Melissa Calusinski

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right in the center. I know. His head hit right between the tile and the carpet, actually. Okay. Really hard. Really hard. Yeah.

Yes. Right.

Yeah. And you throw him on the floor?

Right in the center. I know. His head hit right between the tile and the carpet, actually. Okay. Really hard. Really hard. Yeah.

But the prosecution did have those jailhouse informants who took the stand and swore that Josh had confessed to the murder, and then a surprise witness. You went to the trial? Yes, ma'am.

Although Chantel Kreider could only see the back of Keizer's head in court, she whispered to a friend that she thought she recognized him as a young man who had argued with Michelle at a Halloween party just one week before her murder.

Finally, the connection the prosecutor needed. Chantel was questioned for hours by Sheriff Bill Farrell and became the state's star witness. So you took the stand, and what did you say on the stand? I believed it was Josh. Also on the stand, Mark Abbott, the man who had reported seeing Michelle Lawless in her car the night of her murder.

Once again, he identified Josh as the driver of the white car he saw near the crime scene. But the defense pointed out that Abbott had reported seeing several men that night and had given conflicting descriptions.

No physical evidence tied Josh to the murder. This is the leather jacket that they... But the prosecutor told the jury that tests showed there was blood on Josh's jacket and a car he was driving. At the end of the trial, the jury was out just three and a half hours.

Guilty of second degree murder in the death of Michelle Lawless.

Josh Kieser's sentence, 60 years in prison. Josh was sent to a notorious prison known as The Walls, the Missouri State Penitentiary. Now closed, it was such a violent place. It was once called the bloodiest 47 acres in America. And for nearly 10 years, Josh lived right here in housing unit four, cell number 99.

In 2005, more than 12 years after finding Michelle Lawless shot dead in her car... Yeah, I go by here a lot. Rick Walger was no longer a part-time deputy. He was now the sheriff of Scott County.

For years, Walter had nagging doubts about the conviction of Josh Kieser.

So as first order of business, the new sheriff did something extraordinary. He reopened Josh Kieser's case. You must know how incredibly unusual that is.

But Walter, with a wife and three children, quickly discovered that his decision to get to the truth made some people very uncomfortable. You've had death threats? Sure, sure. Undeterred, Walter hired an investigator from another county, Brandon Cade, who knew nothing about the case, to conduct an independent review of the files. At first, Cade thought he was wasting his time.

But as he dug through the files, that rock-solid case began to crumble.

Remember those jailhouse informants who claimed Josh had confessed? After getting better deals in exchange for their testimony, these three later admitted they lied. And there's more.

And this was evidence that supposedly tied him to the murder.

The jury had been told that luminol tests done on this jacket and a car Kieser borrowed indicated drops of blood.

It wasn't blood at all.

And yet the jury in Josh's trial heard it was.

And what about the surprise star witness, Chantel Crider, who connected Josh Kieser to Michelle at the Halloween party? And in fact, did Chantel see Josh at a party? Did she see him arguing with Michelle Longs? No. Was he even at that party? No. How do you know for a fact Josh Kieser wasn't at that party? Dawn Pierce hosted the Halloween party.

Because I know every guy that was there that was not a strange man to me. So why did Chantel testify that Josh was there? She now says she was pushed hard by the then sheriff, Bill Farrell. Did you feel pressured in that room?

Just days after the verdict, Don Pierce and another girl who was at the party went to Keizer's attorney and provided a sworn statement.

That list was given to Sheriff Farrell. But somehow, the information went nowhere.

Jason Lawless believes there was a lot of pressure on Sheriff Farrell to find his sister's killer.

And you're trying to make it right.

Rick Walter was about to find out he wasn't all alone in his search for the truth.

Jane Williams was a church volunteer at the Missouri State Prison where Josh Kieser was serving out his sentence.

Armed with her passion, Jane wrote a detailed summary and found lawyers willing to take Kieser's case for free. In December of 2008, after spending more than 15 years in prison, Josh finally got what he wanted. Judge Richard Callahan agreed to review his case. Witness after witness testified for Josh. They followed her. They got the wrong guy. Including a tearful Chantel Crider.

But will it be enough to convince a judge to order a new trial?

Two long months passed after the court hearing. Josh Kieser sat in prison, afraid to get his hopes up. And then on February 17, 2009, Judge Richard Callahan made an unusual ruling. Instead of ordering a new trial, he went ahead and declared Josh Kieser an innocent man. As you sit here today, do you believe that Josh Kieser had anything to do with the murder of Michelle Lawless?

The very next day, Kieser walked out of prison, a free man for the first time in 16 years. He hugged his mother. He hugged James Williams, the social worker who had championed his case.

Both the prosecutor, Kenneth Holschoff, and former Sheriff Bill Farrell have declined our request for interviews. But in court documents, Farrell denies any wrongdoing.

And Holschoff has said publicly he still believes Kieser's guilty. What do you think of that?

Sheriff Walters still believes it was someone Michelle knew.

That's right. Mark Abbott, once a star witness for the prosecution. Now, Abbott's account that night raises questions. Questions starting with what he says he did when he found Michelle in her car.

What's wrong with that story? The side window was only partly open. Not wide enough, says the sheriff, to fit Mark's story.

Did you kill Michelle Lawless?

But there are a lot of people in this town who think you did.

A lot of people think I did. I've also spoken to a number of people who've said, you've bragged about it. One of them was Ron Burton, a gun shop owner and longtime friend of Abbott's family. Burton remembers one chilling conversation with Abbott soon after Keizer was convicted.

Do you think he was kidding?

Abbott denies ever saying that. You're saying that Ron Burton is lying? Lying. There's also an affidavit from a narcotics detective who says Abbott told him that he didn't kill Michelle but watched another man do it. Were you there when someone else killed her? No.

Why would so many people think you're capable of something like this that they'd point the finger?

Why?

I do not. Abbott says he never met Michelle, but her close friend Melissa Gaines has a different recollection. Did Michelle ever mention a Mark Abbott?

In fact, there are two Abbott boys. They're identical twins.

which is why to this day the sheriff isn't absolutely sure which Abbott brother came in to report finding Michelle. Two people in the sheriff's office say it was Matt.

Mark and Matt Abbott were later convicted on federal drug charges in 1997, making some people in town wonder if maybe Michelle Lawless had something on them.

Along with Abbott, Sheriff Walter hasn't ruled out Leon Lamb, the last person to admit to seeing Michelle Lawless alive. Did you have anything to do with Michelle Lawless's death?

You know that your DNA was found under her fingernails?

And how do you explain that?

But Leon confirms what Michelle wrote in her diary, that the couple had frequent arguments, especially when he saw her with other men. And in fact, the night of her murder, Michelle had run into Leon while she was driving around with male friends. Did that bother you?

Did she leave the house upset with you or angry with you at all?

These are only two of a half dozen suspects. Looked like from the pictures that there was some blood transfer. And Sheriff Walter needs more than theories and speculation. This is kind of like behind the knee, right? He needs hard evidence. To find it, he went all the way to the Netherlands, to a place known as the crime farm.

Halfway around the world from Scott County, Missouri, there's a rustic house in the Netherlands known as the Crime Farm.

Dutch forensic experts Selma and Richard Eichlenbaum began the painstaking process of trying to find a killer's DNA. Using techniques not widely available in the U.S., Richard first examines the material with crime scopes. What we're looking for is small stains. Which emit different kinds of light to locate normally invisible spots of skin cells or other material.

It's like this. Those spots will be tested for what's called touch or grip DNA. Number one. They'll compare what they find with DNA samples from the people of interest on the sheriff's list. They didn't have Mark Abbott's DNA, so they're using a sample from his identical twin, Matt. Is the DNA of identical twins identical, completely identical?

The Dutch team made an intriguing discovery that raises even more doubts about Mark Abbott's story, of how he pulled Michelle upright in her seat that night.

But the Dutch couple say they found what is likely Abbott DNA in other places on Lawless's clothes. I mean, did you just grab the shoulder? Did you grab more of her body to pull her up? Do you remember?

In December 2009, Mark Abbott was moved temporarily from the federal prison where he was doing time on those drug charges to Missouri for a hearing on an unrelated charge. Abbott agreed to talk to Sheriff Walter about the lawless case, even offering his own DNA sample, which was shipped off to the crime farm for additional testing. And what about Leon Lamb?

The Dutch confirm that Lamb's DNA is mixed with Michelle's blood that was found under her fingernails. No surprise, since Lamb says he had sex with Michelle earlier the night she was killed. But they don't find anyone else's DNA. And that is something of a surprise, since it appears Michelle fought her attacker.

A reason to continue looking at Leon, says Sheriff Walter, although he points out Michelle may not have made contact with her assailant.

So far, none of the team's findings point conclusively to any one suspect, but Selma Eichlenbaum believes the findings can help the sheriff get someone to talk.

Sheriff Walter is hoping that those DNA results and further investigation will allow him to go to a grand jury soon.

Who are they afraid of, or what are they afraid of?

Six months after Josh Kieser was released, we took him back to the now closed prison where he served most of his nearly 16 years in custody. It's now being redeveloped as a museum and office park. What's it like to be in here?

And where'd you sleep?

When you look around here, how would you describe your life now?

Josh got a job working construction. His own apartment. And he often speaks about his experience advocating for judicial reform. He remains close with James Williams and enjoys strong support from his church community. He insists he is not bitter.

Which might explain why he was so eager to assist with the prison renovation. Do you believe that Michelle's death will be solved? That you will find out who killed her?

To this day, Michelle Lawless's family remains tormented by the mystery of her senseless murder.

More than 19 years have passed since 19-year-old Michelle Lawless was found bludgeoned and shot to death in her car. Some of this stuff's hard to read. And it's still not easy for her best friend to read the cheery diary that Michelle kept the last year of her life.

Melissa Gaines met Michelle when they were high school freshmen in Benton, Missouri.

While Michelle stood barely five feet tall... She was just little bitty. She was tiny. She was no lightweight. She was a green belt in karate, halfway to earning a black belt.

Which is why what happened in the early morning hours of November 8, 1992 was so unexpected, so shocking. How brutal a murder was this?

That's Rick Walder, the man with the mustache. He was a 32-year-old part-time deputy sheriff when he discovered the body of Michelle Lawless.

Police documented the grisly scene using blood evidence to reconstruct Michelle's final terrifying moments.

There was also blood under Michelle's fingernails and marks on her right hand and wrist suggesting she had fought her assailants.

It wasn't until investigators searched her car and found three spent shell casings from a 380 handgun that they realized Michelle had been shot too.

At the same time Rick Walter was working the crime scene, a 23-year-old local man walked into the sheriff's office with a surprising story.

Mark Abbott reported that he had also seen the woman in the car.

No. Abbott told the dispatcher he thought the woman had been shot and that he tried to call 911, but a nearby pay phone was out of order.

As he was leaving, Abbott saw, as he described to investigators, a white car with several dark-skinned Hispanic men driving away from the crime scene.

Michelle's family got the news when authorities came to their door.

Jason Lawless was 15 when his older sister was killed.

How would you describe the effect on your family?

The first suspect was, of course, the last person to admit seeing Michelle alive, the boyfriend she stopped to see, Leon Lamb. What time did she arrive at your house?

And what time did she leave?

Was Michelle your first love?

And from the entries in her diary, Michelle clearly loved Leon, but they also argued frequently. Michelle was hurt that Leon was seeing other girls.

But that night, says Leon, things were fine, although he remembers Michelle was reluctant to leave his house.

Investigators looked closely at Leon, but they could find nothing to tie him to the scene and he passed a polygraph. Did you think it could be Leon?

Weeks went by with few other leads and no arrests. And then finally, four months after Michelle's murder, a break, a big one. Several inmates at the county jail reported that a 17-year-old Illinois boy, who had been held there briefly on an assault charge, had confessed to killing Michelle Lawless. His name was Joshua Kieser.

When Mark Abbott was shown a photo lineup, he picked out Kieser as the driver he saw near the crime scene. Did you say, yeah, this is the guy I saw. I know this is it.

That's all investigators needed. Joshua Kieser was charged with the first degree murder of Michelle Lawless.

Michelle's family and friends were just as stunned. Had you ever heard your sister mention the name Josh Kieser?

Had you ever heard the name Josh Kieser? No.

Valerie Eubanks is Michelle Lawless's kid sister.

You don't want it to be true. Esther Lawless is their mother. What do you know about her last hours, who she was with?

In the days before November 7th and 8th, did Michelle express any kind of concerns or being afraid of anybody? Not to us, no. Do you think that Michelle would have stopped for a stranger on the street?

Which is what made the arrest of Joshua Kieser so puzzling. There's no mention of him anywhere in Michelle's diary. Had you ever met her? Heard her name?

Josh certainly fit the type. He was a 17-year-old dropout and rumored to be a gang member. He came from a broken home, bouncing between his parents and living on the street.

Even though Josh insisted he was 350 miles away the night of the murder, investigators hauled him into the office of Bill Farrell, the Scott County Sheriff back then.

More than a year later, in June of 1994, Josh Kieser got his day in court. What did you believe would happen at the trial?