>> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. thanks for watching. ♪ ♪ >> i am freaking out. i walk in and my sister's not there. her door is open, her lights are on, her bed's undone. everything was horrible. and i felt it. >> she had been fearless on the front lines in iraq. >> pretty amazing. i saw her as a really strong soldier. >> but something had her terrified at home. >> i'm just scared. i don't feel safe.

>> a desperate call to police. then, she vanished. >> something made her pretty scared? >> yes. >> there's nothing to say what that was? >> right. >> what happened to this beautiful army sergeant? the question would launch a spellbinding mystery. >> she had a roommate, a boyfriend she's maybe about to dump. you have an ex boyfriend who's suddenly back in her life. >> there were a number of potential suspects, absolutely. >> was the killer out there? >> she was in danger. >> could police catch him? they hatched a plan of virtual genius. >> one of the detectives said, you're not going to believe this. >> hello and welcome to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. marabell ramos was a fighter. her family immigrated to the u.s. when she was a baby and she was always determined to get ahead. marabell knew exactly how she would do it. joining the army and doing two tours overseas before returning to civilian life. even her military experience

wouldn't be enough to prepare her for the evil she battled back at home. finding out what happened to this tough, tenacious woman would be one of the biggest mysteries a veteran detective would ever have to solve. here's josh mankiewicz with "mystery in orange county." >> orange county, california. on tv, it's place of fun, sun fun, and privilege. it's where the real housewives first aired their dirty laundry and where the kids from the oc what temperature cool really was. around here you get a sense everyone is rich and white and lives in a mansion with a view of the pacific. step back from the coast, you'll see the orange county that isn't on tv, not as wealthy, not as white, full of those who came here from somewhere else, chasing a better life and finding it in places like santa ana. a mostly working class immigrant

community in the shadow of disneyland. it's the part of the oc where people know that to survive they'll have to work hard. marabel ramos arrived here as a baby, leaving mexico behind. she would not only survive here but thrive. to tell you the truth, this should be the story of a woman who worked hard to change her life and in doing so, carved a path for others to follow. >> hello? >> but this story is going to end differently. >> why are you crying? >> because i'm afraid. >> there are some parts of life that hard work just can't fix. >> i'm just scared. i'm like calling to let you guys know that if something happens, i did it because i was trying to defend myself.

>> some things are beyond her control. >> i will fight for my life and i will kill him. >> all of that should have never reached that point of no return. so maybe it's a story of simple bad luck, two lives that should never have come together. >> tell me about growing up with maribel. >> hmm. >> what was she like? >> trouble maker. mom wanted her to stay at home and she wanted to go play baseball. >> tomboy? >> yes, yes. >> her sister, lucy, said tomboy maribel ramos also had a spark. >> she'd come in and what, immediately introduce herself to everybody? >> make friends and people were drawn to her. easy to talk to. >> you saw boys interested in her? >> definitely, yeah. >> from an early age? >> from an early age. >> that never ended, did it? >> no, no. >> little sister lucy remembers

how maribel was also in charge of watching out for her while their single mother often worked two jobs to make things meet. >> you were how many years younger? >> seven years younger. >> a lot of girls wouldn't want their sister tagging along? >> no. shee she didn't want to but she had to. >> as a child, maribel found out a different world existed. she wanted to live there. >> she knew at a young age there was a lot more to life than what we had around us. things you can do and go to school and have opportunities and live in a nicer house. >> she saw all of that? >> yeah, yeah, definitely. >> maribel ramos knew she'd have to work hard to get what and where she wanted. after high school, she worked at security at k-mart and hatched a long term plan to become a cop. but she'd need a college degree and that meant money. so maribel ramos became private first class ramos. she joined the army hoping to use the g.i. bill. her first day was august 8th, 2001.

and just 34 days later, the whole world changed. >> we all sort of recoiled in horror but you probably also thought, that's going to affect my sister? >> yeah. i turn on the tv and the towers are crumbling. the first thing i thought was, oh, my gosh, my sister's going to war. how do you wrap your mind around that? >> lucy worried. her mother worried. maribel was like a rock. >> what did maribel say about going overseas? >> she didn't express her feelings about it. she said, this is what's happening, sister, you need to talk to mom. >> maribel went to war in iraq. >> what was it like to see her in uniform? >> it was -- it was pretty amazing. >> gisele is lucy's daughter, maribel's niece. >> i saw her as a really brave strong soldier, sometimes i was like, whoa, you're going out

there, like to save everybody. >> you're proud of her? >> yeah. >> maribel learned to jump out of airplanes and she manned the guns for armed convoys. she saw more than her share of combat. she also made sergeant. when her tour in iraq ended, she re-enlisted for another. she seemed fearless. >> she could very easily have become a casualty? >> yes. and other people did die, other friends of hers. >> in 2009, after two tours in iraq, maribel left the army and set part two of her plan into action, enrolling in college. adjusting back to civilian life wasn't as easy as maribel had expected. like a lot of war veterans, she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, or ptsd. >> she'd seen some terrible things. did she ever talk about that? >> not with me. >> instead, she focused on school, work and family,

especially her niece gisele. >> she kind of adopted you as this project. >> yeah. >> now, why did she do that? >> i think it was because she wanted me to have the best. >> as gisele grew older, the self-improvement message sometimes came complete with push-ups. afterall, maribel was all army. >> when i would get in trouble she would make me do exercise to work off the punishment. >> all this while maribel was hammering away, you will finish school and study hard and have a career. >> yes, this is what you're going to do, mija, and she would tell her. and cage as well. yes, dia. >> maribel got a dog and rented a two bedroom apartment in this city of orange which she shared with a roommate, a quiet chemist named casey joy, who also had a

dog. >> i thought it was perfect match. he has a dog, she has a dog. he seems quiet, won't have all these people coming over. >> my may 2013, everything seemed great. maribel was leading by example, finishing up her degree in criminal justice at cal state fullerton. gisele was following in her strong foot steps. >> she was dropping off money at my house because i had got good grades. she had just got her hair done, dyed and styled because -- for her graduation. >> she looked great. >> yeah. >> and she was happy? >> yeah, she was. >> that's why it made no sense when just days later, maribel ramos, soldier, student, loving aunt, simply disappeared. coming up, what happened to maribel ramos? >> i am freaking out. her door is open, her light is

on, her bed is undone. everything was horrible -- i felt it. >> the mystery was about to deepen. >> nobody had heard from her? >> nobody. >> just ahead on "dateline extra."

welcome back. let's return to josh mankiewicz with "mystery in orange county." >> may 3rd, 2013, was a friday, a day that should have been an easy day for maribel ramos. school was nearly over. graduation was so close, but that morning, things weren't right. >> i got a text from casey at 10:00 a.m. and he said, your sister didn't come home. >> they'd been roommates for more than a year now. k.c. felt protective of maribel. he told lucy he had already called police to report her missing.

>> this is not an emergency. i have a roommate. she's 36 years old and she didn't come home last night. >> so what i did, i texted her at 11:00, i said, happy friday. we usually text each other anyways. that was my way of connecting and she didn't text me back. >> unusual? >> yes. >> lucy still wasn't worried. she knew her combat-hardened sister could take care of herself. but then evening came and for maribel, friday night was softball night. she loved to play and never missed a game. this friday night, she didn't show. now, lucy's phone was ringing, maribel's teammates on the line. they told me, go to the house, police are there. do not take giselle. i'm freaking out and i walk in and my sister is not there. her door is open, her lights are on, her bed is undone. my head started spinning. everything was horrible and i felt it.

>> detective joey ramirez with the orange police department got the call that evening. he also had a bad feeling about everything. >> it sounds like you were taking this pretty seriously from the get-go? >> absolutely. >> why couldn't she be off by herself or with some other friends and maybe she lost her phone and forgot to call? >> that was our hope, she was just missing and would come walking through the door. but the family and friends expressed that she was very responsible. >> nobody had heard from her? >> nobody. >> so ramirez and his team went into action. they quickly figured out that if she left on her own accord, it didn't look like maribel had planned to be out long. >> she left her car at home? >> her car was there. her keys are gone, her phone was gone. >> but her toothbrush was there, so was her big purse she used when she had a lot to carry. >> k.c. returned home hours

after police first got there. he again told the cops what he had said that morning, maribel was missing. lucy and the softball team went to the police station hoping for answers. but morning came and there weren't any. channeling her big sister, lucy decided to stop waiting and make her own luck. >> i woke up on saturday and thought, wow, this is seriously happening. i posted a picture of her on facebook. it was immediate. people went into action. >> friends from the university got together, family members, her roommate. lots of people who maribel had touched wanted to help. they hung flyers in english and spanish. they reached out to reporters. >> it's very not like her after eight years of service in the army to just disappear. >> usual thing the next day, friday morning, she was not here.

>> i helped my mom pass out flyers around school, pretty much anything i could do. >> did you think they'd find her? >> yes, i did. >> giselle was 14 at the time. detective ramirez, who's been a cop more years than giselle has been alive was not as hopeful. >> she's not using her cell phone, she's not taking any money out, no one's heard from her. when you picked up no trace of her after a couple of days, you still think you're looking for a living person? >> the percentages are starting to drop, not in our favor. >> because by then you called all the hospitals? >> all hospitals, jails. >> there's an alert out that any police officer, what, in southern california sees her? >> correct. the media was also helping. >> and nothing? >> nothing. >> no marie -- maribel on security tape from any nearby store. police checked all of them. they found only this security outside her manager's office from her apartment complex.

it's maribel paying the rent. it's may 2n:00nd, at 8:18 p.m., before anyone realized she had disappeared. maribel appears to be alone. the cops needed to talk to anyone who was in maribel's life. turns out there were a lot of people they suddenly needed to get to know, including a current boyfriend, an ex boyfriend, and someone maribel had just met, a guy she had made a date with online. a guy who's name maribel had apparently kept completely to herself. coming up, the men in maribel's life suddenly under scrutiny. >> you're not under arrest or anything like that. >> i wouldn't think so. >> and that haunting phone call. >> i'm scared. >> something had happened to make her pretty scared. >> yes. >> no way to say what that was? >> right.

>> when "dateline extra" returns. ♪ what are you doing? sara, i love you, and... [phone rings] ah, it's my brother. keep going... sara, will you marry... [phone rings again] what do you want, todd???? [crowd cheering] keep it going!!!! if you sit on your phone, you butt-dial people. it's what you do. todd! if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. i know we just met like, two months ago... yes! [crowd cheering] [crowd cheering over phone]

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and a partly sunny mode. and an outside... to clear inside mode. transitions® signature adaptive lenses... ...are more responsive than ever. so why settle for a lens with just one mode? experience life well lit®. ...upgrade your lenses to transitions® signature. now get up to a $90 rebate by mail. when you purchase glasses and sunglasses featuring select brands. ask your eyecare professional or visit transitions.com for details. welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall.

maribel ramos had vanished. police, her friends and family mounted a full-scale search. as in many investigations, police were turning up the heat on the men in maribel's life. but then the new that a phone call had been made to 911 and she sounded scared. did this confirm the family's worst fears? josh mankiewicz picks up the story in orange county. >> this is the city of orange california in the county of orange, california. much of it is a small town stuck in time. there's a university, a zoo, cute local businesses and a police department that doesn't have to deal with a lot of violent crime. after all, the happiest place on earth is just down the street. but in may 2013, detective joey ramirez was far from happy. he had a lot of ground to cover

and a strong sense that time was against him as he tried to figure out what had happened to maribel ramos. >> she just vanished? >> yes. >> how often does that happen? >> it doesn't happen often. >> ramirez started by investigating the men in maribel's life. it turned out there were a few of them. >> did you know she was doing online dating? did she talk about that? >> yeah, shee did. >> maribel sometimes met guys on a website called plenty of fish. that's how she found paul lopez. they had been dating a few month and paul had even joined her weekly softball game. lopez was the last person maribel talked to on the phone. now police wanted to talk to him. >> you're not under arrest or anything like that. >> i wouldn't think so. >> ramirez sat across from paul and asked about his relationship with maribel. >> nothing's been exclusive, it's just been dating. >> you date other people, too?

>> me, yeah. >> you don't know if she dates other people or not? >> i don't ask, don't tell. >> and he asked lopez where he was on the night maribel disappeared. >> did you come into orange at all on thursday? >> no. >> police also had to consider this. maribel had told lucy that things weren't working out with paul lopez. >> she wasn't a match with paul. she was online talking to people. >> it wasn't clear if paul knew, even as they kept dating, that maribel was back on plenty of fish and had met a new man. he was a photographer who had worked a lot with the military. it was a connection for both of them. >> how did she describe that guy? >> she said i met someone, he's very interesting. we have lot in common. >> you thought what, good? >> i thought great. >> they planned a date for cinco de mayo. two days before that date was to happen, maribel vanished. police talked to that photographer and made a recording of the conversation.

>> you're saying you never actually met her in person? >> no. >> so he said, anyway. there was also an ex-boyfriend who had been calling. police needed to check him out. there was this lead. >> there was a person at cal state fullerton that was in the veterans association with her that had given her a bad feeling. he may have wanted to pursue some sort of dating relationship. >> but gave her a bad feeling how? >> she wasn't interested and she didn't give him any attention, yet he didn't go away. >> he made her feel uncomfortable? >> correct. >> by now, detective ramirez learned something else. just a week before she vanished, maribel ramos had called 911. >> it's not an emergency. is there a recording? >> is there a what? >> is this conversation recording? >> yes.

every conversation is recorded. >> maribel wanted it on the record. she wanted police to know that she was very afraid. of someone. >> i'm calling to let you guys know if something happens, i did it because i was trying to defend myself. >> she might have been afraid but this army strong woman who had always taken care of herself feared she might be the one putting the hurt on her attacker. all i'm saying is i will fight for my life and i swear, i will kill him. >> something had happened to make her pretty scared? >> yes. >> there was nothing on the call to say what that was? >> right. >> what was she afraid of? not clear. who was she afraid of? that was another story entirely. coming up, another man in maribel's life sits down with police and he seems eager to help with the case.

>> you were doing your own surveillance? >> yes. >> did her roommate know something police didn't? when "dateline extra" returns.

>> the hour's top stories, more confrontations between pleegs and protesters in baton rouge, louisiana. police in riot gear moved in, making several arrests. more than 100 people have been taken into custody in louisiana over the past two days, in protest over the fatal shooting of alton sterling. in a news conference today, louisiana governor john bel edwards said people are entitled to protest but must do so peacefully. now it's back to "dateline extra." welcome back. it should have been her proudest moment. maribel ramos had joined the army to put herself through college. just days away from her graduation ceremony she vanished. earlier maribel had called

police to say she was in danger and afraid for her life. what was it, or who was it that had her so concerned? here's josh mankiewicz again with "mystery in orange county." >> by now, posters blanketed the city of orange. maribel ramos was missing and her family was frantic. >> as soon as i got the call she didn't show up for her baseball game, i got the worst feeling in the world. >> putting herself out with all the rest, her roommate k.c.choi. >> she was like my best friend. >> he had moved from tennessee to southern california for a job. he had no family and few friends here so he turned to maribel and she was happy to include him. she even arranged for k.c. to tutor her niece in math. >> he seemed nice, respectful. he liked to be involved with the family and my aunt. >> he didn't have family of his

own so he kind of attached himself to yours? >> yeah. >> but they weren't boyfriend and girlfriend? >> no. >> even so into photos, maribel and casey seemed to be having a great time. they even went on a cruise together. soon, police would be talking with k.c. joy. >> a business person. >> yeah. >> i like to keep track of names. >> yeah. a good idea. >> with formalities over, detective ramirez started asking about maribel. >> as you know, right now, there's people and family and friends worried about maribel, your roommate? >> i was her friend and i care about her very much. >> but he said he had no idea what happened to her. >> when was the last time that you saw her? >> about 9:00 p.m. about 9:00, i went out. >> that was thursday night, may 2nd. the next night, when the cops were called to maribel's house, k.c. wasn't there. he explained he had been so

worried that he did his own investigation, watching his own front door from his car parked out front. >> order some movies, detective movie and somebody comes back to a crime scene. i wanted to see who knocked on my door,s i parked my car in the front with a notebook. >> you were doing your own surveillance? >> yes. >> it sounded a little odd. maybe casey had seen too many crime movies. but if he had he'd probably know cops don't miss little details like -- well, like this. >> you were sitting across the table from me. he's wearing a short-sleeved short, he had his jeans on and sandals, and instantly, i can see scratches on both his arms. he's got a scratch across his forehead from his hairline to his eye. >> how did you get all these scratches on you? >> we go to the park all the time.

we go other pond, we pick up fishing lines all the time. you go there. fishing line. >> those are from fishing lines? >> no, no, i will explain. >> k.c. explained he was walking the dogs when he saw a fishing line in a bush, worrying about the ducks in the park getting caught in the line, he reached in to remove it and got all those scratches. >> you've been around long enough, you can tell the difference between scratches that a person might get, you know, reaching into a bush or from an animal, and scratches somebody would get during a, you know, actual fight with another person? >> right. >> some of the scratches on his arms did look like scratches that would be from something other than fingernails, but there was one particular set of scratches on his right bicep that, to me, clearly looked like

scratches from a hand. >> and that says to you he was in a fight? >> it does. >> when was the last time you guys had any sort of an argument? >> actually the thursday. >> this thursday? >> that was the last night any saw maribel, the night she was caught on camera paying the rent, which k.c. said was what they were arguing about. >> well, what happened? tell me about that. because i was -- i'm supposed to move out. >> it turned out k.c. had recently lost his job and could no longer pay his share of the rent. maribel had asked him to move out. that was reason for concern, of course. so was this. detective ramirez had learned about the 911 call maribel had made 11 days before she disappeared. and he knew in that call the man maribel said she might have to kill was k.c. joy.

>> his full name is kwan -- from chol -- from what i understand, it's quan chol joy. >> weren't you out drinking the other night and had an argument? >> k.c. said it was just an -- a drunken misunderstanding. >> i don't like you, i'm not attracted to you. maribel, we had a great time tonight, what's the problem? >> what was the problem? detective ramirez heard something from maribel's family something very interesting. k.c. joy had wanted to be more than roommates with maribel ramos. lucy told us the same thing. >> when did it become apparent to you k.c. had a crush on your sister? >> he called me and said, i'm like in love with your sister. so i was like, great.

>> because you knew your sister wasn't in love with him? >> yes. and that's a bad situation. so at that point i'm like, okay, k.c., you know, you're a good man, and i'm sure you'll find somebody out there for you, but -- >> but it's not going to be her? >> yeah. >> now the woman k.c. had told lucy he wanted, had not only told him she did not love him, but that he had to get out of the house. despite that, k.c. continued talking with police. >> mr. joy was being cooperative? >> he was. >> talking to officer, let you guys take stuff out of the house? >> he did. >> and never showed up with a lawyer? >> he did not. >> doesn't sound like that set aside your suspicions? >> no, we didn't. >> suspicions, sure. but no proof a crime had even occurred. maribel ramos was missing. that's all any knew. >> ready, sir?

>> so k.c. joy walked out of that police station like all the other men in maribel's life, a free man. >> coming up -- >> he knew a lot more than he was telling us. >> finally, the clue they had been waiting for. you won't believe how they got it. >> no one had searched there? >> no. >> but he's looking at it? >> yes. >> when "dateline extra" returns. because clean food is food as it should be. with no artificial flavors, preservatives, sweeteners, and no colors from artificial sources. we think clean food tastes better, feels better, does better. 100% of our food will be clean by year's end. every bite will be food as it should be. ♪ myand a partly sunny mode.de. and an outside to inside mode. transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. ask for transitions xtractive lenses. extra protection from light... outdoors,

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welcome back. we return to josh mankiewicz with "mystery in orange county." >> the days were ticking by and still no maribel. forensic results were coming in, dna, fingerprints, cell phone data, none of it adding up to anything that told the cops what had happened to her. so police were looking at the

usual suspects, like her boyfriend, paul lopez. lopez works for the gas company and goes from call to call in a company truck. the gps on that truck puts him nowhere near the city of orange on the night maribel was seen on that security video, that is until about midnight. lopez tells police that's when he went home. he said he was alone and could prove it. >> my parking's spot actually right by a surveillance camera. >> so the surveillance camera would show you parking? >> yeah. >> that was enough to get lopez off the list. there was the ex-boyfriend who was calling and maribel never mentioned he was a problem and police didn't think he was involved. there was the photographer from the website plenty of fish. his cell phone data placed him in san diego, out of the area at the time in question. the veteran from cal state who had come on too strong, he was in japan. none of them could be connected

to maribel's disappearance. so in the end there was just one person the cops couldn't stop looking at, the first person to report maribel missing, her roommate, k.c. joy. >> dispatch. >> this is not an emergency. i have a roommate. she's 36 years old and she didn't come home last night. >> he was also the last to see her alive. >> i felt she most likely was dead. i felt that there was a high probability mr. joy was responsible for it, and he knew a lot more than he was telling us. >> so detective ramirez became k.c. joy's shadow, appearing in the morning and then later by moonlight. hours after k.c.'s first police interview, a cheerful joey ramirez showed up at his house. >> hey, k.c., how are you?

can we come in? >> he brought a voice recorder and a few more questions. >> how are you this morning? >> all right. >> good, good. >> detective ramirez already knew the answers to some of them. >> when you say work, she works at fullerton? >> cal state fullerton? >> yeah. >> and to some, he didn't. >> did you have any marks on your legs or anything? >> no. >> let me just ask you, do you have any injuries on your legs? >> no. >> you have no injuries on your leg whatsoever? >> no, i don't have any. >> then ramirez showed up again that night. >> k.c. joy, just a couple quick questions for and you i'll get out of here. how are you? are you okay? >> i'm fine. >> how many times did you talk to him? >> i talked to him about nine times. >> ramirez tried scaring k.c. about potential evidence found in his car. >> why would there be blood in

the red versa? >> blood? you tell me there was blood and i don't know anything about it. what blood? you tell me. >> he tried backing k.c. into a corner about what might be found on k.c.'s hard drive. >> the good thing is if there's anything that you ever deleted that you wish you hadn't, we should be able to help you out with that. >> you're hoping he's going to think to himself, okay, everything i ever deleted they're going to see? >> right. >> didn't work? >> didn't work. we were swinging and missing regularly, on a daily basis. >> k.c. joy was willing to talk repeatedly without an attorney. >> free? k.c. you've been very cooperative with us. >> the detective has my fingerprints. >> he says to you, i've seen this movie and now you've got to take my fingerprints. he's like a pro. he's seen it all. >> he's being very relaxed.

i felt that he was very confident that we weren't going to figure it out. >> what mr. joy apparently didn't know was that other officers were watching him 24/7. the surveillance teams noticed he was spending a lot of time at the public library and he was using the computers there. probably because police had taken away his phone and maribel's computer, which was the one k.c. normally used. >> initially, we would have undercover policemen go into the library, walk around him, see what he's doing. at one point he's seen googling can a cell phone be tracked if it's turned off? >> that's certainly suspicious. >> it is. >> detective ramirez was consulting daily with orange county deputy district attorney, scott simmons. >> there are things that can be called into question but they're not immediately proof of anything. >> exactly.

that's why we didn't arrest him right away. >> police needed to see exactly what k.c. joy was doing on those library computers. that would require a very unusual plan. they obtained a search warrant allowing them to watch in realtime, every move made on the computer. this is a recording of k.c.'s actual computer keystrokes and mouse clicks. that's k.c. checking his e-mail. that's k.c. applying for a job. that's k.c. typing in how long does it take a body to decay. suspicious maybe but not enough. and then he did this. >> he pulled up a facebook page that showed there was going to be an awareness walk in the near future. >> a walk to help find maribel? >> it was. >> he google mapped that park and zoomed in onto it, he then panned out, navigated over about

eight to ten miles. >> this area that he was zeroing in on, was it an area that crossed your field of vision at all? >> no. >> here, k.c. is google mapping a place no one had searched. watch as he zooms into that area with the tree. >> that tree didn't figure in the investigation in any way? >> not in any stretch of the imagination. >> no one had searched there? >> no. >> no reason for that to be in the paper or anywhere else? >> no. i mean, it's out in a remote canyon location. >> but he's looking at it? >> yes, yes. >> by the time k.c. was walking out of the library that afternoon, police were already headed to that tree. coming up -- another startling discovery -- >> this is way off the beaten path, we didn't know what to think. >> and the suspect speaks. hear from k.c. joy himself. >> are you dangerous? >> me?

i'm the most honest guy there is. >> when "dateline" extra returns. extra returns. " returns. [ tires screech ] ♪ flo: [ ghost voice ] oooo! [ laughs ] jaaaaamie, the name your price tool can show you coverage options to fit your budget. tell me something i don't know -- oh-- ohhh! ahh! this is probably more of a breakroom activity. ya think? ♪

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welcome back. police were growing confident they knew who was involved in the disappearance of maribel ramos. they hadn't made an arrest. without a body, it was hard to say if they were even dealing with a crime at all. that was about to change. here's josh mankiewicz with the conclusion of the mystery in orange county. >> an as he dug deeper into k.c. joy's background, detective ramirez found more and more evidence k.c. was infatuated, even obsessed with maribel ramos, for instance the time maribel told k.c. he was too old for her and he responded by getting plastic surgery. >> $12,000 later, you have a different face? >> correct. >> he says the reason he got it was because of the woman who's missing? >> correct.

>> now, here was k.c. at the public library google mapping a remote wilderness area. since the dawn of detective novels, killers have returned to the scene of the crime. these days there's no need for the bad guy to get in his car. now it can be done with the click of a mouse. the good guys still have to do it the old-fashioned way. detective sean hayden got the call on the radio, drive out to rustic majestic canyon southeast of the city of orange. >> we didn't know what to think. this was a very rural area, no one would be out here mountain biking or hiking, way off the beaten path. >> at the other end of the two-way radio, detective brian stanley was re-watching k.c.'s google search, trying to give the detective better directions. k.c. focused on an intersection

and then moved over to the tree. >> on the center of the shot, there's one tree that looks like a bush in the middle of the wash. tell him to look for that tree and wash from that area. >> hayden and his partner found the tree, then moved off the road and past the barbed wire fence and then they knew they were close. >> as we were kind of trekking through this brush here, the first and foremost thing we found here was the overwhelming smell of a decaying body, or something dead. my partner and i kind of turned our head and looked over and found this shallow grave site. >> at long last, there she was. >> one of the detectives called and said, joe, you're not going to believe this, we found her. >> maribel ramos had been left alone in that dusty canyon since before anyone knew she was missing. now ramirez knew it was time for one last meeting with k.c. joy. >> thanks for coming down here voluntarily, i really appreciate it.

>> you will give me a ride back to the library so i don't have to walk. i don't have a car. >> ramirez didn't tell k.c. maribel had been found. he just tried for the final time to get k.c. to be the one who would say what had happened. >> k.c., i think that you have the answers in your heart, that you do and you should share them. >> no. >> once again, k.c. joy walked out of the interview room. he didn't get far. this time he was arrested and charged with the murder of maribel ramos, the woman he had loved who had not loved him. when he was taken into custody, k.c. joy was wearing maribel's dog tags. k.c. joy pleaded not guilty in july 2014, a year after maribel vanished, he went on trial for

her murder. >> this is maribel ramos. maribel is no longer with us. >> the prosecution laid out the evidence against k.c., the unrequited love, scratches, the 911 call and finally the computer searches. >> he's wondering how close is maribel's body to where they're doing the awareness search. that's why he goes to google maps. >> the defense pointed out there was no dna, fingerprints, cell phone info or standard forensic evidence that tied k.c. joy to maribel's murder or the crime scene. >> we don't know what happened. what kind of force was used nobody knows. who used it first? nobody knows. was there a weapon used? was it used by maribel or k.c. joy? nobody knows. >> all true. but the computer searches were enough for the jury. >> we the jury in the above entitled action find the defend k.c. joy guilty of the

felony. >> k.c. joy was found guilty of second-degree murder. after which he told me the jury got it wrong. >> are you dangerous? >> me. i'm the perfect most honest guy there is. i'm most gentleman. >> k.c. says he wants a new trial to move he couldn't have killed maribel, his quote best friend. >> you had a crush on her. >> absolutely not. i always maintained that we are platonic friends. >> you never told lucy you had a crush on her? >> no. i never said. >> never said you were in love with her? >> never said that. >> you weren't obsessed with her? >> no, i was not obsessed with her. >> the plastic surgery? his choice, he says, not done for maribel. and the computer search where maribel's body was found, k.c. says he didn't do it, somebody else did by remotely accessing the same computer right after he used it. >> you don't think that's quite a coincidence. >> it may be a coincidence but i didn't do it. >> you're being framed here? >> yes. if i had a paid attorney,

somebody like o.j. simpson had, i wouldn't be here right now, i'd be out. >> the problem is not that you're guilty, it's that you don't have enough money? >> exactly, money talks. if you have money i would not be here. >> k.c. joy was sentenced to 15 years to life for killing maribel ramos. >> what do you think happened? >> i think she went to bed and i think what he did was he got a pillow and smothered her. as he's got this pillow over her face she struggles a little bit. i believe that's where he got the scratches on his right tricep. >> if mr. joy hadn't done that google search leading you to the body, would he be a free man? >> if no other evidence came up, yes. >> he'd be a person of interest in a cold case? >> correct. >> maribel ramos graduated from college posthumously. her niece, giselle, who maribel always hoped would follow in her footsteps, instead ended up

walking the path meant for her aunt. >> i received her diploma and i got to sit in her seat and walk up stage and receive everything. >> it was so difficult to be there. it was difficult to see my daughter in such pain, walking for her aunt. >> maribel ramos, we lost her a couple years ago. she was an army veteran. >> every wednesday in the city of orange, they lower the flag for the fallen who served. but maribel has a legacy, giselle, who seems well on her wi -- way to becoming the successful woman maribel had hoped for. >> your mom says that you've sort have been the rock? >> yeah. >> they wouldn't have made it through this without you? >> yes. >> where did you get that

toughness? >> from her. >> from maribel? >> yeah. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. thanks for watching. it was tough. it was tough to think that anybody could do that to someone. to look at the pictures of what they did to her and hear details of how it was carried out. it's just, it's devastating. >> reporter: shauna tiaffay, loving mom by day, vegas cocktail waitress by night. >> i was at one of the bars and i saw her walk by. every single head turned. it w a