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NANCY GRACE

Nancy Grace Mysteries -- Perry March

Aired December 20, 2012 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PERRY MARCH, CHARGED WITH WIFE`S MURDER: I walk around with my head straight up. I didn`t do anything wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whether it`s talking from his home in Chicago...

PERRY MARCH: So look for Janet and stop looking at Perry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... or talking from his lawyer`s office in downtown Nashville, Perry March has the same message.

PERRY MARCH: I want them to find my wife. I don`t care what it takes and what they have to do to find Janet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was two weeks before she was reported missing to police and even longer before her car was found abandoned here at the Brixworth apartments off Harding Road. It wasn`t long before Perry March was singled out by police as the prime suspect in her disappearance and possible death.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s a fiasco. It`s more untruths, speculation, hearsay piled on top of the other. I don`t even want to comment on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Janet and Perry March had an almost textbook romance. They met when they were both away at college and almost instantly fell in love. He became a fixture in her family.

Now, his mother was dead. He had a father who was a pharmacist. She had both parents living. Her father was a prominent attorney in the Nashville area. And Perry March seemed to just fit right in. They loved him. They embraced him, as did she.

In fact, they paid for him to go to law school, at a very prestigious law school, Vanderbilt, and got him all the way through law school. He and Janet married and they had two beautiful children. I believe that they were 2 and 5 years old at the time when Janet went missing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police believe March is responsible for the 1996 disappearance of his first wife, Janet. He`s charged with her murder. A crime March insists he didn`t commit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you kill your wife?

PERRY MARCH: The answer is no. And for nine years, over nine years now, I think, I`ve been consistent in my denial of any wrongdoing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After nine years, Perry March has his own theories about why he`s now been arrested. He says he`s a political football, and he`s eager to get the facts in front of a jury.

PERRY MARCH: I have great faith in the people of Tennessee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: The circumstances surrounding the disappearance of mother of two Janet March are very, very unusual. Nothing was out of the ordinary. When she was finally reported missing, her husband Perry March, told police that she was exhausted and frustrated and fed up, that she claimed all of the duties at the home for cleaning the home, taking care of the home, organizing the home, all the home finances, raising the children, their schooling -- everything was on her, that all he did was go to work at a law firm. And she was just completely strung out and at her wit`s end, was doing everything.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Former Nashville attorney Perry March appeared in criminal court via a videoconference link with the metro jail, this time to answer charges that he tried to get a hitman to kill his former-in-laws, Lawrence and Carolyn Levine. The arraignment took less than 15 minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We arraigned Perry. We entered a plea of not guilty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: March already faces a laundry list of charges. In addition to conspiracy to commit murder, he`s also accused of killing his first wife, Janet, in 1996. And there are charges that he stole money from Lawrence Levine`s law firm. For Judge Steve Dozier, it`s becoming headache to find room on the court calendar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: He went on to say that his wife had written a document called "Janet`s 12-day vacation." And it enumerated all the things she wanted him to do while she went on vacation.

He did not tell police where she said she was going or where she was staying or at the hotel. I mean, was she going skiing? Was she going scuba diving? Was she going to go lay in the sun at Miami beach? Nobody knew. Was she going to a spa out West? Nothing, just that she had gone away for a 12-day vacation, for a break from all of her many duties, on the list things like clean out the basement, change the lightbulbs, balance the checkbook. They`re fairly mundane things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police searched the March house from top to bottom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We vacuumed all the floors. We collected the vacuum bags out of the vacuums that belonged here. We even processed these hardwood floors for fingerprints and palm prints.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it was what police didn`t find that bothered them the most.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the items specified in the search warrant was a computer inside the home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Perry said that when Janet left, that she had typed out a note, basically, a contract between the two of them for him to sign.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That list was practically the only piece of evidence that backed up Perry`s story. But the police didn`t believe him. In fact, they wanted to see the computer hard drive because they believed it would show that Perry, not Janet, had written the list. Problem was, the hard drive was missing. Someone else had gotten to it first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you remove the hard drive on your computer?

PERRY MARCH: Absolutely not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: From the CBS News "48 Hours."

About two weeks later, Janet`s Volvo was found parked some distance away from the home. It was not stolen. It was not ever reported stolen. It had not been stripped down. It wasn`t found at a chop shop. It was just parked inconspicuously, innocuously, and ultimately found.

It was then that police formally named him a suspect in her disappearance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Perry March is a person accused of the same charges that he was previously accused of. I would expect those charges at this time to eventually be resolved by a jury, and Perry March looks forward to putting the case before a jury.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The big question now is, will Arthur March testify against his son?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s a possibility, and if that comes about, we`ll deal with it at that time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His testimony would be absolutely devastating for any defense that Perry March would have, you know. You`ve got an eyewitness to the hiding of the body. You`ve got Perry March`s father testifying against him after all these media stories and interviews that he`s done saying his son was innocent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Now, how long had she really been missing is the question. But that is when police confirmed their suspicions that something was horribly wrong.

Other milestones in the following months came and passed. For instance, her son`s birthday party, for which she had already sent out invitations -- she missed the party. She didn`t come home from her vacation for her son`s birthday party. She missed the first day at kindergarten. Those are milestones you don`t miss. You move heaven and earth to be there for those days. I know. She didn`t show up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: When Janet March missed those milestones, her parents were beside themselves. Now, her parents were not to be trifled with. Janet March`s father, also a high-powered lawyer in the Nashville area -- he knew something was wrong from the very get-go. His daughter stayed in touch with them religiously, and she just dropped off the map.

And then to add to the curiosity, Perry March packs up his two children, ages 2 and 5, and moves them out of the Nashville area all the way to Chicago. Now, that means he moves them away from their grandparents with whom they were very, very close. He moves them away, uproots them, takes them out of school -- this is after they`re already missing their mother -- and moves them to Chicago. He`s not even practicing law in Chicago. He practices law in Nashville, in Tennessee.

He had one relative in his corner, and that that was his father, as I mentioned earlier, a local pharmacist. And that`s very important because his father, Perry March`s father, plays a big role in the police investigation, as you will see.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found Arthur, and he agreed to sit down for an exclusive in-depth interview. He tells me he`s innocent, and for now, Arthur says he has no intention of returning to the United States to face charges.

ARTHUR MARCH, PERRY MARCH`S FATHER: Yes, the offense of first-degree murder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arthur March heard he had been indicted for conspiracy to kill the Levines, but he had his doubts until we showed him the true bill at his home in Ajijic, Mexico.

There`s your name right at the top, Arthur Wayne March and Perry March. There`s the indictment.

Arthur says he still can`t believe it and calls it all a setup.

ARTHUR MARCH: The guy was never here. So that`s entrapment. They used the FBI to try to entrap me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In this exclusive interview, Arthur says Nashville prosecutors and the FBI used Russell Farris to snare him in a bogus murder for hire plot. Farris was in jail with Arthur`s son, Perry March. Detectives say Perry and his father tried to hire Farris to kill the Levines.

ARTHUR MARCH: I don`t know what Perry did with this guy. I don`t know anything about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arthur does know he`s unsure about returning to Nashville to face the charges. He and his Nashville attorney, Dan Alexander (ph), are discussing his options. But for now, Arthur is staying put in Mexico. He is aware of how authorities grabbed Perry in August after he was charged with killing his wife Janet, the Levines` daughter.

Now, Perry March was arrested at this very spot back in August outside the restaurant he owns. Arthur doesn`t doubt the same fate may now await him, but he`s ready.

If they try, will you go willingly?

ARTHUR MARCH: I don`t go peacefully. No, I don`t go like Perry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you go?

ARTHUR MARCH: There`ll be some blood spread somewhere, whether it`s theirs or mine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arthur now keeps a low profile in Ajijic and is rarely seen without his dog, Oney (ph), by his side.

ARTHUR MARCH: He`s a Doberman. He takes care of me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arthur says he`s 77 years old, but still able to protect himself.

ARTHUR MARCH: I`m a big boy. I take care of myself. Carry my cane, that`s all I do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The innocent-looking cane hides a razor-sharp two- foot blade. Arthur says the point is he`s innocent and will do what`s necessary to protect himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Well, all the suspicion in the world cannot a formal indictment make. And it was almost 10 years later that Perry March was finally arrested in the death of his young wife, Janet March.

Janet had been an artist. She was a children`s book illustrator and was very loving, very creative, had this incredible bond with her two children. And this is the story that emerged, that Perry March and Janet March apparently had some type of a very volatile argument. And during that argument, he killed her.

Now, where do we get this information? We get this information because of loose lips. The old saying, I cannot stress enough, loose lips sink ships because once Perry March was brought home from Mexico where he had gone, he was behind bars. And while he was behind bars, he stupidly cooks up a plot with another inmate to kill Janet`s parents.

Of course, it`s a plant. Of course, the inmate talks to save his own skin in the case in which he is suspected. So all of this maneuvering and conspiring and twisting of tale and gnashing of teeth of this inmate of how they`re going to kill Janet`s-in-laws because he truly believes that Janet`s family is the only thing that is keeping him behind bars -- he truly believes there is no evidence, that have somehow Janet`s father had gotten a grand jury to indict him, and because of the father-in-law, he`s going to going to jail or he`s going to go to trial.

So what`s his answer? To kill his in-laws. And who does he enlist? Another inmate with a lot to gain by blabbing to police.

Now, they need help on the outside, outside prison walls. That is where the father comes in because during all this conspiring, he admits that he kills Janet March in the middle of an argument, that he picks up a household tool and smacks her across the face, and that was the beginning of her death.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Many people believe he hid her body inside a rolled-up rug. But after much questioning and after much investigation with this jailhouse inmate, March`s -- Perry March`s own father pleads guilty to conspiracy, to conspiracy to commit murder -- not the murder of the young wife so many years before, but Perry March reels in his own father to help kill the in- laws. The jailhouse plot goes awry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is he a snitch? Is he a hitman?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, it`s all about choices and decisions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-eight-year-old Russell Nathaniel Farris is something of a mystery man. But one thing is certain. He is the key witness in the murder conspiracy case against Perry March and his father, Arthur.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People can call you snitch. You have to be in protective custody. How hard is that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you know, it`s difficult, but it`s just something that I`ve got to go through right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that it`s something that he feels very confident about what he`s doing and that it`s very important.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Late last summer, Farris, facing attempted murder charges, found himself in a cell next to Perry March, already charged in the murder of his wife, Janet. Farris says March tried to hire him to kill Janet`s parents, Lawrence and Carolyn Levine. He alerted prosecutors and agreed to wear a wire, recording conversations in person with March and by phone with March`s father, Arthur, in Mexico, something Arthur admitted.

ARTHUR MARCH: The guy has called me three times. I`ve never called him. He`s always called me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tapes of those conversations are now the centerpiece of the conspiracy case against Perry and Arthur March. Farris would not talk about his role as a hired killer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is he getting special treatment? Is he intelligent? Is he a thug?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you a hitman?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Of course, we`re not going to go into anything like that. But I`ll answer that. Of course he`s not a hitman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Farris will talk in detail if and when he testifies in court. For now, he`s been moved from jail in Davidson (ph) to Williamson County for his own safety.

RUSSELL FARRIS, INMATE, HELPED POLICE WITH MARCH INVESTIGATION: You know, I don`t want no trouble at all, but I mean, I`m -- you know, it`s just -- you know, I mean, it`s just certain things that happen in jail.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In this exclusive interview, Farris says many of his fellow inmates know him and consider him a snitch.

Do they all know who you are?

FARRIS: Yes. I mean, we`ve got a TV. It`s kind of difficult, but I mean, you know, it`s just something I`ve got to go through right now, and I can handle it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And when police finally get that big break and get March`s father to talk, he describes the whole incident about how he helped his son bury Janet`s body. He even volunteers to lead them -- this is almost 10 years later -- to lead them to the mother of two`s dead body, the remains. All these years later, she`s been laying there buried.

He gets to the location, can`t find the body. Why? Because in all the years that have ensued, there have been bulldozers and construction sites and roads and homes built -- can no longer find her body. Her body to this day has never been found.

Her children have no idea where their mother`s remains are. That is the legacy Perry March has left for his children.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Initially, Perry`s story made sense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His story was she went on a vacation and she was going to be back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And she said, See you. And she started her Volvo and she drove off. The further along the investigation went, didn`t make much sense.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is not a woman that would ever leave her children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Within days of her reported disappearance, his actions became suspicious. He would not consent to any police interview. We believe that Perry killed Janet March the night of August 15th, 1996, between 8:00 and 9:00 PM.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With the kids upstairs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Asleep.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no evidence that anything has happened to Janet.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Metro Police have searched high and low for Janet March.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prosecuting someone without a body is not an easy thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: That was video from CBS News "48 hours."

Very often you hear no body, no case. That`s entirely incorrect. The state has to build a circumstantial case, for instance, in the case of missing mother Janet March. So what did they bring on at trial?

And they bring on a witness from the apartment complex where Janet`s Volvo found two weeks after she goes on vacation. Parked innocuously, windows not broken, not stolen or stripped down, but what was interesting about what the witness had to say is that he happened to see the night the Volvo appeared at his apartment complex, a man on a bicycle riding away from the Volvo. This is in the dark of night.

That fits into the police theory that Perry March kills his wife, puts a bicycle in the back of the car, leaves the car parked, gets on the bicycle, and rides back home. So no one would ever see his car leaving or going in the middle of the night, plus, he didn`t need any help. He didn`t need anybody to follow him over there to leave the car. He never suspected that he had actually been spotted leaving his wife`s Volvo.

Now the guy would not positively identify Perry March, but he said it was a guy that looked just like Perry March. On a bicycle leaving the Volvo in the middle of the night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Without direct evidence, without an eyewitness and without a body, the key question prosecutors want any potential juror to answer is simple.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Without such testimony, if you don`t hear about the recovery of a body, would you be able to find the defendant guilty of murder?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bernie McAvoy, a veteran of the district attorney`s office in Davidson County is now a defense lawyer. He says the age, race, sex, even the economic status of a juror are not critical. He says it comes down to issues and the burden of proof in this case is substantial for the state.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The injury is told for you to convict the state must have eliminated every other reasonable possibility except for guilt.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Former Nashville lawyer Perry March came to Metro Court wanting bond on charges of murdering his wife. Brother Ron March testified that Perry would not be a flight risk because his two children are now living here in Nashville.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we would probably do is have an apartment located in the area and pay the rent for him, expenses for him to reside here during this time period.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: March had been living in Mexico with his children until being arrested last month nine years after his wife Janet disappeared. March`s lawyer asked a former top investigator in the case about direct evidence linking March to his wife`s death.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We felt like we had developed and we were wanting to continue to develop a strong case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the answer was no to that question?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It wasn`t exactly no.

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST, HLN`S "ISSUES WITH JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL": Even though Janet`s body was never recovered and they say no body, no case, no, in this case, prosecutors had a very strong case against Perry March.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Carol and Larry would not let me report it. They were very concerned that if we reported something to the authorities it would end up embarrassing Janet.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But Larry and Carolyn Levine say it was Perry March who didn`t want to call the police.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Perry insisted he didn`t want to go to the police. He wanted to go see a private investigator.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They say they wanted to go to the authorities and you`re the one who insisted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, that`s -- they not go to the authorities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I can say to you is that that`s an outright lie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did it take you two weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s my mistake, that`s my mistake. Because I was living with these people. I loved these people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Biggest mistake we ever made but Perry kept telling us, you know, maybe she went here, maybe she went there. He said - -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unfortunately, I believed him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We believed him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believed him, but I guess I was suspicious.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I think the key piece of evidence against him was the day after Janet disappeared is the day she was supposed to visit a divorce attorney to proceed with a divorce against Perry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Carolyn Levine couldn`t help thinking about the conversation she had with Janet on the day she disappeared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She asked me to go with her the next day to see a divorce lawyer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Also, brought on was the cleaning woman, the March`s cleaning woman. She said there were numerous inconsistencies aberrant behaviors. For instance, when she got to the home, Perry March told her, don`t go in the children`s playroom. It`s a big mess. I`ve got the door shut. Leave it alone. That had never happened in all the time she had been cleaning for the Marches.

Also, she said that she got into the bathroom where Janet March, it was her bathroom, and it had already been meticulously cleaned, that Janet always left a lot of hair in the sink and the bathtub. There was no hair. Translation, somebody had cleaned the bathroom.

That day, Janet was very, very upset. Now this is the day leading up to what we believe was the murder that evening. Janet was very, very upset that she went into the home office and she stayed on the computer for hours on end. She said Janet had never done that before ever. Now Janet was an artist. She illustrated children`s books. Why was she typing away on a computer?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Come to find out, another piece of the puzzle. Janet had an appointment with a divorce lawyer the very next day. Many people believe that that afternoon spent hours on the computer, Janet was drumming up and writing up a document as ammo, so to speak, in her divorce against lawyer Perry March.

Now normally you could verify that by looking at the computer. But Perry March`s own father says that March instructed him to go back and rip out the hard drive of the computer that Janet had been using. There was no forensic evidence left to be obtained from the computer because of that.

Perry March`s father, a retired pharmacist, says that March instructed him to go back to the home to go clean around the kitchen door, to look for blood, to look for blood in the driveway. He says he went back. He didn`t see any blood but in an abundance of caution trying to protect his own son, he cleaned the kitchen door and the driveway anyway.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The murder case against Perry March unfolds with each passing week. Tonight, prosecutors have filed a court document which raises the idea that co-conspirators could have been involved if disposing of Janet March`s body. One of the three names mentioned is Perry March`s father, Arthur.

ARTHUR MARCH, PERRY MARCH`S FATHER: Why the hell would anybody say I`m a conspirator or a co-conspirator? Wasn`t even near the joint.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: From his home in Mexico, Arthur March says he`s angry about the district attorney`s mention of his name as someone possibly involved in the case.

A. MARCH: Well, how the hell do I get to be a co-conspirator? Am I indicted or unindicted? What the hell`s he talking about?

JOHN HERBISON, PERRY MARCH`S ATTORNEY: Well, it seems to me to be pretty highly irresponsible.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Perry March`s attorney John Herbison questions the use of the word co-conspirator in the recently filed document.

HERBISON: But it seems to be a matter of just throwing stuff out there irrespective of whether there`s factual support and seeing what sticks.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Also named Morris Cliner who is now deceased. As for Arthur March, he says he`d sue the D.A.`s office if he lived in the United States because he says he had nothing to do with the crime he believes never happened.

A. MARCH: How the hell could I do something to her? If they don`t know where the hell she is, the girl walked off, her son waved at her.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The Perry March case is one day closer to trial and the theories and questions continue to grow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Perry March`s father detailed hours-long testimony about the day he helped Perry March hide Janet`s dead body. He said that when Janet first went missing, he, the father, immediately came up from Mexico to help take care of the two children while they looked for Janet. He said that after a few days had passed, Perry March divulged Janet didn`t go on vacation. That she was dead. He said she died by accident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We the jury find the defendant Perry A. March guilty of the theft of property.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Perry March`s theft conviction seemed the least of his problems, an absolute maximum of 20 months in jail with good behavior, but legal experts say it is a sign that Perry March may never see Mexico again.

MARK HENDERSON, TRIAL LAWYER: If I were Mr. March`s defense team, I would be doing everything in my power to get a plea bargain deal accepted.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Trial lawyer Mark Henderson said the word around the courthouse was that the theft case was the weakest of the three cases against March.

HENDERSON: Well, if that`s the weakest case, the prosecution will get convictions in the next two cases because the prosecution put on an exceptionally strong trial.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Henderson believes the problem may now be agreeing on a deal. March faces between 41 and 83 years in prison. The thought is whatever was on the table before the theft trial is not on the table now. The deal will definitely change.

HENDERSON: In this instance, the prosecution would be well within their rights to say to the defense, hey, you rolled the dice. You got convicted. The possible deal goes up now.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The solicitation to commit murder and the conspiracy to commit murder charges represent more combined jail time than the original charges of theft in the Janet March murder. It is easy to argue this conspiracy plot did more to hurt Perry March than any witness charge or previous evidence.

ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: The huge break in the case came when Arthur March, Perry March`s own father, turned against him. He pled guilty in the conspiracy case to murder the Levines, Perry March`s in-laws, Janet March`s parents, and Arthur March told police about the disposal of Janet March`s body.

Arthur March says shortly after he arrived, his son Perry admitted to him that Janet March was dead and then asked for his help in moving the body.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was your daughter-in-law. How could you do something like that?

A. MARCH: Because I was -- what I was doing was for my son. At this point in time, she was not my daughter-in-law anymore. She was just a dead body.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was what, just a sack of bones and clothing? It wasn`t anything any more precious to you than that?

A. MARCH: No, it was something that had to be destroyed so that I could save my son.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Now the body in Nashville, Tennessee, in the heat there, had been decomposing at a rapid rate. The father describes how Janet`s body was already pretty much skeletonized by the time he saw the body, by the time they moved it to its next location.

And a renowned medical examiner, a scientist came on and testified confirming that that would have been the condition of her body in Nashville during those days and under those conditions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMMY MARCH, PERRY MARCH`S SON: She told me that she`d be back soon.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The defense introduces this television interview from 2001 with Perry March`s son, Sammy.

S. MARCH: She came in and gave me my good night kiss, and then I got out of bed and went to the window to wave to her when she was driving away in the car.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The last person to take the stand is Perry March himself.

PERRY MARCH, ACCUSED OF KILLING WIDE: Perry March.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The man who, for 10 years, has proclaimed his innocence.

P. MARCH: I don`t believe my wife is dead. I didn`t do anything wrong. I have no idea what happened that night.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Suddenly now has nothing to say.

P. MARCH: I choose not to testify.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: After one week of testimony, the jury begins deliberating.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Evidence is in and the jury is out in the Perry March murder trial.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It took 10 years to get to trial, but it takes just over 10 hours to reach a verdict.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We, the jury, find the defendant Perry Avril March as to count 1 guilty of second-degree murder. As to count 2, guilty of abuse of a corpse. As to count 3, guilty of tampering with evidence.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Guilty on all three counts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: That was video from CBS News` "48 hours."

After pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, the murder of Janet`s parents, Perry March`s father turned state`s evidence and testified against his son.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: After All of his plotting, his shenanigans, his lying, his cheating, his moving, 56 years behind bars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: His father, the retired pharmacist, had helped him hide Janet`s dead body keels over dead. At that time, a huge custody battle ensued over the two children. Janet March`s parents have been raising the two children ever since.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you folks like to comment on anything?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The Levines immediately file for visitation rights with their two grandchildren. But March fought them for two years.

(CROSSTALK)

P. MARCH: I asked her how much visitation she wanted.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m hoping this will be a great day.

P. MARCH: Caroline Levine told me that she wanted my children 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Then in 1999, once the Levines were granted visitation rights, Perry March was nowhere to be found.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Why did you move to Mexico?

P. MARCH: I moved to Mexico because I needed to get the hell out of Dodge and start a new life and get out of their clutches.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jan`s family believes that she was on the computer heisting up a list of problems in her marriage in preparation for meeting with her divorce attorney when she was murdered.

I would suggest that any woman who was planning a divorce from a man that they fear get out of Dodge, get far, far away, and use surprise to announce that you are leaving a man who you fear might kill you. Prison authorities say he was plotting an escape. So instead of going to a more minimum security prison, he was sent to a maximum security prison where he remains right now as we speak.

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GRACE: And to this date, Janet March`s bones have never been found.

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