time and this desert doesn't give up its secrets easily. >> we have some breaking news. o.j. search son is a free man. he was released from a nevada prison a few moments ago. he was released from a prison in lovelock, nevada, outside of las vegas. back in july the nfl hall of famer won parole after serving nine years of a 33-year sentence for robbery. o.j. simpson was supposed to be released on october 1st, which would have been this sunday, and as happens with high profile cases, sometimes they try to move them out a little earlier, and this was obviously a late night transfer for o.j. simpson. we have no word on where he will

be going. he is now a free man. he had parole. he was given parole just a few months ago, and he has served as we had mentioned, his sentence for robbery. it was nine years of service for his robbery. it's a 33-year-old -- 33-year sentence that was reduced to nine years. the hall of famer was released in las vegas -- outside of las vegas, nevada, and besides being convicted of robbery and kidnapping, simpson was convicted in 2009. he also was very notorious, obviously, for the famous case of the deaths of his former wife nicole simpson brown and ronald goldman. that is one of those things that is just obviously followed o.j. simpson through this. yesterday nbc spoke with his

attorney. let's listen to that. >> the biggest thing he wants to be able to hug them on the outside of prison. they've been able to come see him every couple of months or the kids on the east coast, make a couple of times a year. he can hug them. by the way, let me get rid of this. he is not a chained up, shackled looking like a mess, as some people want you to believe. when you go and see him inside the prison, he is just like you see him on july 20th at the parole hearing. he is neatly pressed, jeans. he looks very, very good. nice, polished white sneakers. that's exactly the way he looks every single time when i go to see him there. he can hug his family members. they can sit down and play games, eat popcorn, get food from the vending machines. that's the experience. you can do that with the family members for about four or five hours on his visitation days. this is different. he is going to be able to hug those family members on the outside, and that's just a whole big difference and be able to go and walk with them and go to places with them. he is going to be able to do all that, and that's a big world of

difference. >> you get a letter 70 days out from pam bondi. it's just politics on her part. it's not going to work. number one, the interstate compact, it has to be accepted if mr. simpson meets all the conditions. if they don't for some reason reject it, oh, every florida civil rights attorney i'll be able to hire and sue the state of florida, and it will be the easiest case that you ever thought about having. mr. simpson is coming to florida whether the attorney general wants to or not. number two, all these own russ conditions she's talking about and all the staemts she's making, she doesn't even know what the department of corrections in florida does over there. that's their job. that's not her job, okay? this idea that pam bondi is going to get up on her high horse and say mr. simpson is the bad guy, she's just one of a long, long list of people who have simply monotized or capitalized or received a benefit off of simpson's notoriety.

>> simpson is not going to be holed up in a room. he certainly is not going to be that. that's one extreme. however, he is not going to be out every day going out to parties, doing all these things. he is a 70-year-old man. i think he is going to do what 70-year-old men do, which is live a retiree's life, golf, and lay very, very low. he has learned some big, big lessons over the last decade for his misstep in las vegas. >> we've been listening to malcolm laverne, o.j. simpson's attorney on this case, and, again, we are telling you that o.j. simpson has been released from jail. we're going to turn now from joe fryer who is somewhere in the vicinity of where o.j. simpson was released, and, joe, what can you tell us about what's going on this evening and why o.j. simpson was released at this hour. >> hey there. well, good morning. i'm actually in las vegas, so it's been sort of an adventurous weekend trying to figure out exactly what was going to happen with o.j. simpson. we've known all along. there's a traditional way that

someone like o.j. simpson would have been released, and then we knew all along that they could try and get o.j. out, sort of a nontraditional way because of the concern about all of the publicity. at this point we're actually still waiting for confirmation ourselves from the department of corrections that o.j. has been released. we're receiving reports from the associated press. we're still trying to get confirmation ourselves from the department of corrections. here's what we know. he could have been released as early as october 1st. here right now it is 1:00 a.m., october 1st, which means it could -- this is what happens if this is what happened, and he was released. they did it as soon as basically midnight on october 1st. now, this is -- in clark county, nevada, typically that person would have been moved from lovelock, nevada, which is in the northern part of the state, to the prison down in the southern part of the state that's called high desert

prison. typically he would have been moved to here, stayed here for a day or two, and then on a week day during business hours would have been transported by the department of corrections to his parole office, the parole office in the county where the crime was committed. clark county in las vegas where he would be processed, have the paper signed, and then be released there after meeting the parole officer into the family or friends or whatever. the concern all along from officials in nevada is that by doing that, it might create a sort of hectic situation. perhaps even a dangerous situation where o.j. simpson would be in the public eye, all the media, the paparazzi, even the public would actually see him arrive at the parole office and then from there when he hit the road, who knew what kind of safety situation would happen when he tried to get to wherever it is he is going to be staying? if in this situation he was free directly from lovelock correctional center, that's highly unusual, but it might be

because the department of corrections wanted to avoid a dangerous situation to try to get him out without creating any sort of hazard to the public. if he is free at this point, he still has to stay in nevada. here's what we know. o.j. simpson wants to live in florida. that's where two of his children live. that's where some of his close friends live. in order to do that, he is going to have to submit paperwork to florida that has to be approved by that state and nevada. they have to come to an agreement on the terms of his release. at last check as of late friday that paperwork had not yet been submitted to florida, which means for now until that happens he has to stay here in nevada. now, we've been told by o.j. simpson's attorney that there's a good chance that once that paperwork is submitted, it will be a fairly quick process. only a matter of a few days. for now o.j. simpson must stay here in nevada once he is a free man. >> you mentioned that it is just a few days for this to happen.

how does this process work? if you say he has to go to a parole office and stay in nevada, do we know if he has a place to stay? >> we for sure don't know off hand, but he would have to more than likely have some sort of plan that's been worked out by the parole officers. they're not just going to let him out if he this don't think he has a plan. he does have a plan. there are rumors that he might. someone he knows, a friend, a situation where they set up a place for him to stay in nevada. all along people have said the idea is probably he would stay low -- lay low in nevada. the things he wants to do when he gets out are the simple things, enjoy a nice meal, steak, seafood. we heard he might want to get the latest iphone. keep in mind he has been behind bars for nine years. the social media world has really changed in that time. he has a lot to adjust to. he has to be careful going out in public. he is going to have a certain set of rules that he has to follow based on the conditions of his parole, and those include

cannot drink to excess. can drink. he just cannot drink to excess. that means if any time he is tested and has a blood alcohol level of .08 or above, that's a violation of his parole, and he will have to go back to prison. can't be around firearms or -- those will be the things he has to follow. he will go right back to prison the moment a parole officer figures that out if he doesn't. that's whether it's in nevada or florida. i should add, we are receiving confirmation here from the department of corrections saying in an effort to insure public safety and reduce the potential for incident, the department of corrections will release o.j. at 12:08 a.m. from lovelock correctional center. we have a statement now from the department of corrections saying exactly what i was talking about just a few moments ago that they wanted to basically make sure out of a matter of safety that

they avoid the any sort of situation where o.j. simpson was released, and there was immediately some sort of media scrum situation on the road, on the freeway that created a dangerous situation. we even heard comparisons to princess diana and what happened in her death. clearly, these are the types of things that were on the mind of the department of corrections. they did not wait long. eight minutes after midnight on october 1st even though it was a weekend, clearly the department of corrections had a plan in place to do this in a very unconventional manner. >> definitely a quick and quiet release for o.j. simpson. we had heard malcolm laverne talking, his attorney, saying the potential is that o.j. simpson wants to go back to florida where his children are. do we think that's a possibility after he checks in with his parole officer? >> that's what we're talking about here. he can't do it today, as far as we know, and that's because the florida department of corrections continues to elit us as of friday that o.j. simpson

had not submitted the paperwork yet. his attorney tells us absolutely, he wants to live in florida. he is going to have to get some sort of paperwork to florida, and it's possible that's happened over the weekend here. florida then has up to 45 days to take care of this. now, don't listen to that number too seriously. it's not going to take that long, more than likely. up to 45 days. it will probably take only a matter of days before that plan is approved to figure out a way for florida to monitor him and then he is allowed to move into whatever situation he has set up in florida. that may be part of the issue is that if he is trying to finalize plans from what he would do in florida, speaking early -- or excuse me, saturday, early morning afternoon with malcolm laverne. he said at that moment he was not fully aware that o.j. simpson 100% had his plan set in florida yet. now, laverne said it's possible it's happened, and simpson hasn't told him yet, but he figured he would know if simpson had his full 100% plan in place, but the bottom line is the

theory was he has friends who live in condos there. we know one of his good friends, tom scotto, lives in the southwest part of the state, and whether he would live with him or near him, it was unclear at this point, but he is trying to finalize those plans. once he does that, he would move to florida. i heard you mention pam bondi, the attorney general in florida, who has expressed concerns. she does not want him to move there. keep in mind, she's the attorney general. that's a different department from florida's department of corrections, parole and probation. they're the ones who would be actually making that decision. most of the people we've talked with say that either this basically this interstate compact that sort of regulates the sort of going from one state to another and if o.j. simpson meets the basic requirements, which it appears he does, it he is likely going to go to florida, and pam bondi is concerned it may not go anywhere, but we'll have to see what happens in the coming days. >> joe fryer reporting for us. did you -- joe, i know you were

reading that statement before saying that it had been confirmed that he was released at 2:08. that was a confirmation from the nevada state corrections? >> correct. department of corrections put out that statement i read basically saying at 12:08 a.m. nevada time, talking about west coast time, so a little after 3:00 on the east coast, and they have put out a photo and video, which they said all along they were going to try to put together some sort of image. again, sort of compensation for the fact that the media might not actually be there to see the actual release. i think we should mention, he has been released from lovelock correctional center. it is remote. it is a good hour and a half from reno. it's about a six and a half hour drive from las vegas. in almost no situation is an inmate ever released from lovelock. the number one reason is because it is so remote. they don't usually like to release inmates into a place that is so remote.

they're not near an airport or train station or major bus station. >> joe, if you could just stand by for one second. we do have diane diamond on the phone. diane is an investigative reporter who has been covering o.j. simpson and his cases for years. joe, stand by. if i can bring you in, would you tell me what is your reaction to o.j. simpson being confirmed that he has been released on parole? >> i'm absolutely not surprised of it. not a bit. i'll tell you what, there's been all this talk made about o.j. simpson not having his movement plan in place to go to florida because his lawyer says so. well, the lawyer didn't tell us he was going to be released eight minutes after midnight las vegas time. yet, there he has been. you know, it doesn't surprise me a bit. i can tell you, o.j. simpson is laughing up his sleeve as he is

driven away from that prison with no major media scrum. he has put one over on us again, hasn't he? >> diane, you say that he is laughing. would malcolm laverne -- would he have known in advance that o.j. was going to be released at 12:08? would he have known the timing? >> yeah. if he didn't, he should be pretty angry at his own client. look, a lawyer is under no obligation to tell the media the truth, but a client most always tells his attorney what's happening to him. you know, they didn't just come and grab o.j. simpson at five minutes after the hour and say, come on, buddy, let's go. o.j. simpson had to have known that this was going to happen. he has been in segregation away from other people. there have been reports that he has been so bored that he has sort of been in solitary confinement. there's been no one around him for him to tell this to. here he is.

he is out. his lawyer -- i would bet you -- back to you this was going to happen. >> so malcolm laverne just kept it quiet. interesting. >> well, manyy opinion. >> you know how o.j. works. you know his places. what do you think he is going to do? >> i think he is headed for florida. now, there may have to, you know, legally be a way steigh s. this has just occurred. o.j. simpson has just walked free. hmm, i guess he would have to stay in the state of nevada until all the paperwork went through, but i'm going to repeat we didn't know he was going to get out of prison at 12:08, and i'm just sort of betting that that paperwork is already done. o.j. simpson runs in -- or he used to run,a anyway, in a prey ritzy crowd, and somebody in that crowd has a private plane,

and i bet it's waiting nearby if he is going to florida. >> he is now 70 years old. he is now released on parole. he has been in jail for nine years. how is he going to live the rest of his life? >> well, i think the first thing he is going to do, when all the dust settles this morning, is order up some really good food. he has been craving a steak and seafood, he said. number one. look, how is anybody who just got out of prop after nine years react? they're going to want to see their family. they're going to want to -- now, if there's a -- walk on the beach and smell the air and breathe free. you know? i get your gist. the gist of your question. >> diane dimond, thank you so much for being here. again, we are reconfirming o.j. simpson has been released on parole. he was in jail for nine years.

he was released on parole. we don't know where he is going yet. he will remain in nevada for a while until the paperwork is done, but we will obviously be keeping an eye on this and bring you the details as we get them here at nbc news. as we said, o.j. simpson released on parole at 12:08 in the morning on october 1st. we'll bring you more details here on msnbc. please stay with us. what did we do before phones?

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josh makowitz (voice over): perhaps the loneliest place on earth is in the middle of a bad marriage, which was exactly where ellen snyder found herself. perhaps the loneliest place on earth was in the middle of a bad marriage. that's exactly where ellen snyder found herself. in the early morning hours of january 11th, 2002, that came to an end. she had confronted her husband, mike snyder, with her knowledge of his love affair with another

man. in a rage, she says, mike left his home and his family and disappeared. >> it had been a very long, lonely time to be married and to be lonely every day and that loneliness was gone. >> but what disappeared along with mike was ellen's second marriage, which she says she fought so hard to save. >> your husband isn't waking up in the middle of the neat to yell at you. >> that's right. >> just you and the kids now. >> just me and the kids. >> ellen says she tried to reach him, but couldn't and neither could mike's family. he wasn't returning their calls either. mike's sister. >> so your mother calls you and says i haven't heard from mike in a couple of days. >> right. >> you're thinking -- >> we were concerned. >> carrie says she knew mike was

planning on leaving ellen soon. the whole family knew that much or assumed it. he wasn't supposed to leave everyone. >> he would have never have done that to his mother. he would have at least given her, look, i don't want to be contacted, please give me my space, but i am okay. >> at work mechanic jim noticed his boss ellen seemed more relaxed, as if a weight had been lifted if her shoulders. >> she seemed happier. she seemed more content and more at ease. >> and unbeknownst to ellen, her collapsing marriage was the topic of office gossip. >> she didn't want anybody to know what was going on with her life. >> other people did. >> yeah. >> what they said was what? >> well, they said mike was a hot head. >> mike had a reputation at work for having a hot temper, for being intimating.

mechanic dave syler worked with him for a decade. >> it was a lot of tension. you could ju feel from him. you know, a lot of people were very careful around him, what they said, what they did. >> because mike's fuse could blow, and when it did, you didn't want to be around. >> he did blow up at dispatchers and certain advisors and the dispatcher would be crying. >> it didn't come as a big surprise when ellen announced that mike had left her. >> he packed up his stuff and moved to phoenix. >> probably going to end up living in phoenix. that marriage must be over. >> rumors spread through the albuquerque auto business quicker than the latest recall. >> mike had left town, took the money out of the house, took all these things, and just disappeared. then later on i was hearing rumors that he was gay, had a

male lover, went to the caribbean. >> you have any idea who the source of these rumors was? >> no. everybody heard it, and it was just passed along throughout the dealerships. >> did you believe it? >> disappearing? i was kind of -- is one thing, but being gay, no. >> several months passed with no word from mike. now his side of the family was so concerned, they decided to go to the police. >> i knew at some point we had to -- we had to move on. we had to not just hope that he was out there, but had to at least explore other options. >> down at the albuquerque police station sister carrie filed a missing persons report. she had a feeling that something had happened to her brother. it was one thing to leave a bad marriage. quite another to end contact with the daughter mike loved. >> i know my brother remains steadfast in his love for his daughter. she was just the joy of my brother's life. i believed he felt that -- i

really did not have a concrete explanation besides that's just how i felt. that was my gut. >> terry wasn't too pleased the response the officer gave them. >> the officer that took our report was a little arrogant and said, you know, that he is a grown adult and that he can come and go as he pleases. he really at that time didn't even want to write our report. >> the police are essentially making the same argument ellen was making. >> right. >> mike snyder's fame name was entered into a national missing person's database. there wasn't much else the police could do or frankly would do. former albuquerque police chief ray schultz. >> it's not against the law to be a missing person unless there are suspicious circumstances. >> chief schultz was right in saying that mike was totally within his rights to walk out and cut off ties with everyone in his life. people he loved. the people he no longer loved. the investigation was limited to

that of a missing person. winter 2002 turned to spring. no one heard from mike snyder. his expensive mechanics tools lay unused at work. ellen now a single mom filed for divorce. she was awarded the house, the money in their joint account and sole custody of their daughter, elizabeth. sfwh >> when your daughter, mike's daughter, would say to you where is daddy, what would you say? >> i didn't know. that he had left because he was mad at mommy. >> a year after mike left her, ellen says she could no longer afford that home they built together now that she only had her salary. she sold the house, and she and her kids, michael and elizabeth, moved to a much smaller one. it was fall 2003 when ellen received a follow-up call from the albuquerque police department. the investigator wanted to know

if she had spoken with mike. and you said what? >> i say that i don't consider him missing. that he is right where he wants to be. that he left me with his gay boyfriend and that i haven't heard from him since. >> police seemed to find it understandable that perhaps ellen didn't really care much about mike's whereabouts at that point. >> they never asked me more questions. >> never show up at your house? >> no. >> whatever suspicions mike's side of the family might have had, police apparently didn't share them. with a few computer keystrokes and without the family's knowledge or any further investigation, mike snyder's name was literally wiped out of the national missing persons database. ellen had said he was not missing. back then that was good enough for the police. >> there should have been obviously a little more investigation done, other than the word of ellen snyder. >> all this time that you thought police were looking for them they weren't looking for

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hello. nbc world headquarters with breaking news. o.j. simpson has been released from prison. he left a prison in northern nevada a short time ago. this is a picture of him just before his release. no word on where he is headed. a prison spokesperson said he was released in the middle of the night to avoid media attention and any possible incident. the nfl hall of famer won parole in july after serving nine years of a 33-year-old sentence for robbery. we'll continue to follow this story. o.j. simpson released from prison. now back to "dateline." >> we would call missing persons, and they would say someone would get back with us. i believe almost in a three-year span we had little to no contact with the police department, and -- >> turns out they weren't even

looking most of the time. zroo during that time, he was not even in the database. >> it was now 2005. it had been three years since mike snyder left his home, his family, his whole life in albuquerque. f no one had heard from the master mechanic. not even his little girl who was now 9 years old. a third grader. >> that was a red flag for me, and maybe the one that kept me going because i knew there would be no way that my brother would have ever have left his daughter. ever. >> at the jeep dealership where mike had worked for ten years his name was rarely mentioned in conversation. >> after three or four years of mike being gone, that didn't come up too much anymore. >> we knew he was sick. we didn't really know if he was still in a hospital somewhere oosh he if he had actually just passed away from his illness. >> his tools were no longer lying there unused. ellen's son, michael, was using

them. he followed in mike's shoes and had become a mechanic as well. on those rare occasions when ellen would come by the shop where mike had once worked, his old colleague dave syler would ask -- >> have you heard from mike? she would say no. there just seemed to be no concern for mike, and she would just, like, no, i haven't seen mike. >> it's often said that the happiest and saddest of occasions are what bring families together. >> that definitely was probably the final straw where we were all on board. that my brother would have definitely have shown up for his own father's funeral. >> ellen and her children did show up. they no longer kept in touch with mike's side of the family, but they had seen the death announcement in the newspaper and came to pay their respects. >> we weren't expecting them, so

it was a little strange. kind of caught us off guard, but once again, we're in a state of mourning. we don't want to create any kind of issues. we certainly weren't going to have them escorted out. >> after all, mike's deceased father was the grandfather to elizabeth and step grandfather to ellen's son, michael. >> we let them come up to the casket, you know, had their ber evement time, and then we noticed that michael was just hysterical, just crying uncontrollably. at that point my sister and i are just looking at each other and poking each other and thinking what? >> michael cried so hysterically that his mother, ellen, had to escort the 20-year-old out of the room. >> were and he your father close? >> not close per se. i mean, he was no closer to my father than he was my mother, so it was a very odd occurrence that we all just took note of.

>> ellen at some point comes up to my sister and asks about my father's will and wanted to know if there was anything in the will provision for mike's daughter. >> she's asking about money? >> she's asking about money. >> the more she thought about it, the more terry had a sinking feeling that ellen knew something about mike's disappearance. >> she certainly wasn't acting like a woman who was trying to find the father of her child, and we could not understand why she didn't seem the least bit concerned about her child not having her father. they pleaded with police to take a fresh look at the case, and in the spring of 2005 the albuquerque police agreed. mark olson, then a cold case detective, was assigned. >> the department said, yes, we're looking. it's been three years. left a young daughter behind. he left a house.

>> the detective began digging for any information on a missing mechanic. did any record of him exist? >> first, we were looking at the criminal end to see if maybe he had been stopped or maybe there might be a police report on him somewhere. and there's nothing. check the -- >> then i started looking in to see if there might be any indication of financial records that might indicate he was working somewhere and once again, we came into a dead end there. >> but the detective did discover one very curious thing. it turns out mike snyder had filed state tax returns in 2004 and 2005. years after his disappearance.

>> that sounds to me like a guy who doesn't want to be found. >> it's just the possibility that he might be alive. >> is your brother the kind of person who would either know how to or want to sort of live off the grid? >> he certainly had the financial means. did he have the know-how? i wouldn't think so. i don't know what it takes to live under ground so to speak and be a person of a different, you know, identity. i don't know if he would even have considered something like that. >> could mike snyder be hiding, not missing? if so, why? and from whom? >> coming up, the search for mike from the caribbean -- >> that's where he was with -- >> correct. >> to his own backyard. >> the neighbor said she remembered michael and ellen digging out behind the garage in a hole. >> when "dateline" continues. when i started taking the chantix that urge just slowly diminished and it was a

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josh makowitz (voice over): out here in the new mexico desert, . >> out here in the new mexico desert the land is dry and vast. there are roads that lead nowhere, and mysteries that go unsolved. cold case detective mark wilson had been trying to unravel one of those mysteries. the disappearance of albuquerque native mike snyder.

>> he could have a successful job anywhere in the country. >> one that would have showed up in your search. >> right, yes. >> there was no trace of him. not anywhere. it was as if the master mechanic had simply vanished. >> there wasn't any indication of anything that would match up. >> but mike snyder had filed income tax returns in 2004 and 2005. years after he disappeared. it was quite simply, very, very odd. with the investigation seeming to stall, detective wilson called the local paper, the albuquerque journal, asking if they filed a story on the cold case. maybe the attention would shake loose some leads. >> police were finally willing to say publicly that they believed this may have been a homicide. >> it's no secret that in any homicide investigation the spouse is always the first to be questioned. before the detective had a

chance to reach out to ellen, she was calling him complaining about that article. >> she said where did you get this information? she was upset that it portrayed that he was just an innocent man, father, that had disappeared. >> the article didn't implicate you. >> yes, it did. >> i read it. it doesn't, like, lay the blame at your feet. >> yes, it does. >> she and michaeling had a heated discussion and that the next morning when she woke up, he was gone. he hadn't taken a vehicle. >> ellen told the detective she was pretty sure that mike had initially moved to phoenix, home of his lover, dave simmons, but more recently she believed he had moved on to the caribbean. >> she said he is probably on an island somewhere. >> we had looked at land on st. croix. as far as i knew, i figured that he had gone to st. croix. >> and that that's where he was

with dave simmons? >> correct. >> in fact, ellen said she actually had spoken with mike over the years. >> mike had called a couple of times. >> yes. >> you heard his voice. >> yes. >> wherever he was, he was not angry at you anymore, but at least the two of you were talking in a sort of non-angry way about the kids. >> i think we were still angry. i think i told him that we were still angry. >> but that he was gone and that he wasn't coming back. >> right. >> mike's sister, terry, hadn't yet learned about mike's relationship with the mysterious dave simmons or about the accusation that her brother was secretly gay. ellen didn't share any of that with terry until a few years after mike had disappeared. >> she told other people about it at the time. >> not us. she didn't seem to throw that out to us at first. >> any of that make any sense to you? i don't believe for one minute that my brother is gay. >> that was only one of the

components to elle story that detective wilson wanted to check out. he says he asked ellen to come down to the police department and meet with him in person. only she wouldn't. >> she said he is not missing. he said, well, we want to find him, and even ask her to come in to help us find him. she would not come in. >> so ellen and detective wilson never did meet face-to-face. she claimed she was giving all the information she had. >> he wanted to meet with you. >> he never said that. >> he says he did. >> he never ever asked me to come down. ever. >> instead ellen mailed the detective some paperwork that she found in mike's desk. a western union money transfer from mike snyder to dave sim owners in the amount of $200. a u-haul receipt with dave simmons' name and number. the accounting of mike's cell phone bill from december 2001

right before he disappeared, which showed a number of phone calls with that same telephone number. >> you gave detective wilson all the documentation you had. >> yes. >> unfortunately, ellen no longer had the voice mail, the one she claims to have discovered on mike's cell phone. the sexually explicit one from dave simmons. >> the only proof that they had a relationship is the voice mails, which don't exist anymore. >> well, i think people if they knew mike, would know that he would never send anybody money ever unless there was some sort of relationship there. >> so mike was supporting this guy? >> i never found enough money that he was supporting him, but he was definitely helping him out. >> police tell us ellen's information didn't lead anywhere. the detective didn't locate mike in the caribbean, and when he tried to contact dave simmons from phoenix, he never got a response. that same albuquerque journal article, the one that so

infuriated ellen, also got ellen's former neighbors talking about something they had seen years before. >> they had seen michael and ellen digging out behind the garage. digging a hole. >> when was that? >> around the time that michael went missing. the neighbors said she remembered seeing them out behind the garage with shovels. >> and that was pretty intriguing to the detective. it sounded like a viable lead, so in late spring 2006 with the current home owner's permission, detective wilson brought two search dogs and their handlers to the snyder's old property. a neighbor showed them where a flowering tree had been planted in 2002 trk the year after mike disappeared. >> my suspicion was that there was a body under the tree. that they planted a tree to hide the body. >> the handlers let the dogs loose on the property. at first they showed little interest. that is, until they went under

the flowering tree. incredibly, both dogs independently of one another gave their cadaver alert. >> the dog handler said this is an indication that possibly the scent is coming up through the tree. she did say that the body could be ten feet down here or 30 feet in that direction if indeed there was a body there. >> detective wilson had a new theory. maybe mike snyder had never actually left home after all. was this the big break the case needed? the detective discussed it with mike's sister. >> and, of course, i get both excited, intrigued, you know, anxious, and i start asking him a bunch of questions. >> the team tried to dig deeper, but the ground was hard. >> what did you find? >> we didn't find anything. the dogs didn't -- they weren't excited about the hole itself. >> and so the trail went cold. the tip had seemed like gold, and mike's sister, terry, was

crushed. the detective was deflated. >> i had to think that, well, there's a possibility that maybe his body was somewhere else. i did have a feeling that michael snyder was dead somewhere. >> digging here was over, but metaphorically at least detective wilson still held a shovel. he was trying to get to the bottom of what ellen snyder had been doing around the time her husband mysteriously disappeared. it wasn't long before he found someone ellen worked with who had offered some very unusual help. >> a co-worker said i have a gun if you would like to use it if that will help. >> dateline returns after the break. ke. ay,no! don't do that! try head & shoulders instant relief. it cools on contact, and also keeps you 100% flake free. try head & shoulders instant relief. for cooling relief in a snap.

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josh makowitz (voice over): it had been four years since mike it had been four years since mike snyder had gone missing. four years since he had left his family, including his young

daughter to his hometown of albuquerque, new mexico. in 2006 the albuquerque journal wrote an article on the missing mechanic and father. the cold case which had been virtually dead for years was suddenly picking up steam. reporter jeff procter. >> it triggered some tips to the police department, and it got people, you know, talking about this as something other than a husband who had walked off on his family. >> for the first time albuquerque police were publicly calling the case a homicide investigation. that caught the attention of a man named frank. >> he said i'm the one that led -- if you think she's a suspect in this, i don't want my family in danger, so i want to turn the gun over to you. >> frank was retired military. a straight by the book guy who had befriended ellen snyder when they worked together in 2001. >> she was telling people that

he yells at her all the time. >> it was christmas 2001. ellen says the daily fighting in the snyder home had escalated. mike's multiple sclerosis had grown progressively worse, and with it so had his anger. >> he would push me around. he would, you know, hit me. >> he hit you how many times? one time? >> three or four. >> ellen now held an executive level position at a large dealership. she was the boss to 30 mechanics and making upwards of $90,000 a year. >> she put your feet to the fire to make sure you would get the job done, and move on. >> she was no pushover. >> she was no pushover. >> she stood up for herself. >> inside the walls of that nice home, ellen's rank -- >> he became very condee sending, controlling. where i could go, who i could see. >> at home mike made the rules,

and ellen obeyed them. >> you had a significant executive job at a big company. >> yes. >> so you're not some shrinking violet who is home cowering under her husband's direction. >> but when it came to be at home and opening that door, i was that shrinking violet. that's how things were. he ran the show. it was two different -- two different ellens. who different lives. >> detective wilson interviewed ellen's old boss, a man named james cassel. he told the detective he remembered an incident when ellen came to work with bruises. >> she was wearing her sunglasses. i said, why are you wearing sunglasses? she finally took her sunglasses off. i asked her, i said, you know, what the heck happened to you? she had stated to me that supposedly mike and michael got into a big battle, and mike was beating the crap out of him, so she jumped in the middle, and,

of course, she took the brunt of it. >> was she giving the classic battered wife's explanation for her bruises? a few days later cassel says he heard yelling coming from ellen's office. >> i hear world war iii breaking loose in the office next to me. there was a guy screaming, okay? >> turns out the loud angry voice belonged to none other than mike snyder. >> he is standing on this side of the desk. she's standing on her side of the desk. he is just screaming. when he stops, when i barge in and he looks at me, i told him i said, you know, you can't do this here. he basically told me i needed to mind my own f-ing business. >> her colleague frank volunteered to loan ellen a .32 caliber semiautomatic pistol. >> showed her how to use it. explained a bunch of things to her. a ten-minute please don't shoot yourself lesson.

>> i never had one before. he offered me the gun after he saw me bruises. i took it home and put it in the back of the closet. >> why not gather up the kids and leave? >> i have a 6-year-old daughter. it was christmas time. >> detective wilson checked for my police reports of domestic abuse or calls to 911. he found none. >> did they have altercations throughout their marriage? i would imagine. most couples do. i have never seen any violent temper in my brother. >> you know there's no do you meaned police -- >> i know that. i know that. >> it was a few months later when ellen returned the gun to her colleague. >> he looked at it. he looked at her. he said where is the bullets? >> ellen said a friend had taken her to a gun range and showed her how to use it. >> "dateline" returns after the break.

hello. dara brown, msnbc world headquarters with breaking news. after nine years, o.j. simpson is a free man. he was released from a northern nevada prison about an hour and a half ago. this is video of his release. this is a picture of him just before a picture of him before his release. we have no word on where he is headed. the nfl haul i have famer won parole after serving nine years a 33-year sentence for robbery. joe fryer is following this breaking story and joins us from las vegas. what can you tell us about why he was released in the middle of the night? >> well, what we can tell you is all along the department of corrections has been concerned about safety with his release. why is that? if he followed the typical pattern of someone convicted of a crime, typically that person would be brought to another prison in southern nevada near