Deadly Secrets Of The Well

48 Hours: Investigator Returns To Crime Scene He Witnessed As Child

(CBS)  Back in court, the prosecutor called Quedens' estranged husband, Gary, who described what he found the night after Wilkerson disappeared: "When I went downstairs, I came right across a pistol that was laying on the floor on the carpet. A PPK that I had given my wife for protection a couple of years before."

"He found the gun that we believe was the murder weapon," says Skandilakis.

But years later, investigators couldn't find the gun, but that did little to blunt the prosecution's parade of devastating character witnesses. Even Quedens' son, Geerin, testifies against his mother, about her rocky relationship with Wilkerson. "When my son got on the stand, and said that, I couldn’t believe it," says Quedens. "It really hurt."

The prosecution's case was circumstantial, but in the end, they seemed confident. Quedens, however, says: "I think this was more of a character assassination than it was to find me guilty of a crime."

Her fate is now in the jury's hands.

"If 12 enlightened jurors look at this circumstance, there’s no doubt in my mind that they will come to the conclusion that Fred Wilkerson was murdered that night," says Bryant. "And that he was placed in that well, and Connie Quedens did it."

"I did not kill anyone. And I did not know of that body in that well," says Quedens, awaiting the jury's verdict.

The jury deliberated for just three hours. The verdict: guilty. It's a life sentence for Quedens.

Two days after the trial, Wilkenson's children, Tracy and Tim, hold the proper burial denied their father by Quedens.

For Bryant, it's a fitting end. "It's just so gratifying to be able to step in and set the record straight," says Bryant. "And give them, if there is such a thing as closure to something like this, at least give it some finality.”

Bryant's father, perhaps, would be proud. "One thing that he tried to instill in me was that justice was something that in the end we have control over. And that, do a little work and diligence, you could find right."

And Bryant always seems to know where to find it.

"It's been the brunt of several jokes around, you know, you go outside and check, you got an old well on your property," says Bryant. "You see me out there, you know you got a problem. Nothing could make me happier than what I do."

Connie Quedens could be eligible for parole in nine years. Fred Wilkerson's family says they'll fight to keep her in prison for life.