tonight on "nightline," craigslist killings, how a popular teen, a self-proclaimed man of god and online want ads led to what police are calling serial killings in the heartland. tonight a mother pleads for her son allegedly caught up in a web of unspeakable crimes. mommy moguls. they are turning the daily joys and drags of bringing up baby into online gold from a former child star. >> you're not going to yell at me, buster. >> to the sites that make thousands a month, how the most successful mom-trepreneurs pull it off. and love in disguise. how the full panda suit became the latest weapon in the fight to save the most adorable of the endangered species.

good evening, i'm bill weir. the case began when a terrified man with a gunshot wound emerged from a dark forest crying out for help. he was police allege the target of a serial killer or killers in their midst and tonight they continue the grim search for more less fortunate victims. as for the apparent suspects in custody one is a 52-year-old self-styled man of god, the other, a teenage boy whose parents insist he's fallen under the older man's spell. with the very latest here's abc's dan harris. >> reporter: how did this 16-year-old high school junior from outside akron, ohio, a wanna be cop, a big lumbering popular kid named brogan rafferty, how did he get caught up in alleged serial killings where the victims were recruited

on craigslist? it's a sensational case making national headlines. >> fatal scam, the deadly hoax. >> breaking news, a man is found buried in a shallow grave. >> is he scared. >> of course, he is. >> reporter: brogan's mother says he is in this situation because he made friends with the wrong person. >> there is a monster here but it's not my son. >> reporter: that monster, she says, is this man, 52-year-old rich beasley known as chaplain rich. a self-proclaimed man of god who mentored her son for almost a decade and who now appears to be the prime suspect in this series of killings. >> i feel like i failed, you know. do you want the peer pressure of kids or do you want them hanging around a chaplain and going to church and helping people? it was a no-brainer. >> reporter: for years chaplain beasley cull very stated a reputation as a do-gooder, ran meals to the needy and ran this

halfway house and ministered to people in trouble with the law. >> he was really trying, not just to better himself but absolutely everybody around him. >> reporter: but police say the holy roller reputation was a father said. earlier chaplain beasley was charged with selling oxycontin, growing marijuana, threatening his neighbor and promoting prostitution. when he was released on bail he reconnected with his mentee ex brogan rafferty, and that, police say, is when the real trouble started. on october 7th beasley allegedly placed a help wanted ad on craigslist, $300 a week to watch over a 688-acre farm in rural ohio. three days later he allegedly held a series of interviews with applicants at this local mall. one of those politics was ron haven'ten an unemployed construction worker. when you met with him, what was he like? >> he was all right. i mean, no bells in my head went off about him. you know like if he's going to be a mass murderer or something

like that which, you know, is turning out to be, i guess. >> reporter: sanson never got a call back but several other men did and on november 6th one of them went into the woods for what he thought was going to be a job interview but instead turned into attempted murder. >> he turned to see a gun pointed at his head. he deflected the gun and ran. as he was running from the gunman he was shot in the arm. >> reporter: he survived and went to the police, who nine days later found a body in a shallow grave not far away. the next day they arrested both rich beasley and brogan rafferty and then this past friday police found two more bodies. when you heard a month or so later that people who did go for those interviews apparently got shot and killed, what did you think? >> i thought, oh, boy, this could have been me? >> reporter: it is the latest headline generating crime spree to be linked by craigslist used by rapist, robbers and the

original so-called craigslist killer phillie markoff, the medical resident who shot a masseuse he met over craigslist. >> unfortunately, craigslist is just opportune for bad guys because you can be anonymous. i'm not sure it's craigslist's fault. it's the nature of what they do. >> reporter: thylane if these turn out to be true there are open questions about whether rich beasley sucked his 16-year-old friend into some sort of sick criminal apprenticeship reminiscent of the d.c. sniper john allen muhammad who worked alongside lee boyd malvo. >> they have to convince the 16-year-old that what they were doing had some point or purpose. you can call it brainwashing, whatever you might but looking at the d.c. sniper case i interviewed lee boyd malvo and you could tell in the early days he worshipped the ground that

mohamed walked on. >> reporter: rich beasley's attorney says her client is innocent. brogan rafferty's parents aren't buying his. his father told me his son may have gone along with it because beasley threatened him and his family. >> i think that he probably didn't realize what he was involved in until it was too late and over his head and that he was in fear for his life and the lives of people he loved. >> reporter: brogan's mother told me her son will have to pay for the decision to hang around with the wrong person. >> i have the pain in what my son is going through every day and he has to live with this the rest of his life. . >> reporter: does he think about that? >> i know he does. >> reporter: tonight brogan rafferty sits in a juvenile detention center and tomorrow he will likely be transferred to an adult prison. in a letter home, brogan tells his family, he fears that when he finally gets out, everybody he knows and loves will be dead.

for "nightline" this is dan harris, in akron, ohio. >> and we'll stay on that case. our thanks to dan. just ahead how some enterprising moms are turning the high drama of diapers and bottles into a healthy income. [ man ] i love you guys. [ laughs ] i mean, just, you know, the whole heist thing. just putting jewels in teddy bears. this guy's wearing a wire the whole time. right? look at that! he's wearing a wire! [ laughs ] all right, let's do this. all right? before my wife changes her mind. go. [ male announcer ] your favorite movies right when you want them. watch unlimited tv episodes and movies instantly through your game console or other devices, all for only 8 bucks a month from netflix. no sequel for that guy.

aside from surrogate mother, reality show stars, the occasional family of trapeze artists there's not much profit in having babies. most families take a financial hit when the stork drops by. most professional women have to make some jarring adjustments,

but a growing number have figured out a way to combine baby and business savvy into a new kind of start-up. here's abc's lara spencer. >> my dream, it wasn't. >> reporter: most people know her as punky brewster from the sitcom. on it she played a bubbly orphan taken in by a grumpy old man. >> granny can come up too. >> hi, baby girl. >> reporter: but today soleil moon frye is mother to two girls. >> when i hit a million people on twitter as a thank you i dressed up in the punky garb and literally it was hysterical and my girls are like you're not leaving the house like that. >> reporter: quickly she found a new line of work as a mom-trepreneur. >> there's a book. there's a book "happy chaos," a private line.

moonfrye.com and i have a web series called "her say." hey, everyone, it's soleil. >> reporter: soleil has created an empire. >> what do you think about this? is 3 1/2 way too young to pierce your others? >> reporter: they solicit for advice on parenting. >> i will always love acting, but i also love that i have this platform where i get to share with millions of people every day. >> reporter: is there a taboo topic online. >> no book had told me i was going to literally have a baby and somebody was going to hand me a pair of mesh panties and ice rubber glove and say, okay, this is where you put it and a can of spray to numb down there and i was like why didn't anybody tell me this? i am here to say i'm a friend of the people, please check them out. >> reporter: it started with typical twittering, facebook posts that turned into a diary on motherhood then spawned a blog. she has 1.4 million twitter

followers. a huge built-in audience and me megaretailer target has taken notice. she's their mommy ambassador telling new moms what products she used to survive and what products they shouldn't be without. >> an entertainment center was awesome and was great when i was trying to take a shower or make breakfast. entertainment center. literally i like literally could not live without this. >> reporter: it is big business. the most successful blogs like dooce.com can net tens of thousands of dollars a month but making a career out of giving tips can be complicated. mommy bloggers share the dos but rarely the don'ts? if target had a product you didn't love would that be okay? >> i won't talk about products i don't love with anything. i talk about products that i love. i talk about the companies that i connect with. i share so much of my life but i don't share anything that's disingenuous to me. ♪

>> reporter: more often than not mommy bloggers are women like tonya sanders, between home schooling and dance parties with her daughter, the virginia mom is building her online brand blogging as the chatty momma. >> six months into the start of my blog i received a call from a pr firm representing burger king. >> reporter: for companies mentions in blogs like tonya's can mean big bucks in sales so as a result they send her everything from shampoo to foot pads for free hoping she'll hawk them online. >> concealer, eyes, lip and face, i love that. i haven't used this yet. i need to try it. cleanse, exfoliate, massages and moisturizes. >> reporter: she never thought her personal accounts of potty training and keeping the romance alive after baby would be anything more than a way to connect with moms. >> they sent me free ice cream for a year. i think it's important with every post to also put your

disclosure at the bottom so that it's not a secret. >> reporter: while it's not as lucrative as her former career working as a publisher she has big dreams for the chatty momma. >> i want to do a lot more reviews. i want to spend more time on my youtube channel which i've been working on, chattymomma be tv. >> reporter: soleil is an adviser to shop squad. it connects online shoppers with expert reviewers. when a sale occur, the expert gets a commission. >> we reached out to mommy bloggers when we initially started the site. by the time their kids get to the 2 or 4 or 5, they've researched every single product under the sun, and all the time there's new babies being born and so there's new moms who need to get that advice. >> welcome to moon frye. >> reporter: could this become a multimillion dollar empire. >> yeah, i think it could.

i look at what martha stewart has created and all these incredible, you know, entrepreneurs and mom-trepreneurs that have come before me. i think there's a huge missing space. and i think the sky is the limit. i think it's endless. wait, baby, can i have a kiss good-bye. >> reporter: proving being a mommy with be a growth industry in more ways than one. coming up next they're as cute as they come but baby pandas still need a helping hand, which is where those big mysterious creatures come in. glad that one's over. yeah, i know what you mean.

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it has been scientifically established that the giant panda is a species in need of serious help. it's also been scientifically established that panda cubs are technically speaking super-duper cute. what is not clear how best to prepare the captive cubs for life in the wild. when we heard about a plan involving full panda costumes, oh, we just had to buy a ticket to china for abc's david wright and tonight's "sign of the times." >> reporter: they are cuter than kitten, a species so soft and

cuddly that in this world they would have to be rare. tragically they're endangered. difficult to get to, as well, the road that leads up the mountain to the wolong panda research center hasn't yet recovered from the 2008 earthquake that ripped through china's sichuan province, a bumpy ride narrow and prone to landslides. you feel like you're headed to shangri-la. just a few years ago this was a thriving tourist attraction. home to more than 60 little bear, china's most successful panda breeding facility. now wolong has the feel of jurassic park, the lost world, the tourist signs and buildings still here, but the place is empty except for the pandas and a handful of researchers. the tourists' paths are now overgrown with bamboo. a few of the pandas like this little guy are destined for other breeding centers or quite possibly zoos overseas. it's a nice job.

>> yes, i like this job. it's like taking care of my own child. >> reporter: but the hope is that most of the cubs will eventually be released into a large open reserve just over the mountain. so the researchers here take great care to minimize any contact with humans. whenever they head out to clean the enclosures they dress to blend in. dressing up in camouflage isn't the half of it. in china when it comes to panda, they tend to take conservation measures to the extreme. for instance, in nearby chengdu where they relocated the breeding program after the 2008 quake, they got mating couples in the mood by showing them panda porn, movies to help the bears understand exactly what to do. within that spirit of trying anything that might help, the researchers at wolong came up with an unusual way to study the bears up close.

sort of like a giant halloween cost towel, huh. big, fluffy, black and white giant panda suits. complete with paws. rrr! how do i look? the idea is that the pandas shouldn't become too accustomed to human beings. >> i'm not sure this is going to fool the pandas. >> reporter: on the day we visited there weren't quite enough panda suits for everybody so cameraman and producer had to dress up like shrubberies. >> i'm a monkey popping out of a bush. >> reporter: not that the suits -- i know how to complete the effect -- are liable to fool anybody, least of all the little panda cubs. this one was born four months ago today. every month he gets a visit from this odd group of giant teddy bears who quietly measure him, weigh him and take notes on his health and progress. he's clearly a little freaked

out by the whole thing. but he cooperates. the main thing is it's very difficult to see outside these panda suits. i call it work, a lot more difficult. usually nobody is watching this procedure except the real pandas who must be slightly confused by it. >> it's funny, but, hey, you know, whatever work, right? >> reporter: yep. >> i feel that they still can smell a person no matter what they look like but i think it's a step in the right direction. >> reporter: done in all earnestness in the name of science and for a very worthy cause, quite possibly the oddest-looking doctor's house call on earth. with producer carson yu, i'm david wright for "nightline" at the wolong panda research center in sichuan, china. >> they were last seen at a rave party in shanghai. thyo