friday evening, and for this week with our thanks for being here with us. have a good weekend. unless you have other plans. on behalf of all my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, goodnight. ews, goodnight. >> she was the love of my life, always. >> she was daddies girl. debutante and tomboy. the free spirit with fiery hair and a wide open heart. >> she was a very, very kind person. >> then she vanished. >> i called the police. something is wrong. >> and something was. >> days past, than months, no leads, no clues, no progress. >> we've got to get going. we've got to get moving on this. >> enter the a-team. a band of tough guy privatize.

>> yes something to hide. >> a brief encounter with the mysterious stranger. >> on the train coming home, she had met this woman. >> did that hold the answer? >> she's talking about how someone is trying 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, and sometimes troubled. a young woman from a prominent family finally grabbing the promise and life right up to the day she vanished. when the police seemed unable to find her, her family had to plan, and the usual strategy to solve the mystery. here is keith morrison.

>> it began on the bright morning in may. slipped from its platform in washington station and eased out into an eight-hour run down the eastern seaboard charleston, south carolina. on board was a beautiful, tall, and feisty red named kate wearing. the daughter of the south of a fine southern family that often traveled young woman who sitting on the strain is finally on the brink of something very good. and what is it about trains? the ease there in that enclosed space of finding perfect strangers. somewhere along the line, between greeting and goodbye, her invisible faith jumped its track. quite unaware of the dark force descending. she disembark to future utterly changed. charleston, south carolina, it almost goes without saying it

is a showcase of american history and southern manners. its charm is deeply embedded as the families who count seven, eight, ten generations here. kate wearing was born to one of those families. grew up in a fine because along the historic waterfront called the battery. dance losses, birthday parties. >> that, if we catch a turtle, can we keep? it >> doting parents, janice and tom, who adored their only daughter, and she had you simply wrapped around her finger? >> absolutely. she was a love of my life. and not stupidly so, i mean, i could not always tell when i was being manipulated, but some of the time, sure. katie and i had a very special bond, always. >> she was the middle child sandwiched retain two brothers, older joe, younger richard. she was bright, maybe too

bright. school board her, animals, all animals, enchanted her. she was naive, sweet. younger brother richard sochi, could not turn away a stray animal or human. >> she was a very kind person, whereas some people would dismiss someone who wasn't generally accepted by most. she would kind of helpless people out. >> somewhere in the course of an enchanted childhood, something happened to kate. outsider saw a fearless tomboy morph into a sophisticated debutante. but at home, kate struggled often in secret with eating disorders, depression, college wasn't interrupted disaster. >> she sort of land toward risk. i noticed that in a lot of things she did. she seemed to court it. >> parents discovered she had been sexually abused by someone they knew. years of therapy followed,

still she drank to excess, lost her drivers license, she abused drugs, she so brought 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. finally, out of desperation, tom offered kate a trip with him anywhere she wanted to go. anywhere on the planet to see polar bears. >> it must have been an amazing trip? >> it was the trip of a lifetime. i'm so happy we share that together. >> the photographs show how happy she was there. >> she saw young men who, with their families, about her age who were happy and she said to me, dad, i don't have to settle for whatever 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 crewmen who was amazed how quickly kate picked up his language, which is why months after that trip, the newly inspired k travel to moscow to meet him again to explore the city, the culture, and to test drive a budding relationship and her fledgling russian skills. snapshots of kate here in moscow are far more than just souvenirs. the reporters of a young woman transformed. the case you stood here on red square had a new passion and life that depressions and pillars 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 oppression 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. there is a problem with the visa. paperwork but south sort of things that would have center into a tailspin. now, the new kate vowed to try again later. boarded the plummet over charleston, and went to college classes and a children's book she's been writing. big brother joe was, to say the least, encouraged. >> when i talk to her, was the happiest i can remember hearing her in the last ten years. >> june, 2009, heat rising in charleston's deepening green. on saturday morning, june 13th, tom waring at his summer house outside the city built an absence. cell phone hadn't run. no call from kate. kate who always called or texted her parents practically hourly. >> she always checked in and 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 katie had planned to come back. and she had left her medicine. she never went anywhere without her medicine. >> and on sunday, we came by the house also. no sign of her. >> now there was dred. was it possible that kate had slipped back into that old destructive life? >> we called police station. we called the detention center. >> wow, and 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, and 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. for hers, they elected to give it one more day if she wasn't back by monday they called the police. 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. >> what were you thinking? then >> i was thinking something is wrong. >> coming up, something was wrong. but could they discover what? and would the police help? >> we've got to get going. they've got to get moving on this. >> when dateline continues. when dateline continues artworm disease for your dog. but not if you protect him every month with heartgard plus, the #1 choice of dogs. digestive and neurological side effects have rarely been reported. ask your vet for heartgard plus.

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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 catch a check signed by kate waring. problem, missouri count nearly

totaled $100 and those chakras were 4500. the signature seemed off. the teller called kate's dad. he called police. >> >> i never met ethan. didn't know his 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 we didn't know anything about. >> of course she did. she was 20 years old. and even though she was financially and emotionally depended on her parents, she had lots of friends. some they knew, sunday didn't. it was howard gatch for example, martial arts trainer in the midst of a divorce who had carried on something of a romance. >> i felt in my heart something was wrong, and i was concerned. >> then there was jason lock, a young lawyer with whom she often shared lunch and a

spirited debates. >> she was strong willed. she was very energetic. she was rarely incorrect. that's -- >> but her best friend, as she made clear to all the others, was ethan mack. >> she really liked. ethan she trusted him and said 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 at a local hotel, very different background of kate. yet been her best buddy for years, and in a way, her protector. everybody in ethan's neighborhood knew you don't mess with kate, but when ethan was around. beloved each other like, well, siblings. >> i mean, so, no harm would come to her when those certain little boyfriends would act like they've got and problems, and i would put them in their place. >> wasn't a romance at all? >> never at all. just like, she was like a little sister to me. >> and it was a token of his

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

friday night at dinner, had drinks, came back, dropped get off back at her house. >> if you say what time? >> i think the time would've 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 for the house even shared with his mom. >> and they both let me, and and they both allowed me to search it. mother and ethan both told me this is his room and where he stays. >> but to say the instance >> you say the incense suspicion of the part of the especially wearing's and police on their part was upsetting to was upsetting ethan to ethan was probably an was probably an understatement understatement. >> [inaudible] . >> >> this is ethan mack calling. >> this is the voice mail he this is the voice mail he left to the left for them after the swearing's after that policeman looked policeman poked around around his place as if he his base as if he was was some murder suspect. >> i some murder suspect. think you really need to >> i think we really need to check check that. that and and find the find the person person -- stop harassing me. the only thing i ever did it

was tried to help or. >> so dead end. the police move past him. they check kates someone records and finally made a call late friday night that picked off a tower, a place called james ireland several miles from her house. but it phone things can be funny's like that. they told the wearing -- probably made the call from home they said. they also promised to keep looking for her but really kate was known to have gun herself in trouble a timer to. police resources were limited. well tom waring get the cause message. >> we don't know for a fact a crime has been committed here. >> after all the waring family was reminded that she was a world traveler. she could've gone back to russia. maybe boarded a steamer. maybe even now. it would have something that happened to her? it could've been a drug overdose, even suicide. impossible thought kates parents.

even in her darkest time she would never fail to call. >> if she spent the night unexpectedly, we would get a call first thing the next morning. because she knew we would worry about where she was, was she safe? >> so the warings begin picking apart that friday the last day anyone ever saw kate. looking for something that may have been missed. it had been such a normal day. she had no drivers license, remember, she asked someone to give her a ride. >> she said thank you very much, she was in a good mood. >> and i want to have later howard gatch saw her again this time at the gym. >> she said is it okay if i skip rope over here? i said short, kate, that is fun. >> mind you there was an incident at the gym. howard's soon-to-be ex-wife came around, her and kate had a word. but in a pm a drugstore kim showed kate all relax again. talking on herself on, buying

one and stacks while waiting on her prescription refills. ethan paid for dinner. chicken teriyaki. she did not drive so he took her home, drop drop 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 worst it seemed. just before she went to the drugstore on friday evening she started telling her father about some problem. >> saying she felt like she perhaps had unintentionally gotten herself in trouble. and i said, why don't you tell me about that? and she would not tell me any details. >> which it clearly worried? >> she was concerned. >> clearly worried. >> about something. >> naturally they told the police about that. but nothing came of it. the air thickened to be steamy august, then we step past brought a new new leads, just tourists.

and kate waring, the urgency of finding her began to fade. that it was driving me nuts. i thought i cannot put up with this. we need to get going. we need to get moving on this. >> and in the hush of this perch overlooking the city someone was listening. ♪ ♪ ♪ coming up, a new investigation begins. but it's not the police who are behind it. >> we are the cream of the crop. our job was to find kate waring, not finding her was not an option. >> who are these guys? when dateline continues.

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>> pick a little drive beyond the grand old homes, markets in churches at the historic center of charleston, south carolina. enter quietly, a hushed suite of rooms overlooking the city were an influential philanthropist flipped was meant to rolodex and place to call to his friend, the chief of police. >> i really need a favor. you know? i really need some help with this situation. >> the caller was this man gianna rivers. happen to be childhood friend of tom waring, watch kate waring grow up. he told the police chief he was

worried about kate as well. >> and he told me that they got a lot of stuff going on. but he would assign his best and brightest to the case. and i felt pretty good about it. >> but now almost two months later kate was still missing. and the investigation such as it was had accomplished nothing. and john rivers could not stand but 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 as well in a police had no evidence of any crime. really? >> the soonest we scratch the surface a bit we were absolutely convinced that foul

play was involved. >> savage was given to mandates, find kate and tell police everything you find. that last part keeping the police in the loop should be easy. given the team he assembled. the band of retired policeman turned private eyes. each with a particular talent. >> bobby mentor. >> human bloodhound. tracking people without them knowing it is his specialty. >> bill caps. >> techno geek, tracks bad guys through cyberspace, happens to be a cracked shot. >> james randolph. >> ex police department rebel. strategy is specialty. shaking things up, a particular skill. >> we are the cream of the crop. and our job was to find kate waring, not finding her was not an option. >> experience told james the best place to start was with kate herself. >> if we listen to kate she

will tell us where she is. >> james went to the house on the battery. up the stairs, down the hall. indicates bedroom. >> these type of cases you have to take on the personality, you have to see this person's world through their eyes. >> he sat there for a bit, looked around. the russian notes in her handwriting made sense. but why chinese paper money? why was her brand-new prescription sitting there untouched? >> the medication in which she had gotten her prescription was still on her dresser. unused. >> then medication was her lifeline. she needed to counter depression, anxiety, insomnia. she never left home without it. meanwhile cyber though caps baird himself in social media sites, kate used them, and they'll scabbard them all. >> if she was away she was faced booking, texting, calling people on the phone, emailing. and at the time she went missing everything immediately

ceased. there was completely out of character for her. >> using kates friends he billed and electronic map of her communications a friday night she vanished. from case lori's friend, he retired a weird voice mail route acquired late evening. >> miscall, left voice mail, voice mail said that someone had, quote, stolen her identity, closed quote. and had obtained a couple of credit cards in her name. she wanted me to sue the person responsible. >> the gin trainer and kates romantic interest told caps he heard from her about 10:30 pm. still at dinner with ethan and then. then there was another call. and it was after midnight. well after police believed she was dropped off at home. >> she told me she was at a friends house. they had already admitted to the house. >> she sounded a little buds. >> and then a very last message from kate.

a text. very strange. >> i'm off to greenville to pick up some -- whatever it was i have no idea. and i will be back in a few days. >> did it make any sense to you? >> no. >> beautiful he replied. this time she did not text back. silence from kate except middle of the night herself phone paying out on james island, miles from her home. the cops surmised exclusive tower to her house could've been too busy for the call. but at 1:53 in the morning? when a chance, but andy savage? >> it's preposterous. they were looking for an explanation, plausible explanation consistent with their theory. that she voluntarily left. >> the middle of the night call, by the way, was to her voice mail. >> mailbox -- >> a voice mailbox at an jammed full four months. during which she never used it

or called it. at all. so the question -- >> why would she call voice mail? she would not be doing that. >> only one conclusion can draw. >> somebody else was using it but where was kate now? as the one takes as she adjusted, she left town looking suggested for drugs? if that's what lovely meant. is that would lovely meant? at the moment, it was a dead end. then he called. eugene frazier, legendary 30 for your homicide active now retired. >> i believe that if a man commit a crime he should be prepared to do the time. >> the thing is about jean frazier, over here on charleston james island where his ancestors go back to slave days, jeanne gets tips. all kinds of tips. one day, a church friend told the jean he heard the police had been to ethan max house, and something strange about that. >> listen, i don't think this is right, he says.

eight unmask is living in apartment that i have rented out to her, his father. >> 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 were ethan told them he lived. >> and he says, i think he's trying to mislead the police off. >> what did you think when you heard that? >> this guy got something to hide. >> and on that very day, jean frazier joined a band of ex cops which, from now, on we will call the a team. >> coming up, a mysterious woman enters the picture. >> katie had the strange girl. >> who was she? when dateline continues. dateline continues.

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brown here's what's happening. tsa's extending mass requirements where people using public transportation through

september 13. the rules apply to people in planes, trains and buses. anyone who does not comply could face find starting at $250. on the eve of the ten year anniversary of president obama announcing the death of osama bin laden, troops will officially begin their final withdrawal from afghanistan. president biden announced plans to have all troops removed by september 11th. now back to dateline. now back to dateline >> at the time andy savage his a-team together to look for kate wearing, that lovely young charleston woman that had been missing for two months, and according to kate's parents, tom and gianna's, the charleston police were still saying this -- >> they think maybe she wants somewhere. she's probably just up in greenville. >> what did you say to that? >> she doesn't have a car. how is she going to get there? >> it was after that when the atms jean frazier got his tip. kate's best friend, ethan, had

lied to the police about where he live. to deliver the house see a loud police to search. he lived behind this house, and one of two apartments, five miles away. >> which presented to the police? >> yes. >> and? >> they didn't search the. houston ever got a search warrant, never asked for permission to search the, houston never went back to them and said, hey, you must let us three months ago. >> but, as the 18 discovered, ethan failed to mention something else as well, 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 that i never met before in the room with her. >> and that was her name, heather kamp. kate explain she met and rapidly became fast friends with heather on the train 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 is here in charleston, and she doesn't have any money. and i am 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. and charleston to take in a post at the local medical center. a few days, later distraught kate told mother 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 just -- >> or she is a grief stricken woman? >> she did not live that way at all. >> now, here is news heather was living with kate's friend ethan in this tiny apartment?

>> to me, she just looked like a con artist. >> but no, said kate back then, janice had it all wrong. heather was nice. in fact, kate such 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 18 was doubly so now. sure enough, a few key strokes on the cold lobby that mothers intuition was right. >> i told her she'd been arrested for forgery, and in indiana, she had been arrested in other states as well. >> essentially, if you just google her name, i suppose, you could find out -- >> that's how i found her. she had been impersonating a doctor. in fact, a gould her. >> even wouldn't be her first husband. she had been married before, and had four children. now they know about heather, a few fuzzy details were suddenly

clearer. for one thing, the bill for kates last dinner with ethan made sense because there are three bills on that bill. the other diner was heather kamp. more important, not check even try to cash, no one that teller flagged, maybe that was another heather forgery. >> right away, point man shames randall fresh that information here to police headquarters. surely, somebody here put two and two together, a win known to have committed forgery, indiana and other states. a so-called best friend who tries to catch a bogus check with kate's name on it, then lies to police. seemed like evidence these two were involved in her disappearance up to their next. and up to haul them in, anyway. but.... >> i was told that the story pandemic, and that these were petty criminals, and the czech was going to be taken separate from the missing persons. >> what did you say to that? >> i 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 those 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 remain stealth as much as possible. >> come to keep a careful quite ion ethan mack and other kamp. gene frazier persuaded ethan's landlord to allow surveillance specialist bobby to talk a hidden camera into the corner of his kitchen window. camera trained right at ethan's front door. >> with a motion detector, just like that light they've got over the door, so when they drove an, it would light up, and light up for our camera. >> that's enough illumination to illuminate to see what they would be carrying, and that would lead us to know they had something to do with kate's disappearance. >> one even and had left the

apartment, body be had that cover too. he'd already tracked either do his job at a local will tell and attached a gps locator on his car, as it sat in the parking lot. now there is no minute of the day when the team didn't know where ethan and father were. and what they were doing. almost immediately, they got a surprise. when ivan was at work, other sneaked over to visit the man living next door. right around town with him. >> they were going to the bank a lot. one of the investigators -- they were kiting checks. they're actually stealing money from the bank. >> despite would bobby told, bank and never resulted in charges against anybody. but that wasn't all he discovered. the gps tracker ethan's car led bobby to a couple of local pawnshops. >> they were planning jewelry. the jewelry was the red flag. >> was it kates 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 are going. >> if we a-team didn't think of something and fast, other and even might slip out of their sight and charleston for good. >> coming up, an enticing offer from the a team. >> twenties, fifties, everybody sees that. their eyes jump. >> when dateline continues. continues ♪

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searching for kate waring had a big problem -- crime solving 1:01 told him heather and ethan had to be serious suspects, last people to see kate alive, won a known forge, or the other on tape trying to take money from kates bank account. but they were about to be evicted for lack of a rent payment, and if that happened, they would slip the invisible night the a-team had woven. >> we had the kind, why would the gp, as we were tracking every movement that they had. >> so, they made a call here to the quite office overlooking charleston, or the team's money

man john rivers decided he'd pay ethan's rent. secretly, of course, and it was a plan which, after little brainstorming, offered a bonus of built-in opportunities. here is how. the a-team one and know if heather or ethan forged kates 4500 dollar check but needed original handwriting samples. >> we determined what was on the check that we needed a comparison sample. we had numbers, obviously, on the check. >> then the a-team helped even slathered prepare iowa use that contained the need to numbers and letters. when heather and ethan signed the documents agreed to pay the rent in installments, they were giving the team the very samples that could prove they forged kates check. the team took the handwriting to the expert, mickey dawson, the man who set up a state police handwriting lab. a question was simple, did either end or ethan forge that check from kate, the one ethan tried to cash? >> immediately, that day, our

handwriting examiner said, that's them, no question about it. >> so, if he thin and heather ford to check from kate. what else to do they do? the team need to look in that apartment. if kate had been there, there still might be evidence of something. but how to get in? >> the landlord has her right to inspect a tenants homes for health and safety and welfare. a landlord decided he needed to go in and spray four bucks. >> you can understand why that might be done at that place? >> seems that it would be best if he went with him to ensure the bucks were all taken care of. >> surveillance expert bobby mitchell's gps device showed easton's car was out somewhere. >> we opened the door, to go inside, ethan mack sitting on the couch, smoking a joint. >> for god sake. >> i'm like, hell, unlike, hey,

the exterminators coming, in 30 years dangerous chemicals. you have to step out on the outside while we get this done. >> no idea who you are? >> no, no. >> you share about that? >> absolutely. the exterminator and i went inside, closed the door behind, us searched the apartment and in one of the backpacks, ethan max backpack was some chinese money, chinese currency. >> chinese money? yes, just like the chinese bills team saw and kate's bedroom. jen is wearing brought those bills to kid from hong kong, souvenirs, had even stolen them? >> i put it here on this poll. >> just or things, apply some pressure. bobby knew just how. >> he put on every telephone pole, every vacant house, every oak tree, every stop sign, wanted information, missing person, kate waring's poster --

>> right where those people hung out? >> wherever they want, including on mask's when shield, even where he was working that way, 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, where is andrew jackson. maybe benjamin franklin, and they would recognize their faces on a 20 or 50 dollar bill. >> $10,000 worth of those bills went into a grocery bag. >> then, twenties, fifties, like a bag. when you open it up, you know, two roles, and everyone sees that, their eyes just jump. >> and better to wave that bag of money they decided that under the nose of that neighbor heather was going to see? the man named terry only, i'm the one that we're creating checks with her. >> we knocked on the door, and

he comes to the door with no shirt on. no shirt on, short pants. i said terri, listen, we know you are great friends with these people, you don't have to live in this condition. we know you are back on your rent. we know -- look at this bag of money. this could be all yours. >> now to close the sale with terry williams, they tried to bluff. >> tell us what happened to kate and where we can find her. we know mack and kamp killed her, and this money could be yours, low that point, that's when the bedroom door buster open, and there's a lot of yelling and screaming. >> to the other surprise, there came another kamp, angrily and quickly pulling her clothes back together. didn't appear to be a business meeting, the team interrupted. the detectives told who they were, and who they work for. >> heather kamp gets on the cell phone, and makes the call to ethan mack. said, even, andy savages

investigators are here trying to get terri williams of roll on us. and when she said that, the three of us looked at one another, and police terms, we knew that was definitely the case. we knew they had done it. >> oh, yes, decades of investigating made it perfectly clear to the a-team. whatever happened to kate waring, events mack and heather kamp or in it up to their eyeballs. >> coming up -- >> we 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. ues. st treatment could be a chemo-free combination of two immunotherapies that works differently. it could mean a chance to live longer. opdivo plus yervoy is for adults newly diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread, tests positive for pd-l1, and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene.

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necessary. the ones very private waring and their only daughters intensely personal struggles

were now so glaringly public. they had to be. >> you can't sit back and hope that she will be found. i mean, we worked every day, all day long, trying to find her. >> that's when it hit home. kate was the latest of hundreds of people still lost in south carolina, and it seemed to china's and tom police weren't taking cases like theirs seriously. what about all those other families also desperate for help? the waring held a vigil for common cause. >> somehow or another, someone will be moved and will want to come forward and tell us where katie is. >> that was the public waring family. at home the private tom waring couldn't be help but be drawn to the play back on their voice mail to hear her voice. >> that, don please pick up the phone. coming back later. >> i would look at photographs

of her, or play those voice mail messages, just keeping her voice current in my mind. >> meanwhile, andy savage a-team detectives were making progress. when i flash that grocery bag of cash around the neighborhood, they certainly got a rise out of ethan and heather. a furious ethan called andy. >> your investigators are out there in accusing me of being involved in this homicide. kate was my best friend in life. as he's on the phone, kamp calls and starts out on this rage about, you know, what are you doing out here? 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 kamp, and so we knew her, and with her personality, and we knew a little bit about what was the push. a reaction we had towards heather was one of conflict. that one banks. during that time, we planted

the seeds as a mother. she must know the feeling of janice waring missing her dollar, and try to apply to her empathy for a mother. >> the call from heather wasn't all that fat bag of money accomplished. before long, it reeled in a fish, that neighborhood there was sneaking off to sea called. the a-team want to talk to him. >> he said i know ethan and heather did something to kate, and terry went to the bathroom, came back, out and had this ipad. terry said, i believe this ipad is going to belong to kate. >> now that was huge. last time he was seen with that i pod, 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. just to be sure this was in fact kates ipods, tex expert

bill caps got the serial number and within minutes had the proof. >> i examined the registry files and all the computers who had access in the past, it approved positive that was kids i pod. >> coming up -- >>, we'll find her, today? i knew they wouldn't find her. >> was heather kamp the con artist at it again? where was kate waring? when dateline continues. e continues.

♪♪ she's been missing for months now. kate warring, a trusting young woman so eager to help those in need. the trail of clues pointed to two of kate's friends, 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.

>> things started happening fast. after a heart to heart, she called the charleston police department and confessed. no, not to murder. instead she said it was she who forged the bogus checks signed by kate warring and ethan tried to cash it two days after kate disappeared. now surely the police would swoop in and arrest them both. 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. long. >> we knew something was up. and so first thing we did was yanked the gps off the car because we didn't want the police to seize the car and have our gps. >> 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 -- >> we had to tell them where she was working. obviously, they didn't have a surveillance on her. so -- >> you could tell them that. >> we told them. >> we told them where heather kamp was working. i mean, we -- >> the gas station she's working at -- >> the local gas station. >> walked into the gas station and bought a pepsi. paid for it and walked out. and the police officer in uniform had pulled up. he was peeping around the corner of the building. i said, "that's her inside." >> ethan and heather were

charged with forgery and obstruction of justice. would the murder charge following shortly. >> we get a call from -- 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's battery. >> so i got in my car and drove out to the island. >> 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. watched police officers and cadaver dogs.

>> so i sat there in the shade and watched them all afternoon. didn't attempt to interfere. watched police officers and cadaver dogs. ton of folks. >> i asked them, any luck? and they said no, and continued driving on. >> 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 from the justice system have mack and kemp came to the bond hearing and it's done by video. at the bond hearing, mack shows one his family who are all there to support him. >> yeah. >> who were all there to support him. and not only a public defender but the chief public defender. >> wow. >> kamp 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. >> and within minutes, the same men who'd so upset heather with their bag of money were face to face with her. what was the look on her face?

>> she was stunned. very surprised. and i said, "heather, we need help here. we just -- all we want is the body." she said, "well, they didn't find it, did they?" she said, "i put them to 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 where she was, they got all abusive with me, you know, and they berated me, so they failed the test." >> 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 mack to see his attorney who happened to arrive the same time we did. >> coincidentally? >> coincidental. >> and also coincidentally, they positioned ethan and heather across the hallway from each other separated by glass partitions. they could see each other? >> oh, yeah.

i told her, "there's his lawyer and detective over there with him. he's over there ratting you out." she started waving her arms trying to get ethan's attention. so she snaps and 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 kamp agreed to tell the a-team what they needed to know. her directions were precise. they drove out here right away. >> that's the large oak tree that she described with the -- and then she says, "if you look farther up between your left in the marsh, you'll see a dock that's running down to the water." and she said, "after you do that, you'll look to your left over here," on my right and

left, and she said, "you'll see some underbrush growing." and she said that kate remains -- she said 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 -- we were convinced that she was here. >> they searched until darkness finally forced them out of the marsh. then they called andy savage who was out of town on business. >> they're on a cell phone from where they are on a hotel in boston, punched 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?" so i was pretty well able to identify where they were. i said, "what you got to do is just print that off."

>> isn't that amazing, you can do it from thousands of miles away? >> you can also do it from the police station. >> the google map clearly 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. >> they found kate's jewelry at a pawn shop. and behind the dresser in their tiny apartment, kate's bulldog key chain, the one she'd gotten in moscow. ethan said heather took it from kate's purse as a memento. she was telling them the truth. so they decided next morning first light armed with andy's google map and more detail from heather, the team would return

to the island. >> you know, all that we were believing was coming to fruition. all our suspicions about her activity and mack's activity, at that point we knew we had the right people. >> one thing. they'd be going without 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. he fa and tick protection that's #1 with vets. it even prevents the infection that causes lyme disease. your vet trusts nexgard for her patients and her own dog. plus, its delicious beef flavor is #1 with dogs. ask your vet about nexgard.

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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 capps and gene fraser shared a car from the city. they rode in silence most of the way. confident the precise directions given to them was right this time. 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. thus at last fulfilled their promise to her parents. >> 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? >> yes, ma'am, this is robert minter. >> 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 mystery is finally solved. >> hello? >> hey, sarge.

you ready for this? >> no. >> this guy is adamant he found kate waring in the woods off of polly point road. >> where? >> polly point road. >> why is he adamant? >> he says he knows it's her. >> out on the island, the former cops instinctively reverted to long-practiced standard 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 rankles 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 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. >> they formed a circle. held hands around the place they knew she had been. >> one of the investigators was 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.

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hello, i'm dara brown. the u.s. announced plans to restrict travel to india starting on tuesday as the country grapples with its latest coronavirus surge. new cases in india neared 383,000 on friday. a new global record. the policy will not apply to u.s. citizens. the white house reached

another vaccination effort milestone, over 100 million americans have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. that's nearly 40% of the nation's adults. the administration plans to focus on reaching americans hesitant about getting the vaccine. now back to "dateline." most everybody around charleston, south carolina, seems to know who the county solicitor is. scarlett is what people call her. solicitor scarlett wilson, officially. a well-known and popular prosecutor. and solicitor wilson had a problem. actually, two problems. for one thing, though heather kamp practically leapt at a deal to turn state's evidence against ethan, her credibility, as you'll soon see, was not exactly aaa. and despite all the information the a-team uncovered, 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 that juries like to see. and the coroner was unable to establish even a cause of death. as for those personal items of kate's that they found in ethan's apartment, those could just have easily 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 found kate's body and agreed to testify against a man she revealed she actually married soon after the crime. but heather was also, as ethan's lawyer was discovering, a gray day world-class liar. >> not only was she a drifter. this was a true con artist with just the most horrid background of anyone i'd ever seen.

i mean, a true sociopath. >> david ada was certain that heather on the train to palmetto took one look at kate waring and knew she'd found her ideal next mark. why was he so sure? his research, he said, had turned up enough kamp victims to fill a small bus to the poorhouse. >> we had 13 different names that we could use. we called all 13. >> whoa. >> 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. >> her scam -- troll the internet for men, latch onto one, move in, fleece him, 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. >> 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. >> 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. >> she persuaded him to get 15 cards which she maxed out, leaving him $33,000 in debt. by the way, she told chris' sister-in-law, lori -- >> that she was a pediatric burn specialist and that she had worked with children. that was her specialty. and as lori had been having some behavior issue with her daughter, heather gave the girl a blood test. >> see if, you know, there was anything wrong with her. >> and -- >> she said, i want you to know that your daughter's bipolar. >> 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. >> she called the cops who arrested heather in the act of spending more of chris' money. but somehow heather slipped off the hook. though lori pressed charges and pushed 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 had met kate. and i always feel if i could have hung on one more month, i could have have helped them get her. >> now as she prepared to defend ethan, david aler 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, but his story, after all, had never changed. >> they had gone to dinner, he, kate, and heather. after they went 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 scarlett wilson finally uncovered something the case lacked. a clear motive. she found it, she said, in letters kate wrote to her friend before she disappeared. >> she's talking about how someone has tried to extend 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.

that was a new dimension. >> sure. >> for heather kamp. i mean -- >> didn't need katie as an enemy. >> and i have no doubt katie confronted heather kamp with that. >> and that, the prosecutor said, is when heather kamp 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. >> finally, the prosecutor scarlett 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. heather having taken the plea agreement. the warings tried 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. >> 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. >> 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 dumped her body out on wadmala island because he thought no one would ever find her there. did you think that you convinced that jury? >> i thought that the trial went better than i ever could have hoped. >> except, that is, for two things -- one, would the jury believe ethan actually killed his best friend, kate? and two -- >> heather kamp's a liar.

heather kamp's jealous of kate. heather kamp's the one stealing. >> 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? >> at that point, you know, true fear. you know, true fear. i could really see it. >> 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.

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you just never can tell how a jury will react to the fact of a complicated murder case or the accusations of a person like heather kamp. ethan mack cooled his heels while his jury tried to decide if he did or did not smother, beat, taser, and drown his best friend, the woman he claimed was like a little sister to him. and then after 14 interminable hours, they trooped back into the courtroom and 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. >> 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.

>> as she packed up her files, solicitor scarlett 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 of what she was made of. >> corrine mack dean, d-e-a-n. >> ethan's 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'd know i'd turn him in. >> then as ethan's mother sat through the trial, she heard things she knew her son, knew when he was hiding something. she went to see him in jail.

ethan's attorney heard it all. so it did get loud in that cell when they were talking. >> he got very confrontational. basically his mother said, "there's more to the story, and you need tell it. and you need to tell it right now." his mother wanted him to tell the truth and tell what happened. >> 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. >> you understand that the court still treats this as a guilty plea. >> yes, ma'am. >> and that your criminal record will reflect that 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 psychological disorders. some of which rendered her incapable of separating truth from her elaborate fictions and led to her years of failed marriages, abandoned children, and constant drifting. if heather was hoping for a shorter prison term because of that, she didn't get it. instead, solicitor scarlett wilson noted she continued to lie about important details after she made her deal to testify. because she broke the deal, the sentence, 39 years. 14 more than ethan. >> this was heather kamp's kill. while certainly ethan mack was involved and certainly he laid his hands on kate, i do not believe that but for heather kamp we would be here. >> still, said andy savage after the fact, solicitor wilson could have had a much stronger case had the charleston police acted more aggressively. just one example, when police

arrested ethan and heather -- >> because of their incompetence, they released the property, the crime scene where the homicide took place, they turned it back over to the landlord without examining it. the landlord went in and vacated the premises. he took all their furniture out and put it in storage. >> cleaned the place. >> cleaned the place. it wasn't until over two weeks later, knowing that the property had already been tainted, the crime scene was destroyed. >> no wonder scarlett wilson didn't have all the ammunition she would have liked to have had, said andy savage. the charleston police said they didn't see it quite 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. >> 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.

>> what may have looked like inaction said detective, now prosecutor david osborne, was actually a careful and thorough investigation. one that didn't leave out any possibility. was there some point at which you thought this girl has -- she's probably dead? she's come to some serious harm? >> early on. >> 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 have been an overdose. it could have been an accidental death. i think we felt like we were probably dealing with a death investigation. >> right. but neither tom nor janice waring was the least bit satisfied. hadn't the police suggested early on that kate may simply have skipped town on her own? it didn't seem to the warings that they were trying very hard to find her. and what about all 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 or 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 long-time friend, the uncle of her godson? or the charming grifter, the woman who played with fate on the train? coming up.

>> i had a big conscience, and he doesn't. he doesn't have consense. >> heather versus ethan. >> evil, evil lying type of person that do anything that she can to basically get her way. >> who is really behind kate waring's death? two very different tales. >> when "dateline" continues. (brad) how has apartments-dot-com helped more renters get into new homes than any other site? by working tirelessly to design 3-d virtual tours that are so realistic it actually feels like you're there. but that's all thanks to ted, a man who possesses an innate understanding of dimension. uh... ted... (ted) sorry, i was in the zone. also my name is brian. (brad) apartments-dot-com! the most popular place to find a place.

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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. >> heather kamp, freshly supplied with jewelry and cash from her last mark, just by chance found herself sitting with a young woman wearing jewelry and perhaps with access to such cash as heather had never seen before. what did you see in her? why did you like her? >> she was funny. very funny. >> now sitting here in jail, heather claimed 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 then 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 stories, she says, were just part of the schtick of, she admits it, 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 mastermind who lied to con kate, lied to manipulate ethan. lied about murder. you were the decisionmaker, 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 kamp 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. >> 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 -- >> no. he was baby sitting her and she became a problem for him. >> became a real problem, says heather, when kate found out that she and ethan were stealing from her. >> she was 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, said heather, they took kate back to their apartment. ethan got her a little high. >> after a couple of 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 removed the taser, she's not moving inside the suitcase at all. he races into the bedroom, grabs

a pillow off the bed, comes back in. pushes me away, unzips the suitcase, takes the pillow, compresses it over her mouth, grabs the wine bottle that is maybe four feet away, takes the wine bottle, crack, crack. i think maybe it's three times he hits her. he tells me to go inside the bathroom, start the water. >> she was terrified, she says. 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. >> conscience is a big [ bleep ], 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. but there was another story to be told. >> "dateline" returns after the break. break.

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conniving, evil, evil, lying type of person that would do anything that she can to basically get her way. >> of course, it was different when kate brought heather around to see him that first time. >> i said she attractive. she ain't an ugly female at all. >> talked, told him all kinds of things. >> she told me her son died from a disease that she was trying to help find -- >> the cure for? >> the cure for because she was supposed to be a doctor, and she told me that her daughter and her husband got killed in a bad car accident. >> ethan was entranced, he said. claimed he believed everything she told him. that's when they moved in together, and each day he'd go to his hotel job, and she'd head off to the hospital to her doctor work. >> she would be getting up, putting on make-up, putting on her scrubs, putting on her white jacket with her name that was sewed in it. >> but heather had another story, says ethan, one she had

used on other marks. but he didn't know that. that members of her family were violent and powerful drug dealers. and one day, he says she told him a terrifying story. her family members had learned that kate waring had sold out. she had ratted them out to police. kate was going to have to die. and those drug kingpins decided heather and ethan would be the executioners. >> she's saying her family basically telling her she better get rid of kate or they're going to get rid of us. and they're going to handle my family, too. they're going to kill my family. >> you believed this actually could happen? >> i done seen people get beat up over $5 and $10 and get shoot over for less than that. >> ethan's version of that awful night -- >> basically, zipped her up in the suitcase. that's when she came at me like, "ethan, we got to kill her." >> now right -- right then, ethan, she's lying in that

suitcase, top is zipped up. what you do as her friend is -- you go and unzip the suitcase and say, ha, ha, okay, get up. right? >> no, it wasn't -- >> that's not how it worked. why not? >> it wasn't like that. because my mother, my sister, my daddy, too, and my life -- >> but says ethan, it was not he but heather who smothered kate with the pillow. >> i couldn't do it to her or kill her. she had to push me out of the way, and she jumped on top of her and started smothering her with the pillow. i went into the room, and i dropped down on my knees. and i be like, "help me, father, please. forgive me for what is going on and what i'm witnessing here and have happen in front of my face." >> yeah. you were praying, but you weren't pushing her off, you weren't stopping it. >> no, i couldn't stop her. i still was thinking those people were going to kill me. >> let me challenge you for a minute because i know you're a good friend to her.

>> yes, sir. >> you were killing your sister, for god sakes. >> yes, it is. that's exactly what is right. >> the rest of it, the taser, the wine bottle bludgeoning, the drowning in the bathtub, all heather, says ethan, not him. and when he helped hide their crime, when he actually married heather, that, says ethan, is because she told him she was pregnant. she wasn't, of course. but ethan says he believed her as usual, and he wasn't about to abandon his child. yeah, but you're married to a killer. you got married to her after the murder. >> just for her to stop threatening me with the running off and taking my baby. >> god's honest truth, says ethan, every single word. and now at night in his jail cell -- how often do you think about that moment? >> i think about it a whole lot. messes you up real bad. i thought i could save her. i never wanted nobody to harm her. now look at me. >> you getting exactly what you

deserve? >> yes, sir. i'm getting exactly what i deserve. i know i got to do this time in jail, but still i can't bring her back. wherever all the powers that i ask for, and how much i ask the heavenly father to take my life away to bring hers back, it will not be done. >> no. it will not. not for him. not for the warings. it was in court that kate's father, tom, read one of the last things she ever wrote. they had gone to church together, he and the daughter who adored him, the girl about whom he worried so. and she scribbled something on a prayer note and stuffed it in a church pew just a couple of sundays before she boarded that fateful train. >> she wrote, "please pray for my father, tom waring, who worries himself sick and for nothing. i am and will be fine. if i die tomorrow, i have lived through almost everything and more, and i'm not afraid of anything. just know that i pray for god's forgiveness for bringing tears

to my daddy's eyes." >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." ashlea was a wild and funny texan who everyone seemed to love. >> caring, loving, compassionate. >> so why did she have this strange premonition? >> ashlea always felt like she was gonna die young. >> the call came on black friday. >> she said, "ashlea's apartment's on fire." >> when the coroner pulled up, my heart broke. >> and this fire was no accident. >> they had conducted surveillance at ashlea's apartment. >> reporter: they're going back

to the place where ashlea as worked. >> yes, sir. >> they were going after ten