Sara James Correspondent • Profile

ST. PAUL, MINN. - He'd been a runner in the past. And he would run again -- leaving unbearable grief behind, creating more heartache as he moved across the country.

Donna Dobson: Like the tsunami that you have to pick up the pieces afterwards. A lot of the pieces cannot be picked up.

It all started during his marriage to this woman.

Kathy Rysgaard: She was my baby sister. She was my sweet, baby sister.

Jean Kilduff grew up in a large Irish Catholic working class family in St. Paul, Minn. She was the youngest of four girls, sandwiched between two boys. Jean was known for being thoughtful and cheery. She was an absolute doll, her oldest sister, Kathy, says. She loved reading and especially enjoyed mystery novels.

Kathy Rysgaard: Jean was a wonderful woman. Just kind, good-hearted, sweet, smart. I can't say enough good about Jean and how many friends she had, how beloved she was.

Lucky as she was in her own family, Jean seemed to have been equally blessed in the man she chose.

She met Gordon Weaver in college. He was an excellent athlete, a competitive runner. Jean was attracted to his good looks, keen intellect and what seemed like a promising future.

Gordon was from an upper-middle class family. His father was the one-time dean of the pharmacy school at the University of Minnesota, so distinguished he'd had a building named in part after him.

The couple married in 1981. The following year, Gordon earned his master’s in business and they moved to California, where he took a job at a large construction company. The following year they had a son, Sean, the delight of Jean's life.

Kathy Rysgaard: She was a wonderful mother.

To outward appearances, they were the perfect family. But the move to California had sealed a secret.

What no one, not even her family knew, was that the marriage had been toxic almost from the start.

Kathy Rysgaard: We later found out that he was emotionally abusive to her out there. When they finally moved back here, she told us, and they separated shortly after that.

Her other sister, Colleen, says that even from the beginning, Gordon was aloof, reluctant to socialize with the rest of the close-knit family.

Sara James (Dateline NBC): Would you describe him as a loner?

Colleen Dropps: Definitely a loner who communicated better with the kids than with the adults.

In 1987, Jean moved out with their son Sean. But Jean's sisters say Gordon pleaded with his wife to move back home, and after four years, she did so -- for the sake of their child.

Colleen Dropps: She wanted to keep her family intact.

Kathy Rysgaard: I think it was okay for a while. They went on a European trip, but it - I remember it wasn't long after that that things started to go sour again.

Sometime in late 1998 Jean confided in Colleen that her marriage to Gordon was in name only.

Colleen Dropps: She said that Gordy lives in the basement and had for the past year and she had the bedroom upstairs.

Colleen says Jean told her she was going to hang on until Sean graduated high school in 2001. But in 1997, a traumatic illness in the family would change everything. The fourth Kilduff sister -- Patty -- was diagnosed with brain cancer.

Kathy Rysgaard: We just surrounded her with love and care. The final day she waited until everyone was there and then she passed.

It was May 1999. And then there were just three Kilduff sisters.

Colleen Dropps: Once Patty died, it was like your world can change in a day. Jean realized that.

Kathy Rysgaard: That is when Jean knew -- time to get out. Life is too short.

Colleen Dropps: She wanted a new life. She was excited about making changes.

The sisters say that Jean told Gordon in August 1999 she wanted a divorce.

Colleen Dropps: She told him, "This is it. I can't do this anymore."

She told her sisters he'd asked her to reconsider, to give it some more time. She reluctantly agreed, but continued to plan for her future as a single mom. Part of her plan was to find a new job more in keeping with her growing skills.

Jean eventually was recruited to be a human resources executive.

Kathy Rysgaard: She was very excited to be starting a new life. She was going to divorce her husband. She was going to move on.

Video   Inside the Weaver home Police video from the charred home of Jean and Gordon Weaver. Dateline NBC

As summer turned to autumn, the trees flamed scarlet and gold. Jean, who had just turned 40, seemed to glow just as brightly. On Saturday, Oct. 16, the sisters were meeting for a weekend at Colleen's cabin in northern Minnesota.

Jean planned to meet Kathy at her home, and they would drive north together.

Kathy Rysgaard: She was supposed to be here at a certain time. And she didn't show up.

Sara James: Were you worried?

Kathy Rysgaard: Oh! I called their house. The phone was like dead. I told my husband something's wrong, something is just wrong. So we got in the car and started driving to her house.

Sara James: You had a bad feeling.

Kathy Rysgaard: Oh my God, yes. We get to her house. Her car was in the garage. I ran around to the front of the house. She had a big picture window and it was all black. So I ran to the front door and I heard beeping and then it's when it hit me that that's the fire alarm.

Terrified, Kathy called out to her husband to phone 911 as she tried to get into the house, but the smoke was too black and oily.

Kathy Rysgaard: I smashed her bedroom window open and she wasn't in there. And then all we could do was wait for the firefighters to come. And I just, oh, was praying and praying.

When firefighters arrived on the scene, they made their way into the smoke-filled home, where they discovered Jean lying face down in the basement laundry room.

Kathy Rysgaard: They wouldn't let me go near her, and they -- I understood that she was still alive when they brought her out and that they were working on her. And I remember thinking, you know, this is bad. And then the fire chief came over and said she was gone.

A fire. Their beloved sister dead. What could have happened? Was this a terrible accident -- or something far more sinister?

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