A fresh episode of “20/20” titled “File ‘M’ for Murder” is set to air on Friday, Feb. 7, at 9 p.m. ET, with streaming available the following day on Hulu. The episode delves into a case where police delve into the life of the victim, Bob Eidman, a 48-year-old salesman with a long marriage but no children.
Following an incident at Eidman’s office, friends and colleagues from the insurance industry, including a longtime coworker known as “Dana,” rushed to the scene. Dana expressed her concern for Bob, stating, “That’s my friend… I remember… just all the way there saying, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Bob, no Bob.’”
Amid the investigation, security camera footage from a nearby grocery store caught a white Ford Focus driving past Bob’s office, prompting detectives to hunt for the vehicle among the 5,000 registered in Missouri. A lead emerged when police found a wrecked white car near the scene, containing one of Eidman’s business cards. Travis Endsley, linked to the abandoned vehicle, was questioned due to a blood stain on his shirt, which he explained as from a car accident.
As Endsley’s alibi checked out, attention shifted to Eidman’s widow, Diane. Detective Stefanie Kaiser interviewed Diane, who shared financial struggles with Eidman due to a failing insurance business. Kaiser noted Diane’s forgetfulness and questioned her about life insurance policies, hinting at the layers of complexity surrounding the case.
Diane mentioned that she had a $5,000 policy through her workplace, and the conversation took a surprising turn when she revealed a connection to a past crime involving her father. In a chilling confession to Detective Kaiser, Diane mentioned that her father, a police officer, had been murdered in their home when she was just 26 years old. Her mother was charged with the crime but was found not guilty.
After Diane’s husband, Bob Eidman, was murdered, it was discovered that Diane was set to receive over $300,000 in life insurance. Investigations also revealed that Bob had a secret relationship with a man from out of town. Despite questioning the lover and administering a polygraph test, he was cleared of any involvement in the murder.
Diane denied any involvement in her husband’s murder and agreed to take a polygraph test, which yielded inconclusive results. The case went cold until a DNA match was found on Eidman’s pants three years after his death, reigniting the investigation.
In the case of a man named Paul White, who had not been on the detectives’ radar and was serving a prison term for an unrelated forgery conviction when he became a suspect in Eidman’s death, the investigation was starting to gain momentum after years of leads going cold. “I conducted an extensive data history check on him,” Stepp stated, eventually unearthing a potential connection to the murder. “The significant point with Paul White was that I discovered a neighboring law enforcement agency had issued a ticket to him.” White had been a passenger in a white Ford Focus, resembling the car captured on a surveillance camera near Eidman’s office on the day of the killing.
According to police records, a man named Cleo Hines was driving the car with White during the same traffic stop. Authorities promptly brought in Hines for interrogation. Hines swiftly confessed to his involvement in Eidman’s murder but asserted that his role was limited to driving White to the insurance office in the Ford Focus and waiting outside as White committed the robbery and fatal shooting.
When Stepp interrogated White, he vehemently denied any role in Eidman’s murder, even after Stepp revealed that White’s DNA matched samples found inside Eidman’s pants pocket at the crime scene. Despite White’s persistent claims of innocence, he was formally charged the following day with robbery and the murder of Eidman.
The ensuing trial would unveil that, amidst the convoluted twists and turns in Eidman’s case, it all boiled down to a robbery that culminated in murder. In August 2012, jurors rendered White guilty of murder and first-degree robbery. A month later, he received two life terms for his crimes. Hines, on the other hand, entered an Alford plea and was convicted of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery, also receiving two life terms.
While Hines has the potential for parole, White is destined to spend the remainder of his days behind bars. Following the charges against the two men, Stepp met with Diane to inform her that she was absolved as a suspect. “I believe there was a palpable sense of relief for Diane,” Stepp recounted. “She was visibly moved, shaking, and tearful, expressing immense happiness that this ordeal had finally come to an end.”
