right now go to apple podcasts or tune in or whatever you use. check out the quick trailer. it tells you more about what we've been up to. we've got some extra special music by my buddy eddie cooper in there. make sure you subscribe so you know when the first epszs go up. that is "all in" for this evening. she mainly comes in dreams, and it's so real that it feels like her. and she'll just give me a hug. >> why'd it have to happen to our family? why'd it have to happen to michelle? why that day? >> moment by moment.

>> "dateline" was there at every turn. was she missing or murdered? was this the key? >> i will take your life and hers. >> a threat. a voice seething with hate and rage. >> you deserve to die for your lies. it's your last and final warning. >> what happened to michelle? >> this case is not going to be over. >> i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." they're watching us. they know where we are. how we shop, how we play, what we do.

electronic eyes. they follow us almost everywhere. and the weird fractured personal diary they write remains forever. of course, it's meaningless, most of it. meaningful, that is, until it's not. until it's terrifying. the san francisco bay, may 27th, 2011. 6:55 p.m. a young nursing student named michelle le walks across a foot bridge to her parking lot. she is not supposed to be here. for reasons unknown and without permission, she has left her post at the hospital.

she walks to her honda crv, just out of camera range. 7:17 p.m., here is michelle's honda leaving the garage. why then, just an hour or two before the end of her shift? good questions. questions about to engulf her whole family. >> why couldn't she have stepped out and avoided this whole thing? why did it have to happen to our family? why did it have to happen to michelle? >> but it did. much of it recorded, as you will see, by those electronic beeps, and pixels, just enough to make it a puzzling history. enough to not quite know what happened to michelle le. >> one of the things i was so angry about was that nothing made sense. nothing made sense. >> especially this. same night. 8:56 p.m. michelle's nursing instructorer, no idea, baffled, looks in the 9:05 p.m. michelle's car reenters the garage two floors below. it arrives on the third floor. off camera, the nursing instructor sees it, waves frantically. the car suddenly stops, backs

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

cousins who grew up together with very little except each other. and michelle was smart and studious and attractive. the leader of this very active pack. strong, loving center of the family. a loving figure to her younger brother michael. michael who was the next person to get the call from the boyfriend. where was michelle? >> i go, yeah, yeah, ex-boyfriend just trying to get ahold of michelle. i didn't pay it any mind. but just in case, i wanted to see if she was okay. i checked on her facebook. she had plans to go to tahoe with some friends. i sent those friends facebook messages to make sure she was okay. >> michael went to work and didn't think much more about it. then he got another call. this time it was that nursing call instructor. >> she told me the story of how she went out to the garage and

saw what matched the car's description just taking off. and suddenly it wasn't a game anymore, it wasn't something you could excuse. >> by then christine was calling michelle's cellphone. >> she didn't pick up. that's when i had this feeling where something might have been wrong. after she didn't pick up a few times. >> at 9:30 a.m., 12 hours after michelle was reported mitigate, police found her car parked outside this apartment building, just a few blocks from the hospital where michelle was last seen. odd. hayward police inspector frazier richie was called in to have a look. >> the car was locked. it was secured. that's why we believe michelle was possibly somewhere around here. we had no clue were to start looking. >> what could be seen through the tinted windows looked fine, as if michelle left the car here herself all morning. a flurry of worried phone calls went back and forth among michelle's friends and family.

what should they do? >> it was chaotic. but we weren't thinking the worst at the time. >> christine and her family began packing for the eight-hour drive. michael rushed over to nearby hayward to join michelle's friends and fellow students who were already handing out "missing" posters near the parking garage. had anyone seen her? >> we just wanted to find her. we didn't think anything bad happened to her. >> where was she? they hammered her iphone with more than a hundred calls and texts. and heard in response -- nothing. then 12:45 p.m., 15 hours after michelle was last seen, finally a text from her phone. i'm not missing, it read. my phone has been acting crazy. it deleted everything. all these texts have killed my battery.

michelle sent a flurry of reassuring texts to friends and family, i'm fine, take it easy. her ex-boyfriend texted her back. her response from her phone? "who is this?" uh-oh. did michelle really send that text? >> i asked, is it possible she could be out there, all stressed out? they said, yes, it's possible. >> but soon, questions about michelle's friends would lead police closer than they knew to the key to this case. ♪ ♪ protect your pets from fleas and ticks with frontline plus for dogs and frontline plus for cats. its two killer ingredients work fast and keep working all month long

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and it's "daditude". simple. easy. awesome. xfinity. the future of awesome. keith morrison: cell phones buzzed and chirped all afternoon that day after michelle le vanished from the watching web. certainly, her iphone hadn't vanished. >> reporter: cell bones buzzed and chirped all afternoon, that day after michelle le vanished from the watching web. certainly her iphone hadn't vanished.

one creepy text after another popped up in the phones of her friends, her cousin, her brother. "i just needed some time without anyone." "i had a bad night last night." "i don't really want to talk to anyone right now." but then after three hours of that the texts stopped just as suddenly as they had begun. the last one simply said "i'm sick." so strange. so out of charter. michells family and friends it seemed obvious, someone had michelle's phone. someone who was not michelle. >> the more that they went out, it felt like it was becoming -- >> sinister. >> having this person text back as michelle was just extremely, extremely terrifying. >> what did that feel like to go through that? >> it's hard to put into words. living nightmare, i think, is the closest thing. >> reporter: in a strange way as chilling as these messages were they gave michelle's friends and family some hope. to them it seemed obvious they were communicating with someone

who had abducted michelle, and so their mission was now clear. michelle didn't just need to be found. michelle needed to be rescued. >> it's a time-critical situation. every second you that waste is a second that she's hurting. we had to find her. >> reporter: saturday afternoon, 18 hours after michelle vanished, michael and a group of michelle's friends met with inspector fraser richie at the hayward police department. >> we had about 10 or 15 family members and classmates and friends at the police department. they were all talking about how responsible she was, how out of character this would have been for her to just get up and leave. >> did you try to call michelle or anything? >> yes. >> get a response? >> yes. i sent a message out. this is inspector ritchie with the hayward police department, you need to get a hold of me right now. >> yeah. >> i got the response within several minutes saying that my phone is dying, i need to find a charger, i'm having car trouble.

>> the same sort of response received by michelle's friends and family, who had now decided based on those weird text messages that michelle had been kidnapped. but as far as inspector ritchie was concerned, just about anything was possible. >> i kept an open mind. i didn't know whether michelle voluntarily went missing for whatever personal reasons she had or if this was a stranger abduction or if this was an abduction from somebody that she knew or she just left with a friend. >> did anybody say she would have just flipped out and, you know, stressed out and just left? >> i asked is it possible she could just be out there all stressed out? and they said yes, it's possible. >> inspector ritchie also asked if michelle had any enemies or problems with ex-boyfriends, for example. >> only problems that she seemed to be having with anybody was coming from gisele esteban. >> gisele esteban, one of michelle's best friends in high school down in san diego.

but not just michelle's friend. a friend of the family. gisele was a fixture around the house, spent hours with all of those cousins. then after high school in 2002 the two friends both moved to san francisco to attend college. and that's where gisele fell in love and got pregnant, moved in with her boyfriend scott, and then broke up with him three years later. the trouble came when michelle stayed friends with scott, with that boyfriend, after the break-up, and that just didn't sit well with gisele. though really it wasn't such a big deal. still, just to cover all the bases, late saturday night ritchie dropped in on gisele to ask what she knew. >> we're here about michelle le. >> who? >> michelle. >> oh, god. what about her? >> she went missing last night from her work. >> okay. >> in talking to her friends and such, we understand you guys had

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

and that's when detectives began to understand michelle a little. how kind she was and bright and self-reliant. very much like this young woman. phuong le. also vietnamese american. also a 20-something nursing student. also living in the san francisco area. who 13 months earlier also disappeared. >> there's a lot of similarities obviously in that she's the same age category, same ethnicity, same profession. >> reporter: even the same last name. was a pattern developing? coming, police look into the possible connection between those student nurses and a meeting with michelle's family. the meeting goes badly.

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keith morrison: it was april 30, 2010, just over a year before the disappearance of michelle le. >> we were horrified. >> reporter: it was april 2010. just over a year before the disappearance of michelle le. it was close, perhaps 50 miles away. and it was so -- coincidental. another young nursing student, almost the same age, same 0 ethnicity, even the same last name, vanished from this

shopping mall parking lot. her name, phuong le. police lieutenant greg hurlbut caught the case but couldn't find her. >> several weeks later, we got a call from a neighboring county, napa county, saying that they had a body out in the woods that somewhat matched the description of our missing person. >> reporter: it was indeed phuong le. but that was, by no means, the end of the investigation. >> to this day, we're trying to identify who, in fact, killed phuong le. >> reporter: so during that memorial day weekend in 2011, when detective hurlbut heard about the disappearance of a young woman named michelle le, he wondered -- was this a break in his case? >> you have somebody that looks almost exactly the same, almost the same name, the same circumstances. it's a real bizarre coincidence.

>> reporter: michelle's family also heard about phuong le, so when they met with detectives for the first time on sunday, may the 29th, 48 hours after michelle's disappearance, they asked the dreadful question. could michelle's case be connected to the phuong le murder? >> the community brought that up and thought that they might be linked. and so we -- we brought that up with the hayward police and they said, "you know, we looked into it but we don't think there's any connection." >> reporter: so then there was a wash of relief. the detectives also told the family they'd found michelle's car. that it was locked, appeared undamaged. to the family that was good news. it meant to them that michelle must be alive, held somewhere. though, during that sunday meeting, the police gave the impression that they still had no idea what had happened to michelle. >> they asked us a lot of questions about her relationships and her friendships. and they told us they were

working on it. >> we'd keep asking them, probing them for more information. they kind of just -- kind of threw their hands and said, "you know, we can't tell you much, and we're sorry." >> your level of frustration must have been pretty high? >> it was sky high. >> reporter: the le family now had the impression the police weren't taking the case seriously at all. >> because michelle's an adult. so we felt if she's an adult and she -- she's not a child. maybe she wasn't being prioritized. >> so what was it like leaving that meeting? >> it was -- chaos is probably the number one feeling. we didn't have a place to stay. we were hotel hopping. we were just waiting around most of the time, staying in the hotel. it was like you were -- you were blind. you know, you didn't know -- we had no idea where to go. what to do. >> reporter: the family couldn't understand why the police seemed to be moving so slowly. in their minds, michelle was being held against her will. a week went by. saturday june 4th, eight days after michelle's disappearance. her family held this vigil near the place where her car was found. >> we wanted the fbi to get involved and all this. and we were just making a lot of noise. >> reporter: quietly attending

was scott, the young man the police had questioned a week earlier. giselle esteban's old boyfriend, remember, and father of her child. two days later, monday june 6th, the family was called back to the police station for an important meeting. the police finally had a chance to search michelle's car and the status of her case had been changed, from missing person to homicide. and the family felt blindsided. >> and they said, you know, "i think you have to get comfortable with - - with the fact that your sister is probably dead." we were horrified. >> reporter: and just like that, the information door closed. the hayward police told the family it was a murder investigation now. so department policy -- they could reveal nothing more. and therefore couldn't or wouldn't tell the family why they thought michelle was dead. but without hearing an explanation or seeing any evidence, how could the family

believe the police? no. they simply wouldn't accept what the cops had to say. >> it was horrible. we were really angry. because, okay. you want to make it homicide. you're not going to tell us why. >> reporter: ritchie understood the family's anger. but as far as he was concerned, he had a murder investigation on his hands and that meant the family had to be kept in the dark. >> there's certain procedural things that we have to keep close to us, that we can't put out there. because we have to maintain evidence, we have to maintain the custody of certain information. and it's of evidentiary value to us that if we don't have the suspect in custody, that the only people that know about it is the suspect and us. >> reporter: so in the absence of official information, the le family, at least its younger members, decided the only option was massive publicity. an appeal to the public for whatever help they could offer. but that was the kids. the cousins. family elders were deeply reluctant to share their grief with strangers. >> they didn't want her story out there publicized like we had made it. they didn't -- >> why? >> well, it's -- it's very private. it was such a fine line between how much do you give away about your own family's misfortune

to -- to do good for michelle? in the asian families, when you're younger, you're supposed to be very, very respectful of the hierarchy in the family. you're not supposed to boss anybody around. but i was just livid. i mean, i was so angry. >> reporter: the family elders knew far more about survival than most people ever do. they were boat people who had been forced to flee vietnam after the war. very nearly perished in their open boat in the south china sea. and then spent months in a refugee camp before being dropped in a land whose language and customs they did not know. and yet before long, they embraced it all. big family celebrations at christmastime and easters and birthdays. they went on all-american vacations like this one to the california coast. that's little michelle in the glasses. >> and here we are at santa

barbara beach. we're having lots of fun. and here's my brother. >> reporter: they succeeded in america by doing what they had since their days of crisis on the south china sea. they stuck together. an epic, very american tale of grit and hope and self-reliance. lessons absorbed whole by their children. >> if i was missing and michelle was looking for me, she would -- she would, you know, tear up heaven and earth, you know, to find me. and so i had to -- i had to fight for her. >> reporter: so it was the new generation, the american-born generation, that finally convinced the family it had to go public. to put their story out in the press and on social media. >> until the hayward police department can offer conclusive and definite proof -- otherwise, we will continue to

believe she's alive. michelle is still alive and needs to be rescued. >> we're going to find you and we're going to bring you home. >> reporter: two weeks to the day after michelle's disappearance, the family organized this vigil to make a public case that michelle was not dead. but instead, a kidnap victim in urgent need of rescue. >> we're just focusing on getting her home and what we can do to get her home. >> i truly, truly believe if she's out there we'll find her. >> reporter: if michelle was going to be rescued, the family decided it would be up to them to do it. but where is michelle and who could have taken her? an outside investigator zeros in. ew? >> this is someone that knew her, knew when she'd be at work.

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keith morrison: what happened to michelle le? vanished on a sunny evening from a well-lit parking garage under the protective watch of 18 surveillance cameras. >> reporter: what happened to michelle le? vanished on a sunny evening, from a well-lit parking garage under the protective watch of 18 surveillance cameras. detectives with the hayward police department went over this footage again and again. were they missing something? what happened in those minutes after michelle walked out of camera range and before her car went racing out of the garage? >> it was infuriating. there was one camera right above

michelle's car. would have revealed everything. but that night the camera wasn't working. what happened in those missing minutes? the police, remember, weren't talking to the family. so the family pursued its own line of investigation. >> we were looking to human trafficking patterns and -- >> human trafficking patterns? >> yeah. >> you thought that was a possibility? >> we did, yeah. >> reporter: but it was a dead end. then june 30th, 34 days into michelle's disappearance, the le family contacted us to say they had begun working with a private investigator. a man named michael frame. and in the midst of his investigation, frame sat down with us to tell us what he had learned.

>> this had to happen quickly. this is a public parking garage. people come in and go from that garage all night. someone was lying in wait. they knew that at some point she'd return to her vehicle. it was a number of hours before her shift was going to be over. and they were prepared to abduct her at that time. >> did anybody know why she went to her car? >> not that we know of at this time. >> unusual thing to do at that stage of your shift? >> i think it was either a quick break or something drew her out to her car. that we still don't know. but she was still dressed in her white hospital scrubs. it was evident that she was going to come back because she left her belongings in the hospital. >> reporter: remember, police found michelle's car about a half a mile from the hospital, parked and locked in a residential area. but hadn't revealed what evidence they'd since found inside. but frame had found out a thing or two about the car and how it got there. >> did anybody see the car arrive? >> there's a report of a witness who stated they heard conversation coming from or headlights shining in their house and conversation coming from the car at about 4:00 the following morning. >> conversation coming from -- >> conversation. >> which would mean there's more than one person. >> the people that reported this saw headlights shining through

their window. and they believe that it came from the general direction of where michelle's car was found. >> reporter: multiple kidnappers. almost had to be, said frame. >> i think when you look at the circumstances in their totality, how this person was waiting for her and the fact that she was put into her vehicle obviously quickly and driven out quickly, that there may be a possibility of more than one person. >> reporter: and he was almost sure, not strangers. >> this is someone that, that michelle had some type of contact with that saw her, that knew her, that knew where she parked her vehicle, knew what she drove, knew where she worked, knew when she'd be at work. >> so it may be members of her family or her friends may already know who this is. i mean, may know the person who did it. just not be aware that they know? if they'd look through what those relationships were, the answer may be in there somewhere? >> the answer i think in this case is not far off. >> reporter: the police had questioned michelle's family,

current and former friends, old boyfriends, but it didn't seem like they were getting anywhere. frame thought the investigation was in trouble. >> when your investigation has run cold, when you don't have a viable suspect, when you don't have information that's going to lead you to a suspect, i think it's important that you start, you know, looking at viable alternatives. too often these cases go cold for five, ten years. from what we've seen so far, i think this is a possibility. >> reporter: the le family was working with frame because they were frustrated with police. and now frame tried to do something police couldn't. >> what we've done is put out information to anyone that may know something or potentially be involved or think that they know who's involved to call us confidentially without contacting the police. and we'll provide that

information to the right authorities and at the same time protect these people if they need protection. >> reporter: soliciting tips from people who were afraid to call the cops. would his plan work? wait and see. coming up, "dateline" is there when that private tip line gets a dramatic call. what is this guy saying? what could he tell you? >> he said he had information as to a potential site where michelle might be. >> will he lead them to measurable? there's no way to hide from potentially deadly heartworm disease. just one mosquito bite can transmit it. so protect your dog with delicious heartgard plus. digestive and neurological side effects have rarely been reported. ask your vet for more information. heartgard plus, the vet's #1 choice ♪ ♪

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keith morrison: michelle le had been missing for weeks, no break in the case at all. >> reporter: michelle le had been missing for weeks. no break in the case at all. and then, just before we sat down for an interview with a private investigator named michael frame, his phone rang, with a tip from an inmate, who claimed to know where michelle could be found. >> so who do you think is involved in michelle's disappearance? >> reporter: what is this guy

saying, that he has -- what could he tell you? >> he said he has information as to a potential site where michelle may be. >> reporter: frame made the trip out to the jail for a face to face interview. >> the parolee's information was that she had been abducted and was being held at a house in hayward. and it turned out, unfortunately, that this information was related to another criminal act and had nothing to do with michelle's disappearance. >> reporter: back in hayward, the police might have been

accomplishing something, but were saying nothing beyond their belief that michelle was dead. and as far as the family could tell, the police investigation seemed to be getting nowhere. and now the family's own private investigator seemed lost in the weeds as well. hoping to shake loose a lead, they increased the amount of the reward money from $20,000 to $40,000 to $65,000 to $100,000, all from private donations, much of it out of the families own pockets. so every day was precious, said her brother michael, and every day that passed a missed opportunity to find her. >> you know, she was always looking out for me. and so i -- this was my time to do everything i can to look out for her, to make sure that, the hell that she was going through she wouldn't have do go through a day longer. >> reporter: you must have had the sense that any day now, we'll find her and we'll bring her back, and everything will be okay again. >> every day we were hoping that today was the day. you know, every day. >> reporter: it was obvious when we talked to michael, the intensity of his devotion for michelle. the reason for that? he told us a story about their mother. >> our mom was pretty much our -- our superhero. she worked long hours as a nurse practitioner. and she was an incredible mother to us. she was so loving. she would always tell us stories and -- >> reporter: stories about what? >> one that we always loved was one called the woman on the moon. and it's a vietnamese love story about if you looked really hard enough that the shadows on the moon kind of looks like a woman with long flowing hair.

and the same day of the year she would come down looking for the one that she loved. well, ultimately, she was trapped on the moon to watch over him. >> reporter: folklore is the kind of reality that is like armor for a child. armor for a child. it protects in a time of terror. michael was 11 when his mother learned she had breast cancer, but she did not tell him. she protected him from the worst of it, both he and his 14-year-old sister michelle. and so when the cancer finally took her life -- >> it came as a shock. she died december 1st, 1999. and we had just seen her for thanksgiving, maybe about a week ago. >> reporter: now alone, michael and michelle were taken in by krystine's family. >> she told me a story about how, after her mom passed away, she didn't even know what to do at first until she saw michael in the garage holding something of his mom's and crying. she told me you know, "that was the time i knew it was time to be, you know, a big sister and be a mother figure for him." >> reporter: overcome her own sense of loss -- >> yeah.

>> reporter: -- save this boy? >> oh, yeah. so you couldn't even tell she was having any trouble. >> she made a sort of commitment to -- between her and i that she would look out for me. >> reporter: but not just michael. michelle also kept watch over krystine. >> she was like my older sister. she dressed me. she helped tweeze my eyebrows. she taught me how to do makeup. >> reporter: taught you about

boys? >> yeah, we talked about boys all the time. she helped me write my first love letter. oh, my gosh. when we were growing up, we were so alike that my family called me mini michelle. >> reporter: and now "mini-michelle" and michael and

the rest of the le family held vigils, issued press releases, anything to keep michelle's case in the public eye. >> i needed to work on something all the time that was her every day, that was related to her every day. >> reporter: did you feel like you were getting anywhere? >> it felt productive. but it still felt hopeless, hopeless in the sense where you still don't know what -- what's going on. >> reporter: after weeks of casting about they were no closer to finding michelle than they'd been that first chaotic weekend. and it was sad but perfectly understandable that public interest began to wane. it was during that period of darkness when one of michelle's uncles down in san diego begged for help from this woman carrie mcgonigle. >> michelle le's uncle asked, you know, what do i do? i'm completely lost. [ sigh ] how's it going?

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keith morrison: the vigils, the reward, the facebook campaign, the flyers, the detective all kept >> reporter: the vigils. the reward. the facebook campaign. the flyers. the detective. all kept michelle's family busy and hopeful but had ultimately been unproductive. they were nowhere. and it was just at that point when marc klaas stepped into the life of the le family. >> i met the family in a dingy motel on the side of the freeway in hayward, california at about 11:00 o'clock in the morning, and they were all huddled inside this little room.

to the le family, klaas was like the cavalry riding in. >> we were all in our pajamas, like disheveled. and we were all together on our laptops, trying to edit press releases, trying to organize all the interviews and -- reading the news, trying to talk to the police. >> and i looked around and i said, "the first thing you people need to do is get out of this room." >> dark and depressing? >> it was horrible. it was horrible. and they were so downtrodden. they had absolutely no idea of what to do or where to go. >> and he -- he sat down and gave us a list of what to do. we had to find a search center. we had to get volunteers. we had to position media in this sort of light. he was just giving us all sorts of tips. >> reporter: it made a world of a difference emotionally and on practical levels. >> reporter: but what marc klaas

didn't do was burden the le family with his own story, didn't tell them about his own daughter polly, kidnapped two decades ago. >> that was the worst time in my life. it shattered me. it shattered my heart. >> reporter: 12-year-old polly klaas was snatched from her room in petaluma, california in the midst of a slumber party. polly's body was only discovered when her killer, arrested at a traffic stop two months later, showed detectives where he'd buried her. >> do you still live that awful week? >> yeah. >> all these years later? >> my work is my therapy. my work is my therapy. >> reporter: and that work -- through the klaaskids foundation -- is to help families find their missing loved ones. by providing families with a now

proven, professional, methodical approach to their search efforts. >> you have to basically start in the center and work your way out, letting -- following statistics that the vast majority of people that are missing are going to be found, a, within a half-mile radius of where they went missing or, b, within a five-mile radius of where they went missing. >> boy, this is dismal work you do. >> it's not dismal. no, nothing that we do is dismal. it's hard work. it can be heartbreaking. it can be so sad. but it's not dismal. it's really good work and it's important work and there's just not enough people doing it. >> reporter: possibly because it's work that lays bare wounds. hundreds of times now, since polly's death, marc has shared his experience, learned through his own parental grief, with families just like michelle's, adrift and in shock. and the first order of business, said marc -- repair the relationship with the police, which had become very frayed indeed. >> we needed help from the police. and they slowly started to let us know where they thought we should be looking. and when we pressed them, "why should we be looking there? why should we be looking there?" they finally said, "well, because that's where the cell towers take us."

>> reporter: michelle le, it turns out, went on a strange journey on the evening of may 27th, 2011. or at least her cell phone did. in the two hours after michelle abruptly left a training session here at the kaiser hospital in san francisco's east bay, that phone of hers left its indelible footprints through the congested streets of the east bay and then it turned onto a two-lane backroad and then a major freeway and then it pinged its way right back along the very same route back to the parking lot at the very moment the nursing instructor saw michelle's car drive into that parking lot, then rapidly reverse course and speed away into the dark. a puzzle. but getting that cell phone trail from the police was also a huge break, said marc klaas, who was now deeply involved in the search for michelle. >> it enabled us then to really hone in on what we needed to do and why we needed to do it. it was to prepare viable search locations for search teams. >> reporter: but the area was

vast. much of it rugged, rural. the search for michelle would be tough, labor-intensive work. just the sort of thing marc klaas' organization knew how to do. >> when we saw the machine in motion was when we felt that, wow, this guy and this foundation has really got it together. we would have never thought of that on our own. >> reporter: klaas even flew in his director of search operations, who was one of the first volunteers to look for polly years before. >> we're going to be dealing with some pretty treacherous terrain today, as well as tomorrow. canyon areas, lots of rocks into the ravines. >> reporter: this was day 49 since michelle disappeared. and once again her san diego relatives loaded into cars around midnight and drove the 8 hours north to the san francisco bay. "dateline" was there, watching, as they gathered for a morning briefing to prepare them for the long day of searching ahead. >> if you take nothing else away from this presentation, take

this portion right here, okay? every single search that we put you on today, tomorrow, we consider a potential crime scene. >> reporter: the police suggested a zone to be searched. but that's all about all the information they provided. >> we don't know exactly why but they say it's based on all the evidence in their timeline, they believe that something might have happened in this area. >> reporter: the area -- a narrow canyon in the hills east of the san francisco bay. as the search party made its way up the canyon, they tied off, here and there, pink ribbons. >> we've got a system of tape marking that we use and we report in to the investigators and they follow up. everything we're doing here is to support the police effort in bringing back michelle. >> reporter: a complication -- this area is a haven for the homeless. it's also a notorious dumping ground for murder victims. here, one of the searchers found an encampment -- and inside, a sleeping bag. >> ian, do you want to check out there's like a sleeping bag. >> you want me to pull this bag out? >> yeah.

>> reporter: the bag was empty. but deeper inside the encampment something else was uncovered -- a large bone. this creek canyon, it soon became apparent, had been well-traveled by both creatures great and small. >> it's an animal, some mammal. >> reporter: but there was another bone at a creek crossing. searchers had already passed it by when our producer noticed it lying there.encampment, something else was uncovered, a large bone. this creek canyon, it soon became apparent was well traveled by creatures great and small. >> it's an animal. >> there was another bone at a creek crossing. searchers already passed it by when our producer noticed it lying there. cow bone, probably. and yet -- >> i'm going to come have ian check it out. >> it does look like a thigh bone. ian, come take a look at this. >> there are bones ou