up next on a second look, when the deep waters give up their secrets. authorities find a 15-year-old girl's body in a san joaquin county canal. and her relatives want charges against someone in the family. the waters recede on northern california lakes and areas not seen for decades reappear under the water. how investigators tied russian criminals to a death. and the story of the jackson sisters, the high

priced they paid so the santa clara area could have a stable water supply. good evening and welcome to a second look. i'm julie haener. tonight what lies beneath. as the drought conditions old towns are coming to light again after decades buried under water. but sometimes what's hidden below the water is more sinister. authorities found the body of a teenage girl in the delta medota canal in san joaquin county. they identified her as kayla reed. kayla's mother had reported her missing a month before and to this day no one has ever been charged in the case. although kayla's aunt says she has her suspicions who killed kayla. mike mibach had this look back at the case in february 2012. >> reporter: a bay area teenager with a big green and big dreams at age 15kayla reed's future looked bright.

but in early december 2005 the light turned dark. young kayla disappeared. on january 10, 2006, her body was found in this central valley canal and a homicide investigation was under way. two weeks later at this candlelight vigil in livermore. there was angel sheets, kayla reed's mother. the same woman who initially reported kayla missing from her own townhouse. michelle lowes lived right next door. >> we told them that we heard, you know them screaming a lot and fighting a lot. when i first heard about it, i thought that angel might be involved somehow. >> reporter: so did livermore police. nearly two years after kayla's body was found. angel sheet and her friend were

named suspects. they said dennis murphy told detectives quite the story about the night kayla disappeared. murphy said he went to angel sheet's townhome to smoke meth with her. but when angel could not find the drugs, she blamed kayla. pushing her daughter against the fridge saying, this is going to get me killed but this is not going to get me killed it's going to get you killed. murphy says he told police that's when he left. claudia degels is angel sheet's sister. >> the only other thing that i can add is there was a confession. >> reporter: six years have passed. no arrests, no charges and twice as recently as last year degels says the alameda sheriff's office refused to charge the case. >> i honestly feel this case is not being pursued because kayla came from a poor background. >> reporter: but on this day, degel took time for us showing us what she's never shown anyone.

private e-mails sent from police to her. detailing clues about the case. in one dated may 13, 2008 a captain now retired talks about a cadaver dog alerting inside of sheet's van. inside that van detectives also found a police scanner, a map of the delta with three areas near the canal highlighted in yellow and a video tape where three young boys were dumped in water. another e-mail talks about a 2007 posting on the website topics. an anonymous person from livermore wrote, we all know you did it angel. you threw kayla against the refrigerator knocks her out and then you and dennis threw her in your van and got rid of her like a piece of trash. a lieutenant e-mailed degel says they tracked down the ip address that was tracked down

to a woman who knew angel. >> that story matches by both people interest. >> reporter: in january 2010, the captain e-mails degel. we actually feel that we have enough information to place charges. we just have not gotten the right da on the case. >> it has absolutely destroyed my belief in the justice system. >> reporter: degel says she no longer talks to her sister angel who says at last check was living on the streets some where in the central valley and so the story goes, one woman, still on a mission and a fight for justice for charges to be filed against her own sister. all the while, keeping her memories of kayla close to her heart. still to come on a second look, the waters went down and a town showed up. the story of the community beneath lake beriesta and how it came to life after decades

under water. and five bodies in the lake. the russian criminals the fbi say put them there.

welcome back to a second look. tonight what lies beneath. the water level at fulsome lake this year is so low it's revealed a bit of history. the town of mormon valley has been under the lake since 1955. but now parts of it are peaking up above the top of the lake. 2,500 people lived in mormon valley at the height of the gold rush. now for the first time in six decades, people can walk beside the foundations of the dairy, winery, hotels and saloons. they were once part of the sacramento valley. in 1990, ktvu's rob roth told us about another lake and another town. in that case it was lake bariesa. and the town was called monte cello. here is his report. >> reporter: lake bariesta is

shrinking. the water level in this manmade lake is the lowest it has ever been. so low that the water mark from the healthier days here looks like a bathtub ring. so low that this field of clay once sat under 50 feet of water. so low that as the water recedes, remnants of a community are beginning to emerge. today people were fishing off a bridge that has been under water for 34 years. and so had this. it's part of an old swimming pool that once belonged to a farmer in a town once called monte cello. monte cello existed long before there was bariesta. the mackenzie family owned the only store and gas station in town. >> it was the hub of the community really. there were two bars. you have to have a bar in a farming community. and other than that it was just a small country town at the end of the nowhere. >> reporter: bariesa was a very

fertile valley and there was a lot of ranchers and i was one of the ranchers there. i raised alfalfa, hay and cattle. >> the town was a very small town where everybody knew each other and knew everything about each other. if you wanted something and your grandmother wasn't home you walked in and borrowed it and left a note. >> reporter: the federal government bought out all the landowners in monte cello and built a dam and flooded monte cello. >> earl warren had more juice than we did and got it through. >> finally they just gave us

our orders. and we recented it. very much. it was our land. we bought it, we paid for it. we had lived there for so many years. and yet, they can take it. but that's, that was the way it was. everybody tried to fight it but it, didn't work. >> reporter: in this photograph, the dark portion on the left and bottom is water seeping over monte cello land. >> we lost it all. what we got for it in those days is peanuts today. probably more in taxes as you look at it today than dollars and cents. >> reporter: for the past 34 years, the lake has been home to birds and fish. a recreation spot for boaters and a water source for the people of vacaville, vallejo and the rest of solano county. bariesta was forgotten until the drought found it. >> it was sad to see the water

raising in the creek. we always said, well we hoped it, you know stayed dry but of course it didn't. but it was, it was just as sad thing. we still say we hope it goes dry sometime. >> when we come back, on a second look. authorities say russian criminals put five bodies at the bottom of a northern california reservoir. what led to fbi to unravel the case. a bit later they were called the jackson sisters and it cost them dearly to help provide the santa clara valley's water supply.

more than a decade ago the waters of new melones lake hit a secret. the victim of a kidnapping and murder. and when his body floated to the surface it led fbi agents to even more bodies deep inside

the water. and to the russian gangsters invest -- investigators say killed them. we begin with this 2008 report from john fowler. >> reporter: someone dumped these bodies in the sierra lake sometime last year. sheriff rescue divers pulled up a body found by robot submersible on the bottom. some 200 feet down. it was the third body found in two days. residents say creepy. >> it's an eerie feeling. i wouldn't go into the water now but it's not going to stop me. >> reporter: divers pulled the body of two men beneath the highway 49 bridge. it seems somebody drove across each bridge and from about mid- span tossed the weighted down bodies over the side.

local residents say late at night almost no one uses these roads and the deep cold water is ideal for keeping victims hidden a long time. the fbi says the investigation that led to the finding of bodies here began in a jurisdiction outside the local area. but they would not elaborate. >> during the course of their organized crime search, they discovered that one or several bodies may have been dumped here by the group they were looking for. >> we have no evidence whatsoever to link any of the victims with this county at this time. >> reporter: a fourth body was found about five months ago almost exactly where divers pulled up the one today. officials say the body found in october was of a man about 50, 6'2", 240-pound. his pound had been tied at his waist and a plastic bag wrapped around his head. the fbi would not comment

whether today's body or the one found yesterday were bound up in the same way. the next day ktvu's rita williams brought us more details in the case and the recovery of a fifth body. >> this evening, divers recovered the fourth heavily weighted body. this body is the first female. >> i think with each passing day, with each additional discovery it just adds to the credibility of the information and hopefully will help move that investigation forward. >> reporter: although the fbi is not giving details, ktvu channel 2 news has learned tonight that law enforcement officials in los angeles county believe the four people were victims of an international organized ring. the russian mafia and that the case is from the bay area. calaveras county sheriff deputy found a decomposing body they believe had broken free of weights floating on the surface of the lake.

for almost five months, calaveras officials tried unsuccessfully to identify the body. sources tell us that about three weeks ago, fbi agents from los angeles showed up and told local officials they had obtained information that lakes in the area might be dumping sites for organized crimes. locals told authorities about the bodies. a death certificate filed just last week identifies the dead man at myer muskatell, 68, a real estate developer. muskatell had been missing just seven days with his body hands bound was found floating in the lake. that's the same day los angeles police released this press statement. announcing a $54,000 reward from his family for information that would help find him. unaware he had already been found. sources tell me the fbi has dental x-rays of people they believe may be the victims recovered this week.

they also say the bodies probably were thrown off bridges since the first of the year. this sonar device is how the fbi has been spotting the bodies 200 to 300 feet deep. these imagines from a previous search in utah are very clear. >> you can see legs, torso, arms, and shadow of the legs. >> reporter: they are bold brazen ruthless crimes, just since october members of the russian mafia allegedly killed five. the reason the fbi says to make money. more than $5 million in ransom. >> they're just not hesitant to use murder to accomplish their objectives. >> reporter: while there's been more violence in los angeles, crimes with higher financial stakes have been committed in the bay area. often against some of the 90,000 russian speaking people here. >> people who are committing crimes here do it a little re

quietly. they do it a little more low profile. >> reporter: fbi agent jeff iverson who heads the crime unit in san francisco says for example in 1996, several people here and in russia were convicted in a scream that involved $180 million in gold and diamonds allegedly stolen from the russian government. povel arelinko the former prime minister is charged in san francisco with money laundering. the fbi says he used money to buy this multi million dollars house in novato and to invest

in legitimate businesses here. >> family members paid more than a million dollars in ran -- ransom to the kidnapper. the story of santa clara valley's anderson lake and what it caused two women who had lived there all their lives. [ sports announcer ] here's another one, alyson dudek.

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alright, hammer down! bank from almost anywhere with the citi mobile app. citi, with you every step of the way. sometimes what's good for a lot of people isn't so good for just a few people. such was the case in santa clara county decades ago when the valley needed more water. but one family had to give up a big part of its farm to build a reservoir. and in the middle. who women known as the jackie sisters who weren't really sisters at all. >> reporter: in the early 1900s long before people put the word silican and valley together, this part of the valley was cattle country. and the new town of morgan hill

offered land for farmers. land here started sinking in some areas. >> it was farmers that recognized land subsidence. they would be the ones to recognize it. they were not only making their money off the land but they were stewarts of the land. >> reporter: so they formed the water conservation committee and to relieve their dependence on the lakes, they decided to build a well. this is all that is left of ofelia cockrin's large ranch. she lived her with her extended

family. cockrin took ruth in thinking she would be good company for gladys. little did she know how right she would be. the two became inseparable. >> they were great cowgirls. they loved to talk about how well they could ride horses when they were young and how they went out with the cowboys and hearded the cattle and you know, did round ups and all that sort of thing. they were very proud of their skill. >> gladys and ruth became widely known as the jackson sisters. they escorted the grand marshal in a parade in the 1920s. on the ranch they ran 300 head of cattle and picked prunes. ruth and gladys lived together for a lifetime at spencer's sisters making the trip down the hill to morgan hill. >> they were very formal. they always wore big hats. and they had cotton dresses as i recall.

and they always drove a large cadillac. i think it was an old cadillac for a very long time like a 50s ones with fins. >> they never were in town where they didn't have the great big hats on. you knew when they were in town because you could see them coming from a half a mile away with their big hats on. >> reporter: but in 1950s, the first for water in this booming economy would change their luck forever. the water district by right of el -- imminent domain flooded the land. the sisters went to court to try to get the district from buying them out but they lost. >> they didn't get a good price as all. they got $160,000 for the area that had some of the choices portions of the ranch. >> reporter: almost all of their orchard ended up at the bottom of the reservoir and the manmade lake split the cattle

ranch in half. >> they were really heartbroken over the loss of the ranch. they never did resume the cattle operation that they really had originally intended. >> reporter: before the valley was flooded. movers did manage to transport the beloved 1914 victorian up the hill to what would become the lake's south eastern shoreline. the sisters lived here injoying a fabulous lake view until fate dealt them another blow in 1984. a 6.1 earthquake hit the calaveras fault running right underneath the house. >> luckily they weren't in the house. they were on therapy daily -- they were on their daily trip to town and they never got home. the house was completely devastated. the earthquake was a bad twister. and it moved the house three to

4 feet in various portions. >> the jackson sisters never returned to their beloved house. not even to look. in fact, they refused to live any where within sight of their ravaged home. so they moved to this new house on the other side of the hill. soon after gladys died at the age of 88. ruth lived on another three years and died at 91. today their lake which used to be a ranch is the largest reservoir. providing the water that has fueled the growth of this area. so without the jackson's very reluctant help this edge of silican valley would not be what it is today. >> i think it would be safe to say that if we didn't have anderson dam and anderson reservoir here that we would have a real struggle every year providing water for everyone's need. i don't think we could see silican valley as per se we see it today. >> and that's it for second

look. i'm julie haener, thank you for watching. soon, californians from to salinas to san diego will have equal access to quality health insurance. those who need financial assistance will get it. and nobody will be denied because of a pre-existing condition. welcome to a new state of health. welcome to covered california. we are your health insurance marketplace.

enroll today at coveredca.com. . . . hi, everybody. i'm beth troutman. no need to search the web for great videos, we have the best ones, right here, "right this minute." a camera crew wants pictures of some baby crocodiles, so one guy is trying to distract the mom. see why mama croc is not falling for that old trick amazing footage of hot lava shows what looks like white lightning. the rare volcano