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 family. we thought we might be able to

solve this case. >> could cutting edge science yield a new clue? >> this was a huge lead. >> absolutely. this wasn't someone that they had had a reason to look at or talk to before. >> he was he. he was here the whole time. >> you were li'il literally talo her killer? absolutely. face to face. >> evil comes in all packages. >> it certainly does. >> hello, and welcome to "dateline." christy mirack always knew she wanted to be a teacher and her enthusiasm showed. colleagues marveled at her way with kids. but her life was cut tragically short, and investigators eventually hit a dead-end. decades later, a crash course in dna analysis gave them a picture of christy's killer and revealed a stunning truth -- that he had been hiding in plain sight the whole time.

here's andrey cjanuarandrea can "facing the music." >> reporter: they were having so much fun. a group of girlfriends hitting the town one saturday night. ♪ lost in the music. >> we would go to different clubs, and we probably made ourselves known. we're here, come look at us, in a fun way. >> reporter: this was the playground they knew by heart. this was the home where they felt safe. they were insistencible. >> you were in this bubble, you're 25, like nothing's going to happen to you. >> reporter: and then less than 48 hours later, one of them was gone. murdered. and the killer was at large. >> i remember being paralyzed like not being able to leave the house. >> reporter: this not only stole your friend it stole your innocence. >> yep. it did. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: it would take another 25 years to find the killer. a most unlikely suspect --

always there watching them, daring them. you were literally talking to christy's killer. >> right. i kept thinking after the fact, like, he had to have known who i was when i was standing in front of him. he had to have known who i was. >> reporter: some things are so life altering you can't forget them no matter how hard you try. for harry goodman, that moment came the morning of december 21st, 1992. harry was the principal of an elementary school in lancaster county, pennsylvania. his star teacher, 25-year-old christy mirack, was late for work. >> christy was there every morning right around 8:00. >> reporter: when 8:00 became 8:30, harry grew uneasy. >> and the kids had started to come into the classroom. so i called her apartment about five times -- nothing. >> reporter: he contacted her family who lived about a two-hour drive north.

christy's brother, vince. >> we got the phone call from her school that she didn't show up for work. was she home this weekend, was she delayed coming back? maybe she got stuck in traffic. i think we were in panic mode. the kind of person she was, we just thought something was wrong. it was that gut feeling. >> reporter: the family told harry they hadn't heard from christy that morning. harry couldn't wait any longer. he knew she lived nearby with a friend. you decide jump in your car to see what's going on with christy. >> i was prepared to go down and change a tire along the senate. >> reporter: that's what you were expecting? >> that's what i was expecting. >> reporter: you thought, her car's broken down. >> right. >> reporter: but it wasn't. and when he eventually pulled up to christy's apartment complex -- >> i saw her car there. and it was iced over. and then i started to freak out. >> reporter: her front door was open. he went inside and looked to his left. he saw her in the living room,

lifeless on the floor. he ran to call 911. >> i was a total mess. i was -- i was in hysterics, in total shock. >> it was pretty apparent that she had been murdered. >> reporter: craig stedman went on to become the lancaster county district attorney. in the early '90s, he was a young prosecutor. this was a horrific scene. >> yeah. it was a nightmare scene. you know, not only the fact that he had this young teacher who was brutally murdered, but she had been sexually assaulted on top of that. >> did it seem clear at least at first glance how she died? >> no. other than there had been a brutal struggle. >> reporter: the medical examiner would later determine that in addition to being sexually assaulted, christy had been beaten and strangled to death. likely that very morning. >> she had her gloves on. so most people when they're ready to go to work, it's the last thing you do, put your

gloves on beforehand. she had christmas presents that she was taking to her students that day that were strewn about as part of the struggle. >> reporter: so brazen, too, that this would happen at that -- that hour of the morning when people are going to work, to school, and those places are close together. and there's a lot of cars around there and people. >> lot of people around. a number of weitnesses that coud have been there. the person was determined to do whatever he wanted to do. >> reporter: police collected crime scene evidence, including dna the killer left behind during the sexual assault. and they canvassed the neighborhood for witnesses. her brother, vince, says he had no idea what was happening until he arrived at the police station. >> the session was started with, you know, there was an accident, she passed away. of course, obviously we said, what happened? and that's when they told us. she was murdered. >> reporter: christy's roommate,

mary, got a call from police asking to meet back at the apartment. something about christy being in trouble. when she arrived, a detective approached her. >> he brought me into his car, and he said, christy's been murdered. and i remember like -- like being doubled over just trying to stop the shaking. >> mary explained that she left the apartment around 7:00 that morning. christy was still getting ready for work. >> i was driving away,yand and become g back to get my lunch, i kept going. >> reporter: that means christy was murdered between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. investigators asked mary to do a walk through of the apartment. right away she saw scuff marks near the front door. >> his shoes or her shoes. she dug in. it's what i thought, dug in, like -- like she was dragged. and then there was just a lot --

a lot of blood on the carpet. >> reporter: you had to see that? >> yeah. >> reporter: just has to be so traumatizing. >> yeah. it was. >> reporter: investigators believed christy opened the door to leave only to have the killer drag her back in. >> i think she was overpowered pretty quickly where she was murdered was not very far away from -- at all -- from the entry point. >> reporter: did it appear that it had all taken place in one area of the apartment? >> yeah, right from the foyer into the living room. those were the rooms that -- where it seemed like the struggle had taken place. >> reporter: something else caught the detective's attention -- mary's final conversation with christy. >> before i left i said we would meet up later. she sounded distant. i was like, are you okay? no, i'm fine. so i went to work. >> reporter: what do you think it was? >> i don't know. i don't know if she was just thinking about the day or just -- she was preoccupied.

>> reporter: christy had something on her mind, and only moments to live. investigators had to find out if the two were connected. coming up -- clues to a mystery. a boyfriend. >> she had told me that things were ending. she was finally ready to move on. >> reporter: this was a big deal. >> uh-huh. >> and a mysterious visitor at christy's school. >> i said, i may have just been face to face with the killer. kir ♪ ♪ since pioneering the suv in 1935, the chevy suburban has carried many things. nothing more important than family. introducing the most versatile and advanced chevy suburban and tahoe ever.

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lancaster county is pennsylvania amish country. a place where old ways and modern suburban sprawl meet. the brutal murder of a schoolteacher just before christmas, 1992, upset that sense of peace. >> a lot of people in lancaster county, particularly back then, didn't lock lao doors or cars, very trusting committee. >> the d.a. said christy mirack's killing didn't have the mark of a stranger. >> 7:00, 7:30 in the morning, home invasion/sexual assault. it would be highly unusual for something like that to take place at that time of day in someone's apartment just at random. >> police wanted to know if christy had any enemies. the answer was no. her brother, vince, says his sister had tons of friends. she was kind, caring, and

focused. from the time she was a little girl, she wanted to be a teacher. >> we had a little thing set up in our garage where she was the schoolteacher. now it's the summer, and the kids want to play. my sister's pulling them in to teach them. >> reporter: when she wasn't playing school, she was goofing around like a normal kid. >> you can ask anybody, and they'll tell you the same thing, she always was laughing, smiling, just a good -- having a good time. >> reporter: after high school, she took her work/play ethic to millersville university in lancaster where she met her other family. were you all like sisters? >> yeah. >> absolutely. >> christy's circle included that roommate, mary, chris, lisa, and mary ann. >> we've shared clothes. we've shared hair products. we share everything. >> everything. >> i don't think there's anything about each other that we don't know. and that's such a rare friendship. >> reporter: and when it came to

christy, her friends knew she could hold her own -- especially when they'd go out. >> if someone came up and she wasn't interested, she had no problem telling people -- hit the road. i'm not interested. >> reporter: she was also protective of her friends. when they graduated, a few of them set up house in that apartment complex just outside downtown lancaster. >> christy was always a very safe person. like lock your doors, always leave with a buddy. >> and we did feel safe. >> there was -- our back yard was an amish farm, a dairy farm. >> reporter: by then, christy had already landed her dream job as a teacher. here she is leading a sixth grade class in science. >> these are the ways -- >> reporter: harry goodman saw something special in her. >> she wasn't satisfied with just being a good teacher. she wanted to be a great teacher. >> reporter: what do you think it was about christy's ability

to connect with the kids? >> she was creative, and she had the kids motivated. they were captivated. some people would drag themselves into work. christy didn't look at it as work. >> reporter: if only you could bottle that and sell it. >> yeah. tell me. >> reporter: but investigators did find one loose thread in her life -- >> she loved him, so loyal to him. >> reporter: christy had fallen for a man who went by the nickname dagger. wasn't exactly her friends' idea of a catch. christy was 25, and he was not. >> he was old. i remember -- he was 20 years older. >> yeah. >> yes. >> reporter: almost twice christy's age. but he had a good job as president of the legal team sterts, and he was generous. >> i think she felt cared for. i don't know exactly how, whether that was financially or what, but i think she felt cared

for. >> reporter: christy didn't divulge much about her boyfriend or his past. but her friends could tell he was in no rush to the altar. they thought that bothered christy -- especially as the friends started moving out and getting married. >> maybe having just been to chris' wedding that september, i'm thinking maybe that's -- she was realizing that's the life i deserve, too. >> right. >> reporter: two days before he was skilled, that saturday -- was killed, that saturday, christy had come to a decision. >> she had told me that things were ending with dagger. she was finally ready to move on. >> reporter: this was a big deal because she had been with him for years at this point. >> areas. >> uh-huh. >> she looked happy. and we saw christy back. bubbly, happy, ready to get out there and live. >> reporter: and that night she did. the friends went out downtown hitting the clubs.

now police had to consider whether christy told dagger she wanted to break up. if so, had he taken it badly? was that on christy's mind the morning she was murdered, or it christy angered someone else from that saturday night? police wanted to know more. >> where did you eat? where did you go dancing? where did you go after that? who was there? >> reporter: then something bizarre. the day after christy's murder, a man walked into her school. he clearly didn't belong there. >> i approached him and said, may i help you. >> bob was an assistant school superintendent. >> he said, oh, i'm just here to see christy mirack. i said, well, unfortunately, you're going to have to leave. christy has passed. >> reporter: the mysterious visitor said he hadn't heard the news. he claimed he was cchristy's

friend, then he left. >> it was hard to believe that anyone in lancaster county would not have heard about it. >> reporter: bob's mind raced. he'd heard stories of investigations where the criminal seemed eager to catch the attention of police. >> immediately after that is when i called the police. i thought, i -- i may have just been face to face with the killer. >> reporter: whoever that mystery man was, police knew they had to find him immediately. coming up -- >> it would have been shocking to her to see him come in that building. >> a surprise was in store about that surprise visitor. >> it was something to do with him. >> there was no other logical explanation. >> we were terrified.

bob wildeson was one of christy's colleagues. she was certain a man who showed up at school the day after the murder claiming to be her friend had instead been her killer. >> i was convinced. in fact, i said, we're going to get the guy who did this right now today. >> he called police, told them the story, and gave them the man's name. turned out, it was no random visitor at all. it was none other than dagger,

christy's longtime boyfriend. police brought him in for questioning. they found out dagger had a secret. he had a wife. >> he was married. so he was pretty high on the suspect list. i can tell you, talking to the investigators, they were absolutely convinced that this was him. >> reporter: but dagger insisted it wasn't. he said when christy died, he was hundreds of miles away in virginia where he'd recently moved with his wife. christy's friends were stunned. she never mentioned dagger was married. she weren't sure she even knew. now they had to wonder in her decision to break things off with him two days before her death had doomed her. he might not have liked that. >> i mean, she was devoted to him. i'm sure that would be a lot for him to not have that in i had life anymore. >> reporter: it was years. you don't just cut that tie and have it not mean anything. >> right. >> reporter: when they heard

he'd shown up at christy's school, their suspicions grew. >> we were all thinking he was trying to establish some kind of alibi or to show that he had no involvement, look how much i love her. i'm ready to make it public. >> it was so odd because it -- it was everywhere that she had been murdered. i mean, everywhere in lancaster. i never understood how he didn't know. and he -- had was very uncharacteristic of him to show up at the school. >> i think it would have been shocking to her to see him come in that building. like it would have been unnerving for her to have her worlds collide like that. >> reporter: but the idea that dagger did it fell apart. police confirmed his alibi. he had been in virginia at the time of the murder. they also tested his dna against the killer left during the sexual assault. >> he was eliminated through

alibi as well as scientifically. >> reporter: still, her friends workeded if he maybe involved n christy's death somehow. to them, dagger had always been a man of mystery. he dent talk about his life or work. their imaginations ran wild. >> we either hired a hit man, or it was revenge -- something to do with him. it was somebody that wanted to get back at him for whatever reason. >> yeah. there was no other logical explanation for us at the time. >> huh-uh. >> we were terrified. >> reporter: but investigators didn't buy the hit man angle. >> hit man don't usually get into hand-to-hand physical combat with their victim and certainly don't leave multiple dna samples behind. you wouldn't think that anyone would do it at 7:15 in the morning at her apartment. there would be way better ways to do this. it's just not consistent with a professional-type hit. >> reporter: so police needed to consider other men christy might have crossed.

her friends did mention one incident from that saturday night. they ran into someone who dated another one of their friends. >> who was not a good guy, and we called him out on it. >> reporter: they believe the man had been abusive to their friend. had even killed her dog. >> we yelled -- >> puppy killer. >> reporter: how did he react? >> scary. >> a sociopath. big, scary. >> reporter: did you tell the police about him, as well? >> uh-huh. talk about a motive. that's something we latched on to -- >> yes -- >> because we thought christy's angered her by calling him this name in a very public place. >> reporter: police looked into it but eventually cleared him, too. in the meantime, her friends kept trying to help with the investigation. >> they had her photo albums, and we would go through the guys in the photo album and give them their names. >> reporter: as it happened, police were already interested in someone else.

the connection to christy was more compelling than the old photos and had practically driven himself interest the heart of the case. coming up -- >> i walk in the door, and hay start to fingerprint me. what? they think i did this. >> reporter: a principal under the microstone. what's their tone? what kind of questions are they asking you? >> extremely accusatory. first question -- did you murder christy mirack? this is time that matters. a window of time to help protect the ones you love. your preteen benefits from staying up-to-date with their well visits. this is your window of protection. schedule their well visit now.

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hello, i'm dara brown. here's what's happening -- president trump's personal physician gave an update on his condition saturday. dr. sean conley says the president is no longer a transmission risk to others but didn't mention it trump received a negative covid test. the cdc says someone with covid can end isolation after ten days if the person is fever free without medication and their symptoms are improving. now back to "dateline."

welcome back to "dateline." i'm natalie morales. school teacher christy mirack was strangled and beaten to death in her apartment one early morning. given the time of day, investigators believe they knew her killer. her ex-lover dagger was high on the list of suspects, but his alibi checked out. now detectives were about to turn up the heat on someone you might not expect. now more on "facing the music." >> reporter: after christy mirack's murder, her principal, harry goodman, said he got a phone call to come to the police station. >> say said, we want to talk to you and ask you questions about christy's teaching and those kind -- i walk in. >> reporter: he thought they would ask routine questions about citty's background. he -- christy's background. he was wrong. >> i walk in and they start fingerprint me.

i'm thinking, what? they think i did this. i'm mourning the loss of our teacher and our friend, and all of a sudden i'm being interrogated. >> reporter: why do you think they zeroed in on you? >> i found her. >> reporter: that's it? >> yeah -- >> reporter: one moment in time? >> i found her. >> reporter: actually, there was more. the d.a. said investigators found harry's economic to drive on his employee that morning very strange. a lot of bosses when someone's only, you know, 30, 40 minutes late, they don't jump in their car to go see if someone's okay. why did you feel the need to do that? >> that's just who i am. i knew something was wrong. i thought christy might need help. >> reporter: he says police asked where he'd been in the hours before her death. harry recalled going to the gym, coming home to change, to and heading back out to work. what's their tone? what kind of questions are they asking you? >> extremely accusatory.

you know, why would you have hired her? what was it about her that you liked so much? i mean, they were coming at me with all ends. >> reporter: detectives asked if he would take a polygraph? >> i'm thinking, i've got nothing to hide. hook me up. first question -- did you murder christy mirack? >> reporter: harry told them no. after answering all their questions, he says he passed the polygraph. they later confirmed his alibi and his dna was not a match. harry knew some people still suspected him. >> my teachers would come up, harry, you should have heard what so and so was saying. i said, don't tell me. i don't want to know. >> reporter: police began looking elsewhere and considered the possibility that christy might haven't known her killer. that's when her friends recalled something that had happened months earlier at the apartment. back then they brushed it off. now, they wondered. you have a bizarre incident one night where dagger comes over

and sees somebody in the bushes. they went after the stranger. >> we immediately jumped up and started screaming at him. we chased him down here and all the way down there. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: what gave you the courage to go after this person? >> because he had violated us. he was peeking in her window. >> reporter: but they never got a good look at the guy. that wasn't much help to police. investigators needed to focus on the solid leads they did have. neighbors told them they'd spotted a white car outside christy's apartment just before the murder. >> there were four, five, six people that saw at some point that morning a white car drive around that complex. >> reporter: some thought it was a toyota selica like this one. but one witness, who saw a man get out of the car near the apartment that morning, described a different make and model. a dodge day tonighten.

police decided -- daytona. police decided to focus on that car. >> they put it in the registration for anyone who had a similar-type jackpvehicle. >> reporter: the friends started to worry, the killer, whoever he was, might come back for one of them. >> i remember going to go to work and i saw a car that was the description of the car they were looking for. being paralyzed like not being able to leave the house because he's waiting for me. i remember writing the license plate down and put it in my pocket so when they found my body they would have this clue. >> reporter: this has to strike fear into people when a young girl like that is brutally murdered. and the person who did it is at large -- >> the person was out there this whole time. >> reporter: the investigation dragged on. weeks became months.

then years. still, police believed that white car and the dna from the crime scene would lead them to christy's killer. do you remember how many people were tested for their dna? >> well, it was definitely dozens. we looked at suspect after suspect after suspect. as time went on, we started just reaching out to just, well, could it be this person, could it be this person? >> reporter: when the fbi created a national dna data base, codis, investigators uploaded a sample from the crime scene. it didn't match the dna of anyone in the system. the waiting was especially hard for christy's mother. a decade after the murder, she died not knowing who killed her daughter. >> i promised her that i wouldn't give up. you know. because i knew she was leaving, and we were still with no

answer. >> reporter: vince took up the cause staying in touch with police, even putting up a billboard looking for any new leads. but nothing. >> just hitting this tdead-end was frustrating for us as a family. >> reporter: a breakthrough was coming. a new way to analyze dna and catch criminals. a new way to find christy's killer. coming up -- >> we're looking for the dna of the publish's eye color, face shape. >> reporter: could a dna breakthrough break the stalemate in christy's case? >> he could look a lot like this. this eeze ] skip to cold relief fast with alka seltzer plus severe powerfast fizz. dissolves quickly. instantly ready to start working. ♪ oh, what a relief it is! so fast! come on! let's hide in the attic. no. in the basement. why can't we just get in the running car?

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time seems to pass more slowly here in the rolling farmlands of lancaster county, pennsylvania. but for christy mirack's loved ones, it felt like time had stopped altogether. nearly 25 years had gone by since her death, and investigators were no closer to catching her killer. it must have bothered you knowing that whoever did this was getting away with it. >> yeah. >> they were still out walking around. >> or was he? i think there were times we thought this person could be dead by now. >> reporter: still, they wanted to know -- needed to know who her killer was. they just had to wait a little

longer. >> some things in law enforcement are just through hard work and dedication. some things are through coincidence and a little bit of luck. >> reporter: in 2016, the d.a.'s office heard about a new tool that uses dna to solve cases. genetic phenotyping allows scientists to create a composite from the dna left at the crime scene. >> we're determining what it looks like. >> reporter: ellen is director at parabon which has helped pioneer the use of dna phenotyping. >> that dna built that person, and that's what we're looking for is the pieces of the dan that coded for that person's eye color, their hair color, their face shape. and then we can tell that to the detectives. >> reporter: this isn't the first time phenotyping has come up in one of our stories. previously, the company created an image from my dna to show how it works. why am i anxious now?

like -- i feel like i'm the criminal or something. let's see -- >> all right. okay. >> wow. i felt like after i got my composite sketch that if i would have completed a crime i would have been busted. >> absolutely. you would have been right at the top of the suspect list. >> reporter: and now the lancaster d.a. hoped the company could help with christy's case. they analyzed the dna left by her killer trait by tate, hair and eye color, officifacial str, even ancestry. >> wee fou found he was a europ descent. >> reporter: they came up with three composites to reflect how he might have aged over the years. he could look like this? >> right. this may have been approximately what he looked like when the crime was committed. >> reporter: the d.a. asked christy's family and friends to

take a look. what they saw the composite -- >> i didn't see anyone i knew. this was a stranger. >> reporter: in october, 2017, the d.a. made the composites public during a press conference. maybe someone else would recognize the person in those images. >> there will be no tip that's going to be a waste our time. we got a lot of calls. some seemed hopeful at first, but ultimately led to -- led to nothing. >> reporter: so frustrating. >> yeah. this was kind of we felt like our last shot. the last thing that we could do. >> reporter: the composite didn't work, but it would not be their last shot. that's because investigators working on an unrelated crime in california came upon another way of solving cold cases. >> police arresting a man they believe is the golden state killer. discovered using dna -- >> reporter: california detectives found their suspect after uploading dna from a crime scene to a data base used by thousands looking for lost

relatives. their search turned up people whose dna had distant matches to the killer. from there, investigators constructed a family tree and narrowed it down to their man. >> when you read about it and you see it, you say to yourself, what did i think about this? completely brilliant. >> reporter: parabon's genealogists did the same thing in the hunt for the man who murdered christy. sure enough, they found relatives who shared dna with her killer. >> in a couple of days, they were able to take these few people who shared dna with our unknown killer and build to who that person could have been. >> reporter: remember, they knew the killer had european and latino ancestry. one man in the family tree stood out. he matched the ancestry and lived near christy when she was murdered. but that didn't mean investigators in lancaster could make an arrest. >> we don't arrest people on what genetic data base is saying

to us. we needed to get his sample and needed to have it confirmed through the state police crime lab. >> reporter: so they staked him out hoping he'd leave behind something with his dna on it. >> we had couple undercover guys watching him all day to try to see if he abandoned something. he abandoned nothing. he took everything with him. we struck out. >> reporter: they tried again. state troopers eventually followed the man to of all things an event at a public school. this time, success. >> an undercover female trooper befriended him, and she was able to get some things directly from him. >> reporter: what did she get. >> she was able to get a water bottle and gum. >> reporter: the crime lab compared the from those samples to the dna from the crime scene. they matched. now, investigators were confident they had their man. standing right where they least expected him -- in the shadows of the dance floor. coming up -- >> he slept on my bed that

night. you just don't know what to think. >> reporter: who was the man who murdered christy? >> a lot of officers knew who he was. a lot had been at events he had been at. he was living in plain sight. >> the stunning oilt identity revealed at last. oh, my gosh, you are literally talking to christy's killer. >> right. face to face. want the cream winning beauty's best? just one jar was named best retinol cream, best retinol moisturizer, and best overall night cream. olay retinol24 faced the test to be awarded the best. olay. face anything. who knows where that button is? i don't have silent. everyone does -- right up here. it happens to all of us. we buy a new home, and we turn into our parents.

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welcome back. after dozens of dead-ends and disappoints, the question of who killed christy mirack would finally be answered. if investigators thought the identity of the killer was a bombshell, they were in for another surprise. here now is andrea canning with the conclusion of "facing the here's andrea canning with the conclusion of "facing the music." >> reporter: they matched the killer's dna to the crime and were ready to arrest him. until -- you realize he's not at home. he's on vacation. >> he was on a trip across america with his wife and daughter. >> reporter: now, he had a decision to make. >> do we arrest him and not have our investigators interview him? do we risk the safety of his new wife and adopted daughter. >> reporter: what do you do? >> i make a decision to wait.

>> reporter: their man returns to lancaster. and on an early summer day in 2013, they arrested him outside of his house. what was his reaction? >> he was acting calm. this is a joke, right? they kept telling him, no. you're arrested for criminal homicide. >> he denies it? >> he denied it. he denied knowing her. today, we have an arrest of christi raymond roe. >> i don't know the guy. >> turned out, many people knew the accused by a different name. d.j. freeze. christie's friends were floored. >> he was the guy that went to the same church as me. >> he had been raised in

lancaster. he's stayed here for his life. >> reporter: around the time of the murder, he worked a warehouse job by day and performed in clubs at night. disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, he stayed out of trouble. over the years, he mar. >> reporter: ied four times and built a name for himself as a deejay. >> a lot of officers were at events he had been at. >> he was living in plain sight. >> he never hid it. >> reporter: now, charged with murder. investigators connected him to another key piece of evidence, that white car. in 1992, he owned a sellecca, similar to this. not the dodge daytona police focused on. >> i had a pile about this big of all of the dodge daytonas

registered in pennsylvania at that time. >> reporter: not the sellecca? why not go through both? >> i do not have an answer on that. they felt like, based on the information they had, the dodge daytona was the way to go. >> reporter: investigators believe he drive by often. >> he worked close proximity, where the apartment was. >> steadman says it's possible roe was the peeping tom. the what if haunts them. >> what if it was him, if i would have caught him. that gets you upset thinking about it now. >> reporter: investigators think that roe spotted her at the

club. >> was he had the club that weekend? we didn't know him. he didn't stand out if he was there. and yet, the d.a. think it's likely the two met. >> my guess they had an encounter before. and he saw her out there, at that apartment at some point. >> reporter: the deejay's connection seemed tenuous. but it proved roe killed her. the odds of the killer being anyone other than him on the entire planet, weren't just one in a million. >> a thousand trillion, trillion. i can't conceive of a number with 27 zeros or 30 zeros. that's what we end up getting. >> it's remarkable. >> i never heard of a case with that much. >> reporter: and remember the composit composite? it was a good match to roe. it was hard for some in

lancaster to think that he would commit a horrible crime. especially this woman. >> he was the life of the party. >> reporter: she was engaged to roe when christy was killed. this is the first time she publicly talked about their relationship. >> you're learning they believe he murdered a woman, sexually assaulted her and came home to you? >> yes. >> reporter: how do you process that? >> you don't know what to think. he slept on my bed that night. you know, we had christmas four days later. and we got married months later. >> and you're none the wiser. >> nope. >> reporter: but monica remembers her murder in the news and talking about it. he was concerned about your safety after this murder? >> yeah. >> reporter: it's outrageous to think he's advising you on your

safety and worrying about you, when he was the killer. >> yeah. it is surprising. >> reporter: the couple divorced almost six years later. there has to be a part of you of what didn't i see? >> there was that. it wouldn't have been me. why was it me? why did she have to die? >> reporter: roe was facing trial and if convicted the death penalty. it didn't come to that. in january 2019, he pleaded guilty to the murder and rape, in exchange for a life sentence. her family felt relieved and also cheated. >> she's been set dead for the last 20 years. >> reporter: her friends are angry that he was able to live among them so long. never hipting what he had done. >> he was the guy i talked to

when my daughter was planning her wedding. at a wedding expo, face-to-face. >> oh, my gosh. you are literally talking to her killer? >> right. and i kept thinking after the fact, he had to have known who i was when i was standing in front of him. he had to have known who i was. now, she wants one more chance to meet him. >> i want to drive to the prison and see if they let me the in. i want to ask him. i don't understand why he did this. >> reporter: they may never know. neither he nor his lawyers responded for comment. through it all, the circle of friends has stayed bonded. they thank her for that. >> i would like to think she kept us together. >> you feel guilty that we were able to get married and have

kids. she was never allowed to have that. >> she was a huge light in this world, that was taken way too soon. way too soon. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for matching. "first up" on msnbc, still a mystery. the president's doctor gives a health status update of sorts. but no word on one important and lingering question. race to the finish. 23 days until the election and a new poll with the latest picture of who is ahead and how some of the numbers are a warning sign. grounded. tens of thousands of airline workers out of a job, as the covid relief bill stalls in congress. you'll hear from some of the hardest hit. >> reporter: some american trips in key locations