Lester Holt

Walking around like he hadn't almost lost a child.

He was just going around living his everyday life, and he was living it with Allison.

Then, in June of 2005, help came from a surprising source.

Delbert's new wife.

Allison reached out to Patricia Lee's sister with a story, and Sharon encouraged her to go tell it to Detective Madrigal.

She said that her and Delbert had had an argument.

And she now has something pretty explosive to say.

Yes.

And he blurted out that if I left him, that he would do the same thing to me that he did to Patricia.

Allison told the detective that Delbert went on to explain how he set the fire to ignite after he left the house.

He told me that before he left for work that morning, he purposely set a cigarette, a lit cigarette,

I guess, up against or by some wiring that he made sure that it was faulty, down, pulled down to where he knew it would cause a spark.

And he left for work.

Allison's essentially giving you a confession here.

I mean, it's secondhand from her, but she's saying that he confessed.

Yes.

A couple weeks after that interview, the detective had a plan for what to do next.

Detective Madrigal says she refused to wear a wire.

Apparently, whatever fight she'd been having with Delbert was over.

Jessica heard from her mom that Allison backed off out of fear.