Transcript for Woman Admits to Harrassing Couple Who Bought Home She Wanted

Reporter: It needed work. But don't we all? When this single-story house with a pool, in San Diego's Carmel valley came up for sale, a lot of families wanted it. Married couple jerry rice and Janice Ruhter got it. This woman, Kathy Rowe, then a 50-year-old unassuming wife and mother was among those who didn't get the house. That just didn't seem right. At least if you were Kathy Rowe, it didn't. I had put so much hope into this house. I walked in, it was my house. Reporter: Yeah, but it wasn't your house. No. But it felt like the house I always wanted to own. And when I found out we didn't get it, it was devastating. It was heartbreaking. Almost like the loss of a loved one. Reporter: Kathy Rowe had a job with the county, had a very ill husband, she said, and had a mother of the year award for being the sole caregiver looking after their severely disabled daughter, Rachel. That house, though. It had more significance than just a structure with four walls. When I lost it, it -- I just -- I cried and cried. Reporter: Kathy Rowe also had enough bank to offer $100k more for jerry and Janice's home. When they failed to respond to the note she sent them, she launched a harassment campaign. Stopping their mail, relisting the house on zillow, sending those phony Valentines. Oh, and at the outset? Coming by the house with her daughter on Halloween. You wanted to see who was in the house, didn't you? I had no interest in them. I was more curious what they had done to the house. Reporter: Who came to the door when you trick-or-treated? The -- the wife. Reporter: The wife, Janice, whose photo Kathy Rowe would later put on this Carmel valley freak show online ad, inviting men to stop by anytime. I was jealous. Destroyed and devastated with pain and depression and -- Reporter: Why did that result in your lashing out at innocent people? I don't -- that's the form that it took. Reporter: You enjoyed this, didn't you? No. Reporter: You enjoyed making these people suffer. Well, I thought it was funny. I did not view it as suffering. Reporter: But when men responded to the ad, Kathy Rowe wrote them back, fueling the fire, providing specific and perverse encouragement to one 25-year-old male looking for fun, with a totally unaware Janice. I'm going to leave out the dirty words here. But this is someone pretending to be you. "I'm pretty much home all day every day, bored and incredibly horny. I love to be surprised and have a man just show up at the door, and force his way in the door and on me, totally taking me while I say no." Janice, what is the person who is writing this trying to do to you? She wanted me raped. This is my wife they're talking about. There's no mistaking the intent there. Reporter: Then, for the rices, the ultimate nightmare. Another man did show up at the house, only Janice wasn't home. Jerry met him at the front door. He thought he was going to walk in and have his way with your wife. I knew something was off with the guy. Reporter: Flummoxed, the man fled and e-mailed Kathy Rowe. "A guy was there. Had to make up an excuse why I was there." But Kathy Rowe wouldn't let it go and urged him to return to the house, with another sordid scenario. I remember what you said. It's like, "I hope it's okay with you I see other guys." Right. Reporter: And you ask about threesomes. Well, he had no interest in being involved if there was any other man involved. Reporter: You're the luckiest person in the world because of that, aren't you? It never even crossed my mind that -- that a man could go to the house and hurt her. Reporter: Probably should have, shouldn't it? Oh, absolutely. I normally am more concerned about other people's safety and welfare than my own. Reporter: Yeah, not so much this time. Absolutely not, this time. It's just how impaired my thinking was. Reporter: Kathy insisted we also speak to her psychologist sage Breslin, ph.d, who largely attributes Kathy's actions and state of mind to excessive sleep deprivation, brought on in part by her round the clock care for her daughter. It isn't one of those things where you sleep for a couple of days and then you feel better. Sleep deprivation makes a person get crazy. Reporter: I think we can understand the mental pain you were in. You know? And I think we can understand the sleeplessness, as well. What's hard for us to understand is how thousands of families go through everything you were going through and they don't lash out at innocent people. I think people have more -- have resiliency by their support network, by their family, by their friends. I -- I didn't have those. She was playing Russian roulette with my family, you know? There's no question in my mind she would get the right person at the right moment to come to the house and things would've happened. Reporter: Things happened all right. "Catch," the high-tech law enforcement task force, connected the dots between those sexed-up online solicitations in Janice's name and Kathy Rowe's computer. We identified Ms. Rowe through search warrants to Yahoo. And then that led to the identification of the residence. Reporter: The heat paid Kathy Rowe a visit. Eventually, she admitted to it all. Initially, she faced the possibility of nine years in prison. After many months of legal wrangling and a new life as a media sensation. Kathy Rowe tried to -- Kathy Rowe seemed -- A major fall from grace -- Reporter: She copped a plea to felony stalking and apologized to the rices. All the things that I've put them through. The stress, the lack of privacy, just -- I'm just very sorry. I think that you said you didn't want to hurt them, I think that's exactly what you wanted to do, was to hurt them for buying the house that you wanted. I was sentenced, to one year of confinement on a home ankle monitor and five years of probation. She actually is going to be watched a lot longer than she would have if she served some jail time. Kathy continues to have the responsibility for her daughter. Her daughter has maybe 100 to 150 medical appointments on an annual basis. Kathy has lost her job. She is the only person holding this family together at this point in time. I may be the least liked person in San Diego county. A horrible, evil person who wanted to harm this nice couple. And -- Reporter: In what way is that incorrect? I did not intend to harm them. Reporter: Apologies aside, Janice and jerry are still afraid. I believe that Ms. Rowe continues to be a dangerous person because of her skills of manipulation and her ability to lie. I kind of think she has more of a reason now to attack us. So obviously, you know, we're -- we're very concerned for the family. Reporter: Oh, and speaking of families? Kathy Rowe bought a new home for her family, just one mile away from jerry and Janice's place. Wow. Just a mile away. Have you ever lost something you wanted so badly, you went a little crazy trying to get it back or get revenge? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter. Use #abc2020. Plus, a woman sharing a new home with her ex and her new husband.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.