>> reporter: see you all next week. stay tuned for an all-new episode of 2020, starting right now. it's really strange. you're having fun, or you're dying. >> checking chemicals is a code word. >> when you're fighting for your life, what are they doing? sink or swim. plus, the perfect plan for a bank heist. >> you thought you would pull this off? >> yeah, stupid. >> extra suspects courtesy of craigslist? check. wife kept in the dark?

check. >> only in my wildest nightmares would i have dreamt up the kinds of things he was doing. >> so how did he get caught? catch me if you can. plus, millions of you watched as the father of the santa barbara shooter bared his heart to barbara walters. tonight, strong reaction to the peter rodger interview. and tonight, peter rodger's recourse. now, david muir and elizabeth vargas. >> who knew that a yellow inner

tube would be one man's getaway vehicle? >> this is the high school hunk turned bank robber. and to keep from being identified, he hired extras. cloning himself 15 times over. and if it sounds like a script for a summer blockbuster, it soon might be. here's gio benitez. >> reporter: in the annals of robberies gone wrong, there is a long list of dos and don'ts. like always know your escape route. and try to come up with a better disguise than a tree. >> he had tree branches. >> reporter: but for anthony curcio the line between brilliant and botched is blurred he pulled off the perfect

crime, almost. from high school football fame to bank heist infamy. >> making his escape in an inner tube. >> reporter: curcio is now known in his hometown as the crook who almost got away with a seriously crazy plan. it started here -- on the outskirts of seattle the sleepy town of monroe, washington, where manicured lawns smack of ordinary life. the kind of place where life seems pretty predictable, unless of course you're planning the unpredictable. in curcio's case it was a crime fit for hollywood. complete with decoys and disguises daring escapes on jetskis and inner tubes and bags overflowing with stolen loot. you had just stolen $400,000. what does that even look like? >> enough to fit in a bathtub. >> reporter: curcio's life of crime started innocently enough a golden boy from a well-to-do family with everything going for him and for whom everything came a little too easy.

captain of the high school football team known for his friday night lights victories. >> catching a touchdown pass, that's a true feeling. >> how much of that defined who you were? >> everything. that's what i was. >> reporter: he had it all good looks a talent for sports and a pretty cheerleader girlfriend named emily. >> i knew that there was something special about emily. beyond special, for sure. >> we were that couple where the teachers would call me mrs. curcio and i remember the first time that he told me that he loved me, i was just kind of like, oh my god. >> reporter: the two became inseparable in high school and stayed together when he went to college at the university of idaho. no longer the big fish in a small pond, curcio was now feeling the pressure of college sports. his way to cope? alcohol. lots of alcohol. that was your escape. you just kept drinking, and drinking, and drinking, and drinking. >> it got so bad after a couple months of that, i was just drinking straight out of the bottle. >> reporter: the next season, a torn acl was curcio's

introduction to a new vice, vicodin. which numbed the pain of just about everything. >> i was insecure about not being good enough. it calmed me down. it made me feel like anthony doesn't need to be an athlete. >> reporter: how far would you go to get it? >> i started forging prescriptions going into pharmacies faking injuries. one day i'd be some john with a dental issue and the next pharmacy i'd be steven with a hurt leg. that was where i crossed the line. in high school, i had this moral foundation, integrity. once i met vicodin, that all went out the window. >> you talk about vicodin like it's a person. >> vicodin, well, it's an enemy, is what it is. >> reporter: pills became his lifeblood. >> when my addiction progressed, my criminal involvement progressed, too. >> reporter: the more pills he took, the more brazen his behavior. like dressing up as a mover to steal college furniture. he even created counterfeit

baseball cards to sell on ebay, all for his addiction. >> all i remember, is that moment, after i take pills, and feeling like the man again. everything's cool everything's at peace. >> reporter: it was that man who married his high school sweetheart emily and became a father to a little girl. he lived a double life for over a decade. you were putting on this front. >> as best i could, yes. >> he was the spin master, and i was like putty, i believed everything that he said. >> reporter: he was a man used to turning a quick buck, so he got into real estate, flipping houses to support an increasingly lavish lifestyle. >> not even in my wildest nightmares could i have dreamt up or made up the kinds of things that he was actually doing. >> reporter: she stayed with him through multiple stints of rehab, but had no idea how far her husband had fallen. at his worst, curcio says he was

blowing through $15,000 a month on drugs, popping 50 pills a day. he was living on the edge then, he went over it. after investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in homes. >> the market crashes. >> yes. >> and now you've not just lost your money, now you're losing your drugs. >> now i'm losing my drugs. >> reporter: the man on top of the world was going belly-up on the verge of losing his big house and the mercedes parked out front. now, with less than 20 dollars in his bank account, he was even stealing groceries. so he did what came naturally -- find his next fix. sitting in a parking lot, munching on a jack in the box burger, curcio came up with an even grander plan for some fast cash. >> i had just been into the bank, the bank of america. and i see the armored car show up. >> what'd you say to yourself? >> this is the answer. >> reporter: curcio became obsessed with -- even addicted to planning an armored truck heist. drawing elaborate diagrams of the scene, spending hours watching the trucks and learning

their blind spots all to the hum of tom petty's "free fallin'" on the radio. ♪ >> and when i was on pills i have ocd, very detail-oriented. >> reporter: curcio came up with a clever disguise when he was out casing the bank. >> i started to dress up as, like, a landscaper, that was doing the grounds. i got this landscaping outfit, blue shirt, blue hat, safety vest, and i was so obvious, right in front of them, that he couldn't see me. >> reporter: the getaway plan? use something fast to get down a slow moving creek. a jetski would do. but when he found the water wasn't deep enough -- >> i start digging this thing out six, seven, eight hours a day. >> you realize, you were literally changing the geography of a creek. >> yes. >> so that this could work. >> yes. stupid. >> i mean, you really thought you would be able to pull this off. >> yeah. there was no question that i would be able to pull it off. that's how i thought then. >> reporter: on the first dry or rather wet run, the jetski hit a

rock. still not deep enough. so he came up with plan b. he would use an inflatable yellow inner tube to float his way to freedom. and here's where curcio's plan jumped the tracks. on a practice run, curcio stashed his disguise behind a nearby dumpster forgetting of course that where there are dumpsters there are dumpster divers. >> this homeless guy with this long beard, and a dog, started yelling i know what that stuff is, or something like that. i was like, what are you talking about? and i got into my car, i'm thinking, man, you just jeopardized everything. you've done all this planning you've done all this stuff not to get caught and then i started to think, if he has a light description that doesn't mean anything. >> reporter: to curcio there was no turning back. and now there was just one step left. creating 15 accomplices to help him pull off his perfect crime. >> i realized that i could create decoys, by just blending in with the crowd. >> but you needed to create the crowd. >> i needed to create the crowd and that's when i went to craigslist. >> reporter: and this latest idea took curcio's already wacky

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"20/20" continues. here's gio benitez. >> reporter: anthony curcio was about to attempt one of the most bizarre bank robberies in recent history. after three months of meticulous planning, everything was in place including the final detail, decoys. >> i needed to create the crowd. how can i get people to show up at all this place, you know, at one time or whatever? my thing was "i'm gonna go make a craigslist posting. and i'm gonna get people to wear the exact same thing i was

wearing there." >> reporter: he posted a convincing ad luring eager landscapers with promises of 28 bucks an hour. it specified a uniform. blue hat, blue shirt, safety glasses and a yellow vest, a minor investment for someone looking for a job. he even followed up by e-mail with more details, where and when to meet, and to stay put until their supervisor showed up. and it worked. the morning of the crime a crowd of hopeful workers stood cluelessly outside the bank. this was the getup curcio's ad specified. now imagine me times fifteen. hey, dude. now one of these guys was going to pull the ultimate heist that morning. the rest, they were going to help, they just didn't know it. cory skinner was one of those workers. >> everybody was kind of sitting around talking and waiting to go to work, and about 35 minutes later was when we finally

realized we weren't there to work. >> reporter: cori went to high school with anthony curcio, but had no idea what the most popular kid in school was about to do. >> i'm definitely nervous. it felt just like a -- before a big game except now i'm dealing with my life here. all of a sudden i see the armored car. so i take my mace and i get about 15 feet from him and pepper sprayed him. >> reporter: this bank surveillance video tells the story. curcio comes out of nowhere and hits the guard with enough mace to stun a bear. the guard reaches for his eyes and lets go of the bags of money hanging on the cart. curcio makes his move. >> i just did what i planned on doing. i grabbed the money, took off. >> reporter: detectives tim "buzz" buzzell and barry hatch didn't need to get the call that morning. they heard it. >> i was on another case and, and i kept hearing sirens and sirens.

and i go, oh, something big is going on. >> reporter: buzz and hatch, each with 15 years of sleuthing under their holstered belts, constitute two-thirds of the detective unit in the small town of monroe. but when buzz and hatch arrive at the bank that day, they encounter a first. fifteen clones of their crook. when you started seeing all these people wearing the same clothes, what were you thinking? >> a lot of people dressed up the same way might be a distraction to some. but, really, we're chasing a guy that's running down the street, stripping off his clothes. >> reporter: they learn from eyewitnesses that the culprit is tall, skinny and athletic, and that he took off carrying the two bags of cash under his arm like, what else, a football. where was he running off to? did they tell you where? >> right down to the creek. >> right down this way? >> yep. >> we see how busy this road is. >> it's a very busy intersection and road. >> and it happened in the middle of the day? >> yes. he almost got hit by a truck. >> reporter: the witnesses saw the robber race down this path

toward the creek, fumbling one bag along the way, clearly overwhelmed by the weight of his treasure. then, for 200 feet at breakneck speed, he ran to the edge of the creek to make his unlikely getaway on an inner tube. >> the officers told me that the inner tube was on the far side of the -- of the creek, and i saw that it was resting up against some trees and brush. >> what did you think when you saw it? "that was a strange way to try to escape from a robbery." and, "where did he go?" >> reporter: where did he go? the last place anyone would look for a thief. >> i have to get out of there. so i'm trying to think in this whole chaotic mess. and the only place i could think of was, "well, the one place that the police aren't gonna be is at the police station right now." >> reporter: curcio sets off in the direction of the local police station, now looking like an average joe walking down main street. but this was where curcio's plan really goes awry with two thoughtless blunders.

number one? >> my shoes are soaking wet. >> reporter: when he tries to use a phone at a nearby business, he nearly blows his cover. >> i'm hoping that the receptionist doesn't notice them. i say, "is it all right if i use your phone?" >> reporter: he gets on the phone and arranges a ride, but then blunder number two hits him. where do you stash 400 grand in cash? >> after counting it, it was like, "okay, it's a done deal." you know, pat myself on the back, even. i saved the day in my mind. then i'm trying to figure out, "well, what do i do with this money? where am i gonna keep it?" >> you spend all that time planning this heist and all that, you had no idea what you were doing with the money? >> no. >> reporter: but there was something curcio left behind in his mad dash. >> when he ran off he had tore off his mask -- a particle mask. dark sunglasses, a hat, a wig

and threw that onto the ground and continued running down to the river. >> and what were you thinking when you hear all this? >> i'm suspecting that all of that is great evidence to catch whoever did it. >> reporter: inside the robber's mask? trace amounts of saliva that would contain his dna. but finding the man that matched that dna would take these detectives on a cat and mouse chase right out of "catch me if you can." >> we had someone that called in a report of robbery-type items being hidden behind a dumpster near the bank. >> reporter: when they dig up the report, they find the caller not only discovered the disguise, he also took down the license plate of the man who came back for the items. >> when that officer put that license plate in there, what do you learn about that? >> the owner of the vehicle. >> and who's that owner? >> emily curcio. >> reporter: and in the small town of monroe, everyone knew emily curcio was married to anthony curcio. >> anthony's name was the one that quickly came to the top of the list. >> now you have this name at the top of the list. and what do you do with it? >> well, we go track down the witness to start with, to really

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"20/20" continues. here's gio benitez. >> 911, what's your emergency? >> yeah. i found a bunch of burglary tools. >> reporter: three weeks before anthony curcio made off down that babbling brook on an inner tube, this call came in to 911 reporting suspicious items behind a dumpster. >> you found burglary tools? >> yeah. a cap, a wig, a can of mace bigger than i've ever seen. >> can i get your last name please? >> dean.

>> your first name? >> alen. >> what's your phone number? >> i don't have one. i'm homeless. >> reporter: homeless. that's right. the caller was someone who didn't have much. but among his belongings? a moral compass. remember the dumpster guy who warned curcio -- weeks before the robbery -- about being up to no good? >> i thought, well, maybe if he's homeless, maybe he's been drinking, maybe he's not going to remember my description. >> reporter: now, he was a crucial witness and buzz and hatch needed to find him to help them nail curcio. but how do you find a witness with no address? >> i went to a mcdonald's and i bought ten regular hamburgers, and i started handing out hamburgers to homeless people, asking if they knew a guy named alen. >> reporter: in tiny monroe, there was only one place you take hamburgers to find a homeless guy. tent city. >> six hamburgers later, i found a tent with a guy named alen. >> reporter: so now you have four hamburgers left. and what happens when you reach alen's tent? >> you know, you can't really knock on the door of a tent, but

i just said, "alen, are you in there? it's the police." and he responded with, "it's about time you got here." >> reporter: this is alan dean, perhaps the unlikeliest source for the key that would unlock this entire case. what did you see behind that dumpster? >> well, just a wig, sunglasses, a big can a mace. i knew what it was. >> reporter: what was it? >> burglaring tools, robbery tools. >> reporter: how'd you know? >> i mean, who else is gonna wear a wig? >> reporter: and you see a guy, don't you? what happens? >> he walked straight up to it, so i knew it was his. and i went over and told him that the police were coming to take a look at that stuff and he might as well just leave it alone. >> reporter: and so what happened? the moment he picks that up, what do you do? >> he got in his car, i wrote the tag number down. >> reporter: and you have a pen. you have a pen right now. >> yeah. i like to do the crosswords. >> reporter: so, you always have a pen with you. >> yup. >> reporter: what do you think he thought of you? >> i think he didn't -- he felt like that i wouldn't remember anything or something like that. >> reporter: you never thought

that he was gonna be the key witness. >> oh, no way. no. i underestimated him completely, yes. >> reporter: with dean's statement, detectives are closing in on curcio. >> we decided we need to set up surveillance on anthony. >> reporter: and how did that go? >> at first, not good because we couldn't find him. >> reporter: so, where does a thief with $400,000 go? >> las vegas. >> reporter: that's right. instead of laying low, curcio heads to the palms hotel in sin city. and sin he did. cheating on emily. throwing money around with another woman. but after a night of sex, drugs and a britney spears concert, curcio's conscience got the better of him nagging thoughts of his wife, toddler and now a newborn just weeks old. >> it was like, "why'd you do that? why are you in vegas? why aren't you home with your family? why aren't you a husband? why aren't you a father?" and here i have all this money

and it still didn't solve that problem. and it made me sick. >> reporter: he returns home to a very suspicious wife. the town rumor mill still buzzing from the heist. >> he would make comments about the robbery, like, oh, did you see this in the paper? and he'd hand me the paper and be like, oh my gosh, isn't this awesome, you know, isn't this cool? i'm like, yeah, pretty cool. you know, like, whoever did that's gonna get caught, and then i'm sure they're gonna think it's really cool, then. >> reporter: but emily isn't the only one watching him. so are buzz and hatch, waiting patiently while suspect #1 keeps screwing up. his 400 gs now bankrolling flashy purchases like a range rover. then, one day when he stops at a gas station, cops get the break they need. >> they saw him get out with a gatorade bottle that he had it in his vehicle and throw it into the trash. >> reporter: inside that bottle? enough of curcio's dna to compare to the saliva in that mask ditched at the scene.

bingo! it's a match. what's going through your mind? >> "we got him. we got our guy." >> reporter: while hanging out in this target parking lot with a little pocket money. $17,000. anthony curcio was arrested. >> there was definitely a moment where it sunk in that he definitely had something to do with this, and how the hell did i get here, was when i looked through that peephole. there's four armed police, fbi agents on my porch. >> reporter: after years of secret addiction and lies, watching her best friend spiral out of control, emily was spent. >> my heart dropped, you know and at the same moment, it was like -- thank god.

it's over. you know? this is done. >> reporter: he eventually pled guilty and was sentenced to six years in prison. but it was emily's sentence too. now a full time working mom left to raise their two girls alone. >> i sold off all of our belongings, basically, and i just left the house. and moved in with my parents. >> reporter: when the stolen money was finally recovered, it took eight people four hours to hand count the crumpled bills that arrived in garbage bags. curcio has given up his addiction and drawing diagrams of armored trucks. he's now taken to drawing pictures for children's books and educating young people about drug addiction. he's already co-authored a book about his wild heist and is working on making amends with emily. so emily, a lot of people might be looking at this and saying, "what on earth is she doing with this guy?" he's lied to you. he's stolen money. he's cheated on you. why are you sitting right next

to him? >> because i never forgot about who he was when i fell in love with him. and i just knew that he was still that person somewhere deep inside. >> reporter: a year out of prison now, anthony curcio -- the once local football hero -- is back home in the small, quiet town of monroe. instead of crime on his mind -- he has family on his mind. he's even coaching his oldest's daughter's first grade basketball team -- something he does not take for granted. >> i had justified that i was doing this for my family. someone that was doing that for their family would've not gambled with them, and lost five years of not being around them. >> reporter: you felt like you gambled with them. >> yeah. you should never gamble with something you're not willing to lose. as you can see, he's still

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as you get ready to slip on that swim suit this weekend, we thought it would be a good time to look inside the lives of the life guards. so many of them looking after

our families. and we appreciate it. what are they really doing? the answer may have you blowing the whistle. here's reena ninan. >> reporter: it's the fourth of july, and with the sun finally shining and temperatures sizzling, it's time to hit the water. and these are the young men and women charged with protecting our lives while we swim. >> 1, 2, 3, 4. >> reporter: lifeguards, buff, busty and brave. ready to jump in at the first sign of danger, right? well, maybe not always. sure, they may look hot in their signature red bathing suits. ripped abs and tanned torsos, like on "baywatch." but what do we really know about the dudes and dolls behind the shades? ♪ it's the start of swimming season, and you're outing secrets that people don't want to know. meet 23-year-old harris. a former lifeguard at several pools in texas. tonight he is blowing his whistle on the secret practices that he says sometimes occur

high atop the lifeguard stand, and we do mean high. are lifeguards using drugs? >> yes. there were a couple of lifeguards who smoked weed before coming into work or they would be still rolling from the night before. >> reporter: that's something many lifeguards confessed to us. and according to harris, at one pool not only were lifeguards coming in hung over, they would blaze up right on the job. >> they'd check chemicals. >> reporter: checking chemicals? it's a code word? >> normally when you check chemicals it's to check the ph, but what they were doing is they were going back and smoking weed. >> reporter: but there were kids whose lives are potentially in your hands, and they're getting high? >> yes. it's very irresponsible. >> reporter: it's doubly troubling, harris says, because actually checking the chemicals is really important to keep the pool sanitary. as they say, what happens in the pool stays in the pool. >> if you're going to the pool, don't go at the end of the day.

because it's full of urine, and it's really quite nasty. >> reporter: how do you know that? >> you can tell by the color. at start of the day it's really, really blue, and at the end of the day it's more yellow. >> reporter: ick factor aside, discolored water can pose a more hidden health hazard. it makes it harder for lifeguards to see people. take the tragic case of mom marie joseph. look at this security video. that is marie coming down the slide. her head bobs above the water for a moment, before she sinks to the bottom of the pool. multiple lifeguards were on duty, including this one directly in front of her. >> i just don't see how they missed it. someone wasn't doing their job. >> reporter: but the water was so murky none of them noticed her submerged body. see here as the pool went from blue to dark green. an investigation later revealed that a pool manager held off on chlorinating the water to reduce costs. >> water's really strange. either you're having fun or you're dying. >> reporter: roughly

4,000 americans drown each year. and 1 in 5 children who drown in swimming pools do so with a lifeguard present. surveillance cameras caught this 15-year-old drowning after going down this waterslide. the teen was underwater for more than five minutes. where was the lifeguard? according to the family's lawyers, busy at the basketball court. >> we're at the pool. a young boy has lost consciousness. >> reporter: by the time someone finally noticed the kid at the bottom of the pool, it was too late. shockingly no guard was disciplined. >> it's silent, it's quiet, and it's sudden. >> reporter: kathleen pluchinsky's 4-year-old son drowned at this ritzy country club pool. >> let's just say my son was found ten feet from an empty lifeguard chair. is there anything else i need to say? >> reporter: she believes too few lifeguards are trained properly. >> i've talked to hundreds of guards, literally. and i ask this question, "how many of you feel like you would recognize a swimmer in trouble immediately?"

not one hand has ever been raised. never, not one. >> reporter: a lot of lifeguards, they're not prepared for something really bad happening. >> reporter: and here's the thing, it's actually quite challenging to spot a kid drowning. as i found out for myself with a test dummy named timmy. i've got my underwater camera. they are going to hide timmy somewhere in the pool. i've got to find it. how hard can this really be? timmy is right at the edge of the pool, just feet in front of me. a spot where many young kids, called wall huggers, drown. i scan the pool over and over again and can't find him. this manikin was not in my line of sight at all. i can tell you i never saw it, never once. >> getting ready to start. >> reporter: meet rac carroll. he is no ordinary water park guest, but rather an undercover boss. the head of ellis and associates, a lifeguard training company. today he's here at an indoor

water park in pennsylvania, playing a game of cat and mouse with his trainees, armed with a video camera to secretly see who's paying attention. >> we want to be able to see a guest in distress within ten seconds, so that we're not being reactive to a situation where somebody may already be on the bottom. >> reporter: carroll does this regularly because, frankly, there are endless examples of lifeguards behaving badly. all caught on tape. look at this lifeguard, totally tuning out the pool. listening to his ipod. >> no lifeguard should ever be provided any electronic equipment, certainly no texting or talking on the phone. >> reporter: this guy seems to have something on his mind besides safety. he's looking everywhere but at the swimmers. is he checking out that woman's behind? worst of all may be this guard. he's gone into full hibernation mode. fortunately no one is swimming. let's hope he returns from la-la land before some kid cannonballs into the deep end.

but secretly surveilling the guards is only step one. how realistic of a simulation is this dummy drill? >> it's as realistic as it gets. it's a situation where we have a crowded pool, your lifeguards are focused on their zones and scanning the water. it's the only real-time evaluation of a lifeguard on the stand. >> reporter: with carroll's supervision we conducted one of our own drills with our trusty manikin timmy. would these unsuspecting lifeguards be able to spot him with our hidden cameras rolling. watch as one of our producers sneaks timmy in the pool. in less than five seconds the lifeguard blake, 18, sees something, blows his whistle and jumps in. did you think it was a real kid drowning? >> honestly, i'm just scanning the water and if i see something that's not -- out of the norm, i go in, check it out. no matter if it's a garbage bag to a kid, doesn't make a difference to me. >> you were pretty quick, less

than 5 seconds. >> we're not just people who, just tan, you know. big macho people with their shirts off. we're actually like, we're saving peoples lives. >> reporter: ellis lifeguards have become superb at the drills. the average response time is 3 seconds. but harris warns that's no reason for parents to mistake the pool for daycare. >> parents will drop their kids off at the pool, and they don't have any supervision except for the lifeguard. >> reporter: so, parents think you're just a cheap babysitting service? >> i guess. >> reporter: and not only do kids need to be monitored constantly, rac carrol says, so do the guards. but isn't it uncomfortable to have to go to the lifeguard or the manager and say, "sorry, i don't think he's scanning the pool?" >> it may be uncomfortable, but it's a whole lot more comfortable than dealing with your child being on the bottom of the pool. next, he was the first four of a mass murderer to speak out. >> what's the most shocking revelation to you? >> that he could hide.

>> now you get your say. >> i have a 17-year-old at home just like this kid. but no one will help. >> reactions to the peter rodger interview, when "20/20" returns. oh, it's unbelievable. fewer dropped calls, better call quality... it's fast, right? sprint a un tout nouveau réseau lte avec un spectre tri-bande. you can also text. yes, you can also text. it's tres good. okay. i, i don't know where to go with that. [ male announcer ] join america's newest network, now with faster speeds, fewer dropped calls and better call quality. happy connecting, from sprint. with crest 3d white luxe toothpaste. only crest 3d white has whitelock technology. it removes stains within the microfine lines of your teeth... and locks out future stains. crest 3d white luxe toothpaste. life opens up with a whiter smile. crest 3d white luxe toothpaste. i make a lot of purchases foand i get ass. lot in return

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one week ago on our broadcast, a watershed moment. the first time the father of a pass murderer spoke on national television. peter rodger told us his son was mentally ill, but didn't think he would be capable of such

violence. you felt very strongly about what you saw. and now, tonight, what you told us. words of wisdom. of power. and hope. of the hundreds of posts on our facebook page, there were five words that were used more times than any others. help. parents. mental. people. father. a kind of mantra that made us wonder about the good that can come out of tragedy. >> reporter: there have been numerous school shootings. and none of the parents of other shooters have spoken with us. why did you decide that you would speak out? >> because we have to stop this, barbara. this is wrong. wrong. wrong. and there are too many fingers pointed in the wrong directions. we need to mend the mental health thing. i think that there's an awful lot that can be done in this country to help families that might have another elliot. >> reporter: among those hundreds of posts, we found parents walking the same path of fear and despair. >> i'm almost scared to go to

sleep after watching this. i have an almost 17-year-old in my home who is just like this kid. yet no one will help. i wish our world would wake up and realize we have to change our view on these types of mental illnesses. >> no parent wants this for their child. no parent wants to live in hell of tears of not knowing what to do, where to go. >> reporter: if there is an illness, if there's cancer in a family, people rally around. with mental illness, they don't. >> i think mental illness is a big elephant in the room right now and this country needs to get up, wake up, and look at it. >> reporter: peter rodger's son, elliot, was only 22 when he died, taking six other lives with him. the videos and so-called manifesto he left behind provided a rare glimpse into a mind broken by mental illness. >> i don't know why you girls aren't attracted to me. but i will punish you all for it. >> reporter: what's the most

shocking revelation to you? >> that he could hide. that he could hide these feelings from everybody. i can't wrap my head around it. >> it's extremely difficult to predict future violence. people have spent their careers looking at ways to predict violent behavior. and we're terrible at it. really the only prediction of future violence is past violent behavior. again, in this case there was apparently no evidence of that. >> reporter: but inside that shy, quiet young man was hidden rage. elliot's journal documented a master plan of revenge, once writing, "if i can't have it, i will destroy it." andrew solomon has studied the patterns between mass murderers at columbine and newtown. >> in neither instance was the mass killing something that happened on the spur of the moment. it was something imagined and it was imagined in each instance as

the moment of their getting revenge on a world that had rejected them. >> reporter: for peter rodger, in retrospect, the clues seemed so clear. but he, like many parents, he seemed to miss them all. >> reporter: you feel now that there are warning signs. tell me the warning signs. >> a young man between the age of 18 and 22 who is socially inept, doesn't have any friends, finds it difficult to get a girlfriend, spends far too much time on the computer, is narcissistic. >> i'm such a magnificent guy. >> constantly taking photographs of themselves. >> there's me. >> illusions of grandeur. these are the traits that -- i think are really important for the american people to understand. >> reporter: but even if he had recognized the warning signs, there was nothing rodger could have done after his son turned 18 and became an adult. >> this father realized there was something wrong, tried to get help but was helpless due to his child's age. you can't judge unless you've been in their shoes.

>> i wonder how easy it is to physically take a mentally deranged individual to a hospital when they are not willing to go? >> how can parents diagnose or treat a son who won't take prescriptions? >> reporter: would the medication have made a difference? >> when somebody is over 18, and they refuse medication, it is impossible for you as a parent or a family member to make them take that medication, unless they do it voluntarily or if they commit a crime. the mental health community have to work out some kind of middle ground to be able to help family members who think that they -- an adult family member might be a risk to themselves or to somebody else. >> reporter: you have said that you're going to spend your life, to raise awareness for other families who live with children who are mentally ill. how can you do that? >>y telling elliot's story.

asking families to understand, love and support children that might be in the same position as elliot. >> he was my best friend. >> it wasn't elliot taking his own life. he took the lives of other people. and he injured other people who are gonna have scars for the rest of their life. i have so much compassion for them. i feel if only, if only, if only. but i don't think there are any if onlys. >> to help other families like his, he has created a website called ask for

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