>> "dateline," everyone. i'm left erg holt. tonight we've got a story about a couple who made it big in a way you almost never hear about these days. they made a fortune in gold, but gold didn't buy them happiness. in fact, it just might have been a motive for murder. pay close attention to the surveillance video that starts our report because you just may see the key to solving tonight's mystery. here's josh mankiewicz .

>> reporter: take a look at the security video and tell ne whme what you see. a woman walks alone to her car in a parking garage in century city , california. is she in danger? same building complex, different angle. a man focuses on his cell phone oblivious to those around him. who is he calling? you are, in fact, watching scenes from a marriage , the final scene, it turns out. the woman is pamela fiad and the man is her husband jim . at the time this video was reported recorded, one of them just had minutes to live. rewind the video to just a few minutes earlier. the fiads have just had a meeting with their lawyers. they are in the midst of a bitter divorce. it's 6:30 p.m . the meeting is over. pamela hurries to catch the elevator and gets off at the third floor. she walks to her car and reaches for the keys inside her purse.

>> that's when she was attacked.

>> los angeles prosecutor alan jackson would spend many hours scrutinizing that video. tell me about the attack.

>> brutal. vicious. heart heart-stopping. pamela was completely defenseless. , i believe, from behind first with a knife. somebody much larger than her, somebody much stronger than her, who had an schrute mission, and that was to cut her throat to kill her.

>> on the video, you can see people in the complex starting to walk toward the sound of pam fiad screaming. one man ran to the scene and saw a tall man in a blad hood sweatshirt jump into the back of as parked behind pam 's car and be driven away. that witness then tried to help pam fiad.

>> then as he walked around to where the attack took place, that's when he first saw pamela . he said that when she looked at him, he went into a little shock because the only thing that was not covered in blood was the whites of her eyes. she stood and she walked toward him, eastbouven after having suffered these horrible mortal wounds and she reached out her arms and lp me".

>> it was too late for anyone to help pam . paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene. century city is only 176 acres. its gleaming office towers and high-dollar town homes lie entirely within the city of los angeles . and what makes this place run is money because century city is home to agents, film producers , and attorneys. usually around here when someone talks about bloody murder , they're talking about a deal that went south. this time, it was the real thing. the lead detective for the lapd investigating pam fiad's murder was salam abdul racman.

>> she wasn't murdered.

>> no.

>> she was not sexually assaulted.

>> no.

>> the purpose of that crime was to kill her.

>> the only purpose of the crime was to get rid of her and make sure she was dead.

>> he says the murder kaz carefully planned.

>> ms. fiad comes out about 6:30 at night.

>> that's correct.

>> she's walking to her car, what, alone?

>> by herself.

>> at some point the killer comes up behind her.

>> the killer pulled up in the burgundy suv behind mrs. fiad's vehicle.

>> so blocking her.

>> blocking her so she can't move her car from the parking spot. the killer gets oust back passenger seat and approaches mrs. fiad from behind.

>> how long did the attack take start to finish? finish, i would say anywhere from one to three minutes.

>> police found no eyewitnesss to the actual stabbing, but there were people close by.

>> there was an individual that was in a building across the street from where mrs. fiad was killed. that individual observed her and then observed an arm come around mrs. fiad and bring her back into the parking structure . and at that time he didn't see mrs. fiad any loerng.

>> that was the killer.

>> that was the killer.

>> police combed the crime scene looking for answers and they also started looking at the victim, pam fiad and her husband jim . the couple had been married nine years, together they ran a gold trading business called goldfinger. and together it had made them rich. but what had been a good marriage had deteriorated even as the money came in. now it was no secret that pam fiad and her husband were involved in a nasty, high-stakes divorce. it was also no secret that jim fiad could not have committed the murder.

>> when mrs. fiad was killed it was impossible he was holding a knife because he was with his attorney at that moment.

>> in the same building.

>> in the same building.

>> he couldn't have gotten away from them long enough to get to the parking garage and kill his wife.

>> no. and also, after mrs. fiad was murdered, there was video of footage that put mr. fia dm the courtyard so it was impossible for him to be in two places at one time.

>> that security video shows jim fiad trying to make a cell phone call at exactly the moment you see people reacting to pam 's screams. not only that, but a tall man wearing a black hood sweatshirt clearly was not a description of jim fiad. a woman murdered. a bitter divorce. but certainly the husband wasn't the killer. so who was? a very rich mystery was under way.

>>> coming up, the hunt is on for a motive and a as much. did the secret to this killing lay hidden in the rush for gold?

>> she wanted to make sure her friends were happy and taken care of, no matter what it took. [ male announcer ] there are over half a million apps and counting on the iphone. apps