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>> danger on diamond mountain. but first tonight -- >> i could only really hear myself screaming. it sounded like a horror movie. >> i grabbed up mag gained the other two girls and i said, "run." >> this isn't happening. >> a summer ritual, the state fair, a night of fun and music. but then, an ominous sky, a sudden gust. disaster. >> the stage has collapsed. >> in the blink of an eye dozens were trapped. a young mom, a cheerleading coach, a little girl in a pink tutu. >> i couldn't walk. i couldn't carry her. >> in the chaos and cop fusion, rescuers raced into danger. first responders and every day heroes risking their lives for strangers. >> where is she bleeding from? >> a desperate search for lost loved ones. >> i might have lost my entire family. i don't know. >> who would make it out alive?

>> i was just crying for help. i was so scared. >> i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." here's andrea canning with "twist of fate." >> reporter: the hoosier state, the heart of america's heartland. where the notion of helping one's neighbor is as much a way of life as cornfields and barnyard basketball. but on a sultry august evening, that selfless indiana spirit would be put to the ultimate test. >> all units, all units, severe thunderstorm warnings on i-45. >> oh, my god! >> reporter: and as lives intersected on a patch of racetrack dirt at the state fair -- >> the stage just collapsed. >> we need a tourniquet! >> reporter: mothers, fathers, neighbors and friends would put themselves in harm's way. >> do you have any injuries? >> grandma! >> reporter: in a desperate

attempt to save the lives of complete strangers. >> we need a medic. >> little girl. >> i'm calling a mass casualty. >> calm down. calm down. calm down. >> eyes on your prize. >> reporter: they are gathered that day in indianapolis, as hoosiers do every summer, for the state fair. >> go, get a shot! >> reporter: a two-week spectacle of sights, sounds and tastes and to showcase all that the great state of indiana has to offer. it was august 13, 2011, and among the tens of thousands at the state fairgrounds this day was laura, her mother and three daughters, gab business danielle and 3-year-old maggie. >> and i thought the state fair and sugarland what a great way to spend the weekend. ♪ >> reporter: sugarland, the

country music duo, was scheduled to perform at the fair that night. laura and her family had ticket he is. >> obsessed with sugarland the minute she heard "stuck like glue" ♪ you and me baby, we're stuck like glue ♪ >> we listened to the song over and over. >> reporter: mag gives excited to see her idol, sugarland's lead singer, jennifer nettles, in person. >> jennifer had kind of the shaggy bob hair at the time, so she had to get her haircut that way and then when jennifer wore a tutu at one of the awards shows, maggie became obsessed with tutus. >> reporter: so incensed, maggie insisted on wearing a pink tutu that whole day. >> almost embarrassed she is running around in a pink tutu at a fair and i looked at my mom and i said, we don't know these people, never gonna see these people again, so i guess it's no big deal. let her wear it let her enjoy t. >> reporter: after a day of enjoying the fair, laura and her family made their way to the concert. the main stage at the indiana state fair was really a giant slab of concrete next to the

dirt racetrack, a temporary steel structure had been erected to hold lighting and audio equipment. and a massive tarp hung across it, high above the stage. across the track was the grandstand seating, but roughly 200 people attending the concert that night, like laura and her family, had tickets for the sugar pit, the small dirt area directly in front of the stage reserved for sugarland's most dedicated fans. you were right up close to the stage? >> yeah, you could just put your hand out and touch it. >> reporter: jordan paulette, ten years old at the time, was also in the sugar pit waiting for the concert to start. was the exciting building, waiting for sugarland to come out? >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: she had driven up from cincinnati with her older sister, jamie, jamie's cheerleading coach, megan toothman, who was finishing up her masters a degree to be a school psychologist and her mother, jill. >> we went as kind of a last howho are hoorah for the summer.

my daughter was going off to college and we always included megan as part of our family, one of my girls. she was kind of that big sister that jamie never h she could talk to her about anything, boys or being nervous about college. she was just a wonderful role model for my girls. >> reporter: also in the sugar pit that night was 30-year-old andrea, a college volleyball player nope for her radiant, infectious smile, a smile she flashed on national tell situation having in 2006 when she appeared on the show "ellen." >> my dog will sit and my dog will shake. >> reporter: andrea had gone to the convert with friends, leaving her 4-year-old daughter at her mother's house. and now, she was part of the crowd in the tightly packed sugar pit, waiting for the band to take the stage. and as they waited, these strangers got to know one another. >> just commit at that time

chatting with the people around us, everyone was in a good mood and excited. beautiful afternoon. early evening. >> reporter: maggie, in particular, left an impression on those around her. >> a cute little girl, probably about 3 years old, wearing this kind of pink and purple tutu. >> reporter: dr. robert kleinsigner was in the sugar pit with one of his own daughters, they both were struck by little maggie in her pink tutu. >> my daughter kind of pointed her out to me first. and actually kind of was playing with her a little bit. >> reporter: even the security staff was taken by maggie, letting her stand on the steps leading up to the stage. >> oh, she was thrilled. she had her sign that said i and had a read heart and sugarland and she was ready. and then the weather took a turn. it started to get a little bit cloudy. a little bit darker. but in indiana, i mean, it rains all the time. i mean, it could get dark and you don't see a drop of rain.

>> a gentleman came out on the stage and said, oh, you know, sugar land's coming on soon, storm should pass right over us. might get a little wet. nobody moved. i mean, we were -- weren't worried about anything. >> reporter: but jill, as well as everyone else in the sugar pit, would soon have plenty to worry about. that ominous sky was getting darker and closer, bringing with it wind, rain and chaos. and that small patch of dirt in front of the stage was about to background zero. >> everything just happened, like that. [ screaming ] >> when we come back, for thousands of fans of the band sugarland, a night out has turned into a catastrophe. >> oh, my god! >> i just heard terrifying screaming and i just saw it coming toward me. >> could any of them escape in time?

>> i grabbed up maggie in my left arm, put my arm around the other two girls and i said run. son: how do you make jell-o?

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>> reporter: for the nearly 12,000 people waiting for the start of the sugarland concert at the indiana state fair, a beautiful august evening was about to turn into a nightmare. the storm that many assumed would pass right over arrived with a sudden, violent gust of wind that blew through the sugar pit, pelting the crowd with sand and grit. >> i told the girls, i said, come on, let's go, we can always come back. so, we turned around, we had started to take a few steps to leave. >> reporter: but laura magjars, at the concert with her mother and three daughters, didn't know the rail danger was just 60 feet above them. someone in the grandstands

captured this video of the wind shredding the massive tarp above the stage. suddenly, a chain reaction was set in motion. >> so i kind of glanced over my shoulder. all i saw was a beam sway. >> reporter: the wind was now violently shaking the temporary structure erected above the stage. you just knew, as a mother, you had to get your kids out of there immediately? >> yes. and i grabbed up maggie in my left arm, put my arm around the other two girls and i said "run." >> and then the unthinkable happened? >> yes. >> reporter: the people in the grandstands, some with cameras recording the scene, could only watch as the horror began to unfold. [ screaming ] nearly 70,000 pounds of metal and equipment came crashing down on the scores of people scrambling to get out of the sugar pit. >> i've never seen the stage

actually coming at us that evening. i could feel the mass moving toward us and i heard it. >> reporter: machinist david wood had been in the sugar pit with his wife. his cell phone camera was on and it recorded their harrowing run for safety. >> oh, my god! >> oh, my god! >> i turned to look where we stopped and i would say the top of the stage awning was five, no more than ten feet behind us. >> reporter: david wood and his wife had narrowly escaped the collapse but behind them now, on the other side of that twisted mass of metal and equipment, were 10-year-old jordan paulette, her mother, her big sister and their friend, megan, the cheerleading coach. >> before it fell, i mean, we were all running, everybody -- i just heard terrifying screaming and then for a second, when it was falling, like i couldn't hear anything. it -- it's like everything just blanked out and i just saw it coming toward me. and then i just stopped and

covered my head with my hands and just crunched down, hoping that i was going to be okay. >> and it just somehow missed you? >> yeah. i was just in this very lucky spot that i didn't get hit. >> reporter: but the other three weren't so lucky. each had been struck by the falling debris and were now motionless on the ground around jordan. >> i could only really hear myself screaming and it sounded like a horror movie, just to be honest. um, i was just crying for help and i was so scared and i could just see blood on the stand. and i was just trying to lift everything off of my mom, because what would i do without her? >> reporter: just yards away, another mother was on the ground, too, laura magjars. >> i remember waking up, laying flat on my back in the sand. it was dark. i didn't realize that i was under a tarp. i was surrounded by twisted metal.

there was an eerie silence. >> reporter: her 10-year-old daughter, danielle, unhurt, was standing over her. >> and i said, are you okay? she says yes. i said are you sure? she says yes. she says how about you, mum? i'm fine. so i immediately started to look for my mom and my other two daughters. as i turned, i saw maggie about five feet to the left and behind me leaning up against a beam. >> reporter: laura tried to stand up and get to maggie but fell to the ground. it turns out, laura's leg was broken and she couldn't walk. >> so i scooted myself to her and i grabbed her in my lap. then danielle starts screaming, "her arm. her arm." i took one look. i couldn't tell if her arm was still attached. there was skin, a lot of blood. i could see the bone. >> reporter: in this cell phone video, you can hear laura's scream. >> maggie! maggie! >> i couldn't walk. i couldn't carry her and i had

no idea how i was gonna get out of the twisted wreckage. i know i was in big trouble. >> where's she bleeding from? >> coming up -- >> it felt like a human instinct to run back in there >> heroes rush in, but was there time? >> it really kind of hit me, just how terrible this was. >> i thought, oh, my god, i have one daughter that's okay and i might have lost my entire family. >> when "dateline" continues. ♪ ♪ ♪ it takes two to make it outta sight ♪ ♪ ♪ it takes two to make a thing go right ♪ ♪ ♪ it takes two to make it outta sight ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] only yoplait light and yoplait greek 100 are endorsed by weight watchers. so many delicious flavors that taste outta sight. he actually told me that a lot of the foods that i thought were really healthy for me can do damage to the enamel on my teeth. my dentist recommended that i use pronamel.

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[ male announcer ] spring is calling. save 25% when you buy two scotts fertilizers -- one to use now and one for later. in the bling of an eye, the structure holding equipment over the stage at the indiana state fair had collapsed i don't to the crowd, including laura magjars and her family. and now, through the haze of

mangled wreckage, laura, who had suffered a broken leg, among other injuries, could only see two of her three daughters. and one of them, 3-year-old maggie, in the pink tutu, was in serious trouble. >> she was actually very quiet. she was pale. i mean, could you tell she lost a lot of blood and i believe she was in shock. >> did she recognize you? did she know you were there with her? >> i was holding her. i know she knows i had her. but she didn't say anything. i'm thinking, oh, my god, i know i have a short amount of time to do something or the worst could happen with her sitting in my lap. so i immediately screamed for help for my daughter. >> reporter: lawyer rafs nura w completely dependent on someone hearing her scream, is someone that could help. >> i could hear people screaming, you still had people running around and it felt like a human instinct to run back in there and find the people that needed help. >> oh, my god! >> reporter: david wood, who had

narrowly escaped the collapse, was now working his way back into the wreckage. >> are you okay? >> reporter: his cell phone was still recording the terrifying scene. and then, he came upon laura and maggie. >> i seen a woman holding her child. she was covered in blood. infishil initially, i thought the was injured. i asked her what was injured where is she injured at? she informed me it was her daughter. calm down. it's not moving. it's not moving. calm down. where is she bleeding from? oh, my -- it was almost like a severed arm. and there's just blood coming out of it. we need a tourniquet! we need a tourniquet! david removed his own shirt. you can hear laura's middle daughter, danielle, screaming in this video. a pediatric nurse had also

arrived and now david and the nurse tried to delicately apply the tourniquet to maggie's arm. >> that same time, while i'm trying to do that, i'm hollering -- we need a medic really bad! this little girl! right here! it was kind of like a miracle, you asked for something and you received! >> i'm a doctor. >> we got a doctor. watch out. >> reporter: it was dr. robert kleinstever who had been in the sugar pit with one of his own daughters, barely escapes the collapse. >> we felt extremely lucky to escape, especially seeing what happened to the other people. >> reporter: robert left his daughter with strangers and she filmed him as he climbed back into the chaos. >> it was basically a maze of tubing. we had to climb up over a bunch of rigging, kind of dive down, kind of weave your way through the wreckage. >> reporter: when robert got to maggie, he immediately recognized her. >> oh, my god. it's that girl in that tutu. >> reporter: it was the same little girl his daughter had briefly played with while they

waited for the concert to start. >> she was very quiet. her eyes were big and she wasn't crying or saying anything. it really kind of hit me just how terrible this was. >> reporter: maggie's arm injury was so severe, robert knew she had to get to a hospital immediately. >> i saw the bloody tourniquet and i had no idea at that point how much bloodshed lost before i got there. >> reporter: he picked up maggie in his arms and turned to take her out of the wreckage. >> i suddenly realized, now what? it was hard enough to get into the rigging by myself, how i do get out holding an injured 3-year-old girl and not do more injury to her? >> reporter: at that point, in yet another fortuitous turn for mag zi, an off-duty indiana state trooper arrived to help carry her out. >> i gave maggie to him and my job was to kind of watch that arm and protect that arm. there were times when to get

over some rigging, he had to hand her back to me, he would go over, then i would hand maggie over to him and then i would crawl over, then we'd continue on out. >> reporter: finally, painstaki painstakingly, they cleared the maze of metal, wires and equipment. >> and i said to him, keep her arm in this position and get her help. he is like, okay. and he took off. and that's the last i saw of maggie. >> reporter: badly injured and still inside the wreckage, laura magjars helplessly watched her strangers take her little girl that must have been so hard to just let your daughter go at that moment, especially with strangers and the condition she was in. >> i knew her situation was critical and i knew i didn't have a choice. >> did you think at any point that she could die? >> that crossed my mind >> i didn't know if she was gonna make it to the hospital. >> reporter: laura now had her middle daughter, who was unhurt, by her side. but she still didn't know what had happened to her oldest daughter or her mother.

>> honestly, i thought, oh, my god, i have one daughter that's okay and i might have lost my entire family. i don't know. >> reporter: all around now, concertgoers and first responders were fighting dangerous conditions in a desperate battle to save lives. and everyone knew time was running out. >> i just saw, like, people being carried, like this little girl had blood all over her and then i saw this lady, like, laying on the ground. it was like a movie. a horrible movie. >> coming up, two other mothers, both with daughters in danger. >> it was awful. it was the most panicked feeling to know that she couldn't be found. >> i just told her that mommy was here. >> total strangers about to share an unexpected connection.

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a stage roof has caved in at the indiana state fair. in an instant, tons of metal have rain downed on fans waiting to see the country band, sugarland. families are separated. it's not clear who escaped and who may still be trapped. and two mothers trying to find their daughters are about to learn they are linked in a way they never could have imagined. again, here's andrea canning. [ screaming ] >> reporter: in the immediate aftermath of the collapse at the indiana state fair, radio dispatches captured the terrifying scene. >> a stage just collapsed. >> reporter: first responders and concertgoers have rushed into the dangerous and unstable wreckage. >> i need everything to the grandstand. >> reporter: and now, a surreal drama was playing out. >> need ems, i'm calling a mass casualty.

>> reporter: 10-year-old jordan paulette was unhurt and standing helplessly over her mother, sister and family friend, megan toothman, who were all badly injured. but first responders were now demanding jordan get out of harm's way. >> like if i could, i would lift it up and help them out, but i wasn't allowed to. they are like, if you weren't hurt, you had to get out as quick as you can. i just said, "i love you, mom" because that's all i really cared about >> i just wanted to make sure you told her you loved her. those words at that time were important? >> mm-hmm. >> did you worry that they could die? >> i was so scared because i don't know what i could do without my mom, my sister and her friend, megan. it would be so hard to live without them. >> reporter: nevertheless, jordan crawled out of the wreckage herself, one of the lucky ones. >> it was, like, so hard leaving them behind and being by myself in this scary moment. >> reporter: strangers guided jordan through the chaos to a police station at the fairgrounds.

she waited there for hours, but then, finally, there was some good news it about her mom and sister. >> they were in the ambulance and they were going to the hospital and that they are gonna be okay and they didn't say where megan was yet. >> reporter: that's because megan was so severely injured, she had been one of the first people evacuated to a hospital and there were many others right behind her, like 30-year-old mom, andrea valinga, the former volleyball player with the radiant smile. how weak was her pulse? >> at that point, it was fairly weak. she was breathing but it was fairly shallow. >> reporter:er can win martin is a paramedic. his wife, angela, is a doctor. they had witnessed the collapse from the grandstands and racing to help, came across andrea, who was unconscious and gravely injured. >> speakers or something else that was kind of overhead and the wind was picking up again and so at that point, i did think, wow this is kind of dangerous. >> reporter: worried that more

debris could fall, they loaded andrea onto a makeshift stretcher and carried her out of the sugar pit to a triage area under the grandstands. >> her pulse became really thready. we were look agent each other, we were pretty worried at that point for her. >> i they we just verbalized to each other, we need to get her out of here. we are kin kind of set off on a mission to get her on an ambulance. >> and you knew time was running out. >> yeah. >> the only thing that mattered was getting her quickly to the hospital. we>> reporter: kerwin chased do an ambulance. >> i banged on the door saying, hey, you have only got one patient. >> her life was on the line. >> absolutely. nothing else we could do for her at the fair grounds. >> reporter: andrea had suffered massive head trauma and was close to death but surgeons at methodist hospital immediately put a drain in her skull to relieve the immense pressure on her brain. the quick actions of the martins had saved andrea's life, for the moment. outside indianapolis, her

mother, sandy, had heard news of the catastrophe. and that at least four people had died. >> at one point, we had heard that there had been as many as 30 people that had been trapped under that apparatus. >> reporter: but she still knew nothing of andrea's perilous situation because she couldn't reach her on the phone. >> it was awful. yeah. it was the most panicked feeling, to know that she couldn't be found. >> reporter: so, on a hunch, sandy raced to methodist hospital, hoping she would find her daughter there. >> her friends are there they still don't know if she's there or not. >> reporter: a friend of sandy's checked the hospital's jane does. >> she came back to the waiting room and said i think i found her but what's her wedding ring look like? so we knew she was obviously pretty bad. >> was she able to look at her? >> she did see her. >> and couldn't tell it was andrea? >> she couldn't tell. so we described her wedding ring and she said, it's her. >> reporter: sandy saw andrea

briefly as she was wheeled into surgery. >> she looked awful. had tubes in. so they took her to surgery and then she was in surgery for several hours. >> did part of you think, okay, at least she is a live? >> she is alive. >> a fighting chance there >> yes. yes. we knew people had not made it yes. we are thinking she's alive and just hang on to that. >> reporter: cheerleading coach, megan toothman, who had gone to the concert with 10-year-old jordan paulette and her family, was also at methodist hospital. jordan was relieved to finally hear some news about her friend. >> they found megan and that's when i was like, okay, i'm able to go to sleep, everything's going to be all right. >> reporter: but jordan didn't realize that megan was actually fighting for her life. megan's mother, melissa, learned that, too, when she arrived at the hospital from cincinnati. >> one of the doctors spent a great deal of time tell willing bust all her injuries. >> reporter: megan had suffered

fractured vertebrae, internal organ damage and like andrea valinga, brain injury. >> i told them it wasn't her at first. >> you couldn't even recognize her as her own mother? >> no, not at firster. not when i first walked in the room. >> were you able to hold her hand? >> yes. >> talk to her? >> yes. yes. >> what did you say to her? >> i just told her that mommy was here. >> reporter: megan, like andrea, had emergency surgery that night. and now the two lay in hospital beds down the hall from one another. their mothers, two strangers, now connected through tragedy, would soon learn just how linked their lives had become, as they watched over their daughters and prayed. >> coming up -- >> that just shocked all of us. >> two families, two daughters, two very different outcomes. and that little girl in the pink tutu? what about her family? >> one look at her broke my heart. >> could she be saved? when "dateline" continues. lobsterfest is the king of all promotions.

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they could. >> reporter: laura magjars was at methodist hospital, being treated for a broken leg and other injuries, but that wasn't her biggest concern. her youngest daughter, 3-year-old maggie, in the pink tutu, suffered a severe arm injury. laura had let complete strangers take her away. >> i knew i didn't have a choice, because if i waited for them to get all of us out of there at once, too much time would have gone by. >> reporter: hours had passed since that fateful decision and laura had no idea if maggie had made it to the hospital or not. >> it was horrible. it dragged. and you can't help but fear the worst. i don't do helpless very well. and i was definitely helpless that night. >> reporter: finally, laura got some news. maggie was alive, but at a different hospital. >> the first report i got was that maggie was stable but she was gonna have surgery. >> reporter: laura wanted to be by maggie's side but because of

her own injuries, doctors at methodist insist she had stay put. >> i said, my daughter's having surgery, she's 3. i need to be there. >> you had all these injuries, yet it sounds like you weren't worried about yourself one bit. >> no. not at all. my injuries were the least of my concerns. >> reporter: finally, the doctors relented, and nearly 12 hours after the collapse, laura was able to get to her little girl. maggie had just gotten out of surgery. >> one look at her broke my heart. i mean, she was pretty much asleep. she was on morphine. >> reporter: but despite that terrifying arm injury, doctors told laura, maggie was going to make it. >> oh, it was great. i was so glad to see that she was gonna be okay. >> reporter: and that wasn't the only good news laura would get. she learned that her mother had been injured but was going to survive. and her two older daughters were also okay. uninjur uninjured, in fact. >> somehow, they managed to find

each other in the crowd and they were standing there alone and scared until a young couple came by and said, you know, let's help these girls. >> and when you got that final phone call that everyone was okay, your three daughters and your mom, what emotions were you feeling at that moment? >> i could actually breathe. then i told the doctor, okay, now you can give me some pain medicine. >> reporter: back at methodist, those two other mothers were hoping for some good news of their own, as they sat with their daughters in the neurointensive care unit, melissa with megan and sandy with her daughter, andrea. did you read to her? did you talk to her? did you hold her hand? >> we did all that. we put pictures in the room of her daughter and her family. >> reporter: both had suffered traumatic brain injuries. doctors had even removed a portion of andrea's skull in order to ease the brain swe swelling. were you warned after the surgery she may still not

survive? >> yes, because they don't know. your brain chromes so many things in your body. >> reporter: as the tense hours of that first night turned into tense days of waiting and praying, melissa and sandy got to know one another. >> they were just a very sweet family. they were very kind to us and to our kids and it seemed like whatever happened to megan happened to andrea the next day. >> we just shared a lot of our feelings about our families and going -- what was going on with our daughters and, you know, what did they tell you today? and this is what they told me today and it was helpful to have, you know, other family to go through this. >> reporter: by wednesday, august 17th, four days after the collapse, the swelling in megan's face began to subside. >> we could finally see her eyelashes for the first time. >> reporter: but despite everything the doctors were doing for her, megan's condition was actually worsening. >> that's still the ironic thing

to me, was that as the week went on and she started to look more and more like megan, on the outside, her body was shutting down on the inside. >> reporter: sunday, august 21st eight days after the accident, doctors told melissa that her daughter, megan, would never talk again, see again, hear again, would never breathe on her own. >> and he told us that i will never forget these words, that sometimes you do things for their life and that's what they had been doing, but they had reached a point that they were now doing things to her life. >> reporter: melissa and her husband now faced a heart-wrenching decision, should they take megan off life support? >> i knew what megan wanted. and as her mom, i think it would have been selfish not to do what

she wanted. and that she had said that she wanted to be an organ donor. she signed that card. she checked that box. >> reporter: fitting, thought megan's family, that her final act would be a selfless one for the benefit of strangers and so her parents, along with a younger sister and brother who looked up to her so much, gathered to say one last good-bye. to know you just have one day left with your child. >> right. >> what is that like? >> i sat with her the whole time, held her hand. the rest of that day and all of the next day. and i couldn't go down with her to the surgery. my husband did go with her though. and he kissed her on the forehead. and told her that we loved her. >> what did you say to her when she left the room?

>> what we always said. "i love you whole in this world." when she was a little girl, she always said i love you whole in this world. and even -- even as an adult, she always said that. >> reporter: it was august 22, 2011. megan toothman, the seventh victim to die from the collapse, was 24 years old. just down the hall, andrea's mom, sandy, couldn't believe the news. >> we kind of kept thinking, okay, we have made it through another day. they're gonna live, you no? he it's gonna be okay. and then -- then when they were told that she wasn't, then that just shocked all of us. >> reporter: it was a twist of fate then that on that same day megan died, sandy's own daughter, andrea, did something that gave them a glimmer of hope. >> she had been laying there just motionless no movement at all.

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it was nine days after the collapse at the state fair when andrea suddenly coughed. >> the doctor said that's good thing. she's having a normal, you know, reflex there. >> reporter: and the next day i andrea did something even more remarkable, she briefly opened her eyes. >> so thankful that we could see those eyes again. we knew things were going to start functioning again. >> reporter: it was a hopeful sign, but as her husband and young daughter kept vigil,

andrea was still technically in a coma. >> the waking up from a coma is a long, difficult process. she was very stressed. a lot of flailing of her arms and legs. and you don't know if she's in pain. and we knew if she could start communicating, then we would know, you know, what hurts. >> reporter: reaching that milestone would take nearly a month, with the help of a dry erase board. >> the first thing we asked her is what's your daughter's name? and she wrote liddy, l-i-d-d-y. >> that spoke volumes about her memory and how her brain was working? >> yes, it did. and that was such a hope. -- such a hopeful sign at that point. >> reporter: andrea was out of danger. she would survive. but once so active and athletic, the former volleyball player now had to relearn how to talk, how to walk and regain her fine motor skills. >> you know, it was just so not andrea. you know, you knew andrea wanted

to be doing all that, but you could tell she did everything everybody asked of her. >> reporter: throughout her rehab, in order to protect the hole in her skull where a portion had been removed, andrea wore a helmet. >> she wanted to start feeling normal, but wearing that helmet was really hard to feel normal. >> reporter: but andrea stuck to it. and after nine months of rehab in various hospitals from indiana to michigan, she was finally able to come home. >> it was miraculous, really, the way your brain can reconnect and heal itself and relearn. >> reporter: but to truly understand just how miraculous andrea valinga's recovery has been, tough sg you have to see yourself. you look pretty darn good. >> thanks. you couldn't have paid me to have hair this short before, but gosh, it's icy u >> everybody talks about your

radiant smile and it's still here. has it been hard to smile throughout all of this? >> there's definitely times where i'm not smiling, but i mean, more times i smile. >> reporter: more than two years after the collapse that nearly killed her, andrea knows how lucky she is to be alive. >> that's why i cry so much easier than i used to, but it's because i am just very happy and cherish. i'm ghon conna cry right now. i'm very happy to be here right now because i know i might not have been. >> reporter: she is stale work in progress, with limited use of her left arm and hand. she is learning new ways to do every day tasks. >> i can tie my shoe with one hand, 'cause this arm, my left arm, is still -- i mean, i'm just thankful that i can move it really. >> reporter: andrea and her family credit much of her

incredible recovery to two things, a clinical drug trial she was a part of and the fact that she was in peak physical condition at the time she was hurt. >> i was in training for the first indianapolis all-women's half-marathon when this accident happened. i mean, it's what's helped me recover, being in good shape. >> reporter: she was able to take that helmet off for the last time a year and a half after the accident. but she didn't throw it away. what does it make you think when you see that helmet? >> to be reminded of where i was and where i am. totally different. i mean, i know i'm gonna have to deal with this the rest of my life and just be very thankful for where i am. >> reporter: jordan paulette is thankful, too. her mom and sister recovered from their injuries, but it's bittersweet because of the one who didn't come home with them, megan toothman. >> i miss her so much. she was really nice and i wish she could still be here so i

could tell her all these things that i accomplished. >> reporter: megan's memory carries on through a foundation her parents created in her honor that grants scholarships to high school and college students who possess megan's spirit and desire to give back. >> and that's her legacy, is to make sure that we are helping as many kids as we can in her name. >> did you ever feel like, why us? >> you know what? i never said why us. i always considered us lucky, even considering maggie's injuries and mine. we were very lucky. >> reporter: laura magjars feels very lucky because her daughter, maggie, made complete recovery from her life-threatening arm injury. >> other than the scar, luke at her, she looks like a normal 5-year-old girl. >> reporter: and she did, to us, when we met her. how excited were you the day of the concert to see sugarland? >> i was excited.

i standed there almost all day waiting, but i had pretty much fun. >> i hear that you were pretty brave. >> i was pretty brave. um, braver than i imagined. >> reporter: the main question that remains from that awful night is why the structure collapsed so completely. a state commission investigation performed by an independent company determined that the structure had a faulty design, was improperly constructed and was never inspected. nevertheless, indiana state code at the time did not regulate such structures. also, some questioned if the concert should have been canceled and the audience evacuated when the storm was threatening. several lawsuits have been filed to sort it out, including one against the band, sugarland, which denies any responsibility. the state of indiana, without admitting liability, has paid

out $11 million in settlements to the victims and their families. is there a silver lining in this? >> yes. five of us went, five of us came home and we have a whole group of new friends. >> reporter: among them, some of the men and women who came together to help save that little girl in the pink tutu. it was one of many heroic rescues that terrible night where first responders and so many regular people thrust suddenly into a crisis worked together to save the lives of people they've never met. >> i like to say there'sing is special about hoosiers, they stick together and that's great example of that. >> reporter: at the state fairgrounds that hoosier spirit carries on and while the lives lost will always be remembered, survivors strive to move forward. >> i'm very blessed to be alive. that's why i even am thankful

for bad days i have, 'cause any days, at this point, are good days. and now, our second hour of "dateline." >> she was sweet and lovely and she's beautiful. >> a young woman on a journey. >> people don't realize all the miracles that are happening in our lives. >> she had found a teacher, a lama. but what he taught her in violation of his our vows were the mystery of the tant trick sex. >> hear the weird sex stories. >> all his concerts, his religious sexual partners were in the room. >> ten years of buddhism, and here i am, like an idiot, getting filled up in a year. >> soon, dozens of young people were following him deep into the desert. was sex becoming more important than salvation? >> there were a lot of beautiful young women in the group. >> it was a cult.

>> then she found a younger man. >> sometimes the llama's love is quite wrath. >> banished from paradise, she began a dangerous new journey. >> i was like, oh oh. >> said to somebody just a matter of time before somebody dies down here. >> and in the dark of this desert cave, someone did. >> there was a book, "hindu good des of death" laying out on the ground outside the cave. >> here's keith morrison with "danger on diamond mountain ". deep in the desert, a mountain rises above the crumbling remains of a famous monk in american history. here is the place whether the great apache, geronimo, finally surrend surrendered. here, the bones of the fort that held him. and this mountain is the site of his last stand, a haunted place,

some say, or perhaps cursed, for hose who dare to occupy its silent slopes. but on a hot, dry april afternoon in 2012, the mountain was not silent at all. helicopters swooped in to rescue two people holed up in a cave below the summit, where something terrible happened. >> what i didn't understand was why she hadn't called earlier for help. >>. >> reporter: she is this name, remember this name, christie mcnall labor day her companion was alexandra authorson's big brother, ian. >> i mean, it was just crazy to go off like that. >> yeah. truly. is it hard to think of them up there in are a little cave? >> it was just weird because it was already so isolated. >> reporter: but by then, something had gone very wrong with those two bright and promising people. >> they were not in their right

mind in my opinion or he wasn't. >> reporter: no neither one, most likely and how they ended up that sway is a very strange story about the buddha, the diamonds and an eastern goddess and tant trick sex. and whatever else the guru decreed out here in the desert. >> the vibe that i got around diamond mountain is that it can turn into a jim jones kind of thing. >> reporter: once it was so different for this one, so privileged. ian authorson was a brilliant kid, blessed with so many of life's advantages. his parents sent him to the best prep schools in new york city. he whiled away childhood summers at the family's place in the hamptons. alexandra was 6 years younger and she adored him. >> i looked up to him. i was inspired by him to say the least. i wanted to do everything he was up to, followed him and his friends. >> reporter: it was really no surprise, rather, it was expected that ian would be send

at stanford university. did he handle it well? >> he did. he may investigation peermented with drugs maybe too much or partied too hard or -- >> kind of what people do when they may have overdone it? >> i think some he still graduate, i think, with honors, but i think, yeah, could have done a little too much. >> reporter: as soon as he graduated, ian set out on an ambitious adventure. his plan was to travel around the who world. ian went to europe and russia. 'cause he was researching a book? >> yeah, you could say that. he was also traveling, enjoying his time and did he have journals, but, yeah, yeah, so, indian was one of the stops. >> reporter: >> reporter: yes, amazing, complicated, spiritual india. when ian returned to new york city alexandra began to notice changes in the brother she loved so much. >> the most initial concern was he was not pursuing career as a

young person needs to. >> right. yeah. >> it was so gradual, too. at first it was just frustrate, i would fight with him, come on, come on, let's do these things that you used to love, surf and different activities. >> the guy you knew wasn't there anymore somehow? >> yeah. it was -- yeah. yeah. i couldn't communicate, like it wasn't -- we were in a different set of social rules. >> different world really? >> yeah. so i couldn't -- i couldn't share with him anymore. >> reporter: alexandra did get insight why her brother changed so when he took her to listen to a teacher he met in india. a man named michael roach, a sort of guru whose followers, like her brother, seemed to think roach held the key to solving life's great problems, which he explained in dozens of homemade videos posted online. >> you know, i travel around the world teaching people about how to make their dreams come true,

some people want financial independence. some people want to have a great relationship with a beautiful partner, a family. some people want to be younger. >> reporter: roach was an unconventional teacher, eccentric even, but he also demanded, and apparently succeeded in getting, total devotion from his followers. that, he taught them, was essential to their enlightenment and ian believed him, abandoned and rejenlgted all else in his life as he scrambled to obey and serve his teacher. but alexandra didn't trust roach at all and began to worry she was losing her brother to a man who, well -- how would you describe him? >> like a -- like creepy, like a snake. like something slithering. coming up, some might have seen michael roach as a snake, but others were willing to trust him with their lives. >> he had all this wisdom. >> and women.

one in particular seemed captivated by the lama. >> we were all called in to a room and all his concerts, his religious sexual partners, were in the room. >> he had all this wisdom. >> he had all this wisdom. >> and women. >> and women.

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dalai lama understands, this >> hi, my name is geshen michael roach, i grew up in the united states. attended princeton university

and then spent 25 years in a tibetan buddhist monastery. >> reporter: notice the title, gesha, that, roach told his followers is a very big deal, like a highly advanced degree buddhism and he got there said roach, after accepting a challenge from his teachers to make a bundle in diamonds. >> could you learn to adjust reality itself? could you change the flow of the future and could you prove that you had done it by, for example, starting a business in manhattan and bringing it maybe to $1 million within a year or something using the ancient i wids d -- wisdom that we've taught you. >> reporter: seriously, said roach, buddhism for profit and it worked. >> i helped to found a business, a diamond business, called an dean international and it became one of the fastest growing companies in the history of new york. it reached $250 million in

annual seams and it was recently purchased by warren buffett, who's one of the wealthiest men in the world. >> reporter: roach plowed lots of his earnings into the school that trained him and it was after that that he emerged as a gesha and began to preach his take on the buddhist way. >> negative emotions. if you meditate, you can finish them. >> reporter: that exotic accent you might hear. >> you are very strange. >> reporter: we are not sure what that is, because he was born in california, raised in arizona. his teaching had been tailored for a western audience, wound up coming off like a lecture in the power of positive thinking. what was it about this guy? >> well, super charismatic. when he got up and taught, he was riveting, especially at first. he just -- he had all this wisdom. >> reporter: sid jobson, like ian authorson, was completely taken with the carriharismatic leader. johnson was a struggling musician, curious about buddhism, who had traveled from

his home in canada to meet roach in the late 1990s. >> i really wanted to be part of this, had this kind of, um, lini, like something big, something big was coming and he was gonna be a part of this.3 f1 i bought, you know, i really bought into that at the time. >> at first, roach was celebrated as an ambassador to buddhism for americans but something unorthodox about this monk. >> most centers i had been to were stuffy older people. these were really good-looking young people. >> many of those were attractive women. >> actually, there were two women at the time always with him. >> he'd disappear with them at night? >> yeah. >> one was the woman you heard about at the beginning, they

were rescuing, christie mcnally. >> i come from a lineage of buddhism. >> she went to india as a seeker, too and met reach in new york and quickly became a star pupil. she called him her lama. meaning revered teacher. meaning revered and very, very close. >> i was glued to the side of my lama for 120 years and a traditional time for being an apprentice to the lama. >> and ian? ian was equally devoted, but was just one of the group, like the rest of them. >> they called him the ducklings. they called this group. there was -- there was a group of people who were really devoted and wanted to be in close proximity to him all the time. >> one of them was ian? >> one of them was ian. >> so devoted that ian, along with christie and sid and two dozen other devotees followed the leader out west and roach founded what he called diamond mountain university. this is where michael roach found his, well, call it a holy

mountain, i suppose. he bought 1,000 acres here in the arizona desert. a follower built that shrine, the one with the flags fluttering in the breeze. and here they began a practice of a kind of buddhism that perhaps hadn't been heard of anywhere else. a type of buddhism that was increasingly at odds with buddhist principles of tradition and restraint, as was roach's next assignment that he and some of the young female students would undertake a retreat usually attempted only by monks of long standing, three years, three months and three days in isolation and total silence. the only communication allowed -- handwritten notes. and only to one another. sid johnson built the tent structures, called yerks, where sid assumed each would live alone. but soon it dawned on him. he was not building roach's yert for one. >> i realized that i'm putting one bed in there and it's becoming clear to me that he's going to be living here with

christie. >> it's not a big deal, but as a monk -- >> as a monk, yeah. >> it is like a catholic priest living with a girl. >> yeah. >> i'm sorry. i don't want to sound suspicious, but come on. really? >> well yeah. >> the guru and his women? >> yeah. it was pretty strange. and a lot of people were starting to ask questions about it. >> to which michael roach had an astonishing answer. he wasn't living with a woman, he said. christie mcnally was the reincarnation of a tibetan buddhist goddess. there would be sex, for sure. but sex with an explanation. >> so i'm not a monk having a human consort? >> no. >> i'm geshe who has a superhuman deity as a consort? and that's okay. >> yeah. he said he never had sex with a human woman. >> and no one protested, certainly not ian. when the geshe agreed that only women would be allowed on retreat with him. it was as if roach could do no wrong.

another former follower, a monk, said he watched as the geshe became increasingly outrageous. >> we were all called into a room and all his consorts, his religious sexual consorts were in the room and said if you want to stay here and do this practice, you have to see them as buddha. >> reporter: and when most everyone including ian started to believe this lama, he got a bad feeling that the so-called diamond mountain university was morphing into a cult. >> the vibe i got around diamond mountain, it can turn into a jim jones kind of thing. this definite group thing and that's dangerous. coming up -- strange doings in the desert. >> michael takes a ritual dagger and slams it through his hand. >> we'd hear these weird sex stories. >> when "dateline" continues. peekaboo.

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island, but said his sister, alexandra, and the family's efforts to break the spell were in vain. >> it was hard because he was so much older, he wasn't a teenager so we couldn't force him. >> how did he react? >> not well. he kept doing his practices that he would do in the mornings and throughout the day. and one time, i was making fun of him and the group because there were a lot of young women, beautiful, young women in the group, and so i made comments, oh, you know, what's he doing with them in the desert? >> that joking about sex in the desert seemed to push one of ian's buttons. >> we were in the car at that point. and he, like, was like jumping out -- i mean, my mom had to, like, pull over real fast. we were on the way to the beach and he started running. i had to run after him. >> he wanted out of the car? >> yeah, yeah. >> and he was angry at you and the family for trying to make him stop doing that stuff? >> yeah. it was -- it was just so sad.

>> back in arizona, roach would periodically emerge from his silent retreat with those female devotees to give a teaching blindfolded. the followers listened with rapt attention. there was an air of mystery about it all. and rumors started to spread about bizarre things happening on the inside. >> we'd hear these, you know, weird sex stories. and him being dress dressed in lingerie and stuff like that. >> michael roach being dressed -- > yeah. we heard there was a sort of stories that came out and they were never really, you know, denied or confirmed. >> at the end of the three years, three months and three days, roach and his disciples emerged and roach made an astonishing claim. he had come to understand emptiness, he said. in other words, he had become enlightened, like the buddha, and he had done it while breaking his priestly vow and living with christie.

>> christie is my partner. once you finish advanced studies in the monastery, you're encouraged to have a partner and go further, which you can do with a partner. >> ian? by now, he was back with the group. always a few steps behind his leader and seemingly eager to serve the power couple. but not everyone was pleased, especially about the sex. >> that in itself, a buddhist monk is not supposed to go behind a closed door with females. that's it. you're not a monk anymore. it's over, kid. you know, you broke your vow. >> the stories about sex, roach's grandiosity and his claims of attaining enlightenment were finding their way all the way to the top, to the dalai lama himself, who publically distanced himself and his teachings. >> he became a little bit annoyed. i don't know if he gets fully

annoyed, but he's always compassionate but fed up let's say. >> colombia professor of buddhism, robert thurman, who's the father of actress uma thurman, is an author of religion and spirituality with buddhism in america. he studied under the dalai lama for years and took it upon himself to confront roach about his behavior. >> i said, look, just resign as a monk. he said, i'll never give up my vow. i said, you gave it up already. then he told me, i never had sexual contact with any human female. so then i turned to her. i said, are you human? and then she says, he said that. i didn't. and then she says, well, but he understood emptiness. and once you understand emptiness, you can do whatever you like, isn't it? i said, no. anybody who says this, they aren't. >> roach was undeterred. in fact, his unconventional style became intense.

and he increasingly insists the students study under his consort, now lama christie. >> she started to take over the teachings and they would co-teach or she would teach alone and she started to become very kind of powerful and she would do the meditation classes and want people to keep a log of their meditation, that she would be very -- she could be very rough and critical and she really started to -- she really developed a kind of power that she just kind of took off with. >> did she seem to enjoy that? >> oh, yeah. >> as the power of these two grew, the environment around them became increasingly bizarre, even frightening. lama lapsang niema recounts a night at diamond mountain that sent chills down his spine. >> lama christie is giving a teaching on guru devotion, on following your teacher. and she's saying you have to do everything, everything your teacher says. she says, if your teacher says, cut off your hand, you have to do it. so michael takes like a ritual dagger out of his -- out of a

bag and slams it through his hand. and everybody in the crowd is like, ooh and aah and it's all drama, and i looked around and said, this is not tibetan buddhism. this is not buddhism. this is theater. this is street art. this is like cult. i don't know what this is here. >> after that, lama niema began warning whoever would listen -- >> to live at diamond mountain, you have to abandon your own judgment. like, when i was there, it was a cult. you have to abandon any sound judgment. >> but ian did not heed those warnings. in fact, a very human thing began to happen. ian was drawing ever closer to his lama, christie, and she to him. >> so this is ian. >> this is lama christie. >> as we say, almost shakespearian. of course the trouble is coming. won't be long now. coming up --

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i like to have stock monkey here and moxie to sit with me. and just before going to sleep and before they go to sleep, we sit. i have some starbucks coffee. >> michael roach had convinced his followers his particular teachings would bring them personal success and save the world. >> by helping others, by serving everywhere as he lectured around

the country and the world. and when he declared his consort, christie mcnally, was the reincarnation of a goddess, they believed him. >> i think here's somebody that was like me. she went looking for a teacher. she found him. and for 15 years, she lived in this bizarre world where she became treated as a deity, as a non human. and you must know on some level that he's manipulating people around him. >> meanwhile, the rituals at diamond mountain according to sid johnson grew ever more bizarre, like what happened at a special group event he said. something particularly disturbing. he and the others were blindfolded, and one by one, were led into roach and christie's yert for a private and he was told sacred ritual. >> i hear them giggling.

i laid -- they laid me down on this bed and they both laid down beside me and part of me is like, what are you doing? this is, like, i'm a grown man and this is like something you do in high school. but there's part of me like, this is some kind of sacred ritual and perhaps something, you know, really amazing is going to happen. and so i feel christie's hand on my forehead and my chin. and she goes all the way down and actually puts her hands down my pants at one point, just briefly, and it was really kind of bizarre. it was so surreal. and part of my again was thinking, you know, ten years of buddhism, and this is what it sort of -- i've been studying all these years and here i am like an idiot and getting felt up in a yert. and felt her kiss my lips. >> did you kiss her back? >> a little bit. it was so bizarre and so surreal. >> over time, sex seemed to emerge as a dominant theme in

the group.3 f1 people were pairing up, relationships broke up in favor of new tantric partnerships. even in the yert that housed the guru and the goddess tension was building as christie told their followers in a teaching. >> sometimes the lama's love is wrestling. sometimes, you know, he did things that i thought were kind of mean. but, you know -- >> christie's confidence grew and she began to develop her own following, her relationship with roach withered. by 2009, whatsoever it was they had was over, but in this case the goddess was a lot more like mere mortals have always been. before she finally ended it with roach, she got deeply involved with the tall, handsome devotee who was always there, ian thorson, right under the guru's nose. when that news got back to

alexandria in new york, she sank into a dread. >> i was like, wow, he's in too deep. for sure. >> then roach filed for divorce. oh yes, you heard that right. the geshe had been secretly married to christie in a christian ceremony in 1998. roach's explanation? reportedly that if anything happened to him, he wanted christie to be taken care of. but now -- >> so this is ian. >> and this is lama christie. >> now christie was taking care of ian. and as far as anybody could tell, they were truly in love. they wrote a yoga book together. this, their promotional video. >> once we do this kind of yoga together, and the next day when we try to do, like, a series alone, it is really, really lonely, actually. >> it is lonely. we decided we don't want to do any other yoga. we only want to do partner yoga. >> yeah. >> then ian announced he was going to marry the goddess. >> they were engaged, so they came over to my aunt's house and she did very well with my family, and my family was definitely grilling her. you know? oh, and what's this thing you

do? and this and that and she was sweet and lovely. and she's beautiful. and was able to just field all the questions. >> right. >> i mean, she comes across pretty well, actually, person to person. >> a wedding date was set. alexandra was less shocked than fed up. >> did you go to the wedding? >> no, i didn't make it. i had to work. >> and michael roach? what does the guru do when his goddess leaves him for a younger man? roach hit up nightclubs in new york city, reportedly donning an armani suit while dancing to house music at cielo, one of the new york's hottest clubs. a "the new york post" article documented the night out, linking roach with two women. >> i mean, he was obviously upset. >> i'll show you going to a disco in new york. >> yes. >> what did you worry would happen? >> to my brother? >> yes or as a result of this love triangle or whatever it was? >> i don't think i let myself go

there with my mind. when that guy doesn't get his way, it is not good for anyone. >> out in the desert, meanwhile, here at the base of geronimo's mountain, preparations were nearing completion for a second silent retreat. this time, three dozen devotees, both men and women, would take part. >> see you inside, bud. >> but geshe roach was not joining them.3 f1 instead, ian, the longtime faithful servant and acolite, prepared to spend a very long time isolated and in silence with a spouse he was taught to believe was his teacher, his lama and his goddess. >> this is the eve of a journey into the great retreat for three years, three months, three days. >> was ian thorson really ready for this? sid johnson was seeing red flags in the wind for sometime. >> i said it's a matter of time before someone dies down here. coming up -- two lovers expelled from paradise and lost in the desert. >> it was just crazy to go off like that. >> when "dateline" continues. improving your health isn't always easy,

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three day silent retreat. >> everyone you see here is here to see us off and walk us to the very edge of our border. >> this time, with her new husband, ian thorson. her ex-husband, michael roach, would not be joining them. but he was still the guru, still in charge. still outside pulling the strings. >> the retreat will be leaving this party and walking directly to the retreat, where they'll stay for a thousand days. >> even though ian had taken roach's place beside christie, all seemed fine, at least on the surface. >> and so, we would really appreciate if everyone would

participate with the food plan to feed the retreat. thank you very much. bye! >> none of them realized, of course, that the retreat would be anything but peaceful. though perhaps they should have known. after all, how does a man manage three years of intimate but absolute silence with a wife who's also a god? >> she was his lama and this was sometimes hard for him. and then he could sometimes get upset by it or frustrated with her and she was trying to understand. >> as the days of silence lengthened into months, rumors began leaking out, rumors of domestic violence in christie and ian's yert. rumors ian sometimes lost the temper. >> i think that just in the close quarters, it's just -- there's a lot of murkiness, but it's certainly possible. it's certainly possible that they had, you know, and given the fact that my brother didn't get along with different women over the years. >> had something serious happened? a year and a half into the

retreat, halfway through, christie mcnally as the leader, emerged from her yet to give a teaching blindfolded, as is the rule. and that's when according to those in the attendance she described stabbing ian with a knife. playful, she said. she started worshipping kali, the hindu goddess of death, she said and was practicing martial arts. she didn't realize she could actually injure ian. the followers heard the wounds were real. >> there's a doctor who's one of the retreaters who apparently sewed him up. >> however serious those cuts were or weren't, the consequences were grave for ian and christie. michael roach called a meeting of the board he appointed to run the organization and decided that christie and ian were to be expelled for one year. and christie mcnally, once a guru's consort, a lama, a deity was cast adrift, suddenly a nobody.

>> so her whole world crashing down around her and so those two just went off into -- they didn't know what to do. you have somebody who lives in a cult for ten years, 15 years, that's their life. >> a statement on roach's website said the board had received multiple reports of abuse and assaults on students and staff by ian. and expulsion was necessary to ensure the couple's safety as their retreat cabin was remote. and to send a strong message that violence of any kind would not be tolerated here. but said the professor of buddhism, robert thurman, it appeared roach made his expulsion personal. >> he didn't have to send them off so fast. >> maybe he was mad because she left him and a classic love triangle. >> yes. older woman, younger man, indeed. we can find those underlying motives. >> whatever it was, ian and christie made a momentous decision, to stay and finish their retreat here on the land they deemed to be holy. and so, like adam and eve banished from eden, they

wandered alone in the desert. up the steep, rocky slope of the mountain geronimo deemed to be his holy protection. >> they were going off sort of doing their own thing. i mean, it was just crazy to go off like that. >> the mountain magic didn't save geronimo. and christie and ian? they found some shelter in the lee of some boulders and what was not quite a cave. they had a sleeping bag, a camping stove, a tarp, a solar-powered cell phone and an emergency beacon. before dawn every morning in the meditation, christie commanded the sun to rise over the mountain and it did. and they sat silent, waiting. for what? coming up -- a last retreat. >> there was a book, "hindu goddess of death" kind of laying out on the ground. >> and we sit down with michael roach. >> do you still think christie

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the winter of 2012 was unseasonably cold in the arizona desert. up in their little cave under

the peak of geronimo's mountain2 se encontraba ian y christie. lama christie mcnally and her husband, ian thorson, baked at mid afternoon and shivered through frigid nights. christie still loyal attendants left food and water for them a few hundred feet down the steep slope, but as they weakened, the climb to retrieve it became too difficult. across the country in new york, ian's family had no idea he and christie had been expelled from their silent retreat. >> there was so much behind closed doors. >> nobody called the family? >> yeah, exactly. >> they certainly know that ian was desperately sick up in that little cave. curious then that just about then, april 21st, something strange happened to alexandra. >> i had had this bout of dizziness, so it was almost like i was sensing things weren't right. >> and the very next morning, in the predawn hours of april 22nd, christie could not wake her husband. she waited for the sun to rise, and thus charge her solar-powered cell phone and called a friend at the group's headquarters.

the friend called 911. >> we got called at 8:00. >> reporter: the sheriff's department search and rescue dispatched his team and soon realized no ambulance could get nowhere near christie and ian up at the top of the mountain. there was no trail. it will be hours of bushwhacking straight up and the paramedics started climbing. the others kept her on the phone. >> she said he was unconscious, barely breathing. >> nolan called in a helicopter rescue team. it would be an extremely dangerous rescue operation on the side of a steep mountain with nowhere to land. the only way in was this way, to repel down from above. thomas fair was one of the first paramedics in. he found christie dehydrated, delirious. >> she was still thinking that her husband was sleeping and we would be able to wake him up. >> but when he saw ian, he knew.

ian was emaciated. his body was blue. he was cold to the touch. fair could clearly see he had been dead for hours. >> by the time we got there, probably up to about eight hours. >> a dead man, a delirious, dehydrated woman and one more thing in that strange little hideaway. >> there was a book of "hindu goddess of death." it was kind of laying out on the ground outside the mouth of the cave. >> "hindu goddess of death"? >> yeah. >> cali by any chance? >> like a woman with like six arms and swords. >> christie had begun to worship cali, the hindu goddess of death, since her break-up with roach. >> and we've had a lot of bizarre search and rescue missions. >> but? >> this was probably the most bizarre that we've ever, ever had. >> rescuers hoisted christie and then ian's body into a helicopter and flew them down to

the base of the mountain. it was only then that alexandra's family got the call that ian was gone. and alexandra said she still has more questions than answers about her brother's demise. why did he die up on the mountain? >> i think it's still needs to be investigated further. i think it's still unclear in my mind. >> was he a victim of a cult? >> yeah. >> and was he a victim of any particular person? >> i think the people that he was closest to in the group influenced him the most. >> the authorities deemed ian's death an accident. no charges have been filed. the case is closed. and no one in alexandra's family has filed any kind of lawsuit. former roach devotee sid johnson said ian's death was the tragic and eerie realization of something he had feared for

years. >> i had no idea that it would, you know, end up with ian starving in a cave. >> and he placed the responsibility squarely with michael roach for creating an environment ripe for disaster. >> they worshipped and they served him and he ended up dead in the cave and she's a rambling mess. you know, we all drank the kool-aid and we all went down the rabbit hole, and, ultimately, he's never taken any responsibility for that. i saw behind the smoke and mirrors but, you know, it was it something i had to go through? i don't know. >> well, you're wiser. >> hopefully. >> reporter: buddhist monk and future roach student put it this way. a guru must be vigilant about protecting his or her followers. he said michael roach was more puppeteer than protector. >> he was master salesman. i would say master manipulator.

but we wanted to be manipulated. he was a rock star. >> reporter: four days after ian's death, roach published an open letter on his website explaining that ian and christie turned down an offer of money and rental car and airline tickets when they were expelled, and the board left it to them to contact their own families. he offered condolences but said he had no idea they were going up to the cave on geronimo's mountain. he declined our repeated requests for an on-camera interview. and then one recent evening in new york, a "dateline" producer caught up with him at a teaching, and asked him to answer his critics. >> do you have any responsibility in ian thorson's death? >> i think every teacher is responsible for their students. >> there are formers devotees

who feel like they were duped and kind of conned. what do you say to them? >> you can see it. you can see what i see. you can see what we see. >> do you still think christie mcnally is a goddess? >> you know, what i was hoping would be to speak about what i believe and my teachings. i really don't like to talk about it. it's more conventional things. i don't feel it's helpful. >> reporter: what roach really wants to talk about these days is how buddhism can help get you rich. >> the fastest way to make money should be most pleasant way to make money. >> reporter: he's traveling the world, peddling his non-sanctioned brand of prosperity buddhism around china and mexico, eastern europe where he's found enthusiastic audiences in big business of all places. back at diamond mountain though, a few of the retreaters left

after ian's death. but more than 30 remained, living in silent devotion of the foot of geronimo's mountain. their three years, three months and three days run out the first week of april. and as for christie, she vanished a few days after ian's funeral. she's rumored to have gone to india on retreat. she's told friends she still wants to teach buddhism. and alexandra agreed to tell the story for her brother. >> he was a flame for all of us. >> reporter: and maybe what happened to him will be a lesson she said, a lesson for others before they go down some rabbit hole. >> i think it's important that people understand that they need to look out for this danger of not just this group, but other groups. i mean, i wouldn't want someone to have to lose a sibling in this way. that's all for now. i'm lester holt.

thanks for joining us. . [ cheers and applause ] hi, guys. hello, carson. shakira, is there anything that you look back that you did the first time around that you'll do differently now? whatever blake did, i'm gonna do. whenever he push his button, i'm gonna push a button. i like that. [ chuckles ] adam, has usher's coaching technique made you change yours at all? yeah, absolutely. he did raise the bar a little bit with the army techniques and the push-ups. when i do tours and stuff, i get physically kind of prepared for it, as well. and i think that was an awesome thing to, like, introduce into the show 'cause no one had thought about doing that before. preparation. luck favors the... prepared! there you go. bam. blake: he's more of a trainer. what? trainer/coach. [ laughter ] daly: as our coaches head to their chairs, let's meet the night's first artist, 33-year-old ryan whyte maloney. i'm from traverse city, michigan, and i currently reside in las vegas, nevada. i'm so happy for you! i had several bands growing up.