across the networks of nbc news thank you for staying up late with us. i will see you at the end of monday! it was like being in a nightmare. mom was never late. mom didn't miss appointments. she didn't just disappear. >> a mother of two. disappears! >> she waved a quick goodbye. walk down the stairs, out the door. >> but she wasn't the only to vanish. this was a town that appeared to be haunted by a serial killer. >> it became sickening to hear that another girl had gone missing. >> and wendy, another victim? or could she have been targeted by neighbors she tangled with? >> she made an enemy? >> she made an enemy for sure.

>> or maybe the enemy lurked within. some say she had a history of emotional troubles. >> she began screaming obscenities. shouting. >> but this beloved teacher, could she have multiple personality? >> when she does that she is [inaudible] . >> was this a woman broken or woman taken? to find out what really happened, an elite group of detectives would launch an elaborate underground operation. >> the stage kidnapping. the fake blood. truly phenomenal. >> all leading up to a sit down with a man they call mr. big. >> [inaudible] >> a high stakes gamble to reveal the truth on tape. and the children left behind. >> what's going through your head? >> shattering. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> the story you are about to

witness is all too real. though it may seem, perhaps, impossible. like a play or a movie. with its dark heart, something quite unspeakable. the actors are the family, divided across the folio line separating truth and deception. there is the gamblers, last desperate hand. the voice, the presence. someone from the beyond. and, the audacious undercover caper. all to solve an 11 year old mystery. and put under the light of intense personal scrutiny, a most unlikely villain. to who, depending on who you choose to believe, may not be a villain at all. but in the beginning? in the beginning? there was wilderness. vast, and lovely. and a happy little family. a brother and sister who loved each other. and loved their mom and dad. >> i always thought of our family as the perfect little

family. it didn't matter where we lived as long as we were together that was home. >> this is anna seper, who at the time was anna. surrounded by the trees and mountains of british columbia, canada. and this is her little brother, gabriel of. >> i always thought about my family and my parents being perfect. >> especially when you saw other families around you. >> yeah, parents get divorced? it did make sense to me. how would you deal with that? >> and then their parents? had a story as unlikely and romantic as gabriel had ever heard. this guy, rustic canadian labor fancied himself a gambler. and wendy, a sweet wild girl that strayed so far by her middle-class roots in the connecticut suburbs. they met at a hotel in reno,

nevada. >> she hardly knew award of english. he hardly know where to french. >> and he came. and she was leaving, he said take me with you. >> and she did, all the way back to canada. to northern saskatchewan. and against all oats, said her sister, pat -- worked. >> when i really liked about them is that they seemed to be more friends than lovers. the way they talk to each other. the way that they behaved. it almost didn't feel like husband and wife. >> and the kids? anybody who could see how close they were. >> what's gap do now? it was always them. >> and the friend, lowest cook, could see that they were protecting all of them. >> i would trust them to do the right thing and keep them safe. he was gonna protect his family, and his kids. >> were you a daddy's girl? >> yeah i was.

he was the rock that i had. he was calm, he was patient. i always considered him about as close as a hero as a girl could get. >> the strong, silent hero. who preferred long, solitary walks in the woods to social gatherings. except for poker. there was usually a game in town. the family could certainly use the cash, and he figured that he was pretty good. >> he prided himself on being able to read people. and knowing when to hold them, when to fold them. and i guess he sort of could because he was winning quite a bit. >> wendy, an olive teacher by trade, taught her kids to help others. to speak up and be heard. like her. >> well, i think you're a little bit too domineering right now. maybe tomorrow we'll talk about that. >> in this video, she organized a peace project that taught students, including her own son. about conflict revolution.

>> that's just the ideal, what's he tried to do in her real life. >> you are closer? mother >> very. >> very tight relationship? >> she was incredibly nurturing. and i think she was succeeding in raising a good son. to live in this world is the same person. >> wendy wanted her children to have the emotional stability that she could not seem to manage. even in her solid middle class bringing. she was open about it to, how she was constantly seeking something mystery. how as a teenager, she ran away from home. her parents sent her to a psychological hospital. >> she wanted a peaceful posture of her. she wanted -- . isn't that part of life? isn't that something common to all of us? >> her worry seemed to be over. she was drawn to spirituality. and for a time, to a little known religious group.

that call themselves the emissaries of divine light. >> i remember her saying that she felt at home there. she did that though. she religion bounced. searching for some more to belong. >> and then finally she and the finn lay seemed to find it. a place. in the wilderness. far from her connecticut passed. a small house outside of prince george, british columbia. she took a job at the local lumber mill. found work as a substitute teacher in the local high school. that might have been the whole story, really. except, well, every drama needs a catalyst. right? one day in 1995, he returned from work at the sawmill and told his family have a log hit his shoulder, knocked him out of cold. and when he tried to return to work, he just couldn't. >> it turned out he had a lot of nerve damage down the right

side of his body. so he left high and dry not being able to work anymore. >> he could no longer be the family strong protector. >> once he lost his job, i think it was up to her to figure out, okay how do we make everything work? >> and then it was a hot morning in 1997 wet everything stopped working. gabriel was in the kitchen, and he was more or less paying attention. when his mom and dad told him they were off to run some errands. >> she waved a quick goodbye at the door, went down the stairs, out the door. >> the first inkling of something wrong, something off. was when the phone rang, just after lunch. >> got a phone call from dead. asking if we'd seen mom? because. she had not shown up where they were supposed to be. >> her dad told her that the mom taught him of downtown so he could run errands. while she went to meet a student, and friend. then pick him up again at a

hardware store. but she had not returned. and as each hour called by that afternoon, her worry grew. by nightfall, there was still no sign of her. >> coming up. where was wendy? >> i just kept making phone calls. and, no one had seen her. no one knew what i was talking about. >> when dateline continues! when dateline continues . not everyone wants to save money. -what's she doing? -i don't know. renters and homeowners can bundle and save. for what? a trip to bora bora? bora boring. okay, you know what? i'm in. she's all yours. want some tacos? -eh, i'm not really in the mood. -yeah, you're right. so messy, all the napkins, those different toppings. -actually, i'm in. -yeah, you are. (dog barking) we love our pets. so messy, all the napkins, those different toppings. but we don't always love their hair. which is why we made bounce pet hair and lint guard with three times the pet hair fighting ingredients. just one sheet helps remove pet hair from your clothes!

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morning into saskatchewan. and when the, and disney went off to run some errands. hours later, wednesday was nowhere to be found and her daughter, anna, then a teenager was worried. >> when i called the police to say i don't know where she is, can you help? their only question was, has it been 24 hours? and it had not been. so i couldn't make a report yet. >> so, dark now, anna and her

father took the family's old truck and drove to prince george to look for her. they stopped by a coffee shop, one of their favorite meeting places. nobody saw her. but as they looked around, her are caught something familiar. >> there was a van, sitting in the street in a grocery store poking lot. i was so excited, it was the grocery store that was just closing up. and i thought, maybe she's out of her way out of the grocery store. i got to the door, they said no one's here. >> the van, of voyager, had picked up a dent. on the driver side door. weird. then the van was locked. and danny had an extra key. inside, everything looked normal. so anna drove the van home. >> that night, and the next morning. i just kept making phone calls. i called every friend of mine, every friend of hers. every number in the directory that she had. and, no one had seen her.

no one knew that i was talking about. >> what did all of that feel like? >> it was like being in the nightmare. because mom was never late. mom did not miss appointments. she did not just disappear. >> the next day, danny, and the kids followed a report with the police and the royal canadian police. they created a missing persons post or. a photo of her, happy, her eyes magnifies buy glasses. the day went by, then to. then a week. >> i just kept waiting for her to walk back through the door. >> you expect that to happen? >> i didn't know what else to do. for me it was just, she was gonna come back right? i'm 15 years old, and expecting everyone to come and be loyal. one of my vivid memories as we went to see a movie together, because we felt like, let's

have a little distraction from the trauma. i remember standing in line, going to the cinema. feeling awful, feeling the weight of what is happening. having us field so are that we are doing this. and why are we looking for her? >> and danny? and i remembered her father going for long walks in the woods alone. feeling devastated, lost, in denial. he >> broke down for the first time. i had never seen real emotion come from him before. >> by then? her disappearance became news. all over prince george. >> i came into contact with the case as a news reporter covering the disappearance itself. >> frank peebles of the prince george citizen. >> it was quite a shock that somebody who is apparently normal, every day, almost a stereotype in that sense. could disappear without a trace. she was everybody's mom, and she just disappeared. >> a disturbing echo of other

stories people knew all too well. >> this town is used to disappearances. and when wendy ratte it disappeared, there was a hint. or i would say, a strong with of suspicion that this was another highway of tears case. >> highway of tears? would that mean? coming up? >> it became sickening after a while to hear the police issue another release that another girl went missing. >> was wendy just the latest in a long list of women who disappeared, or had been found dead along this stretch of road? >> you couldn't lot look at it as a possibility. another woman gone missing, and unsubstantiated ways. >> when dateline continues! teline continues new astepro allergy. no allergy spray is faster. with the speed of astepro, almost nothing can slow you down. because astepro starts working in 30 minutes,

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the lonely highway. that pass through prince george, on the way into the wilderness. the highway of tears. 837 miles of exquisite natural beauty. winding its way past dramatic, snow capped mountains and breathtaking vistas of lush forests. the clear lakes, reflecting the blue skies. but also, the sites of unsolved mysteries. >> they say there are six active investigations. >> abc news brings tonight, more missing women on the

highway of tears. >> by the time that wendy ratte, vanished. these 15 people had either gone missing or been found dead. along this highway. where was the serial killer who was on the loose? >> for me as a reporter, it became sickening after a while. to see police issuing another release or another girl had become missing. >> had wendy been number 16? her car was abandoned far from the hallway. >> you couldn't not look at it as a possibility. it's another woman gone missing in unsubstantiated ways. for some, that is all that's needed. and in many ways, it is perfectly valid. >> but as the reporter ducked into the story. he found another, so far unsubstantiated theory, making the rounds around town. >> i know that the police spent a lot of time thinking about, and investigate thinking about the jones theory. >> the jones, once neighbors of

the rat a family. and just months before she disappeared, wendy complected about the joneses. convicting the family of mistreating the animals, using their land as a garbage dump. >> she was able to get a fairly big news story happening which made the city react and get them kicked off the fast pretty. and then they were taken away. >> it was not only damaging for the joneses, it was humiliating. not a thing that they would take lying down. >> apparently there were threats made from the joneses to that ratte. >> there was a little steaming letter in the citizen. bowed mapping the family and misspelling the family name. exchanging the ratte for the rats. >> the stories that i heard about them were indeed people would not have been surprised if they had acted out some of

the threats that they were alleged to have made. >> then there was no question, said gabriel, his mom did feel threatened by the joneses, they did not make their hangar a secret. >> they would hoot and holler. that was one of the basis of the community activism. having a bad neighbor about that. >> and doing something about? it >> and doing something about it. >> she must have known they might not like this? obviously. >> oh yeah. she knew she had made an enemy for sure. >> and it was just four months before she vanished, leaving nothing but her van in the local parking lot. a van with a dent in the door. that no one could remember seeing before. >> it was a pretty sizeable dent. so, what was it? could it have maybe been some kind of sign of struggle? if my mom was accosted? and she was thrown into the van. something forceful must've caused it. >> you know how people are. they talk.

and the longer that wendy's stayed missing, the more they talked. about the joneses. >> so even in the newsroom, that was a leading theory? that's one of your clear, first steps. in any disappearance or murder case. what is the motive? and the joneses, could have a modus. >> there was judge, there was some differences. and certainly we looked at that angle. >> prince george detective judy thomas, was leading the inquiry into wendy's disappearance. and this early into the investigation, it was -- . >> this is the difficulty with missing person files. there is no real starting point. you don't have a scene. you don't have any leads and it makes it difficult. >> she decided to focus the investigation closer to home. she discovered that none of wendy's close or personal things were missing from her house. except for her passport.

so, the obvious question? >> did you have the feeling that this is a woman who may have just up in left? >> we had to look at all possibilities. you have to keep an open mind when you start on these investigations. because, we had at that point, very limited information on who she was. >> where do you start? maybe a phone call to wendy's family back in the states. >> and, i hear the story and i think. for crying out loud! she's done it again! >> coming up. a missing persons case like no other. because who actually disappeared? wendy? or a second personality that some say lurked inside. >> we asked and we said what is going on? and he said that's not wendy, that she shauna. when she does that she shanna. >> i met shauna, she was driving a very fast, very expensive car. she was bragging about how much money she made. and she said, i'm not wendy

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here's what's happening, a blockbuster labor report shows the u.s. adding 528,000 jobs in july. twice what experts predicted. it has dropped to its lowest point in the century, after some fears of reception. and now indiana is the first day it having a near total abortion ban following the supreme court's decision to end roe v. wade. -- several cases of rape, incest, anomaly or severe health risks to the mother. now back to dateline! now back to dateline wendy, the free spirit of george columbia. -- her passport nowhere to be found. and as unlikely as it seemed,

police had to seriously consider, could, or web a dedicated wife and mother of two simply skip town. run away from her own family? which brings us to the greyhound bus station. a few blocks from the police that wendy was found. abandoned. gabriel was putting up a missing persons photo there. and? >> i asked the lady who was there at the cash register. the who is the lady on the poster. she did say that she recognized by mueller. and i was taken aback, you do? and she said very certainly. we asked her repeatedly, and she said, i saw her. if she was sitting at the table over there. >> what does that do for you? >> it's hope. >> shortly after wendy disappeared, and i was looking through her mom's papers in search of clues. and found an application for a teachers job in california. >> maybe she's there? i know she'd spent some time in

new mexico. when she was getting her teacher degree. and she loved it. maybe she went there. >> and then there was that religious group she had been so in two years earlier. the emissaries of divine light. she gave up and joined them? >> they feel like they have transcended the conflict intention of their former lies. >> the canadian news magazine profile the group and found they had several branches in the u.s.. >> i helped the police look into that, and give them all the information i could. and, they would often ask, how much did you look into this? because i knew there was an american sect. >> but still, why did with her own kids think that she would possibly abandon her family without as much as a goodbye? the reason for that was, history. she had done it before. >> just disappeared from our life. >> this is scary, wendy sister. who said that when the vanished

the first time when she was 15 years old. found her in a tent in new hampshire. >> just on the approach, she'd been screaming obscenities. shouting, just behaving in a menacing, hateful way. and she was not a person that i had ever met. and we knew she was not well. and needed care. and forcibly took her. and put her in the hospital. >> doctors thought that wendy's suffered from drug induced, manic depression. but they didn't have time to make an official diagnosis. that's because she turned 18, checked herself out. and disappeared again. this time for almost two years. >> when wendy disappeared, all traces of her were gone. she did not call, anybody. we couldn't find her. we can track her. >> she showed up suddenly. apparently seeking refuge from a abusive relationship she wasn't at the time. >> it was a clear disengagement

from reality. she didn't understand that her disappearance is where hurtful. to her family members. didn't get that at all. >> so it went. on and on. until one day, she turned up and announced that she was getting married to danny. the family was overshadowed. >> our family thought that he was a very good influence on her. and the fact that he chose to take a chance, and take her away. was nothing short of amazing. >> wendy became a dedicated wife, teacher, artist, mother. but there were always issues. mood swings, for one thing. >> someday she would be so happy. and other days, the world with just weigh down on her. >> but danny sister said that what she observed back in subs

catch you on were not just mood swings. but something far more complicated than that. >> the first time that i really noticed it was with the kids. she was always so gentle with them. softspoken. and, all of a sudden. she was very cold and very abrupt with them. and i started noticing danny, when this would happen he would take her away. and say oh we are going for a walk now. and when they got back, she was back to normal. and then finally we asked him, and said. what is going on? >> finally he said. that's trauma. that's not wendy. when she does that she shauna. >> did when they suffer from multiple personality disorder? that was never diagnosed. all anecdotal. but. >> i met shauna. wendy and i met in the parking lot somewhere. just to say hi. she was driving a very fast,

very expensive car. she was bragging about how much money she made. she was an interested in anybody else. besides herself. and she said i am not wendy anymore. >> shauna, seem to be around on and off for a while. she even called that herself in a letter that she wrote when she was 23. shauna has magic. she wrote. so, two weeks? >> mandy was a good mother, conservative hard worker. wanted to save the world. while china was the wild child. she did not want to be tied down. she wanted to have a good time. she felt restrained by the bonds of marriage, family. >> maybe it was shauna who got on that bus. or, perhaps old shawnda? yes. three wendy's. old shanna came to life at

seance's, and sometimes with the family and gabriel. >> i don't know if they were real, or not real. it seemed real. >> she was speaking invoices and things? >> she was very in touch with a spirit. an ancient spirit. named oceana. she found some piece in that. and one day she said let's hold hands and speak with oceana. >> i just remember her transforming into this character. this different self. and it was a surprise to me. i did know she did this. she was a completely different person. she wasn't responding in the way my mother usually does. >> so everybody was looking for when the, said gabriel. when really, maybe they should have been looking for one of the shauna's. >> i think that she had the capacity to pick up and go. she might have reached that breaking point where she just thought, or she just didn't think. she just left. >> then one day, after months

of rumors, and unsubstantiated theories following one after the other. there was a break. wendy had been getting unemployment insurance. and two of her checks have been cash that an atm. in full view of the bank's surveillance camera. coming up! another potential clue was about to see surface from wendy's past. a crucial moment, when a high stakes gamble went very wrong. >> she was so angry. she just vibrate it. >> when that told investigators. when dateline continues! dateline continues! i'm trending so hard that “hashtag common sense” can't keep up. this is going to get tens and tens of views. ♪ but if you don't have the right auto insurance coverage, you could be left to pay for this... yourself. get allstate and be better protected from mayhem

for a whole lot less. a month into the investigation,

police thought they were a big step closer to following the mystery surrounding wendy's disappearance. someone cashed in her unemployment checks in an atm. was it wendy? was it someone who had done her harm? rcmp investigator thomas checked the surveillance cameras. and there he was danny, wendy's husband. >> so you asked him about? it >> and he admitted it. >> straight-up didn't try to lie? >> i don't think you can lie about it when we had a picture of him catching at the atm. >> did you have an explanation? >> yeah. he explained the fact that his wife had disappeared, no money

was coming in, he made to pay the bills. it made me wonder about his character. >> he suddenly became suspect number one. though it was hardly a surprise that police would look at the husband. in fact, in the very first week of the investigation. thomas had questioned him three times. >> i introduced myself as a police officer coming to talk to him. and i said how are you doing? and his comment was better. >> better? >> it struck me as of right at the beginning. >> did he seem nervous, upset? >> he didn't strike me as overly concerned. not distraught by any means. >> frustrated, is what he was. he told his sister. >> i said get used to it. euro husband. they're gonna a look at you. because 99% of the time, the husband did it! >> it didn't help that from one interview to the next, he appeared to change vital information about the day that his wife went missing. >> he said that she left with no money. but in the following statement

he claims that he gave her money. >> worth of $2,000 he said. money he had gotten in advance for an odd job. he asked randi to return it when he completed it. >> it was odd. >> why did he tell you the first time? >> because he specifically asked. did wendy have money on her? >> 2000. dollars >> exactly. >> but into -- investigators interviewed more people who know them. members had said that -- had not been quite so perfect after all. >> well that is really hard for him. as you can imagine. he liked being the man of the house for sure. >> and for physicality, and your ability to provide where your family are taken away from you. that has to be hard on the eagle. >> it was very hard. >> and especially hard on the

family's finances. the visa card was almost maxed out. the only income came from wendy's work as a substitute teacher. not exactly a lucrative procession. so disney did what he always did when times were rough. he paid poker. >> he got a little desperate, and trust started gambling more and more to get money for the family. and gambled too much, and started losing money. and monday they did not have. >> and it was on one of those smoke filled nights. sometime about february 1997, six months before wendy disappeared. hunched in a poker table, with high rollers. he saw himself standing at a hands that smelled salvation. with $25,000 in ship standing at the table. >> maybe it's every gamblers excuse. my hand was so big that no one was gonna beat it. >> so he threw everything into the pot? >> yap he bet the high as he

could and he lost it. so i think that was a part of it as well. and, it was terrible. >> mom was very vocal. i remember her yelling. and she was so angry. she just vibrate it. >> vibrate? it >> mom was emotional. i had never seen her yell at him like that before. she talked about how much she loved him, but was angry with him, did not how much she could forgive him. but she was betrayed. and you put hundreds of hours into someone to be cut down like that. >> there were rumors, and with wendy's way, she told everyone else who cared to listen to. 16 year old anna, daddy's girl, began to see the tarnish and her father's halo. >> when i heard that mom had to change bank accounts into her name, she had to protect the families income. that was the first waiver i had

with my father's character. >> a month before she disappeared, wendy decided that she needed some distance from denny. she took the kids and went to visit her or friend. >> i feel that the decision wendy was making was whether she was going to end the marriage or not. >> but she knows how much that he loved his children. and how much the children loved tony. >> so she decided to give him one last chance. she went back to prince george, had a heart to heart with him. and then called lewis. >> when she found, she said, i had to talk with him. i decided that we are going to give it another try. that phone call was happiness with a lot of relief in it. but my sense was, if he betrayed her again, here was

finished. >> he said that he would do whatever it took to save the marriage. but anna could clearly see that wendy's very public complaints about his feelings, had been bothering her. a lot. >> he was a proud man. who didn't like his dirty laundry aired. and she just had to, to everyone they knew. >> his feelings had been put on display? >> and they had never been before. what it took for her to forgive him, to hurt her deeply. >> but he told police again and again, his marriage was back on track. he had absolutely no reason, he said, to hurt her. or have anything to do with her purse disappearance. police said, prove it. >> then we are talking on the phone, and they said they want me to take a lie detector test. i said you're the husband, don't take the glide to take their test. >> he did not listen to his little sister. four months after she disappeared, he volunteered to

take the test. >> how did he seem going in? >> a lot of people are nervous when they come in. they're unsure of the procedure. >> it would be pretty scary, do you think? >> yeah. if i could categorize him he would be that way. he wanted to know what was gonna happen, what was gonna take place. >> it was a polygraph question that had to be asked. last august, did you murder wendy? and he answered with conviction. no i did not. and waited to see what the machine would say. coming up! the investigation is transformed, when detectives run up against a fresh, and frustrating piece of evidence. >> does it seem to you at the time, hey, this can't be? >> i remember having a thought of, not what i would've expected. >> when dateline continues! ontinues

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investigation of wednesdays disappearance. no sign of when the anywhere. police radar was squarely pointed at her husband. which was no surprise to a seasoned prince george reporter. frank peoples. >> it was just the notion that some of of that style, that demographic would go missing. unless it was to someone that she knew closely. >> the husband had claimed his innocence. took a lie detector test. but there is no shortage of other theories in the case. those theories, like rumors, are easily separated rumor from fact. does it matter at all together. and as the detective discovered, as she changed on the lead. first, the highway of tears. for years women have been going missing out here. a body occasionally turning up beside the road. a horrifying surprise for passersby. but thomas had investigated

those cases, and expected no surprise in wendy's case. not sure of it. when they didn't fit the profile. >> some of the victims that we see our hitchhikers. also involved in drugs, and organized crime. or, some of the folks that are trying trade workers. >> so you are certain that that wasn't the case. >> there wasn't anything to indicate that there was any connection to these women. >> so, said julie, no highway of tears. but she could've still left prince george. there was that signing at the greyhound bus station. but no, said thomas. false alarm. >> with various files, you get a lot of people saying i saw this person. quite an event. but i spoke to the woman, she actually said no. i wouldn't be able to say that at all. we flagged bank accounts, credit cards, social insurance numbers. we put her on a canada wide

database. we checked the airlines, the border crossings. there was just nothing. >> what about the religious group? the emissaries of divine light that wendy had been drawn two years before? >> we checked into that and, had been met with dead ends. they said they had never heard of her. >> was it that wendy was mentally ill? that it wasn't her but her alter ego that left town? thomas interviewed wendy's mother. about her daughter's troubled youth. >> we spoke at length. she told me all about wendy, her background, growing up. >> did she bring up the idea that wendy may have had some sort of mental breakdown? >> there was talk of some issues that mandy had. we looked into medical records, there was nothing recent. they set her up in the time in her life, when she wouldn't disappear, but she lost contact with the family. but that is in a person's youth. which is much different then when you're married with children.

>> she interviewed several of wendy's closest friends. who also told her the same thing. wendy was first, and foremost, a mother. >> you get a sense that you know these people when you're looking for what happened? >> you certainly develop an idea of who that person could be. >> and what idea did you develop? >> for wendy, very caring and loving mother. when i was talking with anna and gabriel, the love that they had for the mother, i knew that it had to be reciprocated. that obviously, she loved her children very much. and i kept hearing that over and over. that she would not leave her children. >> right, a central fact in your mind. >> definitely. >> so, runaway wendy? investigator thomas decided no. so what about the jones family? the neighbors who wendy had helped evict from the property. they would've had the motive to hurt her. >> you look at the firm circumstances of it.

that family had moved for months prior. the main person they alluded to, wasn't in the area. and there was nothing else to support that. >> the jones were ruined out. as suspects in the disappearance of wendy ratte. which left wendy's husband danny. he created the suspicion himself, of course, when he illegally cashed wendy's unemployment checks. and his gambling had almost bankrupted the family. in those terrible fights before she disappeared. but danny agreed to take a lie detector test. and now the results were in. >> the polygraph operator came back and told him that he found him to be truthful. >> you heard that right. truthful. >> letting him go as a suspect must have been difficult. did it seem to have the time, hey, this can't be? >> i remember having a thought

of, i didn't expect that. >> this is their, who warned danny to not take the test, got a call from the vastly relieved brother. >> i took the lie detector test and i passed it. you told me not to do it, and i did it. and they know now that i didn't do it, and they will leave me alone. see i was right! i was like okay, you, and you are right. >> the disappearance of wendy ratte was at our dad and. >> julie told me, we don't understand. four other cases, there is usually, at least bogus information coming in. but there is nothing coming in. >> was her mom alive? was she dead? could she have abandoned the children who loved her so much? it's a very personal thing, the way humans react to trauma. for three years after his mother disappeared, gabriel's way was to forget. force it out of his head. he went to vancouver,

registered for college. tried to go on with life. >> i didn't give it a lot of thought. to the point where, i can try to remember her face. and i couldn't. i would have dreams of her, dreams of her coming back to the stairs where she walked out. >> anguish like that could not stay hidden for a long. it happened in a drama class. gabriel was reciting a theme for a play, that belt with abandonment, anger, desperation. the very feelings he was trying to express. >> i broke, down i was balling. >> in the performance? >> in the classroom. they couldn't console me. i was on the ground, heaving, i didn't know. this is three years buildup of just holding it in. i just quit school. because i felt like, this was too much right now. >> my brother was lost. i say, i always felt that i can fact it with my father more. i feel a lot of guilt for not being able to having been able

to replace her. >> why did you need to replace her? >> because then maybe he would've been okay. but we were both so lost. that we couldn't, we couldn't be there for each other. >> coming up! and i gets word that there might be witnesses who know what really happened. >> who are these people? have they told the police? >> when dateline continues! line continues !" [ both laugh ] i just love that word "bundle." it's so fun. two things coming together like a force of nature, like it was really meant to be, y'know? yes, yes, i do. and i'm so glad you wanna save money. rodney, set up a bundle for jon hamm. mm! of course! jon, is it still cool if i catch a ride home with you? i never said it was. but technically you didn't say it wasn't. it's not. yet. there is nothing glamorous about migraines. since i was a teenager the pain has taken me away from my family and friends. but i finally found relief with nurtec odt

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fateful day, when wendy ratte took the family band to run errands with her husband, and never returned. but for the couple's daughter, anna, the pain of her mother's disappearance continue to burn. now 20, living with a boyfriend hundreds of miles from prince george. she was determined to keep the search for her mother alive. >> everything else i did was just mechanical motion.

my emotion went into finding her. >> and she began to believe that she was quite alone. that the rcmp had led the case go cold. >> they always promised me they weren't, promised me that people were still looking. but nobody would be working on it. and finally, i was tired of this file shuffle. and i went to the media, to say that do not forget. this is a police in your community. do not forget. >> she began carrying this folder of news clippings, and possible leads connected to her mother. i talked to many families of many disappeared people over the years, i could see the light in her eyes that this was one of those people who was not going to let this go. >> but anna's father, it seemed, had given it up. not only on finding his wife again. but on himself. >> he was changing over the years. in front of my eyes. this calm, patient, sturdy,

steady person. was emotional. >> falling apart? >> angry. he was a menace. i saw him at the food banks. i saw him with girlfriends that you had to pay for. i saw his demeanor change from a proud, working man. to a street thug. >> he was in a dire world spiral. desperate for money, he tried small time crime. a drug deal. got caught. he was lucky, a first offense. so he only got probation. >> he told me he only did the drug deal because he needed the money to keep her home. wendy's home. he said if i keep the house, she'll come home, and have something to come home to. >> he lost the house. six years after wendy disappeared, he was living in an apartment in a serious part of town. cutting bottles to make ends

meet. >> it was a blow, but he had gone that low. and when i tried to question him about it, he said. my kids are gone. my wife is gone. i don't have much left. >> but anna had a sense, she said. a nagging feeling. that it wasn't just grief that kept him from being the strong, dedicated father that she had known. it was a possible, she wondered, that it was guilt? >> i thought. i thought he was hiding something. >> what would you know? >> i don't know. he said i have gone through my story. if you need to hear it, go see the police. asked them to tell you the story. >> to you he was fed up he was over it? >> he said i'm not talking about it anymore. i understand about being fed up. i know how it feels to be investigated. but i also believe in truth. and if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to hide. >> but when anna kept pushing. her dad snapped back. that he was conducting his own

investigation. his target? suspects police had already illuminated. the jones family. >> he said, that day that she disappeared. fans of his saw the family down the street from where she got kicked out. they saw her following her. >> i said who are these people? have you told the police? he said these people have gone to the police. they're afraid of this family. i couldn't understand that he would be okay with not telling the police. >> if her father didn't want to go to police, and a decided, then she would. i asked, can i have my father storyline? and the police said, we don't have a clear picture of what happened that day. because every time he tells a story, there are big holes. >> and what did you think when you heard that? >> just add a loss. it felt like, he was putting a barrier in front of the investigation. >> but there was something that and i did not know.

the case of her mother's disappearance was not cold at all. in fact, police were actively investigating her father. four years after he passed his lie detector test, the rcmp reviewed it. standard practices unsolved cases. but this time, with a quite unexpected outcome. >> the polygraph operator re-reads his charts. and then we find that he was actually deceptive. >> deceptive? meaning. according to the police calligrapher. that he lied when he claimed he had nothing to do with wendy's disappearance. investigator thomas wanted to be sure. >> we had five polygraph operators read those charts. everyone remembered them to be deceptive. >> but a failed lie detector test was certainly not enough evidence to arrest him. let alone charge him with a crime. >> it was hard for me not to tell anna. i couldn't.

i said you have to balance the integrity of the investigation, you don't want to jeopardize. >> so all thomas could do was file the results away. try to find more evidence against any. but as the years slowly protect by, one by one. nothing. finally, in 2007. a decade now since wendy vanished. thomas decided that if she wanted to get closer to him to find out what he knew once and for all. she would need some help. >> that's when we looked at passing it off to the unsolved homicide. >> that cougars eta decision to be exact. but even the old cold case and british columbia. get ready for an undercover mission. unlike any that you have ever seen. coming up! the staying by investigators where the of the big screen. >> they're described as the raid out of hollywood. stage kidnappings, favorite blood is truly phenomena. >> meet the man they call mr.

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and right here too. comcast business. powering possibilities. it was a sweet wedding. happy, and the little said to. wistful. when her anna and the bride dance with her father. it was 2003, six years since her mother vanished from her life. father insisted that he had nothing to do with it. and tender moments like these, and i said, remind her of how much evil yearned for the bond they once had. >> i had to believe it. he was still my hero. my childhood hero was still there. >> but she was sliding. sliding into a darker understanding of her father. until the day in late 2007, when anna reporter frank peoples at a downtown cap.

>> there was no one in the room at the time, we were talking quietly. after about an hour of conversation. she finally shook her head and said, i'm very sure that it was my dad. and, the wrench in her eyes when that came out was something i don't think i can never forget. >> by then, the rcmp's lead investigator, robert, of the homicide unit in vancouver, was in charge of the case. one of 100 cases. >> we came to the same conclusion as judy did, that he was the main suspect in his wife's disappearance. >> but there wasn't enough to charge? tim >> that's that's correct. one of the things we decided was an undercover operation must be the best thing to move this forward. >> an undercover operation? >> yes. >> the operation they came up with was so elaborate and

ambitious. it might be unbelievable. they created, from scratch, of fake criminal organization. with detectives posing as crooks. the goal? to lure danny into their midst and gain the trust. to find out what he really knew about his wife's disappearance. >> the rcmp have conducted over 350 of these investigations. >> cory keenan, a criminologist at vancouver's simon frazier university has studied this and written a book about them. >> they have creatively fashioned a background that simulates a real world criminal environment. so much so that fiction is often difficult to differentiate from reality. >> that rcmp will not discover the specifics of the operation targeting danny ratte. but we reviewed the summary position. june 2008, an undercover

officer approached danny in prince george. he was looking for something, but didn't know his way around town. danny would help him. another week later, another question. would he like to make some money on the side delivering bags? their contents unknown? >> no problem. said to me. and bit by bit, days went by. he became fully involved in what he clearly believed would be a criminal gang. after a couple of months, by august, he was helping them smuggle illegal cigarettes, and alcohol. in exchange for stolen diamonds. and even to transport guns. or so he thought. >> overtime the target is led to believe that he is an up and comer in the criminal organization. >> then, it got more serious. he was asked to threaten a man. he did. although he said he didn't like it. and he guarded a hotel room door, as an undercover alpha sir savagely beat a woman.

danny never suspecting it was al an act. >> these officers are described as right out of hollywood. the scenarios that they would do. the beatings, the stage kidnappings, the fake blood packs. truly phenomenal. >> danny bonded with his crime buddies over meals at fancy restaurants, evenings and struck. loves the pay was good to. 12 grand in a little bit more than three months. more than he had earned in years. he told his sister. without divulging too much. >> he says i'm earning some money. i'm not eating at the kitchen anymore. and i just thought, he got a job, and he has people he's working with he really likes. and they really like him. >> during one of his delivery trips to vancouver. he stopped to see his son gabriel, now 26, a college student once more. gabriel noted that the old, self insured man was back.

>> i saw the glint in his eye where he found himself proud again. and he had not felt that since he had been injured. >> then three months into the operation, the sting was primed. the real police showed up in his life. told him they investigation was reopened, he was the prime suspect. and he failed that lie detector test all those years ago. now, suddenly worried, denis, just as planned. had no one else to turn to except his new friends. the undercover detectives had him just where they wanted him. time for mr. big. >> mr. bag is the commanding, all powerful boss of the criminal organization. he is the one who calls the shots. if he likes, you and want you to bring you in. he can make all of your problems go away. >> and danny, his crime bodies assured him. had all it took to be a maid guy. all because he had been, what's the organization valued the

most. honest, and loyal. that's a common safeguard of the mr. big technique. said keenan. to ensure as much as possible that the suspect does not lie to gain respect. >> just be honest, if you're honest, things will be gay. you're thrive. if you lie, there will be very devastating circumstances. mr. big will only accept the truth. >> the truth? so far went undercover officers had asked him about his life. about a dozen times are so. he did not waver about the story that he had stuck to for more than a decade. nothing to do with it. september 27th, 2008. the whole team room in winnipeg. lead investigator, rob buret, monitoring in a nearby room. >> so, you have this elaborate set up. what are you trying to get it? >> i've been involved in investigations where we have been able to kill or people of

wrongdoing. so we're not just there to find people guilty, were there to seek the truth. >> the moment had come. time for him to come clean. >> you and me out we are going to talk, man to man. >> man-to-man for sure. >> coming up, his back against the wall. what would deny say to mr. big? >> i'm gonna tell you honestly what happened. >> when dateline continues! n dateline continues that they would remove it. my tip is be careful what you wish for. that chest tube hurt a lot more coming out... then it did going in. (announcer) you can quit. for free help, call 1-800-quit-now a dental tool is round for a reason. so is an oral-b. round cleans better by surrounding each tooth. so clean, you'll feel like you just left the dentist. oral-b. brush like a pro. ♪♪ say hello to high end stylings at prices you'll only find at lowe's. oral-b. brush like a pro. ♪ ♪

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here is what is happening. china had talks with the u.s., stepped up military drills by air, land, and see. and space. following a controversial visit to taiwan by nancy pelosi. beijing claims the territory is part of china, and considers the visit a provocation. and alex jones, who for years described the sandy hook's massacres as a hoax. has been ordered to pay $49

million. jones has at least two more other defamation case from the families. now back to dateline! to dateline i want you to take this. as a job interview. okay? it's a job interview. we are going to put it there. >> he had come to the moment of truth. he was meeting mr. bag. the man he believed to be an all powerful crime boss. his audition, he believed, for membership. for a trust. for help from his four big. royal canadian mounted police disguise the identity and voices of the underground where agents in this video. >> right now, i haven't decided if i'm gonna help you. okay? right now i want to see who are you as a person. >> so first? mr. bag told him that he would have to come clean about his past. especially with the mystery of his wife's disappearance.

that is, of course, if he knew anything about it. the undercover canadian investigator posing as the crime boss, wanted him to feel comfortable. so he spoke french, his mother tongue. we have translated and dubbed over the conversation in english. >> there are three things that i want. loyalty, truth, and honesty. >> the last, when i did? and >> honesty. being honest. >> yeah honestly okay. >> then a knock on the door. it was one of the crime bosses alleged cronies. with an internal police memorandum. read it, said mr. bag. as he sat and listened. >> only suspect, husband, dennis rat a. for this investigation.

and they're waiting for satellite results from the u.s.. >> satellite results? >> that was a lie. there was no satellite watching him on the satellite back in 1997. >> and they're a 100 percent sure that they have him on this. >> after suggesting he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance. now suddenly? for a man who believed to be a crime boss, he had changed his story. >> okay man, would you have to say? >> i'm gonna tell you! i wanna tell you honestly what happened! the honest truth. i never told it in my life. i ain't happy about it. but i did it. yeah, okay? not happy i did. it but i still did it. everything worked perfect. with a rifle. one shot. nice immediately. >> you shot her where? >> in the head. where in the head? >> well. in the back of the head there. i didn't really track when i

hear. i was pretty nervous. i guess, around here. >> he shot wendy. he told mr. bag. that morning, at the house in prince george. she was feeding the ducks, her back to him. when he took aim with a 22 caliber rifle. >> right or left side? >> i gotta put myself back there. >> theory. seeing a husband, trying to leave live the moment where he said he tried to murder his wife. >> you move over there like that. because i remember turning. yeah. and that's your left side right? >> that is my left side. >> he said it was just one shot. not a lot of broad. after she fell to the ground, he said, he quickly wrapped her body in a black tarp. and that's when he noticed she was still moving. >> i took a bumper jack.

it's, those old jacks that you put under the vehicle. and there was a big thing. with the cover on. i didn't want to leave a mark. so i finished her off with that. in the face. >> then, he continued. he put the body in her voyager. made a left turn on highway 16. the highway of tears. and joined a abandoned loggers road about one and a half hours away. there was a swamp their. >> i made sure, you know, the body. >> why did you put on it? what did you put on top? >> there was mud. and there was a stick. you know, i started around. and it slipped. >> he told mr. bag that he drove back to prince george, got rid of his gun and his wife 's ideally along the way.

and left a van in the grocery store parking lot. then wandered around for a bit, to call an out to report his wife was missing. then he went back to the coffee shop, so she would discover the ban. >> right after the curb, is right there. >> the day after going to mr., bag he took two undercover officers to the scene of the crime. at least he thought so. >> so you just shutter once? right >> once. i don't believe in twice. >> then his criminal friends asked them to take him to where he dumped the body. making sure there was no evidence left. it took a while to find the place. because he had not been back in 11 years. but finally, he was sure. >> so if i walk there, the wires are there you know? so everything makes sense. >> and, as they continued searching the area. >> oh my gosh!

i'm putting on my glasses. >> if that's black on the other side. that's the tarp! that's a piece of the tarp! >> a couple of days later. and i got a call. it was the police, asking her to come downtown. >> and, they sat me down. and said we have just arrested your father. the murder of your mother. >> what was it like to hear that? >> shattering. i broke down. at the same time, it's like i knew. i just didn't want to believe it. the signs were all there. he changed so much. and just hearing it, made it kind of official. that the person i held so dear was not there anymore. >> not a big surprise, really. and i had doubts about her father all along.

but her brother? gabriel? well, that was a different story altogether. >> i cannot imagine how anybody would say that there is 100 percent certainty that my dad did it. >> coming up. and gabriel isn't the only one with doubts. the confession is one thing, but did police have anything else on him? >> i'm going, wait a minute. they found absolutely nothing to corroborate his story! >> when dateline continues. hen dateline continues lung cancer has spread. he may be the one getting the test. but we both live with the results. (announcer) you can quit. for free help, call 1-800-quit-now [whispering] unleash the freshness... ♪♪ still fresh. in wash-scent booster. ♪♪ downy unstopables. when tired, achy feet make your whole body want to stop,

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call came. the police, they said they needed to see him. right away. >> it was a big mystery until they brought me in. and they put me in a room with a camera. and that's when they broke it to me. they said that they know that my father did it. and they are 100 percent certain of it. >> and your very first reaction

was wet? >> it felt like my world was coming unhinged. that it was a dream. the reality had ceased to be. >> and right then and there, the police asked gabriel to record a message to his father. and so, of course, he did. >> i spoke to him in french. about how i loved him, first of all. and i told him, if this happened, i just want to know more. so please be honest. please know that i am here for you. >> then with a heavy heart, gabriel called wendy's family in the states. but instead of anger, he wasn't surprised to encounter skepticism. >> i did not believe it. all of us saw him as some man who would die to protect his family. that was who he was. how is his source of pride.

and at that point, it was the only source of pride he had left. >> the only way gabriel thought he could make sense of it all, was to confront his father in jail. >> and i just told him right away. i want the truth. whatever it is. i want you to tell me the truth. and he told me, no, no, no. there is no way. i didn't do it. >> so gabriel wondered. what's hard evidence that police found that proved his father was guilty of murder? it turned out. they had not found anything. >> oh my gosh! that's a piece of the tarp! >> after dine led undercover cops to the scene of the alleged crime. they returned to pick up the tarp. and send it to the lab for analysis. but the results were inconclusive. they also searched the area for a body, of course. but found nothing at all. not so much is a bone. >> it's not unusual for us to, over that kind of timeframe, because of animal activity and things of that nature, not to find any remains or very few

remains. >> but the bits and pieces, the stretched places, the driver's license and so all. >> because it had been over ten years. i think that it is reasonable to suspect that a lot of those items would've just disappeared. >> you didn't have the physical evidence that would back up his confession in the undercover operation. >> correct. >> i go wait a minute, they find nothing to corroborate his story! >> it was painful for diane to watch the video of his brother's conviction. but she was surprised to learn that the confession was all that they had to convict him of killing his wife. and that's when she was convinced. he lied to mr. bake. that confession was false. the proof? first, she says, the chilling details of his alleged, cold blooded murder. it just didn't make any sense. >> i cannot see him, the way he

left her, doing that. and especially not with his kids in the house. there is no way he would've taken that chance. so i asked him, did you hear gunshots all the time? and he said no, especially not a first thing in the morning outside my window. >> he said he did it between the house in the garage. >> you would've heard that surely? i >> definitely would've heard it. >> then there where the clothes that he said he wore. a little sweater, jogging pants. >> could it be true, because of my recollection of the morning. he said that she was wearing totally different clothes than i saw her leave with. >> and something else bothered him. something to be told his crime buddies when they asked him if he was capable of murder. >> early on in the mr. big skin, he confessed to killing a man with rat poison. and it turned out that he died of natural causes. >> so it was? >> a relevant. >> it was a fake confession? >> it was. >> why lie?

gabriel said that johnny wanted to be accepted by his new friends. and if he lied about one murder, why not lie about killing another one to? especially when one would as at stake was acceptance. and his new jobs, which he loved. as mr. biggs loyal foot soldier. >> all i saw was the glint in his eye when he saw that he was working again. or the -- they might not have looked at him twice. >> probably. >> but this crime organization was designed for him. >> he made a lot of money, first of all, he had more money than he had made in the long time. he had found a newfound family. that respected him. that thought he was intelligent. he didn't want to lose that. >> but perhaps the most convincing argument was from him himself. when she went to see him in jail. for all those years, he told

her, the police would not leave him alone. and the meeting with the crime boss, he said, was the chance to make the investigation stop. >> we're going to talk to each other and work out these problems. we are going to fix them. okay? that's what we're going to do. we're going to fix them. >> he said, i couldn't just tell him i did nothing. then they can't help me. and so, he says, i made up a story. and i thought they would find me some kind of an alibi. or something. they would fix it that these cops would get off my case. he had such a miserable, lonely life. that i believe that at that point he would've said anything. >> relative suspects, mr. big staying. had every right to call a foul. said criminologist. >> a techniques ingenuity is an achilles heel. while it's capable of exposing the guilty, it can also induce

innocent suspects to falsely confessed to a crime they did not come get. so the litmus test, to me, is corroboration. without it, there is no way to tell whether the suspect is telling the truth or lying. >> but anna watch the tapes too. and she says that she could tell. >> i know my father. i know my father's mannerisms. i know when he's hiding something. when he's not being truthful about something. >> and unlike diane, and gabriel. and his mom's family in the states. and i was convinced her father was guilty as charged! >> i knew what he was talking about. it was true. it's what he had done. >> they are just about finished their investigation. and they're waiting for satellite results from the u.s.. >> satellite results? >> that's when he folded. and i saw the look in his eye. i am caught. i saw it, i'm caught look in

his eye. >> the gunshot, the top, the car jack. the brother gabriel said it was all a lie. but anna? had another word for it. >> that's cold. to talk about and to do. how do you talk about the woman you are married to? if you didn't do it, could you really tell that story? >> or could he? would he? good tell it again? coming up! whatever he was or was not about to say. did it really make sense that he would hurt wendy? >> she was the breadwinner. she was the brains of the operation. why would he killer? >> when dateline continues! hen dateline continues aken me away from my family and friends. but i finally found relief with nurtec odt it's the only medication that can treat my migraine right when it strikes and prevent my next attack. treat and prevent all in one. don't take if allergic to nurtec.

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undercover sting. a confession to murder. sat in jail. while his son and daughter battled about whether he belong there. anna's confession thought that he proved it. however, she stood alone. most of the family sided with gabriel. there was no evidence. said his sister diane. and no motive.

>> she was at the breadwinner, the brains of the operation. she was his everything. he lost the house, he lost his kids, he lost his whole life. why would he kill her? >> and his confession, he said that he had a reason. it seemed so twisted neither police nor of anyone else believed it. wendy was set to have had as split personality. and he killed her on the day when his author ego was going to sexually assaults anna. he had no choice. >> i had no choice. save the little girl. save the little girl. >> what did you think about that? >> i was disgusted. out of all the lies you could've set for why. you had to involve me again? >> it was all too much for anna. the lies, the betrayals. and now her dear brother, refusing to share her outrage.

>> he wants very much to think that your father's not guilty. >> i know, and i can't blame him. >> do you think he's living in la la land? >> he wasn't there. i was up to my neck in investigation trying to find mom. and i can absolutely understand wanting to be blind. to the truth. because i was there to. >> you know, i don't want to speak badly about my sister. i really don't. but she, because of her activism in trying to find my mother for so many years. it was a lot easier for her, i think, to put everything aside. and create an easy solution. me? i am happy to live with a question mark. i'm not gonna pretend it's anything else. >> why don't you want to see something? some kind of evidence to back up what you've seen on tape. >> the look in his eye on the tape. >> that's all you needed? >> that's all i need. it >> or is it that you can't

understand living in this out any longer? you had to make this decision. that's the decision you made. >> absolutely not. i saw the decision in his face on the tape. >> the man who ran the staying, lead investigator robert. insisted his team took all precaution to make sure that he did not lie when he went to mr. bag. >> we're always mindful of confrontations. >> yeah, i think no loved one wants to believe that someone they know and love and care about could be responsible for somebody's murder. >> in fact, the mr. big has been repeatedly upheld by the supreme court in canada. and although they didn't find anything to corroborate the confession, it turned out they did have evidence that was perhaps, much more compelling. and they got it after he was arrested. >> at that point in time, ratte is read all his rights.

that he has provided under canadian law. >> that's right, so he could've said. i thought i was talking to a crime boss and i was lying to him. >> absolutely. >> and he didn't? >> no he did not. >> when he was arrested, he had no idea that he had been in a staying. and his confession to mr. bag was on tape. >> but then mr. police showed him the video. >> does this come back to you? is it coming back to you? >> at first, for almost an hour. he seemed to be in denial. >> i have never said to. that i killed her first of all. >> yes, but we know that you killed her. >> well i never said it though. >> no you said it. >> you said it there. >> i said it there? >> yes. >> and that is when the interrogator decided to show him another tape. the one police made of gabriel. the day they told him than they'd arrested the father. >> so, essentially, your son is

asking you to tell the truth. >> and then a couple of medals later. a silent not from him. and he began to confess. again. the same details. the gun shop, the tarp. the carjack. >> she didn't suffer. >> she didn't suffer? >>. no >> it was fast? >> it still hurts. >> it had been a heavy burden to carry that with him for all those years, he said. >> it's hard. someone who looks at you and, i've always loved my wife. i still love her even. we were friends. >> you have killed your friend? >> yes. it took everything for me to do it. i even cried when i did it. >> there. he admitted it. and this time. >> check the tapes, it's all true. >> it's all true what you told them? >> it was all true. >> you didn't tell any lies at

all? >> the confession is the strongest evidence anybody ever gets. and it generally does the deed. and that was a pretty detailed confession. not just once, but twice. >> and that's the one i don't understand. more than anything. >> i have asked him more than once. why did you confess when you knew you were in front of a police officer? why wouldn't you say, oh well, of course i didn't do it. i was just trying to get in with organization. and, he didn't have much of an answer. so if there is an ounce of may not believe him, it is there. that is the biggest weakness in the story. >> but given the continued absence of any physical evidence. the second confession still was not enough to convince gabriel that his father killed his mother. >> is it possible, though, you're living in denial? >> now. you're not the first person to ask me. >> i bet. >> i've definitely thought

about it. but i think a very balanced about it. i can be swayed by the evidence. whether it is going to be for or against my dad. so show me the evidence. >> with these two confessions, would they be evidence enough? because the jury was about to decide. a brother in sister we're prepared to fight for what they believed was right. even if that meant losing each other. coming up! anna and gabriel face off in court. >> what was it like to testify at the trial? >> it was hard. >> i had to hold my breath, and go through it. and hope that whatever i say is going to work for my dad. >> when dateline continues! hen dateline continues so you both stay cool. our smart sleepers get 28 minutes more restful sleep per night. save 50% on the sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. ends monday. flowers are fighters. that's why the alzheimer's association

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but this case wasn't only the crown, versus danny ratte. it was brother against sister on the witness stand. >> what was it like to testify at trial? >> it was hard. >> you looked out there and you saw everybody else in the family who disagreed with you. >> they're still my family. it was tough for all of them. they all felt that i should've been with him more. siding with him more. but i had to make it clear that someone has to defend mom. >> danny ratte pleaded not guilty. and recanted the confessions that he made both to mr. big, and the police after his arrest. his son gabriel was of one of two witnesses the defense presented to the court. >> i had to hold my breath, go through, it and hope that whatever i say is going to work from my dad. and i am utterly aware that i'm

the only person there who is speaking in favor of my dad. >> danny defence lawyer hammered undercover detectives about the lack of physical evidence. and pointed out lies that he had told mr. big and the gang. proof that he should not bubbly believed. and after four weeks, the end of a 14 year old history was finally and hand. it took the jury almost two hours to find him guilty of second degree murder. >> so much of my life had been devoted to finding the truth. and now i had the truth. and it's not the truth i wanted. but nonetheless, that's what i had. and i'm happy i have it. >> interesting that getting the truth isolates you from the people you love. >> that's true. but isn't the truth more important? it doesn't matter that my

family might be angry with me for the results of where this trial led. the truth is all that matters. and that's how mom lead her life. >> anna knows all too well, the truth will never replace her mother's soothing voice. what's she yearns for moles these days. if only she could speak to the spirits, the way her mom much dead. >> because then i might hear her. maybe then she could speak to me. if i open up enough, she will come talk to me. but, not today. >> and there was one last moment of melodrama. right after he was sentenced to 15 years to life. he suddenly turned to anna. >> as she was leaving, he said to her. keep to looking for your mother. >> gabriel was not there for

the guilty verdict. he had to leave right after his testimony. right back to vancouver, to his college graduation that same day. >> it was such a whirlwind. and i was in the lineup, late to get to my gown, to get ready to go to the ceremony. and think. oh my god, what is this life? where my parents to watch this? >> his father was in prison. and his mom? well. his mom. >> do you really believe in your heart that there is a possibility that your mother is still out there somewhere? that she it's the live? >> that's a part of me that is the dreamy, hopeful, optimistic side. you hear the ott starry once in a while, of people returning after 25 years of absence. you do hear, it's it does happen. so man, when i hear is one of those. i just, my heart fills with

optimism. >> it hasn't been happy for anybody. except. your sister anna. she thinks it's the right and they. >> it's her being on the other side of this with her. because i'd love to have a better relationship with her. we tried to talk with each other and bury once in a while. and it's a thing where she says, i can't believe you can't see it. it's so obvious. he's guilty. and i say, how on earth can you think that? there is no evidence. and, we just go back and forth like that. it's impossible to get around. >> gabriel is a father himself now. with a daughter. his father in prison. has met his little girl now. but when we last spoke with gabriel? and i had not. >> we love each other very much. we have a bond as brother and sister. that was very strong as children. and it will always be there. this is a really difficult

situation for both of us. we'll get through it. it's all that's left of our perfect family. is the two of us. we can't let that go. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> you had the good cop, you have the bad cop. and the polygraph. it felt like "law & order". >> the fire broke out before dawn. in the daylight, they found this mother of two young children dead. >> she lived a very courageous life. she was very bold in the things she did. >> but after the smoke cleared, a mystery lingered. >> we knew she did not die in that fire, she died before the fire. >> who do you look to as the suspect? >> obviously the spouse is the first person you look to. >> but her husband had a clear alibi and he passed a lie detector test.

eventual