>> it's a constant reminder that your mom is with you. >> yeah and there's one other shared trait and that's what kept erica alive in her darkest hours, her mom's fighting spirit. >> to battle what she had to battle, i guess she did have erin's fighting spirit to pull through all of that. so thank god for na. >> -- for that. >> that's all for this edition of date line. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is date line. >> i was robbed of my sister. i had to grow up without one. in an instant, she was gone and it changed everything. >> she dreamed of a career solving crimes, but crime

claimed her first. >> the gut wrenching pain, my daughter, please, please, don't let this be true. >> home alone on a sunny afternoon, she vanished. >> we just said, oh, my god, isn't this one of her earrings? >> earrings in the carpet, ribbons on the ground, tire tracks on the lawn. >> there was evidence of a violent struggle. >> what had happened and who was behind it? >> everything was a mystery. was she still alive, you know, was she not? >> it tore us apart. >> for years, they demanded answers, a struggle each day. then came the cold case squad with a new bag of tricks. >> i always felt that this was a case that could be solved. >> they wanted justice just as bad as we did. >> as a mother, she fought and fought and fought. >> we just never gave up. >> don't mess with a mother bear.

hello, and welcome to dateline. tara ord was just 19, a beautiful young woman with big dreams. then suddenly she vanished, snapped from the safety of her own home. there was little evidence to go on. or so investigators thought. it would take years and a team of determined cold case detectives to uncover that long buried clue, and the story that would blow this case wide open. here's keith morris with a knock at the door. >> it was a monday afternoon, a baking sun, a school bus made its methodical away along the residential streets of florida. stopped and started and stopped again, it was inland now, miles from the harbor, the beach ri

river, the center of town. the bus stopped in the middle of a quiet neighborhood, the driver opened the door. it was 3:45 p.m. >> we got off the bus and walked home. >> we means veronica ord, then almost 14 years old, and her younger brother paul. >> and i remember halfway down the road remembering that i had forgotten my key. the closer we got to the house, i seen my sister's car, cool, you know, i don't need the key. she's home. >> then she noticed the door wasn't quite closed. >> it was closed. it wasn't lactched. i remember walking in and oprah was on the tv. >> what did you assume when you saw the door open and the tv on. >> i thought maybe she left in a hurry, went with a friend and didn't close the door all the way. >> she was tara, veronica's older sister, not quite 20 then.

veronica called out, no answer. she walked through the house. bathroom light was on. >> i went and looked in the bathroom, then i went in our bedroom and i seen her purse and everything on top of her dresser, so then i'm like where would she be without her purse because that was unusual. that's when i called keith. >> keith was keith mcphillips, her mom's fiance. he was just leaving work, told veronica he was thinking of stopping for coffee with a friend on the way home. veronica told her about tara that her purse was home but she wasn't. >> what did you think when she told you that? >> something wasn't right. if tara was going to go somewhere, she wouldn't leave her stuff. that's how responsible she was. >> sure. >> keith cancelled the coffee plan, drove straight home. >> as soon as i got home, it just didn't look right. there was all kinds of tracks on the floor. i said what are these marks on the floor.

she said i don't know. >> tracks? >> muddy footprints. >> muddy footprints in the living room and master bedroom and something else. something only those who live there would know. >> in the bathroom, our tvp would be turned a certain way because when you lay in bed you want to see it. when i looked in, it was straight, and then i noticed stuff missing off the dresser, jewelry was gone, money was gone. >> what was going on in your head as you noticed things were missing? i knew something was bad! oh, and it was. what happened to that grown up girl in this modest house in the little city by the sea? on the first of october 2001, a mystery for so many years. >> she was such a sweet, loving, kind, caring, full of life. >> sharon ord mcphillips is tara's mother. >> she had dreams and ambitions. she was a cheer leader, a

catcher for softball. she loved art. most of all, we were a family. >> yeah. >> she loved her family, and we loved her right back. >> they were new to punta gorda, tara almost grown up said she would stay behind make her own life. >> she didn't want to come down. it's a change, especially when you're older, but we had a bet going on how long it would be before she got her because we are so close. we had a bet going, and i think she lasted three weeks. >> i don't want to stay here on my own. >> she got a job, made plans to start college, had already decided that she wanted to be a crime scene investigator. >> she had her books and everything. >> and though sharon's then fiance keith wasn't officially

tara's step dad, they had a father/daughter sort of relationship. >> we were very close. always hung out together. she would make our famous peanut butter and jelly triple decker sandwiches we would have. she was my buddy. >> and now he didn't know where she was. right away that afternoon keith called sharon just finishing her workday at her office. >> i'll never forget that call. i remember saying i have to leigh n leave now. it was a 40 minute ride and i cried that whole way home to please don't let nothing be wrong, please, please. >> i remember my mother pulling up. >> how did she look? >> oh, panicked. >> keith had called 911 as sharon rushed home. an officer was there when she arrived. >> my first thing was you need to do something, my daughter is not here. i just knew. i just knew. >> coming up, what had happened to tara?

>> why wasn't anybody taking action and figuring out where she was. >> earrings in the carpet, ribbons on the ground, tire tracks in the lawn. >> it was obvious we had a serious problem. >> gut wrenching pain, please, please don't let this be true. >> when dateline continues. -these people, they speak a language we cannot understand.

♪ [ telephone ringing ] -whoa. [ indistinct talking ] -deductible? -definitely speaking insurance. -additional interest on umbrella policy? -can you translate? -damage minimization of civil commotion. -when insurance needs translating, get answers in plain english at progressiveanswers.com. ♪ -he wants you to sign karen's birthday card. it's a high honor. -he wants you to sign karen's birthday card. ...that's why i've got the power of 1-2-3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved 3-in-1 copd treatment. ♪ trelegy. the power of 1-2-3 ♪ trelegy 1-2-3 trelegy with trelegy and the power of 1-2-3, i'm breathing better. trelegy works 3 ways to... ...open airways,... ...keep them open... ...and reduce inflammation... ...for 24 hours of better breathing. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems.

trelegy is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling,.. ...problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. think your copd medicine is doing enough? maybe you should think again. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy and the power of 1-2-3. ♪ trelegy 1-2-3 save at trelegy.com. well, not because it was easy. i mean, the game is all i know. you think back to your draft. it felt like a fantasy. but the second you know you can't compete anymore, you owe it to yourself, to your team, to find a fresh start. so, yeah, that's why i did it. that's why i walked away... from my fantasy league. (announcer) redeem your season on fanduel. play free until you win. fanduel. more ways to win.

...that's why i've got the power of 1-2-3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved 3-in-1 copd treatment. ♪ trelegy. the power of 1-2-3 ♪ trelegy 1-2-3 trelegy with trelegy and the power of 1-2-3, i'm breathing better. trelegy works 3 ways to... ...open airways,... ...keep them open... ...and reduce inflammation... ...for 24 hours of better breathing. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. trelegy is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling,..

...problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. think your copd medicine is doing enough? maybe you should think again. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy and the power of 1-2-3. ♪ trelegy 1-2-3 save at trelegy.com. this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two-hour window so you're up and running in no time.

show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. so there they were as evening deepened, pacing around the house, frantic about tara. what happened? where was she? >> it was getting late, why wasn't she home. >> the policemen who came to help them only seemed concerned about the jewelry and cash that appeared to be taken, not sharon's missing daughter. >> they were concentrated on the burglary. >> they didn't seem to hear what she was saying. didn't understand her panic. >> they just weren't getting us or what was going on. they were trying to say maybe she's at a football game.

>> there was a football game that night? >> yeah. and then they went through her friends and then actually, they called one friend and this person was dating tara. >> sharon almost shouted it wasn't her tara. the officer tried a different tactic. >> we'll put a bolo out. >> bolo? >> yes, be on the lookout. tara's family knew if she had gone to the football game, if she had gone anywhere, she would have told them. deputies said since tara was an adult, they would wait 24 hours before calling her a missing person. maybe she just left on her own. >> if my daughter was a run away or a troubled child or whatever the case may have been, i would have told you that. i know my child. >> how frustrated were you? >> so very frustrated. >> veronica, not quite 14, remember, was terrified.

>> why wasn't anybody taking action, and figuring out where she was. >> keith and sharon called everybody they knew in town. their best friends offered moral support, came to the house, and one of them noticed something on the floor. >> we just said, oh, my god, we walked in and she was bending over pulling it out of the carpet. it was embedded in the carpet. >> yeah, it wasn't just laying there. >> she pulled it off, she said, sharon, isn't this one of her earrings. she said yeah. >> so then? >> eventually we found another one. and. >> ground into the carpet. >> we had to pull them out. >> they also noticed a small palm tree in their front yard had been damaged, along with decorative bricks around them. >> and then there was tire tracks. >> across the lawn? how close did those tire tracks

come to the house? >> it wasn't a big yard but they went up to the door. >> and they found two ribbons, outside their front door, and scuff marks on their bedroom dresser. >> tell me what those scuff marks looked like. like somebody had moved it or rubbed something against it or? >> if you took your shoe and kicked something and left a mark. if you walk on the floor and drag your feet, it leaves a mark. that was on the dresser drawers in our bedroom. >> one of the missing pieces of jewelry was a ring tara had given to keith. >> my dad ring she bought me. i didn't care about anything else but that. >> the officers left the house with nothing learned, nothing resolved and still no tara. sharon and keith didn't sleep, not a wink that night. >> what goes on in here as you're sitting up all night? >> gut wrenching pain. >> big hole. praying that oh, please, please, don't let this be true. >> before the sun came up,

sharon called 911 again. and a new officer arrived. >> a woman deputy. i'll never forget that, and she came and i remember saying to her, please help me, and she did. she got the ball rolling. she listened to me. >> the deputy called in crime scene investigators. >> i remember my mother waking me and my brother up and we, i remember seeing so many people there. and the crime scene van outside. >> now, deputies were taking tara's disappearance seriously. mike gandy was a captain of the charlotte county sheriff's office then. >> sometimes you'll respond to a scene that someone is missing and you can tell from the family interaction it was not a big deal. this was not the case with tara's mom. it was obvious we had a serious problem. >> first thing, find out the last time anyone had seen or spoken with tara.

they knew by the time veronica got home just before 4:00 p.m., tara was gone. her last phone call began at 11:49 a.m., and ended at 12:05. she talked to a colleague, said she would be by, pick up her paycheck and go shopping. but first, their landlord had arranged for a septic repair company to drop by the house, so did tara stay and wait? maybe the owner of the repair company knew something. >> one of our criminal investigation division sergeants on his way into work stopped by this guy's house, and asked him had he been to tara's home. he said, yes, he had. had he seen tara. yes, he had contact with a female there. >> and he said she was perfectly fine when he left the house early that afternoon, so assuming that was true, who else came to that little house on the afternoon of october 1st and took away their tara? >> coming up.

>> something needed to happen. >> a frustrated family reaches out to someone new. >> if you met sharon, you wouldn't tell her no. i looked her in the eye, and i told them i would do everything i possibly could to try and help them. >> a turn in the case was coming when dateline continues. rate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. humira can help stop the clock. prescribed for 15 years, humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores.

don't start humira if you have an infection. help stop the clock on further irreversible joint damage. talk to your rheumatologist. right here. right now. humira. ♪ ♪

the united states postal service makes more holiday deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. ♪ with one notable exception. ♪ how to explain how a mother feels when her child has vanished and all signs point to something bad. what did this do to her? >> tore her apart. it's just like watching everything crumble. >> though the family appeared to be very close and loving, and sincerely distraught, investigators believe they still needed to be looked at as possible suspects. . you know, it's a cruel reality, the detective business that they start close and widen out, and they always start with members of the family to eliminate them. >> yes. >> why is that tragically and

horribly being somebody close to them? >> i asked them myself, did you check us out. >> what did they say? >> they say, oh, don't worry, sgler. >> meanwhile, sharon and keith pushed through their fear and anxiety and did what they could. >> you look through garbage bags. >> you go everywhere and anywhere, in the woods, dumpsters. >> i would do it every day. >> we didn't even know where we came out half the time. we didn't even know where we were. >> captain gandy's investigators serg searched for tara as well. >> if someone said we saw a suspicious vehicle in this wooded area, we would always go and search. we did have a couple of different times we used cadaver dogs in certain areas. >> four weeks after tara vanished, she turned 20 and they tried to stay positive. >> we had a birthday party. >> had to.

and we had the presents and i'll never forget this, i went to open one, and my son said you're not opening that. he said, she's coming back. and i didn't open it. >> months went by. they couldn't accept what their heads kept telling them, that tara had been snatched away and murdered, but nobody was telling them anything. the investigation seemed to have stalled, wasn't going anywhere. >> something needed to happen. >> and didn't feel like it was happening. >> exactly. >> not at all. >> not at all. >> and so out of sheer desperation, about six months after tara vanished, they hired a civil attorney, a woman named amanda downy. >> what did they want you to do? >> they wanted anyone's help, a lawyer's help, the media's help, civilians help, neighbors help,

anybody's help in finding their daughter. i think by hiring a lawyer they believed i could somehow assist them in fact finding, finding their daughter, searching for anything. they were grasping. >> what did you tell them is this. >> i looked her in the eye. i looked keith in the eye, and i told them i would do everything i possibly could to try and help them. >> you know, you would have been perfectly within your rigs to look at them and say, look, i'm sorry, but that's not what i do. >> if you met sharon, you wouldn't tell her no. >> wow. did they want you to sue somebody or just get information or what? >> i don't think that their goal was to sue anyone. i think their goal was to find tara. >> and then nine months after tara disappeared, a man traveling on a desolate road on the outskirts of punta gorda, pulled over for a pit stop, walked into the woods and saw, not a girl, bones. >> we actually sat on the steps

of the crime scene van while they were out there. >> out there at the scene. >> yes, we did. >> you want to find her? >> but not like this. >> you don't want it to be like this, you know. you just hope and pray every day that she's alive. >> but it was her. it was tara. >> enough teeth were there to make a positive identification that it was tara. >> by then, sharon and keith were at home waiting for the results. detective gandy went to tell them. >> it's never easy, huh? >> hardest thing you ever have to do. >> and then when they come to your door, with clergy. >> you see them coming? >> yeah. then the reality is that's it, you're never going to see her again. it's so devastating.

it's the worst pain ever. she didn't belong out there. >> 284 days after tara vanished, they knew finally she was never coming back. but they were no closer to knowing how she wound up out there in the woods. >> coming up. >> now what, find the kill skpeers and make them pay for the crime. >> new leads at last. >> isn't that your connection? >> it's a great connection. >> and new questions for someone who had been at the house that day. >> i feel like i have been, you know, harassed. >> when date line continues. [sneezing] cancel your cold. the 1-pill power of new advil multi-symptom cold & flu knocks out your worst symptoms. cancel your cold, not your plans. new advil multi-symptom cold & flu. overwhelming air fresheners can send you running... so try febreze one. with no aerosols and no heavy perfumes.

so you can spray and stay. febreze one.

i'm dara brown, another shakeup at the white house, president trump announcing that his chief of staff john kelly will leave at the end of the year. kelly a former marine corps general was appointed to the position in july of 2017. and central paris continuing to be engulfed by protests.

france's interior minister saying nearly a thousand have been taken in custody. near 25,000 protesters took place in marches across the country. now back to dateline. welcome back to dateline. i'm craig melvin. nine months after tara ord disappeared, her bones were found in the woods just outside town. as her family absorbed the delaware stating news, detectives began to comb the site, searching for any clue that could lead them to tara's killer. here again is keith morrison with a knock at the door. >> in the end, bones, and a few teeth were all they found. there was every reason to think tara was murdered and then dumped in the woods. but murdered how, by whom? sharon's attorney called her as soon as she heard the news. >> she was obviously distraught,

devastated, hysterical, crying. now what? find out the killers and make them pay for the crime. >> prosecutor dan feinberg got the autopsy results. they were not helpful. >> only half of the bones in her body were recovered and some of the more important bones, like the hylid bone which would show whether or not there had been a choking or strangulation was not recovered. >> the medical examiner, though, found evidence that four of tara's ribs were fractured. >> a fracture that occurred at the time of death. >> so there's a big big slam into her ribs somehow. >> the medical examiner clearly found that there was evidence of a violent struggle. there was evidence of blunt force trauma. and that would contribute to her death. >> detectives scoured the woods, looking for anything that might tell them something. they found a belly button ring near the bones, the kind tara

wore, sharon confirmed. and the remnants of only one piece of clothing that belonged to her, a pair of panties, but no hair, no fiber, no dna of any kind at the scene that would help them i.d. a killer. >> it was frustrating for the family. it was frustrating for the detectives and it was frustrating for the prosecutors that worked on the case, includi including including myself. >> the detectives went back to the beginning. they reviewed all the witness statements they had taken over the course of the nine months tara had been missing and there was a note about a man who turned in some jewelry three days after tara went missing. a ring and a bracelet, which turned out to belong to tara's family. >> it had been in the possession of glen st. john, took a couple of pieces of jewelry to his probation officer. >> glen st. john who went by peewee was on probation for felony burglary. so did peewee kill tara, he

insisted know, and he didn't take the jewelry either, said somebody gave it to him. >> he said he received the jewelry from phil barr, and phil barr said it came from the missing girl's home. >> phil barr, he was the owner of the septic repair business that had been at tara's house the day she went missing. was peewee telling the truth, would he ever tell the truth? >> he told multiple different stories. >> what did he say? >> he said a little more each time he was interviewed, and he would change his story to the point where it made him an uncredible witness. he admitted that he had seen the body at some point. it was a rlittle interesting in that particular area tara's bones were recovered was in a couple hundred yards of peewee's favorite fishing spots. >> isn't that your connection? >> it was a great connection but mr. st. john was a very incredible witness. >> that story about getting

stolen jewelry from phil barr. >> no jewelry from tara's home was found in the possession of phil barr. >> anyway, barr told investigators, tara was fine when he and his helper left her house that afternoon. but questions went on and on, and phil barr who had a business to run didn't appreciate that kind of attention. barr complained to a local nbc reporter about it. >> it's been very stressful. i realize the police are doing their job, and they're, you know, looking into things, but nonetheless, i feel like i've been, you know, harassed. >> and several times, he, himself confronted the detectives, insisted he was innocent. all the talk was unfair. >> i had nothing to do with this girl's disappearance. >> it was a problem. detectives certainly had their suspicions but evidence? there was none. and most everyone they questioned who knew barr was, well, a bit shady.

hard to believe. prosecutor feinberg concluded he simply didn't have enough to make a charge stick. >> the dna evidence in this case that was collected from the residence either came back to the family or was not relevant to this case. there was no indication that the perpetrators had left blood or a body fluid at the home. >> and so. >> cases typically go cold when you run out of leads and when you run out of information, and you run out of ideas. >> tara's mother sharon, again, and again, demanded to know what, if anything, was going on. prosecutor feinberg had no choice, he said, he couldn't tell her. >> the frustration was clear. you could see it on her face. you could hear it in her voice. the family was devastated and they wanted answers. and i can understand that. you can't, as a prosecutor, and you can't as a detective give all of those answers.

you can't put that information out there. >> still, sharon continued to ferret out what she should. >> we just never gave up. there was no stopping. >> as did her attorney. >> she would hear a piece of information from a neighbor or a news source or a detective that wasn't supposed to tell her, and then she would confirm it, run with it, call me. she fought and fought and fought for justice. justice for tara and as sharon would say, my tara. she has always said, my tara. >> none of these efforts turned up anything useful and the sheriffs case wasn't going anywhere either. there was no getting around it, justice for tara just was not happening. in fact , the case was growing cold, stone cold. eventually mike gandy retired, as did these two cops, way up north, retired and moved to sunny florida. and. >> got very bored. >> uh-oh.

coming up. >> i always felt that this was a case that could be solved. >> enter a cold case squad. could they do what no one else had? >> how important was that? >> extremely important. >> when dateline continues. i can't believe it. that grandpa's nose is performing "flight of the bumblebee?" ♪ no, you goof. i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico. nice. i know, right? ♪ [nose plays a jazzy saxophone tune] believe it. geico could save you 15% or more on car insurance. but when i started seeing things, i didn't know what was happening... so i kept it in. he started believing things that weren't true. i knew something was wrong... but i didn't say a word. during the course of their disease around 50% of people with parkinson's

may experience hallucinations or delusions. but now, doctors are prescribing nuplazid. the only fda approved medicine... proven to significantly reduce hallucinations and delusions related to parkinson's. don't take nuplazid if you are allergic to its ingredients. nuplazid can increase the risk of death in elderly people with dementia-related psychosis and is not for treating symptoms unrelated to parkinson's disease. nuplazid can cause changes in heart rhythm and should not be taken if you have certain abnormal heart rhythms or take other drugs that are known to cause changes in heart rhythm. tell your doctor about any changes in medicines you're taking. the most common side effects are swelling of the arms and legs and confusion. we spoke up and it made all the difference. ask your parkinson's specialist about nuplazid. in the water, in the water, you ready for this? she doesn't like it... you've gotta get in there. okay. careful not to get it in her eyes. i know, i know what a bath is... smile honey. this thing is like... first kid. here we go. second kid. you coming in mommy? ahh not a chance! by their second kid, every parent is an expert and more

likely to choose luvs than first time parents. luvs with nightlock plus absorbs wetness faster than huggies snug and dry for outstanding overnight protection at a fraction of the cost. live, learn and get luvs. back pain can't win. now introducing aleve back and muscle pain. only aleve targets tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. aleve back & muscle. all day strong. all day long.

there's no excuse for what they did to you. it's a hate crime. it's a miracle he survived. [ gasps ] i got your back. based on an inspirational true story. are these your drawings? i was a hell of a good artist. now i can barely write my name. so, i created a world where i can be anyone i want.

hey, hey. lookin' good. a place where i can heal. welcome to marwen. welcome to healing. you need to face those jerks who beat you up. welcome to hope. i have my friends and they can't take that away from me. we've got your back hogan. from the groundbreaking director for "forrest gump". woo hoo hoo hoo! and... we're one in the same, pal. if i can be a hero, so can you. in marwen, anything is possible. hell yeah. ♪

tara's family struggled as time went on without answers and without their tara. >> it was hard. i was robbed of my sister. i had to grow up without one. >> in 2003, after six years together, sharon and keith finally got married. >> when i was getting ready to walk down the aisle, i was very sad because my baby girl wasn't going to be in that wedding party. but she was there. we made sure she was there. >> we had a big picture made up

of her. >> but the anger remained, an intense frustration, as year after year, sharon demanded answers and didn't get them. in 2008, almost seven years after tara's murder, sharon appeared in a crime stoppers video and spoke directly to the killers, whoever they were. >> i want to know how they wake up in the morning, how do they go on with their life knowing that they did this to a person. don't think for a minute you got away with this, because one day, and i truly believe this, one day there's going to be a knock at that door, and they're going to be in cuffs and that's what i want. >> nothing came of it. the whole world had moved on, forgotten, apparently, but then, a year later, 2009, punta gorda got a new sheriff and he thought some of the unsolved cases in town needed a new look and called upon the retired detective, mike gandy, and these two who had been detectives up north before they, too, retired

and moved to punta gorda. mike vogel and kirk mayo. >> i moved to florida and came down here to hunt and fish and play golf and go boating and go to the beach, and just relax. and that lasted a couple of months, got very bored. >> and so three bored ex-detectives put on badges to form the sheriff's very first official cold case unit and decided early on they would work on tara's case. prosecutor feinberg was finally optimistic, sort of. >> i always felt that this was a case that could be solved. if it had a new set of eyes, it had somebody that could put the case together, connect all of the dots. >> what requests did you make of them? >> we wanted to know more about every piece of evidence, we had to rule out every piece of dna in that house, so it was closing

doors, it was excludeing other peop people. >> so that's what these three did. it was a large photo of tara kept watch, but again, there was no dna to help them. all they had were lingering suspicions about the workmen who went to tara's house the day she v vanished. phil barr, the guy who owned the septic business, and their buddy peewee st. john. but nothing proved anything. >> curt, we call him the scribe, he organized it in such a way that it was easier to understand. >> what had been difficult to understand? >> it was confusing to the point where you didn't know what we were going to be able to get into court. >> the context was in there, you couldn't figure it out because it was a mess. >> the majority. we had to do the analysis on it and that's what took so long. >> an amount of detective work amounts to reading witness

statements, this and that, all were followed up, every one of them. detective mayo traced down a walmart receipt, a minor forgettable purchase but the time stamp cast serious doubt on phil barr's alibi, caught him in a significant lie. >> that's how detailed we were getting. and then they just happened to run into a guy who said he knew barr and mcmannis and peewee. >> and he overheard them talking about killing this girl. he heard david mcmannis say we shouldn't have done that girl that way. if i don't get out of town, i'm going to spend the rest of my life in jail. fi phillip barr said i've only seen a body. barr tells him, shut up we're all going to end up in prison. >> somebody with credibility. >> better than what we had before. >> a key problem remained. >> terrible witnesses.

>> meaning detectives spoke with other people who had heard the men talk about the murder but they were not the type a jury would likely believe. much of what they said sowned like drug and booze soaked gossip. it wasn't enough certainly to support charging peewee but thought the prosecutor, maybe he could find a way to go after barr and mcmannis, and he had an idea. bring some of the key witnesses before a grand jury, just to see who passed the credibility test, and who didn't. >> i've prosecuted over a hundred homicide cases, and the complexity and the amount of information that we had to review to determine if we could prosecute this case was the most i'd ever seen. >> the idea worked. the grand jury indicted both phil barr and dave mcmannis for tara's murder. they were arrested in late 2012, 11 years after tara vanished from her home. dave mcmannis was arrested in maryland where he grew up, where

u.s. marshals mounted a man hunt for phil barr. >> kind of lost track of him. we were actually then able to locate phil in the vermont area, very close to the canadian border where we think he had fled with the intent possibly of leaving the country. >> but the case against the men needed more, and so the cold case team kept investigating and in 2014, one of them came across a name, buried deep in an old file, right after tara disappeared, a next door neighbor told investigators she saw bar and another man at tara's house that day, but you couldn't see much because her view was blocked by a fence. so that went nowhere then. except the neighbor happened to mention that her sister-in-law had been visiting that day. but no one had ever interviewed her. >> so mike then went out and

located her, and spoke to her. >> what did she have to say? >> she floored me. >> why? that visitor was not blocked by the fence like her relatives were. she had been sitting in full view, not more than 15 yards from tara's front door. and she saw a lot. >> she did see the vehicle pull in, a couple different times, and then the second time she saw the vehicle there, it was backed up to the front door, and the two guys got out, opened the tailgate and were walking back and forth inside the front door. >> wow. how important was that? >> extremely important. she identified david mcmannis as being at the house with barr. she identified him there at a time when the pickup truck was backed up to the front door. what other reason was that pickup truck backed up to the front door other than to take tara out of that house. >> you realize how close it is. >> we went out to the house to get a better idea of where this woman was sitting and what she could have seen. >> so she's sitting right here.

>> wow. >> so that's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, like maybe a cousin steps away where this truck is parked. >> yes. >> so that's close. >> yeah. >> it's very close. so if the back of the truck, it would have been how far from the door, like right up to the door like that? >> that's correct. and in this general area, on the outside track, tire track, was found hair. >> way out here. >> way out here. >> suggesting that they put her into the back of the truck and the hair ribbons came loose as they were driving away or putting her there or something. >> that would be a pretty good explanation. >> well, well, well. this makes it all the more real when you see how close this must have been. >> the woman said she didn't actually see what the men were doing because the cab of the truck blocked her view, but

still, this was way more than they had before. and finally, 14 years after tara vanished, barr and mcmannis were going on trial for her murder. what had happened at the house that day, a jury finally hears him. >> reporter: a mother's perseverance had brought the case this far. >> she fought and fought and fought. >> reporter: would a verdict bring justice at last? when "dateline" continues. you can't compete anymore, you owe it to yourself, to your team, to find a fresh start. so, yeah, that's why i did it. that's why i walked away... from my fantasy league. (announcer) redeem your season on fanduel. play free until you win. fanduel. more ways to win.

going to extremes for perfect skin? where does it end? new olay whips. while not equal to cosmetic procedures, our b3 complex hydrates to smooth skin. injections? rejected. beautiful skin? accepted olay.

they seem to be the very foundation of your typical bank. capital one is anything but typical. that's why we designed capital one cafes. you can get savings and checking accounts with no fees or minimums. and one of america's best savings rates. to top it off, you can open one from anywhere in 5 minutes. this isn't a typical bank. this is banking reimagined. what's in your wallet?

it was october, 2015, when the trials began. dan feinberg was joined by a co-prosecutor named jennifer garczewski, 14 years -- almost to the day -- since tara's life ended. >> she's only a year younger than me. so when i think back to where i was in 2001, i was just

finishing college and obviously that was a goal of hers. so i did feel a connection to her, thinking about her and where she would've been at my age now. >> reporter: and the defendants now on trial? phil barr owned a septic tank repair business, dave mcmannis was his helper the day tara disappeared. the detectives had learned that barr used his business as a cover for stealing from the homes of unsuspecting customers. and here's what happened, said the state, that first of october, 2001: tara's landlord asked barr for a repair estimate. barr and his helper, mcmannis, began their work-day by smoking crack. around noon, four hours before veronica arrived home from school, the men most likely knocked on the door and tara let them in, unaware they had robbery not work on their minds. >> dave mcmannis was taking the property while barr was distracting her in the bathroom. we believe she found out. she heard something or saw

something that mr. mcmannis was doing, where he was in a place he shouldn't have been and she confronted him. and two people with impaired minds do things that normal people wouldn't do. and their solution to that was to kill her. >> reporter: the woman who'd been sitting out in the front yard told the jury how the two men had been laughing and joking when they arrived, but later when she saw them backing their truck up to tara's front door breaking that small palm tree in the process. >> it was almost like they had a mission, that they had a plan. and one went straight to the tailgate and put the tailgate down out the truck and the other went -- went straight to the front door. >> all business? >> all business. >> reporter: that, said the prosecutor, is when they cleaned up and took tara's body in a bed sheet, loaded it into the truck, and waited for dark when one or both of them dumped her body in the woods. but to tell that story took two

long trials, each peopled by witnesses the jury might not think were very credible. people who supposedly heard them say things like -- >> "we raped and killed the girl." >> "they're not gonna find her." >> "i'm going to kill you like i did the girl in florida". "the girl i killed was 20." >> reporter: one witness testified about overhearing a conversation between barr and mcmannis. >> phillip barr was saying to david mcmannis, "i didn't want to kill her." and she overheard david mcmannis respond, "she had to die." >> reporter: not very believable, said the defense attorneys. just people making things up, said barr's lawyer, mark de sisto. >> we contended that those conversations never took place. >> reporter: some of those witnesses were inmates, too, snitches. >> i never met a confidential informant that's gonna inform just because he wants to be a nice guy or a good citizen. there's always something in it for him. >> reporter: that woman, the star witness found by the cold case team, who said she saw the

two men coming and going from tara's house? >> could it be she made herself believe this over so much of a time to make sure the bad guy goes away? >> reporter: dave mcmannis's attorney, michael bross, said his view those detectives focused on the wrong man. said phil barr's accomplice must have been peewee st. john, the man who'd turned in jewelry three days after tara went missing. >> there's enough circumstantial evidence to believe that he was involved if not in the murder, but definitely in the complicity to cover it up. >> reporter: the only thing that dave mcmannis was guilty of, said bros -- bross, was being a sarcastic guy. >> the majority of the statements that were made were sarcasm at best. so if he's guilty -- >> it's a claim. yeah. and that's kind of an easy out for saying terrible things, isn't it? >> well, it was inappropriate statements, if said at all. david is known to be a jokester and sarcastic. even during the course of the trial, he would say things that were sarcastic. >> reporter: the trials, two of them, dragged on for more than

15 months with delay after delay in a case that had taken more than 15 years to get to this point. sharon and keith's marriage didn't make it that long. but they attended both trials together. >> we started this together, we're gonna finish it together, no matter what. >> reporter: and after all that time? in each case, deliberations took less than 90 minutes. the verdicts: guilty. both men were sentenced to life in prison without parole. mcmannis has filed an appeal; barr lost his. >> i think everybody would agree that but for sharon, neither trial would've taken place. she fought and fought and fought for justice. >> reporter: tara's little sister veronica has two children of her own now. >> they know their aunt tara. and they have necklaces with her pictures on it. and my daughter, you would think

that she had met her. she dreams about her. >> never met her, but they love her. that warms my heart. >> reporter: a few weeks after the trials were over, the prosecutors, detectives and their spouses got together for dinner with sharon, keith and veronica. detective mehl made a presentation. >> she was a fighter and she kept us fighting for her, for you and your family. >> they've had the picture hanging in their office for a very long time. and they passed it on to me. i could look at it now and go, "we did it. we did it." >> you've given us a new chapter in our life. >> reporter: the family gave the cold case detectives and prosecutors gifts as well. each was engraved: "justice for tara."

>> they put in so much hard work and time and respect, compassion. so we wanna give them a little token of our appreciation and love for everything they've done. they gave tara peace and justice. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning. msnbc world headquarters in new york. it's 7:00 in the east, 4:00 out west. a new dawn in washington with democrats focused on impeachment. what to expect following three critical court filings. comey on mueller. the transcripts of the former fbi director's closed door meeting are released. what he said about the prospects