Everything to Lose

Produced by Chris O'Connell
[This story first aired on Dec. 8, 2012. It was updated on Aug. 17, 2013]

It takes a lot to get defense attorney Dick DeGuerin away from his cattle and into a courtroom. He's one of the most famous defense lawyers in Texas. He can pick and choose his cases and he's chosen the case of Thomas Ford.

"Look very carefully at the evidence and you will find that Thomas Ford is not guilty," DeGuerin addressed the court at trial. "I'm worried that an innocent man could be convicted."

Thomas Ford, 43, is from one of the best families in one of the best neighborhoods of San Antonio. He's charged with killing his former girlfriend Dana Clair Edwards.

DeGuerin will do battle with three of San Antonio's top prosecutors, led by Catherine Babbitt.

"Man, you guys are going against Dick DeGuerin..." Babbitt quipped to "48 Hours" correspondent Richard Schlesinger.

Her co-counsel, Kirsta Melton and Kathy Cunningham, knew well what they were up against.

"The Fords had everything they could want," Cunningham explained. "They had the best attorney -- a lot of money. So, we were behind the eight ball. And even if we lost it, we were going to fight as hard as we could for Dana and for the Edwards."

On Jan, 2, 2009, Dana Clair's body was found face down in her condo.

"You try to think, well, what could have happened. You can never imagine that someone would murder your child," said her mother, Deborah.

"We thought Dana was in the safest place in the world," said her father, Darrell.

Deborah and Darrell Edwards raised Dana Clair in the tony San Antonio neighborhood called Alamo Heights.

Video: Life inside the Alamo Heights "bubble"

"Dana didn't look down on anyone, whether it was the poorest person or the richest person," said Darrell.

"We were in cheerleading together. We really bonded over that," Dana Clair's close friend, Cornelia Sawatzky, said. "And I just miss her ... miss her a lot. She was a positive energy and a positive spirit."

"I mean, she was just always full of life and love," said Dana Clair's older brother, DJ, said. "The ultimate, you know, American girl."

"She loved horses and she loved dogs," said Deborah.

"Dogs, cats, ducks. Anything that walked she -- she was constantly bringin' 'em home," Darrell laughed.

But it was Grit, a Jack Russell Terrier, mostly, who was her favorite. Dana Clair rescued him and Grit became her constant companion.

"Grit was always, kind of, her main little baby and he was a special little critter," said Sawatzky

Dana Clair went to medical school, but had to drop out after seriously injuring her back in a car accident. She worked in the family construction business near her childhood home in Alamo Heights.

When she was murdered, of course, Thomas Ford, her ex-boyfriend, was a logical suspect. But most people say he's not an obvious suspect.

"What kind of guy is he?" Schlesinger asked DeGuerin.

"He's a really decent, nice guy. He had a great upbringing. He was popular in high school. He had a lot of friends," he replied.

Dana Clair and Thomas Ford began dating in 2006.

"It seemed like a healthy, you know, kind of solid relationship," said Sawatzky.

Darrell and Deborah Edwards treated Ford like family.

"We did like Thomas very much," said Deborah.

"Fun person to be with. He was out at our ranch a lot of times," said Darrell.

Like Dana Clair, Thomas Ford worked for his family's company, also in construction.

But DJ and his girlfriend, Tammy Treascher, thought that even though Dana and Ford had some things in common, they were still an odd couple.

"From the beginning, I didn't see it as a match ... as a good match," Treascher said. "They seemed too different. She wanted to settle down. He was more in the single mindset."

In October of 2008, after a two-and-a-half year relationship, Dana Clair broke up with Ford. But the two moved in the same social circles and remained friends.

Then, just before Christmas, Ford asked Dana Clair over to his house. Her mother says he told Dana Clair he was having a hard time with the breakup.

"She told me that it had been a really hard meeting. He was going on and on and crying and she was worried and she said, 'Finally, I just had to leave, mother,'" Deborah told Schlesinger.

If Dana Clair was worried about Thomas Ford, she was also looking forward to her own future. She got ready for New Year's Eve in Alamo Heights and said goodbye to her parents who were going to the family ranch.

"... I went in and told her. I said, 'We're ... gonna go to the ranch a day early.' And she said, 'Let me walk you to your car, Mom,'" Deborah recalled. "... gave me a big hug and a kiss, stood at the car door and said, 'Y'all have fun. I'll call ya.'"

Dana Clair rang in 2009 at a party; Thomas was also there. She went home shortly after midnight. The next day, New Year's Day, her parents expected to hear from Dana Clair. The Edwards's called their daughter dozens of times, but, of course, she never answered.

After not hearing from Dana Clair, on New Year's Day, Darrell and Deborah Edwards drove to their daughter's apartment as fast as they could.

"I opened the door and I yelled for Dana and there was no sound back and no dogs," said Darrell.

The apartment was pitch-black as they went inside.

"And how long were you in the house before you found her?" Richard Schlesinger asked.

"Less than five minutes. She was -- lying on the bathroom floor -- in a big pool of blood. And I felt her leg and it was cold," Darrell replied.

Dana Clair's face was covered with a towel.

"It's very hard," Deborah said in tears, "...and I kneeled on the floor next to her and -- pushed the towel off of her head and -- looked at her beautiful green eyes. I have no idea how long I was there. It was 'til the police made me get up and leave."

At 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 2, 2009, police arrived and began videotaping the scene.

Despite blood droplets, a rolled-up carpet and a room in disarray, Police Chief William McManus says, at first, police thought Dana Clair had fallen and hit her head on the sink. The case was considered an accidental death.

"I believe that they felt there was something suspicious about it, but they believed that it was not a homicide.

But there were a lot of questions. What happened to Dana Clair? Where was Grit?

Dana Clair was almost never without her dog and he was nowhere to be found. Hours later on January 2, police called with the results of Dana Clair's autopsy.

"And they said homicide and ligature strangulation," Darrell Edwards told Schlesinger.

Dana Clair had been strangled. The autopsy also revealed she was hit in the head repeatedly. But whatever happened, it did not look like a robbery. There was no sign of forced entry and nothing was taken.

"When I heard, I just knew it had been deeply personal just because of the way the killing was perpetrated," Dana Clair's friend, Cornelia Sawatzky, said.

The news that Dana Clair had been murdered came as friends had gathered to comfort the Edwards family. One of the people who came to their house was Thomas Ford.

"He gave me a hug. And he kind of stood around and talked to few people. He wouldn't look at me. He wouldn't look me in the eyes," said Deborah.

But if Ford was avoiding Mrs. Edwards' eyes, he was not avoiding the police. He agreed to be interviewed by detectives the next day without a lawyer:

Thomas Ford: It's been tough./p>

Detective: Sure. Sure. ... Do you have any idea why somebody would've ...

Thomas Ford: No.

Detective: ... wanted to hurt her?

Thomas Ford: No, I have no idea.

The detective questioned Ford about the New Year's party he and Dana Clair both attended just hours before she was killed. Ford said he left the party before midnight and went to sleep shortly after that:

Detective: OK. So you go home ... Change ... and within a few minutes you're out.

Thomas Ford: I go straight home, yeah. ... Changed. Watched a little TV and went to bed.

But within a few days, police found evidence that made them doubt Ford's story: dark and grainy surveillance tape from a camera across the street from Dana Clair's condo complex.

"What do you think you can tell from that tape?" Schlesinger asked Chief William McManus.

"You -- you could at least tell that -- it was a -- white SUV-- the type that Thomas (sic) was driving," he replied.

That white SUV entered and left the complex twice between 11:20 p.m. and midnight. Then, a few minutes later, someone is seen walking into the complex. Police thought that figure was Thomas Ford, wearing the same clothes he wore to the party:

Detective: Do you remember what you were wearing that night?

Thomas Ford: Jeans, a red shirt, and a tan vest.

Investigators asked Ford for those clothes in the weeks after the murder, but he refused to turn them over and then promptly hired a lawyer.

Two weeks into the investigation, the battered remains of Dana Clair's dog, Grit, were found near the Olmos Dam, about two miles from her house.

"That dog was Dana's dog. That was her baby," explained prosecutor Kathy Cunningham.

Cunningham believes that Grit was murdered and the only person who could've killed him was Thomas Ford.

"Killin' the dog, he did not like that dog 'cause that dog was probably more important to her than he ever would be," she told Schlesinger.

But as the murder investigation dragged on for most of 2009, Thomas Ford remained a free man.

"I wanted him to know I was thinking about him and that he needed to think about me," said Deborah.

So she began writing Thomas Ford on Feb. 14, 2009 -- Valentine's Day.

"You sent Thomas Ford a Valentine?" Schlesinger asked Deborah.

"Mm-hmm," she affirmed, "And said, 'I'm thinking of you.'"

She sent notes for months. One read: "Mother's Day - Never the same." Another one, sent from Dana Clair's own e-mail account said: "How long were you planning this murder?"

"It's an unusual move. Don't you think?" Schlesinger asked.

"I don't know," Deborah replied. "What does a mother do when she's seen her daughter laying in a pool of blood?"

Nearly one year after the murder, police finally got their break. DNA that analysts called "consistent" with Thomas Ford's was found on the towel that covered Dana Clair's face. Police arrested Ford and charged him with murder.

"From the beginning, I did not doubt that Jon Thomas Ford was guilty," said prosecutor Catherine Babbitt.

But when Babbitt got the case, she and her two colleagues, knew proving Ford guilty would be difficult, to put it mildly.

"Every aspect of our case we had a problem," said Cunningham.

The biggest problem: lost evidence and plenty of it. Investigators lost fingernail clippings taken from Dana Clair and they lost the underwear she was wearing when she was killed.

"The question has to be to an outsider, "How does that happen?" I mean, you know, you can understand one mistake ... but not this many," Schlesinger asked Chief McManus.

"It -- it was -- it was troubling anytime you lose a piece of evidence that should be produced at trial. It's always gonna be an issue," he replied.

And it didn't stop there. Prosecutors were counting on much clearer footage from a second surveillance camera. That was until that footage was also lost. Now they are stuck with the dark and grainy surveillance tape.

"Couldn't tell you male, female. Couldn't tell you type and make of car. And couldn't -- enhance it at all," Babbitt explained of the video.

"To be honest with you, there were points in the case that we were despairing, that we were depressed," added prosecutor Kirsta Melton, who admitted tears were shed over the case. "A lot of -- yes, absolutely. Because we knew he did it."

Even though they were facing a bungled investigation and a high-powered defense attorney, prosecutors were ready to go.

"My biggest fear was that justice might not be done here," said Melton.

It took more than a year to arrest Thomas Ford for killing Dana Clair Edwards and her dog, Grit. It took two more years to get the case to trial.

When the trial finally began, neighbors on the streets of Alamo Heights had already reached their verdict.

"What we know about the rumor mill is that it started almost immediately," defense attorney Dick DeGuerin addressed the court.

"Thomas Ford, the ex-boyfriend, it must be him."

From the day he was interviewed shortly after the murder, Ford has denied having anything to do with it. But his videotaped interview with police is the first thing prosecutors show to the jurors.

Video: Thomas Ford questioned about events of New Years Day

"Which is a calculated move on our part to start with that statement," prosecutor Catherine Babbitt told Richard Schlesinger.

They know they are taking a risk.

"What made me nervous about that is that he looks like the guy next door. He acted like the guy next door. And he teared up at the appropriate times," said prosecutor Kathy Cunningham.

But it was part of their strategy. "We needed to start with him a liar. And we built from there," said Babbitt.

Remember, Ford says he was home by midnight.

Detective: Once you get home from the party... you went straight home?

Thomas Ford: Yeah.

But two prosecution witnesses cast doubt on that: Dana Clair's close friend, Melissa Federspill, and Thomas Ford's lifelong friend, Alan Tarver.

On New Year's Eve 2008, Federspill and Tarver were with Ford at that party where Dana Clair was last seen alive.

They were playing a game called "Apples to Apples" -- a word-association game that involves a lot of what is supposed to be good-natured teasing. The game turned to the word "marriage" and Federspill made some jokes at Ford's expense. He had only recently split up with Dana Clair and Melissa says he got upset.

"He turned to me and said he didn't think that was funny at all," Federspill testified.

Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin is quick to point out that detail was not in Federspill's account to police just days after the murder. DeGuerin wants jurors to believe Melissa is lying.

Dick DeGuerin (contentious): What you told Det. Carrion about the party is that everything was fine ... Wasn't that the perfect opportunity ...

Melissa Federspill (upset): I'm not trying to leave a false impression of...

Dick DeGuerin Objection, non-responsive...

Dick DeGuerin Am I being too rough on you?

Catherine Babbitt: Objection.

When the game ended, Ford got up and left before midnight. Remember, he told police he went straight home.

Thomas Ford (police interview): I just went straight to my house.

Prosecutors think they can prove that's a lie. The party broke up shortly after midnight. Dana Clair went home and so did Alan Tarver and Melissa Federspill. But minutes later, Alan and Melissa drove past Ford's house to return a beer cooler he had left behind.

"We drove by Thomas' house," Federspill testified.

They did not see his white Chevy Tahoe in the alley driveway where he usually parked. They also didn't see it in the church parking lot where Ford would sometimes park.

"He looks to the right in the parking lot, drives through the parking lot and there's no Tahoe there," said Babbitt.

Tarver asked Ford about that, after Ford became a suspect:

Alan Tarver: ... he told me that he couldn't really remember where he parked, he thought he parked in back somewhere. ... I just thought, sort of, well, that's not what I saw.

Catherine Babbitt Did you ever talk to him again?

Alan Tarver: I don't believe so.

Dick DeGuerin: You didn't look all through that parking lot did you? ... In this dark corner late at night shaded by trees ... the Tahoe very well could have been there couldn't it?

Alan Tarver: OK, yes.

"After a day-and-a-half, Alan got so confused," Babbitt told Schlesinger. "I think he questioned himself. And so, what started out as a fairly solid witness is now saying, 'Well, maybe I did miss it.'"

It's one thing to attack Alan Tarver, but now DeGuerin has to somehow cast doubt on a grieving mother's story.

You could hear a pin drop when Deborah Edwards described sitting on the floor next to her daughter's body.

"She was laying face down on the floor ..." she the court. "... so I pushed the towel back some and just looked at my baby."

DeGuerin keeps Mrs. Edwards on the stand for almost two days, asking her about every one of those messages she sent to Ford and his family:

Dick DeGuerin: When did you start the campaign of harassment?

Dick DeGuerin: "The tile is so cold. Happy anniversary." Did you send that?

Deborah Edwards: Yes, I did.

Dick DeGuerin: "The evil in your soul sustains you."

Deborah Edwards: Yes, I did send him that. It's true.

"-- he showed me the cards. I said, 'Yes, I did that, yes I was upset," Deborah told Schlesinger.

"But it was irrelevant."

"Was it hard to keep your composure, though?" Schlesinger asked.

"I had prayed for grace when I prayed for justice," Deborah replied.

But the cross examination is tough:

Dick DeGuerin: Remember how you ended her life." ... With a photograph of Dana Clair saying "Happy New Year. Dana Clair as a child." ... You did that?

Deborah Edwards (Pained): Yes I did that.

As tough as he's been, DeGuerin has yet to put on the heart of his case -- the police investigation and all the mistakes, starting with the first mistake calling Dana Clair's death accidental.

Dick DeGuerin: Wasn't it apparent to you that this was something more than just someone keeling over and dying ...

Officer Cruz: At the time, no, sir.

And he goes through every single piece of mishandled evidence: the lost fingernail clippings, the lost surveillance tape, the lost underwear. And that towel with Thomas Ford's DNA on it? Police left it at the crime scene for roughly one week.

"How do you trust evidence that's gathered by these bumbling ... crime scene people that lose evidence?" DeGuerin asked Schlesinger.

Investigators did find that DNA on the towel, but DeGuerin says it proves nothing because Ford spent plenty of time in that apartment.

"He was in the condo, shedding his DNA all over the place -- just 10 days before she was found.," he said.

DeGuerin is having a field day and prosecutors are worried.

Video: Prosecutors on their chances of winning

"We knew that Dick DeGuerin would come in and try to confuse the issue," said prosecutor Kirsta Melton.

Melton should know. When she was in law school, one of her professors was Dick DeGuerin.

"I took Advanced Criminal Defense," she told Schlesinger. Asked how well she did, she replied, "I got the highest grade in the class when I took it."

"I mean, was that strange for you -- to be up against one of your former students?" Schlesinger asked DeGuerin.

"No, it was kind of flattering, frankly," he replied.

But DeGuerin now has to consider -- did he teach her too well?

"The real defense in this case ... his alibi!" Melton addressed the court.

Prosecutors are about to reveal their most damning piece of evidence. They say it's more powerful than the DNA, more important than the surveillance video. They say they can put Thomas Ford at the scene of the murder.

"We realized, 'Oh my gosh. We know exactly where he's gonna be,'" said Melton.

Thomas Ford, who didn't say a word during his trial, was about to learn why suspects get the warning: "Anything you say can and will be used against you in court."

Thomas Ford (police interview): I want you all to know that I will do everything to help out.

Detective: OK.

Detective: Did anybody else use your phone that night?

Thomas Ford No that would have been impossible.

Detective: Once you went home from the party, you went straight home?

Thomas Ford: Yeah. ... I go straight home.

Prosecutors used almost everything he told police against him. They argue, the interrogation locks Ford into a story that is a lie.

"'I was home, I was asleep, I didn't leave the bed until 7:00 a.m. the next day,'" said Kirsta Melton.

They say surveillance images prove he wasn't sleeping ... he was driving his SUV to Dana Clair's house.

"If you just looked at that tape not knowing anything, and you saw a white SUV come in, two minutes later come out, head south, come back, come in, come out, head north, your first thought is, 'What's that guy doin'? I mean, are they casin' the joint? What's goin' on here?" Catherine Babbitt told Richard Schlesinger. "When you put that with the time he says he left the party, that's when you sort of start to build that timeline."

But Ford's attorney, Dick DeGuerin says as blurry as the pictures are, nobody can tell anything about that car.

"You know, you cannot identify this car as being Thomas Ford's car," he told Schlesinger.

Prosecutors knew they needed more than that surveillance tape to make their case. And they think they found it just before trial in a pile of Ford's cell phone records, which police subpoenaed but never fully analyzed.

"When we did that, I still have chills thinking about it," said prosecutor Kathy Cunningham.

Cunningham realized what she was looking at could change everything.

Cell records have the latitude and longitude for the towers the phone is using. Prosecutors used Google Maps to locate the towers and believed they could now say where Ford went -- and when.

They called an AT&T engineer named Ken Doll.

"If you tell somebody that you were home all night long and -- and you really weren't, then -- if you took your cell phone with you -- we're liable to find that out," Doll explained.

Doll created a map showing the towers that picked up Ford's cell phone signals throughout the night.

"... we tracked the defendant's activities from 8:30 that evening until 9:00 a.m. the next morning," Babbitt explained.

Remember, Ford told police he went home from the party and was in bed before midnight and turned his phone off. But the records seem to tell a different story. At 11:45 p.m., he received a call that went straight to voice mail. Prosecutors say the signal should have bounced off the tower that serves Ford's home.

But it didn't. According to prosecutors, it bounced off a tower that serves Dana Clair's apartment in Gallery Court.

"It showed that his phone was near her apartment?" Schlesinger asked.

"Correct," Babbitt replied.

One hour later, Dana Clair's car arrives. And then a half hour after that, a text goes to Thomas Ford's phone. Once again, say prosecutors, the signal bounces off the cell tower that serves Dana Clair's condo. That means, they say, Ford's own cell phone records place him near Dana Clair's condo for 90 minutes.

"So you now know that the person that is walking into Gallery Court is John Thomas Ford," Babbitt tells the court.

"How long do you think it took to kill her?" Schlesinger asked.

"I think it took 15 to 20 minutes," said Babbitt.

Prosecutors say the cell phone records even provide evidence about what happened to Dana Clair's dog, Grit. At 1:32 a.m., Ford's phone is communicating with a tower that serves the area where Grit's body was found -- the dam, near Dana Clair's condo.

Catherine Babbitt: What would be the only reason it is pinging near the dam?

Ken Doll: That device would have had to have been near the Olmos Dam.

Prosecutors believe it was Ford who brought Grit there. But how did he get there? That same camera that showed a figure walking into the condo complex shows no one walking out before that 1:32 a.m. call.

Prosecutors have a theory. They say Ford didn't walk out of the entrance, but that he came out of the condo and jumped over a wall with Grit's body. Then he drove to the dam, disposed of Grit, drove back, and returned to the condo, jumping back over the wall.

"Think about how ridiculous that is," DeGuerin told the court.

"Thomas weighed 250 pounds at least -- when this happened," DeGuerin told Schlesinger. "... even someone ... in good physical condition would have a tough time getting over that high wall."

"-- maybe he wasn't at the Olmos Dam," Schlesinger remarked to Babbitt.

"Well, his phone sure was," she replied.

"Historical cell phone tower usage is voodoo, it's junk science," DeGuerin told Schlesinger.

"Voodoo?"

"Yes."

The defense has found experts who insist it is not possible to pinpoint a phone's location, based on what tower it used. But DeGuerin has to get Ken Doll to concede that the cell phone records can be unreliable.

Dick DeGuerin: You cannot say to a certainty that it was actually in that sector, can you?

Ken Doll: I think you have an extremely, very high degree of accuracy on that. ... We make multibillion-dollar decisions based on what this tool tells us.

Dick DeGuerin: Sure...

Prosecutors argue jurors can believe Thomas Ford or they can believe the cell phone records, but they can't believe both.

"He had an alibi," Babbitt told Schlesinger. "The cell phone records pierced that alibi."

It's been a tough four weeks of trial. DeGuerin's last word to the jury is that the evidence leaves more than enough reasonable doubt.

Catherine Babbitt tells jurors that Ford snapped after being rejected by Dana Clair and asks them to focus on the lives that were ended that night.

"And how did he describe her? 'Full of life. Full of energy, full of joy'. And if that isn't a picture of that, I don't know what is. And so is this little guy. And how dare he," Babbitt told jurors, holding up a photo of Dana Clair and Grit.

The lawyers have done what they can do. It's all in the jury's hands now.

For all sides in any trial, the hardest part is the waiting while a jury deliberates.

"I really thought they would look at it and make a good decision," Deborah Edwards told Richard Schlesinger.

But the Edwards family was not waiting alone. They're the only ones who knew it, but in his backpack, Darrell Edwards carried the ashes of Dana Clair and her dog, Grit, to court throughout the trial.

"You bring them to court everyday with you?" Schlesinger asked Darrell.

"Every day," he replied.

"Why did you do that?"

"The quest for justice for my daughter," Darrell replied.

"We owed this to her ... to find justice," added Deborah.

Prosecutors in the Thomas Ford case were worried that Dick DeGuerin had swayed some jurors.

"...'cause all it takes for Dick is to confuse one juror. We have to convince all 12," said prosecutor Kathy Cunningham.

"I was optimistic -- going into it," said DeGuerin said. "And I believe that there were-- jurors who were on the fence.

According to the jurors, DeGuerin was right. Some jurors went into the jury room unconvinced.

"I just wasn't convinced that he was guilty," a juror told Schlesinger.

"I just couldn't say that he was -- guilty beyond reasonable doubt at that point. I needed to sleep on it," said another juror.

The jurors were at an impasse and were dismissed for the night. When they came back the next morning, they sent a note out asking to review the cell phone evidence.

"Was that a good thing for you?" Schlesinger asked.

"Woo hoo," Kathy Cunnignham exclaimed. "Outstanding."

"Our first thought was -- they're right where they need to be," Babbitt said. "Now, just stay there (laughs) is what we said to each other."

Shortly after that request, the jurors took a vote. After eight hours of deliberating, it wasn't easy, but they had a unanimous verdict: Jon Thomas Ford is found guilty of murder.

The conviction is what Dana Clair's family and the prosecutors have spent more than three years fighting for.

"And you know that -- we gave each one of the prosecutors a kiss..." said Darrell.

"And he said," Babbitt said, overcome with emotion, 'Thank you for giving me back my life.' And so when you talk about -- you know, doing -- doing this kind of job, that's really what it boils down to, is you're giving that family back, hopefully, some peace and some peace of mind."

But, it wasn't completely over. Later that day the jury still had to recommend Thomas Ford's sentence:

"Think about the pressure she felt around her neck as the ligatures began to tighten" prosecutor Kirsta Melton told the court.

She reminds the jurors of why they just convicted Ford. "Stand for what is right!" she said.

The jury didn't take long to decide on a sentence of 40 years. If he lives long enough, Ford could be in his 80s by the time he gets out.

The outcome of this trial was an especially sweet victory for the three prosecutors who took a case that had so many problems. At times, they weren't sure it would even get to court.

"When you are fighting for what you know to be right but when God brings justice through that jury ... It breaks your heart with gratitude and thankfulness for seeing the truth prevail," said Melton.

It's been more than three years since Dana Clair was murdered. For the Edward family, time and justice have helped ease their pain.

"I guess what was a little bit of amazing was I could feel all my daughter's good memories come back to me without Thomas in all of that. I felt like I had her back," said Deborah.

It's hard to remember Dana Clair without remembering Grit. Following their deaths, Dana Clair's brother, DJ, found a way to memorialize them both.

"I didn't want it to be down. I didn't want it to be depressing," said DJ.

"And then he said, you said, 'Puppies,'" Tammy Treascher said of DJ's idea. "He said puppies."

Puppies from the local animal shelter were available for adoption a Dana Clair's memorial service.

"There were all these sweet little homeless, helpless pets. She would've loved it," Cornelia Sawatzky said.

"Almost 500 people walked passed these puppies," said Deborah.

"Everybody's playin'. Handin' 'em off," recalled DJ.

"And every one of them had been adopted," said Deborah.

"That was important to give them what Dana would have wanted to give them," said Sawatzky.

Love and life and homes. Just what Dana Clair had done years earlier when she found Grit.

"I know that she was happy when she was looking down on us and seeing those sweet little animals being offered -- a second chance," Sawatzky continued. "And it was very special, it was so Dana."

Thomas Ford has until Aug. 27 to appeal his conviction.

The remains of Dana Clair and Grit were laid to rest one month after the conclusion of the trial.