Unsolved: Murder caught on camera, but freezing temps obscure lens view

A quick U-turn in the street. Then flashing headlights. A trip to the store turns terrifying. Who was chasing Jason Vesper, and why?

Every moment of the father's fateful trip was captured by security cameras, right up to the violent end.

Ten years after her father's brutal murder and time hasn't healed Dani Vesper's wounds.

"It's so hard for me to raise my daughter knowing that she can't see her grandpa," Dani tells Crime Watch Daily.

Over the last decade she's had to mark many milestones without her dad Jason Vesper by her side.

"He had to miss my wedding and my brother's wedding and the birth of their children," said Dani.

Jason's son Joshua Vesper says in the 17 years they had together, his dad taught him everything he needed to know.

"How to be a great father and husband. That's all I need in this world is my family," said Joshua.

And he'll be forever grateful for their last father-son talk.

"I said 'Love you,' he told me 'Love you' back," said Joshua.

That final phone call was captured in a security camera photo taken just before 1 o'clock in the morning on the day after the new year 10 years ago.

"My brother should have never been out the door that night, never," said Jason's sister Kim Ott.

Kim Ott says it was a heated argument between Jason and his wife Debbie that sent her brother out on a bitter cold night in Scottsbluff, Nebraska.

"She kicked him out of the house that night for giving Josh his cellphone back," Kim tells Crime Watch Daily.

What had started as an argument between mother and son...

"Me being a teenager, I had gotten into a little bickering argument with my mother," said Joshua.

Ended with an argument between husband and wife. Jason Vesper left home to cool off. And his nearly every move was captured by security cameras.

"This video right here is actually aimed at the Vespers' driveway," said Scottsbluff, Nebraska Police Chief Kevin Spencer.

At 12:46 a.m. Jason backs out of the driveway in his blue Dodge Dakota pickup truck. It was a short trip up the street to the nearest convenience store.

"A little over a minute later, this is Jason at the truck stop," said Chief Spencer.

By now Jason was on the phone with his 17-year-old son Joshua, who was staying the night at his girlfriend's house.

"He said that he was out driving around wanting to make sure I was OK," said Joshua.

For the moment, everything was OK. After the two hang up Jason pays for his soda and cigarettes.

"He's the only one in the store besides the clerk," said Chief Spencer.

But on his way out he passes another customer heading in.

"This is an elderly male with a cane, and they pass each other and they don't even exchange a glance," said Chief Spencer.

At that point Jason leaves the store and appears to be heading home.

It's now 12:56 a.m. A security camera on city-owned property shows Jason stopped at an intersection. It's where cops believe he first encountered his killer.

"That's the suspect's car turning in front of him," said Chief Spencer. "We think that that car hesitates a little bit. There might be an exchange."

"I feel like maybe that vehicle pulled a little close to his and maybe he got a little upset," said Joshua.

Whatever happened, the driver was about to be after Jason Vesper. The same camera shows Jason circle the block and return to the intersection.

"He just keeps on going, doesn't stop at the stop sign, and he goes east on Overland," said Chief Spencer.

His killer was not far behind.

"Here comes the suspect vehicle around the corner," said Spencer.

"Then the vehicle turns around and begins to chase him around the neighborhood," said Joshua.

Cameras at a nearby school pick up the chase. It's 12:57 a.m. The other driver is desperately trying to get Jason Vesper to pull over.

"Here they come. Suspect vehicle is going to be flashing their lights," said Chief Spencer.

With the other car's headlights now flashing on and off in his rearview mirror, Jason Vesper drives for about another minute, then makes a decision that would end his life.

"Then they stop for 50 seconds at 14th and Avenue F," said Chief Spencer. "We know that Jason is being killed at that time."

For the first time since leaving his house, Jason is just out of sight of security cameras. The view is blocked by a house and tree. Cops say Vesper was stabbed 16 times by someone they can only describe as "very angry and very violent," according to Chief Spencer.

Despite the vicious attack, Jason is still clinging to life and somehow finds enough strength to drive off. Security cameras once again track him. Now, quickly bleeding to death behind the wheel, the father of two makes one last desperate attempt to get home, where his wife was already starting to worry.

"She's having mother's intuition, was thinking 'This isn't right, something's not right here,'" said Dani Vesper.

Dani claims her mom had been trying to reach her dad, but he wouldn't answer the phone.

"That's not like my dad at all to be gone and not answer the phone, so that was definitely the big red flag," said Dani.

Another big red flag -- a big red light.

"We could see some bizarre light shining from down the street, you know, we just kind of thought strange things are happening here, like, we need to go check this out," said Dani. "As soon as we got to the end of the driveway I noticed that was my dad's pickup."

Jason had driven off the road and into a neighbor's front yard. Dani was the first one to reach him.

"When I opened up the door my dad was actually bleeding a lot. He had his head down, he was barely hanging on to life," said Dani.

Jason Vesper had come within a block of reaching his family. They were now desperately trying to get help.

The last minutes of Jason Vesper's life is caught on surveillance cameras, stalked by another car, attacked in his vehicle. The only thing that police can't see is who was holding the knife that stabbed the Nebraska father more than a dozen times.

Dani and her mom Debbie weren't sure what happened. Just 20 minutes earlier Jason Vesper left home. Now he was barely breathing, struggling to tell them what happened.

"Within maybe seconds or minutes they realized this was much more than an accident," said Chief Spencer.

The first murder of 2008 in Scottsbluff, Nebraska was also one of the most brutal in recent memory. Jason Vesper was stabbed 16 times. His injuries were so severe there was no way he could have been saved.

"The pathologist tells us that after Jason was stabbed, he had one to three minutes to live," said Chief Spencer.

"It was a violent death. He suffered immensely, and I was just in shock," said Jason's sister Kim Ott.

Catching the killer or killers was the top priority for Scottsbluff, Nebraska Police Chief Kevin Spencer.

"We can account for Jason through video from the time he pulls out of his driveway until the time we get the 911 call," said Chief Spencer.

But cops have yet to determine who was behind the wheel of the other vehicle.

"The first time we see this car is when it turns in front of Jason's pickup," said Spencer.

"This car was following my brother and flashing their lights and flashing their lights, and not actually know who he was," said Jason's sister Kim.

When Jason pulled over, the decision cost him his life. Jason was stabbed at one place, but was somehow able to drive away, then plowed into a snow bank. That's where cops found him. At the time, they had no idea he had been stabbed somewhere else. By the time police realized, it was too late.

"In those two days the sun came out, it warmed up and the snow started melting, so whatever was there was gone," said Chief Spencer.

What might have been there? The police chief thinks possibly the suspect's own blood.

"I think it's likely that they injured themselves," said Spencer. "There wasn't much for forensics in this case."

Cops are only left with the security video. Identifying the suspect's vehicle was not easy.

"It was well below zero. The wind chill was 18 below. There was frost on the lenses," said Spencer. "When the headlight shines on the camera it just kind of washes the picture, so it's just really bright."

Cops have even turned to a professor at Northwestern University for help.

"He developed this process for us that didn't exist," said Chief Spencer. "As far as I know, nobody had done this before."

By analyzing the shape and size of the car's headlights, he came up with a narrow range of vehicles that it has to be.

"An '85 to '88 Cadillac DeVille or Fleetwood, or an '85 to '90 Oldsmobile 98," said Spencer.

Cops searched extensively for more video of those makes and models from the night of Jason Vesper's murder.

"We have watched all of the cameras from the truck stop. We pulled all the in-car videotapes at the time from our patrol cars. We watched all of the tapes that night," said Spencer.

But the suspect's vehicle has never been located. It hasn't stopped investigators from looking for someone of interest.

"I think it's normal for police to investigate family first," said Joshua Vesper, Jason's son.

Detectives learned Jason left home that night after a heated argument with his wife got "slightly physical." Cops wanted Debbie to take a lie-detector test.

"We know she didn't do it, so whoever did it is out there getting rid of evidence, possibly leaving town," said Dani Vesper. "And yet they're wasting time on the family."

But Debbie was eager to take the test and clear her name. Maybe too eager.

The polygrapher wanted her to wait because he thought she was still too upset to get an accurate reading. Debbie, however, insisted.

"She was too stressed that it wouldn't even function properly," said Dani.

Jason's 17-year-old son Joshua is believed to be the last person his father talked to just minutes before he was killed. Cops also asked him to take a lie-detector test.

"I knew obviously I was innocent so I cooperated with everything they wanted," said Joshua.

Police Chief Kevin Spencer won't reveal the results of those polygraphs. But he says right now he does not suspect anyone in Jason Vesper's family was involved in his murder.

"I think this is a random act of violence," said Chief Spencer. "I don't know that there would be anybody laying in wait and expect him to leave at that time of night."

The chief won't name any names, but he says over the last decade a handful of people have been questioned.

"Some we've cleared and some we haven't, and we're interested in continuing our conversations with those people," said Spencer.

The murder of Jason Vesper is never far from the police chief's mind. And not just because it remains one of the city's most high-profile murder mysteries.

"I work for the Scottsbluff Police Department," said Jason's sister Kim.

But also because the chief works alongside Jason's sister Kim Ott.

"Naturally, at this point, 10 years later, you're going to be frustrated," said Kim.

Josh and Dani Vesper recently sat down with the police chief to talk about the upcoming 10th anniversary of their dad's murder.

Jason's wife Debbie Vesper sent Crime Watch Daily a statement:

_"Jason was a great husband and father and a great person in general. We love him and miss him very much. We hope doing this show will get the case solved. The past 10 years have been very difficult for the whole family."

"We need somebody to come forward and tell us who did this," said Chief Spencer.

The family hopes a $10,000 reward will motivate someone to do that. Until then, Josh and Dani say they'll keep fighting for justice for their dad.

"He was such a good guy, everybody loved him," said Dani. "And he did not deserve to die the way that he died."