'Dateline' airs story on crash, trial

NBC's "Dateline" on Friday night takes a look at the high-profile Flathead Valley case of a teenager convicted for murder for a car crash that killed two people.

"Crossing the Line" is a one-hour show based on the 2009 car crash that killed Erin Thompson and her son, Caden Odell, north of Kalispell.

The driver who hit them, Justine Winter, eventually was charged and convicted of two counts of deliberate homicide.

"Using text messages on a phone found in one of the driver's cars, investigators would find a minute-by-minute narrative of the events leading up to the collision, leaving some to believe that it might not have been an accident - but murder," according to a press release from NBC News.

Correspondent Keith Morrison will tell the story of the crash and its aftermath. The show features Thompson's family as well as an interview with Winter in the Montana Women's Prison.

Thompson, 35, and Odell were driving north on U.S. 93 on March 19, 2009, returning home to Columbia Falls after Odell had played drums in a performance at Kalispell Middle School, where he was a seventh-grader.

They were killed when their car was struck by a vehicle driven by Winter, at the time a Glacier High School sophomore.

Winter later was convicted of two counts of deliberate homicide and now is serving a 15-year sentence with the Montana Department of Corrections.

Prosecutors said Winter had sent text messages to her ex-boyfriend threatening to kill herself after a fight earlier in the evening.

The deaths of Thompson and Odell led to a tremendous outpouring of grief in the community.

"Dateline" will air at 9 p.m. on cable channel 13 in the Flathead Valley.

A preview clip of the show is available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600/vp/45052883#45052883.

This is the second national network show that has covered the Winter case.

In August, the ABC news magazine "20/20" broadcast an hourlong report about the crash and the trial.