she mainly comes in dreams. it's so real, it feels like her. and she'll give me a hug. >> why did it have to happen to our family? why did it have to happen to michelle? >> a young nursing student disappears. >> she was still dressed in hospital scrubs. something drew her out to her car. >> the cousin she grew up with, the brother she raised. desperate to find her. >> they were able to do what a lot of other families have never been able to do. >> text messages, security monitors, surveillance video.

were they signs that michelle was trapped, reaching out for help? >> one of the things i was so angry about was that nothing made sense. >> moment by moment. >> take a look at this. >> date line was there for every turn. >> there's blood wiped across here. >> was michelle missing or murdered? was this the key? >> i will take you on -- >> a threat, a voice seething with hate and rage. >> you deserve to die for your lies. it's your last and final warning. >> what happened to michelle? >> this case is not going to be over until we get her home. >> i'm lester holt and this is dateline. tonight keith morrison with "vanished." they're watching us. they know where we are. how we shop. how we play. what we do.

who we love. electronic eyes, the sticky pixel fingerprints follow us almost everywhere and the weird fractured, personal diary they write remains forever. >> of course, it's meaningless, most of it. meaningless, that is, until it's not. until it's terrifying. the san francisco bay, may 27, 2011. 6:55 p.m., a young nursing student named michelle le walks across a foot ridge to the parking lot. she's not supposed to be here. for reasons unknown and without permission, she has left her post at the hospital. here she works to her white honda crv, just out of camera range. then 7:17 p.m., here is her honda leaving the garage. but why? why then just an hour or two before the end of her shift? good questions. questions about to engulf a whole family.

>> why that day couldn't she have stepped out and gone to another campus that day and avoided this whole thing? why did it have to happen to our family? why did it have to happen to michelle? >> but it did. much you will see by the electronic beeps and bites and pixels. just enough to make it a truly puzzling mystery. enough to not quite know what happened to michelle le. >> one of the things i was so angry about was that nothing made sense. nothing made sense. >> especially this. same night. 8:56 p.m. michelle's nursing instructor, annoyed, baffled, worried by her absence, takes a security guard to the parking lot to look for her car. 9:05 p.m., michelle's car reenters the garage. the:06, it arrives on the third floor. they wave frantically. the car stops, backs up, races down the ramp.

out of the garage. but why? alarmed, the nursing instructor calls the police. and the next morning 400 miles south in san diego, michelle's cousin christine was awakened by a text from michelle's former boyfriend. >> and he messages me, he goes hey, we don't know where michelle is. have you heard from her? try calling her. so i looked at his message, i was like oh, my gosh, what did michelle do this time. she's out, having fun. >> she's a fun-loving person. >> she's always out with her friends. getting lost sometimes. so we thought -- i honestly didn't think much of it at the time. i read the message and i like rolled over back in bed. >> michelle, after all, could look after herself. had been looking out for christine for years. she was just 26 but seemed somehow older than that. >> the eldest of a clan of 15 cousins who grew up together

with very little except each other. and michelle was smart and studious, attractive, the leader of this very active pack. strong loving center of the family, a mother figure to her younger brother, michael. michael, who was the next person to get the call from the ex boyfriend. where was michelle? >> i go yeah, yeah, you know ex-boyfriend trying to get ahold of michelle. so i didn't pay it any mind. but just in case, i wanted to see if she was okay. i checked on her facebook rec t recently and she had plans to go to tahoe with friends. i sent the friends facebook messages just to make sure she was okay. >> michael went to work, didn't think much more about it. but then he got another call, this time it was that nursing instructor. >> she was trying to be composed. she told me the story of how she went out to the garage looking for michelle. she said she saw what matched the car's description taking off

and probably want a game anymore. >> then christine was calling michelle's cell phone. >> she didn't pick up. that's when i had this feeling where something might have been wrong. after she didn't pick up a few times. >> at 9:30 a.m., 12 hours after michelle was reported missing, police found her car. it was parked outside this apartment building. just a few blocks from the hospital where michelle was last seen. odd. hayward police inspector was called in to have a look. >> the car was locked. it was secured. so that's why we believed that michelle was possibly somewhere around here. but we had no clue where to start looking. >> they could see through the tinted windows, it looked fine as if michelle had probably left the car here, herself. all morning, a flurry of worried phone calls went back and forth among michelle's friends and family. what should they do?

>> it was chaotic, but we weren't thinking the worse at the time. >> still in san diego, christine along with her aunts, uncles, cousins began packing for the eight-hour drive north to san francisco's east bay. brother michael was attending college at uc berkeley and he rushed over to nearby hayward to join michelle's friends and fellow students who were handing missing posters outside the hospital parking garage. had anybody seen her? >> we all wanted to find her. we didn't think anything bad happened to her. >> where was she? they hammered her iphone with more than 100 calls and text and heard in this box. nothing. then 12:45 p.m., 15 hours after michelle was last seen, finally a text from her phone. i'm not missing. it read. my phone has been acting crazy. it deleted everything. all these texts have killed my battery. michelle sent a flurry of reassuring text toss friends and

family. i'm fine, she wrote. just taking it easy. so that ex-boyfriend texted her back. his phone number she knew almost as well as her own. the response from michelle? who is this? uh-oh. when we come back, did michelle really send that text? if not, then could she have been kidnapped? police thought maybe so or maybe she just left. >> i had asked, is it possible that she could just be out there all stressed out? they said yes, it's possible. >> but soon, police questions about michelle's friends leads them closer than they know to the key to the case when "vanished" continues. the only thing anyone really cares about is that first day. everyone will be stylin' their faves. love that! but i'll be bringing it every day, 'cause i went to jcpenney. i know, right? that's what i'm talking about. they have so much great stuff. oh, sweet!

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certainly, her iphone hadn't vanished. one creepy text after another popped up in the phones of her friends, her cousins, her brother. i just needed some time without anyone. i had a bad night last night. i don't really want to talk to anyone right now. but then, after three hours of that, the texts stopped just as suddenly as they had begun. the last one simply said i'm sick. so strange, so out of character. to michelle's family and friends, it seemed obvious, someone had michelle's phone. someone who was not michelle. >> the more that they went -- it's all like it was becoming sinister. having the text back that it was michelle was terrifying. >> what does it feel like to go through that? >> it's hard to put into words. living nightmare, i think is the closest thing. >> strange way, as chilling as

these messages were, they gave michelle's friends and family some hope. it seemed obvious they were communicating with someone who abducted michelle. so their mission was now clear. michelle just didn't need to be found. michelle needed to be rescued. >> it's a time critical situation. every second that you waste is a second that she's hurting. we had to find her. >> saturday afternoon, 18 hours after michelle vanished, michael and a group of michelle's friends met with inspector fraser richie at the hayward police department. >> they had about 10 or 15 family members and classmates and friends at the police department. responsible she was, how out of character this would have been for her to just get up and leave. >> did you try to call michelle or anything? >> yes. >> get a response? >> yes. >> i sent a message out, this is inspector richie of the hayward police department. you need to get ahold of me. >> i got the response within

several minutes saying that my phone is dying, i need to find a charger. i'm having car trouble. >> the same sort of response received by michelle's friends and family who had now decided based on those weird text messages that michelle had been kidnapped. as far as inspector richie was concerned, just about anything was possible. >> i kept an open mind. i didn't know whether michelle voluntarily went missing for whatever personal reasons she had or if this was a stranger abduction or an abduction from somebody that she knew or she just left with a friend. >> did anybody think she flipped out and stressed out as they say and left? >> i had asked, is it possible she could just be out there all stressed out and they said yes, it's possible. >> inspector richie also asked if michelle had any enemies or problems with ex-boyfriends, for example? >> the only problems she seemed

to have with anyone was with giselle esteban. one of her best friends from high school. >> not just michelle's friend. friend of the family. giselle was a fixture around the house. spent hours with all of those cousins. after high school in 2002, the two friends both moved to san francisco to attend college and that's where giselle fell in love and got pregnant, moved in with her boyfriend scott and then broke up with him three years later. the trouble came when michelle stayed friends with scott with that boyfriend after the breakup. that just didn't sit well with giselle. though really it wasn't such a big deal. just to cover all the bases, late saturday night, richie dropped in on giselle to ask what she knew. >> we're hear about michelle le. >> who? >> michelle. oh, god, what about her? >> she wasn't seen last night

from her work. in talking to her friends and such, we understand that you guys had a tumultuous relationship. >> a tumultuous relationship? she was my best friend who -- >> i started talking to her and asking her questions about her relationship with michelle and if she could provide any information where she would be. >> giselle said she had no idea. besides, they weren't seeing each other these days, so she wouldn't know. then just due diligence, that night richie sent another team of detectives to speak to giselle's ex-boyfriend, the father of her baby who they were interested to learn now had sole custody of the child. >> listening to him, talking to him and the relationship with him and his daughter and his family, things like that, he didn't seem to be the person that -- the type of person that could lie, that would lie. >> by sunday, 48 hours after michelle appeared in that ghostly video at the parking

lot, her large extended family began arriving from san diego and meeting with the police. that's when detectives began to understand, michelle a little. how kind she was and bright and self-reliant. very much like this young woman, fong le. also vietnamese american and 20-something nursing student and also living in the san francisco area who 13 months earlier also disappeared. >> there was a lot of similarities obviously. she's the same age category, same ethnicity, same profession. >> even the same last name. was a pattern developing? >> coming up -- >> police look into the possible connection between those student nurses and a meeting between police and michelle's family goes badly. >> we were horrified. >> when dateline continues. [ male announcer ] monopoly's back at mcdonald's this summer

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it was april 30, 2010, just over a year before the disappearance of michelle le. it was close. perhaps 50 miles away and it was so coincidental. another young nursing student, almost the same age, same ethnicity, even the same last name, vanished from this shopping mall parking lot. her name, phuong le. they couldn't find her. >> several weeks later, we got a call from a neighboring county saying that they had a body out in the woods that somewhat matched the description of our missing person. >> it was indeed phuong le. that was by no means the end of the investigation. >> to this day we're trying to identify who, in fact, killed her.

>> during that memorial day weekend in 2011, when the disappearance of a woman named michelle le. he wondered, was this a break in his case? >> when you have somebody who looks almost the same, the same name, same circumstances, it's a real bizarre coincidence. >> michelle's family also heard about phuong le. when they met with the police 48 hours after the disappearance, they asked the dreadful question, could michelle's case be connected to the other murder? >> they brought that up. thought they might be linked. we brought that up with the hayward police. they said, we looked into it, but we don't think there's a connection. >> so then there was a wash of relief. the detectives also told the family they found michelle's car, that it was lost appeared undamaged. to the family that was good news. it meant to them that michelle must be alive, held somewhere. though during that sunday meeting, the police gave the

impression they still had no idea what happened to michelle. >> they asked us a lot of questions, about her relationships, her friendships and they told us they were working on it. >> we just keep asking them, probing them for more information. they said we can't tell you much. >> your level of frustration must have been pretty high. >> it was sky high. >> the le family had the impression that they weren't taking the case seriously at all. >> michelle is an adult. so we felt if she's an adult and she's not a child, maybe she wasn't being prioritized. >> what was it like leaving that meeting? >> it was chaos is probably the number one feeling. we didn't have a place to stay. we were hotel hopping. we were just waiting around most of the time sitting in the hotel. you were blind. you know, you didn't know -- we had no idea where to go, what to

do. >> the family couldn't understand why the police were moving so slowly. in their minds, michelle was being held against her will. a week went by, saturday, june 4th, eight days after her disappearance. her family held this vigil near the place where her car was found. >> we wanted the fbi to get involved and all this. we were just making a lot of noise. >> quietly attending was scott. the young man the police questioned earlier. giselle esteban's old boyfriend, the father of her child. two days later, monday, june 6th. the family was called back to the police station for an important meeting. the police had a chance to search michelle's car and the status of her case had been changed from missing person to homicide. and the family felt blind sided. >> they said, i think you have to get comfortable with the fact that your sister is probably dead. we were horrified. >> and just like that, the

information door closed. the hayward police told the family, it was a murder investigation now. so department policy, they could reveal nothing more. and therefore, couldn't or wouldn't tell the family why they thought michelle was dead. but without hearing an explanation or seeing any evidence, how could the family believe the police? now, they simply wouldn't accept what the cops had to say. >> it was horrible. we were really angry. because, okay, you want to make it homicide. you're not going to tell us why. >> richie understood the family's anger. but as far as he was concerned, he had a murder investigation on his hands and that meant the family had to be kept in the dark. >> there are certain procedural things that we have to keep close to us that we can't put out there because we have to maintain evidence, we have to maintain the custody of certain information and its of evidentiary value to us. if we don't have the suspect in custody, the only people that know about it is the suspect and us.

>> in the absence much of official information, the le family, at least the younger members, decided the only option was massive publicity and an appeal to the public for whatever help they could offer. that was the kid, the cousins, family elders were deeply reluctant to share their grief with strangers. >> they didn't want her story out there, publicized like we had made it. they didn't -- >> why? >> it's very private. it was such a fine line between how much do you giveaway about your own family's misfortune to do good for michelle. in asian families when you're younger, you're supposed to be very respectful of the hierarchy in the family. you're not supposed to boss anybody around. but i was just livid. i was so angry. >> the elders new far more about survival than most people ever do. they were boat people. had been forced it flee vietnam

after the war. very nearly perished in their open boat in the south china sea and then they spent months in a refugee camp before being dropped in a land whose language and customs they did not know. yet, before long, they embraced it all. big family celebrations at christmastime. and easter. and birthdays. they went on all american vacations like this one to the california coast. that's little michelle in the glasses. >> here we are in santa barbara beach. we're having lots of fun. here's my brother. >> succeeded in america by doing what they had since their days of crisis on the south china sea. they stuck together. an epic, very american tale of grit and hope and self-reliance. lessons absorbed whole by their children. >> if i was missing and michelle was looking for me, she would -- she would tear up heaven and

earth to find me. and so i had to fight for her. >> so it was the new generation, the american-born generation that finally convinced the family it had to go public to put their story on the press and on social media. >> until the hayward police department can offer conclusive and definite proof, otherwise we will continue to believe she's alive. michelle is still alive and needs to be rescued. >> we're going to find you. we're going to bring you home. >> two weeks to the day after michelle's disappearance, the family organized this vigil to make a public case that michelle was not dead. but instead, a kidnap victim. an urgent need of rescue. >> we're focusing on getting her home and what we can do to get had her home.

>> i truly truly believe she's out there. >> if michelle was going to be rescued, the family decided it would be up to them to do it. >> but where is michelle? and who could have taken her? an outside investigator zeros in. >> this is someone that knew her, knew when she'd be at work. >> when "vanished" continues. and got a little more of italy than they expected. ♪ [ laughter ] bertolli, your house? ♪ [ everyone ] welcome home! [ chef ] this is bertolli's new single serve ricotta and spinach cannelloni. stuffed with mozzarella, romano, parmesan, and ricotta. so good. [ male announcer ] enjoy authentic italian at home. bertolli, italy is served.

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what happened to michelle le. vanished on a sunny evening from a well-lit parking garage under the protective watch of 18 surveillance cameras? detectives with the hayward police department went over this footage again and again. were they missing something? what happened in those minutes after michelle walked out of camera range and before her car went racing out of the garage? it was infuriating. there was one camera right before her car. would have revealed everything. but that night, the camera what happened in those missing minutes? the police remember when talking to the family. so the family pursued its own line of investigation. >> looking into human trafficking patterns -- >> human trafficking patterns? you thought that was a possibility. >> we did, yes. >> that was a dead-end. then june 30th, 34 days into michelle's disappearance, the le

family contacted us to say they've begun working with i private investigator. a man named michael fromme. >> he sat down with us to tell us what he had learned. >> this is a public parking garage. people come and go from that garage all night. someone was lying in wait. they knew at some point she would return to her vehicle. it was a number of hours before her shift would be over. they were prepared to abduct her at that time. >> did anybody know why she went to her car? >> not that we know of at this time. >> unusual thing to do at that stage? >> i think it was a quick break or something drew her out to her car. we don't know. she was still dressed in white hospital scrubs. it was evident that she was going to come back because she left her belongings in the hospital. >> remember, the police found michelle's car about a half a mile from the hospital parked and locked in a residential area. they hadn't revealed what evidence they had found inside. but fromme found out a thing or

two about the car and how it got there. >> did anybody see the car arrive? >> there's a report of a witness who stated they heard conversation coming from the -- headlights shining in their house and conversation from the car at 4:00 in the morning. >> conversation? >> conversation. >> which would mean more than one person? >> the people talking. the people who reported it saw headlights shining through their window and they believe it came from the general direction where michelle's car was found. >> multiple kidnappers, almost had to be said frome. the fact that she was put into her vehicle quickly and driven out quickly. there may be a possibility of more than one person. >> he was almost sure not strangers. >> this is someone that michelle had some type of contact with. that saw her, that knew her, that knew where she parked her vehicle, knew what she drove, knew where she worked, knew when she'd be at work.

>> so it may be members of her family or her friends may know who this is. may know the person who did it, just not be aware that they know. if they'd just look through what those relationships were, the answer may be there somewhere. >> the answer, i think, in this case is not far off. >> the police had questioned michelle's family, current and former friends, old boyfriends. but it didn't seem like they were getting anywhere. fromme thought the investigation was in trouble. >> when your investigation has run cold, you don't have a viable suspect, when you don't have information that's going to lead you to a suspect, i think it's important that you start looking at viable alternatives. too often these cases go cold for five, ten years. from what we've seen so far, that's a possibility. >> the le family was working with fromme because they were frustrated with police and now he tried to do something the police couldn't. >> what we've done is put out information to anyone that may

know something or potentially be involved or think that they know who is involved. they call us confidential ally without contacting the police. we'll provide the information to the right authorities and give the people protection. >> soliciting tips from people who were afraid to call the cops. would his plan work? wait and see. coming up -- >> "dateline" is there when that private tip line gets a dramatic call. >> what is this guy saying? what did he tell you? >> he said he has information to a potential site where michelle may be. >> would he lead them to michelle when "dateline" continues. it's really bright. that what technology does. it makes things smart and bright. smart. smart. bright. this is a computer. a tablet. they're all very smart. smart. bright. when you connect them to the internet, they bring you knowledge. classes. seminars. courses. if you have this, you don't need this. the world's your classroom. technology changes everything.

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michelle le was missing for weeks, no break in the case at all. just before we sat down with a private investigator named michael frame, his phone rang with a tip from an inmate who claimed to know where michelle could be found. >> who do you think is involved in michelle's disappearance? >> what is this guy saying? >> he said his information is to a potential site where michelle may be. >> frame made the trip out to the jail for a face to face interview. >> the parolee's information was she was abducted and held at a house in hayward. it turned out unfortunately that this information was related to another criminal act and had

nothing to do with michelle's disappearance. >> back in hayward, the police might have been accomplishing something but they were saying nothing beyond their belief that michelle was dead. as far as the family could tell, the police investigation seemed to be getting nowhere. now, the family's own private investigator seemed lost in the weeds as well. hoping to shake loose a weed, they increased the amount of reward money from $20,000 to $40,000 to $65,000 to $100,000. all from private donations. much of it out of the family's own pockets. every day was precious said her brother michael. every day that passed, a missed opportunity to find her. >> you know, she was always looking out for me. so i -- this was my time to do everything i can to look out for her. to make sure, the hell that she was going through she wouldn't have to go through a day longer.

>> you must have had a sense that any day we'll find her and bring her back. >> every day, we were hoping that today was the day. every day. >> it was obvious as we talked to michael, the intensity of his devotion for michelle. the reason for that? he told us a story about their mother. >> my mom was pretty much our superhe superhero. she worked long hours and she was an incredible mother to us. she was so loving. she was always telling us stories. >> stories about what? >> one that we always loved was one called the woman on the moon. it's a love story about, if you look really hard enough, the shadows of the moon kind of looks like a woman with long flowing hair. the same day of the year, she would come down looking for the one that she loved. ultimately, she was trapped on the moon to watch over him. >> folklore is the kind of

reality that is like armor for a child. it protects in a time of terror. michael was 11 when his mother learned she had breast cancer. but she did not tell him. she protected him from the worst of it, both he and his 14-year-old sister michelle. when the cancer finally took her life. >> it came as a shock. she died december 1, 1999. and we had just seen her for thanksgiving, maybe about a week ago. >> now, alone, michael and michelle were taken in by krystine's family. >> she told me a story about how after her mom passed away, she didn't know what to do at first until she saw michael in the garage holding something of his mom's and crying. she told me, you know, that was the time i knew it was time to be big sister and be a mother figure for him. >> overcome her own sense of loss and save this boy?

>> oh, yeah. you could even tell -- >> she made a sort of commitment to between her and i that she would look out for me. >> but not just michael. michelle also kept watch over krystine. she's like my older sister. she dressed me, tweez my eyebrows, taught me how to do makeup. >> taught you about boys? >> we talked about boys all the time. she helped me write my first love letter. >> we were so alike, pie my family called me anyomini miche. >> necessity held press releases, vigils, anything. >> i needed to work on something all the time that was her every day, that was related to her every day. >> did you feel like you were getting anywhere? >> it felt productive but still hopeless. hopeless in the sense that you don't know what's going on.

>> after weeks of casting about, they were no closer to finding michelle than they had been that first chaotic weekend and it was sad but perfectly understandable that public interest began to wane. that was during that period of darkness when one of michelle's uncle begged for help from this woman. >> michelle le's uncle asked what do i do, i'm completely lost. >> why her? because carrie had been through it all herself. two years earlier. she had to search for her murdered daughter, amber dubois and she ran a foundation in memory of her daughter. she couldn't know back then the role she was going to play, the events she would set in motion. for now it was who she knew. >> i put them in touch with marc klaas because it was in northern california and they were in the same area. >> marc klaas, a rare man with a

rare skill. how to dinfind the missing. coming up, a man who knows how it feels to lose a daughter and had learned from personal experience how to lead the search. >> we needed help from the police. and when we pressed them, why should we be looking there, they finally said because that's where the cell towers take us. >> when vanished continues. who learned to fly. not with wings or jetpack. but with her new dell laptop and a little ingenuity too. ♪ her fast processor made for a smooth take off. ♪ she could soar clear across the sky on her hd screen...and beyond. [ female announcer ] gear up for school with a dell inspiron 15 touch, with an intel core i3 processor, for $499.99. ♪ ♪ ♪

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facebook campaign, the flyers, the detective all kept michelle's family busy and hopeful. but had ultimately been unproductive. they were nowhere. and it was just at that point when marc klaas stepped into the life of the le family. >> i met the family in a dingy motel on the side of the freeway in hayward, california, at about 11:00 in the morning. and they were all huddled inside this little room. >> to the le family, klaas was like the cavalry riding in. >> we were all in our pajamas, disheveled. on our laptops trying to edit press releases, organize the interviews. and reading the news, trying to talk to the police. >> i looked around and i said the first thing you people need to do is get out of this room. >> dark and depressing. >> it was horrible. it was horrible. they were so downtrodden. they had absolutely no idea of

what to do or where to go. >> and he sat down and gave us a list of what to do. we had to find a search center, we had to get volunteers, we had to position media and this sort of light. giving us all sorts of tips. >> it made a world of difference emotionally and on practical levels. >> what marc klaas didn't do was burden the le family with his own story. didn't tell them about his own daughter polly kidnapped two decades ago. >> that was the worst time in my life. it shattered me. it shattered my heart. >> 12-year-old polly klaas was snatched from her room in the midst of a slumber party. her body was discovered when her killer was arrested two months later. showed police where he buried her. >> do you still live with that? >> my work is my therapy.

>> that work, through the klaas kids foundation is to help families find their missing loved ones by providing families with a proven approach to their search efforts. >> you have to basically start in the center and work your way out. letting, following statistics that the vast majority of people that are missing are going to be found a, within a half mile radius of where they went missing or b, within a five-mile radius of where they went missing. >> this is dismal work you do. >> it's not dismal. nothing we do is dismal. it's hard work. it can be heartbreaking and so sad. but it's not dismal. it's really good work and it's important work and there's not enough people doing it. >> possibly because it's work that you bare wound. since polly's death, marc shared his experience, learned through his own grief, families just

like michelle's adrift and in shock. the first order of business, repair the relationship with the police which had become very frayed indeed. >> we needed help from the police. and they slowly started to let us know where they thought we should be looking and when we pressed them, why should we be looking there, why should we look there? they finally said well, because that's where the cell foutowers take us. >> michelle le, it turns out went on a strange journey on the evening of may 27, 2011, or at least her cell phone did. >> in the two hours after michelle abruptly left the training session here at the kaiser hospital in san francisco's east bay, that phone of hers left an indelible footprint through the congested streets of the east bay. and then it turned on to a two-lane back road and then a major freeway. and then it pinged its way across the very same route. back to the parking lot. at the very moment the nursing

instructor saw michelle's car drive into that parking lot, then rapidly reverse course and speed away into the dark. a puzzle. but getting that cell phone trail from the police was also a huge break, said marc klaas. he was now deeply involved in the search for michelle. >> it enabled us then to really hone in on what we needed to do and why we needed to do it. it was to prepare viable search locations, for search teams. >> the area was vast, much of it rugged, rural. the search for michelle would be tough. labor intensive work. just the sort of thing marc kla kla klaas' organization knew how to do. >> when we saw the machine in motion is when we felt, wow, this guy and this foundation really got it together. we would have never thought of that on our own. >> klaas flew in his director of search operations, one of the first volunteers to look for polly years before.

>> we're going to be going into treacherous terrain today as well as tomorrow. canyon areas, lots of rocks into the ravines. >> this was day 49 since michelle disappeared. and once again, her san diego relatives loaded into cars around midnight and drove the eight hours north of the san francisco bay. "dateline" was there watching as they gathered for a morning briefing to prepare them for the long day of searching ahead. >> if you take nothing elsa way from this presentation, take this portion right here. okay? every single search that we put you on today, tomorrow, we consider a potential crime scene. >> the police suggested a zone to be searched. but that's about all the information they provided. >> we don't know exactly why. but they say it's based on all the evidence and the timeline they believe that something might have happened in this area. >> the area? a narrow canyon in the hills east of the san francisco bay. as the search party made its way

up the canyon, they tied off here and there pink ribbons. >> we've got a system of tape marking that we use and then we report into the investigators and they follow-up. everything we're doing here is to support the police effort and bring back michelle. >> a complication. this area is a haven for the homeless. it's also notorious dumping ground for murder victims. here one of the searchers found an encampment and inside a sleeping bag. >> you want to check this out. looks like a sleeping bag. >> you want me to pull this bag out? >> yeah. >> the bag was empty. but deeper inside the encampment, something else was uncovered. a large bone. this creek canyon it became apparent had been well-traveled by both creatures great and small. >> an animal. some mammal. >> but there was another bone at a creek crossingment searchers

had passed it by when our producer noticed it lying there. cow bone, probably. and yet? >> where do you think it's from? >> not sure. have ian come check it out. >> that does look like a thigh bone. >> ian, come take a look at this for me. >> there's no other bones around it, which is kind of interesting. >> it's vague. >> it's pretty vague. >> that's a really big ball. looking at a bone from a large mammal. >> let's do a more thorough article search around here just in case. then we'll get somebody to get the gear. >> you think you can scamper up to that little piece of rebar, whatever it's there and tie a pink ribbon on it for us? >> the bone was examined and it was from the leg of a large mammal. in this case, a human. >> coming up --

>> while michelle's friends and family are searching, police are making discoveries of their own. is one tiny clue a key to the mystery? >> we found an identification card from the nursing school. but it was not michelle's. >> when "dateline" continues. my colso i only trust it to one shampoo.

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returning to our story, it's been months now since michelle

le vanished from a hospital parking garage. but signs of her after her disappearance keep her family searching and hoping she's alive. at the same time, the police are also searching. they're tracking michelle's electronic trail and all that choppy video, audio, texting and pinging has picked up not just michelle but someone else, someone very close to home. again, here's keith morrison. >> on the afternoon of july 15th, 49 days after michelle le disappeared, we stumbled over a human bone in the same area where michelle's cell phone had briefly pinged off a nearby tower. >> shorts here. >> as the searchers scoured the immediate area, they understood it couldn't be her. the bits of clothing weren't right. and the bone was bleechd by the sun. must have been there a long time.

>> when they looked closely -- >> that's a wood something. it's not a 5'5" female. >> appalling, some other poor soul wound up here. but relief too. it wasn't michelle. so the search and the mystery wore on. for days and then for weeks. and by the middle of august, it all looked to be losing steam. on a typical san francisco summer afternoon, as the fog rolled in, krystine and michael brought us up to date on their efforts to mind michelle. >> how long has it been? >> about 72 days, over two months. >> how are you doing the two of you with all of this? i mean, how are you holding up? >> it's weird. just trying to stay out there and keep the word out. trying to stay positive. >> right. >> it's really trying to stay positive is the hardest part. >> the hardest times for me are at night.

getting in bed and thinking, gosh, i hope michelle is in a bed. >> you clearly have decided that she's still alive. >> it's not over. it's not going to be over until we get her home. >> so that very evening, they hosted a fundraising event at a nearby restaurant. a few days later on august 20th, the 85th day of michelle le's disappearance, the san diego family piled into their cars after midnight and made the long drive up the coast to launch their eighth search. time had faded the posters taped to their cars. the creek bed to be searched seemed desperately far away from anyplace where a body might be dumped or a woman might reasonably be held captive. >> still? >> they tracked where her cell phone ended up after she disappeared. it's all around the area. it's such a huge area. >> it was 100 degrees in the waning days of summer. it seemed to have impacted turnout as the number of

volunteers dwindled. the search leader called in a discovery. some female clothing partially buried in the sand. >> i'm down by the creek. it's a woman's underwear by the tree. almost like light pink, white. >> as it turns out, under false lead. so they pack up. another fruitless day in a case gone cold. or so it seemed to michael and krystine. oh, what they did not know. during all the weeks and months in which the family had been searching for a living woman, a police murder investigation had been very active indeed. on the last days of august, inspector fraser richie was in fact closing in on a target. but to understand how he got there, we need to go back almost to the beginning. it was minutes before midnight, may 28th, 29 hours after

michelle le disappeared. richie had gone to pay a midnight visit to michelle's old high school friend, giselle esteban. >> how long has she been missing? have you tried calling her? i have no idea how to help you. >> since when? >> forum, almost a week now. to tell her to stay away from my daughter. >> so clearly there was some animosity between giselle esteban and michelle le. and so inspector richie and his partner brought giselle downtown to the police station for a more in-depth conversation. >> i understand at one point you and michelle were close friends, is that right? >> i considered her my sister. >> and then what happened? >> she made a mistake. scott made a mistake. >> and that -- was that when you were with scott or had you guys broken up? >> no.

we were still together. they made the mistake twice. >> then giselle told a strange little story. she was pregnant, remember with her second child and went to the hayward kaiser hospital for a prenatal checkup hours before michelle disappeared. she said she spotted her old friend at a distance. >> were you surprised to see michelle there? >> yes. >> how did it make you feel when you saw her? >> at first surprised and then annoyed and then i thought okay. keep your blood pressure down. otherwise, you're going to lose this baby. >> strong feelings. but giselle esteban, herself was not so strong. tiny and pregnant. hardly seemed physically capable of overpowering and murdering the larger michelle le. let alone finding a way of disposing her body. they sent her hope and later that afternoon, finally got a look inside michelle's car.

as we did much later when the detective showed it to us. nothing had changed. nothing was touched. here the morbid sense we were somehow violating a sad and very personal space. this is what inspector richie found. a crime scene. >> once we got the car opened, you can see there's blood wiped across here and the plastic little bit on the floor mats and then as you can see there's more droplets or blood droppings down going into a straight down pattern. >> police also found some blood smeared on the floor of the garage where michelle's car had been parked. >> were you able to make a judgment about what would have happened when she got to her car? >> she was attacked most likely here because from the looks of it, it looks like she ended up being placed in the back seat. it was a bloody confrontation here and then there's more blood back there, but you can see here

it's been moved around a bit, it's smeared up and there's more than one location. >> clearly, a very violent and physical assault. who could have done this? a fresh look at the surveillance tapes may offer a clue. watch what michelle does as she walks to her car parked to the far right-hand side of the lot. michelle makes a wide sweeping turn to the left away from the car. then walks back to the right. few seconds later it appears she stopped. what happened? did she see somebody she knew or somebody she didn't want to see? richie felt he may have answered that question when he found on the passenger seat of michelle's car a little piece that would end up fitting into a very large puzzle. >> we found a identification card from the samuel merritt nursing school that michelle was attending. it was not michelle's. there was no reason for that to be there. >> the name and face were plainly visible on the card.

partially wedged into the seat cushion as if left by mistake. richie called the school and was told, oh, that's our new instructor that's starting in a week. then i could hear in the back of the phone her i.d. card is gone. it's miss fing from my desk. >> the card had been stolen. but by whom? >> here's the thing about the identity cards, they're actually key cards. this is mine at nbc. whenever i'm in the headquarters building at 30 rockefeller plaza, i use them to swipe the key card on that little box there. it makes an electronic recording of the use of the card at that moment in time and at this place. of course, i'm being watched by a security camera at the same time. in fact, you can't go anywhere in this building without being seen by security cameras. the security team in the nursing school did the same thing. they looked for the computer record of the key card being used and they pulled up the security video from that moment

and that place and voila, there was their thief. >> so i had them send me the still photographs and when i looked at it, i immediately identified it. it was giselle esteban. >> the picture was dated may 26th, one day before michelle le disappeared. so what else did she do that day? richie got a subpoena for all the school security camera footage from may 26th. what he saw in those videos was both strange and disturbing. and giselle esteban was moved to the top of the list of persons of interest. coming up -- the strange video trail of giselle esteban the day before michelle disappeared. >> it shows giselle walking around pretending to be an instructor. >> what was she up to when vanished continues. pasta bowl is back. unlimited breadsticks. unlimited salad. never ending bowls of pasta for just $9.99. did i mention it's all unlimited?

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what you're watching is far better than any eyewitness. what you're seeing is an exact record of the strange moment in time. this is giselle esteban at michelle le's nursing school the day before michelle vanished. why she was here was a mystery. but what she did, that inspector richie pieced to go from giselle's electronic trail which picked her up in the morning at the nursing school posing as a prospective student. she stole an instructor's key card and appeared to test whether it worked by entering this break room. >> at 5:30 in the evening when the campus is closed, she gains access through the back door using that electronic key card. >> swipe card. >> throughout the campus there are in the classrooms and in the hallways there's cameras. it shows giselle walking around with a lab coat on, glasses up and turning on computers. >> weird. >> yeah. >> giselle can see with a class

roster, stolen from an instructor's office. >> you can see the roster, because it has all the students' photographs on there. it's not just typed. you can see that it's a class roster and it looks like she's walking around pretending to be an instructor or something. she's in samuel merritt for hour and a half or so and then leaves. >> all this the night before michelle le disappeared. what was giselle doing? then richie learned from questioning eyewitnesses on the morning after she disappeared, giselle esteban went to an apple store with her daughter in tow. and sure enough, there she was on the store security camera. that's her there at the top left of the screen having one of the employees unlock an iphone. >> she told the apple employee that her daughter had put a code into the phone and locked it. once he unlocked it, the phone

started binging and ringing. >> just at that very moment, as cell phone record showed, michelle le's iphone began pinging on a cell phone tower not far from the apple store. now it was a matter of following the signal which led to this chuck e. cheese restaurant a few miles away where the phone turned up again. >> giselle was shown on a video with a white iphone sthiemt this is the day after michelle's disappearance when her friends and family were frantically calling and texting her. look at this surveillance footage. looks like giselle is sending out text messages. and at that moment as records show, michelle's iphone was pinging off a nearby cell tower. to richie it seemed quite clear, giselle esteban was the one using michelle's phone to send those creepy text messages to worried friends and family and to himment and giselle did all this while on a shopping trip with her daughter.

>> she's on that phone roughly the same time she's getting text messages from the classmates and family members and things like that. then, i sent her a second text message at roughly at 3:15 in the afternoon saying this is not a joke, this is the police department, you need to contact me right now. thafrs the last contact. that's when her phone went off. >> the evidence was mounting. richie stepped up his surveillance of giselle. >> we placed a tracker on her car. >> why? >> to see if she would take us to a location that michelle would possibly be. >> but that didn't happen. not to say though her behavior wasn't suspicious. remember the vigil the le family held a week after the disappearance, the one attended by giselle's ex-boyfriend, scott. turns out giselle was there, too. sort of. the tracking device showed giselle circling the block as michelle's family pleaded for help.

and later, it showed her driving past scott's house. why? richie was all but sure now giselle had something to do with michelle's disappearance. the question now was, did she have some help? >> it was something that we had to look at. >> if so, who? >> yeah. dive into her life, who is her friends and who can we talk to that knows giselle. >> richie, consulted an alameda county assistant d.a. guy named butch. butch ford. >> am some of my colleagues were like who helped her do it. she's a woman, she's pregnant. in order to do this, she had to have help. >> prosecutors had a hard time believing esteban was physically capable of killing michelle le all by herself. >> we encourage them to make sure they eliminated any possible suspects such as the father of giselle's child. >> that would be scott, the

ex-boyfriend butch is referring to. so everybody's antenna went up in late july, 63 days after her disappearance as the le family searched the hills for her. inspector richie got a strange phone call from scott who sounded out of breath. >> saying that he believed that he had found michelle's phone. i asked him, where did you find michelle's phone. in the back seat of his car. >> coming up -- at first police doubt scott's story. >> have we missed something? is he the other part of this. >> or was he the next victim. >> you deserve to die for your lies, as does she. this is your last warning. , even get through the day. so i was honest with my doctor. i told her i'd been feeling stuck for a long time. she said that for some people, an antidepressant alone only helps so much and suggested we add abilify (aripiprazole). she said that by taking both, some people had symptom improvement

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zooichlts hard to tell from the video, but the prime suspect, giselle esteban is tiny, barely 5'2" and at the time she was questioned by police, she was three months pregnant with her second child, which made detectives wonder. >> is there somebody else involved with her? >> it was a question often repeated at the d.a.'s office. >> we have an able bodied young lady who disappears from a public place. automatically, our minds go to was there more than one person involved? >> when ritchie got a call from giselle's ex-boyfriend claiming

to have found michelle's iphone, he was worried. >> i was very concerned that had we missed something, is he the other part of this? then it's why is he telling us this if he is a part of this. why is he finding this and telling us about evidence? >> and that was the key question. why would scott admit to having incriminating evidence? was he trying to outsmart the cops by pretending to be helpful or was he afraid somebody was trying to set him up? which might have been the reason why scott shared this document with detectives. this is a temporary restraining order against giselle esteban. in signed declarations both scott and his mother told how they were awakened by scott's car alarm. scott went to investigate. >> while out front, he hears his mother screaming. giselle is inside of his house. she's inside his room tampering with his computer.

>> sound familiar? it was the same thing esteban was doing at the nursing school. >> when was this before the murder? >> four days before, on the tuesday. >> something else. a piece of evidence you have to hear to believe. scott told the detectives that four months before michelle's disappearance, giselle haranged and threatened him. verbal attacks so alarming he recorded some on his iphone just in case something bad ever happened. this one in scott's car their small daughter sitting in the back seat listening. you listen closely. you're about to hear the real giselle esteban. >> i asked you can we just be honest about michelle because she's the one issue i'm having a hard time dealing with. >> that's not what you said at all. we didn't talk for days. >> starting from now, we're going to be honest about michelle. do you understand me? whether you sleep with her, whether you share food with her, whether you talk to her. you will be honest with you. look at me. you will be honest with me regarding her.

otherwise, i will take you on -- and hers. and you can take that to the grave with you. >> why? >> why? >> because you lied about her so many times, it's hard to believe you didn't sleep with her and knock her up. you dee seer serve to die for your lies as does she and you will if you do it again. this is your last. >> why? >> do you understand me? >> it's your last and final warning. >> inspector ritchie listened to giselle's tone careen from a grieved to furious and threatening in less than a minute. this was far from the subdued woman he met in may. >> it was apparent she was a violent woman. >> did you have concern about scott's safety? >> yes. we advised scott that. if it's giselle, you have to be concerned for your safety as well. >> he might well be a tarkt? >> yes. >> her recording she had become

fixated on her old friend and that she broke up her relationship with scott. >> michelle and scott were nothing more than just friends. she had a boyfriend. scott was just one of the many friends that she had. the only person in this world that seemed to think there was more to it was giselle. >> prosecutor butch ford heard the audio and read the 1500 pages of texts and e-mails scott gave to police. >> for the better part of six years she had an obsession with michelle. her text messages were filled with hatred towards michelle at every step of the way and then towards the last four months or so, they were filled with hatred towards scott, wishing him death. >> wow. >> they were filled with hate towards the two of them. with blame towards michelle for ruining her relationship and essentially breaking her family. >> do you think there's any truth to that at all? >> only from the standpoint that

giselle believed it was michelle's fault. so in terms of responding to that question, the answer has to be yes, there's truth to it from giselle's perspective. she had to blame somebody. >> this is a very disturbed individual. >> yes, there's no question about that. from my perspective, when we're dealing with in particular murderers, my position is that they're all sort of screwed up. >> yeah. >> because the normal person doesn't react that way. i mean, we have to believe that, right? >> right. >> the normal person does not react that way. at some level, any time a person commits a murder, there's something loose in their head. there has to be. >> butch ford, they know more than most about the parameters of human nature. he helped raise eight siblings. worked his way through law school and now as a prosecutor seeks out sound advice from someone who has seen it all. his own grandmother. >> i have dinner every wednesday at my grandmother's house.

>> the first female african-american judge appointed in alameda county. >> i've never had had a case that i haven't spoken to her about and run ideas by her in terms of trial presentation, closing arguments x things like that. i always run it by her. >> in this case, it was special. ford's grandmother was struck by the le's devotion to michelle. by their determination to find answers. but it was clear there were still too many questions to take this case to court. >> the theory was that giselle had done something to bring about her demise. it just was a question of what. >> of what and how we prove it. >> in fact, without a body, how could they prove there was a murder at all? coming up -- >> in a strange twist of fate, the mother of amber dubois joins another search for michelle. along with her new dog. >> she jumps up on me and takes off again. i followed her and i noticed well sticking out of the ground. >> a dramatic discovery.

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♪ all saints catholic church in hayward, california. hardly the sort of place a detective would expect to get a hot tip in a murder case. but that's what happened. it was the priest who called the police, wound up talking to inspector ritchie and told him a story about an odd encounter with a young woman who came to

see him seeking solace of some kind. >> it was actually outside of an office in a patio area and he asked her several times, do you want to go into the confessional. she said no. that's why he was able to talk to us about it. he said that she was wearing a medical-type scrubs, same physical build, characteristics of giselle. and she was asking for forgiveness for something that she had not yet done. >> wait a minute. she asked for forgiveness for a sin she hadn't committed. >> that's the interpretation the priest had got. that was roughly at 3:00 in the afternoon the day she went missing. >> he says she -- so was prosecutor butch ford. they didn't know how she did it. or when she did it or where she did it. or more important, what she did with the body. >> if you don't have a body, it makes the case for difficult. >> so ritchie and the other investigators with the hayward pd continued the tedious work of

building a murder case without a body. they ran fingerprints, sent dna out for testing. interviewed witnesses. quietly, out of sight of the family and press. they tested a strand of hair that turned out to be giselle. some of her touched dna on the turn signal too. but since the too knew each other, that wasn't enough evidence to make an arrest. so they checked giselle's cell phone records. her phone, like michelle, left a trail in the hours after michelle vanished. and what do you know? >> the locations that michelle's phone went, giselle's phone went. >> as if they're traveling together. >> the eavesdropping electronics was closing in. here was surveillance video showing her try to access the nurtsing home computers the night before. and the apple store the day after she went missing and later

using it at the chuck e. cheese. but still, it wasn't enough. until the lab result finally came back from evidence seize the that first night in giselle esteban's apartment. specifically from her shoes. those tests uncovered a trace amount of blood. blood that belonged to michelle. only one explanation for that. and so on september 7th, 104 days after michelle le's disappearance, inspector fraser ritchie went to giselle esteban's house for a final visit. >> we showed up on that september morning, waiting for her to come out of her house. i pulled up in front with two other investigators. we got out of the car. she looked at me very nonchalantly, dismissive. what now? you're under arrest. not for what, anything. it was just like a matter of fact. she was waiting for it. it wasn't -- there was no sign of guilt. there was no sign of remorse. there was nothing. she just, okay.

>> and when the news was announced, michelle's family knew giselle, knew her as one of michelle's closest friends. and they were stunned. >> i never suspected her and thought the worst until we knew for sure. >> i didn't think it was her. when giselle was having problems, michelle would go to counsel sessions with her all because she felt that giselle would always be her friend and that was her last text to giselle. no matter what, you'll always be my friend. >> now with giselle esteban's arrest, the le family found themselves in a strange paradox. glad someone would be accountable for michelle's disappearance yet refusing to accept she was dead. the fact that no body had been found meant there was still hope, however slim. that they might find her alive. >> i was still hoping without finding my sister's remains, i was still holding on to hope until it was definitive. we were going to fight for her.

>> so on september 17th, 113 days after michelle disappeared, ten days after the arrest, the family mounted yet another search. this time, they were joined by carrie mcgone gallon who is daughter was kidnapped and murdered in san diego two years earlier. like marc klaas before her, carrie formed an organization to help find the missing. she had brought her new search dog with her. search dog in training. >> if she was acting weird, she was jumping all over the place, barking, wanted to get away from me. as i buckled her up, she took off from me and ran. i started to run after her. she comes back and jumps up on me and takes off again. i followed her and she was just standing still. so i reached down to put her lesion and i noticed some twine rope sticking out of the ground. and then some bones next to it. >> it was the skeletal remains

of a young woman unidentified. michelle's cousin krystine was at the command center. >> i remember search director brad dennis took a break and he looked at me. he said we'll be right back. he never leaves the search center. so he left and i was like, oh, something must have happened. they must have found something. i just need a break. i'm going out there and looking at some random evidence they found. >> but then her phone rang. a reporter with a tip from someone in the search party. >> he told me, oh, i heard they found michelle's body. can you comment on that? and i started shaking. i told him we haven't found her. but i knew that they did. when i got that call from the reporter, i knew. >> but there wasn't confirmation, not yet. the medical examiner still had to match up dental records and that the family was told could take a few days.

>> it might sound really dumb now. i still -- i was still really stubborn about it. there was nothing that could tell me that michelle is dead. but we all stayed in a hotel room. we were just hiding. i think no one knew where we were, just in a hotel room for the next few days and then about four days later, the hayward police came it our hotel and told us that she had been confirmed to be found through her dental records. >> at that point you couldn't pretend anymore. >> yeah. >> after four months, the family's long and determined search to find michelle was over. but their goal, no matter how remote was always to bring her home alive. that she was found dead was a blow that took them to their knees. >> that was one of the very few times i think i really let myself cry.

part of me was relieved that it's over, that we had found her and brought her home. and then a majority of me was very angry. and it just felt hollow. >> now there was one thing left to do. make sure michelle got justice. for that, it turned out, was not going to be so easy. >> coming up -- giselle on trial and her defense strategy surprises everyone. >> you have to find a better way than to vilify the victim. >> would it work when vanished continues.

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i got my mom wrapped around my little finger. do you? yeah, i do. huh. i said i want honey nut cheerios uh huh. and she just totally caved. it's all about psychology buzz. psychology? as long as i don't tell him the cereal is healthy -- he can't get enough. sad, really.

i kind of feel bad that i tricked him. but...it was easy. surprise... uh, ha ha ha. ♪ in october of 2012, when giselle esteban went on trial for the murder of michelle le, prosecutor butch ford expected he'd have his hands full. >> i thought she would fight tooth and nail that she didn't do it because she doesn't want her family and probably her kids to know that she's responsible for that. >> so in his opening statement, ford laid out a devastating case pointing to premeditated first degree murder. motive, tons of it. her life was in shambles, she had lost custody of a daughter,

her boyfriend left her. she blamed it all on her successful too beautiful friend michelle and set about to kill one of the few people in the world who still tried to be her friend. why did she sneak into the school? to find michelle's new address. maybe kill her there. why did she send the texts from the apple store and the chuck e. cheese? to cover up her crime. >> when she couldn't hide from the cameras the phone pings, her electronic trail, the dna in the car confirmed it, the evidence was overwhelming, just no refuting it said ford. and so the defense didn't even try. instead, they did something wholly unexpected. a big surprise. giselle admitted she did it. >> so you're putting all of these building blocks together to show that she had to be responsible for this. she goes and admits it. >> yes. i could not believe she would

allow her defense to be, i did it. >> but there was a reason said the defense. giselle had been provoked. she killed michelle in the heat of passion. michelle, she claimed was a lying schemer who had been busy stealing what little giselle had left in life, her family. marc klaas watched from the back of the courtroom and was disgust you had. >> i don't think character assassination is a defense. think if you're going to defend against the indefensible, you have to find a better way of doing it than to vilify the victim. >> but ford was worried. the defense just might work. >> if i come in as a defense lawyer and i say we're going to tell you that my client did it, even though the district attorney has the burden of proof. but we're going to tell you why it happened. that's the most important thing. >> that's something the d.a. can't tell you. >> exactly. and it has an air of credibility. >> and thus it's not first degree murder.

>> yes. a voluntary manslaughter. then you get out in nine years. >> that was the big fight. >> yes. >> there was another problem. even as ford methodically laid out the evidence for the jury, what he couldn't do and this turned out to be a big hole in his case, was tell the jury how the murder took place. michelle's remains were so decomposed. the coroner couldn't determine the cause of death. >> the pathologist report indicated that they not only visually examined michelle's remains but also examined it using an x-ray to look for any sort of trauma to her skull, her bones, anything of that nature. and they couldn't locate any. >> and well, security cameras recorded just about everything before and after the murder, they didn't capture the crime itself. >> it's my position that the evidence of the crime is most supported by an assault with a sharp object, a stabbing object,

a knife, a box cutter, something of that effect. truthfully, i believe she snuck up behind her, grabbed her by the hair and assaulted her with the sharp object. >> which would explain why that small woman could do that? >> you can't yell out or scream. the forensic evidence, the blood evidence, all of that seems to indicate that type of assault. the only person who knows for sure is giselle. >> but she wasn't talking. choosing instead to sit passively throughout the trial. >> would look at the jury, what are they thinking? are they buying this? are they believing all this nonsense that the defense is offering up, that this is heat of passion, that this wasn't planned? >> michael was in court every day as was krystine and the aunts and uncles. all of them took time off to be united for michelle. >> oftentimes in homicide cases

nobody shows up for the victim or maybe it's a mother or a father or sibling. in this case, every day there were between, i would say 12 and 20 family members. and knowing that the vast majority of them had traveled from san diego to be present to show everybody that michelle was missed, it was really touching to me and inspiring in that, again, it made me want to work even harder to ensure that i had done everything i could to bring about what was a just result. and i had mentioned it was the only thing i promised to the family was that i would work as hard as i could to make sure that the right result came. >> do you encounter families like that very often? >> on that level, no. >> when the case went to the jury, everything was up in the air. prosecutor ford didn't worry particularly when the jury stayed out a full day. even when it stayed out two

days. after three days, ford began to wonder if he had done enough to debunk her heat of passion defense. after ford, everybody wondered. >> the longest deliberation i ever had was four days. this was getting to four and a half days. i started to have concern. coming up -- day five and the spends is over. the jury sends word of a verdict. >> we were all holding hands in the front row. >> will there be justice for michelle? >> coming up next friday on "dateline," a high school track star disappears. >> something is really wrong. >> found dead in the desert. bound and broken. >> a great deal of rage by someone. >> by whom? >> he would never hurt her. >> but some said the clean cut kid had another side. >> he would yell at her. he would be pushing her around. >> murder solved, another classmate was about to blow that

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giselle esteban readily admitted she killed her friend michelle le. but she claimed it was in the heat of the moment. she was angry, provoked by michelle. a defense which in a way blamed michelle for her own death. to friends and family in the courtroom, the strategy seemed outrageo outrageous. yet, after the jury had been out four long days, they all worried that it worked. >> i was wondering if the jury sat in the same trial i sat in. >> we were going crazy. really afraid they felt sympathy for the defendant because she is a woman or that she has children or -- you never know. >> by the fifth day, we were

thinking what if they let her off easy? >> and then finally on the fifth day, the jury announced they were ready. their choices were first degree murder or voluntary manslaughter. a verdict that could have esteban back on the street before she's 40. >> i remember our hearts pounding. we were being lined up. and we sat down and we saw the jury walk in and a couple of them, you can just tell on their faces that they were exhausted. they looked exhausted. we were just all holding hands in the front row. and all shaking. you can see butch, he was up there, like hands at his head. all of us just praying. and then we heard guilty of murder first. i burst right into tears. and that feeling was just so indescribable.

how much relief was there. >> 17 months after michelle le went missing, after endless searches, a rerent less investigation, a tense trial, finally an end. the search for michelle and for justice was over. >> one of the things i was so angry about was that nothing made sense. nothing made sense. why did it have to happen to michelle? and so i think the verdict brought reason. like a sense of someone committed a murder, they will pay for the crime. >> it's just as awful as it was and the loss is just as great but the world is back on its axis or something like that? >> in some way. what was it like that verdict? >> in one word, relief. >> what did your grandmother say? >> she asked how is michelle's family doing. i had talked to her about what a great family they were. i have nothing but respect for that family and they had faith in the process and more than

anything, i appreciated that they had faith in me. >> the le family's uncommon grace and dignity and determined togetherness infected many of the families that stood with them during those dark months. they were able to do what a lot of other families have never been able to do, and that's rally around each other in a time of great need to prop each other up. >> michael and krystine volunteer with marc klaas' organization. most recently helping to coordinate the search in the case of a teenager kidnapped near san jose. their way to honor michelle. michelle, who still refuses somehow to leave them. >> she mainly comes in dreams. it's so real that it feels like her. and she won't say a thing.

she'll just give me a hug or something. i would flip out and go michelle, where the heck have you been. we had this huge thing, we thought you were gone and she laughed and she said, i'm fine. >> michael, when he and michelle were little, they begged their mother to tell them the old vietnamese folk tail le of the woman in the moon who watches over them. the tale is very real now for michael le. >> i feel like they're always watching me. and you know, at the very least, i like to believe that my sister is with my mom finally and that they're together. it's not my time yet. but i can't wait to see them again. >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt.