but an enduring lesson in how not to be a human being. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thanks for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> you can lose a child without knowing it in a second. it wasn't an if. it was a when are they going to tell us she's not coming home. oh, this is not what was supposed to happen. >> reporter: the note was under her blanket. >> i saw it sticking out, and i grabbed it. >> reporter: their daughter was a runaway. >> i am frantic because i didn't know how to find her. >> reporter: they called police. they searched, and then a jogger found a red shoe and a pool of blood. >> here they are three people at

the door. >> i just started sobbing. >> reporter: they had found her daughter but not the boy she was with. it was if he had never existed. >> we couldn't find anything about lj. >> reporter: months went by. still no trace of lj. and then a rookie took the case. >> how did you feel about it, that this was now going to be your case? >> i didn't know if i was capable of doing this. i kricried for two hours. >> reporter: a teen found dead. >> we still don't have an answer. >> reporter: a mysterious missing suspect. >> you said that lj has killed someone before. >> reporter: and hers to solve. >> i get the feeling you're learning how to become a detective as you go. >> this was the case that taught me. >> you have no sure fire way to keep your children safe. >> hello and welcome to "dateline." social worker veronica kasprzak

made one of her toughest cases deeply personal when she decided to adopt annie. over the years, annie thrived, but it turned out she was keeping a secret that was only discovered after her disappearance. could a fake pregnancy really have been the motive for an all too real murder, or had annie run into the wrong crowd? here's dennis murphy with "the girl with the red shoes." >> come on, red! >> reporter: veronica kasprzak is a determined woman. does someone ever say you can't save them all to you? >> my mother is probably the one that would say and still says that. but, yeah, i heard that a lot. >> reporter: she rarely listened, though. the desire to do good, to save a child, was too strong though sometimes in the quiet hours, she wonders if she did the right thing. >> if i wouldn't have picked that house, if i would have not

taken a shower, if i would have done something else, she wouldn't have been in that situation. >> reporter: of course no one could have known then that it would end up like this. >> unified police department. >> i need to report a runaway. my daughter is missing. >> reporter: her daughter was annie grace kasprzak, though when veronica first met annie, she wasn't a kasprzak at all. she wasn't even her daughter. she was a client, just 7 years old with a rough childhood. >> she had been through some abuse, and she had a hard time trusting other people. >> reporter: back in 2005, veronica was a case worker for utah's division of children and family services. her job was to find homes for kids who no longer had one. annie was one of those kids. >> annie has kind of a larger than life personal at. whatever annie does, she never did small. if there was something she liked, she loved it. if there was something she didn't like, it was big and there was no question about it.

>> drama came with it, huh? >> oh, yes. oh, yes. >> reporter: veronica tried for years to find annie a stable home. but after annie had been flung back to the state nine times, veronica, young, naive, and stubborn, made a surprising decision -- to adopt annie. did your superiors tell you, you know, we don't do that, veronica? >> oh, yes. >> don't cross that line? >> uh-huh. >> you have a professional relationship with this child, but don't bring her into your home? >> well, and that was very true and because at the time, i also happened to be about six months pregnant. and so i'm sure the thought was, okay, crazy pregnant lady. she doesn't know what she's doing. but it was very much, are you sure? you can't save everybody. >> reporter: but veronica was determined to try. she and her then-husband dennis adopted 10-year-old annie in january 2007. annie, who had bounced around from house to house finally had a home. parents and brothers who adored her. >> and she was the immediate cool big sister.

she liked being the oldest, being in charge and teaching them all of this cool stuff. >> reporter: she was wanted, happy, making memories. opening gifts on christmas morning. her first trip to the beach. not that everything was perfect, mind you. >> there was still definitely a "i'm going to test you. as much as you say you love me and you're keeping me, i don't believe you". >> how would she challenge you, for instance? >> the quintessential, i'm not going to do what you say. i'm going to do whatever i want. >> so a psychological tussle? >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: which only intensified when annie entered her teen years. >> she was about as boy crazy as i could imagine. she always had a boy that she liked or that liked her, and it was never a, here, let me see. it's, i'm so in love with you. this is forever. i couldn't imagine anybody being more amazing. she was very all in. >> reporter: but annie was also

into her education and her future. she wanted to be a therapist just like veronica. she even wanted her new family to adopt more kids. >> well, what about this other girl, mom? she's there, and she's really having a hard time. i think we should bring her home. >> she was really becoming your daughter in a way. >> yeah. >> reporter: veronica eventually divorced and remarried. she and her new husband james settled here in riverton, utah, a quiet suburb of salt lake city. annie had james wrapped around her finger. >> i took her with me to help me pick out her mother's valentine's day gift, and there was a shoe store right across the way. she had a way with me. she could talk me into just about anything. in one of them was her favorite shoes that she found, and she was so excited about them, and they were a red pair of shoes. >> reporter: just a few weeks later, march 10th, 2012, annie, now 15, was watching her brothers while veronica and james went out for dinner. >> then when we came home, everything seemed the same. i mean annie had changed from running around the house in

shorts to jeans, and i just kind of chalked that up to, okay, she's gotten cold. and i had a massive headache i couldn't get rid of, so i went to take a shower. annie had gone downstairs to her room to listen to music, and we just figured it was another saturday. >> reporter: but it wasn't. when veronica finished her shower, annie was gone. james searched her bedroom. >> the note was tucked underneath her blanket, and i grabbed it. and it just said, i'm sorry, mom, that i haven't been totally honest with you. >> reporter: annie, it turned out, was keeping a secret. in the note, she wrote, i lied to my friends. i told them i was p. veronica and james knew that stood for the word no teenager's parents want to hear, pregnant. just a few months earlier, they had learned that annie had had sex for the first time. >> she'd had sex, and so to annie, she assumed that well, because we've had sex, i could be pregnant or i am pregnant. >> reporter: but the pregnancy test was negative, and annie was

now on birth control. why would she lie about being "p"? even more alarming was where annie said she was going. by the time you read this note, i'll be on my way to california. please don't try and look for me because i don't want to be found. >> the first thing we did is we called the police, and then the second person i called was chris. >> reporter: 14-year-old chris bagshaw. annie had brought him over to the house a few times. >> he was kind of quiet. i kind of took it as the, all right, i'm here with my girlfriend's parents and i want to make sure they don't kill me, so -- >> was he in and out of the picture for her as the boyfriend of the moment? >> mm-hmm. >> his stock would rise and fall? >> yep. she was crazy about him. >> reporter: chris told veronica he didn't know where annie was. but he did have some potentially significant information. chris said annie told him she was running away with a guy named lj. >> we were shocked because, i mean, we didn't know all of her friends because they changed a

lot depending on who she was hanging out with at the moment. but it wasn't familiar at all. >> reporter: a police officer came and took a report. james, meanwhile, called up the gps function on annie's cell phone. >> it put her around or about the golf course out in riverton, within a mile of that, which is around the bridge area. >> reporter: the bridge at the jordan river, just a couple of miles from their home. a place joggers and horse back riders frequent during the day and young lovers at night. james, veronica, and the officer watched as annie's phone pinged across the computer screen in real time. you're watching her move? >> yes. >> and it moved so fast. our immediate assumption was, okay, she's getting in a car. >> so this is a hot pursuit now, looking for your girl. >> yep. >> reporter: and then the signal just stopped. veronica drove to a walmart near where they tracked annie's phone. >> and i have her picture on my cell phone, and i'm showing it to the people that are sitting at the front, the greeters, going have you seen this girl?

>> are you collected or are you a wreck while all this is going on? >> i am frantic. >> reporter: veronica went back home. she and james watched the front door, and they kept calling annie, but her phone went straight to voicemail. in the best of worlds, she's out about some young boyfriend you may or may not know. >> uh-huh. >> off on a lark of some kind but it will come to an end and you'll get her back and regroup. >> our worst case scenario is she's going to come home pregnant. >> reporter: worst-case scenario not even close. >> coming up -- >> he had told us that lj had driven by the house threatening chris. >> and a jogger makes a grim discovery. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> i'm at the river bottom. there's some pools of blood. >> when "dateline" continues. confidence, reassurance you're doing what's right, to protect your dog from fleas and ticks

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>> reporter: march 11th, 2012. spring was still officially days away. but in draper, utah, its promise was clear. morning dew on the brush. the crisp air. the sun rising over the wasatch mountains. it should have been a beautiful day. but for a jogger on the jordan river parkway that morning, it was anything but. >> 911, what is the emergency? >> you know, i'm not real sure. i'm at the river bottom, and

there's some pools of blood. and i'm guessing it's just an animal, but in the water right by the river there's a shoe. >> reporter: sergeant chad carpenter was one of the first on the scene. >> we called forensics out and did a presumptive test, which was able to tell us that it actually was human blood. >> reporter: human blood. that changed things. >> that made us think, okay, we might have a body in the water. so we called the highway patrol helicopter. >> reporter: the helicopter was in the air for just under an hour before it spotted something about a mile north of where the jogger saw the blood. it was caught up in some branches. as the chopper got closer, it was clear. there was a body in the river. sergeant, when the divers pulled the victim out, what were the injuries they observed to her face? >> she had a laceration here on her forehead. her face was very swollen. so we weren't able to tell to what extent the injuries were, and we couldn't even identify

who she was. >> reporter: their jane doe, dressed in a red and white plaid shirt, looked to be about 20 years old. her features possibly asian. and obviously she had been murdered. leading the investigation was a young detective named derek johnson. tell me about him. >> right when he came into the academy, he sat next to me and started teasing me and the rest of the class time we just harassed each other and laughed and giggled all day. >> reporter: jacqueline moore met derek at the police academy. she and derek hit it off immediately. >> a detective spot came open and we both applied and he got it. >> did you think rats? >> i did. >> he got it and i didn't? >> yes. >> reporter: now derek had caught his first case, which was also the first homicide the small town of draper had seen in years. >> someone called police after 10:00 this morning to report they had come across a gruesome scene. >> reporter: by the time veronica and james saup the reports, annie had been missing

for nearly 20 hours. the information it's an asian woman under 20, i think was the initial report, that would seem to rule out annie certainly. >> initially we're thinking, no, that's not possible. that -- there's no way. >> reporter: but then a detail sergeant carpenter shared with salt lake city's nbc affiliate ksl tv. >> there was a shoe found at the crime scene, and there was one on the body. >> reporter: a red shoe, the same kind james had bought annie for valentine's day just weeks earlier. veronica and james tried to stay calm. >> we called the police, and we said, hey, our daughter's missing. i think logically i was going, they're going to rule it out. i just need them to rule it out. >> reporter: but they couldn't rule it out. >> after i called the police, i called my parents to come pick up the boys and i just started sobbing. >> reporter: police soon determined the 20-something asian victim was really 15-year-old annie kasprzak. she had been killed by blunt

force trauma to the head. veronica and james had thought the rapid pinging of annie's phone meant she was driving away. >> there's the very worst moment of your life at that point. here they are, three people at the door. >> they confirmed that it was annie. i think we were in shock. we went into automatic what do you need from us? tell us what you want. you can have it. look at anything. >> reporter: veronica told investigators what she learned from annie's on again, off again boyfriend, chris bagshaw, that annie had run away with a boy named lj. >> when you talked with lj, how did you talk to him? >> i talked to him once. >> okay. >> actually on the phone. >> okay. >> reporter: police spoke to chris bagshaw and his father at their home. >> and when you talked to him on the phone, did he speak with an accent, or did you notice anything distinctive about his voice? >> no. >> reporter: naturally police also had to ask chris where he was. >> i was with my grandma, and at one point i did walk up to see if my friend could hang out, but

he wasn't home. >> okay. >> reporter: they went through the usual questions. >> when you walked to your friend's, what did you have on? >> just regular jeans and a t-shirt and a red jacket. >> just blue jeans? >> yeah, blue jeans, his nike shoes. he had a t-shirt underneath, and he had his red hoodie on. >> do you mind if we see your nikes? >> sure. >> reporter: chris wanted to help. he gave those nikes to investigators as well as his clothes. he even gave a dna sample. and after his interview, chris' dad called up sergeant carpenter. >> he had told us in this phone call that lj had driven by the house, was threatening chris. >> so here's more information that this lj is a very real and threatening person. >> yes. >> reporter: detectives also spoke to chris and annie's friend spencer kridle. spebs spencer said he was at the gym with his brother the night annie was killed. >> did she have an interest in

james? >> not that she told me. maybe she does because of some person named lj. all i know is she told me he was in i agang. >> reporter: before he left the interview, spencer shared one more thing with police. >> she said that lj has killed someone before. she never gave me the name, but she said that she knows that or something like that. that's why she was scared when apparently lj threatened chris to come kill him. >> you thought lj was your killer? >> we thought lj was involved. >> reporter: did boy crazy annie fall for a gang member? in her room, they found a poem and for the first time a name, layton jendon, but police couldn't track him down. jacqueline wasn't working the case then, but she remembers crossing paths with spencer at the station. >> he immediately tensed up, glench clenched his fist. i thought this kid has done something wrong and he thinks

i'm coming to arrest him because i'm approaching him in uniform. >> did you share that with derek? >> yes. he said, we've received more information now and we think we have another suspect. >> reporter: another suspect, a new name altogether. based on information from an eyewitness who may have seen annie kasprzak the night she was killed and knew who killed her. >> coming up, is this how annie was murdered? and is this the man who murdered her? >> i didn't do it. >> when "dateline" continues. awesome internet.

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>> reporter: annie kasprzak had been brutally murdered and dumped into the jordan river. >> we kept asking, are you sure it wasn't an accident? the idea that somebody else could do that to her was just -- even now it's hard to imagine that that's even possible. >> reporter: and now draper police were working hard to catch her killer. >> we're trying to actively locate suspects in this case, any witnesses so that we can actually bring this case to a conclusion for the parents. >> reporter: and within a week of annie's murder, they found that witness. her name was joanna, and she had been picked up on a fraud charge by neighboring west jordan p.d.

during her interview, she started telling detectives about a young girl she had seen a week prior. the cops thought some of what she said sounded eerily similar to annie's case. so they called draper p.d., and detective derek johnson and his colleague came over to hear what joanna had to say. >> tell me what you know about this girl. >> reporter: there at the home where a man named daniel ferry used to live. danny ferry is a guy known to law enforcement. >> yes. >> as maybe a drug deal center. >> drug dealer. he's -- he was a member of a gang and law enforcement has dealt with danny quite a few times, yeah. >> reporter: ferry had a long rap sheet. in fact, derek had served a search warrant on his home a year earlier. now here was joanna telling derek that she saw a girl who sounded a lot like annie at daniel ferry's home on the night annie was killed.

joanna also said the girl showed up with someone police had been searching for but couldn't find. >> she came with lj. >> reporter: lj, the guy annie had written that note to, the alleged gang member, the one chris bagshaw said annie had run away with. >> we had annie's entries that said lj. we had joanna telling us about lj. >> reporter: on that night, said joanna, lj and the girl disappeared into the garage. she assumed they were having sex. then when they came out, she saw daniel approach the girl. >> reporter: she said the girl was knocked unconscious. lj and another friend named v tried to calm daniel down, and then the three of them carried the girl out to the garage and changed her clothes. >> tell me about the clothes you changed her into. >> there was a lot of red.

that's what i remember most. >> what parts do you remember being red? >> pants and shoes, and the shirt was like white -- white red. >> the shirt was white and red? >> yeah. >> reporter: then joanna said daniel, lj, and v wrap tped the unconscious girl in a blue tarp, put her in a white suburban and took off. when they came back hours later, she said daniel was covered in blood and the girl was not with him. >> i asked danny where she was, and he said that she went swimming. >> reporter: joanna's story rang true, leading derek johnson to believe the mystery girl was annie, and daniel ferry was her killer. >> did you see blood on the carpet? >> yeah. >> was it carpet or hard floor? >> it was carpet. >> reporter: now the search team found the carpet in ferry's house had been ripped up and the

walls were freshly painted. signs of a cover-up? >> yeah. it's looking more and more like this is actually true, all this information that we're receiving. >> did you find blood-like splotches on the wall? >> we found indications that there would be blood on the wall. >> reporter: they swabbed those areas and then went looking for daniel. they found him at an apartment complex, arrested him, and brought him in. >> you want to talk to us without counsel? >> what do you think? >> reporter: it was, the detectives thought, the typical bad guy response. they were sure daniel knew something. they asked him about lj. and then about annie. >> tell me about annie. tell me about annie. >> annie. >> annie is the girl who was at the party at your house last

weekend. >> dude, i have no idea who annie is. >> reporter: you showed him a picture of annie. >> yep. >> brittany? is her name brittany? >> no. it's annie. >> reporter: detectives thought daniel was lying, and they were done playing around. >> what if i told you she's dead? >> i didn't do it. if you guys think i did this, i do want a lawyer. >> reporter: derek was confident he had. they booked daniel for annie's murder. lj, whoever he was, still hadn't turned up. but detective derek johnson still thought he'd wrapped up his first homicide. all he needed was the lab to confirm that the blood found in daniel's home was annie's. but then the lab called, and everything unraveled.

>> coming up -- >> i cried for two hours. i had only had a few months in detectives, and i didn't know if i was capable of doing this. >> when "dateline" continues. find your rhythm. your happy place. find your breaking point. then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best, with emergen-c.

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hello. i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. the cdc just issued a domestic travel advisory for new york, new jersey, and connecticut, asking residents to refrain from all nonessential domestic travel for 14 days. that is effective immediately, and it doesn't apply to essential employees. the white house dispatched the navy hospital ship comfort to new york harbor today. the sea craft will be critical as it holds over 1,000 hospital beds and is carrying 1,200 much needed medical staff members. the ship will arrive on monday. now back to "dateline." >> reporter: annie kasprzak had had a rough childhood.

she was passed along from foster home to foster home before she was adopted by her case worker, veronica. annie's life finally seemed to be turning around. then in 2012, annie, just 15, was found murdered, her body floating in the jordan river. >> there was never a second that your mind didn't go to "this is not -- this is not what was supposed to happen." >> reporter: an eyewitness said she saw daniel ferry assault a girl the night annie was killed. that witness also said the girl had shown up with lj, whom police could never find. but in the course of their investigation of ferry, detectives learned something interesting. you had another lj in that crowd, didn't you? >> yeah. >> daniel ferry. >> yeah. >> what was his nickname? >> so he used two. one was joker, and the other one was lil joe. >> lil joe, lj?

>> yeah. >> reporter: maybe their witness was confused or deliberately hiding the fact that ferry and lj were one and the same. either way, ferry seemed like their man. but the d.a. wanted more evidence before filing charges. derek johnson and chad carpenter thought the blood samples taken from daniel ferry's home would push the case over the finish line. and then the bloodwork comes back and woops. >> the bloodwork came back and it was negative for blood. >> reporter: not only were the samples not annie's blood, it wasn't even blood at all. a major blow to the investigation. didn't mean he's not good for the crime? >> it doesn't mean he's not good for the crime. it led us to believe, okay, it didn't happen here at the ferry residence. >> so ferry might be good for this thing, but, boy, you're not getting there. >> yeah. >> reporter: the only bright spot, daniel ferry wasn't getting out of jail. he was also being investigated for an unrelated kidnapping and assault case in a neighboring town. so he's on ice while you guys

develop your theories. >> yeah. >> reporter: they continued to investigate ferry. months went by. lead detective derek johnson was promoted to sergeant, which meant jacqueline moore's dream of making detective finally came true. maybe a case of beware what you wish for. one ever her first assignments watt the annie kasprzak murder. how did you feel about it, that this was now going to be your case? >> i cried for two hours. >> reporter: jacqueline decided she needed to start again from the beginning, following the chain of evidence that led her colleagues to daniel ferry. she thought they might link ferry to annie through his phone calls. but when she checked -- >> all of his cell phone records showed he whe had never gone south close to where annie was killed. >> reporter: and she well knew the physical evidence wasn't there either. >> none of the dna came back saying annie was ever a friend or ever at his house.

>> reporter: detectives had never found enough evidence to make a murder charge stick, and it turned out there was an explanation. remember while under suspicion for annie's murder, ferry was arrested for an unrelated kidnapping in a different town. the charge stuck. ferry eventually pleaded guilty and was sentence to prison. draper police came to believe it was this kidnapping that star witness joanna had recounted to them. she had seen a totally different crime, not annie's murder. what's more, it happened on the same night annie was killed. no way daniel ferry could have committed both crimes. so now rookie detective jacqueline moore went back to the boxes and binders piled high on her desk. >> i felt lost. i decided i needed to start from the beginning and see what information derek had when he first got the case. >> reporter: and so began the education of a detective. she started reading through pages and pages of annie's notes and journal entries. who does annie turn out to be

the more you learn about her? >> she's very lost. she wants to be loved by anyone and everyone. >> reporter: and jacqueline saw that there was one person in particular annie wanted to be loved by, chris bagshaw. his name was scribbled all over her journals. veronica remembered annie gushing about him. >> she liked him. he was different. he had enough of the bad boy going on that he wasn't a goody two shoes. >> reporter: annie's diaries revealed something else. >> she and chris had sex. >> reporter: chris was the boy annie had slept with just months before her death, after which, remember, she lied about being pregnant. >> i'm starting to think that she made up the pregnancy to keep chris around because he didn't want to be with her anymore. >> reporter: next, jacqueline pored over annie and chris' phone records from the night of the murder. not only was chris the last person annie spoke to, but the pattern of their calls spoke

volumes. >> 30 seconds here and then it hangs up. immediately one of them calls the other back. sometimes the call is ignored. sometimes chris' phone is blocked. >> what do you think is going on? >> it looks like a fight. it looks like they're yelling at each other and hanging up on each other. >> reporter: chris had no criminal record and no eyewitness put him at the scene. and there was still the mysterious lj, annie's reported boyfriend whom police could never find, not in any police database, not anywhere. that is until jacqueline knocked on one more door. >> how's it going? >> hi. are you jack? >> yes. >> reporter: her close buddy and predecessor, derek johnson, was by her side when she went to interview annie's friend jackson. he told them the same story that they'd been hearing all along. annie telling friends she was pregnant, nothing new. but then they asked jackson if he knew who lj was.

his answer floored them. >> she would always refer to this guy as lj. and i asked, well, what's his real name, and she said chris. >> a stunning revelation. was lj all along just annie's nickname for chris bagshaw? coming up, a death on the road and a body blow to jacqueline's case. >> i lost any information that i needed on that case. >> when "dateline" continues. ya. no wonder you rub your eyes hundreds of times a day. but now, relief is just one drop away. introducing pataday® full prescription strength pataday works right in your eyes. right on the cells that make them itch. fast. just one drop, once a day means relief that lasts all day. so turn your day, into a pataday. now get pataday without a prescription. everywhere.

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. >> reporter: september 1st, 2013. it was 6:00 a.m. derek johnson, once the lead detective on annie's murder case, was now a sergeant. he was just finishing his graveyard shift and headed back to the station when he noticed a car parked on the side of the road. it looked like a stranded motorist. derek stopped to help but never made it out of his car. >> the motorist had a gun, and he was angry. >> reporter: draper police chief brian roberts. >> and he fired at derek johnson while he was sitting in the driver's seat of his car. >> reporter: derek, wounded, tried to drive away but lost control and crashed head-on into a tree. he died at the scene. >> it was hard. yeah, it sucked. it, um -- you have to give me a second.

so derek, he was a good guy, good cop, good friend. >> reporter: derek was just 32 years old, leaving behind his wife and his 6-year-old son and his family at draper p.d. >> you know, everybody talks about a cop's cop, and the best cop you can have, and how he treated and served the community. derek was one of those guys. >> reporter: for jaclyn moore, the loss was twofold. >> he was starting to get some free time to come help me with the case and tell me more about what he did when he was on the case, and then he was killed. i didn't have anyone else to ask. >> you had lost your friend, your old competitive friend. >> i lost my friend, and i lost any information that i needed on that case. there was no one else -- >> because he was kind of the

institutional memory of this thing. >> yes. >> reporter: jaclyn had only herself to rely on now. in the balance, justice for annie, now dead for a year and a half. she strongly suspected chris bagshaw knew more than he was telling. jaclyn listened to chris' interviews again and again and noticed something interesting chris said about his shoes. >> she had a bloody nose last time i was with her, and we were sitting right next to each other, and she did drip it on my shoes. >> you remember where on the shoe is that? >> it was on my shoelaces. i'm not sure which shoe it is. >> when was that? >> about five days ago. me and my friend spencer were hanging out, and she just came over. >> reporter: spencer. remember, jaclyn had seen him coming into the station in the days following annie's murder. she had a gut feeling back then that he was hiding something, and detectives at the time asked for his phone. >> do you have an idea why we took your phone? >> for call logs. >> that's part of the reason, but there was a message on there

that we were kind of interested in. do you know what that message is? >> reporter: it was a message from chris. the cops might come back to your house. i need you to tell them that annie got a bloody nose so i don't get blamed. >> he told me about the -- he said something about the bloody nose. that i actually don't remember seeing it. i remember hearing it, though. >> reporter: lab results eventually did show annie's blood was on chris' shoes. detectives questioned him about it during a second interview. >> okay. it would have just been one drop? >> yeah. >> reporter: but then his story began to change. >> where did it drip on your shoe? >> there was a little bit on the shoelace, and then there was a little bit right here. >> okay. so the two separate drops? >> yeah. >> reporter: in fact, the lab found more than just those two spots of blood. they found several. but studying the case fail, jaclyn noticed that the lab didn't test every spot to see if it belonged to annie. they also hadn't tested the bottom of chris' shoes. so what do you do? >> well, at that point we went

with a private lab to see if they could test the shoes further. it appeared the bottom of the shoe, both shoes, were soaked in blood. >> reporter: it seemed like damning evidence, but after testing that blood further -- >> it came back with two males and two females. >> again, nothing you can take to the jury. >> right. >> reporter: six months passed, and more dead ends. it had now been two years since annie's murder. >> i was starting to think maybe we're not going to actually solve this case. >> reporter: but jaclyn was tenacious. she enlisted the help of a cell phone expert, a former homicide detective named sy ray. >> there's certain cases like this case when you hear the details and you understand what's going on, and you see that the agency's having challenges, how do you not get involved? >> reporter: he reviewed 35,000 of chris bagshaw's calls and texts, and one call stood out. an incoming call at 9:01 p.m. the night annie was killed. >> what really stood out is we see these 25 handoffs.

>> reporter: handoffs, the signal bouncing from tower to tower. >> the signal strength had to be so similar within those four towers and a very poor signal at that, that it would cause the handing off that we saw. >> reporter: eventually they found it, the only spot in town that caused the strange pattern of pings. it was at the jordan river, the very spot where annie was killed. >> we feel very, very comfortable saying at 9:01 p.m. on march 10th, the phone was within 100 meters of where we're standing. >> reporter: it turned out of all the people who could have called chris that night, the one who did at precisely 9:01 p.m. was annie's mom, veronica. that was because of something annie had told veronica earlier that morning, something about chris. >> he had asked her, what would you do if i asked you to run away with me. >> run away? >> i told her, i said, you know if you're ever missing, he's the first person i'm calling. >> reporter: which she did, and without even realizing it,

helped police place chris bagshaw at the scene of the crime, right around the time her daughter was killed. it was early morning october 16th, 2014, when veronica got another life-changing call. >> coming up -- >> jaclyn was on the line. she says, we're in colorado, and we're in the process of arresting chris. >> when "dateline" continues. protect your pet with the #1 name in flea and tick protection. frontline plus. trusted by vets for nearly 20 years. frontline plus. at walgreens, we understand the speed of life never slows down. that's why we're helping you get the care and attention you deserve even faster. that's our promise. now, you can skip the line with walgreens express, get in and out quickly with 24-hour locations, or have your prescriptions delivered

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>> reporter: chris, now 17, had moved to grand junction, colorado, and was luviiving wit his mom. he was completely unprepared for the undercover officers who approached him on his way to school and for the young detective who met him in the interview room. >> chris. >> how are you? >> hey, nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you. >> reporter: jaclyn had wanted to question chris all along. now she finally had her chance. >> is this an interview? >> yes. >> reporter: but just as soon as it began -- >> um, name not going to talk to you without a lawyer. >> okay. >> reporter: -- it was over. >> well, we have a warrant for your arrest. >> for? >> murder and obstruction of justice. >> i thought i've proven myself innocent. >> no, you didn't. >> reporter: chris was extradited back to utah. veronica and james were grateful to police, but they knew nothing could bring annie back. >> while we support the police

department and the attorney's office, and we appreciate all the work that they have continued to do, it does not change what happened. >> reporter: february 29th, 2016, almost four years since annie's murder. and darwin christopher bagshaw's trial was just a week away. he had refused to talk to police and pleaded not guilty. >> we were preparing for trial the following week, and i got a phone call that chris' attorney scheduled a hearing that day. >> reporter: jaclyn, now a sergeant with the utah state police, ran down to court and barely made it in time. when she got there, she saw chris standing before the judge. >> the case is set for a change of plea hearing today. are we going forward with that, mr. bown? >> yes, we are, your honor. >> reporter: there was no deal offered, just a change of heart. >> are you pleading guilty to the charge because you're guilty of it? >> yes, your honor. >> reporter: chris' attorney

says chris wanted to take responsibility for what he had done. >> all right. then as to count 1, murder, a first degree felony, how do you plead? >> guilty, your honor. >> reporter: a guilty plea, confirming what jaclyn had pieced together over the years of her investigation. and she had a theory about how it all went down. >> so march 10th, annie is discussing over the phone what her options are for her baby with chris, and chris is telling her he's come up with a plan, and they can run away and be together. >> reporter: jaclyn thinks chris really believed annie was pregnant, so he persuaded her to meet him at the river. but -- >> chris has no intent on running away. chris' only reason for being there is to kill her. so he just starts beating her until she dies. >> turns out to be a very sloppy crime, the amount of blood. >> mm-hmm. >> i feel that he betrayed annie more than he betrayed us. annie knew him, and annie

trusted him. >> reporter: at his sentencing, chris, now 18, sounded remorseful. >> i'm very sorry for everything that's happened, and i want to apologize to annie's family and to my family and to everybody in court today for putting everybody through this. >> still trying to put words into everything that has happened. >> reporter: but for veronica, no amount of "i'm sorries" to make up for what she and annie's entire family lost. >> so may you feel sadness. may you feel loss. may your tears heal your soul, but may your conscience never clear. i will grieve my daughter every day. >> and so for the charge of murder, a first degree felony, i'll sentence you to an indeterminate term of not less than 15 years. >> reporter: chris bagshaw robbed annie of her future, and now a judge had decided his

fate. it would be 15 years to life in prison. jaclyn has other cases to work these days, but this one, annie's case, will surely always hold a special place in her heart. do you think derek would have approved? his confidence in you would have been vindicated finally? >> i wished so bad he was there. >> reporter: annie started off as a case for veronica too, but she became so much more. >> we put her ashes in the ocean so that -- so that she would never be in one place and so that wherever we were at, we could feel like she was there. >> reporter: despite the horrific events that took away her daughter, veronica is still as determined as ever to continue to do good work and to help children in need.

she and james have since adopted five more children. it is just what annie would have wanted them to do. >> that's all for this edition of this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thanks for watching. this is "dateline." the details are so crazy, i couldn't make sense of it. >> a successful young couple ambushed in the dead of night. attacked. abducted. >> wow. where is she? >> i didn't have a clue what happened. >> the real question, was their story even true? >> we were not able to substantiate any of the things he was saying. >> could this be some kind of hoax? who was really behind it l?