob Ward, did in fact, shoot his wife. The jailhouse video of Mallory and her aunt is no less despicable, even after their absurd explanations of their behavior. And Bob Ward's demeanor and behavior was beyond bizarre, showing a detached callousness that allowed him to avoid taking responsibility for Diane's death or even showing some degree of remorse. Why has it become so difficult for people to look at certain behaviors and judge them? Since when is "dancing on the grave" of one's wife, mother and sister just another form of "expressing grief"?!?! It's remarkable that some people are clueless as to their own sociopathic tendencies.

The jury got this one 100% right in convicting Bob Ward. His biggest mistake? Putting that gun BACK in the bedstand drawer. His lack of appropriate grief is just further evidence that he was capable of shooting her.

These three seem to be fooling around with each other. They wanted the mother out of the way/or maybe she caught them in the act.