>> does life seem a little more precious now? >> he's encouraging us to do a lot of things, and i think he's still pushing us. 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'm freaking out. i walk in and my sister is not there. her door is open, her lights are on, her bed is undone. everything was horrible. then i felt it. >> she had been fearless on the front lines in iraq. >> pretty amazing. i saw her as, like, a really strong soldier. >> but something had her terrified at home. >> i'm scared. i don't feel safe. >> a desperate call to police

and then she vanished. >> something made her pretty scared. >> yes. >> there's no one to say what that was. >> right. >> what had happened to this beautiful army sergeant? that question would launch a spellbinding mystery. >> there were a number of potential suspects, absolutely. >> was a killer out there? >> she was in danger. >> could police catch him if they hatched a plan of virtual genius? >> one detective said, you're not going to believe this. welcome to "dateline." marabel ramos was a fighter, joining the army and doing two terms overseas before returning to civilian life. but even her military experience would not be enough to prepare her for the evil she battled back home. here's josh mankowitz with

"mystery in orange county." >> orange county, california. on tv it's a place of sun, fun and privilege. it's where the real housewives first aired their dirty laundry. it's where kids showed us what temperature cool really was. around here you get the sense that everybody is rich, white and lives in a mansion with a view of the pacific. but step back from the coast, and you'll see the orange county that isn't on tv. not as wealthy, not as white, full of those who came here super somewhere else, chasing a better life and finding it in places like santa ana, a mostly working class immigrant community in the shadow of disneyland. it's the part of the oc where people know that to survive, they'll have to work hard. marabel ramos arrived here as a baby, leaving mexico behind. she would not only survive here,

but thrive. to tell you the truth, this should be the story of a woman who worked hard to change her life, and in doing so, carved a path for others to follow. >> hello? >> but this story is going to end differently. >> why are you crying? >> because i'm afraid. >> there are some parts of life that hard work just can't fix. >> i'm scared. i'm just, like, calling to let you guys know that if something happens, i did it because i was trying to distance myself. >> some things that are beyond our control. >> all i can say is i'm warning -- honestly, i will fight for my life and i swear i will kill him. >> all of this should have never reached that point of no return. so maybe it's a story of simple bad luck, of two lives that should never have come together.

tell me about growing up with marabel. what's she like? >> a troublemaker. mom wanted her to stay home and she wanted to go play baseball. >> tomboy? >> yes, yes. >> her sister lucy says tomboy marabel ramos also had a spark. >> she would come in and introduce herself to everybody -- >> make friends. people were drawn to her. easy to talk to. >> you saw boys interested in her? >> definitely. >> from an early age? >> from an early age. >> that never ended, did it? >> no. no. >> little sister lucy remembers how marabel was also in charge of watching out for her while their mother worked two jobs to make ends meet. >> you were how much younger? >> seven years younger. >> a lot of girls wouldn't want their younger sister tagging along. >> no, she didn't want to, but she had to. >> even as a child, marabel knew

another world existed and she wanted it. >> she knew at a young age that there was more to life than we had around us. you can go to school and have opportunities and live in a nicer house. >> she saw all of that. >> yeah, definitely. >> marabel ramos knew she would have to work hard to get where and what she wanted. after high school she worked in security at kmart and hatched a long-term plan to become a cop. but she would need a college degree, and that meant money. so marabel ramos became private first class ramos. she joined the army hoping to use the gi bill. her first day was august 8, 2001. and just 48 days later, the whole world changed. >> we all sort of recoiled in horror, but you probably also thought, that's going to affect my sister. >> yes. i would turn on the tv and towers are crumbling.

first thing i thought was, oh, my gosh, my sister is going to war. >> lucy worried. their mother worried. but marabel was like a rock. >> what did marabel say about going overseas? >> she didn't express her feelings about it. she just said, well, this is what's happening, so i need to talk to mom. >> marabel went to war in iraq. >> what was it like to see her in uniform? >> it was pretty amazing. >> sindel ramos was marabel's niece. >> i was like, you're going out there to save everybody. >> you were proud of her? >> yeah. >> she manned the guns for armed convo convoys. she saw her share of armed combat. she also made sergeant. when her term ended, she reenlisted for another.

she seemed fearless. >> she could very easily become a casualty. >> yes. other people did die, other friends of hers. >> in 2009, after two tours in iraq, marabel left the army and set part two of her plan into action, enrolling in college. but adjusting back to civilian life wasn't as easy as marabel had expected. like a lot of war veterans, she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, or ptsd. >> she had seen some terrible things. did she ever talk about that? >> not with me. >> instead she focused on school, work and family, especially her niece giselle. >> she kind of adopted you as this project. >> yeah. >> why did she do that? >> i think it was because she wanted me to have the best. >> as giselle grew older, the self-improvement message sometimes came complete with

push-ups. after all, marabel was all army. >> when i would get in trouble, she would make me do exercise in order to, like, work off the punishment. >> and all this time, marabel was hammering away at giselle, you're going to finish school -- >> oh, yes. >> -- you're going to study hard, you're going to have a career. >> yes. this is what you're going to do, she would tell her. and she said, yes, dia. >> marabel got a dog and she got a roommate named casey joy who also had a dog. >> i thought it was a perfect match. he has a dog, she has a dog. he seemed quiet. he's not going to have all these people coming over. >> in may 2013, everything seemed great. marabel was leading by example, finishing her degree in criminal

justice in cal lerton-fullerton. >> she was dropping off money at my house because i got good grades. she had just got her hair done, dyed and styled for her graduation. >> she looked great. >> yes. >> and she was happy. >> yes, she was. >> that's why it made no sense when, just days later, marabel ramos, soldier, student, loving aunt, simply disappeared. coming up, what had happened to marabel ramos? nobody heard from her? >> nobody. >> when "dateline" continues. the beautiful thing about care, is knowing that it's always there... ...and that it always will be. ♪

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. may 3rd, 2013 was a friday, a day that should have been an easy day for marabel ramos. school was nearly over. graduation was so close. but that morning, things weren't right. >> i got a text from casey at 10:0 a.m., and he said, your sister didn't come home. >> they had been roommates for over a year now. casey felt protective of marabel. he told lucy he had already called police to report her missing. >> this is not an emergency. my roommate is just 36 years old and she didn't come home last night. >> so what i did was i texted her at 11:00, and i said, happy

friday. we usually text each other, anyways. that was my way of connecting. and she didn't text me back. >> unusual? >> yes. >> lucy still wasn't worried. she knew her combat-hardened sister could take care of herself. but then evening came. and for marabel, friday night was softball night. she loved to play and never missed a game. but this friday night, she didn't show. now lucy's phone was ringing chlringing, marabel's teammates on the line. >> they told me, go to the house. the police are there. do not take giselle. i'm freaking out. i walked in and hi sister is not there. her door is open, her lights are on, her bed is undone. my head started spinning. everything was horrible. and i felt it. >> detective joey ramirez with the orange police department got the call that evening, and he

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

to the police station, hoping for answers. but morning came and there weren't any. so channelling her big sister, lucy decided to stop waiting and make her own luck. >> i woke up on saturday and i thought, wow, this is seriously happening. so i post aed a picture of her facebook, and it was immediate. people went into action. >> friends from the university got together, family members, her roommate. lots of people who marabel had touched wanted to help. they hung flyers in english and spanish. they reached out to reporters. >> it's very not like her after eight years of service in the army to just disappear. >> the next day, friday morning, she was not here. >> i helped my mom pass out flyers around school, pretty much anything i could do. >> did you think they would find her? >> yes. i did. >> giselle was 14 at the time, but detective ramirez, who has

been a cop for more years than giselle has been alive, was not as hopeful. >> she's not using her cell phone, she's not taking any money out, no one has heard from her. when you picked up no trace of her after a couple of days, you still think you're looking for a living person? >> the percentages are starting to drop not in our favor. >> because by then you've called all the hospitals. >> all the hospitals, jails. >> there is an alert out that any police officer, what, in southern california sees her -- >> correct. and the media was also helping. >> and nothing. >> nothing. >> nom marabel on security tape from any nearby store. police checked all of them. they found only this image from the security camera outside the manager's office for her apartment complex. it's marabel paying the rent. it's may 2nd at 8:18 p.m., the night before anyone realized she

had disappeared. marabel seems to be alone. so what the cops needed to do was talk to everyone who was anyone in marabel's life. it turns out there was a lot of people they suddenly needed to get to know, including a current boyfriend, an ex-boyfriend, and someone marabel had just met, a guy she had made a date with on line, a guy whose name marabel had apparently kept completely to herself. coming up, that haunting phone call. >> i'm scared. >> something happened to make her pretty scared. >> yes. >> when "dateline" continues.

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this is the city of orange, california in the county of orange, california. much of it is a small town stuck in time. there is a university, a zoo, cute local businesses and a police department that doesn't have to deal with a lot of violent crime. after all, the happiest place on earth is just down the street. but in may 2013, detective joey ramirez was far from happy. he had a lot of ground to cover and a strong sense that time was against him as he tried to figure out what had happened to

marabel ramos. >> she just vanished. >> yes. >> how often does that kind of thing happen? >> it doesn't happen often. >> ramirez started by investigating the man in marabel's life. it turned out there were a few of them. >> did you know she was doing that online dating? did she talk about that? >> yeah, she did. >> marabel sometimes met guys through a website called plenty of fish. that's how she found paul lopez. they had been dating for a few months and paul had even joined her weekly softball game. lopez was the last person marabel talked to on the phone. now police wanted to talk to him. >> you know, you're not under arrest, anything like that. >> i wouldn't think so. >> ramirez sat across from paul and asked about his relationship with marabel. >> it's been nothing exclusive, it's just been dating. >> you date other people, too? >> me, yeah. >> you don't know if she dates other people or not? >> i don't ask, don't tell. >> and he asked lopez where he

was on the night marabel disappeared. >> did you come into orange at all on thursday? >> no. >> police also had to consider this. marabel had told lucy that things weren't working out with paul lopez. >> she wasn't a match with paul, so she was online talking to people. >> marabel was back on plenty of fish and had met a new man. he was a photographer who had worked a lot with the military. it was a connection for both of them. >> how would you describe that guy? >> she said, i met someone. he's very interesting. we have a lot am common. >> and you thought what, good? >> i thought, great. >> they planned a date for cinco de mayo, but two days before that date was to happen, marabel vanished. so police talked to that photographer and made a recording of that conversation. >> you're saying you never actually met her in person? >> no. >> so he said, anyway. there was also an ex-boyfriend

who had been calling. police needed to check him out. and there was this lead. >> there was a person at cal state fullerton that was in the veterans association with her that had given her a bad feeling. he may have wanted to pursue some sort of dating relationship. >> but it gave her a bad feeling how? >> she wasn't interested and she didn't give him any attention, yet he didn't go away. >> so he made her feel uncomfortable? >> correct. >> and by now, detective ramirez had learned something else. just a little over a week before she vanished, marabel ramos had called 911. >> orange police. >> hi. it's not an emergency but i just -- is there a recording? >> is there what? >> is this conversation recording? >> yes, every conversation is recorded. >> marabel wanted it on the record. she wanted police to know that she was very afraid of someone.

>> i'm just, like, calling to let you guys know that if something happens, i did it because i was trying to distance myself. >> she might have been afraid, but this army strong woman who had always taken care of herself feared she might be the one putting the hurt on her attacker. >> all i'm trying to say is that i'm warning -- honestly, i will fight for my life and i swear i will kill him. >> something happened to make her pretty scared. >> yes. >> there was nothing in the call to say what that was. >> right. >> what was she afraid of? not clear. who was she afraid of? that was another story entirely. coming up -- >> you were doing your own surveillance? >> yes. >> did her roommate know something police didn't? when "dateline" continues.

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the other top stories, another high-profile departure from the white house. interior secretary ryan zinke will be stepping down at the end of the year. the president praised him for his accomplishments. a major ruling that could signal a long legal battle. a federal judge in texas has ruled obamacare is unconstitutional. this came before the saturday night deadline to sign up for the 2019 plans on healthcare.org. now back to "dateline." welcome back. i'm craig melvin. marabel ramos had joined the army to put herself through college. but just days before her graduation ceremony, she vanish vanished. earlier marabel had called police to say she was in danger and afraid for her life. what was it, or who was it that had her so concerned? here again is josh mankowitz.

>> flyers blanketed orange. her family was increasingly worried. putting herself out there with all the rest was marabel's roommate k.c. joy. >> she was my best friend. >> k.c. had moved to southern california for a job. he had no family and few friends here. so he turned to marabel and she was happy to include him. she even arranged for k.c. to tutor her niece in math. >> he seemed nice, respectful. he liked to be involved with the family and my aunt. >> he had no family of his own so he kind of attached himself to yours? >> yeah. >> but they weren't boyfriend and girlfriend? >> no. >> even so, in photos marabel

and k.c. seemed to have a great time. they even went on a cruise together. soon police would be talking with k.c. joy. >> the formalities over, detective ramirez started asking about marabel. >> as you know, right now there are some family and friends that are worried about marabel, your roommate? >> i am her friend and i care about her very much. >> but he said he had no idea what happened to her. >> when was the last time you saw her? >> about 9:00 p.m. >> that was thursday night, may 2nd, 2013. the next night when the cops were called to marabel's house, k.c. wasn't there. he explained he had been so worried that he did his own investigation, watching his own front door from his car parked out front.

>> in those movies and detective movies, people are suspect of a crime or whatever. i want to see who would knock on my door. i parked my car out front, had my notebook, binoculars -- >> so you were doing your own surveillance? >> yes. >> it sounded a little odd. maybe k.c. had seen too many crime movies. but if he had, he would know cops didn't miss many details, well, like this. >> he's sitting across from me. he has jeans on and sandals and instantly i can see he has scratches on both his arms. he has a scratch from his forehead to his eye. how did you get all these scratches on you? >> i go to the park all the time. we would kick up fishing lines all the time.

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

argument? >> thursday. >> this thursday? >> that was the last night anyone saw marabel, the night she was caught on camera paying the rent which, k.c. said, was what they were arguing about. >> what would happen? tell me about that. >> because i'm supposed to move out. >> it turned out k.c. had recently lost his job and could no longer pay his share of the rent. marabel had asked him to move out. that was reason for concern, of course. and so was this. detective ramirez had learned about the 911 call marabel had made 11 days before she disappeared. and he knew that in that call, the man marabel said she might have to kill was k.c. joy. >> his full name is quan chul

joy. >> weren't police out to your house recently because you guys had an argument? >> we had been drinking quite a bit. she started in. >> k.c. said it was all just a drunken misunderstanding. i don't like you, i'm not attracted to you. she started screaming. i said, marabel, we had a great time tonight. what's the problem? >> what was the problem? detective ramirez had heard from marabel's family something interesting. k.c. joy had wanted to be more than just roommates with marabel ramos. lucy told us the same thing. >> when did it become apparent to you that k.c. sort of had a crush on your sister? >> he called me and then he just said, i'm, like, in love with your sister. so i was like, this is great. >> because you knew your sister wasn't in love with him. >> yes. and that's a bad situation. so at that point i'm like, okay, k.c., you know, you're a go

good man and i'm sure you'll find somebody out there for you but -- >> but it's not going to be her. >> yeah. >> now the woman k.c. had told lucy he wanted had told him that not only did she not love him, but he had to basically get out of her life. despite that, k.c. continued talking with police. >> mr. joy was being cooperative. >> he was. >> talking to officers, let you guys take stuff out of the house. >> he did. >> and never showed up with a lawyer. >> he did not. >> it didn't sound like there was a lot to set aside your suspicions. >> no. it didn't. >> suspicions, sure. but no proof a crime had even occurred. marabel ramos was missing. that's all anyone knew. >> ready, sir? >> so k.c. joy walked out of that police station like all the other men in marabel's life. a free man. finally the clue they had been waiting for, and you won't believe how they got it.

coming up -- >> no one had searched there. >> no. >> but he's looking at it. >> yes. >> he knew a lot more than he was telling us. >> when "dateline" continues. didn't see that on the website. he's been acting more and more like his dad. come on, guys! jump in! the water's fine! tom pritchard. how we doin'? hi, there. tom pritchard. can we get a round of jalapeño poppers for me and the boys, please? i've been saving a lot of money with progressive lately, so... progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents. but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. 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.

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nothing works faster. we see your pain and what's possible without it. excedrin extra strength. the days were ticking by and still no marabel. forensic results were coming in, dna, fingerprints, cell phone

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

who had come on too strong, he was in japan. none of them could be connected to marabel's disappearance. so in the end, there was just one person the cops couldn't stop looking at: the first person to report marabel missing, her roommate, k.c. joy. >> this is not an emergency, and my roommate is just 36 years old and she didn't come home last night. >> he was also the last to see her alive. >> i felt she most likely was dead. i felt that there was a high probability mr. joy was responsible for it, and he knew a lot more than he was telling us. >> so detective ramirez became k.c. joy's shadow, appearing in the morning and then later by moonlig

moonlight. hours after k.c.'s police interview, a cheerful ramirez showed up at his house. >> k.c., can we come? >> he brought a voice recorder and more questions. detective ramirez already knew the answers to most of them. and to some he didn't. >> did you have any marks on your legs or anything? let me just ask you, do you have any injuries on your legs? >> no. >> you have no injuries on your legs whatsoever? >> no, i don't have any. >> okay. >> then ramirez showed up again that night. >> k.c. joy, just a couple quick questions for you and then i'll get out of here. how are you doing? are you okay? >> how many times did you talk to him? >> i believe i talked to him at least nine times. >> ramirez tried scaring k.c. about potential evidence found in his car. >> why would there be blood in

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

this movie and now you're going to take my fingerprints. he's like a pro. he's seen it all. >> he's being very relaxed. i felt that he was very confident that we weren't going to figure it out. >> what mr. joy apparently didn't know was that other officers were watching him 24/7. the surveillance teams noticed he was spending a lot of time at the public library, and he was using the computers there, probably because police had taken away his phone and marabel's computer, which was the one k.c. normally used. >> initially we would have undercover policemen going into the library, walk around him, see what he was doing. at one point he's seen googling, can a cell phone be tracked if it's turned off. >> well, that's certainly suspicious. >> it is. >> detective ramirez was consulting daily with orange county deputy district attorney scott simmons.

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

zoomed in onto it. he then panned out, navigated over about 8 to 10 miles. >> this area that he was drawing in on, was it an area that had crossed your field of vision at all? >> no. >> here k.c. is google mapping a place that no one had searched. watch as he zooms in to that area with the tree. >> that tree didn't figure in the investigation in any way? >> not in any stretch of the imagination. >> no one had searched there. >> no. >> no reason for that to be in the paper or anywhere else? >> no. it's out in a remote canyon location. >> but he's looking at it. >> yes. yes. >> by the time k.c. was walking out of the library that afternoon, police were already headed to that tree. coming up, another startling discovery. >> this is way off the beaten path. we didn't know what to think. when "dateline" continues.

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welcome back. police were growing confident they knew who was involved in the disappearance of marabel ramos. there had not been an arrest, but that was about to change. here's josh mankiewicz with the conclusion. >> as he dug deeper into kc's background, the detective found more and more evidence that kc was infatuated, even obsessed

with marabel ramos. for instance, the time marabel told kc he was too old for her and he responded by getting plastic surgery. >> $12,000 later he got a different face. >> right. >> he says the reason he got it is because the woman is missing. >> correct. >> now, here was kc at the public library. google mapping a remote wilderness area. since the dawn of detective novels, killers have returned to the scene of the crime. but these days there's no need for the bad guy to even get in his car. now it can be done with the click of a mouse. the good guys still have to do it the old-fashioned way. detective hayden got the call on the radio, drive out to rustic, majestic canyon, southeast of the city of orange. >> we didn't know what to think. it's a very rural area.

no one will be out here mountain biking or hiking. this is way off the beaten path. >> at the other end of the radio, the detective was rewatching kc's google search trying to give detective hayden better direction. k.c. focused and moved over to the tree. >> in the center of the shot, one tree looks like a bush out in the middle of the wash. in the wash from that area. >> hayden and his partner found the tree, then moved off the road and cast a barbed wire fence and then they knew they were close. >> they were tracking through this brush. the first thing we found, like it was something dead. my partner and i turned our head and we looked over and saw this shallow gravesite. >> at long last, there she was. >> one of the detectives called and said, joey, you're not going to believe this. we found her.

>> marabel ramos had been left alone in that dusty canyon since before anyone knew she was missing. now ramirez knew it was time for one last meeting with kc joy. >> thanks for coming down voluntarily. i appreciate it. >> you're going to give me ride back to the library, then i don't have to walk. >> ramirez didn't tell k.c. that marabel had been found. he just tried for the final time to get k.c. to be the one who would say what had happened. >> k.c., i think you have the answers in your heart. that you do and you should share them. >> once again, k.c. joy walked out of the interview room. he didn't get far. >> this time he was arrested and charged with the murder of marabel ramos. the woman he loved who had not loved him. when he was taken into custody, he was wearing marabel's dog tags. k.c. joy pleaded not guilty and

in july 2014, a year after marabel vanished, he went on trial for her murder. >> marabel ramos, she's no longer with us. >> the prosecution laid out the evidence against k.c. the unrequited love, the scratches, the 911 call and finally the computer searches. >> he's wondering, how close is marabel's body to where they're doing that search. that's why he goes to google maps. >> the defense pointed out, there was no dna, fingerprints, cell phone info or standard forensic evidence that tied k.c. to marabel's murder or to the crime scene. >> we don't know what happened. what kind of force was used? nobody knows. who used it first? nobody knows. was there a weapon used? was it used by marabel or by k.c.? nobody knows. >> all true. but the computer searches were enough for the jury.

>> we the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant guilty of the kriechl felony, to wit. -- >> k.c. was convicted of second degree murder, after which he told me the jury got it wrong. >> are you dangerous? >> me? i'm most honest guy there is. i'm gentleman. >> you had a crush on her? >> no, absolutely not. i always maintain that we are platonic friends. >> you never told lucy you had a crush on her? >> no. >> you never said you were in love her? >> no, never said that either. >> you weren't obsessed with her? >> no, i was not obsessed with her. >> the plastic surgery? his choice, he says. not done for marabel. the computer search of the area where marabel's body was found? kc says he didn't do it. someone else did by remotely accessing the same computer right after he had used it. >> you don't think that's quite

a coincidence? >> in may be coincidence but i didn't do it. >> you're being framed here? >> i'd say yes. if i had a paid attorney, somebody like o.j. simpson had, i wouldn't be here right now. i'd be out. >> the problem is here that you don't have enough money. >> it seems like money talks. if you had money, i will not be here. >> he was sentenced 15 years to life for killing marabel ramos. >> what do you think happened? >> i think she went to bed and i think what he did is got a pillow and smothered her and he's got this pillow over her face, she struggles a little bit. i believe that's where got the scratches on his right tricep. >> if he hadn't done that google map search leading you essentially to the body, would he be a free man? >> if no other evidence came up, yes. >> he'd be a person of interest in a cold case? >> correct.

>> marabel ramos graduated from college posthumously. her niece who are marabel always hoped would follow in her footsteps instead ended up walking the path meant for her aunt. >> i received her diploma and i got to sit in her seat and walk the stage and receive everything. >> it's difficult to see my daughter in such pain walking for her aunt. >> marabel ramos, we lost this gal a couple years ago. she was an army veteran. >> every wednesday in the city of orange, they lower the flag for the fallen who serve. but marabel has a legacy. gisele who seems well on her way to becoming the successful woman marabel had hoped for. >> your mom says you've sort of been the rock. that they wouldn't have made it

through this without you. >> yes. >> where did you get at that toughness? >> from her. >> from marabel? >> yeah. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thanks 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. the president's world under fire. what lies ahead as his inauguration spending is about to come into question on capitol hill. >> we'll sit down with the democrats. >> now the president and the gop are feeling the heat after a new ruling on obamacare. plus this. >> i told you donald, you don't have a press secretary because you weren't elected president. >> the ghost