and it's disappointing that we will never know, or we may never know, but we have to be okay with it. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie mar allealos. >> and this is "dateline. ". >> it i was trying to see what she had on and he whispered and said, "red blood." chills up and down my spine because i thought, wow, this kid saw this. >> a little boy witnessed something terrifying the night his mother vanished. >> it just was ripping my heart. >> he was so traumatized. >> everybody's life changed that night.

everybody's did. >> what had happened to his mom? >> i still wake up in the middle of the night. >> haunted for more than two decades, he would make a chilling discovery that would unlock this mystery. >> now you know the whole story. >> yes, sir. and everything kind of clicked. >> it's just so unbelievable. >> i knew he was telling his mom's story. >> hello, and welcome to "dateline." aaron fraser was only 3 years old when his mom left the house never to be seen or heard from again. police soon learned that aaron may have witnessed the unspeakable -- the murder of his own mother. the boy would become a man before the whole truth was revealed. and though memories faded, the evidence pointing to the killer couldn't stay buried. here's dennis murphy with "she never left."

she'd been gone, unaccounted for for more than 20 years. his mother, bonnie. >> it was odd to be the one that took -- to be the one that found her. >> you'd spent a lot of your life looking for her, right? >> yes, sir. >> there's a poignant video of the mother and child's last christmas morning together, december, 1992. >> yay! >> the boy, aaron, was 3 1/2. >> mom! >> ooh. >> yes! >> look at that later. >> you've seen maybe some home movies and some old pictures. >> yeah. recently i've seen some -- the christmas video. >> you like that? >> yeah. >> okay. >> it didn't trigger any memory. >> no memory goes with that? >> no, sir. >> can't remember so much as a touch or the sound of her voice.

>> okay. >> but this story is all about memories. memories lost, memories later testified to. had the child, now a grown man, really seen something as terrible as all that? this is a boy's story like few others. >> mom? >> go back in time to january, 1993, in jacksonville, florida. it's just after the holidays, and there's an argument going on inside that modest starter home on dolphin avenue. the young wife, just 23, is restless, the story goes, and she walks out the door. the phone rang early the next morning in the bedroom of ivan and bernie haim across town. a funny question at that hour -- did they know where bonnie was, the wife of their nephew, mike. >> we got a phone call from a police friend of ours.

and he knew mike and bonnie. he said, where's bonnie? we just found her purse in the dumpster at the red roof inn, and you all need to get out here. >> a maintenance had come upon the purse in a dumpster near the airport motel. inside were bonnie's i.d., keys, credit card the, and more than $1,000 in cash. bernie and ivan got to the hotel after 8:00 a.m. mike was already there. >> by the time we got there, mike and his dad, john, were in a room. the detectives were there, and they had her purse on the bed and everything laid out. >> mike, the hud, seemed perplexed by the amount of cash on the bed. >> he's like, what in the hell is she doing with all this money? >> given a wad of money like that not taken, robbery was quickly ruled out. >> i requested them to bring another dumpster right now because we thought maybe bonnie was in the dumpster where they found her purse.

>> you're thinking foul play at this point? >> i'm knowing foul play. >> a woman separated from her purse is a very bad sign. >> right. we're sitting there crying, hoping they don't bring out a body out of the dumpster. >> but there was no body and no sign of bonnie's car either. police handed bonnie's purse to mike and advised him it would be best if he just went home. >> the police told him, go home, sit by the phone, wait for a call, ran some call, an accident call, whatever it might be. >> homicide detective robby hinson came on duty later that day at the jacksonville sheriff's office. he was assigned the missing person case that would change his life. did you go back out to this airport motel? >> yes, we did. we spent quite some time canvassing the rooms and saw who interviewed people, interviewed the security guard. >> there were stories about strangely acting men even then?

>> yeah. even then. >> the security guard told the detective a man standing earlier on a second-floor balcony seemed overly interested in the activity below at the dumpster. but he checked out before detective hinson could talk to him. the same security guard also remembered seeing a woman fitting bonnie's description going into one of the second-floor rooms. the detective wondered where was the woman's car. that was still out there? >> the car was still missing. >> the airport was nearby so hinson cruised the parking lots there. >> it would be a logical place to hide a car. >> bingo, there was bonnie's toyota camry. maybe she caught a plane. >> right. >> it was a theory, had a frustrated wife and mother taken a time out for herself. the detective pursued the theatery but struck out. -- theory but struck out. >> she wasson any of the manifests -- >> where the road runs out? >> until they process the car

and find a shoeprint. >> a large man's footprint, fresh and sandy, with a tread mark from a sneaker. whose sneaker? well, investigators did their thing. ivan made a public appeal. >> if anyone has seen her or can shed any light on this story, just please, please let us know something. >> and soon on the 11:00 news, jacksonville was introduced to husband mike and little aaron. the search for his missing mother was growing more feverish by the minute. coming up -- what had happened to bonnie? >> i'm looking for a crime scene. and there was nothing there. >> a secret encounter with another man and a marriage on the rocks. >> bonnie said, this is it, i'm leaving. >> there's no way she would have walked out the door and left aaron. d left aaron. ♪ ♪

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the old snapshots show a curly haired young mother and an adoring boy with a beatle cut. who knew that video under the christmas tree would be their las last? she didn't have much time left. >> she did not have much time. only had a couple more weeks to hold her son.

>> bonnie, her sisters liz, veronica, and michelle, told us, had married her high school steady, mike haim. back then they thought she'd done okay for herself. >> i even have a journal entry, and it says, "today bonnie met the man of her dreams." you know, he was cute, and he was charming. he looked like the total package. >> from high school graduation ceremonies direct to the altar, 18-years-old. patty is bonnie's mother. were you surprised when they told you they were getting married? very young -- >> oh, no, i was not surprised. she seemed very happy, so i wasn't surprised. >> happier still with the arrival of aaron two years later. >> she was happy for that. that's when she wanted. >> she liked being a mom? >> loved. loved being a mom. >> everything circled around aaron. she worked so she could get aaron everything he wants. >> bonnie and mike, in their

20s, worked for a construction supply company. mike's uncle was the owner. >> he was my brother's son. >> mike was the manager. bonnie wore two hats. she did the books, and she was the i.t. person, as well. >> all the employees loved her. >> and you got to be pretty good friends with bonnie. >> yes. our relationship just grew over the years working together. >> good mother, good employee, no known enemies. which made her sudden disappearance all the more mysterious. her abandoned purse and car had investigators following theories of foul play. detective hinson went to the couple's home. >> i'm looking for a crime scene. i'm looking for spatter. we luminol'd the house. i was looking at everything i could look ad, and there was nothing there. >> nothing in the back yard either. so pleats launched a massive search. helicopters scoured the wooded

areas near the hotel. family members searched it, as well. everyone came up empty-handed. mike said he wouldn't stop searching. >> haven't given up. the family hasn't given up looking for bonnie. >> parents and -- >> bonnie's father offered a $2,000 reward for information on his daughter. detectives began their routine victim-ology investigation, asking the question is there something in my victim's background or life choices that explain why she's gone. early on, they learned bonnie had a brief affair. you had to check him out. >> yes. he came down to the office. we interviewed him. >> he told detectives it was a one time, one-night stand. >> he was very cooperative. he agreed to take a polygraph. he passed the polygraph. >> and of course, as they always do, the detective had to take a hard look at the husband, mike. he told police bonnie left the house around 11:00 p.m. and didn't come back. he said he went out looking for her around 3:00 a.m., drove by

her mother's house to see if her car was there. it wasn't. and just why had bonnie left? >> there was an argument. she allegedly according to him had stormed out. >> he volunteered that? >> and nobody could find her. >> investigators heard from friends and family that bonnie was unhappy in her marriage. and by christmas time, just two weeks before she disappeared, bonnie told her sister it was all over. >> bonnie and i went shopping together. she said, this is it, i'm leaving. >> bonnie told her sister she'd put ade deposit on an apartment and found a new school for aaron. now family members were wondering if bonnie broke the news to mike the night she disappeared. ivan said she and bonnie had planned to get together that night, but instead bonnie called her crying. >> she said, mike and i are having a discussion, and i'm just going to stay home. i said, do you want me to come out there, bonnie?

she goes, no, i'll be fine. >> that was the last time anyone on the outside had spoken to her. and there was growing suspicion that mike had done something to bonnie. he was always your prime person of interest? >> i tried to stay neutral at the very beginning, but there was too many things that were just screaming at me. >> among those things was that shoeprint found on the mat of bonnie's car. when the csi techs entered bonnie and mike's house, the first thing that they spotted were shoes. size ten? >> yeah. that matched the print. >> bonnie's sister's suspicions of foul play were based on her love for her 3 1/2-year-old son. >> there is no way she would have left aaron. there's no way she would have walked out the door and left aaron behind with him. >> then there was an interview mike did on tv the night after bonnie disappeared. his as a matter of fact manner

left many baffled. >> became she wasn't happy and wanted to leave. and i couldn't stop her from leaving. >> but detective hinson was more focused on the smiling boy on the couch next to mike, little aaron. >> i wanted the child interviewed. >> the child? >> yeah. i wanted aaron -- >> the 3 1/2-year-old boy? >> yes, i wanted him interviewed. >> what a horrifying story the boy would tell. coming up -- >> i was trying to determine what she had on. you know, clothing. and he got real quiet and whisper and said, "red blood." >> mommy was wearing blood? >> wow. chills up and down my spine. y s.

police had only the husband's story about what happened the night his wife bonnie haim supposedly walked out the door. or was there another witness? detective hinson began wondering what the 3 1/2-year-old boy, aaron, might remember. >> i want to see if he just has seen anything. i don't know if he has a story. i just want somebody that's a professional to talk to him. >> reporter: sensitive interviewer. how did you find the person to do it? >> i was fortunate to have brenda be the one to do it. >> reporter: brenda was with the state's child team. a social worker who'd interviewed dozens of kids, aaron would be the child she'd never forget. >> he had this bowl cut that went all the way around his eyes. he it big, big eyes. >> bonnie's mother, patty, and

mike's aunt sat to to make aaron more comfortable. his mother had gone missing just 48 hours before. did you know much in advance? >> the only thing i knew was that the mother had disappeared, that they suspected foul play. he was traumatized, i could tell. >> reporter: a few hours and a happy meal later, aaron began opening up, and the story he told was alarming. >> aaron tells me that his daddy shot his mommy. >> shot? >> shot. yes. oh, and i asked, shot her with what? and he said a gun. i asked him where he shot her, and he said in the stomach. and he pointed, you know. but i'll never forget the most poignant moment was when i said -- i was trying to determine what she had on. you know, clothing. and he got real quiet and whispered, and he said, "red blood." and i remember --

>> mommy was wearing blood? >> wow. chills up and down my spine because i thought, wow, this kid saw this. >> did you believe him, or did you think he was reciting a movie he'd seen? >> i knew. i could tell from the way he delivered it all that it was what he had seen. it was just -- i've interviewed -- i'm sorry -- i've interviewed lots of kids, but this was like -- i knew such a huge moment, and it was always like when he would talk about these things, he would whisper when he was talking about the things that were so horrible that he'd seen. >> is there any doubt in your mind that he saw his father shoot his mother? >> no. i said, you can take it to the bank. >> you took it as literally true? >> oh, yeah. >> the statement that he gave? >> i'd tell people all the time, you either believe him or you don't. >> and that would be the question to tear apart bonnie's

family. believe the boy or not? some relatives like mike's own aunt and uncle, were persuaded by the child. your nephew was a killer? >> i know for sure he did bonnie. he killed bonnie. the evidence was there. >> but mike also had two unlikely defenders. bonnie's mother and father. bonnie's mom had been in the room for parts of aaron's interview. although she wasn't there when the social worker said he made the most disturbing statements. he actually tells the social worker, "daddy shot mommy." >> no. no. >> and "i saw blood on her middle section." >> he made the statement. >> aaron's statement wasn't recorded, wasn't required back then. more than anything else, patty said she just didn't think mike was capable of hurting her daughter. detective robby hinson knew he couldn't make an arrest based on the statement of a 3 1/2-year-old child. it was a circumstantial case with a classic stumbling block -- there was no proof bonnie was

even dead. and no body, no case? >> no body, no case. >> the case would remain a mystery, haunting both the detective and the little boy. >> an investigation stalled, but little aaron was not done talking. not by a long shot. coming up -- >> i do not want my dad to kill other people. >> very good reading. >> wow. >> me either. er this is time that matters. a window of time to help protect the ones you love. your preteen benefits from staying up-to-date

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hello. here's what's happening -- a road in south florida is being named after trayvon martin. it will commemorate the life of the black teen who was killed tragically in 2012. the "miami herald" reports that trayvon martin avenue will be near the school he attended.

during a parade on saturday, north korea unveiled what appeared to be a new intercontinental ballistic missile. the country's leader, kim jong-un, was in attendance. a u.s. official called the display disappointing. back to ""dateline."" welcome back to "dateline," i'm natalie morales. did mike haim murder his wife bonnie? that question tore the couple's family apart. bonnie's parents believed their son-in-law was innocent, while mike's own aunt and uncle thought he was a killer. with so much uncertainty, one thing was clear to authorities -- little aaron's life could be in jeopardy. walnuts agai once again, here's dennis murphy. >> reporter: young aaron haim told a horrific story of watching his father shoot his

mother. but a 3 1/2-year-old eyewitness wasn't enough to make an arrest. >> it's a missing persons case. we don't have a body. >> reporter: hinson and the child protection team still felt that aaron might be in danger because of what he said he witnessed. the state removed aaron from his father's custody and sent him to live with his aunt liz. mike was allowed to see his son twice a week. liz said those visits took a toll. >> he would start pounding the floor, and i would always have to hold him as he just fell apart. every visitation. >> reporter: the stress added up for liz, too, affecting her family and her health. one solution was to put aaron in a foster home where mike wouldn't be allowed to visit. >> the best place for him to be was in foster care so we can discontinue the visitation and maybe start moving aaron into a healing cycle. >> and liz did something else --

she successfully petitioned the court to have aaron declared a protected witness. >> that's what we called it was aaron's in protective custody. >> aaron, now 5 years old, went to live with foster parents ronny fraser and his wife jean. >> i never wanted to take bonnie's place at all. that would never be the right thing to do. i wanted him to have the best life he could. >> reporter: all she knew was that his mother was missing. about six months after he moved in, the boy began dropping hints that he knew something more about his mother's fate. something sinister. >> he started talking occasionally about his dad shooting his mom. >> it went on this way for a few months, glimmers of information, then aaron backing off. over time, that changed. >> he got to where he would say so much i would have to write it down. and then he got where in he would dictate what he wanted me to right.

>> reporter: foster mom jean shared it with the mental health professionals caring for aaron. in one session, jean on the right, listened as then-6-year-old aaron spoke with his social work. aaron's psychologist taped it. >> i'm wondering since you obviously are such a smarty pants, can you read this? >> i do not want my dad to kill other people. >> very good reading. >> wow. >> me either. me either. >> reporter: then aaron asked a social worker to read what he said. >> my dad killed my mom. then he threw the pocketbook away in a different place. somewhere near our house in a dumpster. he buried my mom. we digged it, the hole. you know, aaron -- whew.

man, that's a -- that's a really important memory to have but sort of a bad one, too. i'm sorry that you have to have that memory. >> he knew exactly what had happened, and he just daytona couldn't find her. >> aaron seemed determine to try. he would periodically ask jean to take him out to search for bonnie. on one such thin, she remembered something eerie the child did before leaving the house. >> said, can we go look for my mom? we go out in the car and he runs to the back yard. i go, where are you going? he said, to get a shovel, like silly. he knew she was buried, he just didn't know where. >> and he did the same with detective hinson. >> he said, i want to go look for my mom. off we would go. >> hinson, too, thought the body might be buried, but they never

did find anything. the investigation grew colder even as the relationship with the boy grew stronger. the frasers did everything they could to give aaron a normal life. the chance to be a kid again. >> he was into racing bicycles. he had motorcycles. he had played baseball. he took karate. and the most fun he had was fishing. he was a great fisherman. >> all these years later, aaron is grateful for the family who embraced him. tell me about the frasers. how did your life change once they came into your life? >> they're just special people. people of incredible character, opened their home to me. loved me like their own son. i never had to ask for anything. they gave me unconditional love. if i needed something -- they were always there. >> aunt liz remained devoted to aaron and shared his gratitude forward the frasers. >> they have been fantastic. that was the best thing that happened to aaron. >> by 1999, aaron, phonow 10, h

been living with the frasers for six years, and the couple wanted to adopt him. >> he bonded with them, and they're amazing. why would we pull him away or make something not permanent? >> to make that happen, liz went to court and had her sister declared legally dead. mike's parental rights were also revoked. aaron haim became aaron fraser. but liz went through with mike yet. she sued him on behalf of aaron for the wrongful death of bonnie. is michael contesting this? >> no. he deidn't even show up for court. >> in 2005, a judge ruled in favor of aaron and liz. they won and won big. >> it ended up being a $26 million award, of course. >> which was fantasy money. >> yeah, not real. mike didn't have $26 million. >> by then, mike had moved to north carolina and remarried. he did still own shares in uncle bernie's company and the key to the old house on dolphin avenue.

at age 16, aaron got the shares and became the owner of the house. growing up under the loving care of the frasers, aaron thrived. he graduated from high school and married his wife. >> i don't think you realized how much you meant to me through the years. >> and detective robby hinson remained close by just in case he needed him. >> and i told him, you know i love you, if you ever need me, i'm here. and so when i told him, i said, call me, no matter what. >> little did he know a call one sunday afternoon from aaron would turn this whole case upside down. coming up -- the chilling discovery that will change everything. >> we started digging up against the house. i see a piece of plastic like, oh, that's weird. and everything kind of clicked. >> i just pulled to the side of the road to try to compose --

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aaron fraser, the little boy with the bowl haircut, was 30 when we had sat down to talk to him. it had been more than two decades since he last saw his mother bonnie. and in a story about memory, we

discovered a deep irony. when it comes to the murder investigation that ripped open his childhood, the aaron of today doesn't remember a thing. did you know any of your history about what happened? >> i knew it in the back of my mind. but i don't have a memory of it happening. i know a lot of things that happened, but were i don't how i learned them. >> he has no memory of bonnie or mike, his biological parents. nor does he remember telling brenda metters that his father shot his mother. telling the social worker the story, "i saw daddy hurt mom," that's not an active memory for you? >> no, sir. >> as he got older, aaron heard from aunt liz and the detective more details about his missing mother and of his own role in the investigation. was that out of body hearing all this stuff coming in -- >> yeah -- >> what 3 1/2-year-old you said and did? >> it's like watching a movie. i have the emotion that it was, but putting that together with what my brain is telling me as

far as memories go, there's a little bit of a disconnect. >> aaron's memories begin after all of that. so when your brain kind of turns on and you're aware of where you are, how old are you, and where are you living? >> i would guess i was about 4 1/2, 5 years old is my earliest memory. i can remember coming to the frasers, my adoptive parents. >> even with the frayseer iss, doesn't remember everything. do you remember asking to bring a shovel along? that's not a true memory for you? >> no, sir. >> aaron also remembered nothing about the house he lived in on dolphin avenue. he became the owner after the wrongful death suit. >> i didn't want anything to do with the house. i didn't have any desire to have it. i was, you know, a tough -- a tough spot about my life. >> renters lived there until 2014. when they moved out, aaron realized the house was a wreck. his do-it-yourself repairs

started inside, but in the back yard, he found the swimming pool and an outdoor shower were also in shambles. >> i had a decision to make about the swimming pool. it had started to settle, and the tiles were cracking. it needed to be completely redone. it was going to be an expensive project. i didn't feel like in the neighborhood there was kind of a cap on what those properties were worth with or without a pool. >> the back yard would have been the same as a pool area. >> right. >> aaron decided to fill in the pool and remove the shower. he and his bridge, thad, rented an ex-calftator, and the -- excavator, and the two of them went at it. that sunday they broke a pipe near the outdoor shower and had to find the leak. they grabbed their shovels. >> we started digging up against the house. i see a piece of plastic i think when i was digging with the shovel, i broke the bag. that's weird, there's a coconut right here. why would somebody bury a

coconut in a bag? >> it wasn't a coconut. >> i picked it up, immediately i didn't know what it was. i handed it to thad, we looked in the hole and could see teeth. >> teeth? >> we could see her teeth. at that point in time, you could see the top portion of her eye socket on the skull and everything kind of clicked. we stopped what we were doing. >> it was a horrifying discovery. aaron, like hamlet, was holding a skull. he believed it was his mother's. how do you do that? >> it was just what was happening. it was odd to be the one that found her. >> aaron immediately called jean fraser who was in church. >> i saw a missed call from him. so i called him back, and he said, what's detective robby's phone number? and i said, why? he said, i found her. i found my mom. >> i get on the phone with jean, and she's said, rob, we need you now.

we need you right now. i thought something might have happened to her family. and she says, "we found the body in the back yard." i said, "what back yard?" she said, "on dolphin avenue." i said, "what are you talking about?" i'm arguing with her because i had searched that area. >> as he raced to the house, hinson called a friend in the sheriff's department to go to the scene. >> he called back. i said, is it a dog? he goes, no, it's a human skull. i just pulled -- to the side of the road to try to compose -- excuse me -- try to compose myself like i am now. >> hinson was retired by then, but when he arrived at the house, he faced a fact every detective dreads -- haunted by the search not made. >> i knew when i got there i had missed her. which is a hard thing as an investigator -- >> you're beating yourself up for that? >> not so much beating myself up, it's just i would have much

rather found her than have him find her. >> now, all these years later, dolphin avenue was a crime scene. >> a possible break in a cold case -- >> reporter: that search turned up much more than just bonnie's skull. there were her disintegrating bones, her ring, the acrylic fingernails she wore, all found in the dirt beneath the shower. four months later, dna testing confirmed the remains were bonnie's. the death ruled a homicide. in august of 2015, mike haim was charged with second-degree murder and taken into custody in north carolina. >> did you think of anything that would come back to you? [ inaudible ] >> that's why we're here, okay. she was recovered. >> i will not make any statements at all. >> mike wouldn't face a jury for another four years, and the case was far from a sure thing. there was little forensic

evidence, and the state's key witness, aaron, had no memory of the crime that he could testify to. what amazes everybody is that you could argue that you solved your own mother's murder. >> yes, sir. >> not a detective, not an investigator, just by the happenstance of this day. in his own quiet, unassuming way, aaron just nodded. the question, a painful one. now he would booken the case against his father. what he found as an adult, what he witnessed as a child. coming up -- >> i called my mom. >> you see him trying to hold back that anguish. >> the showdown 26 years in the making. >> did you, in fact, harm your wife? >> absolutely not. >> would the jury believe father or son? want the cream winning beauty's best?

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welcome back. as a child, aaron haim told authorities he saw his father kill his mother. as a grown man, he said he had no memory of the event. then by pure coincidence, he discovered her body in the back yard of his boyhood home. investigators believed they finally had the missing piece to solve bonnie haim's murder. now it was time for a family reunion in court.

here's dennis murphy with the conclusion of "she never left." >> reporter: more than two decades after bonnie haim disappeared, five years after her son unearthed her remains -- >> are you responsible -- >> bonnie's husband was charged with second-degree murder and pled not guilty. upon a conviction he was facing life in prison. while forensic evidence was missing, the detectives said there was one overwhelming fact -- circumstantial though it might be. >> a buried wife in your own back yard is a pretty hard piece of evidence for any defendant to overcome. >> the state believed it had an eyewitness to the alleged murder -- little aaron haim. but he couldn't remember that awful event. the judge ruled the social worker who interviewed aaron could testify, but not about the details of what aaron said, only about who he identified as the person who hurt his mother. >> did aaron indicate that his mother had been hurt?

>> yes, he did. >> and did he identify who did that to his mother? >> yes, he did. >> who did he say? >> his daddy. his father. >> you guys had a good day on the stand with that testimony. >> oh, yeah. >> that was a win? >> right. >> but jurors would hear aaron on the witness stand telling a different story about the gruesome discovery of his mother's remains under the outdoor shower. >> tell the jury what you found. >> i was digging the hole -- >> sitting a few feet away at the defense table was mike, his biological father. >> i picked up the coconut object, and it ended up being the top portion of her skull. >> so once you start seeing that it's human remains, what do you do? >> i -- we set the top portion of the skull back in, in the hole, and i called my mom, who i refer to as my mom, jean fraser. >> aaron is not the kind of person that shows emotion.

you see him trying to hold back that anguish, that trauma. >> the defense did not cross examine aaron but challenged the meaning of the testimony of daddy hurting mommy. >> you never determined what he was talking about? >> i did ask was it during the daytime or nighttime, and he said nighttime. >> okay. but you didn't try to establish whether it was yesterday, a year ago, did you? >> no. not due to his age. >> when you weath-- when did da hurt mommy, how do we know daddy didn't hurt mommy's feelings and make her cry? that doesn't mean he killed her. >> the defense reminded the jury there was no forensic evidence linking mike to his wife's death. his attorneys said it was a bad police investigation, overly focused on the husband and one that ignored critical evidence. for example, there was this letter received by authorities in 1996. >> three years after she went missing, an anonymous letter was

sent saying the body is buried in the back yard. >> so as a result of that anonymous letter, i do that come back and look? >> they don't. they don't. that is the problem. >> attorney tom falla suggested maybe that letter was sent by the real killer. >> i mean, the theory of defense was that she was killed somewhere else and then somebody else came and buried the body. >> to point the blame at the husband? >> yeah. >> the last witness called by the defense was to everyone's surprise mike haim himself. after 26 years in the bonnie haim case, it would boil down to jurors believing either father or son. >> she left. >> composed and speaking in a monotone, mike described his wife's to have is mind the night she disappeared and told the same story he told all along, that bonnie walked out on him. >> she had been unhappy for maybe a month, maybe two. i can't put my finger on how long, but it had been going on where she wasn't real hurt

bubbly self like she was at one time. i was trying to find out what was making her so unhappy. >> mike said he told bonnie he was so concerned about her state of mind that he'd spoken to her mother. >> i don't think she appreciated me calling and getting her mother involved in our relationship. >> around 11:00, bonnie drove off. >> where did you think she was going? >> i didn't know. i thought she might have went to her mom's house to ask about our conversation. >> by 3:00 a.m. when she didn't return, mike says he went to look for her. he drove to her mother's house, didn't see her car, so he drove around a while longer, then returned home. >> i was very upset because i had -- i didn't know really what to do. >> the final question from defense attorney tom fallas was one mike to address. >> you been hearing a lot of people pointing their finger at you. clearly calling you a murderer. >> yes. >> right? basically, everybody wants to know, did you, in fact, harm

your wife? >> absolutely not. i love my wife, and i would never hurt my wife. >> the prosecutor as expected didn't buy anything mike said. why, he asked, didn't mike call bonnie's mother at 3:00 a.m.? >> i talked to her the next day. >> the next day after her purse was in a dumpster. it didn't alarm me -- >> it did alarm you because at 3:00 a.m. you were driving around the city looking for her? you weren't looking for her, you were dumping the car at the airport? isn't that true? >> absolutely not. >> the trial was brief, just four days. deliberations brief, as well. in less than two hours a verdict was announced -- >> we, the jury, have found the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree. >> guilty, and that wasn't all. the jury also found that mike killed his wife in front of their 3 1/2-year-old boy. >> the crime was committed in the presence of the victim's

family member, to wit her son aaron. >> and that finding exposed mike to a harsher sentence, life in prison. he is appealing his conviction. after decades of waiting for the verdict, there was relief tempered with sadness. >> it was a little bit hollow, hearing the guilty, because i was expecting like i'm going to be elated, you know. and just be like, yes! and that's not what i felt like. i still just wanted to collapse. it was still empty because she's still not here. >> what went through your head and your stomach? >> it was just a sense of relief. you know, after all this time, my story and the people who didn't believe me and the people who didn't d believe me. it was all brought together, and -- finally going to be the end of the story. >> mike was sentenced to life in prison, and even after that verdict, bonnie's family remained split. her mom still thinks mike is

innocent, but she does share the family's grief. when have you missed her the most? >> her other children that she may have had. i just -- i don't have the words to express the time missed. >> after the trial, bonnie's sisters organized a celebration of her life in a garden dedicated to her. >> tomorrow was her 50th birthday. although she probably wouldn't want me to say that. >> friends, family, and prosecutors gathered, as well as aaron who despite having no memory of what he witnessed, in the end prevailed. do you think you were some kind of an agent of justice here, aaron? that it had come to you finally to be the one to find her? >> yeah. i think god had a -- god had a plan, and this is what he wanted. you know, i was ready to do it, to be able to find her after all these years. you know, i think god had his

hands on it. he wouldn't have let all this happen for no reason. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales, thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> he said, christy's been murdered. she was taken so soon and so violently. i couldn't stop shaking. >> a young teacher leaving for school murdered before she could get out the door. >> this was a horrific scene. >> it was a nightmare scene. she had christmas presents that she was taking to her students that day. >> i was petrified. i just thought, who, why? >> we looked at suspect after suspect after suspect. >> the crime was a mystery for decades. >> we were still with no answer. >> i mean, this poor