>> all different opinions, as far as we know. the justice system is concerned. because i've always been brought up from the time i could walk around that police were your friend, you held them at a certain level. after going through this, it makes you think twice. on september 17th, 1966, diane kaidell met a man. after leaving the bar, officials were not sure if she ran away from the responsibilities facing a single mother with four young children or perhaps had been the victim of foul play. that question was answered 27 years later when her daughter came forward with a fantastic tale of something she saw when she was 5 years old.

in 1956, 21-year-old diane kidder went to work in her father's grocery store in peoria, illinois, she needed the money since she was recently divorced and was raising her 2-year-old daughter, susie, and it was in that store one day that she met a bachelor in town, gene kaidell. >> gene was a very good talker, he was able to woo her. >> the calm dated for a year, fell in love and eventually married. they moved to phoenix, ards, where gene found work in the construction industry. together, gene and diane had three more children, greg, kelly and laurie. >> my siblings and i were really close, yeah, it was a lot of

great childhood memories. >> over time, diane and gene decided that it was best for all concerned if they divorced. on september 17th, the couple met for dinner at a nearby restaurant to discuss the final details of the property settlement and visitation. by all accounts, the meeting went well. afterwards, diane dropped gene off at his apartment. from there, diane drove to the amber inn, where she met bob marlan, a man she was casually dating since her separation. a few hours later, gene kaidell called diane at the house, and when the children said she still was not home he went over to baby sit and fell asleep on the sofa. the next morning gene said he found his wife's car in the driveway but there was no sign of her. gene called the police department and reported her missing. >> i know she arrived home.

her car was there, her purse was in the house, her keys were in the house on the table in the kitchen. diane did not take any clothes with her that we learned of. and there was no reason for her to run away. there was no motive there. >> missing person's investigators couldn't understand why diane would have left town without her children. >> her neighbors, her mother and brother all indicated that mrs. kaidel would never leave her children for any length of time. they say she was an excellent mother. >> when police interviewed the man at the bob, they were told an incredible piece of news. bob marlan suffered a heart attack and died the day after his date with diane. whatever marlan may have known

about diane's disappearance went with him to his grave. whole family for $100 bucks. e get 4 lines with unlimited talk and text and up to 10 gigabytes of 4g lte data. plus get the brand-new samsung galaxy note 4 for $0 down. ♪ carpenters: "rainy days and mondays" ♪ ♪ ac/dc: "back in black" ♪ ♪ chevy colorado. when you find new roads, you win motor trend's truck of the year. constipated? .yea dulcolax tablets can cause cramps but not phillips. it has magnesium and works more naturally than stimulant laxatives. for gentle cramp free relief of occasional constipation that works! mmm mmm live the regular life.

could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know you that former pro football player ickey woods will celebrate almost anything? unh-uh. number 44... whoooo! forty-four, that's me! get some cold cuts... get some cold cuts... get some cold cuts! whooo! gimme some! geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. whoo! forty-four ladies, that's me! whoo...gonna get some cold cuts today!

>> two days after diane kaidell's mysterious disappearance, gene kaidell moved back into the home to look after the children. >> my father's explanation to not only his children by to neighbors and anybody that would inquire about my mother's sudden disappearance was that my mother had run off with a boyfriend. >> gene provided police with a list of men he said diane had been dating since the separation but they all were dead ends. over time, the kaidell children adjusted to life without their mother, although they all hoped that some day she would return. but four months later, tragedy struck once again. around 9:00 p.m. while gene was at a nearby laundromat, a fire broke out in the kaidell's home. the blaze quickly engulfed the entire house and the four

children were trapped in their bedrooms. susie, the oldest, led the others around the flames. but laurie ran back into her bedroom for her winnie the pooh stuffed animal. >> i crawled on the floor, i was burned, i was crying, i wanted my mother. and my older sister, susie, came in, the house was ablaze around us and so she laid on top of me. she said they're coming for us now, laurie, they will help us. she said i love you and she said i will never, ever leave you. and at that point we died and she held me. >> susie gave her life protecting laurie from the flames. although laurie suffered third degree burns over 50% of her body. >> i was continually loved by my

sister as she held me and died protecting me. the trauma, the nightmares, the horror of it? that doesn't go away. i just try to overcome that with knowing that i was loved. that i was valuable enough to die for. >> what can you say? i mean, when you see that it takes your breath away. you realize that that person made the ultimate sacrifice. >> 8-year-old kelly also died in the fire. 9-year-old greg survived. gene kaidell arrived on scene just as the firemen were pulling the children during the blaze, the investigators found a melted pot on the stove, the knob was in the on position, as a result the fire was ruled an accident. after spending months in the

burn unit, laurie went back to live in the home her father had built after the fire. but one year later, there was an incident that helped laurie learn the terrible truth of what happened to her mother. it happened when laurie and her father went to a friend's funeral. his name was michael, a boy who was killed in the vietnam war. >> daddy, when is he going to wake up? >> he is not, he is dead, they're going to bury him today. >> wake him up! wake him up! >> and i began to cry and i threw a very large distraction, a very large fit trying to make people understand that we needed to wake michael up. that i was not going to permit them to bury michael in the ground. i was the only living person that now know the secret of my mother. >> but it took another 27 years

for laurie to reveal the deep, dark family secret she had been harboring. our eyes they have a 200-degree range of sight. which is good for me. hey! and bad for the barkley twins. your brain can send information to the rest of your body at 268 mph. three times the speed of a fastball. take care of your most important parts with centrum. multivitamins expertly designed with nutrients people don't get enough of from food alone. centrum. for the most important parts of you. [announcer] this is my business. [music throughout] ♪because i love you♪ i believe in it. i live it and breathe it.

i put my heart and soul... ...blood,sweat and tears into it. i run on quickbooks. that's how i own it.

. in 1993, after diane kaidel

had been missing for 27 years, her only surviving daughter, laurie, walked into the phoenix police department with a written statement. it described a terrible secret she had been too afraid to reveal. >> to whom it may concern, i need to convey to authorities what i witnessed as a child. first, i must greatly impress the fear i have of my father's violent retaliation. i was often told when i was a child by my father, i brought you into this world i can take you out. >> the letter went on to say that as a 5-year-old child, laurie saw her father beat her mother to death. and then bury her in the back yard. at first, laurie thought her mother was sleeping as hibernating animals do. she said she once asked her father if she could dig a hole in the back yard to feed her

mother. >> as a 5-year-old i thought my mother was sleeping. i thought that my father made my mother go to sleep. and i thought he buried my sleeping mother in the hole in the back yard. i was not confused on where she was. i was not confused on who did it. i was confused between sleeping and death. >> only after she went to her friend's funeral did she realize that her mother would never wake up. detective ed reynolds at first was not sure what to think. >> i had been lied to by some pretty good liars and been fooled by a lot of people. and when that happens you tell yourself well, i'm not going to let that happen again. i'm not going to fall hook, line and sinker for every story that comes down on the pike. and in this case she did seem very truthful and sincere in what she said. but i still wanted more than

just the story. i wanted proof. >> laurie said that her father poured a concrete patio over her mother's grave the day after he buried her. the home had long since been sold by her father who was now remarried and living across town. reynolds was hesitant to ask the new owners for permission to dig up their concrete patio without more evidence than a 27-year recollection. reynolds looked all over the country for the technology that could look underneath the concrete patio without damaging it. the search took almost a year and led to a nonprofit agency in colorado called necro-search which brings applied sciences to law enforcement. in this case, necro search recommended a ground penetrating radar system. >> to take a look within the ground to see if that is disturbed. that is what we do.

it's because we find a disturbance that could be caused by many things. the proof and -- will have to be proved. >> the disturbance was two feet long by two feet wide in the corner of the patio. >> the very spot in the concrete where laurie romanak had taken me to in the back yard where she suspected the body of her mother was buried. >> when police removed the concrete they had to dig only ten inches before making a grisly discovery, a piece of human skull. within hours they uncovered the rest of the remains in the shallow two-foot grave. they also discovered a bra and a girdle. around the skeleton's neck were

women's stockings. there was no identification and bacteria in the shallow grave eliminated the possibility of dna testing. even the teeth were too badly damaged by bacteria to analyze the tooth pulp, usually a rich protected source of dna. so detectives had to use other means to identify the skeleton. the first clue was a tree root from a neighbor's mulberry tree that had grown through the skull. the root was sent to dr. thomas harlan, an expert at the university of arizona. by studying the age of the tree root and the manner in which it penetrated the skull, harlan was convinced that the body was placed in the ground before the tree root. since the root was 15 years old the body was placed in the grave

before 1978. forensic anthropologyists analyzed the skeletal remains and determined it was a caucasian woman between 5'4" and 5'5" height. the bones indicated she had given birth to at least two children and was between the ages of 24 and 48, all consistent with diane kaidel. all the records were consistent, but unfortunately, diane kaidel's dentist was no longer in practice and her dental x-rays had been destroyed. after a last ditch effort, the doctor decided to try a new method. >> what you are doing is taking a picture of the person in life and superimposing it on the couple of the person you think

it might have been. >> the doctor imposed the skull on the same size as a photo of diane taken shortly before she disappeared. >> a canine tooth that was slightly ajar, stuck out slightly from her mouth. we were able to line that tooth up with the tooth in the photograph. i have no question, i am sure that it is her. >> police immediately arrested 61-year-old gene kaidel and charged him with murder. laurie romanek was now able to tell the judge and jury what really happened on the night her mother disappeared. health can change in a minute. so cvs health is changing healthcare. making it more accessible and affordable, with over 900 locations for walk-in medical care.

and more on the way. minuteclinic. another innovation from cvs health. because health is everything.

will go someplace they've pealready been.el where's the fun in that? it's time to find someplace new. book the hotel you want with the flight you want, and we'll find the savings to get you there. i am a lot of things. i am his guardian. i am his voice. so i asked about adding once-daily namenda xr® to his current treatment for moderate to severe alzheimer's. it works differently. when added to another alzheimer's treatment, like aricept®, it may improve overall function...

and cognition. and may slow the worsening of symptoms for a while. (man) namenda xr doesn't change how the disease progresses. it shouldn't be taken by anyone allergic to memantine, or who's had a bad reaction to namenda xr or its ingredients. before starting treatment, tell their doctor if they have, or ever had a seizure disorder difficulty passing urine, liver, kidney, or bladder problems, and about medications they're taking. certain medications, changes in diet, or medical conditions may affect the amount of namenda xr in the body... and may increase side effects. the most common side effects... are headache, diarrhea, and dizziness. (woman) all my life, he's protected me. now i am giving back. ask their doctor about adding... once-daily namenda xr.

for years, gene kaidel told family and friends that his wife, diane, abandoned her children and ran off with a boyfriend. but laurie romanek told a very different story about what happened to her mother on the night of september 17th, 1966. laurie said her mother was wearing her blue double breasted dress when she left to meet her father for dinner at a local restaurant. after dinner, diane drove gene home to his apartment, later

witnesses saw diane at the amber inn having drinks with a boyfriend. around 11 p.m., gene called the house to speak with diane and when he learned that she was not there went over to the house to wait for her. when diane returned home around midnight, the couple fought waking 5-year-old laurie and her oldest sister, susie, the two girls went to investigate. >> when she saw her children, she took her defense down and it was at that point that my father delivered her last blow. and she whipped back and hit her head. and slid to the floor. >> gene saw the girls run from the hallway and they hid in the closet.

when the children eventually came out of hiding they saw their mother's lifeless body on the pool deck. and they saw their father digging a hole in the back yard. the next day, gene kaidel poured a fresh layer of concrete over his wife's grave for what he thought would be an eternity. laurie describes her father as an alcoholic, cruel, and violent. >> we're talking about the fact that my father would beat my mother. violently. my father would attempt to beat his children, my siblings and i. and when my mother was alive she would intervene and she would not permit my father to beat his children. she was very strong on that

issue. >> laurie also says that her father threatened to kill her if she ever revealed the details of her mother's death. >> this was something that laurie says that she never forgot. and she had just been terrified for her whole childhood and then adult life of her father, even after she got married and left the house. and they barely had a relationship at some points. she remembered the thing the whole way through and somehow i don't think there is anybody that can exactly describe what was going on in that head of hers all of those years. >> in 1995. gene kaidel was convicted for the murder of his wife, diane, and was sentenced to life in prison. >> i think it is the memory of a 5-year-old, even though it is some 29 years later, sufficient to quick. but again, remember, the one unanswerable question if what

she saw wasn't what she saw how could she have led us to the body? and she did. >> my mother murdered my mother, my two siblings and attempted a murder on me and a murder on my brother. i think that my father will more meet his calling upon his death. i pray for my father. i think that this judicial system will have nothing in the comparison of the wrath of god. and that, i'm sorry for. my father will have to answer and be held accountable, what does a man tell our creator god, when god says what did you do to that beautiful wife and lovely children i gave you, and my father will reply i beat them, i murdered them. i burned them up in a horrible fire. what will be my father's

passion? i'm sorry, that causes me the grief that i feel today for him. while on a business trip in 1986, ed post spent the morning jogging near his hotel in downtown st. louis. when he returned to his hotel room, he discovered his wife dead in the bathtub. the medical examiner ruled the death was by drowning, presumably accidentally. but homicide investigators were not so sure.