Dateline: Before Dawn - Who was Lisa Techel and what happened to her? Disturbing details of the 2012 incident revealed 

A recent Dateline: Before Dawn tells the chilling tale of Lisa Techel and her subsequent murder. As per Dateline: Before Dawn, Lisa Techel was twenty-three years old at the time of her murder on May 26, 2012. Lisa worked as a jailer at the Washington County Jail and lived with her high-school sweetheart-turned-husband, Seth Techel, at their picturesque home in Agency, Iowa.

According to Seth Techel's initial testimony right after the early morning murder, he was in the bathroom taking a shower when he heard a gunshot. Upon quickly rushing back to the bedroom, he looked on in horror at Lisa's lifeless corpse. At the time of her death, Lisa was pregnant with her daughter, whom she had planned to name Zoe Marie.

The police and other investigators initially suspected a disabled Army veteran neighbor named Brian, who had an ongoing feud with Seth for some time before Lisa's death. However, as new and shocking evidence was unearthed by investigators, Seth Techel was ultimately arrested and convicted for murdering his own wife and their unborn child.

Here’s everything we know about the Dateline: Before Dawn investigation.

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Dateline: Before Dawn - Lisa Techel's murder details explained

Lisa Caldwell Techel first met her future husband, Seth Techel, at a bowling alley where both of them held part-time jobs as teenagers. They quickly took a liking to each other and were much loved by each other's parents. Lisa aspired to have a career in law enforcement, as her beloved father, Todd Caldwell, was a reputed sheriff’s deputy himself. Lisa worked as a reserve deputy with her father for some time before taking up the jailer's position. Meanwhile, Seth also worked as a jailer at Wapello County.

Dateline: Before Dawn explained that after Seth made a frantic call to 911 on the morning of his wife's murder, law enforcement quickly descended upon his home. His father-in-law, Todd Caldwell, was also quick to arrive at the scene, where he had the misfortune of witnessing his brutally murdered daughter. Todd’s initial suspicion fell on neighbor Brian, who had an ongoing feud with Seth, with some acts of vandalism occurring between them.

The police, however, eventually dismissed Brian from their list of suspects. Upon discovering Seth's affair with a coworker named Rachel, with whom he communicated via a secret burner phone, the police focused their energies on him. The next breakthrough in the case came when police chanced upon the murder weapon and traced it back to one of Seth's friends. Seth was consequently arrested, but his trial proved to be much more difficult than expected.

After three trials over two years, Seth was convicted of first-degree murder and non-consensual termination of a human pregnancy. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, along with an additional twenty-five years, as illustrated in the Dateline: Before Dawn episode.

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Dateline: Before Dawn - Lisa Techel's family spoke directly with Seth during his trial

As revealed in the Dateline: Before Dawn episode, during the third and final trial of Seth Techel, Lisa's family members, including her father Todd and mother Tracy, spoke directly to Seth inside the courtroom. Todd stated:

"You know how close Lisa and I was and you know what you took from me. Out of everybody in this room you know and you sit there right now with no emotion on your face -- none -- and I don’t know how you can do that, Seth is a cold hearted killer. I would call him an animal but an animal only kills out of necessity, Seth kills out of convenience."

Tracy Caldwell, on the other hand, made the following statement:

"Seth, I have no doubt that you made sure Lisa could not resist before you took her life. You and I both know that Lisa would have fought to survive, and ultimately would have kicked your ass so she and Zoe could have lived. I think it only fair that if my daughter had even a brief moment of fear before you shot her that you live the rest of your days in fear and misery and I hope spending your life in prison at least guarantees that."

Dateline: Before Dawn is exclusively available on NBC.