• Discuss: The Many Faces of Clark Rockefeller

    On Sunday, May 30, 7 p.m./6C, Mike Taibbi reports on "The Many Faces of Clark Rockefeller," the man who caused an international manhunt after being accused of abducting his own daughter and was revealed to be a fake Rockefeller.

    Discuss the case by leaving a comment. Read a transcript here. The full hour will not be available but you can watch Web-exclusive clips here.

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  • Discuss: A Dose of Controversy

    On Sunday, May 30, 7 p.m./6C, Matt Lauer continues his reporting on autism with an exclusive interview with Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the controversial British doctor who said he found a possible link between autism and one childhood vaccine, who made headlines this week after being stripped of his license to practice medicine in his own country.

    Find more links to autism research here, including official statements from the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

    Discuss the case by leaving a comment.

  • Discuss: The Case of the Merry Widow

    It looked like the perfect crime -- a puzzling killing that went unsolved for years, with no eyewitnesses, and no solid evidence. It involved a devoted husband and father who was shot to death in his own home. His wife, Jennifer Shanbrom, was shaken -- it seemed she narrowly escaped the gunman herself. But shortly after the funeral, the questions started: Was this widow grieving... or celebrating? Keith Morrison reports on "The Case of the Merry Widow."

    Read the transcript of the report here. Video of this report will not be available on the Web.

    Share your thoughts about this story by leaving a comment.

  • Discuss: The Case of the Missing Mom

    Julia Dawson was in a troubled marriage finally finds the courage to get out. And then, she disappears. It was a crime that might have ended up forever lost in a police file... if not for a chief who used his head, and his heart. Dennis Murphy reports on "The Case of the Missing Mom."

    Watch the video or read the transcript here.

    Share your thoughts about this hour by leaving a comment.

  • Friday, May 28: Cracked

    "Dateline's: Cracked" series that profiles cold cases that get solved returns this Friday with "The Case of the Missing Mom," reported on by Dennis Murphy, and "The Case of the Merry Widow," reported on by Keith Morrison. 

  • Sunday, May 30: A Dose of Controversy, The Many Faces of Rockefeller

    Matt Lauer continues his reporting on autism with an exclusive interview with Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the controversial British doctor who said he found a possible link between autism and one childhood vaccine, who made headlines this week after being stripped of his license to practice medicine in his own country.

    Mike Taibbi reports on "The Many Faces of Clark Rockefeller," the man who caused an international manhunt after being accused of abducting his own daughter and was revealed to be a fake Rockefeller.

  • Reynolds' Love Story Comes Full Circle

    After being divorced five years, Michelle and Thad Reynolds reconciled and remarried on Aug 3, 1997--almost a decade after their first exchange of wedding vows. The same day they were remarried at Hollywood Baptist Church, the Rome News-Tribune ran a feature about their journey back to one another. Click to read more from the Rome News-Tribune.
     
    Faith, Fatherhood, Friendship: Thad Reynolds Remembered.
    This past January--at the conclusion of the criminal cases of Scott Harper and Michelle Reynolds--the Rome News-Tribune published a tribute to Thad Reynolds and the impact he had on his family and the Rome, GA community.  Also included, is a slideshow of images.
    Click here to read more from the Rome News-Tribune.

    The full video of the two-hour Dateline report will not be available on Dateline.msnbc.com. A transcript will be posted on Monday, 11 a.m. PT.

  • Producer's blog: Making sense of a fatal love triangle

    By Jane Stone
    Dateline NBC Producer

    Rome, Georgia, may only be a 90-minute drive northwest from Atlanta, but it is indeed a different world. Long gone is the bustle and anonymity of the big city. In its place is Rome, the archetypal small town, a town that seems to have managed to remain more tightly knit than most in this mobile age. Everyone really seems to know everyone else. That's why the murder of Thad Reynolds, one of Rome's own, put the entire community into something resembling a collective depression.

    Thad was a popular manager at the Frito Lay company. He was also a deacon at the Hollywood Baptist Church. In a town where they brag there are only two seasons - "football season" and "almost football season" - Thad was the ultimate insider. He played for the team at Coosa High. His wife Michelle was the homecoming queen at Pepperell, the cross-town rival. It was like a match made in high-school heaven, Thad's sister Beverly told me. "He was the football player, she was the cheerleader. They had it all."

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    Video: Preview the report

    I started covering this unlikely small-town murder almost six years ago, not long after Thad's brutal killing. That took place just before dawn at his office at the Frito Lay warehouse on July 5, 2004. By the time I arrived in Rome, the District Attorney had charged Thad's best friend, Richard (Scotty) Harper, and Thad's wife, Michelle, with his murder. The DA was seeking the death penalty for both of them.

    For Rome it was shock after shock. The murder of a hometown boy followed by the accusation that the killers were his wife and best friend.

    The first report I did on the case aired on Dateline in July 2006, and no one I talked to could make sense of the crime as I prepared that initial story. I had long conversations with the friends of Michelle and Scotty. Those long conversations could be boiled down to this: the friends' bewilderment about what had taken place.

    The two couples - Thad and Michelle and Scotty and his wife - were the closest of friends. They celebrated their birthdays, attended sports events and, of course, worshiped together every Sunday morning at the same Baptist church. Their children - seven little girls between the two families - were also the best of friends.

    Michelle, for her part, seemed to be happily home-schooling her four little girls while running teen groups at Hollywood Baptist. While she and Thad had married, divorced and then remarried, their story had been celebrated in the local newspaper as a triumph over relationship adversity.
    Scotty helped run the computer system at the local hospital, served as the volunteer family pastor at Hollywood Baptist, and was married with three little girls. He, like Thad and Michelle, lived in a house right next door to his parents. He was a well-liked local guy who served in the Air Force before returning to Rome to settle down and raise a family. What could possibly prompt him to drive to the Frito Lay warehouse before dawn and stab his best friend 19 times?

    As the facts emerged the most salient seemed to be this: the initiation of a torrid, extra-marital affair between Scotty and Michelle a few weeks before Thad's murder.

    Sad, but nothing extraordinary, even in a small town. Extra-marital affairs often lead to divorce, but not very often to brutal murders. That was what people couldn't understand.

    In our latest Dateline story on the murder, we get the answers through lengthy and separate interviews with Scotty and Michelle in their high security prisons. For the first time in the 16 years I have been doing legal affairs reporting for Dateline, I had two people tell me in excruciating detail how a violent crime came to pass and their roles in it.

    It was a murder that fractured two seemingly all-American families and appears to have had a lasting impact on every citizen in Rome, Georgia, the small town where everyone knows each other and this kind of thing isn't supposed to happen.

    "Secrets of the Homecoming Queen" aired Dateline Friday, May 21 at 9pm/8 C. The
    full video of the two-hour Dateline report will not be available on
    Dateline.msnbc.com. Click here to read a transcript.

    Related links
    After being divorced five years, Michelle and Thad Reynolds reconciled
    and remarried on Aug 3, 1997--almost a decade after their first
    exchange of wedding vows. The same day they were remarried at Hollywood
    Baptist Church, the Rome News-Tribune ran a feature about their journey
    back to one another. Click to read more from the Rome News-Tribune.
     
    Faith, Fatherhood, Friendship: Thad Reynolds Remembered.
    This
    past January--at the conclusion of the criminal cases of Scott Harper
    and Michelle Reynolds--the Rome News-Tribune published a tribute to
    Thad Reynolds and the impact he had on his family and the Rome, GA
    community.  Also included, is a slideshow of images.
    Click here to read more from the Rome News-Tribune.

  • Friday, May 21: The Secret Life of the Homecoming Queen

    He was the football player, she was the homecoming queen. They fell in love, got married, had four beautiful daughters and became prominent members of their church community.  But when she started to feel ignored at home, her eyes wandered a few pews back to the church youth pastor -- her husband's best friend. A month later, the husband was found stabbed to death and the trail of evidence would lead back to the lovers.  Dennis Murphy reports. Dateline NBC Friday, 9 p.m./8 C.

    Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

  • Sunday, May 9: Brazen teenager taunts cops... plus more

    Josh Mankiewicz reports on a brazen teenager whose alleged criminal escapades, and daring escapes have earned him 20,000 Facebook fans. He's been in hiding for two years, taunting the cops, but will they ever catch him? Dateline Sunday, 7 p.m. / 6C.

    Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

    PLUS
    You may remember the story of David Goldman -- the father from New Jersey whose unwavering fight to bring his son Sean back from Brazil made headlines around the world. It took him five years before he safely brought Sean home. Now, the story of another father in a painful international battle, who attempted something David Goldman never did: He took matters into his own hands and tried to snatch his children back! Meredith Vieira reports.

    Ever since that failed car bomb attack last weekend in New York's Times Square, authorities are focusing on a new breed of would-be terrorist: Living within U.S. borders, and often recruited online. How many of these "sleeper terrorists" are out there, and how can you identify them? Chris Hansen reports.

    Wonder if your relationship will last a lifetime? What if we told you the smallest of moments... maybe even something that happened between you and your spouse today.. can reveal whether your relationship will last? Researchers who analyze such moments say it's very possible. Why? Josh Mankiewicz pays a visit to the Marriage Lab.
     
    If there's a singer out there who can turn your 'tween onto the classics, it might just be Michael Buble. He's an old soul with boyish charm, who takes standards from the likes of Sinatra and makes them hip, even hot! On Sunday, Buble opens up about his connection to his fans, his surprising insecurity, and the insanity of falling for a woman who couldn't understand a word he said. Hoda Kotb talks with Michael Buble.

     

    Join us for Dateline Sunday

     

  • Producer's blog: Behind the scenes of a sting

    By Steve Eckert
    Dateline Producer
     
    Steve Eckert produced "Follow The Money," a hidden-camera investigation in which Dateline NBC's Chris Hansen went on the trail of an email scammer. Here, Eckert shares how he and Hansen managed to confront the scammers face to face.

    Day after day, I pretended to be "Shireen," the Connecticut woman who let us take over her email.  Our goal was to turn the tables on the scammers and lure them into a face-to-face meeting.
     
    There were plenty of false starts – and frustrating delays.  Sometimes the scammers wanted quick, easy scores.  Send us extra money, they'd say, for yet another bank fee.   But we held out.  No money upfront, I would write, until we could arrange a meeting where Chris Hansen could confront them in person.
     
    We tried to meet once in London, but the scammers backed out at the last minute.
     
    But we didn't give up.  And, finally, the scammers agreed to a rare meeting here in the U.S.  The emails to set up the meeting said a special diplomat would be delivering a multi-million dollar fortune.
     
    Our hidden camera crew had the meeting covered from every angle - from the moment the so-called "diplomat" walked into the lobby of the hotel and rode the elevator up to our room.
     
    Then it was up to Chris to lure him in – and confront him about the scam.

    Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

  • The 'black money' trick in Dateline's 'Follow The Money'

    By Steve Eckert
    Dateline NBC producer

    The first time I saw it, I was amazed at how simple – and convincing - the trick could be.
     
    Here's how it works.
     
    You take a real dollar bill – or, if you're a scammer, a bigger bill.   You coat it with a thin layer of the washable school glue we all used as kids.   That provides a protective coating.  Then you add a thin layer of iodine.  The same stuff you buy at the drug store to treat a cut.
     
    When it dries, the iodine turns black.  So now you have a black bill.
     
    The scammers stick that black bill into a big bundle of black paper – also cut the size of bills.  They say the money had to be coated black to smuggle it out of a corrupt country.  So now, the black coating has to be removed.
     
    That's when the scammers become magicians.
     
    They pick out the real bill they've turned black and wash it in what they say is a special chemical.  It's really just water with some crushed up Vitamin C.  Presto!   The original bill appears.
     
    It costs the scammers less than 10 bucks for the supplies.  But if they can convince you to pay thousands of dollars for those "special" chemicals, then the briefcase full of fake money can be yours!
     
    Check out this demonstration.  Sgt. James Perez showed us how easy it is for the scammers to trick you.

    Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy