-the surveillance tapes and the frantic search. a young woman goes missing from a mall. >> the surveillance tapes and the frantic search. "20/20" starts right now. the fear of women walking out to their car by themselves. it's a real feeling that everybody has felt. >> dru was working at victoria's secret. >> she did a little christmas shopping, headed to her car, and then went missing from the mall. >> she was talking with her boyfriend. her last words that he heard her say were, "okay, okay," and the

phone went dead. >> it's the last time anyone heard from dru sjodin. >> the family of missing college student dru sjodin is still holding out hope that she will be found alive. >> at the time of her disappearance, she was a 22-year-old und college student. >> did you feel safe? >> i felt safe. we were 17 to 22-year-olds. we were invincible. >> i found her car and i just sat there. >> you were holding vigil at her car? >> i was sitting right there, yeah. >> do you believe this morning that she is still alive? >> well we're, we're certainly hoping so, diane. >> it's a mystery that would wait 20 years for a resolution. >> in the parking lot of the mall was found a knife sheath. >> whoever lost that sheath may very well be involved in the abduction of that girl. >> it was just a daunting feeling in the pit of my stomach knowing that something is desperately wrong.

>> this is such a large area to cover. >> there were people who she may have had contact with that she wouldn't even recognize as a potential threat. >> you have a serial predator on your hands. >> yep. yep. for most people in the land of 10,000 lakes, heading up north means taking a trip to their weekend cabin. few are lucky enough to call the north woods home year round, but the minnesota father who built this cabin with his own two hands is one of them. >> juju: this is you and dru. what year is this, do you know? >> 2000. just getting ready to go to college. >> juju: yeah, yeah, yeah. allan sjodin has called his daughter dru, "drusie" ever since she was little. she vanished just before

thanksgiving in 2003. that's one of her early works, right? >> yes, that one's real early. i think she was 7 or 8 years old when she drew that. >> juju: amazing. it's basically the view right outside the window. >> yup. >> juju: as a college student, dru was majoring in graphic design, but it's clear she'd been an artist long before that. before she disappeared, dru was a senior at the university of north dakota and so excited to graduate. but the gamma phi beta sorority sister would never get that chance. >> the last time i saw her was right downtown park rapids watching a vikings game. >> juju: that's a good memory, yeah. >> yeah. as i drove away, i had this really eerie feeling. >> juju: do you remember the last thing you said to her? >> oh, "be careful. i love you." >> juju: one month later and a few hours away in grand forks, north dakota, is when and where allan sjodin's 20-year nightmare would begin.

>> so the columbia mall is in the south end of grand forks. it's just a uh, shadow of what it was back in 2003. several of the businesses inside have closed. and victoria's secret, where dru was working, that closed several years ago. in 2003, during the dru sjodin investigation, i was assigned to assist. at the time, my partner was orie senechal. >> grand forks was approximately 50,000 people at the time. it's right along the red river on the west side of the red river, putting it into north dakota. the university of north dakota was a big part of that town. >> juju: just across the red

river is minnesota and the city of east grand forks, but for people living on both sides, it feels like one big community. >> people were nice, and everybody i think felt comfortable there. there wasn't a lot of crime. >> juju: it's a place where people might think "bad things don't happen here." but what happened to dru sjodin changed everything. >> on november 22nd, 2003, dru was working at victoria's secret in columbia mall. i believe she was scheduled to get off work at 4:00 p.m. after work, she went to marshall fields which was also in the mall so she could purchase a purse. they found video at marshall fields. in the video, you can see dru entering the store, exiting the store. >> dru was wearing black pants, a black pea coat, and she had a pink shirt on underneath the coat. >> she was a 22-year-old und

college student, she was from pequot lakes, minnesota. she was described as one of those people that everybody liked. bubbly personality, outgoing, very kind, very giving. >> the purse she bought at marshall fields that afternoon was a gift for her mom. >> it would have been dark or getting to be dark at 5:00. it was, you know, november 22nd. so approaching the winter months. she made a phone call to her boyfriend, christopher lang, and she was speaking with christopher as she was walking to her car. >> dru had been talking on the phone from roughly 5:00 p.m. to 5:04 p.m., to her boyfriend, and that phone call was interrupted, and she abruptly hung up. prior to doing so, she said something along the lines of "okay, okay."

>> we've all been leaving work, talking on the phone, multi-tasking, doing this, doing that. and then all of a sudden in the blink of an eye, you're in that situation and, you know, things have changed forever. >> i'm a journalist from minnesota, and this was one of the first big cases i covered a few years out of college. being close to dru in age, it really impacted me. i think dru's case touched people on a national level because she seemed just like everybody's daughter, everybody's friend. somebody that everybody could identify with. and it was tragic when she disappeared. >> chris initially thinks dru's going to call back. when 6:00 rolls around and he hasn't heard from her, he gets worried. he starts calling her and leaving messages. he also calls her roommate and learns she hasn't been back to their apartment. >> later in the evening, dru's boyfriend chris did receive a phone call from dru's phone, but at that time there was no communication.

all chris was able to hear at that point was what sounded like the buttons being pushed. and that was, um, approximately 7:42 p.m. >> juju: dru's boyfriend called dru's roommate, meg murphy, again, and suggests she try calling the bar where dru was supposed to work a shift later that night. >> she was employed at elroco bar. she was supposed to work, i believe at 9:00 p.m. that night and she did not show up for work. they didn't think she would have not shown up for work without calling somebody or letting somebody know. >> police department. >> hi, um, i'm calling -- one of my, actually, my roommate, um, was supposed to be home like a couple of hours ago. >> how old is she? >> 22. >> november 22nd, 2003. i'd heard them dispatch one of our other officers to talk to a roommate of a gal that hadn't shown up.

i said, "well, i'll drive down to the mall and see if i can spot her car." we're in the northeast parking lot of the mall, outside the penney's building, and dru's car was parked in this space. red olds cutlass was parked in this parking spot. by 11:00, when i got here, the lot was pretty much empty. there wasn't anybody around, so it was easy to find. i went and looked in the car. it looked like a bomb had gone off in the back seat, but then a lot of kids had cars like that. so i did find the bag with the -- with the purse that she bought at marshall fields. i locked it up. by the driver's side rear wheel was a black object.

it looked out of place. the knife sheath was laying by the left rear tire on the driver's side. i picked it up. put it in my pocket. i had no idea how important that piece of evidence was going to turn out to be. >> juju: as the search for dru continues, police soon ask dru's boyfriend, chris, more questions. including why he didn't call police right away. >> it wasn't a scream, it wasn't a -- it wasn't anything that would -- it was -- it was just a -- it cut off. >> he was in a relationship with her. we needed to verify his alibi. oftentimes, the people close to the victim are responsible for their disappearance. rsv can severely affect the lungs and lower airways. but i'm protected with arexvy.

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♪ -on the night of the disappearance, how did you get word? -i got a phone call. on the night of the disappearance, how did you get word? >> i got a phone call. they had found her car in the parking lot. >> juju: were you alarmed? what was your initial reaction? >> oh, i was panicked. i jumped in my work truck and

took off, and it was a snowstorm that night. and i had to follow behind a semi because it was snowing so crazy. >> juju: what did you feel in your gut? >> i think you don't want to think the worst. you know, you're trying to be positive. first i drove down to the police station. there wasn't anybody around. i pounded on the doors, couldn't get in. so then i jumped in my car, in my pickup, and i drove back to the shopping center. and i found her car. and i just sat there. >> juju: you sat with the car? >> sat with the car. >> juju: you were holding vigil at her car? >> i was sitting right there, yeah. it was a god-awful, terrible night. >> i had received a phone call from my father. and my dad said, "dru's missing. it doesn't look good." i just remember going, uh, you know, "i don't understand what this all means." he goes, uh, "she's, she's missing, sven, um, we just don't know where she is and we don't think that it's good."

he shared the story of what happened while chris was on the phone, walking out in the parking lot by herself. i had uh, moved away, i was starting a family in california and dru was working on college. i didn't really know my sister's, you know, pattern in life at that time. i didn't know where she could be or what, what she might be doing. she loved her sorority and her sorority sisters up there. >> it was my second year on campus at und, and i thought joining a sorority was the last thing on earth i would do. and meeting the sisterhood of gamma phi beta and especially dru, all of a sudden i was enrolled as a greek. >> juju: how did she draw you in? >> her big blue eyes, first off, was one driving factor. her smile could light up a room.

>> juju: what was gamma phi beta like on campus? >> if you've ever seen it, it is a pink castle. it is high energy, that's what i remember. everyone loved them a slice of deek's pizza. you would all be centered around a large pizza and sharing laughter and life, really. i remember rush week walking down university avenue, and i was like, "god i don't know if this is for me." and she just told me, "trust in your journey, and you only get one try at this life." so those -- it will stay in my memory forever. >> i was looking forward to having "auntie drusie" there to be a part of my son's life. we were two years apart. around 1990, 1991 we moved up to pequot lakes, minnesota. >> it is recording, isn't it? >> no. >> it better not be! >> i don't know, i can't tell if it's recording or not. >> i had already separated from linda, mother of my children.

>> my parents divorced when i was 7, so dru was 5. we lived with my mother and my stepfather, sid walker. we call him sidder. he was an amazing man. we grew up on a very beautiful lake. it's a beautiful place. >> good hit, drusie! >> first time we met, i was out on a jet ski that broke down. dru and sven happened to be driving by in a boat and essentially towed me home. dru was energetic. she was compassionate and the right amount of goofy mixed in there. >> the opportunity to move to the lake was really good for her and her brother. >> there's drusie! hi! >> gave her a lot of freedom. gave her a work ethic, because she started working young. >> in high school, dru spent

summers waiting tables at the manhattan beach lodge on big trout lake. it's just a few minutes away from her home, a place where little has changed, where a photo of her in the newspaper is still displayed alongside an article touting the food and the resort. >> my sister loved her high school years, playing basketball and golf and was actually quite good at that. >> juju: she was very popular, she was homecoming queen? >> yes. >> juju: do you remember that? >> absolutely. >> juju: what was that like? >> oh, it was fantastic. she deserved it. she was one of those kids that everybody loved. coaches, teachers, townspeople, neighbors, yeah. i just see her smile and her grace and her gentleness. really gentle, but tough. >> juju: around the same time dru's car and a knife sheath

were discovered in the columbia mall parking lot, word that dru was missing was already spreading around campus. she hadn't shown up at her on-campus apartment. how did you get word that she was missing? >> well, with the sisterhood, kind of the calling chain, it came out, "has anyone heard from dru?" big sisters would call the little sisters and then just make sure that everyone at that time had not heard from dru. we started making calls throughout where she could be or possibilities. it was just a daunting feeling in the pit of my stomach, knowing that something is desperately wrong, desperately wrong. >> juju: as for chris lang, the last person dru spoke to the night she disappeared, police wanted to know why he didn't call authorities immediately when their call got cut off. >> she was telling me about the -- the stuff she'd bought. i'm picturing her, like, driving out of the parking lot. abruptly, she, she said, she said, she said something like, "okay, okay." >> okay. >> is how i remember it. and i know, and i know it struck

me as a little odd. it wasn't a scream, it wasn't a -- it wasn't anything that would -- it was -- it was just a -- it cut off. i remember saying to her in a message that, that i left her, like, you know, "did you get in a little fender bender?" and then later on that night, sid called me at like midnight or something, and he told me that -- that they had found her car in the parking lot. >> okay. >> and that, and that to me was, was the moment i knew that she indeed, in my estimation, was taken. >> juju: because chris was 300 miles away moving into a new apartment in minneapolis, police say he was never a person of interest. so who was? >> we're listening to any tidbit of information someone gives us. >> we don't know her patterns, we don't know who she knows, and

we're looking to those people who are close to her to find out that information. meg had mentioned that she was familiar with a person by the name of mike, who dru had at some point some kind of a romantic relationship with. dru met mike through her work at el roco, i believe he was a patron who frequented there. mike hager was a mechanic. he lived in grand forks. he was kind of outside of dru's normal circle of friends. >> he's someone she and dru's dad allan were both concerned about. >> juju: why did you think the police should look at mike hager? >> well, just because of a couple of things that she said he, you know, he just was kind of uh, glommy and wanted more in the relationship than she was willing to give. >> they at some point did have some kind of relationship. it seemed as though towards the end there, kind of starting to annoy her and that she, you know, kind of wanted to cut ties with him.

the morning of november 23rd at 6:00 a.m, officers went to mike hager's residence. and the person who answered the door said "mike lives here, i'm his roommate, but i haven't seen him for a week." so they left it at that. he didn't realize that the person who answered the door actually was mike hager. he lied about who he was. >> juju: this guy has lied to police? >> yes. >> juju: that's not a good sign. neither was what steve conley spotted by the front door when he paid mike hager a visit. >> there was a pair of female shoes. >> juju: did you think maybe they were dru's shoes? ♪ it's a little pill with a big story to tell. ♪ ♪ i take once-daily jardiance, ♪ ♪ at each day's staaart. ♪ ♪ as time went on it was easy to seee. ♪ ♪ i'm lowering my a1c. ♪ jardiance works 24/7 in your body

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deliver for them every day and not just talk a good game. adam schiff. he held a dangerous president accountable. he also helped lower drug costs, bring good jobs back home, and build affordable housing. now he's running for the senate. our economy, our democracy, our planet. this is why we fight. i'm adam schiff, and i approve this message. -meg mentioned mike's name right away meg mentioned mike's name right away when she reported dru missing. >> i talked to, ah, um, the roommate, and we might have a possible suspect. i'm trying to get some information on it right now. guy that's been trying to hit on her at the el roco. >> it seemed as though he was more interested in a relationship with dru than she was. >> when police had knocked on mike hager's door, they were

told mike wasn't there. but an officer was assigned to follow up later on. >> i was a patrol officer at that time. my shift began at 7:30 in the morning, and i was then briefed on the investigation that began overnight. i was advised that, um, dru had gotten off work at victoria's secret, uh, did not make it to her evening job, had been on a phone conversation with her boyfriend at the time, and that appeared to have abruptly ended. they weren't able to make contact with her. and that her vehicle had been found at columbia mall. i was tasked with trying to make contact with mike hager. reportedly had dated dru. and my understanding was maybe had not wanted the dating to end. >> juju: and so you knock on the door? >> yes. >> juju: what happens? >> the door is answered by a gentleman that i personally know to be michael hager. >> juju: and where did you know him from before? >> we used to work in a restaurant in the columbia mall years prior. he was a cook, and i was a manager.

>> juju: when he opened the door, how was he dressed? >> just in a pair of sweatpants. >> juju: shirtless? >> yes. he was open and cordial, smile. he was very nice to me. i said, "i understand an officer had stopped by earlier." and he said, "well, i talked to the officer." and i said, "well, my understanding was you weren't here." >> juju: this guy has lied to police. >> yes. >> juju: does that raise alarm bells? >> it did. absolutely. i asked him about his whereabouts since the day before on saturday. he provided me information as to him and a friend had come back to his apartment at 5:00. numerous other people came over throughout the night. >> juju: there was some heavy drinking? >> yes. >> juju: and what did you notice by the door that made you think twice? >> i noticed a pair of female shoes. >> juju: did you think maybe they were dru's shoes? >> there was a possibility. i said, "is there a female in the house?" he said, "yes." and then a short time later, a female came from the bedroom out into the living room. >> juju: officer conley quickly

realized it wasn't dru sjodin. >> there were several people on scene that could attest to his whereabouts. when i told him about dru and she was missing, he understood the seriousness of it, and he was very cooperative. >> juju: but you're still not letting him off the hook? >> at that point, it's still an active investigation. >> juju: conley realizes that mike hager has a misdemeanor arrest warrant for failure to pay some fines and decides to bring him in for further questioning. >> they were able to talk to him. he lied about who he was because he was upset that officers were at his house at 6:00 in the morning and, like, they were going to come raid the place. and so that's why he said he lied. he was eliminated. >> juju: thanksgiving is approaching, and police are facing a monumental task. outside grand forks' city limits, it's nothing but farm fields as far as the eye can see. dru could be anywhere.

>> when dru was reported missing, all of these fields were bare. the ground was frozen at the time, so just a very, very difficult scene than what we have today. grand forks is right on the border of north dakota and minnesota. >> juju: because of that proximity, police wondered if dru could be on the minnesota side. and it wasn't long after she vanished that they discovered something else that would make them almost certain of it. >> they were able to identify the general location of where the second phone call to chris lang had come from based on tower data. >> the fbi initially got involved in dru's investigation on sunday around noon. she was taken on saturday night. the sprint phone records indicated that her phone was still on and pinging in the crookston area, which is a town east of grand forks in minnesota. >> juju: you learned that dru's

cell had pinged? >> yes. >> juju: did that give you hope? >> oh, it did. it gave us hope that we could at least get to a point where, you know, we might find some evidence or get an understanding what, you know, potentially where she could be. >> juju: of search of dru's apartment turned up no clues to her whereabouts. police collected several items though, including her sheets, her toothbrush, which could be used to get a sample of her dna, and a book -- "the lovely bones." it's a fictional story written from the point of view of a young woman who goes missing and is murdered. police hoped dru's disappearance wouldn't end the same way. >> her phone continued to be activated until about 6:00 that night, uh, sunday night. >> obviously if we could find dru's phone, we have a better chance of finding dru. >> juju: and a better chance of finding out who else she might have been talking to just before she disappeared.

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♪ -winter weather started coming in, and it started to snow a little bit. we were really trying aggressively to search and try to locate where her phone might be, winter weather started coming in and it started to snow a little bit. we were really trying aggressively to search and try to locate where her phone might be in -- in hopes of finding dru. >> this early in the investigation, there's always in the back of your mind the potential that she's a college student who just hasn't been seen yet and will show up. we were able to get a great video that showed what dru was wearing, and we could see that she was bringing the cell phone to her ear right at 5:00 as she walked out of marshall fields. >> the video footage of her in marshall fields really drew no red flags or concern. there was no indication of anyone following her or her being nervous or upset in any

way. >> police knew how serious this was from the very start. the hang-ups on the phone, the knife sheath found in the parking lot by her car -- neither were a good sign. >> the young deputy, he informed me that they had found a sheath from a knife. and so i'm not certain that he was supposed to tell me that, but he did. >> juju: that must have sent a chill down your spine. >> yeah. yes. >> juju: i can't imagine the kind of adrenaline you were running on. >> yeah. >> juju: what did that feel like? >> my work life always was high anxiety. we're just going to put our shoulders back, and we're going to be brave. >> i previously served, uh, twice actually, as the united states attorney for north dakota. i was getting hourly reports, it seemed, because i think we all had a sense that this could have very easily been a crime that would be implicated for -- for federal investigation and prosecution.

>> juju: the federal kidnapping act states that if a victim is kidnapped and taken across state lines, the crime falls under federal, not state, jurisdiction. it also allows for harsher sentences, including the death penalty, if that kidnapping results in murder. >> there were federal and state and local authorities involved on both sides of the state line, uh, with minnesota. and there was a, you know, almost immediate urgency about the matter. >> it's almost impossible to avoid working together with state and federal agents from both states when you are located like grand forks and minnesota are. >> we knew she wasn't with her vehicle. we didn't know what her status was, why her phone was active where it was. we didn't have any luck finding her phone initially. and obviously, we didn't find dru initially either. >> juju: back in grand forks,

officer conley is also back to square one. you were tasked to go to the mall? >> yes. when i got there, it was a sunday, early morning, so they would have barely opened. i went to victoria's secret and jcpenneys. >> i was the store director at victoria's secret and that is how i first met dru. it was a great atmosphere -- fun, and everybody made it a great place to work. dru was a sales associate. she was such a -- a bright light. she was so awesome. she was such a happy, smiley, incredible lady. >> i was able to gather that she had worked yesterday from about noon to 4:00 and had gotten off of work. told one of the employees she was going to go pick up something. she had also indicated to an employee that since she did not have to work at her other job till 9:00, she was going to go home after work. >> it was right before

thanksgiving, and we always called it "pink friday." so it was very busy. dru worked a day shift, and she got done around 4:00 p.m. >> juju: 5:00 p.m., when we know dru left the mall, was still early in the day during the busy holiday shopping season. >> it's starting to become winter, so it gets darker a little bit earlier. the fear of women walking out to their car by themselves, it's a real feeling that everybody has felt, not once, twice, but many times. >> any lingerie store could occasionally attract a few creepy people. and the manager says the store took employees' safety seriously. >> our security officers that would walk the mall were wonderful, and they would always say, you know, "let us know,

give us a call if you're feeling like you have a, you know, a weird vibe from people." so we took advantage of that, but it didn't happen very often. they were questioning some of the -- the -- the managers. was anybody, you know, bothering her or anything like that. >> juju: and in fact, investigators learn there was someone who had been calling the store, asking for dru. >> there was somebody who kept calling for her with a foreign accent, was the only way it was described. >> there had been a male and a female that repeatedly called the store asking for dru to the point where they were told, "you can no longer call here." and they responded with, "well that's okay, we have her home phone number." ♪ when your child has moderate—to—severe eczema, it's okay for them to show off. show off their clearer skin and noticeably less itch with dupixent. because children 6 months and older with eczema

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my memory of monday was it -- it was a very busy day. >> juju: sunday had come and gone, as did any hope of finding dru's cell phone, which stopped pinging. >> i was wondering what we were going to uncover, and am i ready to gain that knowledge of what really happened to dru? because as the minutes ticked on, that feeling in my gut just got bigger and bigger. >> juju: you were full of dread? >> uh-huh. >> police decide to go public with their investigation, holding press conferences for local and national media. this was when most people learned that dru sjodin was missing. >> the family of missing college student dru sjodin is still holding out hope that she will be found alive. >> dru's boyfriend, chris lang, believes passionately that she's still alive. >> she's -- she's somewhere safe and warm. i believe it in my heart. you know, she's fine.

>> juju: the mysterious phone calls dru was getting at work were also raising concerns. is that the kind of thing that might lead investigators to think she had a stalker? >> potentially, sure. >> juju: figuring out if dru had a stalker was crucial to the investigation, especially because a female employee of nearby marshall fields had recently reported to police that she was being allegedly harassed by a man whom she said "makes "makes her uncomfortable," even "ran after her once," and has "been at the store three or four times in the past month." police reports show he was ordered to stay out of marshall fields, but not out of columbia mall, where dru was when she vanished. >> his name was ed labine. he was continuing to visit a sales clerk at marshall fields and paying a lot of attention to this person. it was unwanted attention. at one point he'd even been warned that, you know, returning to that store could cause him to be arrested.

>> juju: one of the first things they found out when they tracked him down was he was near the mall the day dru disappeared. >> he'd been in grand forks shopping and provided a list of places. >> juju: they asked for his receipts. he said he'd been home by 5:00, but they needed to be sure. that's because 5:04 p.m. was when the call dru was on with her boyfriend chris lang was cut off and she vanished. >> grand forks police know they need more help looking for the phone and for dru, and that's when yet another law enforcement agency gets involved. >> in 2003, i was employed as a special agent with the minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension. this is in the early days of cell phone technology. triangulating off of cell phone towers or directional usage from cell phone towers was really just getting started. >> winter had come. so we went from great search

conditions to, to look for someone and look for evidence, to some of the worst conditions that you can think of coming across the tundra. >> in the air and on all-terrain vehicles, the volunteers came from everywhere, canada to kansas. >> dru is from an area where i had a second home. i knew dru. i knew many of her friends. i knew i had to try and do something, try and help somehow. >> 20 years later, i still can't describe that experience. it's something that i never thought i would go through and something i certainly don't want to go through again. >> they went through and asked about her relationships. if there was anyone that we would suspect or think or anything that she had done in the past week that was out of the ordinary and if there was any other places that we'd think she would be. >> juju: did dru have any enemies? >> not that i knew of. >> juju: it's no secret that in

disappearances like this one, sometimes police look at the partner first, but they had already ruled out chris lang because he was proven to be 300 miles away in minneapolis when dru went missing. as for the guy dru dated for two and half years before chris lang, authorities felt he raised more suspicion. >> dru and meg shared an apartment that was on campus. while we're working with meg, she did mention, uh, one of dru's ex-boyfriends, adam, um, adam schultz. >> he was mentioned early on as being a possible suspect in dru's disappearance. adam schultz was also a und student. he was an aerospace student. during the interview with meg, she talked about dru's relationship with adam, and she did have some concerns there in how he was treating her and that the breakup didn't go well. so that was one of the things that led us on to adam. >> juju: meg told police that when dru and adam schultz were both interning in aspen, colorado, he allegedly caught her cheating on him.

according to police reports, dru's roommate claimed that this upset schultz to the point where dru became scared of him because of some of his actions and that apparently dru had tried breaking up with schultz several times but schultz wouldn't take the hint. >> he was certainly cooperative, he was forthright with us, but it seemed like he was trying to help steer the investigation in certain aspects. we are generally a little bit skeptical when we're talking to someone they're trying to steer us in a certain direction. >> juju: back when police had searched dru's car, they found a lot of items in the back seat and in the trunk. it's the trunk where police found a card they seized with the name adam on it saying "dru, i just wanted to write and tell you that i have had a great time spending time with you this past week. i hope it continues. i look forward to seeing ya this weekend. love, adam." but because there was no date, there was no way to tell when it was from, and if it was from the

weekend dru vanished. >> he was somebody that made some of dru's friends uncomfortable. they thought that he maybe wasn't very nice to her. >> juju: police reports don't include any details adam provided authorities regarding the claims people made about his relationship and breakup with dru. we reached out to adam schultz, but he declined to be interviewed. >> she would never do anything to anyone. >> in a news clip recorded by the station i worked for at the time, adam appears genuinely concerned when speaking about dru, but police had concerns of their own. >> never asked for trouble and never was looking for it. so i don't understand how this situation could happen. >> we asked him, you know, what his activities were and he talked about getting gas in his vehicle and also that he had flights. he was a flight student, that he was out flying and that sort of thing. the flight information, that was pretty easy to verify. him getting gas that day was not easy to establish. >> he thought he got gas and that he would have a gas receipt to prove that he was getting gas around that time.

so he was able to find the receipt, and then it turned out that the receipt was from two days prior. >> juju: as detectives were working the leads on adam, dozens of people at all levels of law enforcement were working 24/7 to figure out what happened to dru. >> our searchers were finding pretty much anything that could potentially be evidence. you know, we had cigarette packs and multiple clothing items, you know, bras and underwear, and just really anything that anyone thought potentially could be involved. >> juju: none of it would end up being connected to dru, but what they found under a bridge in crookston that tuesday was. >> we were able to establish that, with certainty, that was dru sjodin's shoe. >> juju: it wouldn't be long before police had more than one person on their radar. you have a serial sexual predator on your hands. >> yep, yep.

>> juju: and a piece of video turns up that police say shows that dru may not have been her kidnapper's first target. >> he did appear to be watching women as they were exiting the store. >> juju: so his violence is escalating? >> yes. [car screech] [car door slam] [camera shutter sfx] introducing ned's plaque psoriasis. [camera shutter sfx] he thinks his flaky, red patches are all people see. otezla is the #1 prescribed pill to treat plaque psoriasis. [ned?] it can help you get clearer skin and reduce itching and flaking. with no routine blood tests required. doctors have been prescribing it for nearly a decade. otezla is also approved to treat psoriatic arthritis. don't use otezla if you're allergic to it. serious allergic reactions can happen. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. some people taking otezla had depression, suicidal thoughts, or weight loss. upper respiratory tract infection

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all of a sudden, in the blink of an eye, things have changed forever. we've all been leaving work, talking on the phone. all of a sudden, in the blink of an eye, things have changed forever. >> juju: on november 22nd, 2003, college student dru sjodin vanished from the mall. >> she was the girl next door to everyone. >> juju: did dru have any enemies? >> not that i knew of, no. >> one of her shoes was found, and there was -- there was an opening in the water. >> where can we find her? who can we talk to? who is responsible for this? >> there was this sheath that was found. >> they showed us the knife that was associated with the sheath. i had just seen that exact knife. and i said, "we've got to get right back out to talk to him." >> he was excellent at stalking people. this was his pattern.

>> juju: so his violence is escalating? >> yes. >> juju: and you have a serial sexual predator on your hands? >> yep, yep. >> how heartbreaking is that to think about she's alive and she's crying and she doesn't know what's going to happen to her? >> now it gets to be a lot uglier, you know? there has to be a good outcome to this. >> juju: tuesday, november 25th, four days into their investigation. detectives are moving on all fronts to find out exactly what happened to missing university of north dakota student dru sjodin. >> thanksgiving was around the corner, and i remember christmas lights had sprung up. but the mood was somber and surreal.

>> juju: until 2003, the holidays for dru's family had been a lot like they are for most families. what was thanksgiving like? >> you know, a lot of food, typical thanksgiving. eat a lot um, you know, go to a movie. the last movie dru and i went to was "titanic." that was the thanksgiving movie. between us, we were both trying to hide, hide the tears. >> juju: you can tell dru and her dad had a special bond. dru and her friends did too. i get the sense everybody loved dru? >> yes. yeah. >> juju: and so i wonder -- you said you felt safe. >> uh-huh. >> juju: did that change? >> that was ripped away from us. absolutely. >> juju: police were working day and night to piece together leads in the case. there's the knife sheath from the parking lot. questions about various people she may have come in contact with. the possibility she had a stalker at her victoria's secret job.

now one of her nine west shoes found near a highway bridge in crookston, the last place her cell phone was pinging. >> from the columbia mall to the area where the shoe was located is approximately 25 miles. >> it was dru's roommate meg who identified the shoe. >> she said, "100% i know this is dru's shoe." she said that she wears the shoes often, as much or if not more than dru did. >> the shoe was found under the bridge on the highway 75 bypass going into crookston, which goes over the red lake river. actually, how it exactly got there, we don't know. >> i saw the location where the shoe was found. based on where it was, it looked like somebody could've just pulled over to the side of the road and dropped it. but that's just one possibility. dru also could have lost her shoe while making an escape. no one knew. >> so it was emotional, and it

was a big step in the case. >> law enforcement was out there with dive teams and cadaver dogs. and i have to say, there were hours that we all spent assuming we were about to find her body under the icy waters of that river. that, of course, did not pan out over the days ahead. >> juju: there were other things that weren't panning out for investigators either. remember ed labine, the man who was banned from marshall fields by police after a woman reported he was allegedly harassing her? detectives had wondered if he was involved. >> this was happening roughly two or three months before dru was reported missing. so certainly a situation like that, we look into. >> juju: while his receipts showed he had been at the mall that day, a search of his house and car revealed nothing suspicious and they ruled him out. >> labine was not involved. we were pretty clearly able to prove that he was not involved. >> juju: as for the idea that

dru had a stalker calling her at victoria's secret? that fizzled out too. >> there was somebody who kept calling for her with a foreign accent. it was determined that was debt collectors and they were probably calling regarding an outstanding cell phone bill. >> juju: even though those leads didn't pan out, dru's family and the entire community believed the right lead was right around the corner. >> pink was one of her favorite colors. one thing how our community could keep dru alive is those pink buttons, and everyone was wearing them. >> our sorority house was a hub for if you wanted to pick a button or if you wanted to grab a ribbon. we felt like if anyone saw pink, we would spark some type of thought or hopefully some type of clue into dru and where she was. >> so many people we talked to about the story said that hope became synonymous with this

case. >> yes. >> why do you think that is? >> i think that anybody that looked at her beautiful smile and her presence said, "okay, there's hope." >> i just wasn't going to stray from, "she's out there. we just have to find her." i -- i just couldn't -- i wouldn't let myself do it. >> juju: three days into dru's disappearance, police decide to look into another pool of potential suspects. >> polk county detectives and crookston city police and probation officers began to look at local sex offenders in the area. >> police identify two individuals that were living in the area of where the phone was when it made that second call to chris lang. >> juju: the first has an alibi, someone to vouch for him, and police rule him out. but authorities had to dig deeper for another offender on the list.

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♪ -investigators started looking at sex offenders. investigators started looking at sex offenders. early on, they interviewed one named roger vanheuvelen. >> juju: he said he had no personal knowledge of dru's abduction. all he knew was what he'd heard about when he was at church. but investigators weren't so quick to write him off. he said something chilling. something like, "i was expecting you." >> i wouldn't be surprised at that, because everybody on the registry knows that when something like this happens, if he had heard about an abduction, he's going to think, "oh, they're going to come and start questioning me."

>> when you're an investigator and, you know, you're trying to sort through information, that is something that would stand out as being unusual, for sure. >> i looked into his background. and after graduating from high school in iowa and serving in the air force for 20 years, he settled on the outskirts of east grand forks. >> juju: in the mid-1990s, vanheuvelen was convicted of two counts of criminal sexual misconduct with a girl he met at the park and molested at his home. while the type of attack was different than what police believed happened to dru sjodin, he had to be eliminated as someone who could have been involved. >> you know, it's just as important to prove someone did not commit a crime as it is to prove who did commit the crime. and we made sure that all leads, you know, were followed to that natural end. >> juju: that would take time. and there were still other leads to keep chasing too.

another lead police say still couldn't be resolved was whether dru's ex-boyfriend, adam schultz, may have been involved. they say he couldn't prove that he was getting gas at the time he says he was. >> we weren't able to corroborate his story with anybody. however, he had consented to searching his house. >> juju: that search wouldn't take place until friday the 28th, the day after thanksgiving. and police had gotten a tip about yet another sex offender they should check. a man by the name of alfonso rodriguez, a man who a tip caller said he saw shopping in grand forks the day dru vanished. >> the 26th was the day that alfonso rodriguez came into the picture. he was identified as a sex offender who was living in crookston, and he had served 23 years in prison for previous offenses. >> as part of this "20/20"

report, i interviewed special agent dan ahlquist with the minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension. he was the first to interview rodriguez about dru's disappearance. >> what information did you have about his prior offenses? >> we didn't have a lot of information. his prior offenses were from 1974 and 1980. prior to computers. >> juju: shirley iverson, rodriguez's first known victim, knew exactly what he did and what he was capable of. this story takes a trip back in time to 1974 when another college student's life was about to change forever. >> in 1974, i was home from concordia college on a break. i had just turned 18, and we were gathering at a pretty common spot for high school kids and college kids to gather, which was the viking bar.

i went to my car to drive home. as i got to my car, there was a rap on the window, and it was a man asking for a ride home. it was someone whose brother was a classmate, and this was his older brother, alfonso. you know, a ride home about seven blocks would be no big deal. so i gave him a ride home. unbeknownst to me, they had moved, and so we were actually at an abandoned home. and he sexually assaulted me. the terror is just profound as you're being strangled in the car. because obviously i was saying no. being held against your will and then to be, you know, sexually assaulted combines the two worst fears that you have. i drive home, and to this day,

one of the hardest things was climbing that flight of stairs to awaken my mother and to tell her what happened. >> juju: two days after shirley's assault, alfonso rodriguez is charged with four sex offenses related to the attack. >> he was released on his own recognizance. they did not see him as a flight risk, and so he was allowed to go home. >> juju: before he could appear in court on the charges in shirley's case, he attacked again. >> a month later, i find out that a classmate had been raped. she had been kidnapped as she came out of our local theater. alfonso abducted her and took her out to a rural road and raped her. >> in the second case, rodriguez is charged with three felonies -- rape, kidnapping, and assault with a deadly

weapon -- a six-inch kitchen knife he'd used to threaten his victim. on new year's eve of 1974, he pleads guilty to the rape charge and gets a sentence of up to 15 years, which is stayed, meaning he won't serve prison time unless he violates terms set by the judge. that same day, he also pleads guilty to one of the charges in shirley's case, attempted aggravated rape, and the judge sends him to a minnesota security hospital for sex offender treatment. but his time there appears to do little to curb his violent tendencies. >> in the spring of 1980, one of our schoolteachers had decided to go for a walk. alfonso rodriguez was on a leave to visit his family from the state hospital. he pulls over, he asks for some directions. >> he was armed with a knife,

and he attempted to get her into the car. she fought him off, and he stabbed her in the arm and in the abdomen. and she was able to get away. >> juju: so his violence is escalating? >> yes. >> juju: and you have a serial sexual predator on your hands? >> yep. yep. >> juju: in stabbing her and attempting to kidnap his third victim, he receives 20 years in prison. he's also violated his probation with his new felony conviction, triggering the original prison sentence of up to 15 years. so how much total prison time did he serve for these attacks? >> 23 years. >> he got out may 1st of 2003. >> juju: rodriguez had served his full sentence. and when he was released, he wasn't on probation. he was a free man. >> the only thing we were able

to do is contact law enforcement, tell them that he is getting out of prison. make sure the public knows about his history and that he has come back to live in crookston again. >> what happened in the fall of 2003 is that dru sjodin is abducted in grand forks, north dakota, and immediately the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up. >> for people not familiar with minnesota, crookston and grand forks, where dru disappeared, are close together. it's just a 30-minute drive. >> i did call. i did talk about where he lived. i was pretty clear this would fit his m.o. >> juju: a lot would hinge on whether alfonso rodriguez had an alibi. >> no, i wasn't at the mall when this girl was abducted.

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-we learned that alfonso rodriguez we learned that alfonso rodriguez was working at a construction site. his eyes met my eyes, and he immediately reached for his tool belt, unclasped it, dropped it on the floor and walked towards me. i asked him if he would be willing to come out to our car and visit for a while, and he said he would. i was with a fellow bca agent, brad barker. >> we're working on the disappearance of this gal and, ah, everybody's a suspect until we can rule them out. >> oh. >> you know, um, what were you doing on saturday? >> well, i went to grand forks. i was in grand forks. >> he was shopping for some jeans. he said he'd gone to target, a few various stores, went to the mall. and he said he went to a movie. what time did the movie start? >> about 4:30.

4:30, 4:40, something like that. >> what time did you, uh, leave the movie theater? >> ah, oh, 7:00, 7:30 or so. >> what was the name of the movie again? >> it was "once upon a time in mexico," i think. >> i hopped out of the car and called my boss who was at the command post. and i asked if he could just quickly get on the phone or the computer and try to determine where all the movie theaters are in grand forks and what was showing on saturday. i got a message back that that particular movie, "once upon a time in mexico," wasn't playing anywhere in grand forks on saturday, november 22nd, 2003. i didn't let him know that we -- we knew that just then. confessions are great, but lies put people in prison. >> rodriguez agrees to let them search his car.

>> the first thing that struck me is is the car appeared to be kind of immaculate. in the trunk was kind of the same. there was a fishing rod and a pair of rubber gloves. there was a folding lock blade knife. these are ubiquitous in, you know, northern minnesota. i mean, everybody's got one. we looked in the glove box in the interior of the car and there was a, a small folding knife, like a pocketknife, that had two blades. and one of the blades was broken, gone. i asked if you know, if he would be all right if we took that as evidence, and he was fine with that. >> juju: investigators also want to know what alfonso rodriguez did after he said he saw that movie. >> on the way back, alfonso had told us he left the area of uh, the movie theater in the

columbia mall area, and then he drove to the mcdonald's restaurant. we were going to drive right by that mcdonald's on the way to the police department, so we whipped in there and we asked about any surveillance footage. and we turned that in when we got to the command post for viewing and for review. >> juju: at the same time dan ahlquist was interviewing alfonso rodriguez, other investigators had already been assigned to look into the mysterious sheath found near dru's car the night she disappeared. >> investigators from the task force had gone out to menards and determined that the sheath that was found near dru's car was part of a set that's -- it's sold exclusively at menards, and that sheath goes with a folding knife. >> they showed us the knife that was associated with the sheath. and you could have knocked me over with a feather, because i had just seen that exact knife in alfonso's trunk.

and i looked at the commander and i said, "we got to get right back out to talk to him." >> juju: before attempting to seize the knife, investigators wanted to confront alfonso rodriguez with inconsistencies in his story and dig deeper into his whereabouts. >> he agreed to come to the police department to talk to us. you get to the theater. initially i think you said it was about 4:45 or 4:00. >> 4:40. >> 4:40. um, a movie is about two hours long, so you're out of there at 6:40 and you're driving away. did you go anywhere after the movie? >> mcdonald's. >> in that mcdonald's surveillance footage they'd gotten? he never appears. where he does turn up is in footage pulled from target, in a chilling clip that haunts investigators to this day. he's following a woman -- and it's not dru. >> it did appear that he was looking for a victim. diabetes, but i manage it well. ♪

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-while much of dru sjodin's investigation was focused on alfonso rodriguez, who lived in crookston, while much of the dru sjodin investigation was focused on alfonso rodriguez who lived in crookston, police in grand forks were still in charge because that's the city where dru vanished from the mall. and where target surveillance footage surfaced placing rodriguez in the area just an hour before dru's disappearance. >> i did have an opportunity to see that video from the target store. he did appear to be watching women as they were exiting the store. and it was quite chilling to see him hunting like that. >> he spent a few minutes, uh, sitting on a bench in the vestibule area at the entrance/exit of target. the blond woman leaves the store and walks into the parking lot. and shortly after, rodriguez follows her. um, throughout the investigation, she was referred to as probably the luckiest woman in grand forks that day.

jewell just an hour after this clip was recorded, dru sjodin vanishes from the mall. >> a number of years ago, they convicted you of -- of, uh, some assaultive crimes. >> mmm-hmm. >> a stabbing and -- >> yeah. >> whatnot. now a girl is abducted and -- and taken from the store there from the mall property, and you're right in that area. you tell us you went to the movie theater, but that doesn't really pan out. we're having trouble finding you on the mcdonald's videotape. if -- if you were me, put yourself in my shoes. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. >> what -- what would you think? >> be suspicious. >> you tell us that you went to mall when this girl was abducted.

>> all we really want is the knife in the trunk, would you at least let us look at that knife? he said, oh, yeah, no problem, i'll let you look at the knife. and he, he -- he said "oh yeah, no problem" and i'll let you look at the knife. and so we went out there, opened the trunk, got the knife and it was the exact same knife as i had just seen. i was suspicious that it was, but now looking at it, and it looks just like the same knife that was at the command post. >> juju: as search warrants for rodriguez's house and car are drafted to be served early thanksgiving morning, the search for dru continues. >> what is the reality of each morning like, sven? >> um, you know, just that the next day to count down to having her back with us. >> this is something you can't control. i can control most of my world. i can control myself in my world, but i couldn't control this. >> allan and i were together on a daily basis, and we became really inseparable. he would sometimes go off on his

own maybe after we were done. he would probably go out there and have conversations with dru. it was very difficult to be out in these conditions, and, and just not knowing what you're going to come across. >> juju: if alfonso rodriguez knew where dru was, he wasn't talking, even when investigators tried appealing to him again. >> it's not too late to change back and tell us what happened. because if you are involved, if you did have a conversation with this girl and something went wrong -- >> i never met her. >> okay. >> never met her. >> okay jewell that interview ends with rodriguez asking for a lawyer, and dan ahlquist telling him he was not going free. >> i didn't want him to destruct evidence and i didn't want him to go anywhere where he could, you know, potentially hurt a live victim. >> in less than a week, she has gone from a complete stranger to a member of countless families.

we all now know dru sjodin. where she goes to school, her sorority, where she works, what kind of car she drives, and how police believe she was abducted. >> this thanksgiving, allan had a message for all the searchers who had set their plans aside to search for his daughter. >> we need everyone to go and look and check. check your buildings. and if you've seen anything, come forward. >> juju: there would be no holiday for investigators, who spend thanksgiving day serving a search warrant at alfonso rodriguez's house. >> he had a corner of the, of the downstairs he kept very neat. kind of looked like a -- someone who had been in prison for over 20 years, it looked like he had recreated that within the home. >> there was nothing initially that really struck us as a deep connection to dru's disappearance.

there were some items that were seized. a pair of jeans that he said he was wearing, but there was nothing that really stood out, like, oh, this is a smoking gun sort of a thing. >> police had spent days searching for any sign of dru. they even purchased clothing similar to hers and showed it to investigators at the daily briefings so they could be on the lookout. they showed it to the media too. and i remember it vividly. pink shirt, black pants, black shoes, black peacoat. >> juju: imagine their surprise when a black peacoat and other items turn up in a different search at someone else's house, the home of dru's ex-boyfriend, adam schultz. type 2 diabetes isn't enough? or what if... (vo) once-weekly mounjaro could help. mounjaro helps your body regulate blood sugar and can help you eat less food. 3 out of 4 people reached an a1c of less than 7%. plus people lost up to 25 pounds.

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right around thanksgiving, alfonso rodriguez was, you know,

certainly developing as, as a uh, suspect, but that didn't mean we stopped investigating the other names that were coming forward. we started following up on adam schultz. >> juju: adam and dru had dated for two and a half years. >> he was mentioned early on as well as being a possible suspect in dru's disappearance. >> the flight information, that was pretty easy to verify. him getting gas was not easy to establish. >> he gave consent to search his vehicle, his residence, he voluntarily gave his dna so that we could have that on record and he was cooperative with the investigation, however he was somebody that made some of dru's friends uncomfortable. >> juju: the search of adam's home yield some curious items. a knife. women's underwear. brass knuckles. a list of weaknesses, including jealousy and vengefulness, and a black pea coat, the type of coat

dru sjodin was last seen wearing. intriguing finds, but in the end, nothing was connected to dru's disappearance. >> he was not involved. at the same time that he was on one phone call, dru was on a phone call with her current boyfriend. so the cell locations were verified. we were able to ultimately eliminate him as potentially being involved. >> juju: police determined adam schultz had nothing to do with dru's disappearance. and on friday, they found what they needed to help prove who did. >> in my interview with dan ahlquist, he told me rodriguez's mercury sable looked pretty clean when investigators first saw it, but now the forensic team was now going in for a closer look. >> and i'll never forget it. the scientist got in the car, and he was looking around. and he was looking at this light-colored interior and he

said, "oh, wow." he pointed with his finger at a tiny little speck. and once you saw that one tiny little speck, then it was a whole bunch of tiny little specks. then we looked at the right rear passenger's window, and there's some of these tiny little specks on the glass. the blood that was present in those tiny little specks was found to be dru sjodin's blood. >> for investigators, this is the smoking gun they've been waiting for. rodriguez becomes the focus of the investigation and vanheuvelen and the other people they'd questioned in the early days of the case are ruled out. >> i believe that she may have been hit in the face or something that caused bleeding. and i think she was probably crying very hard. >> how heartbreaking is that to

think about, you know, she's alive and she's crying and she doesn't know what's going to happen to her. >> i'm sorry about that. >> even asking the questions is always -- it's tough. >> i've got a good answer for that. i just want to try to get it out. >> sure. >> it's absolutely tragic. all i can hope is that it didn't last very long. >> alfonso rodriguez jr. appeared stoic, his head down, as the charges against him were dead aloud in court.

>> to wit, that alfonso rodriguez jr. did abduct dru sjodin from the jcpenney store parking lot -- >> with dru sjodin's father sitting quietly a few feet behind him, rodriguez offered few words during the 10-minute hearing. >> juju: what were your thoughts? >> oh, just that, you know, i mean devastation, you know. you know his history was such that i, you know, every attack was getting more brutal and, you know, where does it go from there, right? >> juju: rodriguez was charged with kidnapping at the state level. though the case would later become federal if they could prove dru was taken over state lines. >> all i care about is that that's going to lead us to where she is. and right now, we've got you, we've got a good person sitting in this chair. a good person that i know can do good, i know can step forward and do the right thing, but -- >> i don't know where she is. i don't. >> i think you do. >> the communities all poured out to find that girl's body.

it was a quest for answers, and then it became a -- a quest for justice. >> there would be no christmas miracle for dru's family. in fact, spring would arrive and have to thaw those frozen fields before there would be another big break in the case. >> in april 2004, on the 17th, there was a retired sheriff's deputy that was out searching. i was in california and, and my partner orie had called and i still remember her words, "bill, they found dru." she was generally covered by this brush. you could see her pea coat pretty clearly. they found her shoe. her cellphone was in this area, and -- and several other pieces

of clothing. >> juju: her clothes alone tell the story of her death. >> unfortunately, dru was um, you know, naked from the waist down. and her hands were bound behind her back. >> juju: remnants of a plastic bag suggest she may have asphyxiated. tell me about that horrible day when they found her body. >> um, that was a, it was absolutely a horrible day, but it was, it was a day of um, a day of relief at -- cause at that point we, you know, knew that drusie was no longer with us. i unknowingly parked there a number of times down in the bottom end of that ravine. >> juju: but it was all covered with snow. >> yeah. >> god of grace, we thank you for dru.

for the many ways her all too brief life has touched and enriched so many lives. >> at the funeral, i had a moment of realization that this, this was not just gamma phi beta, this was not just und, this was not just north dakota. this was our nation that was affected by what happened to dru sjodin. and up there watching her mom let go of that white dove was something i will never forget. >> drew wrigley and i believed that -- that this was an appropriate death penalty case, and we submitted our recommendation to the attorney general. it was a kidnapping, number one. it was across state lines. it also involved an individual with a long criminal history involving sexual assault of women. the deputy attorney general made

the decision to have the case be prosecuted in north dakota. >> there hasn't been a death penalty case of any kind for over a hundred years in our state. it's not part of our culture. we did everything that we could to make sure we got the best information possible in front of that jury. sometimes, uh, sometimes, it doesn't go the way you'd hope. and when i walked into that courtroom, i knew. when you have moderate—to—severe eczema, it's okay to show off. with dupixent, show off your clearer skin and less itch.

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way. we're not turning back. >> in north dakota. >> a guilty verdict for the man i remember reading the story for "gma" in august of 2006, on the day a jury found alfonso rodriguez guilty of kidnapping and killing dru sjodin. a month later, they came back with their death penalty verdict. -a federal jury in north dakota has handed down the first death sentence in that state in almost a century. -i know it wasn't an easy decision for the jurors, i'm sure. but dru's voice was heard today. -i did wish that there was more that we could do, because it couldn't bring dru sjodin back, but we obtained justice on that day. 12 people, 12 people in a region of the country that doesn't exactly embrace the death penalty. -alfonso rodriguez would spend the next 15 years on death row.

but just two years ago, in 2021, the same judge who presided over the trial stuns the sjodin family. though rodriguez's guilt was never in question, the judge overturns his original sentence, citing a handful of things, including issues with the medical examiner's testimony and a failure by rodriguez's defense team to pursue an insanity defense. a new sentencing hearing was ordered just recently in 2023, but before the hearing could take place, attorney general merrick garland halted executions of all federal inmates. -right now, he's serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. and that's because the department of justice withdrew its motion for the death penalty. -while i understand there could be some -- maybe many will say, "that still sounds like justice.

that still sounds pretty good," i will -- i'll leave public life when i start determining something that i don't believe to be justice is pretty good. -i'm strongly opposed and disappointed that they would do something like that. open up the wounds that, you know, my mother and my father and myself went through this. because the ones that suffer in death are the living, not the dead. they're gone. [ birds chirping ] ♪ -i'm wearing the pink tie because pink was dru's favorite color. all my memories of dru are ones that i will cherish forever and, god willing, never forget. -this is one of her pieces of art? -yes. she drew that as a young lady.

i always thought that there was probably a premonition, because it's an angel. it has an awful lot of her in the picture, sadly. -it's almost as if she drew herself in heaven. -exactly. -complete with angel wings. -angel wings, yes. she deserved something more than just a granite gravestone. -it's the tree of life. -tree of life. that is her gravestone, that tree. that was the last project that she worked on at the university of north dakota. -i'm sure you talk to her a lot. -yeah. -what do you say to drusy? -oh... you know, she talks to me. she tells me more than i tell her, because she knows i'm more wayward than anybody else around, so... -allan sjodin can also hear his daughter in voicemails that he saved from 20 years ago, -hi, daddy. it's me. i know that you're in mexico, but i just want to call and tell you happy valentine's day.

i love you. hope you're having fun. talk to you later. bye. -she had a huge heart, she had a beautiful smile, and she was just a fantastic young lady that went way, way too soon. ♪ -one way she will always be remembered is by the creation of what's being called now dru's law. -which is legislation that's created a more interconnected national database. the public can use it to track level 3 sex offenders, which we know is so vital. that's our program for tonight. i'm deborah roberts. -and i'm david muir. from all of us here at "20/20" and abc news, good night. . but it means everything to me

>> the magic and majesty of the lion king on the wonderful world of disney. abc sunday time is arriving tonight in the bay area. some places are already seeing rain and a lot more is on the way. good evening . >> i'm ama daetz and i'm dan ashley. thanks for joining us. might be a good idea to just curl up and stay inside tomorrow, because it is going to be a stormy saturday. >> yes. and we could see some minor flooding. meteorologist sandhya patel is here with a first look at the forecast. sandhya >> yeah, that's right dan and it's going to be a soaker for your saturday, especially in the north bay. i want to show you that level two storm. it is moderate in strength. you can see that moisture plume extends well out towards hawaii. and that is heading in our direction. the storm is already getting closer. we're seeing those showers up along the