48 Hours

00:13 So Captain, just where are we? What is this place? So we're in the town of Kingsbury at the bridge that goes over the canal on New Swamp Road. 00:21 July 24th, 2005, investigators are called out here. What brought them out here? 00:27 So we had a report that a fisherman had been going by. He saw what he thought to be a toolbox that goes in the back of a pickup truck floating. 00:35 What did investigators find inside that toolbox? 00:38 They found a woman's body that was duct taped and handcuffed and wrapped in a comforter. It was terrible. It was a terrible thing to see. 00:50 In January of 1996, I just finished my first semester of college in upstate New York. My ex-boyfriend, Sean Doyle, and I had been broken up for approximately four months. My name is Cece Openowski. My mother was going away for the weekend, so I had this whole big house to myself and my friend Shannon and I, we were very close. I said, well, let's stay at my house because there's no one around. It was just a girls' night. We just wanted to chill out. You know, it's winter, it's cold, we built a fire. 01:22 My parents had a great stereo system, so, you know, we put on some music and danced around and, you know, just did girl stuff. 01:28 We both went to Sage Junior College of Albany. I'm really introverted, and she was very bubbly and happy and chipper, and she just, she brought me out of my shell. When you were first meeting her, was Sean Doyle around at the time? 01:44 Yes. He was obnoxious. She would argue with him a lot on the phone. And then in January is when this incident happens at her house? 01:54 We were having a good time. It was just the two of us. But he keeps calling. 01:59 Wanting to know what we're doing, wanting to know if he can come over. She had a cell phone, and I was like, just turn it off. Like, she's like, no, because if I turn it off, he's going to come here. 02:09 We finally wake up, and all we wanted was coffee. I had the mindset, I'm like, oh, I can't go out in public looking like I'm a mess. Let me go home and get dressed. 02:19 So Shannon leaves, and I get up and go around the house doing whatever, watching TV, you know, being a lazy teenager. And I get a knock at the door, and I open it, and it's him. 02:33 And he said, I just want to talk to you. 02:36 And once he was inside, things got much different. He pushed me onto the couch, started, you know, holding me down and restraining me and, you know, yelling at me. 02:45 And he picked me up and pushed me against the French doors and kept banging me against the French doors. 02:54 After I got done and out of the shower and getting ready, I called. Nobody answered. 03:00 My hair was in a ponytail, and he picked me up, held me up, and cut my hair off. 03:07 It was gone, just all of it. 03:10 He had already been choking me, and I thought he was going to stab me. 03:13 I called her back a half an hour later. She still didn't answer. And that's when my eyebrows kind of went up. 03:21 I'm in complete shock. I can't believe it's happening, and I have to figure out how to get out of it. But during this time, the phone continues to ring. 03:28 I waited a couple minutes, and I called her back. 03:32 I explained to him, if I don't answer this phone, my mother will call the police. So I do pick up the phone, and it's Shannon. 03:40 I said, hey, are you OK? And I don't know why I did this, but I started unloading the dishwasher. 03:46 And I'm saying to her, no, no, yeah, everything's fine. No, no. And no kept coming out of my mouth. And he didn't pick up on it, but she sure did. And that's when she said, is he there? And I said, yes. 04:00 And I hung up the phone, and then I called the cops. 04:04 Believe me, I do realize how lucky I am. 04:06 Investigators are continuing to piece the case together now that they found Laurie Leonard. Gagged and bound with duct tape. And a pick-up toolbox was found floating in a toolbox. 04:15 I'm fortunate that it could have been much, much worse. 04:22 Anne Marie Greene reports, facing a monster. 04:31 I can tell you that I knew nothing was ever going to be the same. 04:37 And it was going to change the way I looked and everything. 04:42 For Cece Opinowski, it has taken almost 30 years to talk about the day her former high school boyfriend, Sean Doyle, attacked her in her family's home in Hudson Falls, New York, and then used scissors to cut off her ponytail. What was it like to have your hair cut off in this way? Demeaning. Demeaning. 05:03 Think that's why he did it? 05:05 Probably. 05:06 Just to make sure he could knock me down somewhere. 05:09 On that day, January 27th, 1996, as Doyle went in and out of violent rages, at one point holding the scissors to her throat, Cece says she wasn't sure she would make it out alive until she says her college roommate, Shannon McAuliffe, called. 05:29 When she finally picks up the phone, what did you hear in her voice? 05:33 Fear. Shannon says she knew that Doyle had been harassing Cece. So when Cece told her Doyle was there, Shannon notified police and then rushed over to Cece's house. 05:45 I pulled onto her street and I parked. 05:48 And then I saw the police officers and everything. So I kind of went in after the fact. She looked terrified. 05:57 And angry. 05:59 And sad. 06:02 Cece says she thought when police arrived, they would make her feel safe. But that's not exactly what happened. 06:09 They do not put him in handcuffs. And they put us in the back of the same police car. Mind you, all of this time, I clearly look like I've been assaulted. My hair is completely cut off. And when they arrived at the police station... I was like, why are we here? 06:27 Why is he not, why are we in the same room? Cece says instead of separating them, police questioned them together. 06:35 And they made it seem like it was some fight between two young kids that turned, you know, slightly dark. 06:43 When 48 Hours reached out to the Hudson Falls Police Department, they acknowledged that law enforcement's response to domestic violence has evolved over the past several decades to better work with and support victims. Police arrested Doyle and charged him with menacing harassment and trespassing. 07:02 Looking at it and you're saying, did this really happen to me? 07:07 You know, how could this happen to me? 07:14 Cece Opinowski and Sean Doyle grew up in the small town of Hudson Falls, located in upstate New York. 07:22 To protect Cece's privacy, we chose not to show the actual house where she lived. He was nice to me. He was really nice. When Cece started dating Sean Doyle, she was just 15 years old, a sophomore in high school. Doyle was one year older. You know, we would go and do lots of things together. You know, we just hung out all the time. Cece says Doyle had troubles at home. During his junior year, Doyle told her his parents kicked him out. So Cece begged her parents to let him move in with them. 07:55 Did you feel sorry for him? Definitely. Soon after he moved into Cece's family home, She says she saw a change in Doyle's behavior. Cece says he became jealous and would secretly follow her around, something she says she didn't think at the time was a big deal. 08:13 When you're a 16, 17-year-old girl and, you know, you're looking at, oh, jealousy, you know, he must love me so much and that's why he's doing that sort. He followed me home, he's so worried about me. 08:26 But is that really what the case is? When you look back as an adult and someone with experience, you know, you think that's probably not okay. 08:38 And Doyle showed even more possessive behavior that Cece found troubling. 08:43 He at one point did get a tattoo. It was a heart on his arm and it had my name in the middle. What did you say? Why would you do that? And his response? I love you. 08:53 Was it a red flag? Definitely. During his senior year, Cece says Doyle dropped out of high school and was working odd jobs that he couldn't keep. 09:04 And this is where things start to get darker. 09:08 You know, he doesn't have any prospects. He knows that I'm getting ready to go away to school. 09:14 And to him, his whole life is about to completely change. 09:20 But Cece says she stuck by him, writing in her senior yearbook, I Love You, Sean. And in the summer of 1995, when she left to attend what is now Russell Sage College in Albany, they agreed to stay together and see each other on weekends. 09:38 But at the end of September, things took a scary turn when Cece told Doyle she would not be coming home every weekend to see him. Doyle showed up at her dorm. 09:49 He stood outside basically threatening that he was going to kill me. And now he's threatening not just you, but anyone around you. Basically anyone around me. 09:58 So he was arrested. 10:00 Doyle was charged with harassment and trespassing. It was the final straw for Cece, who says she broke it off with Doyle for good, and he moved out of her parents' house. Later that winter, that's when Sean Doyle showed up and viciously attacked her at her home. I know he threatened a lot, but did you ever believe that Sean Doyle would have physically hurt you? 10:25 Not until that day. Not in that way. 10:29 After the attack, Cece returned to college and finished up her freshman year. But Shannon says her friend had changed. 10:38 I think it had a profound impact on her life. 10:42 You know, I was always looking over my shoulder. I bought myself a Swiss Army knife. 10:47 I'm having night terrors. You know, waking up crying, waking up screaming, not being able to sleep. 10:55 Awful, awful. 10:57 So eight months after the attack, when it was time to take the case to trial, Cece, who was still just a teenager at 19 years old, told prosecutors she couldn't go through with it. 11:10 She says she was too traumatized and scared. I didn't want to have to face him in court. I didn't want to be going over this over and over and over again. I really wanted it to go away. 11:22 Doyle was offered a deal. He pleaded guilty to menacing in the second degree and was sentenced to just three years probation. CeCe transferred colleges and moved hours away from Hudson Falls, New York. I needed peace. 11:37 and I didn't know how to get it. Cece tried to forget her past, but she says she was haunted by a conversation she had with the prosecutor. 11:47 She said, you know, based on what I see here, he is going to do this again to another person. 11:56 And that has, for the past 28 years, stuck in my head. 12:02 Mm. Mm. 12:16 Nine years after Cece Opinowski left upstate New York for a new life, far away from Sean Doyle, 33-year-old Lori Leonard disappeared. 12:27 Say hi, Lori. 12:28 Say hi. 12:30 Lori Leonard was a single mom who lived with her two sons, Austin, who was nine at the time, and Zachary Five in Chittanango, a small town outside Syracuse, New York. 12:43 She was a very caring mother. The memories of her, just us always being happy together, spending time, kind of always the three of us. 12:54 It was just a lot of love and affection. 12:57 Her dream was to have a home, a father figure for her kids, and for them to be happy. She wanted the white picket fence. Jennifer Leonard was Lori's older sister. We were good friends, but I was a little bit of a bossy mother to her. 13:15 I had been through a lot of things already in my life, in my relationships, and I was very, I would say, overprotective. 13:24 In 2003, Lori met a man on a dating website, cupid.com. His name? Shawn Doyle. Online dating was new back then, so Jennifer was skeptical about him. 13:37 He was not charismatic. He was not social. He was like a piece of furniture that you just walked around. 13:43 But she says Lori didn't agree. She only saw the good in people. She would say, you know, he's misunderstood or he's shy. Jennifer says Lori told her very little about Doyle, except that he lived three hours away in Hudson Falls, New York, and worked at an ice cream factory. She also mentioned that Doyle was on probation. 14:05 She told me that he was a boxer, that he was protecting a woman at a bar, and was arrested because he used some of his professional boxing moves. 14:16 Did you ever see any sort of evidence of his professional boxing? I mean, did he, do you think he was even a boxer ever? 14:22 I didn't buy the stories that he was selling her. It sounded like he was trying to be something that he was not. 14:29 Jennifer says after her sister met Doyle, Lori became distant. I would talk to Lori three times a day. 14:36 And then when Sean came into the picture? It was a little quiet. And things only got worse. I had called her... 14:44 One night, and he was over there, and all I could hear in the background was him yelling at her. And I was like, what is this? And she's like, you know, I'll call you back. It's not a big deal. But I think what scared me more than anything was when he was caught yelling at her, it stopped. The kind of guys that, you know, don't want anyone else to see what happens behind closed doors. He was sneaky. 15:09 Soon after this incident, Lori ended her romantic relationship with Doyle. Lori told Jennifer they agreed to be just friends and that he was fine with it. And I was like, no, he's not. 15:21 Nope. People like that aren't just okay with being friends. 15:25 Despite the breakup, Doyle would still drive three hours from Hudson Falls to visit Lori, oftentimes hanging out at the bar where she waitressed late at night. Shawn always called me and He'd call me to get advice. Dorothy Tucker lived down the street from Doyle in Hudson Falls and considered him a close friend. 15:47 I saw a sweet guy who would bend over backwards if I asked him to. 15:54 However, after the relationship with Lori ended, she says Doyle told her he had followed Lori and watched her as she went out on a date. I was like, Sean, you can't do that. 16:06 She does not want to be with you. Were you starting to get concerned about him and his behavior at that point? No, no, because he agreed with me. I didn't see the monster that he really was. He hid it quite well. 16:22 On Friday, April 29, 2005, Lori, who was living with Jennifer, moved to a new rental apartment. 16:29 Usually people are miserable when they're moving. She was just happy. 16:32 Lori's nephew, Dustin Dellator, who was 15 at the time, helped with the move. 16:38 She wanted her own place. She saw her future in that day. 16:42 Also helping with the move was Shawn Doyle, who offered up use of his truck. 16:48 She had asked a couple other people before that, so he was a last resort. He was still playing the I'm your friend. What was Shawn like that day? 16:56 Standoffish, just, I mean, quiet. 16:59 Jennifer says the move went smoothly until Doyle decided to hang around and stayed with Lori in her new place for days. It was starting to get on her nerves now. 17:11 Five days after the move, Jennifer says Lori told her Doyle was finally leaving because Lori had plans to go to Albany for the afternoon. 17:21 She was supposed to go pick up the tickets. Tickets to a Yankees game, a gift from someone she had met at work. Were you concerned at all about her going to pick up tickets from a stranger? Yes, yes. But that was how she was. She was very trusting. On Wednesday, May 4th, Jennifer called Lori in the afternoon, hoping to catch her while she was heading to Albany. And it kept going straight to voicemail. 17:44 Was that weird? Oh, her phone never went straight to voicemail. It was never off. 17:49 At first, Jennifer thought she may have gotten lost on the drive or that her phone battery had died. 17:55 It wasn't a thought at the time that something bad happened, just that... You know, where is she? 18:01 24 hours later, when Lori never called or returned home, Jennifer notified the Chittanango police. 18:09 Patrol started looking into her whereabouts at that time. 18:13 Lead investigator, Wade Irwin, searched Lori's rental apartment. 18:17 She had just moved into the home. 18:19 There were still lots of boxes, items being unpacked. Didn't appear that there was any signs of a break-in or a crime that occurred at the home, but her car was there. 18:30 And he said there was something else unsettling about the scene. 18:34 And there was one shoe in the center of the bed. That was odd. 18:39 Investigator Erwin says he was determined to speak to one person. 18:44 The last person that we were able to determine that saw her was Sean Doyle. 18:51 But before investigators could reach out to Doyle, Jennifer says she tracked down Doyle's number and called him herself. 19:00 Sean, have you talked to Lori? And he goes, no, I haven't talked to her in a couple of days. 19:05 Wasn't she supposed to get tickets the other night? And I'm like, yeah, she was. We haven't heard from her since. I'm like, you know, if she calls you, let us know because... The phone's off, and he's like, oh, yeah, definitely. 19:15 When I hung up, I was like, I had chills. And I'm like, he's full of it. 19:21 He knows something. 19:35 As the days went by, Chinanango investigators reached out to everyone who had contact with Lori Leonard prior to her disappearance, including the man she was supposed to get Yankees tickets from in Albany. 19:49 He was an executive for a company. We were able to track him down. He was interviewed. 19:54 Detective Wade Irwin says the executive waited for Lori in Albany, and when she never showed up, he called her and even left a message. 20:03 who was calling with concern of where she was. We're supposed to meet up, I got the tickets, I'm here, are you okay? I hope an accident didn't happen. 20:12 His alibi checked out, but Lori's phone records would reveal a lot more about another person who hadn't called. 20:20 What became concerning for myself as a person that cared about her, supposedly. 20:28 Sean Doyle? 20:28 Sean Doyle. 20:30 Never called, never left a message. 20:32 When Chittanango police went to interview Lori's former boyfriend, he told them that on the day she disappeared, he left her apartment about 3 p.m. and then drove three hours home to Hudson Falls. 20:46 He just always had said all along that he left her and she was alive at the apartment. 20:52 When they checked out his alibi, Detective Irwin says they couldn't clear him. Yet Doyle was cooperative and even allowed investigators to search his truck and take photos. When they searched Doyle's glove compartment, they found something curious. 21:09 There was a key for the serial number on it. 21:14 as investigators kept an eye out on Doyle and continued to search for Lori. 21:20 Jennifer says her family struggled to explain Lori's disappearance to her two young sons. 21:26 After several days to several weeks, you know something's up. Your mother's not home. But the question is, where is she? What's she doing? 21:33 We would say things like, she got lost, you know, we'll get her, we'll find her. 21:38 To make matters worse, Austin and Zachary were now separated, staying with their fathers and only seeing each other on weekends. 21:47 We'd lived together our whole lives. That was obviously different, you know, waking up every day with, one, your mom's not there, but two, now your brother isn't. 21:54 We were suffering, and every day, Our family was doing something to find her. We were looking for her. We were a well-oiled machine. 22:04 Jennifer suspected Shawn Doyle had something to do with her sister's disappearance. So weeks after Lori vanished, she headed to Hudson Falls and held a demonstration, hoping someone there would know something about Doyle that could help investigators. 22:21 We had posters. We had signs. We had Sean's name up on signs. If anybody will speak to us. 22:28 Dorothy Tucker says when she heard Lori's family was in town, she immediately called Doyle. 22:35 I was like, Sean, what's going on? You know, did you do something? 22:39 I didn't do anything to her. She's probably off on a beach somewhere with some guy. But you believed Sean at the time. Oh, definitely. 22:48 Later that day, when Dorothy passed Lori's family rallying on the streets, she says she did something she has come to deeply regret. 22:58 Like an idiot, I yelled out the window, telling them to go home. Sean didn't do anything, and they needed to leave. 23:08 As months passed with no sign of Lori, the family's hopes began to dwindle. 23:14 I made a promise to find a resolution to this for them and give them the closure and answers that they needed. 23:25 It was disheartening because every night I'd call them and give them an update, regardless of whether there was positive or negative information. 23:35 And then, on July 24, 2005, three months after Lori went missing... We had a report that a fisherman had been going by in this area here. Captain Tony LeClaire is with the Washington County Sheriff's Office. 23:51 He saw what he thought to be a toolbox that goes in the back of a pickup truck floating. 23:56 Thought it may be useful for him, so he grabbed onto it, towed it with his boat about a mile and a half, and then they dragged it out of the water there. 24:04 The box was locked and emitting a foul odor. So police were called. And when they broke open the lock, authorities discovered a body inside. 24:15 And there was contents, pillows, bedding, purse. But right on top was Lori's ID. 24:25 Also in the box was a photo of Lori's two sons. 24:30 She was handcuffed behind her back. 24:33 There was duct tape around the handcuffs. Her feet were bound together and duct taped. Her face from chin to forehead had duct tape. And then once that duct tape was removed, there was a bandana tied in her mouth. 24:51 The medical examiner would rule that Lori died of asphyxiation. 24:56 I couldn't wrap my head around what they were saying. What do you mean she was found in the toolbox, in the water? 25:08 I couldn't accept it. 25:12 Detective Erwin says that's when Sean Doyle went from a person of interest to a suspect in the case. 25:20 Everything started to come together real quickly. We got a search warrant within hours to go to his residence. 25:26 During their search, police found sand tubes in his garage that matched the sand tubes inside the toolbox used to weigh it down. 25:35 We were able to track down in the home similar handcuffs, bandanas, duct tape, other means he used that matched what was used on Lori. 25:46 Remember the key investigators had discovered in Sean Doyle's truck? It matched the lock of the toolbox, tying Doyle directly to the crime. When investigators checked the bridge near the canal where the toolbox was found, they discovered scratches on the bridge railing that matched scratches found on the bottom of the toolbox. Just tell me about what investigators think happened. What was the theory? 26:11 The theory is that he came here with his pickup truck, came to the bridge somewhere in the center of the canal, and took the toolbox and basically just pushed it over the edge. And as he did, it scraped across. 26:24 Just one day after the discovery of Lori's body in the toolbox, investigators arrested Sean Doyle. 26:33 What was that moment like for you? 26:40 Overwhelming. 26:42 Jennifer says it was time to break the news to Lori's two young sons. 26:48 Zachary remembers the moment, even though he was only five years old. 26:52 I felt it as soon as I walked into the room. And I think my dad was the one that said that she's not coming home. I just kind of fell into him and just didn't know how to react. 27:03 I watched a little boy break. 27:06 He said not a word. Then it was time to tell nine-year-old Austin. 27:12 You know, I left out kind of like a shriek and kind of just collapsed in my dad. And I can still kind of feel it. 27:22 And he wailed. 27:25 It wasn't a cry. It was a pained, guttural wail. 27:32 I'll always have that sound in my head. 27:35 Jennifer says she couldn't truly mourn her sister because she had to prepare for Doyle's upcoming trial. I was going to make sure that he got what he deserved. 28:03 In late summer of 2005, Cece Opinowski received a phone call from her father. Her ex-boyfriend, Sean Doyle, had been arrested for murder. 28:14 I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I couldn't believe it. You don't want it to be true, and it's terrible. 28:19 When Cece learned the victim was 33-year-old Lori Leonard, a single mom of two young boys, she said she was overwhelmed with extreme guilt. 28:29 That was a breaking point for me. I felt for her whole entire family and her two young children. 28:37 Cece says she was haunted by the choice she made as a traumatized and scared teenager. And all I can think about is, if I could go back, I would have done it differently. 28:49 I would have pressed my charges much further. 28:53 So just weeks later, when investigators reached out to Cece and asked if she would testify at Doyle's trial, she was determined to help. 29:03 I need to make sure that he is put away for murdering Lori. At this point, now I'm angry. 29:13 I'm not fearful. 29:15 But Cece was not Doyle's only ex-girlfriend who investigators hoped would testify against him. Five years after Doyle attacked Cece, he allegedly tried to kill 23-year-old Sarah Vollmer. 29:29 When the investigators came a couple months ago and got me out of my work. 29:32 48 Hours reached out to Vollmer and received no response. But she did speak with the CBS affiliate in Albany about the attack in 2005. 29:42 He had tied me up with shoelaces and put the duct tape back over my mouth and then just began strangling me until I passed out and then my mother walked in on it. 29:52 Doyle was charged with unlawful imprisonment in the second degree and assault in the third degree. But again, a deal was made. Doyle pleaded guilty only to the charge of unlawful imprisonment. A judge sentenced him to three years probation. 30:09 On January 23, 2006, Sean Doyle's trial began. It was a day that Lori's sister, Jennifer, had waited for. 30:18 I was going to be her advocate. 30:19 I was going to speak for her. 30:22 I was going to speak for the boys. When Doyle entered the courtroom, Jennifer says she was caught off guard because his appearance had changed. What do you look like? Choir boy. 30:33 He'd grown his hair, he had a sweater on. Kevin Courtright, now retired, had only been district attorney for less than a month. He says key to his case was making sure Doyle's other victims, CeCe and Sarah, would be allowed to testify. Oftentimes, judges do not allow a defendant's prior bad acts to be brought into trial. 30:56 Why were the women so crucial? It shows what he's capable of. He'd done it almost exactly the same in the past. It's his modus operandi. It's strong proof. 31:08 Despite the defense's objections, the judge ruled that CeCe and Sarah could testify. But first, D.A. Courtright presented the jury with all the pieces of physical evidence that pointed to Sean Doyle, like the items they found in Doyle's garage and home, the sandbags and handcuffs. And what about that bandana? 31:30 He wore a bandana 24 hours a day. He had bandanas in his bedroom. He had bandanas in his truck. The bandana in Lori's mouth was the one I believe he was wearing that day. 31:40 And then there was that toolbox. Courtright called to the stand a clerk from a local AutoZone store who says she sold Doyle the toolbox just one week before Lori disappeared. 31:53 She identified him perfectly. She even identified his shirt he was wearing. 31:57 And the most important piece of evidence, that key found in his glove compartment that tied Doyle directly to the box. 32:05 That was as strong of evidence as you could get. 32:07 Retired journalist Don Lehman covered the trial for the Poststar newspaper. 32:12 The key to the toolbox was there was no way around that. 32:16 Then Courtright called Dorothy Tucker, Sean's once close friend, to the stand. He says she was a major witness because she provided information as to how they believe Doyle transported Lori's body from Tinanango three hours over to Hudson Falls after he murdered her. He just kept calling me. Dorothy told the jury that the day that Lori disappeared, Doyle stopped by her house. In the back of his truck, she says, was a very large cardboard box. 32:48 I said, Sean, what do you got there? 32:52 So just garbage junk I had at Lori's. 32:55 He says, I'm going to take it to the dump. 32:57 DA Courtright believes Lori's body was in the box and that at some point Doyle transferred her body to the toolbox. 33:05 Dorsey testified just days after his first visit, Doyle showed up at her house again and the cardboard box had been replaced by a large toolbox. 33:16 I walk out and I said, hey, Sean, what do you need a toolbox for? You don't have any tools to put in it. 33:23 And he laughed and yeah, yeah, you know. So then he started saying about a friend. He was going to meet him. They were going to go fishing. 33:33 Dorothy said Doyle told her he was going to fish by the Champlain Lock Canal area, a place he knew well and frequented often. Doyle had even taken Cece there many times when they dated. 33:45 Lori was in the box that day and he was taking her to dump her in the canal where she was later found. 33:52 District Attorney Courtright called CeCe Opinowski as his last witness. 33:57 You always put the best for the last. 33:59 I was very, very nervous. CeCe told the jury about the attack and the long-lasting mental anguish Sean Doyle caused her. 34:09 What did you want Sean Doyle to see? That I wasn't afraid. That you're not my scary anything anymore. When it was the defense's turn, Lehman says they tried to poke holes in the prosecution's case. 34:22 There just was not a lot of holes to poke. 34:26 We reached out to Sean Doyle and members of Doyle's family, but they declined to be interviewed. 34:33 After three long days of testimony, the case went to the jury. 34:39 Lori Leonard's family members held their breath. 34:43 I felt like I hadn't exhaled in months, and that's what I needed. I needed to exhale it. 35:00 Despite all the evidence against Sean Doyle, retired journalist Don Lehman says no one knew which way the jury would rule. 35:08 There have been times that we've seen many cases where the jury does things that just kind of defy the evidence. 35:15 On January 26, 2006, after just two and a half hours of deliberations, the jury came back with a verdict, guilty of second-degree murder. 35:28 When the guilty verdict was read, Laurie Leonard's family burst into cheers and sobs. But Sean Doyle showed little reaction. 35:35 Guilty. Mm-hmm. What went through your mind when you heard that word? 35:40 Thank God. 35:42 Why does it still affect you? 35:45 Because bad things happen to good people. 35:49 I was relieved and happy that he was going to be punished for what he did. 35:56 For Cece, it was difficult to process the fact that a person she once loved was convicted of murder. 36:04 To me, it almost felt like there wasn't a man left inside of him, but more like a monster. 36:09 For your crimes to become worse as you go, to almost perfect them, to think about them in that serial fashion. 36:19 One month later, before Doyle was sentenced, a judge listened to testimony and read over victim impact statements from Lori's friends and family. 36:28 Prison isn't even the right place for someone like him. It's not punishment enough. 36:34 It's a good picture. 36:35 It's a good one. 36:37 Austin and Zachary. Lori's sons were too young to attend trial, but both wrote letters to the judge. 36:45 She let me sleep with her when I was scared and when I see something scary and hear something scary. We used to sing songs we liked the most together. 36:53 I think my mom was the greatest mom in the world. 36:59 My mom, my brother, and I had really great times together. I'm also sad because I will never see my mom anymore. Not because of what happened. 37:21 Sean Doyle was sentenced to the maximum. 25 years to life with the possibility of parole. Was that enough? 37:30 I didn't think so. 37:31 You don't want him getting out? No. There's no forgiveness. 37:35 No way, man. None. None. He's a danger to society. 37:41 And I hope he never gets out. 37:43 Dorothy Tucker, who initially stood by Doyle, says she feels betrayed by him. 37:50 He lied straight to my face. 37:55 And here is someone that I trusted, thought I knew. 38:01 Never saw that side of him. 38:03 Dorothy hopes Lori's family will forgive her for how she previously treated them when they came to rally against Doyle in Hudson Falls. 38:14 I wanted to tell them how sorry I was, and I still am. That was totally uncalled for, and it was unacceptable behavior on my part. 38:23 Don Lehman, who has covered many domestic violence cases in his almost 30 years as a reporter, says there are important lessons that can be learned from CeCe and Sarah's attacks and Lori's murder. 38:36 Every case of domestic violence is a potential homicide. They all have to be taken seriously. They all have to be... 38:42 handled in a way to protect these victims. There's a young woman with two young kids. It's just mind boggling that these kids lost their mom to a guy like this. 38:58 Cece, who bravely came forward to tell her story, hopes that others can learn from her. 39:07 Be vigilant. Look at what's happening in front of you and make sure someone knows. Don't keep it quiet. Pay attention. And when you have that feeling, that one that doesn't go away, you know, the one that you try to push down, that's the one you should listen to the most. 39:31 She says she is ready to let go of the guilt she has felt for what happened to Lori. 39:37 I've waited so long and I've had to live with it for all of these years. 39:46 It's not her fault. It's the system that failed. She did what she had to do. 39:53 I don't blame her. I feel sad that she's felt guilt all this time. 39:57 How do you want your sister to be remembered? 40:01 Lori Ann. 40:04 She So fun, so funny, so loving. 40:10 For Jennifer, she longs for the life she always thought she would have with Lori. 40:16 We were supposed to be living in the same place and going out and raising our kids and having parties. And that's what it was supposed to be. That's what we were supposed to have. And I'm it. 40:30 Just me and the kids trying to get along without her. 40:47 What do you miss the most about Lori? 40:49 In moments where I'm really sad, where I'm like, I just need her to hold me. And she hasn't been able to do that in 20 years. 41:04 Sean Doyle is eligible for parole in 2030. 41:09 August 15th on Paramount+. 41:11 Islam, I'm telling you now, you have a duty to defend that belt against the best, and you're looking at him. If you want this belt, come to the cage. 41:20 Islam Mahashef. 41:21 The best in the world. 41:22 Defends his welterweight crown against Ian Machado Geary. 41:25 I'm coming for that belt. 41:28 When you call your shot, you best not miss. 41:31 I will make you never talk about me again. 41:34 UFC 330, Saturday, August 15th. Free with your Paramount Plus subscription.