that's our program tonight. be sure to catch up again next week for another edition of "what would you do?." don't forget, connect with us any time, like us on >> reporter: a little girl, growing up happy, her father's pride and joy. >> let's see your new boots. >> reporter: these home videos showing a childhood that from the outside seemed perfectly normal. until, as a teen, she discovered her father's terrible secret. >> i wanted to hide. i wanted to be invisible. >> reporter: he was living a double life. >> my name is melissa moore and my dad is a serial killer. >> reporter: he was a long haul trucker, whose road trips became a killing spree. >> jesperson gave grisly details. of how he killed the 23-year-old. >> i grabbed the rope and tied it around her neck. >> reporter: a murderer with that notorious nickname. >> little did i know the

happy-face killer is my father. >> reporter: tonight, his daughter coming out of the shadows and going public about the father who could be so loving. but sometimes, lethal. did you choke all of the women? >> that's what i had done with the first one, so i never changed. it'd worked the first time, so i went to the second and third, fourth, and fifth, sixth, and seventh. >> reporter: about the day her children met their serial killer grandfather in prison. >> that's one moment in being a mother that i wish i could take back. >> reporter: and about the doubts that have haunted her. >> maybe i was a monster like him. >> reporter: but now she has a new mission. seeking, in a way, to atone for the sins of her father. >> here we go. >> reporter: by meeting up with the family of a woman he murdered. what was going through your mind as you knocked on that door? but she's about to discover forgiveness doesn't come easy. >> this person had a life. it's all about your dad.

all about your dad. >> reporter: a heart wrenching encounter, as cameras roll. tonight on "20/20," what happens when there is a "monster in my family." >> logically i know he is the father that raised me and he is a serial killer, but, to combine the two, it's just not possible for me. >> i washed the blood off the wall and tried to forget about it. >> good evening. tonight, an all-new journey of healing for a teenage a young woman. now the world knows what her father did. a serial killer that took the lives of eight women. >> and you'll see how he was caught, the bragging, the letters, the interrogation tapes, chilling phone calls with our own juju chang.

and now, she's reaching out to children with a monster with a four. once again, here's juju. >> reporter: 36-year-old melissa moore is taking the longest walk of her life. alongside her mother, she is approaching the home of michelle white, the sister of just one of eight women her father murdered. >> meeting the victim's family was very, very difficult, because i didn't know what to say. i thought, oh, my gosh, what am i in for? >> reporter: this is not an easy journey for anyone. this is not an easy story to tell. >> i'm coming into her space, into her world with nothing to offer her. >> reporter: it has taken her 20 years to find the courage to knock on that door. but to understand how she got here, we have to go back to the beginning of melissa's long journey to liberate herself from the guilt and shame of her family's legacy. a long search for answers about a father who wasn't at all what he appeared to be. >> these were really good memories for me being in the country.

i can smell the alfalfa still. i can hear the birds and hear the animal sounds and the horse, just like i did when i was a child. so it makes me miss being a kid. >> reporter: hers was a scrappy upbringing in toppenish, washington, a rural and rugged community where the welcome sign celebrates "where the west still lives." >> i have memories of riding my bike and my dad would kind of run behind me as i would be pedaling down this street here. it makes me miss having a dad. >> reporter: these home videos depict an adoring dad. here riding an atv with his bundle of joy on board. and showing off his daughter's shiny new snow boots. >> are those new boots? isn't that nice? >> reporter: but behind the loving facade was a violent killer. a secret that would only be revealed years later. melissa is the oldest of three children and always looked forward to when her dad, a long haul truck driver, would return from a trip.

>> the first thing i would do when he got out the car i would run up to him and go for his pockets for the change that he had left over from his day and i got to keep the change and i would save it up to buy little, gum and things like that. >> reporter: is she looking through rose colored glasses or were there really good times? >> there really were good times. >> reporter: rose hucke is melissa's mom. >> at christmastime, even if we didn't have the money, somehow he'd figure out how to get the money and bring back what the kids really wanted for christmas. >> reporter: would you describe him as a good husband? >> no. >> reporter: why? >> he was very distant with me. >> reporter: was he abusive to you? >> no, he was not. if he was angry, he would walk away. >> my dad would never spank me or hit me. >> reporter: describe him physically. i mean, he's a big man. >> yeah, he is six foot six and about closer to 300 pounds.

>> reporter: a large handsome man with a dark side. which he mostly managed to keep hidden from his children. except for one traumatic event melissa witnessed as a six-year old that she still remembers vividly. >> one day when i went down here to go play with my brother and my sister house, i found some little kittens. they were resting right here. when i got out here my dad was working out by the barn. he said, "can i see them?" i said no, he grabbed them by the tail and hung them on the clothesline. whaling and screaming their little kitten screams. i ran inside the house to get my mom and i wanted it stop and by the time we got back out and got out here -- they were, the kittens were laying on the ground out here. so i remember bending down and seeing that they were dead. the way he just looked at me was, i don't care. you -- this is so funny to watch you grimace and, and -- be

tortured. he liked it. >> reporter: i first met melissa in 2010. >> what is it that you think you caught a glimpse of that day? >> the sociopath, the -- the part where he felt in control over me and that he enjoyed it. i got a sense that there was another side to him. >> reporter: so it's almost like you caught a glimpse of the monster who killed these people. >> i did. i did catch a glimpse. >> reporter: a side he certainly didn't reveal to rose when she fell in love with him as a teenager. >> he was a very charismatic, considerate young man. and i had no clue that this is what he would become. >> reporter: rose says that after a decade of marriage strange women started calling the house and she began suspecting he was having affairs. >> i said, who is this? and she goes, oh, i'm keith's girlfriend, and i said, i'm his

wife. click. >> reporter: she had enough. and after 14 years of marriage the pair decided to separate. rose and her three children left the orchards of where the kids spent their youth to drive 200 miles away to spokane, washington, to move into the cellar of their grandmother's home. but melissa, now 10, still loved her dad. >> she said, your father doesn't want us anymore and we're separating. and i thought this is not the case. dad loves us. once he sees me again, he'll change his mind. >> reporter: although the family never reconciled, over the next five years melissa's father would visit whenever his trucking jobs took him their way. >> he would come into town and take us out to eat, go shopping. and then after the shopping, he would take us to the grocery store. he would stay the night and leave the next morning. >> reporter: melissa says she never saw, or heard, anything unusual -- except for those awkward conversations that might make any teenager cringe. >> wherever there was a female around, he had to say something that was inappropriate. he would start talking about his

sexual acts with other women and i didn't want to hear it. it was disgusting to me. >> reporter: you knew it was wrong? >> he was proud of his sexual experiences and wanted to share it. >> reporter: then a conversation at a diner that would haunt her for years to come. >> the last time i saw my dad, he came to spokane, just a sporadic visit. and we came to a diner like this. and he said, "i have something to tell you, but if i tell you you'll tell the authorities. you'll tell the police." and then my stomach started to get upset. >> reporter: when we come back -- was keith jesperson about to confess what he really did during those long road trips? >> my father said, "i know how to kill someone and get away with it." >> reporter: and, the grisly, play-by-play confessions he would make to us over the phone. >> it became a nonchalant type thing, it's like shoplifting. >> reporter: it is nothing like shoplifting. you're killing somebody. stay with us.

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now, back to "20/20"'s monster in my family, with juju chang. >> reporter: it's absolutely breathtaking. you have a lot of fond memories of your dad here. >> right, i do. >> reporter: after melissa moore's parents got divorced, her dad -- that long-haul trucker -- still made an effort to visit. summer meant precious time together. >> you know, i was amazed that over your lifetime how often he wanted to come to see you i mean, he wanted to be a dad. >> he really did. >> reporter: keith jesperson grew up in british columbia, canada, the middle child of five. he had always loved camping and the outdoors. later, when he would take his own children to oregon's multnomah falls. melissa says it brought out the kid in him. >> he'd swim right in here and he'd go under the waterfall. and he would just, just have

fun, laughing and like nobody was around. >> reporter: but back on the road conversations sometimes veered to the grotesque, which melissa wrote off as fantasy. >> one time, as we're driving up the old scenic highway, my father said, i know how to kill someone and get away with it. so i thought maybe the detective magazines or something he's really into, the forensics and crime -- maybe he's -- he's into that. >> reporter: though she had no idea at the time, it turns out what he was talking about was an actual murder, one he had just committed. >> the same route that we would take going to the oregon coast is where he disposed the first victim. it's just this way, over that direction. >> reporter: melissa's dad, keith hunter jesperson, is currently serving three life sentences in oregon's state penitentiary. prison officials will not allow jesperson to conduct face to face interviews, because they say he relishes the attention too much. but we did speak with him numerous times, by phone, in 2010. >> what happened with the first murder?

>> i picked up a woman at a bar, took her home. >> reporter: the conversations, extremely candid with disturbing details. a killer in his own words tells us how and why he committed the first of his grisly murders in january, 1990. the very same year his divorce to melissa's mom was finalized. >> we were drinking beer a lot that day. >> reporter: the woman he met in a portland area bar was a 23-year-old named taunja bennett, described by family as overtly friendly and developmentally slow. >> i took her home. i thought i was going to get lucky. >> reporter: after a night of heavy drinking, the two left the bar and headed back to jesperson's suburban red brick home where he lured her and attempted to have sex. >> comments were made and different things, and, and, uh, an altercation happened, and i struck her. i actually had hit her in the face, and, for some reason, i just kept on hitting her in the face and because of that, i feared going to prison for slugging her in the face and

causing bodily injury, and so i killed her. >> reporter: you meant to kill her. >> oh, yes i did. i meant to kill her, to cover up the assault. >> reporter: you say it very matter-of-factly. with no remorse or hint of remorse. >> matter of fact because that's what it is. >> reporter: after strangling bennett with his bare hands, jesperson left her lifeless body behind and returned to the bar to coldly continue drinking and establish an alibi. he then drove the body up the old scenic highway and dumped it in the dense brush just miles from where he and his children liked to frolic in the waterfalls. >> and i put the body up there in the columbia river gorge, uh, had tied a rope around its neck mostly to -- i didn't know how the body reacted when you start moving it. >> reporter: days later, bennett's body was discovered. but jesperson would not become a suspect and this is where the story takes a strange turn. out of the blue, a total stranger comes forward to take credit for the crime with a

bizarre false confession. this woman tries to frame her abusive boyfriend, telling police he murdered taunja benett using details of the crime from newspaper reports. detective rick buckner investigated the case. >> she actually went so far as to buy a purse and put it in the trunk of john's car claiming it was taunja bennett's. >> reporter: having incriminated herself, she now faced prison for something she had nothing to do with. >> we had people in custody for a crime they didn't commit. >> reporter: meanwhile, the real killer is frustrated and envious of all the attention the pair is receiving for his crime. >> i was puzzled. i'd say i was, it was, it was something that just caught me kind of like off guard. especially when i heard that one had confessed to it. >> reporter: so, back on the road, in a rest stop bathroom he scribbles on the wall. "january 21, 1990. i killed taunja benett in portland. two people got the blame so i can kill again."

and he did. two years later, he embarked on a killing spree. what about lori ann pentland? >> yes. i did kill her, yeah. her, her attitude was like her life was all hell and she didn't want to be around and she wanted me to feel sorry for her and i just, well, i can kill you and put you out of your misery and she said, "go for it," so i did. >> reporter: she asked you to kill her? >> well, i, i told her that, you know, if your life's so bad, why don't you just end it? >> reporter: he recounts the details of his crimes with a chilling lack of emotion. there was cynthia rose -- you killed her over a parking spot? >> yes, i did. it was supposed to be a parking spot. >> reporter: number five and six were "jane does." in 1995, number seven -- angela sebreze. killing her, it seems, wasn't enough. is she the victim that you tied under the truck? >> yes, she is, yeah. >> reporter: why did you do that? >> i felt that by dragging her under the truck that i would destroy all evidence of who her

identity was. >> reporter: did you choke all of the women? >> yes i did, yeah. >> reporter: why did you choke them? >> well, that was what i had done with the first one, so i never changed. it'd worked the first time, so i went to the second and third, fourth, and fifth, sixth, and seventh. >> reporter: it's so gruesome what you're describing. i mean, there's a possibility that these people's family members might be listening to you describing this. >> i'm sorry it happened, wish it never happened, and can we move on? >> reporter: can we move on? >> yeah, i mean, come on, i mean, it's done, it's over with. >> reporter: how would you feel if somebody did this to your daughter? >> well, i would probably search him down and kill him. yes, i'd like to go back in time and change it and make it all go away and make it all peaches and cream again, but i can't do that. at the time, i could justify each and every one of those murders, and at this time, i cannot. >> reporter: coming up -- melissa wonders, was there one murder she could have prevented? >> he asked if i would want to stay the night and i declined.

and then that night he picked up a victim. >> reporter: and later, what will she find when she comes face to face with the family of one of her father's victims? stay with us. brmilk and fresh creama. and only sustainably farmed vanilla. breyers has fresh cream, sugar and milk. breyers. the good vanilla. our milk and cream

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monster in my family continues. once again, juju chang. >> reporter: keith jesperson, divorced father of three was on a five-year, five-state killing spree, but nobody suspected him. he was an anonymous truck driver just passing through town except for an occasional visit with his children. >> he came into town to visit and he asked if i would want to stay the night like we would always do when he'd come into town. and i declined.

and then that night, he picked up a victim. >> reporter: and killed her? >> and killed her. i think about what if i would have stayed -- would that have happened? would he have met her? >> reporter: remember, two people were already behind bars for his first murder and jesperson wasn't a suspect in any of the others. with the bodies piling up, jesperson says he didn't want to get caught, but it was time for him to get credit. >> and i was thinking, why not just stir up a hornet's nest? >> reporter: so he wrote a six page confession letter to the "oregonian" newspaper to prove he was the killer. in block letters, he detailed a virtual roadmap of his murders. names. dates. locations. even the sadistic torture methods. it started -- "i would like to tell my story." the only thing missing was the name of the killer. >> and at the very bottom, he had put a little happy face. >> reporter: earning him the nickname, "the happy face killer." in the letters he claimed, "i do not want to kill again and i want to protect my family from the grief that would tear it apart." "i feel bad, but i will not turn

myself in." despite what he claims he wanted, jesperson does kill again. but murder number eight didn't fit the pattern. she wasn't a stranger to jesperson. in fact, she was his long-term girlfriend -- julie winningham, a woman he had introduced to his family. >> well, julie and i were an item for several years. she had just gotten two dwis, and she was facing some jail time in clark county, and she needed someone to help pay her bills, and she'd just going on and on. and i started laughing about it. 'cause i knew the only way i could keep her out of jail is if i killed her. and so i did. >> reporter: that made sense to you? >> that made sense to me, yeah. >> reporter: did it occur to you that you were taking somebody's life? >> it became a nonchalant type thing, it's like shoplifting. >> reporter: it is nothing like shoplifting. you're killing somebody. >> it is everything like shoplifting. it's, you're breaking the law but you're getting away with it. and so, there's a thrill of

getting away with it. >> reporter: julie winningham's body was discovered dumped over a highway embankment in washington state and it wasn't long before police found jesperson's signature on a receipt among her possessions. so detective rick buckner immediately hunted down jesperson in new mexico and brought him in for questioning. >> i don't drink. i don't use drugs. >> reporter: despite hours of grueling interrogation, jesperson denies any involvement. >> we knew that, you know, without his confession, we didn't have a case. we couldn't prove that he killed her. >> reporter: but the next day buckner checks his voice mail, and what he hears is stunning. >> i received a telephone message from him. all it said was, "you were right." "i want to turn myself in." >> i realized that i was done. i mean, i wasn't going to go anywhere. i was going to go to prison, and that's the way it was. >> reporter: if you hadn't confessed to julie's murder, do you think you would've ended up murdering more women? >> probably, yes. >> i think he wanted to be noticed. in the letters that he had written to the newspaper, he

wanted to be recognized for what he had done and i think that's probably the only reason he turned himself in. >> reporter: buckner only knew about one murder, but he was about to unravel a great deal more. while in custody, the detective overheard a phone conversation in which jesperson urgently instructed his brother to destroy evidence that would finally connect all the dots. an apology, and confession note jesperson had mailed to his brother right before turning himself in. his brother instead gave it to the police. >> well, the letter was one page. it said he was sorry for the way he turned out. that he'd been a killer for five years and killed eight women and >> reporter: and to prove that he was the one who murdered bennett, not those two people who confessed, jesperson offered proof. telling police where he had thrown bennett's purse, after dumping her body. >> five years later. up to this point, nobody had ever found that. >> reporter: it would be the last piece of missing evidence in an area covered with

overgrown blackberry bushes several miles away from the body. >> boy scouts went out, explorers went out, a couple of days later, cleared out that whole area and did, in fact, find a purse belonging to taunja bennett with her identification in it. only the killer would known where that was. >> authorities say this confessed serial killer may finally have given prosecutors enough evidence. >> reporter: keith jesperson was finally getting the infamy he was craving in an oregonian courtroom. >> i forced my fist into her throat, grabbed the rope and tied it around her neck. i washed the blood off the wall and tried to forget about it. >> reporter: but 200 miles to the north, his shocked family is reeling. >> my mom says, "your dad's in jail for murder." and then she just walked right back up the stairs. >> i wanted to protect her and i was trying to be the strong one, and the way i felt to protect them was by banning any kind of media into the home. >> i pushed her down on the bed.

>> jesperson says -- >> i forced my hand right down on her. i turned around and grabbed her. >> the happy face killer. >> reporter: but melissa, now a high school student, felt compelled to learn more. >> i went to the local library to see what was happening with the trial with my dad. >> i grabbed her by the hair and just yanked on her and pulled her right onto the pavement. hit the pavement, i can't remember if i put her face down or face up. if it got any contusions or any of that category it could be after death markings. i don't know what i can say to the families to tell them, they're not going to like me and i know that. but she didn't suffer. >> i was so ashamed of who my father was. he brought us up believing that we needed to be good people. yet, he was a total contradiction. >> reporter: how do you deal with the shame? >> i wanted to hide. i wanted to be invisible. >> reporter: it's like the

ultimate family secret. >> it is. >> reporter: but she can't pretend forever. when we come back, how do you tell your children that their grandfather is an infamous serial killer? and your secret fear that his bad blood might even run in your veins? >> i started to feel associated to his actions, that maybe i was a monster like him. >> reporter: plus, panic at the penitentiary. what happens when her kids come face to face with the "monster in their family"? >> that's one moment, being a mother, that i wish i could take back. >> reporter: stay with us. to try something different. this summer, challenge your preconceptions and experience a cadillac for yourself. ♪ take advantage of our summer offers. the 2015 cadillac ats, the sharper performance sedan. lease this from around $269 per month.

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monster in my family. here again, juju chang. >> reporter: by 2000, the nation had long since forgotten about the happy face killer and the eight lives he'd cut short. but for his daughter melissa moore, it's a memory she could never erase. when she was 21, she met a nice guy, sam moore, at a church dance. things moved quickly, but she was nervous about the dark secret she had held inside for so long. >> i knew that our relationship was going towards marriage. and i thought, well, this is something that he's going to -- he's going to need to know. >> reporter: my guess is that you have a very vivid memory of telling sam. >> i do. i have a very vivid memory. i said, hey, you know, you always ask me, you know, who my father is. i want you to know that he's in prison. and then i said he's, he's a serial killer. he put on a face that it didn't bother him. >> i just loved her so much that it didn't really. i wasn't concerned about it. >> reporter: i know your parents and your family had a little bit

of a hard time. >> there was some resistance, absolutely. my parents just wanted the best for me, and unfortunately it didn't come off that way and i don't think they fully understood how much i loved my wife at the time. so -- >> reporter: what makes you emotional? >> my parents love melissa now and i knew they would, so, she's just so amazing. and i knew that they would see what i saw, and they did and they do now. >> reporter: melissa and sam first had a girl, aspen, and then a son, jake. but a cloud hung over this blissful family, a nagging fear. does the urge to kill run in families? it kept melissa up at night. >> i used to be afraid for my son, might have characteristics or dna that would prove that he is capable of being a sociopath like my dad. but then i realized, by doing research, that there's never been a case where a serial killer, you know, begot another serial killer, so far there's no link of genetics. and that is what gives me peace.

>> i don't think it's just the dna. i think there's so many other variables and i know the type of home that melissa and i work on trying to create for our children. >> reporter: but as the moores were settling into a normal life, letters continued arriving from her father, begging her to visit him in prison. it had been ten years since melissa last saw him, and it seemed those letters were finally beginning to wear her down. >> i was kind of curious to see if i saw my dad, would he look like what i remembered him looking like? or would i see him as the convicted serial killer? >> we anticipated meeting him behind a plexiglas wall, orange suit, phone. >> reporter: though melissa and sam brought along their then 4-year-old daughter and infant son, they say they never intended for them to see their grandfather behind bars. they were told there was a child care center on the premises. a place they thought the children could wait safely. but it wasn't what they thought. >> there was a child center there but the child center was where children could play with

their parents that are imprisoned. and then i started noticing men around us that were in denim outfits with numbers on their shirt. and then there were armed guards, and i then realized we were going to meet my wife's father in person. >> reporter: at first glance, a typical family snapshot. but it's actually a prison issued photo op. behind the forced smiles, they were horrified. >> and the whole time i watched his interaction with melissa. and i know what he is, i know what he's done and i saw how it could be so confusing. >> reporter: the meeting wasn't what jesperson expected either. >> it was, uncomfortable. last time i had seen my daughter, she was 15 years old. and all of a sudden she's a mother and has children of her own and has a husband i've never met before. >> he shook my hand and he actually said, "thank you for marrying my daughter.

it's great to know that she's married somebody that's going to protect her." and that threw me off-guard. >> i'm kind of like, thrust into their world, and they're into my world. and how do i, how do i react to that? it's -- it's complicated. >> i didn't want to talk about that he really was a convicted serial killer at that moment. i wanted to play that he was my dad. >> reporter: but melissa says it didn't work. her then 4-year-old daughter got a creepy feeling from the tall stranger in a denim uniform. did she realize that this was her grandfather? >> no, she didn't know who this man was. >> reporter: which probably eases your guilt because i know you feel bad about that. >> i do. that's one moment in being a mother that i wish i could take back. >> reporter: that was nearly a decade ago. since then, melissa and her husband have decided to keep their distance. because staying in touch seemed to be doing their family more harm than good. nevertheless, the letters kept coming, and melissa kept reading. but one was simply too grotesque

to overlook. >> he sent me a birthday card that had a drawing of a naked lady on the cover. and on the inside, it read "your husband sees you like this but i still see you as my little girl." and my stomach turned and i felt like, i don't have to deal with this anymore and that's when my husband started censoring the letters and now they just don't get opened. >> reporter: in your mind, is he gone? >> yes. the dad i loved is gone. that's the way i can separate the man that i grew up with and the man he is. >> reporter: their son jake is now 11. and aspen, a teenager about to enter high school. when i caught up with melissa

late last month, she said she still struggles with navigating the story of their grandfather's sadistic past. >> it was really tough to try to find the resources to tell my children who their grandfather is. there's no books like what to do if your dad is a serial killer, there's no pamphlets, no support groups. and the best answer that i could find for myself was just little by little. >> reporter: she decided to take a brave step and come out of the shadows to share her story. >> i can move on from the darkness and, and close that darkness and, and close that door. >> reporter: but before she can completely close that door behind her, another one must open. when we come back, melissa's new mission, meeting the family of one of her father's victims. but the reception wasn't exactly what she was hoping for. >> in reality, we have to relive every moment.

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"20/20" continues with monster in my family. once again, juju chang. >> reporter: now living just outside los angeles, 36-year-old melissa moore says she is speaking out on behalf of all the relatives of mass murderers. those who feel they bear the burden of the sins of their fathers. >> we are secondary crime victims. we carry that shame knowing that my father caused some pain causes me pain. >> reporter: she's written a book, and she's profiled in this month's issue of "marie claire" magazine. becoming a kind of advocate or spirit guide for people like

herself. unwitting members of the "my dad is a serial killer" club. >> so many people are coming out of the shadows. they have been living in shame the way i used to live in shame. thinking that you're somehow responsible for that family member's actions. >> reporter: melissa estimates she has been in contact with more than 100 children of murderers. she showed me some of those messages. this one she says from the daughter of the infamous btk killer, who strangled ten people to death. >> not something one wants to have in common but i appreciate your sentiments and i'm sorry that we share this common bond. >> reporter: the day we spoke, another surprise in her inbox from the family of one of the most notorious killers of all time. you just got an email this morning. >> yeah, i got a email from the boston strangler's family, and they're in hiding right now, they want to live a normal life. >> reporter: but melissa isn't just emailing, she is meeting with the families and in her new tv series on lmn, "monster in my family."

>> hi. >> hi. >> reporter: she is telling their stories. so why do a show? >> i really wanted to show people versus tell people when they asked me, how did you not know? we all have a common answer, they have a double life. >> reporter: double lives prominently on display in these exclusive home videos melissa's obtained for the show which premiered just last week. >> it shows that these people that are monsters in society are loving fathers at home. they're the ones playing with their children, but then there's a whole another side. >> reporter: this playful dad is the d.c. sniper john muhammed, who terrorized the nation's capitol for three long weeks in 2002. that is him catching his daughter as she takes her first steps. here is serial shooter dale hausner boxing as a young man. and that seemingly loving dad giving his kids piggyback rides is the spokane serial killer robert yates. he murdered up to 18 women.

and these are his now grown daughters. watch as melissa introduces them to the sister of their dad's 12th victim. for the killer's daughter, this embrace is long awaited relief she says she says she desperately needed. these face to face meetings are a cornerstone of the series. give me an overall sense of what it was like to witness the reunions of the family members of those whose victims they hurt so badly? >> really felt like a sacred space. the emotion, the vulnerability that each family came to the table with. >> reporter: but now it's melissa's turn to come face to face with the sister of a woman her dad murdered. >> today, my mother and i are meeting one victim's sister to reach out and express our sorrow for what my father did. here we go.

>> reporter: his first victim. the one who he insisted on getting credit for her murder. what was going through your mind as you knocked on that door? >> what can i give her? what can i give her? i'm coming into her space, into her world with nothing to offer her. >> reporter: unlike that other meeting, this one doesn't start out with a hug. but melissa does her best to offer up an apology for her father's actions. >> i've been looking forward to meeting with you and hearing about your sister. and, i want to express my condolences for your loss. i know it can never bring your sister back. >> i was the closest to her, so -- why would anyone do what they did but they did? >> reporter: michelle white, bennett's sister, has a hard

time making eye contact. she reacts slowly. but as they look at photos of tonya from happier times, melissa tries again. >> i'm ashamed that he's my dad. i'm ashamed that he has no remorse. i'm ashamed of how he treated your sister and what he did to your sister and i didn't hear her story. her story hasn't been told. >> no, it's all about your dad. all about your dad. all about your dad. and you have done a book about how you grew up. but this person had a life and you, yourself, had made it more public. >> reporter: michelle tells melissa that her publicity only puts her family through more pain, reopening old wounds. >> in reality, we have to relive every moment from the time she walked out that door that i should have stopped her.

>> reporter: you were met with a little bit of anger. she said quite eloquently, you made me have to relive that over, all over again by making it so public. >> to hear it from her, you know, that hurt, i'm not going to lie, it hurt. >> reporter: but then as the meeting comes to an end -- >> i'm thankful that you did meet with me so i want to say thank you to that. >> reporter: michelle, surprisingly, offers a bit of solace. >> but don't ever feel guilty of what your dad did, don't feel guilty because you came from him, doesn't mean you did it. >> i want to just thank you for your time. >> reporter: a tearful goodbye and finally that elusive hug. did that help heal you a little bit? >> it's definitely reassuring. but i feel almost unworthy to accept it because of who i'm related to. >> reporter: you still feel

unworthy of forgiveness. >> i hope that one day. >> there is nothing she should feel guilty about. taunja would be happy from my meeting melissa. just get it go, she would tell me, let it go. because it's not her doing. she'd be happy. she was. she was a happy person. >> reporter: despite her quest for a sense of peace, melissa says she still can't seem to forgive herself for what her father did. can she forgive him? >> i can forgive my dad for being arrested. i can forgive him for not being there, not being the dad that i wanted. i cannot forgive the crimes he committed. >> reporter: melissa says she is done with her father permanently because she has to heal herself. a reminder that serial killers don't just claim the lives of their victims. a part of their own families suffer too.

do you still feel like you're wearing a scarlet letter? >> yes and no. the scarlet letter is really my own scarlet letter. sorry. i used to wonder like why did i go through this hell? why did i go through this nightmare? why me? but then now, meeting family members of other violent serial killers, we are finding meaning together in the aftermath of these horrible crimes. >> a shared connection with those other children. and you can watch her tv series, bringing them together face to face on the lmn. >> and our question to you, do you think you could forgive? let

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so just keep going. and you'll get there... ...200 feet at a time. the corolla. toyota. let's go places. that's our program for tonight. thank you for watching. i'm elizabeth vargas. >> and i'm david muir. from all of us here, thank you for watching. have a great evening and a good weekend. a warning in the bay

area. be aware of fake police following people. >> next, a live report on the police car that wasn't. abc7 news begins in