two birds in there. by the time i got done with it, you know, we all loved it. and it's kind of just, kind of bonded like, hey, this is part of lisa now. >> > she was the love of my life. always. >> she was a very, very kind person. >> then she vanished. >> i called the police. something was wrong. >> and something was. no leads, no clues, no progress. >> i said we got to get moving. >> enter the a-team, a band of tough-guy private eyes. >> this guy has something to

hide. >> there was a brief encounter with a stranger. >> on the train home she met this woman. >> did that hold the answer? >> she's talking about how someone has tried to assume her identity. >> a chilling case of a daughter in danger. >> somebody was after her. welcome to "dateline." i'm lester holt. she was beautiful, talented, trusting, sometimes trouble. a young woman from a prominent family finally grabbing the promise of life right up until the day she vanished. when the police seemed unable to find her, her family hatched a plan, an unusual strategy to solve the mystery. here's keith morrison. it began on a bright morning in may.

the palmetto slipped from its platform in washington union station and went down the eastern seaboard to charleston, south carolina. on board was a beautiful, tall, feisty red head named kate waring. a daughter of the south. of a fine southern family, an often troubled woman, who sitting on this train was on the brink of something very good. and what is it about trains? the ease there in that enclosed space of befriending perfect strangers? somewhere along the line between a greeting and good-bye kate waring's invisible fate jumped its track and quite unaware of the dark force ascending, they disembarked to a future utterly changed. charleston, south carolina, it almost goes without saying is a

showpiece of american history and southern manners. its charm is deeply embedded as the families who come seven, eight, ten generations here. kate waring was born to one of those families. grew up in a fine, big house along the historic waterfront called the battery. dance lessons, birthday parties. >> dad, if we catch a turtle can we keep it? >> doting parents, janice and tom, who adored their only daughter. she had you wrapped essentially around your finger? >> she was the love of my life. not stupidly so. i could not always tell when i was being manipulated, but some of the time. >> sure. >> no, katie and i had a very special bond. always. >> she was the middle child sandwiched between two brothers, older joe, younger richard. she was bright. maybe too bright. school bored here.

animals -- all animals enchanted her. she was naive, sweet. she could not turn away a stray animal or human. >> she was a very, very kind person, whereas, some people would dismiss someone who wasn't generally accepted by most, she would kind of try to help those people out. >> but somewhere in the course of an enchanted childhood something happened to katie. outsiders saw a fearless tom boy morph into a sophisticated debutante. but at home, kate struggled often in secret with eating disorder, depression. college was a frequently interrupted disaster. >> she sort of ran towards risk. i noticed that in a lot of things that she did. she seemed to court it. >> her parents discovered she had been sexually abused when little by someone they knew. years of therapy followed.

still, she drank to excess, lost her driver's license. she abused drugs. she sobered up. she fell off the wagon. she came home to live with her parents. tried and failed at dozens of strategies to achieve the straight and narrow. and then finally out of desperation tom waring offered kate a trip with him anywhere she wanted to go. anywhere on the planet. to see polar bears. that must have been an amazing trip. >> oh, it was the trip of a lifetime. i'm so happy that we shared that together. >> the photographs show how happy she was there. >> she saw a young man who with their families about her age who were happy and she said to me, dad, i don't have to settle for what i've settled for, do i? i said, no, honey, you don't. you can basically write your own script. >> and it was a bit of magic.

the change seemed almost instant. kate reborn. on board the ship was a russian crewman who was amazed how quickly kate picked up his language, which is why months after that trip the newly inspired kate traveled to moscow to meet him again, to explore the city, the culture, and to test drive both a budding relationship and her fledgling russian skills. the snapshots of kate here in moscow were far more than souvenirs, they were portraits of a young woman transformed. the kate who stood here on red scare had a new passion in life. the depressions of the past had fallen away. she was consumed by all things russian. in fact, she was making plans, even here, to return to moscow in the summer to take up russian studies. finally, her life was taking off. and that's why kate waring was in washington that fine may morning. she was on her way back to russia, but there was a problem

with the visa. a paperwork mixup sort of thing that would have sent her into a tailspin once but now the new kate vowed to try again later. boarded the palmetto for charleston, and once home threw herself into college class and a children's book she had been writing. big brother joe was, to say the least, encouraged. >> she when i talked to her was the happiest i can remember hearing her in the last ten years. >> then it is june 2009. heat rising in charleston's deepening green. on saturday morning, june 13th, tom waring at his summer house outside the city felt an absence. the cell phone hadn't rung. no call from kate. kate who always called or texted her parents practically hourly. >> she always checked in. it was unusual. >> he drove home to check her room here in the big silent house on the battery.

>> all the lights were on and it looked like obviously katie had planned to come back and she had left her medicine. she never went anywhere without her medicine. >> and then on sunday we came by the house also, no sign of her. >> now there was dread. was it possible that kate had slipped back into that old destructive life. >> we called the police station. we called the detention center. >> wow. this is by the end of the weekend. >> nobody had a jane doe in the hospital. nobody had been brought in. we called some of her friends. nobody had heard from her. >> what to do? kate was 28 and though she lived at home, she was an adult. her decision, bad or good, were hers. they elected to give it one more day. if she wasn't back by monday, they'd call the police. and then when monday came, there

was word. no, not from kate, from kate's bank. >> once i got off the phone with the branch manager i called the police. >> yeah. what were you thinking then? >> i was thinking, something was wrong. coming up -- something was wrong, but could they discover what? and would the police help? >> i thought, i'm not going to put up with this. we've got to get going. we've got to get moving on this. >> when "dateline" continues. alright, everyone, we made it. my job is to help new homeowners who have turned into their parents. i'm having a big lunch and then just a snack for dinner. so we're using a speakerphone in the store. is that a good idea? one of the ways i do that is to get them out of the home. you're looking for a grout brush, this is -- garth, did he ask for your help? -no, no. -no. we all see it. we all see it. he has blue hair. -okay. -blue. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. -keep it coming. -you don't know him.

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it was monday morning the 15th of june, 2009. kate waring had been missing for 48 hours when a surveillance camera captured a young man named ethan mack standing at the counter of a bank waiting to cash a check signed by kate waring. problem was her account barely totalled $100, and this check

was for $4500, and the signature seemed off. the teller called kate's dad. he called police. >> i never met ethan, didn't know ethan's last name. all i knew was the name ethan who was a friend. it's too strong to say that she had a secret life, but she certainly had friends and did things that we didn't know anything about. >> of course she did. she was 28 years old. and even though she was financially and emotionally dependent on her parents, she had lots of friends. some they knew, some they didn't. it was howard gatts, for example, a martial arts trainer in the midst of a contentious divorce with whom kate had been carrying on something of a romance. >> i felt that in my heart something was wrong. and i was -- i was concerned. >> then there was jason locke, a young lawyer with whom she often shared lunch and a spirited debate.

>> she was strong-willed. she was very energetic. she was rarely, rarely incorrect. >> her best friend, as she made clear to all the others, was ethan mack. >> she really liked ethan. she really trusted him. "this is my best friend, jason." she put a lot of trust in him. >> she's a lovable person, full of energy, always rambunctious. >> ethan worked in a local hotel. a very different background than kate. but he'd been her best buddy for years and in a way her protector. everybody in ethan's neighborhood knew you didn't mess with kate when ethan was around. they loved each other like -- well, siblings. >> i made sure no harm would come to her when certain little boyfriends would act like they got hand problems. i would put them in their place -- >> it wasn't a romance at all then? >> never at all. she was like a little sister to me. >> it was a token of his

family's regard for kate that she was godmother to ethan's nephew, malachi. on her moscow trip, kate bought herself and ethan matching brass bulldog key chains. and on that monday morning in june, said ethan, he was very worried about kate, just as he had been for years as he helped her battle her demons. >> calm her down and talking to her and understanding what was going on in the world of kate. >> but now he complained, here was kate's dad sending the police to talk to him about a check kate told him to cash. ethan explained to the cop, david osborne, about the money he'd given kate for jewelry and other expenses and that the check was to pay him back. >> he was basically best friends with katherine, had been for several years. >> in fact, ethan told detective osborne he was very likely the last friend to see her before she disappeared. >> he said that he had saw her

friday night, had dinner, had drinks, came back, dropped kate off back at her house. >> did he say what time? >> yeah. i think the time would have been probably around 11:30, 11:45 at that time. >> the detective checked, of course, and found text messages that confirmed what ethan told him. he even went to the house ethan shared with his mom. >> and they both let me in. and they both allowed me to search it. the mother and ethan both told me this is his room, this is where he stays. >> but to say that the instant suspicion on the part of the warings and the police was upsetting to ethan was probably an understatement. >> good evening, mr. waring and mrs. waring. this is ethan mack calling -- >> this is the voicemail he left for the warings after that policeman poked around his place as if he was some murder suspect. >> i think you need really check that and go find out or go see what really happened and find the person who did something to her and stop harassing me. cause the only thing i ever did was try to help her in a million ways.

>> so dead end. the police moved past ethan, checked kate's cell phone record, found she'd made a call late that friday that pinged on a tower in a place called james island, several miles from her house. but phone pings can be funny that way sometimes, they told the warings. one tower's busy, the next one over picks it up. probably made the call from home, they said. they also promised to keep looking for her. but really kate was known to have gotten herself in and out of trouble a time or two, and police resources were limited. and well, tom waring got the cops' message. >> we do not know for a fact that a crime has been committed here. >> after all, the warings were reminded, kate was a world traveler. could well have just picked up and gone back to russia. might be aboard some tramp steamer even now. or if something bad happened to her, could have been a drug overdose, even suicide. impossible, thought kate's parents. even in her darkest times, she'd

never failed to call. >> if she spent the night out unexpectedly, we'd get a call first thing the next morning because she knew that we would worry about where she was and was she safe. >> so the warings began picking apart that friday, the last day anyone saw kate, looking for something they may have missed. but it had been such a normal day. she had no driver's license, remember, so she asked howard gatts to give her a lift to her therapist's office. >> gave me a hug, said good-bye, thank you very much. she was in a real good mood. >> an hour and a half later, howard saw her again. this time at the gym. >> she said, is it okay i skip rope over here, howard? i said, sure, kate, that's fine. >> mind you, there was an incident at the gym. howard's soon-to-be ex-wife came around. she and kate had words. but at 8:00 p.m., a drugstore camera showed kate relaxed,

talking on her cell, buying wine and snacks while waiting on her prescription refill. ethan paid for dinner. chicken, salmon teriyaki. >> she didn't drive, so he took her home. dropped her off before midnight. something else, something earlier that friday that bothered the warings at first was terrifying them now. the more they thought about it, the worse it seemed. just before she went to the drug store friday evening, she started telling her father about some problem. >> saying that she felt like she perhaps had unintentionally got herself in trouble. and i said, "well, why don't you tell me about that." and she wouldn't tell me any details. >> was she clearly worried? >> she was concerned. >> clearly worried. >> about something. >> naturally they told the police about that. nothing came of it. and as the air thickened into a steamy august, the weeks that passed brought no new leads. just tourists clamoring for the cool shade of historic carriage rides. and kate waring, the urgency of

finding her, began to fade. >> and that was driving me nuts. i thought, i'm not going to put up with this. we've got to get going. we've got to get moving on this. >> and in the hushed cool of his perch overlooking the city, someone was listening. coming up -- a new investigation begins. but it's not the police who are behind it. >> we're the cream of the crop, and our job was to find kate waring. not finding kate was not an option. >> who are these guys? when "dateline" continues. ues. vicks vapopatch. easy to wear with soothing vicks vapors for her,

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take a little drive beyond the grand old homes and markets and churches at the historic district center of charleston, south carolina. enter quietly the hushed suite of rooms overlooking the city where an influential philanthropist flipped through his metal roladex and placed a call to his friend, the chief of police. >> i really need a favor. i really need some help with this situation. >> the caller was this man, john rivers. happened to be a childhood friend of tom waring, watched kate waring grow up. john rivers told the police chief he was worried about kate, too. >> and he told me that, you know, they got a lot of stuff going on. >> sure.

>> but that he would assign his best and brightest to the case. and i felt pretty good about that. >> but now almost two months later, kate was still missing. and the investigation such as it was had accomplished nothing. and john rivers couldn't stand what it was doing to his best friend, tom waring. >> i could see that he really was having a hard time functioning. >> so rivers picked up the phone again and told this man, "do what it takes." his name is andy savage, former prosecutor, now famously tenacious criminal defense attorney. savage had heard about kate, too, and how police had no evidence of any crime. really? >> as soon as we scratched the surface just a little bit, we were absolutely convinced that foul play was involved. >> savage was given just two mandates -- find kate waring, tell police everything you find. that last part, keeping the

police in the loop, should be easy, figured andy, given the team he assembled. a band of retired policemen-turned-private eyes. each with a particular talent. >> bobby minter. >> bobby minter, human blood hound. tracking people his specialty. >> bill capps. >> bill capps, techno geek. tracks bad guys through cyber-space. happens to be a crack shot. >> james randolph. >> james randolph. ex-police department rebel. strategy his specialty. shaking things up a particular skill. >> we're the cream of the crop. and our job was to find kate waring. not finding kate was not an option. >> experience told james the best place to start was with kate herself. >> if we listen to kate, she'll tell us where she is. >> james went to the house on the battery, up the stairs, down the hall, and into kate's bedroom.

>> these type cases, you have to take on the personality, and you have to see this person's world through their eyes. >> he sat there for a bit, looked around. the russian notes in kate's handwriting made sense, but why chinese paper money? and why was her brand-new prescription sitting there untouched? >> the medication in which she had gotten for a prescription was still on her dresser, unused. >> that medication was her lifeline. she needed it to counter depression, anxiety, insomnia. she never left home without it. meanwhile, cyber-sleuth bill capps buried himself in social media sites. kate used them. bill scoured them all. >> if she was awake, she was facebooking, she was texting, she was calling people on the phone, she was e-mailing. and at the time she went missing, when everything immediately ceased, i mean, that was completely out of character for her.

>> using kate's friends, capps built an electronic map of her communications the friday night she vanished. from kate's friend jason locke, capps retrieved the weird voicemail left that evening. >> 10:06 p.m., missed call. voicemail. voicemail said that someone had "stolen her identity," and had obtained a couple of credit cards in her name. she wanted me to sue the person responsible. >> the gym trainer and kate's romantic interest, howard gatts, told capps he heard from her about 10:30 p.m., still at dinner with ethan then. there was another call. it was after midnight. well after police believe she was dropped off at him. >> she told me she was at some friend's house. they had already made it to the house. she sounded a little buzzed. >> and then a very last message from kate. a text. very strange. >> "i'm off to greenville to pick up some lovely." whatever lovely was i had no idea, you know, and, "i'll be

back in a few days." >> did that make sense to you? >> no. >> be careful, he replied. but this time she did not text back. silence from kate. except the middle of the night, her cell phone pinged out on james island, miles from her home. the cops had surmised, remember, that a closer tower to her house may have been too busy to handle the call. but at 1:53 in the morning? not a chance, thought andy savage. >> just preposterous. they were looking for an explanation, plausible explanation, consistent with their theory that she voluntarily left. [ ringing ] >> that middle of the night call, by the way, was to her voicemail. >> the mailbox is full -- >> the voice mailbox that had been jammed full once during which time she hadn't used it or called it at all. so the question -- >> why would she call voicemail? she would not be doing it.

>> only one conclusion to draw. >> somebody else was using her phone. >> but where was kate now? had she as the one text suggested left town looking for drugs or lovely? if that's what lovely meant? for the moment, it was a dead end. and then -- then he called. eugene frazier, legendary 34-year homicide detective now retired. >> i believe that if a man commits a crime, he should be prepared to do the time. >> thing is about gene frazier, over here on charleston's james island where his ancestors go back to slave days, gene gets tips. all kinds of tips. and one day a church friend told gene he'd heard the police had been to ethan mack's house. and something strange about that. >> said, "listen, i don't think this is right," he says. "ethan mack is living in an apartment that i have rented out to his father."

>> but the police didn't search this place where ethan actually lived, said the landlord. they searched his mother's house on a different island miles away where ethan told them he lived. >> and he says, "i think that he's trying to mislead the police." >> what did you think when you heard that? >> this guy got something to hide. >> and on that very day, gene frazier joined a band of ex-cops which, from now on, we'll call the a-team. coming up -- >> a mysterious woman enters the picture. >> katie had this strange girl in the room with her. >> who was she? when "dateline" continues. if you have medicare, listen up. the medicare enrollment deadline is only days away. with so many changes, do you know if your plan is still the right fit? having the wrong plan may cost you thousands of dollars out of pocket. and that's why i love healthmarkets, your insurance marketplace. with healthmarkets' fitscore, they compare thousands of plans from national insurance

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they could. apparently he could not. less than an hour later he was on his way out of town. today biden thanked health care workers for their sacrifices. now back to "dateline." by the time andy savage put his a-team together to look for kate waring, that lovely young charleston woman had been missing two months. according to kate's parents, tom and janice, the charleston police were still saying this -- >> they think maybe she went somewhere. she's probably just up in greenville. >> what did you say to that? >> she doesn't have a car. how's she going to get there? >> it was after that when the a-team's gene frazier got a tip. kate's best friend ethan lied about where he lived. he didn't live where he allowed police to search. he really lived behind this

house, one of two apartments five miles away, which you presented to the police. >> yes. >> and? >> they didn't search the house. they never got a search warrant. they never asked for permission to search the house. they never went back and said, "hey, you misled us two months ago." >> but as the a-team discovered, ethan failed to mention something else, too. he had a girlfriend in this little place, a woman named heather angelica kamp. and when janice waring heard that, her mind went straight to an afternoon at home three months earlier. >> i heard voices upstairs. and so i went up, and katie had this strange girl in -- that i'd never met before in the room with her. >> and that was her name, heather kamp. kate explained she met and rapidly became fast friends with heather on the train to palmetto during her trip down from washington. typical kate, janice thought back then. drawn to someone who needed help, who had told her a hard luck story. >> she said when she got on the train, her pocketbook was

stolen. and she's here in charleston, and she doesn't have any money. and i'm helping her out until she can whatever. >> but kate told her mother that heather would pay her back soon because she was a pediatric surgeon in charleston to take a new post at the local medical center. then a few days later, a distraught kate told her mother that heather's daughter back home in new jersey had been killed in a car accident. but something seemed odd about that, said janice. >> didn't seem like she was rushing to go up to new jersey to attend to the child that had been -- >> or that she was a grief-stricken woman. >> grief-stricken woman. she did not look that way at all. >> and now here was news that heather was living with kate's friend, ethan, in this tiny apartment. >> to me, she looked like a con artist. >> but no, said kate back then. janice had it all wrong. heather was nice.

in fact, kate said she'd introduced heather to her friend ethan and very quickly a romance had blossomed. they were even talking marriage. really? if janice waring was suspicious about heather back then, the a-team was doubly so now. sure enough a few key strokes on the internet told bobby that mother's intuition was right. >> i saw that she had been arrested for forgery in indiana. but she'd been arrested in other states, too. >> essentially if you just googled her name, i suppose you could find out a fair amount. >> that's how i found her. she'd been impersonating a doctor. i just googled her. >> and ethan wouldn't be her first husband. she had been married before and had four children. now that they knew about heather a few fuzzy details were suddenly clearer. for one thinging the bill for the last dinner with ethan made more sense because there were three meals on the dinner bill. the other diner was heather kamp.

and more important, that check ethan tried to cash, the one the teller flagged, maybe that was another heather forgery. right away, point man james randolph rushed that information over here to police headquarters. surely somebody here would put two and two together. a woman known to have committed forgery in indiana and other states, a so-called best friend who tries to cash a bogus check with kate's name on it and lies to police. seems like evidence these two were involved in her disappearance up to their necks. enough to haul them in anyway, but -- >> i was told that the story panned out. and that these were petty criminals, and the check was going to be taken separate from the missing person. >> what did you say to that? >> i just didn't think it was the right thing to do. we had to figure out who wrote and endorsed those checks, who signed and wrote the checks. >> sure. it was obvious the a-team would

have to find the connection between ethan and heather and kate's disappearance without police help. >> sort of remained stealthy as much as possible. >> time to keep a careful, quiet eye on ethan mack and heather kamp. so gene frazier persuaded his church friend, ethan's landlord, to allow surveillance specialist bobby minter to tuck a hidden camera into the corner of the kitchen window. a camera trained right at ethan's front door. >> it was a motion detected just like the light that they've got over the door is. when they drove in, it would light up, and it would light up for our camera. >> and that's enough illumination to illuminate to see what they would be carrying. and that would lead us to know that they had something to do with kate's disappearance. >> and when ethan and leather left the apartment, bobby had that covered, too. he'd already tracked ethan to his job at a local hotel and attached a gps locator on his car as it sat in the parking

lot. now there was no minute of the day when the team didn't know where ethan and heather were and what they were doing. and almost immediately, they got a surprise. when ethan was at work, heather sneaked over to visit the man living next door. rode around town with him. >> they were going to the bank a lot. and i called one of the investigators of wachovia. as a result of that, they found that they were kiting checks. they were actually stealing money from the bank. >> despite what bobby told the bank, it never resulted in charges against anybody. but that wasn't all he discovered. the gps tracker on ethan's car led bobby to a couple of local pawnshops. >> pawning jewelry. the jewelry was a red flag to us. >> was it kate's jewelry? they couldn't be sure yet without more surveillance, that is. and then the landlord called gene again, another tip. this one bad. ethan and heather weren't paying

rent. >> he says, "i'm going to evict these people." so after he said that -- >> this is not good news. >> i said, "hold on. if these people are evicted, we don't know where they're going." >> if the a-team didn't think of something and fast, heather and ethan might slip out of their sight and charleston for good. coming up, an enticing offer from the a-team. >> 10s, 20s, 50s. everybody sees that and their eyes just jump. >> when "dateline" continues. we'd love some help with laundry. spray and scrub anything with a stain. wash the really dirty clothes separately. tide pods with upgraded 4-in-1 technology unleash a foolproof clean in one step. aww, you did the laundry!

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the team of retired detectives searching for kate waring had a big problem. crime-solving 101 told them heather and ethan had to be serious suspects. the last people to see kate alive. one a known forger, the other on tape trying to take money from kate's bank account. but they were about to be evicted for lack of a rent payment. and if that happened, they would slip the invisible net the a-team had so carefully woven. >> mind you, we had the camera, we had the gps, we've been tracking every movement that they have. >> so they made a call here to the quiet office overlooking charleston where the team's money man, john rivers, decided he'd pay ethan's rent. secretly, of course. and it was a plan which after a little brainstorming offered a bonus, a built-in opportunity. here's how.

the a-team wanted to know if heather or ethan forged kate's $4500 check, but they needed original handwriting samples. >> we determined what was on the check that we needed comparison samples to. and we had numbers, obviously, on the check. >> then the a-team helped ethan's landlord prepare ious that contained the numbers and letters. when ethan and heather signed the document, they provided the sample that could prove they forged kate's check. the team took the handwriting to mickey dawson, who set up the state police handwriting lab. the question was simple -- did heather and/or ethan forge that check from kate, the one ethan tried to cash? >> immediately that day our handwriting document examiner said, "that's them. no question about it." >> so if ethan and heather forged a check from kate, what else did they do? someone on the team needed to get a look inside that apartment. if kate had been there, there

still might be evidence of something. but how to get in? >> well, the landlord has a right to inspect a tenant's homes for health and safety and welfare. and the landlord decided that he needed to go in and spray for bugs. >> you can understand why that might be done in that little place. >> james thought it would be best if he went with him to make sure that the bugs were all taken care of. >> surveillance expert bobby minter's gps device showed ethan's car was out somewhere. >> well, when we opened the door to go inside, ethan mack's sitting on the couch smoking a joint. >> for god's sakes. >> i'm like, hell, with the exterminating company, we're going to be using some dangerous chemicals, so you'll have to step out on the outside while we get this done. >> no idea who you were? >> no, no, no. >> you sure about that? >> absolutely. >> yeah.

>> the exterminator and i went inside and closed the door behind us. just searched the apartment. and in one of the backpacks, in ethan mack's backpack, was some chinese money. chinese currency. >> chinese money? yes. just like the chinese bills james saw in kate's bedroom. janice waring had brought the bills to kate from hong kong, souvenirs. had ethan stolen them? >> i put it here on this pole. >> time to stir things up. apply some pressure. bobby minter knew just how. >> bobby put on every telephone pole, every vacant house, every oak tree, every stop sign, "wanted: information, missing person, kate waring's" poster. >> right around where all those people hung out. >> wherever they went, including on mack's windshield when he was working that day. we put posters to send a psychological message to them. >> but no response.

at which point john rivers said -- >> perhaps what they do understand and on the street as it were is andrew jackson. and maybe benjamin franklin. and they would recognize their . and -- and they would recognize their faces on a $20 or $50 bill. >> $10,000 worth of those bills went into a grocery bag. >> 10, 20s, 50s, and 100. and said, well, and when you open it up, two rows. and then, everybody sees that. show that, their eyes just jump. >> reporter: where better than under the nose of that neighbor, heather was going to see, the man named terry williams, the one who seemed to be kiting checks with her. >> so, we knocked on the door. and terry williams come to the door with no shirt on. no shirt on, pants. said, terry, listen. you don't have to live in this

condition. we know you're back on your rent. we know -- look at this bag of money. this could be all yours. >> reporter: now, to close the sale with terry williams, they tried a bluff. >> tell us what happened to kate and where we can find her. and this money could be yours. and at that point, that's when the side, the bedroom door bust open and a lot of yelling and screaming. >> reporter: to their other surprise, there came heather kemp. angrily and quickly pulling her back together. the detectives tell who they were and who they worked for. >> and heather kemp gets on the cell phone and makes a call to ethan. i sa said, ethan, andy savage and investigators are here trying to get terry williams to roll on us. and when she said that, the three of us looked at one another and, in police terms, we knew that was definitely the case.

we knew, hey, they had done it. >> reporter: oh, yes. decades of investigating made it perfectly clear to the a team. whatever happened to kate waring, ethan mack and heather kemp were in it up to their eyeballs. >> coming up. >> knew something was up. >> a new direction. the search for kate waring takes the a-team to a wild and desolate place. what would they find there? when "dateline" continues. telin. does cleansing drain the life out of your skin? try garnier micellar water rose. with rose water and micelles that work like a magnet to gently cleanse and remove oils and makeup. and now, even hydrates skin. it's cleansing, reinvented. micellar waters by garnier, naturally.

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>> reporter: that's when it hit home. kate was the latest of hundreds of people still lost in south carolina. and it seemed to janice and tom that police weren't taking cases like theirs seriously. so, what about all those other families, also, desperate for help? the warings held a vigil to make common cause. >> somehow or another, somebody will be moved and want to come forward and tell us where katy is. >> reporter: that was the public waring family. tom waring couldn't help but be drawn to the play-back button on their voicemail just to hear her voice. >> mdad, mom, if you're there, pick up the phone. call me back later. bye. >> i would look at photographs of her or play those voicemail messages. just keeping her voice current in my mind. >> reporter: meanwhile, andy savage's a-team of ex-detectives

is making progress and when they flashed that fat grocery bag of cash around the neighborhood, they certainly got a rise out of ethan and heather. a furious ethan called andy. >> your investigators out here and they're accusing me of being involved in this homicide. kate was my best friend in life. as he is on the phone, camp calls. she starts on this rage about what are you doing out here, you accusing me of this? we had nothing to do with that. >> fascinating reaction, thought andy savage, and perhaps an opportunity. >> we had done a lot of background on camp. and so, we knew her and we knew her personality. and we knew a little bit about what buttons to push. so, the reaction we had towards heather was one of comfort, not one of angst. and during that time, we planted the seeds as a mother, she must know the feeling of janice waring missing her daughter. and try to ply to her empathy for a mother.

>> reporter: but the call from heather wasn't all that fat bag of money accomplished. before long, it reeled in a fish. that neighbor heather was sneaking off to see called, too. the a-team went to talk to him. >> and he said i know ethan and heather did something to kate. and terry went in the back room, came back out, and had this ipod. and terry said i believe this ipod is going to belong to kate. >> reporter: now, that was huge. last time kate was seen with that ipod, it was at the gym the day she went missing. now, a man kate never met said heather gave him the ipad days after kate disappeared. but just to be sure this was, in fact, kate's ipod, tech expert. >> we knew, proof positive, that

that was kate's ipod. >> coming up. >> she said, well, they didn't find her, did they? i know they wouldn't find her. >> was heather camp, the con artist, at it again? where was kate waring? when "dateline" continues. was k? when "dateline" continues. thei. i'm having a big lunch and then just a snack for dinner. so we're using a speakerphone in the store. is that a good idea? one of the ways i do that is to get them out of the home. you're looking for a grout brush, this is -- garth, did he ask for your help? -no, no. -no. we all see it. we all see it. he has blue hair. -okay. -blue. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. -keep it coming. -you don't know him. when you bundle with us. we like clockwork.ht. do it! run your dishwasher with cascade platinum. and save water. did you know certified dishwashers... ...use less than four gallons per cycle, while a running sink uses that, every two minutes. so, do it with cascade. the surprising way to save water. try garnier micellar water rose.

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she's been missing for months, now. kate waring. a trusting, young woman, so eager to help those in need. the trail of clues has pointed to two of kate's friends. a now, the private investigators recruited by her family believe they are close to solving the final part of the mystery. finding kate, at last. but, there are a few more twists in store. here, again, keith morrison. >> reporter: the a-team told the police about the ipod. the one heather camp gave to a friend, days after kate disappeared. and also, handed over the handwriting experts report,

showing that heather and ethan forged kate's check two days after she vanished. and now, things started happening, fast. after her heart to heart with andy savage, heather made a remarkable decision. she called the charles police department and confessed. no, not to murder. instead, she said it was she who forged the bogus check supposedly signed by kate waring. and ethan, who tried to cash it two days after kate disappeared. now, surely, police would swoop in and arrest them both. but here's something you should know about the way it worked between the a-team and their former colleagues, the cops. the deal was entirely one way. that's to say, the a-team told the cops everything they uncovered. the cops told the a-team nothing. so, they kept their ears to the ground. waited for something to happen. but, they didn't have to wait for long. >> we knew something was up. and so, first thing we did was

yank the gps off the car because we didn't want the police to seize this car and have our gps. >> reporter: ethan was easy enough for the charleston police to find. they arrested him at his hotel job. but they didn't seem to know where to find heather. so -- >> where she was working because, obviously, they didn't have surveillance on her. >> and you could tell them that. >> we told -- we told where heather camp was working. >> gas station. >> the sunoco gas station. >> walked into the gas station, bought a pepsi. paid for it. walked out. and a police officer in uniform peeked out and i said that's her, inside. >> reporter: would a murder charge follow, shortly? >> we get a call. of course, we do have friends, still, at the police department. we get a call that, hey, the police are searching the island

for kate waring's body. >> wild, beautiful, isolated, and 20 miles from kate's home on charleston battery. >> so, i got in my car and drove out. >> and there were the police. a serious search going on. >> so, i sat there in the shade and watched them, all afternoon. didn't attempt to interfere. >> just watch the police to see what they're doing. >> just watched. lots of officers and cadaver dogs, also. >> ton of folks out there. ton of folks. the whole shebang. >> as a couple of detectives that i knew left, i did ask them, any luck? and they just said -- simply said, no, and continued driving on. >> reporter: police called off the search, drove heather back to jail. had she intentionally given them bad information? perhaps, nobody would find kate. not the police. not the a-team. and then? >> we got a terrific break by

the criminal-justice system. mack and camp, both, came to the bond hearing and it's done by video. at the bond hearing, mack shows up with his family, who were all there to support him. and not only a public defender but the chief-public defender. camp has no one. she has no family. she has no friends. she has no support to speak on her behalf. i, immediately, said, james and gene, go see her. treat her with kindness. treat her with caring. >> reporter: and within minutes, the same man who had so upset heather with their bag of money were face to face with her. >> what was the look on her face when she came out and saw it was you guys? >> she was stunned. very surprised. and i said, heather, we need help here. we just -- what we want is a body. and she said, well, they didn't find her, did they?

she said i put them through the test. they told me they were going to help me. they wouldn't arrest me. and the minute i told them the area in which she was, the general area which she was, they got all abusive with me. you know? and they -- they berated me. so, they failed the test. >> reporter: and just at that moment, what happened was, well, sheer luck. >> directly across the lobby, in the male side of the visitation area, they brought in mack to see his attorneys who happened to arrive the same time we did. >> coincidental. >> just coincidental. >> and also, coincidentally, positioned across a hallway from each other, separated by glass partitions. >> they could see each other? >> oh, yeah. i told him she's over there ratting you out. so, she start waving her arms trying to get ethan's attention. so, she snaps and she breaks.

>> with a little more encouragement from andy savage, that is. his deal? if heather told him exactly where to find kate's body, and if it turned out she had nothing to do with any murder, andy would help her with her forgery charges. and at that moment, heather camp agreed to tell the a-tell what they needed to know. her directions were precise. they drove out here, right away. >> old tree that she described. and then, she says, if you look farther up between the left and the marsh, and she says, after you do that, you will look to your left, over here on my right and left. and you will see some underbrush growing. and she said that kate remain -- she didn't say the body is five feet from this path, from this roadway. >> incredibly detailed.

just the sort of place to leave a body. but just like the police, the team found nothing. >> i was very disturbed. why are we not finding her? because we were -- as i said, we were convinced that she was here. >> reporter: they searched until darkness finally forced them out of the marsh. and then, they called andy savage, who was out of town on business. >> they were on a cell phone from where they are. i'm in a hotel in boston. punch up the address for google earth. and i'm looking at the satellite imagery of where they are. i said, well, james, is there a dock off to your left? and so, i was pretty well able to identify where they were. so, i said what you got to do is just print that off. >> isn't that amazing? you can do that from thousands of miles away? >> you can also do it from the police station. >> the google map showed the a-team exactly how and where they lost the trail. after investigating so much, savage wasn't ready to give up on heather.

but he wasn't naive, either. >> we knew that she was a sociopath/liar. i wanted something specific from her. give me something that nobody else knows, so that we can believe what you're saying is truthful. and that's when she told us about the souvenirs from kate's body. the jewelry she was wearing and where it was located. >> reporter: they found kate's jewelry at a pawn shop. and behind the dresser in their tiny apartment, kate's bulldog keychain. the one she had gotten in moscow. ethan, said heather, took it from kate's purse as a memento. she was telling him the truth. so, they decided, next morning, first light, armed with andy's google map and more details from heather, the team would return to the island. >> you know, all that we were believing was now coming to fruition. all our suspicions about her activity and mack's activity, at that point, we knew we had the right people.

>> reporter: one thing. they'd be going without the police. good idea? maybe not. >> coming up. the a-team. under arrest? >> what do you mean? you were arrested? >> we were not free to leave. they made that clear. we couldn't leave because they seized my car. >> this was a twist, even they didn't see coming. when "dateline" continues. inues. vicks vapopatch. easy to wear with soothing vicks vapors for her, for you, for the whole family. trusted soothing vapors, from vicks that came from me. really. my first idea was

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the early sun had cooked the mist off the marshes. now, the still air was heating up to another dripping, hot day. bill caps and gene fraser shared a car from the city. they rode in silence most of the way. so, this was it.

it was, somehow, fitting that bobby, the one they called the human bloodhound, was the first to spot her. >> and i saw what looked like a animal path, where animals or something had -- had pretty much beat down the bush. so, i walked out to the animal path and started walking parallel with the road. and walked up. and i saw what looked like bones. and i said, i think i found her. i said, hey! hey, y'all, come here. i think i found her. and i said it was just like a ton of bricks come off me, at that point. and i went, i said, oh, my god, there she is. you know, wasn't -- wasn't much left. you know, just bone. >> in the end, it took six minutes to find the remains of kate waring. >> bobby was standing and i took two shots with my camera, just to document the scene, the way

it was when we saw it. and then, i just backed out of the woods and bobby followed me out and we called 911. >> 911. what's the address of your emergency? >> you need police, fire, or ems, sir? >> police. >> what's the address? >> no address. the body of kate waring. >> you believe you found the body of kate waring? >> yes, we know we did. >> in the woods? >> yes. >> but listen to what happens after bobby hangs up. the 911 recording continues. you can hear the operator spreading the word around to other officers, a bit skeptical that the four-month-long history is finally solved. >> hello? >> hey, sarge. you ready for this? >> no. >> this guy is adamant he found kate waring in the woods off of polypoint road. >> where? >> polypoint road. >> why is he adamant? >> he says he knows it's her. >> out on the island, the former

cops instinctively reverted to long-practiced procedure. >> we said, okay, let's secure the crime scene. wait for law enforcement to get here. >> reporter: so far, so good. but, what happened next was quite a surprise. >> the first officer was a charleston county deputy. and i said, we want to show you where the remains are. took him out there, and said it's your crime scene now and we're backing off. and that's what we did. >> but, that wasn't the end of it, was it? >> no. >> no. we were detained, to put it mildly. >> detained? >> detained and placed in separate police cars. >> what do you mean? you were arrested? or just -- >> well, very strictly, i guess, by the legal definition, we were not free to leave. they made that clear. and when we couldn't leave because they took my -- they seized my car. >> but, wait a minute. you found the body and showed them where it was. >> that's correct. they wanted a statement from us

as to everything that we had done from the very beginning, not just what we had done that day. >> the whole, long story? >> that's basically what they were asking for. and in fact, they had been given the story along and along as it occurred. >> reporter: hours later, the ex-detectives were finally released. but not bill's car. didn't get that back until they filed motion papers for an injunction. and even now, years later, the memory still wrankles all of them. 34 years in the police department. to sit in the back of a police car, and have some guy question you. get you to make a a statement. >> that's right. like a criminal. we were in the back of a car like a criminal. >> reporter: still, this was it. the news traveled to the house on the battery. the warings fell from their anxiety and into grief. >> mixed emotions. relief that she's been found. but at the same time,

devastating grief that, now, you have conclusive evidence that your only daughter is dead. and that, you're never going to see her again. >> reporter: and then, soon as they were allowed after the crime scene tape came down, after all the evidence was taken away, the whole team assembled at the spot where kate lay hidden for so long. all, except tom waring, who did not want the image burned in his brain. the dismal place the love of his life lay dead. but, perhaps, it was a mother thing. janice had to be here, she said. had to see it. >> it helped me to see, for myself. it was so remote, we wouldn't have found her in a million years. and not knowing where she is, i mean, it's just -- it would've been horrible. >> reporter: they formed a circle. held hands around the place they

knew she had been. >> one of the investigators had a deacon in his church, and he said a prayer. >> there's beautiful water, marsh, and docks. and i think it might have given mrs. waring some peace thinking, you know, at least wasn't in a garbage dump somewhere. it was some peaceful place in, you know, god -- god's place. >> so now, the a-team had done its job, and kate's killers could finally be brought to justice. or, so you'd think. but the mystery. the web that was spun on that train down from washington was far stranger, more bizarre, than you have, so far, heard. and justice? well, we shall see. coming up. they thought they solved the case but would it stick? >> i mean, frankly, we didn't

have a lot of evidence. we had a lot of opinions, and we had a lot of conjecture. but actual evidence. it just wasn't there. >> and the close call that just might have saved kate waring's life. >> and i always feel, if i could have hung on one more month, i could've helped them get her. >> when "dateline" continues. s . with so many changes, do s . you know if your plan is still the right fit? having the wrong plan may cost you thousands of dollars out of pocket. and that's why i love healthmarkets, your insurance marketplace. with healthmarkets' fitscore, they compare thousands of plans from national insurance companies to find the right medicare plan that fits you. call or visit healthmarkets to find your fitscore today. in minutes, you can find out if your current plan is the right fit, and once you've let the fitscore do the work, sit back and enjoy not having to shop for insurance again. healthmarkets' fitscore forever technology will continuously scan the market for the best

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even after trying other medications, it may be a sign of damaging inflammation, which left untreated, could get much worse. please make an appointment to see your gastroenterologist right away. or connect with them online. once you do, seeing the doctor is one less thing to worry about. need help finding a doctor? head to crohnsandcolitis.com hey there, i'm joshua johnson. president trump is wrapping up a call with military service members. he is celebrating at the white house with family. many of us are with family today, though not necessarily close to home. the cdc is urging us to skip large, holiday gatherings. millions of americans are traveling, anyway. though, dramatically fewer than last year. meanwhile, joe biden urging americans to stay safe as a shared sacrifice to stop covid-19. now, back to "dateline."

most everybody around charleston, south carolina, seems to know who the county solicitor it. scarlet is what people call her. a well-known and popular prosecutor and solicitor wilson had a problem. actually, two problems. for one thing, heather camp, to turn state's evidence and plead guilty in exchange. her credibility, as you can see, was not exactly triple a. and what could be used in court was thin. >> i mean, frankly, we didn't have a lot of evidence. we had a lot of opinions, and we had a lot of conjecture. but actual evidence. it just wasn't there. >> kate's skeletal remains gave the solicitor none of the forensic evidence the juries like to see.

and the coroner was unable to establish even a cause of death. and as for those personal items of kate's that they found in ethan's apartment, those could have just as easily have been gifts. the two were supposedly best friends, after all. >> and to top it off, there was the amazing tale that came with the state's star witness, heather. it's true she helped the warings' investigators find kate's body. but, heather was also, as ethan's lawyer was discovering, a gray-day, world-class liar. >> not only was she a drifter. i mean, this was a true con artist with just the most horrid background of anyone. a true sociopath. >> reporter: and knew she'd found her ideal, next mark. why was ailer so sure? his research, he said, had turned up enough victims to fill

a small bus to the poor house. >> i mean, these were men and women all over the country. she would say that, you know, she was pregnant. she would say that her children had died of leukemia. that men had beat her. >> reporter: her scam? troll the internet for men. latch on to one. move in. and leave him with a mountain of debt. all the while, pretending to be a doctor, an heiress, or the daughter of a mafia-style drug family. >> that was probably the worst whirlwind i've ever been through, seen, done, in my entire life. >> reporter: there was chris beard, for example, in pennsylvania. >> just being around her made me feel better because that's what i wanted. you know? i wanted to be loved. >> reporter: he found her on the internet. in less than two months, they were engaged and she said she was pregnant. >> at the time that i had met

her, i had no credit cards to my name, whatsoever. >> reporter: she persuaded him, he said, to get 15 cards which she maxed out, leaving him $33,000 in debt. oh, and by the way, she told chris's sister-in-law, lori. >> that she was a pediatric burn specialist and that she worked with children. that was her specialty. >> reporter: haefreather gave t girl a blood test. >> see if there was, you know, anything wrong with her. >> and? >> she said i just want to you know that your daughter's bipolar. >> reporter: but, it was odd. how would she know, based on a quick blood test, whether or not her daughter was bipolar? and why would heather use her own diabetes kit for the test? lori hit the internet just to check out the woman who was playing doctor with her child. >> and found that, you know, she actually was a wanted felon. >> reporter: so, she called the cops, who arrested heather in the act of spending more of

chris's money. but somehow, heather slipped off the hook. though, lori pressed hard for a prosecution, nobody followed through and lori eventually gave up. lives with the guilt, now. >> i think it was a month or so after i gave it up. that's when she came to d.c. and she had met kate. and i always feel, if i could have hung on one more month, i could've helped them get her. >> now, as he prepared to defend ethan, david ailer was feeling much better. his client's chief accuser, it appeared, was a practiced con artist. would any jury believe her? ethan might be naive, said ailer, but his story, after all, had never changed. >> they had gone out to dinner. he, kate, and heather. and then, after they went out to dinner, he dropped kate back off at her parents' home, here, in downtown charleston. and spoke with her a couple times, via text message that night. and he didn't talk to her again, after that. >> so, it was all on heather.

and with her as ethan's chief accuser, how could any jury convict him? but, just days before the trial was to start, solicitor scarlet wilson finally uncovered something the case lacked. a clear motive. she found it, she said, in letters kate wrote to a friend just before she disappeared. >> she's talking about how someone has tried to extend her -- her credit limit. or has tried to assume her identity and mess with her money in her bank. and she was livid. and i think kate was threatening to get her father involved. and that was a new dimension for heather camp. >> she didn't need katie as an enemy. >> i have no doubt katie confronted heather camp with that. >> that is when heather camp and ethan mack decided they had to keep her from talking. kate waring had to die. >> he began to make the choice

to join in the scam to rip off kate waring. >> reporter: finally, the prosecutor, scarlet wilson, felt ready. and almost a year to the day after kate was found, she launched the trial of ethan mack. the sole defendant in the courtroom, hegtather having tak that plea agreement. the warings try to prepare themselves, though what they saw defied preparation. >> we had to see images, and see what it was like when they found her. and then, go through all the forensics and we were seeing that for the first time, along with the jurors and all those other spectators in the courtroom. >> reporter: one by one, the a-team took the stand, as did detectives and experts from the charleston police department to present the evidence. >> over a stupid forgery. >> reporter: prosecutor wilson told the jury that ethan and heather killed kate to avoid getting caught for forging kate's checks and using her credit cards.

then, heather took the stand and told the jury it was ethan, not her, who lured kate to their tiny apartment. then, smothered her, shocked her with a taser, drowned her in the bathtub, and then dumped her body because he thought no one would ever find her there. >> and did you think that you'd convince that jury? >> i thought that the trial went better than i ever could've hoped. >> except, that is, for two things. one, would the jury believe ethan actually killed his best friend, kate? and, two. >> heather camp's a liar. heather camp's jealous of kate. heather camp's the one stealing. >> reporter: but, heather's testimony did seem to terrify one person. ethan mack, himself, and it showed. >> when he was in the courtroom waiting for the jury to come back, we have that picture of him. what was happening with your

client? >> that point, you know, true fear. you know, true fear. i could really see it. >> reporter: what hold did heather have on this man? did the jury, did anybody, have this crime figured out? >> coming up. a surprise from the jury and another one from ethan mack's mom. >> his mother said there's more to this story, and you need to tell it and you need to tell it right now. >> when "dateline" continues. e"s we'd love some help with laundry. spray and scrub anything with a stain. wash the really dirty clothes separately. tide pods with upgraded 4-in-1 technology unleash a foolproof clean in one step. aww, you did the laundry!

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♪ heart monitors that let your doctor watch over you, just like you watch over your best friend. another life-changing technology from abbott, so you don't wait for life. you live it. you just never can tell how a jury will react to the facts of a complicated murder case. or the accusations of a person like heather camp. ethan mack cooled his heels

while the jury tried to decide whether he did or did not beat, smother, tase, and drown his best friend. the woman he claimed was like a little sister to him. and after 14 interminable hours, they told the judge they could not decide whether or not ethan was guilty of murder. >> what i'm going to do is, on the murder charge, i'm going to declare a mistrial on that. >> reporter: mistrial. a hung jury. >> huge letdown. >> right. >> it wasn't going to be over. it wasn't going to end. we were going to possibly have to relive that whole event, again. >> reporter: as she packed up her files, solicitor scarlet wilson vowed to find justice, somehow. and then, quite unexpectedly, there was an intervention. from a surprising source. it was ethan mack's own,

church-going, no-nonsense mother. she had testified during the trial, for her son, of course. gave a hint, then, at what she was made of. >> he was sort of a mama's boy, isn't he? >> yes, he is. >> do you know anything about your son having any involvement with kate waring's murder? >> no. >> if you did, would you stand here today and support him? >> he know i'd turn him in. >> then, as ethan's mother sat through the rest of the trial, she heard things. she knew her son, knew when he was hiding something. and so, she went to see him in jail. ethan's attorney, david ailer, heard it all. >> so, it did get loud in that cell when they were talking? >> it got very confrontational. basically, his mother said, there's more to this story, and you need to tell it and you need to tell it right now. you know, his mother wanted him to tell the truth, and tell what happened. >> reporter: and so, it was

decided. soon after ethan and his mother had their talk, he appeared before the judge and admitted he did participate in the murder of his good friend, kate. he agreed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter, in exchange for a 25-year prison sentence. >> do you understand that the court still treats this as a guilty plea? >> yes, ma'am. >> and that, your criminal record will reflect it as a guilty plea? >> yes, ma'am. >> of course, since heather pleaded guilty to murder and forgery and obstruction of justice, they didn't need a trial for her, either. guilty, but mentally ill, by the way. at her sentencing, her therapist told the judge that heather developed, after a deeply traumatic childhood, a whole basket of psychological disorders. some which rendered incapable of separating truth from her elaborate fictions, and which led into her years of failed marriages, abandoned children, and constant grifting.

instead, solicitor scarlet wilson noted, she continued to lie about important details, after she made her deal to testify. and because she broke the deal, the sentence, 39 years. 14 more than ethan. >> this was heather camp's kill. while, certainly, ethan mack was involved and, certainly, he laid his hands on kate. i do not believe that but for heather camp we would be here. >> still, said andy savage, after the fact, solicitor wilson could have had a much stronger case, if the charleston police had acted more aggressively. just one example? when police arrested ethan and heather. >> because of their own incompetence, they released the property, the crime scene, where the homicide took place. they turned it back over to the landlord without examining. and so, the landlord went in, vacated their premises. >> cleaned the place?

>> it wasn't until over two weeks later, they go in there knowing the property had been tainted, the crime scene was destroyed. >> reporter: but the charleston police said they didn't quite see it that way. they did take the case of kate waring very seriously, they said, right from the beginning. and the second guessing from the a-team was rather puzzling. at least, according to captain thomas robertson, since retired. >> i'm surprised. i really am. i think we both did a fabulous job. and i think the team of detectives that i had working from this agency, and the support that we had. is -- it was fantastic. >> reporter: what may have looked like inaction, said then-detective, now-prosecutor, david osborne, was a thorough investigation, one that didn't leave possibilities. >> she's probably dead. she's come to some serious harm. >> early on. >> how many days after, would

you say? >> i would say that, i mean, within that first week, for sure. >> yeah. so, you knew it was a murder investigation, at that stage? >> no. i mean, it could've been an overdose. it could have been an accidental death. i think we felt like we were probably dealing with a death investigation. >> reporter: but neither tom, nor janice waring, was the least bit satisfied. the police suggested early on that kate may have simply skipped town, on her own. and what about those other families of missing people, they asked? families, without the resources to hire an a-team? >> unfortunately, missing people are low on the priority list, nationwide. >> i feel like, that a missing person, a missing child, should be just as important as a bank robbery because lots of people never find out what happened to their child. >> it was late, after midnight,

when she came to the end of her story. ushered there by two people she believed to be good friends of hers. and nobody, not the warings, not the a-team, not the police, has heard the story you are about to hear. the competing stories of the last hours and minutes of kate waring's life. question is whose story will you believe? her longtime friend, the uncle of her godson? or the charming grifter, the woman who played with fate on the tr the train? >> coming up. >> i had a conscience and he doesn't. he doesn't have conscience. >> heather versus ethan. >> conniving, evil, lying type of person that will basically do whatever she can to get her way. >> who is really behind kate waring's death? two very different tales. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues

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they call it the palmetto. the train that glides down the eastern seaboard. eight hours from washington to charleston. fine setting to meet a stranger. >> sat in the same seat? >> sat in the same seat. laughed. were joking the whole way. started talking. >> reporter: heather camp, freshly supplied with jewelry from her last mar, just by chance, found herself sitting with a young woman wearing jewelry and, perhaps access to such cash as heather had never seen before. >> what did you see in her? why'd you like her? >> she was funny. very funny. >> reporter: now, sitting here in jail, heather claims she came to see kate, not as her next victim but, as a friend. and when, in charleston, she professed her love for kate's buddy, ethan mack, and eventually married him, that

love was true, too. so, she says, now. and when she told them both all those well-practiced lies about being a doctor, about her husband and child being killed in an accident, et cetera, et cetera, those were just part of a shtick, she admits of a con artist. >> that's what i do, that's who i am, that's the way i've learned how to survive. >> but remember, in court, the prosecutor called heather the mast mastermind, who lied to con kate, lied to manipulate ethan. >> you were the decision maker. you were the person who caused kate's death. >> i don't take it as that. >> stole from her? yes. but, kill kate? no. heather camp will not cop to that. instead, this was the story the grifter had for us. it was all ethan, right from the start. >> my husband wanted to rip her off because she had money. >> reporter: but, wait. why would ethan want any harm to come to his good friend, kate? >> the trouble was is that ethan never considered her a friend.

>> not a friend of hers at all? >> no. >> not like a sister or anything? >> no. he was babysitting her. and she became a problem for him. >> reporter: became a real problem, says heather, when kate found out that she and ethan were stealing from her. >> she's like i'm going to put you guys in jail, and that scared ethan. and the whole nightmare began, that night, because he was not going to go to jail. >> so, you're saying ethan was the mastermind, not you? >> yes. yes. >> and so, after dinner that last night, says heather, they took kate back to their apartment. ethan got her a little high. >> after a couple drinks, she was in a very good mood. >> there was a big suitcase on the floor. ethan dared her, says heather, get in. she did. didn't see the taser he was holding. >> he starts tasing her, and doesn't stop. and by the time he removes the taser, she's not moving. inside the suitcase at all.

he races into the bedroom, grabs a pillow off the bed, comes back, and pushes me away. unzips the suitcase. takes the pillow. compresses it over her mouth. grabs a wine bottle that is, maybe, four feet away. did you say, "ethan, stop?" >> i didn't say anything. >> didn't say anything at all? why not? >> i cried but i didn't say anything. i didn't know what to do. i didn't know what to say. when he told me to do something, i did it. >> she filled the tub, she says. >> he asked me to help her pull in there. i tried, but i can't do. i start crying, and i throw up in the toilet. >> why didn't you pull her out of the water? >> at that point, i -- the only thing i was thinking about was how am i going to make it out of this house. >> did you think ethan would kill you, too?

>> why not? who else knows but me? why not? why wouldn't i be next? >> she helped him put kate's body in the car. watched him dump her out on the island. of course she lied, she admits, when she told ethan she was pregnant. but that was just for the sake of her own safety, says heather. >> i thought, if i'm carrying his kid, i'm okay. he's not going to try to hurt me. >> really? so a moment later when asked why she didn't just leave ethan, slip away like she always did, she quite reverses herself. >> i didn't want to. i really loved him. >> eventually she says she just had to confess. >> conscious is a bitch, and i had a big conscience and he doesn't. he doesn't have conscience. >> and that's the god's honest truth, says heather kamp, every single word. >> "dateline" returns after the break. >> "dateline" returns after the break.