she was. >> maybe this smiling person. someone who loved her friends. loved the beach and died too young. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >> i don't go undercover every day. that's what made me nervous. >> they had a secret plan. >> were you armed. >> yes. >> and you were wearing a wire. >> yes. >> to solve a baffling case. a college student on a friday night out who vanished. >> dewane: very shy girl, but she was something special. >> the possible suspects, just about everyone. the friend, the boyfriend, the mysterious older man, even her mom. >> i was shocked that they even

suspected me. >> so why were police at a dead end. enter this guy. >> he sees things other cops don't see. >> phenomenal. >> they call him the evidence whisper her. >> you won't believe how. >> you walk out of there thinking. >> i hoped. i wasn't quite sure. >> told her mother everything. when the college student vanished, nancy thought she was at a sleepover. that wasn't the only thing she was hiding. it would take years for detectivings to uncover the truth buried in a pile of lies,

but could they find lynn si. >> i don't suppose you've heard from lynsie? >> nothing. >> reporter: does this man act guilty? does he know more than he's saying? >> i mean, i didn't know anything was going on. all right? i just was, "where's lynsie?" okay? >> reporter: what about this man? can you believe the story he's telling? >> i was supposed to pick her up twice, and she was so out of

character. she didn't show up on either day. >> reporter: the evidence whisperer wasn't at either of those interviews, but watching them helped him solve the mystery of what happened to a vivacious young woman and bring answers to the mother who loved her. >> i was always proud of her. she was a real fighter. >> reporter: lynsie ekelund arrived on july 22nd, 1980. the youngest of three. maybe that fighting spirit isn't visible in her photos, but her mother nancy says it was always there. >> lynsie had a passion for animals. she helped out in her spare time at a local shelter. >> reporter: kim davidson, who worked at lynsie's middle school, remembers young lynsie also had a sense of compassion. >> we were standing outside and i was freezing cold, and i didn't bring a jacket that day. and i felt these little hands up on my shoulder and a sweater come up around me. and i turned around and it was lynsie. she said, "i just can't stand sitting here, watching you shiver." and just wrapped me up in her sweater. she just melted me. >> reporter: and lynsie gave back in other ways. her mother says she would lie about her age so she could give blood. remarkable in itself because

lynsie struggled with her own disabilities. her left arm was paralyzed, her left leg impaired. did she ever talk about how she became disabled? >> she had brought it up to me and said that she was in a car accident and that she was thrown. and when she was a little girl, but very, very -- just like matter of fact. just didn't -- not poor me or not feel sorry for me or anything like that. >> reporter: but growing up, lynsie needed so much care. her mother nancy was with lynsie like her shadow. >> somebody had to be with her 24 hours a day. >> reporter: and that was you. >> it was her and i alone. she was my only -- she was my purpose in my life, was to make her as normal as she could be. >> reporter: by the time kim met lynsie, lynsie's dad and brothers had moved away. kim remembers a very tight family unit of just two. >> reporter: how close were lynsie and nancy? >> unbelievably, extremely. extremely. >> reporter: but as lynsie reached adolescence that started changing. like a lot of teens, she wanted her own identity. she changed the spelling of her name from this to this.

by high school, there were girlfriends, even some boyfriends. and by the time she was 20, after so many years of mom and daughter being each other's best friends and confidantes, lynsie began to keep some things in her life to herself, like where she was really headed one night in february 2001. does it make any sense that she would lie to you about what she was going to do that night? >> i've never known her to lie to me. but you don't know what you don't know. >> reporter: it was a friday night. lynsie was in college part-time and working, but still living at home. she told her mom that instead of their usual friday night dinner, she was staying the night with a girlfriend named andrea, someone nancy had never met. and then, a young man named chris came to the door to pick lynsie up. she introduces you to this guy, chris. did chris say hello to you? >> uh-huh. >> reporter: was he polite? he have good manners? >> uh-huh. >> reporter: but nancy says something felt wrong.

>> i had a feeling about him. >> reporter: what feeling? >> i don't know. >> reporter: but you put it aside. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: of course, nancy was used to things feeling wrong. she had spent so many years worrying about lynsie. it was a struggle to let go. but she did. >> the last thing i said to her was, "remember your seatbelt." and she looks over her shoulder and she says, "back at you, mom. love you." that's the last thing she said to me. >> reporter: nancy locked up the house and went to bed. the next day lynsie was supposed to call after she was done tutoring two girls from the neighborhood. but when the call never came, nancy drove over and found out lynsie never showed up at her job. >> all of a sudden, my daughter is not where she's supposed to be. she taught these little girls for four months about. >> reporter: and you have no way of reaching her. >> i had no way. >> reporter: nancy ekelund was frantic. >> i started calling hospitals. i called the morgue.

i mean that's how desperate i was, see if there was a jane doe in the morgue. >> reporter: there was no jane doe. and there was no lynsie ekelund. most people who disappear like that, they come back within a couple of days. >> if not 24 hours, yes. >> reporter: is that what you thought was going to happen? >> i think we did. >> reporter: corinne loomis is a detective with the placentia police department. >> reporter: you had no unidentified bodies? >> we had no unidentified bodies. >> reporter: you checked the e.r.? >> we checked everything. we checked everybody. we checked everything. there was just no sign. it was just as if she'd vanished. >> when's the last time you saw lynsie? >> a week ago. >> no. i don't think so. >> reporter: when "the night lynsie disappeared" continues. and your sister-in-law's... tennis partner's... chatty coworker's... youngest daughter's... entire judo class. one shot can make a world of difference. walgreens has specially trained pharmacists, that know which flu shot is right for you.

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take care of it for you right now. giddyup! hi! this is jamie. we need some help. picking them off a little post it notes. she also went to talk with detective at the police department. nancy wanted corinne to know about her lynsie. how nancy always knew where she was. how they were best friends. it was a speech corinne loomis had heard before. >> it's typical with a lot of parents or family members when

they report a missing person. sometimes they give you the idea that this -- it's an idyllic family life. because i think there's a fear that if they don't paint a very rosy picture of this person, we're not going to be sympathetic and look for them. >> reporter: that you're not going to work hard? >> we're not going to work hard. and i think there was a little bit of that with nancy. >> reporter: placentia p.d. was working the case. they brought in the usual suspects, like the boyfriend. >> when you guys were dating, she hasn't been dating anyone else to your knowledge? >> no. >> reporter: his name is matthew ramirez. he was at college with lynsie. they'd been on and off a bit, but then -- >> when i went to her house thursday, you know, she was like, i want to break up. >> reporter: as can happen with young romance, what was off was soon back on. lynsie and matt were back together in time for the weekend. but not in time to make plans for that friday night. >> and then she's like, "oh, i'm getting ready to go to san diego with chris" and everybody okay? i'm like -- you know, i told her -- i'm like, "have fun. be careful, okay?" she's like, "okay." >> reporter: then in came the last person known to have seen her. chris mcamis, 21 years old, out of school. he told the cops he was unemployed.

lynsie had met him through friends about four months prior. and it turned out he never drove lynsie to andrea's house for a sleepover. chris said that was a lie, lynsie made up for her mother. the real plan was to go clubbing all night in san diego. >> she says, "don't tell my mom that we're going to san diego because my mom won't let us go, or won't let me go," or something like that. and definitely don't tell her that we're clubbing. >> reporter: chris told police that, when their night of clubbing went bust, they headed home earlier than expected. he dropped off the other girls, he said, and then headed to lynsie's house. chris said it was after 4:00 a.m. when he finally got back here to lynsie's neighborhood. and he said that lynsie was worried that her mom might hear his truck pull up at that hour. so chris said lynsie asked to be dropped off not at her house, but here at the corner, about 50 yards away. that sounded strange to police, until they heard from lynsie's friends that at other times, she

had asked to be dropped off right here. chris said he then drove home, and police even found a photo from a bank atm of what looked like chris's truck heading north on the right street at the right time. to the cops, chris' story added up. and that was when police learned matthew and chris were not the only men in lynsie's life. there was someone else whom both matthew and chris had mentioned to investigators, an older man who drove lynsie around. no one knew his name. they had heard lynsie refer to him as her friend. >> that's all anyone knows them by, knows him by. >> knows him by as her friend. >> yeah. >> reporter: nancy had no idea lynsie was friends with any older man. she was about to find out. >> two days after lynsie after vanishes, you get a phone call. >> yes. >> reporter: you're pretty much

at your wit's end at this point. >> yes. >> reporter: and the phone rings, and it's a guy named marty. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: did you know a marty? >> no. >> reporter: as far as you know, did lynsie know a marty? >> no. >> reporter: marty told nancy that he'd gone to pick up lynsie at school, but she wasn't there. he said he had money of lynsie's that she needed for tuition. none of that made any sense to nancy. after lynsie goes missing, nancy, her mother, gets a phone call from a guy named marty? >> marty rossler. >> reporter: and what does marty rossler say to her? >> marty says that he's befriended lynsie. he's a friend of lynsie's and he's concerned because he hadn't heard from her. >> reporter: but what did you learn about marty rossler? >> marty rossler was not marty rossler. >> reporter: marty rossler was really marty pregenzer. he did not have a criminal record. what he did have was a relationship with lynsie that he hadn't told his wife about. he told police he'd often pick lynsie up, and give her rides, but that was about it. marty was 58. and she was 20? >> and she was 20.

>> reporter: and they were boyfriend and girlfriend? >> don't think so. >> there you go. >> reporter: so police brought in marty. over two day, they recorded those interviews, at times on video and sometimes just on audio tape. >> when's the last time you saw lynsie? >> a week ago. >> no. i don't think so. >> absolutely. >> no, absolutely not. >> marty said that he had last seen lynsie the day that she went to san diego on that friday. >> reporter: did you believe him? >> we really didn't believe him. >> reporter: they didn't believe him because of a tip they'd received. a clerk at a local clothing store had called to say she'd seen lynsie and a much older man who matched marty's description together at her store, after the day lynsie went missing. >> i flat wasn't there on that day. okay? i have been in that store, all right. and i said, i'm like you. i mean, i'm easily, you know, identified. okay?

i mean, probably every place i've been with her would know that i was in there with her, okay? >> it was a very long, very long interview. >> reporter: friendly? >> no, no. >> i remember drilling down on him, because i really thought that he might know where lynsie was. >> you're a parent? >> yes. >> okay. how many kids do you have? >> two. >> if you had a child. gone for eight days. okay? vanished, vaporized in thin air. would your heart not be broken? >> oh, absolutely. >> do you not feel some compassion for nancy? >> unbelievable. i think this is a nice girl and, you know, this family's had their share of, you know, hardships. and this is just, you know, i mean, i feel so helpless. >> i don't think you are helpless. i think you can help us. >> reporter: marty insisted he

couldn't. that he didn't know what happened to lynsie. detectives weren't buying. >> have you harmed lynsie? >> no, no. never even -- i never -- >> did you hit her by accident? accidents happen. >> i have never touched her. okay? you know, never touched her. this girl is -- >> okay. have you put her someplace where she's left? >> no, no. >> reporter: police searched marty's home and found nothing. no proof that marty had anything to do with lynsie's disappearance. so they moved on to a new suspect, someone closer to lynsie than anyone else on earth. coming up --

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>> reporter: nancy and lynsie had been together all lynsie's life. now, alone, nancy waited, ticking off the days, in the dark about where her daughter was and about the pace of the investigation. police were not keeping her in the loop, so nancy was delighted when they called to say they were coming to visit. >> you look at the boyfriend, matthew. you look at marty, the older guy, the relationship nobody knew about. he denies it. you look at chris. he says, "i dropped her off. i never saw her again." >> right. >> reporter: and you look at lynsie's mother?

>> we did look at lynsie's mother. you have to. >> so i made my cookies and all this kind of silly stuff that i always do. >> reporter: make some coffee, right, yeah. >> yeah. >> reporter: the cops weren't coming for coffee. they arrived with a search warrant, shovels, and cadaver dogs. >> i was shocked that they even suspected me. i didn't know what even a search warrant was. >> reporter: the house nancy and lynsie had once shared was torn apart. how much of a suspect was nancy? >> i don't know that nancy was on the radar for a long time. she was on the radar long enough to be able to set her aside. >> reporter: after that search, they did just that. they believed this anguished mother had nothing to do with the disappearance of her daughter. so they took nancy off the list. they also took off the boyfriend, matthew. he had an alibi that held up, putting him somewhere else at the time lynsie went missing. so that left just two. >> i haven't seen her since that day. >> reporter: marty, whom police didn't trust because of his secret relationship with lynsie and because he had lied about

his identity. and the man who dropped lynsie off at that corner, the last person to see her before she vanished, chris mcamis. >> come on in here. grab a seat right there at the end. you remember corinne loomis? >> yeah. >> reporter: april 2002. more than a year after lynsie went missing, detectives decided to start over. they brought chris mcamis back to see if his story still held up. >> i really wouldn't like to think that lynsie has been, like, either abducted or something's happened to her. >> right. well, like what? >> i'd really rather think that she was with friends or something like that. >> reporter: police turned up the heat.

>> let's cut the bull about being positive. let's just get down to the nitty-gritty and strip away the, "i'd like to think," and, "in my pollyanna mind," you know, how things in a perfect world then i'd -- what she's -- okay? >> it's a possibility she's dead. >> right. >> reporter: police thought chris seemed oddly calm talking about a friend who may have been murdered. >> now if it turns out somebody killed her, what do you think should happen? >> find them. >> when they find them, then what? >> they go to jail. >> how long do you think they should go to jail? >> as long as it takes >> like what? >> i don't know. i don't know. go to jail for while. >> reporter: that's as strong as you could get out of him? >> that's as strong as we could get out of him, and -- >> reporter: not he ought to go to hell or i'd personally electrocute him? >> i'd personally electrocute him. he should get the gas chamber. she was my friend. she wouldn't deserve that. she wouldn't hurt a fly. there was nothing. >> reporter: his lack of emotion was suggestive that perhaps chris should move to the top of the list, but it was not evidence. after the interview chris mcamis was free to leave, and detectives weren't any closer to learning what happened to

lynsie ekelund. and neither was nancy, who remained convinced her daughter would one day just come home. you thought that one day, she would walk back through the door. >> yes. >> reporter: she believed it, because she wanted to and because over the years several people had told her they'd seen lynsie. >> they never saw the front of her face. they always saw the back of her. and i held onto every word they said. >> reporter: her friend kim remembers how hard it was on nancy thinking lynsie had just left her. >> reporter: it was torture for nancy, no matter what version of events you believed, and police still weren't telling her anything. nancy, during all this time, feels like she's been sort of cut out of the loop. >> yes. >> reporter: like you're not telling her anything. maybe you're not actually working on it. >> right. >> reporter: whatever you are doing, you're certainly not sharing it with her. >> nancy was pretty angry. we worked this case diligently for a long time. at some point, you hit the wall. >> reporter: there are nine detectives in placentia. working everything -- drugs, gangs, rapes, murder and cold cases.

by 2008 it was clear placentia p.d. had hit that wall. they would need help on this one. and who they needed was a guy named larry. tell me about larry? >> larry is phenomenal. >> reporter: phenomenal because what? he sees things other cops don't see? >> phenomenal because he sees things cops don't see. i don't know anybody who could've done a better job than larry. >> reporter: the evidence whisperer was about to listen to what the facts of this case were really saying. was there something police had missed? >> you bet. coming up. that picture of the truck spotted on the night of the crime. something about it just doesn't seem right, but the evidence whisperer is all over it. when dateline continues. dateli. game changer. the moment you take staining to the next level.

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top stories. president trump turning battles

to embattled nominee to brett kavanaugh in to a rally cry to vote in november. told the west virginia saturday night help reject the ruthless and outrageous tactics democrats used against the judge. tesla ceo agreed to relinquish role as chairman for three years. settle government lawsuits alleging musk duke investors. company also pay $40 million. musk can remain as ceo. now back to dateline. to dae >> reporter: by 2008 lynsie ekelund had been missing for seven years. the case had gone from cold to frozen in time.

so placentia p.d. decided to outsource the investigation to the cold case unit at the orange county d.a.'s office to a guy named larry montgomery. with more than 30 years working homicide, larry's put away a his share of bad guys, not usually by knocking on doors. instead, larry works by looking

very closely at the evidence. he doesn't work fast. in fact, larry is meticulously slow. and that was just what this cold case needed. was there anything in the original investigation that struck you as something that you needed to re-examine? >> everything. >> reporter: everything that had led placentia police into that wall, trying to decide between two suspects. >> i mean, i'm concerned about this girl. okay, you know?

and she's missing. >> reporter: marty, lynsie's older friend who kept their relationship a secret and lied about his name. and chris -- >> reporter: and so larry sat down and read through the entire case file. all the witness statements. all the interviews. he did that for two years. >> here we go down this road again. >> reporter: he watched the february 2001 interview that police did with a very unhappy marty. doesn't it strike you as tremendously suspicious that marty would call after lynsie disappears, talk to lynsie's mother and give a phony name? >> if you didn't know the background of marty, then absolutely. >> when i talked to the mother on the phone, i just gave an identifier, okay? i mean, marty rossler.

that's what i said, okay? >> right. which is a lie. >> which is a lie. >> reporter: watching that interview, larry chalked up marty's dishonesty as an attempt to save his marriage. >> i don't want my wife to be brought into this thing. >> reporter: larry also took a closer look at the idea that marty and lynsie were together at that clothing store after she went missing. >> i flat wasn't there on that day, okay? >> reporter: no one ever found any security video of that and larry's learned over the years that well-meaning people often get dates wrong. and larry learned a key fact. marty had actually participated in those early searches for lynsie. >> reporter: you eliminated marty fairly quickly then? >> yes. >> reporter: marty's behavior matched up with that of an innocent person, not with a guilty one? >> that's correct. he is actually doing exactly what you would do if you were looking for lynsie. he was searching. >> reporter: so larry montgomery turned his attention to chris mcamis. guilty or innocent. >> can i see this? >> uh-huh. >> reporter: chris was the last person known to be with lynsie. he told police he drove straight home after dropping lynsie off. and police found that photo of

what looked like his truck heading north away from lynsie's neighborhood, which took him past this atm camera. ll030ab the video from the a.t.m. camera, police at the time saw that as not ironclad proof that chris was telling the truth, but suggestive that what he said, he actually did. >> correct. >> reporter: but when larry compared photos of chris' truck with the photos from the bank, he saw something no one else had noticed. the paint on the back of the side view mirrors on chris' truck was white. what about the truck in the photo? >> truck in the photo had a dark spot in that area, which means whatever mirrors were there, if there were mirrors there, they were black. >> reporter: so it's not the same truck? >> that's right, it's not. >> reporter: suddenly chris' alibi had a big hole in it. larry moved on to chris' history with women. two ex girlfriends talked to police about how chris would become unhinged by rejection or

what he called disrespect. larry heard about how chris had once crushed a pet crab with a hammer right in front of one of his girlfriends, because he thought the crab had killed one of his fish. this is a guy with some significant anger issues. >> it certainly appears that way. >> she told me it was from a car accident. >> reporter: larry listened to chris's interviews and caught him talking some of the time about lynsie in the past tense. >> her hand was -- pretty much stuck like this. >> okay. >> reporter: then larry found something in the paperwork from placentia p.d. that proved chris mcamis had lied to the police early on about his whereabouts on saturday february 17th, the day lynsie didn't come home. chris had told the cops he

stayed close to home but larry checked chris' credit card statement. >> there was one entry on february 17th.

and it turns out that it was santa clarita, which is 50 miles north of where chris lived. >> reporter: why would chris be in santa clarita? >> well, that's what i wanted to know. >> reporter: digging through the reports, larry found information about chris' dad. that he was in construction, and that in 2000 and 2001 he had a job site in santa clarita. >> reporter: you can't tell now, but back in 2001 this was a major construction site. vicks vapocool and vaporize it. ahhhhh! shhhhh! new nyquil severe with vicks vapocool. the vaporizing, nightime coughing, aching, stuffy head, best sleep with a cold, medicine. ...that's why i've got the power of 1-2-3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved 3-in-1 copd treatment.

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>> reporter: it was october of 2010. nine years after her daughter disappeared, nancy ekelund was still waiting and doing what she could. she was now at 3,535 days with out lynsie. she didn't know it, but a few miles away larry montgomery was tightening the noose around chris mcamis. larry had recruited a motorcycle cop from a nearby town to go undercover. >> they needed a police officer who looked like a college student and didn't have the mannerisms of a police officer.

>> reporter: officer spring sendele fit the bill. >> reporter: how were you dressed? >> jeans on. and just a little shirt, something that a college student would wear, but something that would also appeal to a guy. >> reporter: were you armed? >> yes. >> reporter: and you were wearing a wire? >> yes. >> hi. are you chris? >> uh, yes. >> hi, my name is nicole anderson. i'm from fullerton college, "torch" magazine. >> reporter: officer sendele was posing as a student reporter, complete with a phony press pass. she knocked on chris' front door. chris had talked to a student reporter from lynsie's college in the past about the case. you use your real name? >> no. i used a fake name. told him who i was, and -- well we just received word at the "torch" magazine that

remains have been found that they believe belong to lindsay. >> uh huh. >> so i guess they're doing dna testing right now and, in the meantime, i'm supposed to go contact friends, family to get their initial reaction for a story. >> okay. >> when i told him that the police believed they had found lynsie's remains, his demeanor changed. >> reporter: how? >> quite drastically actually. i could see that his -- the color in his face went white. >> reporter: the police had not found lynsie's remains. that was a lie. police do it all the time and it's legal. in fact, larry had tried to find lynsie up at the construction location where chris had worked. and he'd gotten some interest from cadaver dogs, but nothing more. just down the street from chris' house, detective bryce angel of placentia p.d., who had been assigned to work with larry, was listening and keeping an eye on the action. so you're watching him while this interview happens on his front doorstep? >> yeah. i was sitting, you know, ten houses down, watching the reporter -- undercover police officer. once she left the area, we were in business. >> reporter: what happens? >> later that night, he was seen coming out of his house and going into the garage. lights go on, and we're talking like 3:00 in the morning. it was clearly a sign of somebody who couldn't sleep.

>> reporter: detectives were sure that they had rattled their suspect. the next day, they trailed chris when he left his house. >> and at some point it became apparent that he knew that we were following him. >> reporter: they broke off surveillance and brought chris in. >> chris, have a seat. >> reporter: larry had read all about chris mcamis, and he'd looked at tape of every time chris had been in for an interview. >> here's what the situation is. >> reporter: today, he and chris were going to meet for the first time. >> i have been investigating this case for about two years now as a cold case investigator. >> reporter: larry had a plan to get chris to talk without asking for a lawyer. >> you probably want to know what's going on, what's happening, why you're sitting here. >> reporter: larry promised to fill him in on the case in detail, thinking chris would

want to know if the cops had the goods. and then, maybe he'd have something to say. >> since you are under arrest, i will advise you of your rights, which i'll do in a moment. and after that what i'd like to do, is i'd like to explain to you everything. >> reporter: larry read chris his rights. and then, before chris could really respond, larry laid out his case. he said he knew chris had never dropped lynsie off that night because he said that the atm photo, that at first fooled investigators, actually proved chris wasn't there. >> it wasn't your truck. but for years, it was thought of that it was your truck and it's not. matter of fact, your truck did not go by that night. it wasn't there. >> reporter: he told chris about the credit card statement and how he found someone who remembered chris working on the job site. >> all of a sudden, big red flags, you know? you are working. you are up there when you said you were not. and -- but he said you guys don't work on saturday. lynsie disappeared on a saturday morning.

none of your credit card usage up there is on any weekend. all of it's on week days except for the day lynsie disappeared. so you're not up there working that day. >> reporter: he told chris the lie about lynsie being found. >> we went recently, got dna from mother and dad of lynsie and had that checked against the body. and it's lynsie. so now we've got lynsie up there, right in the area where you were, right at the time when you did not drop her off. and we have enough to prove the crime. >> reporter: and knowing about chris' anger issues with previous girlfriends, larry summoned up a little empathy to draw chris in. >> i know that you have that ability to be angry, but i don't know what would cause her to get you that angry or -- what she could have done? >> reporter: chris didn't say much until a little body language revealed that larry was on the right track. >> was it a premeditated thing? i didn't think it was. so what did she do? >> reporter: larry finished talking. he was hoping chris would give it up. >> i think i need a lawyer to talk to you about this with me. >> well, it's up to you.

>> reporter: the supreme court has made it pretty clear, if someone declares that they want an attorney, the interview is supposed to stop until one can be hired or provided. but in this case, larry was walking a line, believing that asking for a lawyer isn't the same as wondering if you need one. corinne loomis was watching from another room. that's about as close as you can get to the "i want a lawyer" line without actually crossing the line. >> saying that i want it. right. >> reporter: were you holding your breath when he said that? >> yes. this was a make-or-break interview. if he didn't confess, he was going to walk again. date line returns after the break. returns after the break. with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe eczema,

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larry thought whatever came next would be admissible in court. >> detective angel had been letting larry do the talking. >> nobody likes to be labeled a monster. in this case, that's the way it's pointing. only you have the other side of theon story. nobody is going to be able to speak for you. that's why we're here now. the reason everything happens. i'm sureen there were circumstances that happened that night or that morning. >> he laid out his story. >> all right. what happened was --

>> and suddenly you realize -- >> this is yoit. he's going to give it up. i was sittingt next to the detective towa the other agency. and i reached over and grabbed his arm and i said, he is going to confess. >> it was sad. and it was ugly. >> she -- i was going to take her home. she was telling me, why don't i just sleep over at your place because i don't want to upset my mom. >> makes sense. >> larry had suspected, chris never dropped off lynsie at that corner. >> i was trying to kiss her. and then she elbowed me in the chest and then i went to my owe ii went to my kitchen in my apartment and i drank a lot of vodka and then i went back and i tried to do the same thing.

she pretended to be asleep. and i pulled her pants down and i was totally drunk. she got up, said oh, my god, what are you doing? i'm calling the police. when i got up and walked to her, she tried to knock me out with my phone, with my own phone in my face. like this to my face. >>to okay. >> and being drunk, it enraged me. it set me on fire. andon i grabbed her, threw her to my bed and i got her into a head lock. >> okay. >> and she died. >> then what did you do? >> then i tried to figure out what i should do because i couldn't believe how it just

happened that way. >> quickly, huh? >> i couldn't believe it. ild thought she was going to pa out. i ended up killing her. >> that was it. lynsie ekelund had been killed before anyone realized she was even missing. chris says he then drove up to the work site and used a skip loader to dig a hole. he held on to lynsie's body for a few's days and when no one wa around, he buried her. >> did it feel any better to finally know? >> no. because i was really devastated. there was a relief, but i wasn't any happier because of it. >> halfus the confession, detectives left chris in the interview room with another detective to watch him and chris simply couldhr not stop talking. >> unbelievable. >> what's that, sir? >> it'sat been so long. finally, it feels better when you finally just say what you were supposed to say, you know?

>> i know my life is ruined now. you know if i'm going to get the death penalty for this? >> you're going to have to ask them those questions. >> then larry came back, always meticulous, he wasn't done. he wanted that final detail. >> where approximately was it that youre dug the hole to put her? >> where p exactly chris had le lynsie. >> right up in here. >> he u explained to chris even though they had found her remains wasn't true, the gravesite shifted over the years from flooding. exactly wherehe you dug the hole. >> with the detectives, chris returned to the site that had become lynsie's final resting place. >>st right where this tree is, pulled my truck over and parked it. >> this tree to our left here?

>> right where this tree is. ittr didn't used to exist there when we had construction. >> he wasn't sure of the exact spot. >> it's over in this vicinity. >> buts it's going to be way u therego or way over here? >> all the way to that brush. >> that brush over there? >> it took more than a day of diggingay to find what was leftf lynsie. first they found a shoe, then a jacket, then a bracelet. that's how nancy knew they had found her. the n coroner confirmed it usin dental records. >> the back of my truck was over here. >> two years after he confessed, chris pleaded guilty to second degree murder. >> his sentence, 15 years to life. >> you thought you had let this consume your life too much. >> oh, ite did. it does i to this day. >> now d it's over.

what are you going to do? >> i don't know. i knew i life is opening up and don't know. i don't have any answers. i just have to get over this. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning. i'm dara brown in new york at msnbc world headquarters. it's 7:00 in the east, 4:00 out west. here's what's happening. no limits. new reaction from the president to the scope of the fbi investigation of brett kavanaugh. >> the fbi, as you know, is all over talking to everybody. and i would expect, he's a high quality person. i would expect it's going to turn out very welr