us that empathy, that getting to know people can go a long way. listen to the mother who says her 16-year-old son has evolved out of the cocoon into a beautiful butterfly. we can't think of a better image to leave you with. i'm joe fryer. and from all of us here i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >> she's a married mother of two. there is nothing about her life that would raise any red flags. >> she amazed them all. her whole group of girlfriends at the gym. >> she was totally dedicated. >> i said heather, turn around. you've gone smaller. >> a stunning, 200 pound weight loss and a whole new life came with it. >> you could see that transformation. you could see the confidence in her. >> then she was gone. missing at school.

>> i caught all the girlfriends. >> the clues and email to her husband and a secret she was reluctant to share. >> kind of a bombshell. heather was possibly seeing another man. >> what was really behind her sudden disappearance? that would be the most mind-blowing twist of all. >> do you think that heather would still be alive if you hadn't gone through this transformation? >> welcome to dateline. heather jones, a motivational teacher had shed pounds and her past. she was starting to live the life in which she dreamed and then suddenly she vanished. here's andrea with the last dance. >> there is a place in downtown memphis tennessee. a little hot spot not far from nearby peel street.

♪ ♪ ♪ they play the memphis blues at this club. and the sultry darkness of the rumble room, bodies sway to the beat of latin sounds. in april 2013, a woman named heather jones came in with her friend to dance the night away wearing a brand-new dress. >> how did she look that night? >> she had her head up so high and her shoulders back and she was just beginning and she felt absolutely beautiful. >> there is a time not too long ago when heather didn't feel too beautiful at all but on this evening she had the night of her life. >> she didn't sit down very much and she's being spun around and danced. >> just two nights later, everything spun out of control. >> breaking news about a missing teacher. >> heather jones, suddenly an explicitly disappeared from her

home. >> her cars in her driveway, her purse keys in cell phone or missing. >> thinking of her being scared made you sick. what's happened? the answer was sickening. the why, more twisted surprising than anyone could fathom. >> that's not normal. that's not right. how can all this darkness fall under women so stunning? >> i loved her. i loved her energy. if you can think of like a color that is a person she would be like bright yellow. >> friends say heather could always light up a room. her cousin, diane perry said that their upbeat attitude is withdrew them together from when they were young. >> you're more like sisters? >> we were very very close. >> about that only grows teenagers when heather moved from florida to tennessee closer to diane. they became an inseparable pair

and even went to college together in memphis so it was only fitting diane was there the night that heather fell instantly in love with a name guy named chris jones. >> but in 1999 she can come and sat down and talk to giggled about the same guy that she had met, chris. >> diane recalls that heathered found chris fascinating. >> he dazzled her with his knowledge of wine and just his knowledge of the world. >> she like that? >> she loved that. she absolutely love that. >> diane was surprised to see how fast the new couple was moving and within weeks heather and chris were living together and not long after, diane notice the change in her cousin. a big one. >> they got very involved in a lot of online gaming and some things like that and so they had a very very sedentary lifestyle and that's when she gains i would say about 250 pounds. >> 250 pounds over how much time are we talking about? maybe a year and a half. it was a very short amount of time. >> it was life-changing.

>> that's tough. >> did you seem depressed about the weight gain? >> absolutely. yes. >> her cousin recalls chris said that he didn't mind what size heather was and a few years into the relationship, he asked heather to marry him. and it seemed his love didn't waver as the numbers on heather scale only continue to rise after the birth of their two children. >> did he make her feel good? >> yes. she felt beautiful, she felt loved, she felt wanted and taken care of. >> chris also took on the role of state home dad while heather worked and attended college part-time. >> it's a about ten years to get her degree from college and it was almost to the day that she graduated from college that everything changed. >> at one point before graduation heather tip the scales at 400 pounds but diane says that hard one to plummet now became a roadmap for how they're pointing her to a brighter and later future.

>> she had so much more confidence and saw different life for herself and immediately started working on her weight. >> step up. here we go. >> and that's when she found a special group of new friends. women like her who joins this high powered dancing exercise class each week to improve their physics and their lives. carrie cooper was heather's dance instructor. >> you leave that job, believe that stressed behind and it's like a happy hour. >> everyone in heather's life notice that happy hour was doing wonders for her. >> how they're, turn around. i said you've gotten smaller. >> where the pounds just melting off of her? >> melting off. >> it was nothing short of a total transformation. in 18 short months she went from this, to this. >> i remember that she brought a picture of it there and where she was now and she was so proud. she was so proud of herself.

>> no one was surprised heather soon landed her dream job teaching at an elementary school in memphis. jessica marks it was in all of the amounts of energy miss jones hoarded to her classroom. >> heather loves being a kindergarten teacher. from the moment a step foot in the door to the moment they left they were dancing and singing and playing. >> by april 2013 it was all coming together for heather jones. on a saturday night, she hit that bomb but room dance floor to try out some moves that she picked up at the gym and should show the world which she had become. >> it was so much fun and we had been there for about three hours of just dancing. three days later on tuesday morning jessica moxie headed to school expecting to see her energetic coworker how they're already there. >> our school day didn't start until eight or 8:30 that year and she was there every morning

by 6:30 6:45. >> heather usually couldn't wait for the school dates begin suggest he was surprised by what she didn't see that morning. >> i pulled into the parking lot and i didn't see her car and i said what is going on? >> thinking maybe she caught a ride to school just made a beeline to heathered classroom. >> and i remember her door was closed. her lights were off and i was thinking her lights were off and thinking get her lights are off, she's gone. >> gone? look at that mean? as the search began to find the missing teacher, investigators would soon uncover i describing -- and her mysterious disappearance. >> coming up. a closely guarded secret. >> i didn't even know his name. when dateline continues. continues. if dupixent has your moderate-to-severe eczema or atopic dermatitis under control? hide my skin? not me.

by hitting eczema where it counts, dupixent helps heal your skin from within, keeping you one step ahead of eczema. and that means long-lasting clearer skin... and fast itch relief for adults. hide my skin? not me. by helping to control eczema with dupixent, you can show more with less eczema. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines don't change or stop them without talking to your doctor. when you help heal your skin from within, you can change how your skin looks and feels. and that's the kind of change you notice. talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent, a breakthrough eczema treatment.

introducing aleve x. talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent, it's fast, powerful long-lasting relief with a revolutionary, rollerball design. because with the right pain reliever... life opens up. aleve it, and see what's possible. at carvana, we treat every customer like we would treat our own moms, with care and respect. to us, the little things are the big things. which is why we do everything in our power to make buying a car an unforgettable experience. happy birthday. thank you. we treat every customer like we would treat our own moms. because that's what they deserve. pain? yeah. here. aspercreme with max-strength* lidocaine.

works fast and lasts. keep it. you're gonna need it. kick pain in the aspercreme when eye allergens attack, the itch can last 24 hours. but with pataday once daily relief extra strength you get fast, 24-hour relief in one drop. make it a pataday with the drop that's right for you. now without a prescription. everywhere.

facing leaks takes strength. so here's to the strong, who trust in our performance and comfortable long-lasting protection. because your strength is supported by ours. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you. one other jones, the teacher didn't show up for her kindergarten class that morning back in april 2013 alarm bells went off among her fellow teachers >> and friends. >> heather would never miss a day of school. she was totally dedicated. >> homesick? it didn't seem likely. best friend melissa smith knew how they're wasn't about to be sidelined by a little sniffle. >> there was no excuse for her not to be there. >> school officials couldn't

reach other on the phone and when her cousin diane heard that she was a no-show, she had right over to heather's house in germantown where she saw an encouraging sign. >> there is relief when i saw a car in the driveway because i thought she was there and i thought oh she's sick. >> tampa how there was probably just sleeping. >> knocking, knocking, knocking please answer the door. >> but no answer. alarmed, she called heather's mother to bring over a key. soon, germantown police arrived in open the door and when in first. >> they say she's not in there. they say nothing looks disturbed. >> is that a relief in any way? that she's not in there? >> no. it was terrifying. something is very much wrong. >> it was now a missing persons case. detective tony kemp took the lead and did his own walk through of the house. >> did you find any signs of something that might have happened in the house? >> no. i did not see any weapons. i did not see any blood or

anything in that house. >> the heather's car still in the driveway stuck in detective camps mind. >> obviously if she left she had to be on foot or she made contact with somebody for her to pick -- her up. >> that grapevine was now working overtime. >> friends from others dance class when she was missing. one of the most carrie cooper, the class instructor. she also went over to the house. turns out, carrie knew as much about crime scenes as she did about dance moves. that's because carries a cop in nearby memphis. >> why took on that police officer wrote that moment and covered every inch of her property. i found nothing i look at her store sheds and looked all along the roads and looks around the house and there was nothing. >> the afternoon heather disappeared, chris came to the police station wanting to help. >> >> i mean i can't miss an

opportunity. i didn't want to miss a call. i don't want to miss a chance. i don't know if she would come by. i don't want to miss a knock on the door. . >> chris told attractive something that could be vital to the investigation and he said that heather had written him an email the night before. the subject red i'm sorry. and it she mentioned their little girl eva. it read come get eva. i cannot face everyone with this. please forgive me it is too much. please raise them to remember me as they're loving mommy. >> how concerned were you when chris told you about this email that his wife had sent, that heather had sent? >> i was concerned. it did not sound good to me. >> kemp thought the math was open to all kinds of interpretations. all that seemed. >> it basically sounded like i'm throwing in the towel. >> throwing in the towel? detective camp asked chris if how that might be suicidal.

>> and she ever talked about wanting to harm herself or anybody else? since you've known her? >> can't recall. >> friends and family spoke to her adamant and heather would never take her own life but after striving so hard but that there was another possible explanation for this woman who built such a promising future because police was about to uncover a secret she kept hidden from almost everyone. >> i didn't even know his name. justice had their to bright new future and the pass came calling. >> coming up. the search heats up and the secret is out. >> kind of a bombshell that how there was possibly seeing another man. >> this is definitely a person of interest that we needed to speak with. >> when dateline continues.

[sfx: psst psst] allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! all good ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

hey google, turn up the heat. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪welcome back to that same old place♪ ♪that you laughed about♪ ♪well, the names have all changed♪ ♪since you hung around♪ welcome back, america. it sure is good to see you. [ "me and you" by barry louis polisar ]

welcome back, america. ♪ me and you just singing on the train ♪ ♪ me and you listening to the rain ♪ ♪ me and you we are the same ♪ ♪ me and you have all the fame we need ♪ ♪ indeed, you and me are we ♪ ♪ me and you singing in the park ♪ heather jones had been missing ♪ me and you, we're waiting for the dark ♪

for 24 hours. her loved ones prayed for the best and launched into action. the memphis mother had recently lost 200 pounds with the help of a dance aerobics class. now her gym friends pasted the after photos she was so proud of all over town. >> did you have flyers? >> we had flyers. we stopped at restaurants

around german town. >> carrie, heather's friend and dance instructor. who also happened to be a cop organized a search party. >> we had our backpacks on, we had good walking shoes and snacks and towels and water. >> around lakes, marks and railroad tracks, carrie and the other women searched methodically, not knowing what they might find. >> and i had told all the girls, you all be prepared because we might find her. okay. >> your foot hits something hard and you think, oh my god, is that her? but it's a branch, and you just never know with each step. >> the put together the puzzle of what happened to heather and what she meant by that disturbing it by email, detective kemp want to know more about heather starting with her relationship with chris. >> i want to know more about their marriage. and what has been going on

between them in the past year. >> he knew the major event in their marriage in the past year was heather's dramatic physical change. friends and family said it was about so much more than just dropping pant sizes as heather lost the weight, she gained a whole new outlook on life. >> she was kind of quiet and reserved back then, when i very first meter and to see that contrast from then until where she decided, i'm going to make something of my life. the butterfly description with her is very, it's a great description. i mean, just her coming out of her shell and becoming who she was created to be. and you could see that transformation. >> in the rest of her life? >> yes. >> her cousin diane said once the butterfly spread her wings, she felt like her old clothes, her husband chris wasn't fitting anymore.

>> he was not really a part of the new life? >> exactly. >> the future. >> i think he saw the writing on the wall. >> she saw that i'm yearning i'm healthier now than i have ever been, i'm prettier than i have ever been, i'm feeling confident, i'm feeling independent. she didn't have just one choice anymore. the world was hers. >> detectives learned that in january, 2013, heather moved out on chris without telling him. >> she had a name for it. >> she did. >> almost like operation ninja style she was going to move out on her own? >> it was. it was. >> heather moved into this rental house with the help of family and friends. >> she was backed by a lost awesome girls. so, she was ready. >> she was saying, you know, i don't want anything in my house but my crock pot and mattress and brown bookts, that's okay. because i'm happy. >> in his interview with police, chris said that after nine years of marriage, he and heather began to have some differences, but, he said, he

had no clue she was going to move out on him and was even more shocked when he found out she had filed for divorce. >> i was totally side swiped. i did not see it coming. >> chris told detective kemp he had been trying to patch it up ever since. >> i wanted my life. i want the family dynamic. amily dynami i want us to be a family. i want us to work things out. >> kemp questioned what heather had been up to when chris was trying to win her back. >> it is common a lot of times when a couple is going through a divorce, that maybe somebody was seeing somebody. and i asked him that. >> that is when chris if confided in the detective that he feared heather had in fact moved on. >> it's seeing anybody else? does you have a boyfriend right now? could you tell me about what you know about that? >> the only thing that i know

is that they were friends from a younger age. and it has been going on for sometime. >> when you're talking to chris, he brings up kind of a bombshell, that heather was possibly seeing another man. >> yes, he did. he did tell me that he believed that she was seeing somebody. and i tried to get information from him about that person. >> i really don't know anything about him. they have been corresponding heavily. >> does she talk about him much? >> she doesn't talk him about him a wall. she doesn't want me or anybody else to talk about him. >> kemp discovered that heather had been talking about this new guy just not with her husband. >> they had started texting, i think initially, and facebook, hey, how are you? i think slowly those text messages and those facebook messages became a very flirtatious. >> i did not even know his name. all i knew was that she was talking to somebody who is making her happy. >> that was making her happy. >> that was making her happy,

she felt very special, and beautiful. >> but police did need a name, fast. chris was able to provide at least part of that crucial detail. >> can you tell me about him? can you start me off with a name? what is his name? >> edward, is all i. got >> edward? >> yeah. >> did you think that this other man could be a game-changer to this investigation? >> to me, this was definitely, you know, a person of interest that we need to speak with. >> detectives now launched a hunt for a man named edward. they wanted to know did heather the butterfly leave behind her old life to build a new one with another man. >> coming up, the other man revealed. >> if that's what she wanted. >> when dateline continues. namaste... ...surprise parties. aww, you guys. dupixent helps prevent asthma attacks... ...for 3!...

...so i can du more of the things i love. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. it's an add-on-treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma that can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as two weeks. and can reduce, or even eliminate, oral steroids. and here's something important. dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection, and don't change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. are you ready to du more with less asthma? just ask your asthma specialist about dupixent. bipolar depression. it's a dark, lonely place. this is art inspired by real stories of people living with bipolar depression. emptiness. a hopeless struggle. the lows of bipolar depression can disrupt your life and be hard to manage. latuda could make a real difference in your symptoms.

latuda was proven to significantly reduce bipolar depression symptoms, and in clinical studies, had no substantial impact on weight. now i'm feeling connected. empowered. latuda is not for everyone. call your doctor about unusual mood changes, behaviors or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. elderly dementia patients on latuda have an increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor about fever, stiff muscles, and confusion, as these may be life-threatening, or uncontrollable muscle movements as these may be permanent. these are not all the serious side effects. this is where i want to be. talk to your doctor and ask if latuda could make the difference you've been looking for in your bipolar depression symptoms. >> time, and investigators

worst enemy in a missing persons case was taking away. days past and other jones had not returned to her rented house, the place where she hopes to start a new life without her husband. >> it sounds cliché but she really vanished without a trace. >> yes that's what was making it so difficult. >> she still was not answering herself phone. the one police learned she had used to exchange flirtatious texts with a mystery men. >> she is in the process of having an affair with her bow from a long distance.

>> chris jones could not tell detectives much else about this other man who we only knew by the name of edward. >> i've just seen their correspondence with sweetie, i love you. >> how do you know they were corresponding? you've seen some of the text herself? >> yes. >> on her phone? >> yeah. >> you must have had concerns about this other man? >> yes, i did. he was one of the first names that we had come up with. >> detective camp knew that if heather had split town as you're good by email suggested. she had not driven away in her car. it was still park in her driveway. >> do you know what kind of car he drives? >> i don't know anything about them man. >> does he live locally in charming town? >> no. >> memphis? you know? >> now that i know of, i don't think he loves invent this. >> detectives had to find edward another way, so they access heather's facebook account and lined it for clues.

and there it was. a profile with a last name attached. >> what was that name? >> edward -- >> police dialed a phone number, and he said that he lived 500 miles away in eastern tennessee and agreed to make the eight-hour drive to germantown to be interviewed. detectives wondered, had he made the trip once that week to take heather away, most importantly, could he tell them where she was now? >> just because you got somebody living 500 miles away, does that mean that they didn't have everything to do with the disappearance. >> police recorded ed ellerson's interview, during questioning, ed made a potentially important admission. >> i love her to death. i would do anything for her when the detectives asked me, who would she call if she wanted to disappear? me, i'd be here in however many hours it took me today. >> but he insisted, heather never made that call and there was more. ed told detectives he was

surprised by the first question he was asked when initially contacted by the police. >> detective kemp, he said, is your girlfriend there? and i said, yes, she's in the back yard. he said, good, okay, so heather's okay? i said heather's not my girlfriend, she's a friend of mine. we've been friend for 20 years. >> if heather and ed weren't an item, what was going on? >> the detective wanted to hear from you immediately once they learned the name? >> yes, oh, yeah, with understand they knew who i was. >> detectives learned his relationship with heather went back decades, long before heather married krichls ed says he and letter met in 1993 when they were both teens living in florida. ed remembers they fell fast for each other. >> it was young love. they say you don't know what love is. but i do.

>> ed said they dated for two years before he moved away. but that puppy love was something he never got over, even after heather married. >> were you still carrying that torch? >> yeah. but i didn't really let it show. i respected heather too much. >> around heather's birthday in the spring of 2013, after she had lost all that weight, ed told detectives he reached out to wish her well and got more than a thank you. heather had big news. she and chris had separated. >> at that moment in her life, she needed a friend and that was what i was there for. i was there right when she needed me the most. >> but said said that shoulder to lean on soon turned into something more. >> talking, just you know listening to her problems and it had just you know progressed from there. >> progressed in what way? >> oh, you know, i'm a flirtatious person and, you know, just became flirtatious.

>> detective kemp scanned the texts between the two from heather's cell phone, it appears things heated up a little more, a few days before she went missing. >> there was some sexual content that i had noticed. >> ed says it was heather who first turned the texting into sexting. >> what did you think? >> it was partly that, you know, she was in a highly flirtatious mood that day. i wasn't really quite sure. >> did you bite? >> i did. >> detectives wanted to know how much and whether ed was truly willing to drop everything to help heather start a new life in secret? >> no matter what it took, i would protect her. >> ed knew it probably didn't look good to police. >> i guess me admitting that i would hide her if that's what she wanted, you know, i can

understand them saying that you know maybe he's hidden her. >> did you hide her? >> i wish. >> did you drive to see heather that night? >> no. >> were you with heather that night? >> no. >> did you have anything to do with her disappearance? >> no. >> ed told police he was at home, far away in eastern tennessee. and revealed that despite those steamy texts, he and heather hadn't actually seen each other in person if years. >> we had discussed seeing each other. i guess it would have been well about another month. >> ed insisted to police he had into idea where heather was, but he did give them a big clue. he told investigators, in fact, he spoke to heather on the phone the very night she disappeared. and you heard something on that call that was alarming than an even more alarming now. >> i called her, she answered

and immediately i could hear kind of arguing. >> ed said he we heard a man's voice in the background during that call. but who's voice was it? >> the pieces of the case are about to fall into place and those flirtatious pet texts turns out they aren't at all what they think. coming up. >> i need to put that out of my mind. >> are you thinking, this could potentially be our last chance to solve this? >> this was our shot. >> when dateline continues.

introducing aleve x. it's fast, powerful long-lasting relief with a revolutionary, rollerball design. because with the right pain reliever... life opens up. aleve it, and see what's possible. at progressive, we love your pets as much as you do, like this guy in a hat. that's why progressive car insurance covers your pets for up to $1,000 if they're ever in a car accident with you. this mini majorette's gonna march her way right into your heart. -i'm sorry. can we stop? i know that we're selling car insurance here, but, you know, all the cute little animals, it's too much. define "too much." what's wrong with cute animals? -so are we doing this or what? -nah, it's over. [ sighs ] well, someone's got to break the news to mittens. [ squeaks softly ] she's a diva.

[ mittens squeaking ] nexgard is the flea 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. what can i du with less asthma? with dupixent i can du more... plus, its delicious beef flavor is #1 with dogs. yardwork... teamwork... long walks.... that's how you du more, with dupixent, which helps prevent asthma attacks. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. it's an add-on-treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma that can improve lung function

for better breathing in as little as two weeks. and can reduce, or even eliminate, oral steroids. and here's something important. dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection, and don't change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. are you ready to du more with less asthma? just ask your asthma specialist about dupixent. as one day slid into the next

and the next with still no sign of heather jones, her gym friends were back to exercise class with the hope that heather would dance with them once again. >> i kept the backdoor open to the gym and i said heather if he can heroes were dancing and looking for you. if you're out there dancing with us. >> detective tony kemp also vowed to find her. he was convinced that heather did not run off with the old boyfriend head so he asked her friends when else caused heather to leave her husband and children? that's one campaign to flesh out what really happened when heather moved out on chris.

>> it was very scary and continue to deteriorate. >> friends and family told him how it first, chris tried to woo her with flowers and chocolates but those loving gestures soon turned ugly. >> he will text during call her about this time there were just violent. they're not taking my kids for me. i'm not gonna let you leave. you won't get away with this. i will come after you. >> that, friend said, chris started acting more desperate and others that are getting really scared. >> he would show up at her work, he will show up at her gym. they started showing up at the house in the middle of the night and i just remember thinking this is insane. you're literally stalking her. >> it got a lot of information on chris on what these people thought of him and it was not good. >> detectives decided they do more than just keep an eye on chris. they secretly attached a gps

device to his car to struck his movements. >> we wanted to know possibly could he take us to where heather was at. >> they also asked chris to come in for a second interview. detective brian wallace would lead the interrogation. >> are you thinking this could potentially be our last chance to solve this? >> certainly. this was our shot. >> detectives watched as chris is car made its way towards the police station but then it stopped a quarter mile away at a nearby mall. police thought he might be running an errand but moments later he popped up at the station. why did he park so far away? chris was escorted in. >> thanks for coming up. anything i can do? >> chris told detectives that he went to heather's house that night she disappeared to talk but before he could say much to her he said her phone rang. >> he said this is a call i've been kind of waiting for.

>> it's a permanent matter to discuss in a way that could possibly call you back. >> was it a permanent matter? >> it was letting her know that i discovered that she had been having an affair this entire time. >> was that calling her? the person -- >> i kind of got that feeling that that's who was calling her. >> in fact it was edward larson. >> i called her and she answered and immediately i could hear her and chris kind of arguing so she's telling him to get out and he's constantly saying i need to talk to you, i need to talk to you. i just need two minutes. >> at said he heard something else coming out of his mouth. >> he needs to talk to her it's a matter of life and death. she asked him what do you mean a matter of life and death? >> in his interview chris admitted that he and other continued arguing when she hung out with ed but he insisted that she was alive when he went home and he said she sent that

disturbing goodbye email only after he left. >> i'm freaking out because they don't know that this isn't a game. >> detectives had been analyze tack strange e-mail and they asked forensic experts to comb through chris'computers seized at his apartment. a theory began to emerge. investigators now believed chris had written the e-mail, himself. >> did you suspect that chris was posing as heather, sending that e-mail? >> yes, i did. because chris was an expert when it came to computers. >> and what's more, they suspected it was chris who actually sent those sexy texts to ed, not heather. he believed he had stolen her phone and was pretending to be her. >> that is really weird. >> oh, yeah. >> you are getting sexting from her husband? >> yeah, her husband. kind of -- i need to put that oust my mind. >> chris'plan, detectives the

host, was to throw them off the trail, to make it look like heather ran off and was having an affair. but they didn't believe a word of his story or that his concern for heather was genuine. >> the reason you were freak out is because she was dead. your actions after that make no sense. everything else after that was an alibi. >> okay so what did i do with her? >> that's what we're asking, chris. >> chris was sticking to his story, but the biggest break in the case was about to happen. what chris didn't know is that while detectives were turning up the heat inside the interrogation room, outside they sent some cadaver dogs over to the mall to sniff around his car and now the team at the mall wanted to speak with detectives immediately. >> they said the dogs just hammered his car. they said they're all over it. >> they found the scent of human remains. >> i don't know why the cadaver dogs hit on my car. >> i do. they don't just hit on anybody's cars, they don't hit on cars out of the blue. >> what is it they are trained

to detect? >> the utter decomposition. >> wallace had chris against the ropes and he was finally going to get some answers, not just about what happened, but why. the startling revelation. heather's radical makeover of her body and life had put her life in imminent danger. >> coming up, a whole new story from chris. was this all some awful accident? or could it be murder with a mind blowing motive? when dateline continues? nues ♪ ♪ just two pills for all day pain relief. aleve it, and see what's possible. what can i du with less asthma? with dupixent i can du more...

yardwork... teamwork... long walks.... that's how you du more, with dupixent, which helps prevent asthma attacks. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. it's an add-on-treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma that can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as two weeks. and can reduce, or even eliminate, oral steroids. and here's something important. dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection, and don't change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. are you ready to du more with less asthma? just ask your asthma specialist about dupixent.

shingles? camera man: yeah, 1 out of 3 people get shingles in their lifetime. well that leaves 2 out of 3 people who don't. i don't know anybody who's had it. your uncle had shingles. you mean that nasty red rash? and donna next door had it for weeks. yeah, but there's nothing you can do about it. camera man: actually, shingles can be prevented. shingles can be whaaaat? camera man: prevented. you can get vaccinated. baby, call the doctor. camera man: hey! you can also get it from your pharmacist! 50 years or older? get vaccinated for shingles now.

why choose proven quality sleep from sleep number? because staying healthy isn't always easy. 50 years or older? c'mon boy... c'mon. but quality sleep is scientifically proven to help improve your overall health and wellness. and it couldn't be easier! the new sleep number 360 smart bed helps you fall asleep faster by gently warming your feet. and it helps keep you asleep by sensing your movement and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. the sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now during our ♪ ♪ ♪ lowest prices of the season.

>> welcome back to dateline. heather jewels estranged husband maintained that he knew nothing about what happened to her. but police were hot on his trail. would it lead them to heather? here is andrea canning with the conclusion of the last dance. >> i'd love to -- >> for an hour, chris jones had been going for over his story about what happened the night his wife heather disappeared. but after cadaver dogs found the scent of human remains on chris is car, detective brian wallace was not buying his story. >> your story about what happened the night she disappeared. total -- >> wallace pushed him for th the beautiful thing about care,

is knowing that it's always there... >> how did it happen, did she fall? was she drunk? what happened? >> it's exactly it... we were struggling over the phone. and, only this time, we are outside on the steps. and,... she -- lost her footing. she fell. hit the step. and i heard the -- heard at the crack. >> he said there are struggling over a cell phone. she slipped, fell backwards, hit her head, and died. >> did you believe this new story? >> no, no, no way. >> finally, chris admitted

heather was dead. but insisted it was only an accident. still, the most important evidence was missing, heather's body. chris told objectives that he dumped or at a gas station, police went there, found nothing and checked security cameras. >> they had videos from the last 15 days, they have looked at everything from 10 am to 4 am. your car never even pulled off of the. lot >> first then changed his story and said that he paid somebody to get rid of the body. >> i jokingly asked, hey, you want to make a couple of hundred bucks? he says -- >> no, stop, stop, stop. chris, stop. this isn't working. that is crazier than the first one. >> four hours into the interview, wallace since crist was out of stories, and out of options. so, the detective gave him one last chance. >> i said, let's cut it out, chris. your time is running out. you need to tell us where she is. you need to tell us now. >> the room went quiet. chris motioned for a pen and

paper. then he drew a map. there i said, this is where she is. that's where she is. >> detectives raced to the area and followed chris'directions down a path into the woods that led to a clearing. >> once we could see an area on the ground where a fire, what had looked like a fire had taken place, once we got closer to that, we could tell there was still a human form there. >> seven days after she disappeared, detectives had found heather. her body had been badly burned. >> we were broken hearted. we had lost her and she was a big beautiful part of our group. >> chris jones was arrested and charged with first degree murder. now the women who had helped heather find the courage to leave her husband supported their friend in death. staring down chris jones at

every court appearance. >> there's a monster inside that hurt our friend and that we want justice. >> prosecutors rejected chris'story that heather had died from an accidental fall. they believed he argued with her at the house that night, strangled her and then burned her body in the woods. but the question remains, why? heather's friends provided a surprising answer. they were convinced heather's dramatic weight loss got her killed. >> do you think that heather would still be alive if she hadn't gone through this transformation and bettered herself? >> yes. >> heather's friends and family said over the course of their relationship, chris used heather's weight as a tool to control her. >> at the beginning, he wanted her to be bigger, he felt that would be more attractive to him. then as she got bigger, then he would say to her, nobody else would want her because she was

so obese. >> when heather finally created her transformation, she confided chris didn't have the reaction. she said, chris wants me to put the weight back. he doesn't want you to go out there. he doesn't want anyone else looking at you. >> according to her best friend, melissa, heather said that chris even brought her fatty foods hoping that she would pack the pounds back on. >> he would go up to the school with food. and she would not want any part of it. >> with the sole purpose of trying to gain weight? >> is what she had told me, yes. >> friends said the nud and improved heather never took the baits. after years of increasingly unhappiness, heather found out something for her was the last straw. >> she discovered that chris was having an affair with another woman. >> that's when she finally spread her wings and found the

courage to leave her marriage and she never looked back. >> you could see that her spirit was lighting up in her sense of security and what all the future was going to hold for her. >> in february of 2015, chris jones went on trial. heather's friends took the stand to help prove the prosecution's theory. when chris realized he had lost control of heather, he took control in another way. >> find that man guilty of first degree murder. >> prosecutors laid out their case to the jury. >> it wasn't an accident. >> assistant district attorney daniel mccollum. >> she didn't fall down. there was a struggle. he did strangle her either with his hands or however he did it. he was up close and personal to her and he was there watching that breath go out of her. >> but the defense stuck to the story chris told on tape. >> that heather fell and died

after they struggled over a cell phone. >> he never admits to killing her. >> the judge asked chris if he wanted to tell his story to the jury? >> i think i will choose to not testify. >> it was now up to the jury to decide his fate. >> finally, after deliberating for a day. >> we, the jury, find the defendant guilty of murder first degree. we the jury find the defendant guilty to abuse of a corpse. >> tears flowed for heather, a woman who worked so hard to shape her own life, free of chris jones, will now likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. >> even after his conviction, he told "dateline" from a phone call from jail, he never tried to control heather.

>> that he is absolutely innocent of any type, and that his statements to police were coerced. the detectives said chris jones talked to them voluntarily and could have ended the interview at any time. as for cousin diane, she has obtained legal custody of heather and chris'two children. heather's gym friends, they find comfort in knowing that before her death, heather achieved that remarkable journey. becoming the person she was always meant to be. >> she got to experience back before she left this earth. you had experience what it was like to be as beautiful as she wanted to be, inside and out. i'm glad you. did that dance class were heather spread her wings still keeps a place for her, a heart with heather's name on it. a reminder of a woman whose transformation continues to inspire all who knew and loved heather jones. >> as you dancing? >> absolutely. and that is --

we believe that. do you believe in angels? there is one dancing up there, i promise you. and every time we have a class, she is dancing. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. >> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >> she was more than a high powered business woman. she touched a lot of people's lives. >> i was devastated. i couldn't really go back there. >> he was rich. she was richer. the lawyer and the tycoon. lavish didn't begin to describe it. >> diane was very flamboyant. >> she was the life of the party. >> a good mix of wealth and power. they knew how to live life.