A CALIFORNIA COUPLE IS SHOT DEAD, WITH THEIR DAUGHTER'S BODY FOUND BURNED IN A WHEELBARROW - AFTER SEVEN YEARS, INVESTIGATORS THINK THEY HAVE SOLVED THE CASE, BUT A COURTROOM BOMBSHELL CHANGES EVERTHING

"48 HOURS: MURDER IN PINYON PINES"

"48 HOURS" DOUBLE FEATURE TO AIR SATURDAY, JAN. 17, 2015

The body of a beautiful young woman is found burning in a wheelbarrow outside her home. Inside, her mother and her mother's boyfriend are discovered shot dead. It took seven years for investigators to arrest two suspects. It then took one court decision to change everything.

Troy Roberts and 48 HOURS investigate the triple murder and the long quest for the family members left behind to get justice in "Murder in Pinyon Pines," to be broadcast Jan. 17 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. "Murder in Pinyon Pines" is the second part of a Saturday night 48 HOURS double feature, which begins at 8:00 PM, ET/PT, with an updated rebroadcast of "Death at the Parsonage."

On Sept. 17, 2006, someone shot dead Vicki Friedli and her boyfriend, Jon Hayward. Whoever did it then set the house on fire. Outside, investigators found the charred remains of Vicki's daughter, Becky, in a wheelbarrow. She was burned so badly investigators couldn't determine how she died.

"Being in the military and law enforcement, I've seen a lot of people die. I've seen a lot of really bad things," says Vicki's daughter, Tanya Friedli, adding she never thought it would happen to her family. "Nothing could have prepared me... for what actually happened."

"My baby sister was gone," Tanya added.

After the initial shock wore off that her family was gone, along with her childhood home, Tanya had a hunch it was personal. Because of the way her sister was found - "That's hate" - she believed Becky was the target.

Tanya's father, Ron Friedli, Vicki's ex-husband, was looked at as a possible suspect. Friedli was a retired lieutenant in the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. He also had an alibi and agreed to take a polygraph, which he passed with flying colors.

Ron also had a theory about what happened. Because of a childhood incident, Becky was deathly afraid of fire. Being set on fire, Ron surmised, was a clue that she knew the killer, and that the killer was trying to make a point.

Police searched for clues, but told Ron they didn't have enough evidence to make a case. Then, years later, Ron's friend Luis Bola�os, a former colleague at the Riverside County Sheriff's Department and now a private investigator, asked if he could get involved. The investigator told Friedli he could get the case back on the front pages. He, too, was convinced the killer knew the family.

"A lot of evidence pointed toward Robert Pape and Christian Smith," says Bola�os. "Robert Pape was Becky's ex-boyfriend. Christian Smith was Robert Pape's best friend."

Moreover, says Bola�os, both had "an extreme fascination with fire."

Not so, say Pape and Smith's families.

"My son Christian saves lives," says John Conrad Smith, noting his son was a war hero who was awarded two Purple Hearts. "He saved lives in Afghanistan. He doesn't take lives."

"We know Robert, and everyone who knows him knows how ridiculous the accusations are," says Robert's sister, Christy Pape.

Seven years after the murders, police had arrested Pape and Smith and charged them with murdering Vicki and Becky Friedli, and Jon Hayward.

But an unexpected courtroom twist turned the case upside-down. The District Attorney said there was an "issue" in the grand jury proceedings against Pape, and dropped the charges against Pape and Smith.

Roberts and 48 HOURS examine the case through interviews with Friedli's family, with Pape and Smith's family, a private investigator and defense attorneys. 48 HOURS: "Murder in Pinyon Pines" is produced by Lourdes Aguiar and Peter Shaw. Sue McHugh is the development producer. Judy Tygard is the senior producer. Susan Zirinsky is the senior executive producer.

"Murder in Pinyon Pines" is the second part of a Saturday night 48 HOURS double feature. At 8:00 PM, ET/PT, Richard Schlesinger and 48 HOURS report on an apparent suicide in a Pennsylvania church that revealed secrets the local pastor wanted to keep hidden in an updated rebroadcast of "Death at the Parsonage."

The case focuses on the investigation of the suicide of Joseph Musante, who was found slumped over a chair at the Reeders United Methodist Church in Reeders, Pa., seemingly the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot. What shocked the town, though, was the secret affair between Musante's wife, Cindy, and their pastor, Arthur Burton Schirmer, known as AB. Police said Musante killed himself after he discovered his wife's affair with the pastor.

There were other secrets, too. What few knew was that Schirmer had been married twice and that both wives had died suddenly. Were the deaths of his previous wives accidents as he claimed, or something more sinister?

48 HOURS: "Death at the Parsonage" is produced by Sarah Prior, Chuck Stevenson and Lauren Clark. Doreen Schechter and Gregory F. McLaughlin are the editors. Judy Tygard is the senior producer. Susan Zirinsky is the senior executive producer.

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