out for the simple reason this aircraft came out of the sky, it would appear, at altitude, 35,000 feet without the crew managing to get a may day or a pan pan call out. we have to leave every possibility on the table. >> richard quest, thank you very much. stay with cnn for continuing coverage of the disappearance of the malaysian airlines plane carrying 239 people. stay with us. oscar pistorius, the disabled athlete who sprinted into the olympics. center stage in a south african courtroom charged with murdering his girlfriend reeva steenkamp. a stunning, up and coming model. we speak to those who were there that fateful valentine's night. you could hear oscar cry?

>> yeah. >> loudly? >> yeah, because i know him. it was terrible. >> we hear from those who saw oscar away from the track. and we take you into the courtroom. >> i was traumatized to what i heard that evening. the petrified screams and shouts. >> and then -- >> bang. bang, bang, bang. >> "cnn spotlight, the oscar pistorius trial." making his way through the flashes of an international media gauntlet. >> make way! >> oscar pistorius has gone from world famous to infamous, since the night he shot and killed reeva steenkamp a year agoent e valentine's day. now on trial for murder, pistorius claims he shot her by accident. but the prosecutors say he killed her in cold blood.

>> how do you plead? >> not guilty, my lady. >> back in 2008, before there was pistorius the blade runner -- >> good morning. >> -- it was oscar, the olympic hopeful. just 21 years old, he invited me into the very house that five years later would become an infamous crime scene. >> thank you. are you ready for the olympics? do you think you're going to make snit >> i think if i am going to make it, we're training as hard as we can. ♪ >> training hard to compete against able bodied athletes. as a sprinter with no legs. >> this is your prosthetic leg? >> yeah, these are the ones i use on an everyday basis. >> you walk, run. >> i'm not sure you're supposed

to walk on them. it's not that great for walking but it's very good for walking and jogging. >> this is your own leg where you had a birth deformity? >> yeah. >> how old were you when you got them amputated? >> i was 11 months old. >> in an exclusive interview before the london olympics -- >> that's when he was younger? >> yeah. >> i visited pistorius' grandmother where she spoke in her native language. [ speaking foreign language ] >> his first pair of prosthetics came when he was only 13 months old. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> despite his vulnerabilities, his parents raised him to take on life at full speed. pistorius found purpose on the track. he met his coach, who transformed oscar from a schoolboy into a world class athlete. i talked to lowe on the track where he spent countless hours training pistorius. >> oscar is very strong minded. he will even push harder than i want him to push in the last repetition. >> pistorius took his training seriously. you don't drink alcohol? >> i think the last time i drank was about two months ago. if you're going to be an elite

sportsman, you can't socialize with your friends on that level. >> but pistorius apparently had a dark side, say some who socialized in the same circles, said pistorius had temper and tried to pick a fight with him. >> he would get violent and angry and fight with people and cause a lot of problems. the incident with me and him is because he was drunk at a party and he started shouting and screaming on the phone to me. >> lowe admits the athlete he sees as a son isn't perfect. >> i've been asked plenty times now the question of temper. if i said he must have -- if you haven't got the temperament, you cannot become a national champion or world champion. forget it. >> so you have to have that fire in you? >> you must have. >> and that could mean sometimes you have a bad temper? >> when you work with any

champion, any distraction upsets them. >> is oscar reckless? does he have a bad temper? >> if you are top sportsman and you are focused, sometimes things happen that agitates you, and you're going to lose your temper and you're going to have words with people. and i can testify to the fact that i was witness on a couple of occasions where he did lose his temper. but he was also the first one to apologize for his behavior. so that's part of the makeup of the man. >> he qualified for the 20 12 london olympics, where he made it to the semifinals of the 400 meters. his relay team finished last in the finals. next, he would shine in the

paralympics. and he was about to meet one of south africa's top models, reeva steenkamp. next, the sexy covergirl and what turned out to be a fatal attraction. your hepatitis c.forget it's slow moving, you tell yourself. i have time. after all there may be no symptoms for years.

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reeva steenkamp was known as one of south africa's sexiest women. this video shows reeva posing for the cover of a monthly magazine. >> she had, you know, beauty and intelligence, which is a double whammy. >> hi, reeva. have a good christmas. >> she got the magazine cover, and that gets you noticed and

gets you a bit more commercial work, probably leads to better tv work. >> she was becoming the next bing thing. but to family and friends, she was the same old reeva. cnn's drew griffin talked to her uncle and cousin. >> when you were with her, you felt you were a teenager, because she was just so vibrant, so full of life, so bouncy. she was just always laughing, joking, and the media side of her career, we never really saw that. we knew she was a model and doing things with the media, but she never brought that into the family. >> so she doesn't sound like she was e namerred with the glamour life. >> not at all. >> her life was becoming more and more glamorous, going from covergirl to starring in a reality tv series. >> it's in a really fun production in its fourth season now.

>> a mutual friend would introduce her to pistorius at a motor racing event. there, steenkamp accepted pistorius' invitation to accompany him that evening to the sports award ceremony. >> one day she was with oscar in the car, traveling along the highway. and she phoned her mom and said to her mom, mom, oscar is speeding. so june takes her phone and says, let me speak to oscar. she says to oscar, listen, that's my precious and only daughter, that's my angel, and you better slow down. and reeva said afterwards, mom, he slowed down. >> the second week of february, 2013. oscar pistorius was making plans for his annual training trip to

italy. but this year was different. he wanted to bring along reeva steenkamp. >> we were looking at the schedule and planning opportunities where she can come and visit him. my reaction was, you've never asked me for something like this. are you serious about this girl? and his reaction was, yes, i am very serious about this girl. >> her relationship with oscar, the impression i got from the messages we exchanged and from our few conversations was that she was very happy. >> she was always very friendly and very excited to be around him and with him. she spent a lot of time at the track jogging and running to keep in shape. >> last year, steenkamp was looking forward to spending valentine's day with pistorius, tweeting, what do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow? south africa's newest it couple appeared to be taking their relationship to the next level. >> on the eve of valentine's

day, a smiling steenkamp drove through the security checkpoint to the entrance of the gated community where oscar pistorius lived. less than 12 hours later, she was dead. in a courtroom, no cameras allowed, oscar's version of what happened next was presented in his affidavit. it's in this document that pistorius lays out the events that started on the evening of february 13th. >> we were content to have a quiet dinner together at home. she had given me a present for valentine's day but asked me only to open it the next day. >> we had another voice. >> during the early morning hours of 14 february, 2013, i woke up, went on to the balcony to bring the fan in and closed the sliding doors, the blinds and the curtains. although i did not have my prosthetic legs on, i have

mobility on my stumps. >> pistorius said he heard a noise in the bathroom. he realized there were no burglar bars on the windows and contractors had left a stepladder outside. >> i felt a sense of terror rushing over me. i believed that someone had entered my house. i was too scared to switch a light on. i grabbed my 9 millimeter pistol from underneath my bed. >> pistorius said he had been a victim of burglaries and had received death threats, that he was acutely aware of violent crime in south africa. he said that's why he slept with a 9 millimeter pistol under his bed. pistorius claims he screamed for the intruders to get out and then yelled for reeva to call the police. >> it filled me with horror and fear of an intruder being inside the toilet. as i did not have my prosthetic legs on, i knew i had to protect

reeva and myself. >> because he said in his affidavit that he was scared, that he felt vulnerable that night and many nights he did. you got a sense that he was a scared person. >> for sure. he's a scared person. coming up -- bullets fired and a tragic death. >> a deadly and shattered broken man, like i've never seen him before. you get 4 lines onw at&t's network...ilies including unlimited talk unlimited text ...and 10 gigs of data to share. 10 gigs? 10 gigs. all for $160 dollars a month. you know, i think our family really needed this. it's really gonna bring us closer together. yep. yep. yep. yep. yep. yep.

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♪ early morning, a tragedy at the home of oscar pistorius. he thought there was an intruder in the bathroom, according to

his affidavit. >> i fired shots at the toilet door and shouted to reeva to phone the police. she did not respond. when i reached the bed, i realized that reeva was not in bed. >> that's when pistorius says it dawned on him that it could have been his girlfriend, reeva steenkamp, on the toilet. >> i put on my prosthetic legs, ran back to the bathroom and tried to kick the toilet door open. i went back into the bedroom and grabbed my cricket bat to bash open the toilet door. >> when he finally got the door open, he said he saw reeva slumped over by alive. >> i carried her down stairs in order to take her to the hospital. she died in my arms. >> in the dead of the night, the coach's phone rang.

>> that night i forgot to put the phone off and it rang between half past 4:00 and 5:00. and i thought, this is funny. and i answered the phone and i said, yep? he said to me, get in your car, pistorius, there's problems at the house. >> by the time they arrived, police were already on the scene. >> when we arrived, it was already flooded with police and everything was cordoned off and couldn't have access to oscar at all. >> i was in shock, because when i arrived tat house and you see all the police cars and lights, i was standing outside. oscar was inside. i could hear him crying in the garage, and reeva was at the entrance. i just saw the bottom piece, and the legs because the police was in and out the door of the front door. >> and you could hear oscar crying? >> yep. >> loudly? >> yeah, because i know him. you can hear it.

it's terrible. >> police then took oscar into custody. >> i got to see him late that afternoon of the 14th at the police house. >> and what was he like, what kind of state was he? >> a totally shattered and broken man, like i've never seen him before. never seen him like that before. >> at his bail hearing, a judge voiced skepticism about pistorius' version of what happened. >> i have difficulty in appreciating why the accused did not ascertain the whereabouts of his girlfriend when he got off the bed. i have difficulty in coming to terms with the fact that the accused did not seek to verify who exactly was on the toilet when he could have asked. >> when the bail hearing's dramatic five days were over, the magistrate made his judgment. >> i come to the conclusion that the accused has made a case to be released on bail. >> yes!

>> after a little more than a year out on bail, pistorius arrived back to a courthouse amidst a media frenzy, as his murder trial began. there was even a drone equipped with cameras hovering above the crowds of spectators. all trying to catch a glimpse of the blade runner as he made his way into court. pistorius is charged with murder, and three gun charges. >> do you understand the charges, mr. pistorius? >> i do, i do, my lady. >> how do you plead? >> not guilty, my lady. >> at the start of day one, the defense read a statement from pistorius, backing his plea. >> the tragic accident which led to reeva's death, they were in a loving relationship. while i admit i inflicted the fatal gunshot wounds to reeva, this occurrence was indeed an

accident. >> the defense advocate also laid out the defense's case. not only claiming oscar believed he was shooting an intruder, but denying claims there had been friction in their relationship. he also asserted the police investigation was sloppy. >> it will also be demonstrated that the scene was contaminated, disturbed, and tampered with. >> the prosecution started its case with a series of ear witnesses, all neighbors of pistorius. deciding not to appear on camera, they testified to hearing screams emanating from pistorius' home. >> the fear in that woman's voice is difficult to explain to the court. i was traumatized to what i heard that evening. the absolute petrified screams and shouts. >> the defense argued it was likely pistorius, not steenkamp, whom the neighbors heard screaming for help. >> all i say is, when he's

anxious, his voice pitches, it sounds like a woman screaming. and what i put to you, that's what would explain why you would hear like a woman screaming and you ought to hear a man scream. >> pistorius' ex-girlfriend, samantha taylor, later testified to the contrary. >> that is not true. he sounds like a man. >> she also said that night wasn't the first pistorius had feared an intruder had entered his home. >> there was one occasion where something hit the bottom window, and oscar woke me up and asked me if i had heard it. and so he got up with his gun and he walked out of the room. >> that night with reeva would be different. oscar fired his gun and neighbor michelle burg es said she heard the gunshots. >> can you give us a

demonstration? >> bang. bang, bang, bang. >> the first bullet hit the deceased in the right side. the second bullet hit the wall marked f. it missed. the third bullet hit the deceased as she was still seated on the magazine stand and that was a bullet in the shoulder. the fourth hit her in the head and the then died. >> on day four, the next door neighbor took the stand. stipp was the first to arrive at the pistorius home that night. >> i remember the first thing he said when i got there was that i shot her. i thought she was a burglar, and i shot her. >> he testified while he tended to steenkamp's body, pistorius was distraught and repentant. >> he was crying. he was praying and talking to god, telling god please let her live. please don't let her die. he was making promises to god.

he was trying to, i don't know, maybe get atonement. but he was very, very distraught, severely so. >> he left pistorius visibly distressed, perhaps convulsing according to one courtroom observer. as the first week of the trial ended, the defense had yet to present its case. whether oscar pistorius will ever run another race, what his future holds will be determined in court. and if convicted, he's facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison. meanwhile, friends and family of reeva steenkamp are left only with images of the past. reeva had a tattoo on the back of her neck that staid only god will judge me in italian. do you know why she had that specific tattoo? >> that was something her grandfather had always said, and he was close to her.

only god can judge, that's what everyone is saying. and yeah, ironically she said it as well. and hopefully that does happen. >> >> the boeing 777 wide body has 239 passengers and crew members on board. just moments ago, the airline briefed reporters and we learned that the flight included four americans. three adults and one infant. the plane disappeared about two hours into a flight from kuala lumpur to beijing. china state-run news agency said radar contact was lost with the airliner as it was flying