48 Hours: Last chance for justice
Produced by Sarah Huisenga and Dena Goldstein
This show originally aired on April 30, 2011. It was updated on Sept. 10.
COLUMBUS, Wis. - Growing up in Columbus, Wis., 31-year-old Christopher McIntyre thought he had an idyllic, small-town childhood.
"For the most part, I was a happy and normal kid growing up just like everybody else," he tells "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Erin Moriarty.
Until the day he learned an awful truth.
"I guess I was about 9 or 10. That's when my father decided to let me know. The woman I thought was my mother I found out was not my real mother," he says. He told me...'You'll never meet your real mom. She's - she's gone.'"
Christopher was only 3 months old and asleep in his crib when his mother, Marilyn, was murdered in 1980. His father, Lane, had struggled for years to find the right time to tell him.
"I was waiting for him to get a little older," Lane tells Moriarty.
For Christopher, the truth was "confusing" and "tough" to hear.
"She never got to hear Christopher call her 'Mom,'" Carolyn Rahn says. "So much...was taken away from her."
Carolyn is Marilyn McIntyre's identical twin. Her world was torn apart when her sister was brutally murdered nearly three decades ago.
"It was hell. ...I turned to alcohol. My marriage failed," she says. "I wasn't there for my children."
"I think she feels like when Marilyn died, a big part of her died," says Carolyn's daughter, Terra Doucette, who was born less than a year after Marilyn's death.
"My first memories are seeing my mom crying on the phone about Marilyn," she says.
As Terra grew up, she witnessed her mother's constant efforts to convince the Columbus Police Department to re-open Marilyn's case.
"I couldn't tell you how many detectives we went through," Carolyn says. "We didn't know where else to turn or where to go."
In 2007, 27 years after Marilyn's murder, Terra decided to take matters into her own hands. She made a phone call that would prove to be fateful.
Ironically, she called the wrong number.
"I thought I was calling the Columbus Police Department. And instead, it was the number to the Columbia County Sheriff's Department," she says.
"I had never heard that there was an unsolved homicide within the county. It wasn't in our record system, says Detective Lieutenant Wayne Smith.
After reviewing the case, Det. Lt. Smith made a crucial decision: the Sheriff's Office would reopen the investigation.
"You could tell right away that...they cared," Carolyn says. "And they seemed shocked that it had went on this long."
As Smith and county detectives began digging into the old case files from 1980, their first question was simple: Who was Marilyn McIntyre?
"She was my best friend," says Carolyn.
Marilyn and Carolyn were born on Nov. 14, 1961. Only five years later, tragedy struck.
"Our real mother was killed in a car accident in 1966," says Carolyn.
The twins, along with older siblings Brenda and Dean, were soon living with their father and an abusive stepmother.
"It was - physically abusive, mentally, verbally abusive," Carolyn says. "And it was mainly on Marilyn and I. ... And at the age of 13, we finally moved into foster care."
At age 16, Marilyn was looking for stability in her life... something she found in 21-year-old Lane McIntyre.
"I was just enamored with Marilyn right away," he tells Moriarty. "She was so pretty. I was like, 'just control yourself.'"
According to Carolyn, "It was love at first sight."
"I wanted to take care of her, you know, be there for her," says Lane.
But while Carolyn approved of the relationship, Marilyn's older sister, Brenda Daniels, was wary.
"I just didn't think he was good enough for Marilyn," she says. "She had a rough life growing up. Was this guy gonna make it any easier? No."
Despite Brenda's concerns, the couple married on Jan. 19, 1979, when Marilyn was just 17 years old.
"It was a small party, maybe only a dozen people," Lane recalls. "But it was one of the happiest days of my life."
Soon, Lane and Marilyn added a new member to the family. Christopher was born in December of that year.
"That coming summer was gonna be the best summer of our lives, being husband and wife with our brand-new baby," says Lane.
The evening of March 10, 1980, started like any other night in the home of Lane and Marilyn McIntyre.
"We did laundry," Lane says. "And then I left for work."
"Do you remember the last thing you said to Marilyn or what she said to you?" Moriarty asks Lane.
"She said, 'I love you. Do you love me?' And, [I said] 'Of course I do,'" he replies.
The next time Lane saw his wife, she was dead.
Lee Erdmann was the Columbus police chief in 1980. He found it significant that there was no sign of forced entry or a robbery, indicating that Marilyn knew her killer.
"And what did you see when you walked in?" Moriarty asks.
"A body on the floor with a knife sticking in the side of her chest. And a mutilated head," he says. "Speculation was she might have answered the door and let someone in."
Betty Klentz, who lived in the apartment above the McIntyres, learned about Marilyn's death from Lane himself.
"It was about 5, 10 after 7:00, somebody pounded on the - our door downstairs," she recalls. "It was Lane. And he said, 'Did you hear anything last night? I just found my wife murdered.'"
By the time Chief Erdmann knocked on her door, Betty remembered that she did hear something unusual in the middle of the night.
"About quarter after 3:00 in the morning, I woke up, and the dog was just barking up a storm," she says of Lane and Marilyn's dog, Clyde. "And it was like he was pulling on something."
Asked if that was unusual, Betty says, "Well, I never heard him bark before like that."
Based on Betty's statement, police believed the murder occurred around 3:15 a.m., a time when Marilyn's husband said he was at work.
Read what Betty Klentz told investigators
"I never left," says Lane.
Read what Lane McIntyre told investigators
Lane did, however, give police their first big lead.
"When they asked you who might be a suspect, you gave the name Curt Forbes," Moriarty tells Lane.
"I did? I don't remember," he sighs. "I probably did."
"Did you consider Curt Forbes one of your best friends?"
"At that time, yes," Lane replies. "At that time, I didn't know what he was capable of."
As police were running down Lane McIntyre's apparent alibi for the night his wife, Marilyn, died, he was offering them another suspect: one of his best friends - Curtis Forbes.
"Why would Curt Forbes kill your wife? Erin Moriarty asks Lane.
"I believe that Curt Forbes had a crush on Marilyn," he replies. "And his girlfriend...just left him and he was on the prowl that night."
Curtis Forbes was engaged to marry 22-year-old Debby Attleson in March of 1980.
"I was young back then, in love," she says. "And he was what I wanted in my world."
The couple hung out frequently with the McIntyres.
"We'd play cards, we'd go fishing, we'd go out to eat," she says. "We got to be really close friends."
But according to Lane, Marilyn soon heard some disturbing news about Curt.
"Debby began to tell Marilyn stories about abuse," he says.
Lane says Debby confided in Marilyn that Curt would occasionally beat her up, and that just days before Marilyn's murder, Debby broke up with Curt.
"Had Marilyn encouraged Debra to leave Curt?" Moriarty asks Lane.
"Yes," he replies.
Lane believes the newly-single Curt Forbes was looking for some action on the night Marilyn was killed.
"And then he goes, 'Aha, I'll go check on Lane's wife. Lane's at work.' I believe he had the intention to rape," he says.
Former Police Chief Lee Erdmann questioned Curt about his whereabouts on the early morning hours of March 11.
"He said he had went out," Erdmann says, "and proceeded to play pool and have a good time."
Video: Excerpts of Curt Forbes' 1980 interrogation
According to witnesses, Curt tried to pick up a woman at the bar. She rejected him. When the bar closed at 1 a.m., he drove to the house of another woman, Lori Heft.
"I was home with my then-boyfriend," she says. According to Lori, Curt arrived around 1:15 a.m. and stayed just a few minutes.
Asked why she thinks Curt stopped by her house that night, Lori tells Moriarty, "I think that he ... was going to probably try and make sexual advances towards me."
After leaving Lori's, Curt said he drove to Debby Attleson's house, arriving after 2:00 a.m.
But when investigators talked to Debby and her parents, they said he arrived at 4 a.m., says Erdmann.
"So there's two hours unaccounted for," notes Moriarty.
"Yeah," Erdmann says. "Where'd he go? What'd he do?"
And then, just one day after he was grilled by police, Curt Forbes skipped town.
"Innocent people don't run," Lane says. "Curt Forbes ran."
Curt soon sent letters to Lane and Debby.
"'Dear Lane, I don't know how to express my sympathy for you at this time. I don't want to go to jail for something I didn't do...'" Lane reads.
"'I just don't want to go to jail for something I didn't do. There's too much circumstantial evidence against me, so I have to go...'" Debby reads.
Read Curt's letters to Lane and Debby
"But what was the circumstantial evidence against him that he's talking about? Moriarty asks Debby.
"What people were saying," she replies. "That he was...violent."
Back in 1980, Debby admitted to police that Curt did hit her, but only one time. She says now that she never told Marilyn that he was abusing her.
Read what Debby Attleson told investigators (March 12, 1980)
"Did she ever tell you to leave Curt?" Moriarty asks.
Debby shakes her head no. "Why would she tell me that?"
Debby initially told police that Curt had arrived at her parents' house at 4 a.m. on the night of Marilyn's murder, but later said she might have been mistaken.
"It was either 10 after 4 or 20 after 2," she says. "I just saw the two hands."
The circumstantial case against Curt seemed to be weak and police soon learned that none of the physical evidence taken at the crime scene could be linked to him either.
"So when's the next time you heard from him?" Moriarty asks Debby.
"I think it was two months," she says.
"And what did he say to you?"
"That he was coming home."
After two months on the lam, Curt returned to the Columbus area. Five months later, he and Debby Attlesson were married.
"Did you have any questions about marrying him?" Moriarty asks.
"None," Debby replies.
"But you knew other people were talking about him?"
"I think that back then it was more they were talking about Lane."
Video: October 1980 | Curt talks to police about the night of March 10, 1980
Video: October 1980 | Curt talks to police about his relationship with Debby
And in fact, around Columbus, suspicion had begun to shift - away from Curt and back towards Marilyn's husband.
"I thought maybe Lane did it," says Betty Klentz, who had always felt uncomfortable about her neighbor's calm demeanor when he came to her door the morning of the murder.
"If I was him, and it was my wife...I probably would have started in like this: 'You know, 'My God, I just came home from work and I found my wife murdered!' But no, he just said it in a nice, calm voice."
Betty told the police about frequent fights that she heard between Marilyn and Lane.
"Neighbors say that you guys would argue," Moriarty remarks to Lane.
"That's their speculation," he says. "The McIntyre family, we're 'voisterous.' We talk loud in our house."
And Marilyn's older sister, Brenda, who had never liked Lane, believed he had a motive for killing his wife.
"Lane looked at me and he goes, 'Brenda, guess what I did?' He goes, 'I took out a life insurance policy for Marilyn," she says.
It turns out Lane had purchased a $10,000 life insurance policy for Marilyn less than a week before her murder.
"Three days later, she's dead," Brenda says. "I was mortified."
And that wasn't all. Within months of Marilyn's death, Lane was dating and he soon remarried.
"He was just gettin' on with his life. Like it was nothing," says Brenda.
"I'm a young man, I've got a 3-month-old baby," Lane explains. "I needed another woman in my life."
Although there was suspicious circumstantial evidence against both Lane and Curt, police did not arrest either man. Instead, their investigation mysteriously ground to a halt.
"Our thought was that it would never be solved," says Carolyn.
For Lane, each passing year brought increased scrutiny. "My own son was taught to think I did it," he says.
"Things started to go sour between me and my father," says Christopher.
"Did you ever say, 'Dad, did you have anything to do with this?'" asks Moriarty.
"I did not," he replies. "It would be such a hard question to ask: 'Dad, did you have something to do with killing mom?'"
At age 15, the tension between father and son reached a boiling point and Christopher moved out of the house.
"I lost mother, and now, I feel like I lost father," he says.
The toll on Marilyn's family would continue to grow.
"We've grown up in broken homes our whole life... because they didn't know how to carry on after Marilyn died," says Carolyn's daughter, Terra Doucette.
Years would turn into decades and still no answers... until that fateful call.
"When I took a look at this case," Smith says, "my question was, 'Why didn't he get arrested in 1980?"
"I made a promise to the victim's family. ''We will do our best at this. And I believe when we're done, we'll be able to tell ya who I believe did it," says Det. Lt. Wayne Smith.
In 2007, Columbia County sheriff's detectives reopened the investigation into Marilyn McIntyre's murder and after digging into the old case files, they found a piece of evidence that would soon blow the case wide open.
"There was this very small stain in a bathroom sink that had the victim's blood in it," says Smith.
In 1980, blood and hair samples had been taken from the crime scene. More than two decades later, that blood evidence was sent to the Wisconsin State Crime Lab for DNA testing.
"And when the report came back on that, there was possibly two other contributors. However, one of those contributors was not Lane McIntyre. He was 100 percent excluded from that," says Smith.
"So there's DNA mixed with Marilyn's blood in the bathroom... and her husband's DNA is absolutely not in that," notes Moriarty. "And is there anyone - any of the suspects a possible contributor?"
"Well, there is," says Smith.
When the lab compared DNA from a sample of Curt Forbes' hair to the stain in the sink, "He was listed as a possible contributor in that stain," says Smith.
But Smith knew there were limits to this DNA evidence. "You have to remember that this is likely a pinhead-sized stain in a sink," he says.
And being a possible contributor was not conclusive proof. The lab results showed that it wasn't necessarily Curt. The DNA could also have come from 1 out of every 98 people.
"Columbus was probably about 3,000 people then. So, you know, it could be, you know, several people," says Smith.
"But it wasn't her husband," Moriarty points out.
"But it wasn't her husband," Smith continues. "And it wasn't any single other person that had ever been mentioned as a suspect or had been in that house, 'cause we tested 'em."
So Smith and county investigators focused their attention on Curt Forbes and began to re-interview everyone connected to the crime.
"I wasn't worried about not remembering," says Lori Heft. She told detectives that on March 11, 1980, Curt stopped by her house at around 1:15 a.m.
"He was there for five minutes," she says.
Lori also recalled a conversation she had just weeks later with Curt's girlfriend, Debby Attleson.
"She said, 'Well, he showed up at my place around 4' o clock with blood on his shirt wanting me to take care of it,'" she says.
"I don't even know her," Debby says of Lori Heft.
Debby, who was still married to Curt Forbes in 2007, remembers that time very differently. She says there never was a shirt with blood.
"So if Lori says that you talked about the fact that there was blood on a shirt, she's not telling the truth?" Moriarty asks Debby.
"How can it be?" she replies.
And in fact, when Lori gave police a statement in 1981, she never mentioned a bloody shirt.
"Why wouldn't you tell the police that she also mentioned blood?" Moriarty asks Lori.
"I assumed that Debra had brought that up," she replies.
Read what Lori Heft told investigators
Detectives heard other rumors. Family and friends of the Attlesons said that Debby's mom talked about washing Curt's bloody clothes that night.
"We would love to have talked to her parents, because I believe that they had really good information," says Smith.
Unfortunately, Debby's parents were no longer alive; none of the statements could be verified.
Read what Harlan and Marlene Attleson told investigators
"For some reason, this family wasn't interviewed about Curt's arrival...at their home," Smith explains. "And that's a critical piece of evidence."
Detectives spent two years sorting through the evidence and interviewing more than 60 witnesses.
"It got to the point where Curt was the only one left to talk to at this point," says Smith.
Finally, on March 24, 2009, 29 years after Marilyn's murder, Curt Forbes was served with a search warrant and brought in for questioning.
Det. Lt. Smith: I'd like to do I guess is go back to March 10, 1980 - that night.
Curt Forbes: I was at the Town Tap for a little while and then ah, I left there.
When asked what time he arrived at the Attleson's house, Curt remained consistent.
Curt Forbes: It was around 2:00.
Det. Lt. Smith: So if she had told us that you got there at a little bit after 4:00 and she looked at her clock, that would be inaccurate?
Curt Forbes: It was around 2:00 it had to be.
Video: Curt Forbes on his whereabouts on March 10, 1980
After nearly an hour of questioning, Wayne Smith tells Curt that his DNA was found mixed with Marilyn's blood in the bathroom sink.
Det. Lt. Smith: How do you explain that your DNA is in her blood?
Curt Forbes: I wouldn't know, what are you talking about, my DNA is in her blood? Wow.
Video: Curt Forbes on DNA evidence
As Curt's interrogation stretched on, two other detectives visited his wife at home.
"I was in shock," Debby says. "I didn't know what was goin' on."
She agreed to answer their questions, but didn't realize the interview was being recorded.
The detectives began with the bombshell.
Detective: Right now we have DNA that links him in a smeared blood stain in the sink.
"The detectives told you that there was DNA that tied Curt to the crime scene," Moriarty says to Debby.
"I didn't believe 'em," she says.
Debby was asked about Curt's rumored bloody shirt.
Detective: Did it have blood on it?
Debby: I don't remember that, no. I can't say.
Detective: You can't say or you can't remember?
Debby: I can't remember.
As detectives continued to push Debby about the bloody shirt, her answers began to change.
Detective: He showed up at the house with bloody clothes and your mom washed 'em. I know you know that.
Debby: Yeah, but I just don't remember right now.
Detective: But you just said "yeah."
Finally, after more than four hours of questioning, Debby's memory of that night seemed to return.
Debby: He had a white shirt on underneath that blue sweater and I saw blood there.
Detective: You did.
Debby: Now I remember that... I know I asked about the blood and he told me some bulls---t and I can't remember what he told me and I believed it.
Video: Excerpts of Debby Forbes' March 24, 2009, interview
Hours later, armed with Debby's damning new information, detectives arrested Curt Forbes for the murder of Marilyn McIntyre.
"I knew 100 percent Curt Forbes was the one that was responsible for this murder," says Smith.
But making that case to a jury was about to get much tougher after a judge ruled that the crucial DNA evidence that seemed to place Curt Forbes at the crime scene would not be allowed at trial.
"It was devastating," Smith says of the ruling. "And I thought that there was a greater chance that he'd get away with it."
Twenty-nine years after Marilyn McIntyre's murder, her family believed detectives finally had the right man, Curtis Forbes.
"It's like we got him," Carolyn says. "We finally got him."
Even Marilyn's sister, Brenda, who had long suspected Lane McIntyre, was convinced.
"Is there one moment? One piece of evidence that made you change..." Moriarty asks.
"Yeah, when the blood stain had Curt's DNA in it," says Brenda.
But then, a judge threw out that DNA evidence, ruling it was not conclusive enough to be used against Forbes.
"Is our job tougher? Absolutely," Assistant Attorney General David Wambach says. "But that doesn't mean we can't get it done."
Wambach decided to move forward anyway with a completely circumstantial case.
Curt's brothers, Mike and Dennis, believe the charges should have been dropped.
"We're behind Curt 100 percent in this ordeal," Mike Forbes tells "48 Hours."
"Well I am angry, ya know?" he continues. "They threw my brother in prison for nothing."
On Nov. 9, 2010, Curtis Forbes goes on trial for murder.
The trial begins with a dispute over when Marilyn died. It's an important issue since Lane McIntyre has an alibi for the hours between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., while Curt Forbes' whereabouts are in question.
"So what time do you believe that Marilyn McIntire was murdered?" Moriarty asks Wambach.
"I believe that it's some time very close to 3:15, and that's why Clyde, the dog, is acting up the way he is," he replies.
That information came from the McIntyre's upstairs neighbor, Betty Klentz.
"I had to get up around between 3 and 3:30 because the dog was having such a fuss outside," she testifies.
And there's a second witness - Tom Seidlinger - a friend of the McIntyre's, who drove by their house twice on the night of the crime. First at around 12:30 a.m...
Asst. Attorney Gen. Wambach: Did you notice whether or not the lights were on as you went past to go home?
Tom Seidlinger: No. I didn't see no lights.
...then again at around 3:15 a.m.
Tom Seidlinger: At that time I noticed the porch light was on and the dog was tied outside.
Read what Tom Seidlinger told investigators
That evidence, says the prosecutor, proves that Marilyn had to be alive between midnight and 3:15 a.m. on March 11 to turn on the light and let the dog out.
"A cat can go in the litter box. The dog, you gotta let him out," Wambach points out.
But the defense says Marilyn died earlier - before Lane went to work. They point to the testimony of the McIntyre's other neighbor. Florence Marshall lived next door to Lane and Marilyn and heard a noise coming from their apartment at 10 p.m. on March 10, 1980.
"We went to bed and we could hear voices like they were maybe arguing or something," she says.
Read what Florence Marshall told investigators
But that was all the neighbor heard and Wambach reminds the jury that Marilyn had a 3-month-old baby who needed to be fed every few hours.
"You're saying somebody would have heard that baby crying," says Moriarty.
"Exactly," Wambach says. "And we knew that none of the neighbors had heard any crying."
Wambach now moves on to the next important point in the timeline: What time did Curt Forbes arrive at Debby Attleson's home that night: 2 a.m. or 4 a.m.?
"If he actually got there at 2:00," Wambach says, "then it doesn't look like he's the one to have committed the murder."
Because Debby says she can no longer be sure when Curt turned up, the prosecutor calls witnesses who spoke to Debby back in 1980 about Curt's arrival.
Asst. Attorney Gen. Wambach: What time did Debby say Curt showed up at her parents'?
Rick Dilley: I believe it was around 4:00 in the morning.
Lori Heft: She said it was at 4 o'clock.
Cynthia Lawton: About 4 o'clock in the morning.
For Curt Forbes, the case hangs on this one question.
"Where was Curt from 1:30 in the morning 'til 4:00 in the morning?" Moriarty asks Mike Forbes.
"I have no idea," he replies. "We never asked him."
With his case winding down, Wambach knew that his most crucial witness was also the most unpredictable.
"I didn't ask for any of this," says Debby.
On the day of Curt's arrest in 2009, Debby Forbes told detectives that she had seen blood on Curt's shirt on the night of the murder. But on the stand, Debby now denies she saw anything.
Asst. Attorney Gen. Wambach: Did you see anything on his clothing?
Debby Forbes: I don't know what you mean.
Asst. Attorney Gen. Wambach: Did you see anything on his clothing that you took notice of?
Debby Forbes: No.
"You did tell them that Curt had blood on his shirt that night," says Moriarty.
"I don't remember saying that. And I know I didn't see it,' Debby says. "And how they got me to say that - they could have gotten me to say anything at that point."
Did Curt show up with blood on his shirt? The prosecutor has one final piece of evidence he believes provides the answer.
A prison phone call between Curt and Debby Forbes recorded just two days after Curt's arrest.
Curt Forbes: The facts are Debra I did not murder Marilyn McIntyre.
Debby Forbes: Then where did the bloody shirt come from?
Curt Forbes: I'll explain all that. I did not kill Marilyn.
Debby Forbes: Well explain it to me then.
Curt Forbes: Not on the phone. I need a lawyer Debby.
"What's so beautiful about it, too, is what it doesn't say," Wambach says. "He doesn't say, 'What blood? What do you mean, blood?'"
But Curtis Forbes' attorneys downplay the call. They point to the fact that there was no physical evidence linking Curt to the crime scene.
"None of the hairs were consistent with Curtis Forbes," a technician testifies.
And then, to create more doubt in the mind of the jurors, the defense calls an unlikely witness: Lane McIntyre.
"I knew I was gonna be grilled and I didn't care," Lane tells Moriarty.
Forbes' attorney wastes no time putting Lane in the hot seat.
Defense attorney: Approximately three days before the death of your wife - did you have occasion to talk to an insurance agent?
Lane McIntyre: Yes.
Defense attorney: And what did you do with relation to that insurance agent?
Lane McIntyre: He showed up on my doorstep unannounced, solicited me" "You're a young man starting a young family - you need life insurance."
Lane is peppered with questions about finding his wife murdered.
Lane McIntyre: I stood in doorway trying to accept what I was seeing.
About pointing the finger at his best friend...
Defense attorney: Did you tell officers that a person they might want to look at is Curt Forbes?
Lane McIntyre: Yes.
And about whether he and Marilyn argued before he went to work.
Defense attorney: You do not recall an argument that you had with Marilyn McIntyre on March 10, 1980, between the time you got home and the time you went to work?
Lane McIntyre: No.
"He was tryin' to accuse me of killing Marilyn ... and then going to work, like nothing happened," Lane tells Moriarty.
As the trial comes to a close, the jury must decide: Is the right man on trial? Did Curt Forbes kill Marilyn McIntyre or did her husband, Lane?
On Nov. 15, 2010, after six days of testimony and more than 45 witnesses, the fate of Curtis Forbes is in the hands of the jury.
"We thought it was gonna be an all-night thing and we'd be back in the morning," says Carolyn Rahn.
Instead, the jury is out in just two-and-a-half hours.
"I'm thinking, 'This can't be good,'" says Carolyn.
The families of Curt Forbes and Marilyn McIntyre scramble back into the courtroom for the verdict.
"It was probably the scariest point in my life," says Christopher McIntyre.
"Everything at that point is - is resting in that - that moment for the judge to read the verdict," says Asst. Attorney Gen. David Wambach.
The verdict: Curtis E. Forbes is found guilty of first-degree murder.
For Marilyn's family, it's the end of three decades of pent-up anguish.
"It was just, like, "Aaahhhh..." All this pain that I had to carry ... this baggage I could finally let go of," says Lane.
On the other side of the courtroom, the Forbes family sits devastated.
"They found a guy - guilty of murder and gonna put him in jail for life and only deliberated it two hours on circumstantial evidence?" says Curt's brother, Mike Forbes.
It was a quick verdict, in part, says Prosecutor Wambach, because the jury believed there had been a bloody shirt.
"If you can convince them to say, 'I have no doubt that Curtis Forbes had blood on him and that that was Marilyn's blood...' everything else just falls in behind that," he says.
But even today, Debby Forbes insists that she never saw blood on Curt that night.
"There was never any blood," she says.
"When you, though, called Curt on the phone, you asked him..." Moriarty reminds Debby.
Debby Forbes: Then where'd the bloody shirt come from?
Curt Forbes: I'll explain all that.
"Yeah, I wanted to know about this bloody shirt everybody was talkin' about. I hadn't seen one," she says.
Asked if he believes Debby Forbes lied on the stand, Wambach tells Moriarty, "Well, yes. She committed perjury. ...I don't think that the jury found much of anything that she said or did to be believable."
But Debby now no longer seems willing to protect the man she married 30 years ago.
"Do you think you know the truth now?" Moriarty asks.
"It's in there," Debby replies. "I just have to accept it."
"It sounds like, Debby, you do believe your husband killed Marilyn McIntyre," Moriarty points out to Debby, whose whole body is shaking. "That's tough, isn't it?"
"Yeah," she says.
Three months after the verdict, Curt Forbes is sentenced to life in prison.
"Whatever tiny little bit of doubt I would've had in my mind was clearly pushed out," says Christopher McIntyre.
Finally convinced of his father's innocence, Christopher is looking forward to repairing their relationship. So is Lane.
"Marilyn would want her son and her husband to be the best of friends," he says. "We got a lot of catching up to do."
Following Curt's sentencing, Marilyn McIntyre's family visits her final resting place. They release yellow balloons, and with them, more than 30 years of pain and frustration.
Says Lane, "If you can imagine being judged ... when you're telling the truth for 30 years... And then, finally after all these years... finally, vindication."
"My mom can start a new life," Terra Doucette, Carolyn's daughter, says. "Our family is gonna start a new life now."
Detective Lt. Wayne Smith and Assistant Attorney Gen. David Wambach are quick to acknowledge that without Marilyn's family, her murder would never have been solved.
"This family was persistent," Smith says. "It's to their credit that they kept this case alive."
"If it took me 'til the day I died, I was never giving up," Carolyn says. "Don't ever give up. ...You are the victim's voice."
"Because eventually, somebody does have to listen," adds Terra.
"She's still watching us," Carolyn says as she Brenda and Lane stand at Marilyn's grave.
"Marilyn would want us to have closure," Lane says. "There are so many people that love Marilyn - still do, always will."
Curt Forbes will be eligible for parole in June of 2020.
Debby Forbes divorced Curt after his sentencing.
Lane McIntyre and his son, Christopher, are suing Curtis Forbes and his ex-wife Debby for wrongful death.