i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." he was a sweetheart and drummer with big rock 'n' roll

dreams. but the music stopped the day he suddenly vanished. >> i can't believe i'm doing this right now, searching in dumpsters for my boyfriend. i didn't know what to do. >> a curious disappearance that no one could explain. then, across town, another scare. >> i felt a gun to the back of my head. >> a teenager in danger. >> he grabbed me and said, "you have to come with me, or i'm going to kill you." >> two young lives, strangely linked. could police put the puzzle together? it's a race against the clock. a family's most desperate hour. >> i said, "i will do whatever i can to help you find your son." >> can they unravel this mystery in time? >> don't you understand? every minute counts right now. hello and welcome to "dateline." it's a story of young dreams

interrupted. a talented drummer aiming for rock 'n' roll stardom suddenly disappeared. his parents immediately sensed he was in danger and they were forced into a race to find him in time. here's dennis murphy with "taken." >> reporter: matt landry from the detroit suburbs was just a regular guy. the kid who delivered the pizza you order. traveled his world on a skateboard, and cracked up his friends with "jackass" style stunts. >> with matt, it was never a dull moment. he was always thinking of something crazy to do. >> reporter: but if you wanted to know what made matt landry get out of bed in the morning, it was the music. to his new girlfriend, francesca, matt was first and foremost a rockin' dude. a ferocious drummer with a basement band of long-time buddies. ♪♪ >> so what kind of stuff did they play? >> stuff that's 200 beats per minute and up. >> and set the volume at 11. >> plus. ♪♪

>> born to rock but nonetheless basically a quiet and unassuming guy. at 21, the youngest of five children and still living at home in chesterfield, michigan, ith his parents, dorene and bob. >> creating music is what he was happiest with. >> we were going to go to the detroit symphony,and it surprised me he wanted to go. >> the drummer with the heavy metal band, right? >> the drummer with the heavy metal band wanted to go to the detroit symphony with me. >> reporter: but this story isn't about the making of the music. matt landry from basement drummer to arena superstar. this is about an unusual crime spree in the detroit suburbs and how that connected to a nightmarish week in august of 2009 when matt landry disappeared. ♪♪ saturday afternoon, like most, matt had been behind the drum kit in a practice session with the guys. >> and we were playing in my basement, where we always practiced. >> reporter: they had to date only one paying gig in their career, a neighborhood block party.

folding chairs and heavy metal. >> yeah, we don't belong here. >> not at all. >> reporter: the reviews were mixed. but, like most basement bands, they had dreams. >> we were just trying to write enough to get an album done. >> reporter: what was very fresh in matt's life was his first serious girlfriend, francesca, a waitress, and like matt, a lover of all things rock. >> the doors, the rolling stones, things like that. >> reporter: geyser rock? >> classic rock. >> reporter: music and movies. they devoured dvds, watching them over at friends' house. matt was the shy one. his girlfriend had to take the amorous initiative. >> i just kept inviting him over and he kept coming and one day he was like, "i might have to stay here." and i'm like "that's okay." >> reporter: doreen, did you know he had found a serious girlfriend? >> yeah. you know your kids. and when he would talk about fran, his face would just light

up. >> reporter: so that saturday, matt delivered pizzas in his mom's borrowed car, because the alarm on his green honda was going off without notice, blaring. after his shift, he killed time until francesca got off work at the restaurant. they had agreed to hook up after. >> he's like, you really want me to come over,and i was like yes, please. >> reporter: after midnight, very early sunday morning, matt's mom was having a restless night. it was thundering and lightning out. >> and i saw matt walk outside, and kind of circled around his car. and i thought, oh, no. matt, careful. because, you know, his alarm was going to go off, and it was almost 3:00 in the morning. >> it was 2:55 a.m. >> so he very slowly went to lift up the hood of his car, and the alarm went off, and he jumped in his car and just went down the street to get out of the neighborhood until it went off. >> he came over and he had a bottle of wine. you know, we had a really good

night. >> reporter: but maybe an overly festive night. fran woke up sunday, sick as a dog. matt attended to her. >> he gave me a hot bath, brought me tea and a thermometer. >> reporter: he kind of showed you a tender side, huh? >> yeah. >> reporter: then matt, still playing nurse maid, phoned his mom. >> he goes, is there anything else i should be doing? no, it sounds like you were doing everything, matt. >> reporter: there were plans for a backyard barbecue later that afternoon for his parents. it would be a chance for fran to get to know matt's sister's boyfriend. >> he says, okay. he says, she's going to take a little nap. and then when she wakes up, we'll come over. and i told him -- told him like i tell all of my kids, i said, "i love you, matt." and he said, "i love you too, mom." >> reporter: matt offered to make a fast food run so fran would have something in her stomach, but she was

still hurting and waved him off. >> i was like, never mind, i'm not going to eat it anyway. >> reporter: as matt left to run some errands, fran snoozed, figuring matt would wake her in time for the barbecue. >> i woke up at 5:47 and i called him. he didn't answer, and i texted him staring at my phone waiting for him to refly and fell back asleep. >> reporter: she called him twice more. she remembers the exact times. 7:31 and 9:01 and got his voice mail. she was starting to freak. even six hours in, you thought something bad had happened. >> right because he always answers or calls me right back. so i started calling the police stations and hospitals. >> reporter: over at the landrys' barbecue, the salmon tasted great, but matt and fran were no-shows. still, no one thought twice about it. >> i knew she was running a fever, and you don't really feel like doing much, especially, you know, going over to parents' house. >> reporter: meanwhile, matt's friends were getting as worried as francesca. the band mates were used to texting and calling one another almost hourly, and matt had gone

m.i.a. i guess you were all thinking, what could it be? >> exactly. >> reporter: chris even got in his car and drove down roads matt would likely have driven that day. >> thinking maybe he slid into a ditch or something, you know. >> reporter: by 9:00 that sunday night, chris was concerned enough to call matt's mother. >> and he says, well, you know, we can't find him anywhere. we don't know where he is. >> you're starting to get worried? >> yes, i was starting to get worried. >> reporter: dorene landry had worked in the banking business for years, and knows how to spot patterns of fraud. so she clicked on her computer to check matt's debit card activity. that's when alarm bells started going off. what did you see when you logged on to his account? >> i saw three $100 withdrawals, cash, from an atm machine with a $2 fee from a gas station on 7-mile road in detroit. >> reporter: what did that all add up to you? >> a few things.

number one, what was matt doing at seven mile in detroit? >> reporter: seven mile, the northeast side, is an especially rough piece of detroit turf. drug-dealing gangs run the streets there. a bleak landscape of burned-out houses and abandoned cars. >> why would matt take out all of his money out of his account? >> reporter: matt was careful with his money. it didn't make sense. >> why would matt use an atm machine with a fee? >> reporter: so you don't see matt doing this withdrawal himself? >> no. i was hoping it was him. but just, wow, that just didn't -- didn't fit the picture at all. >> reporter: sunday came to an end. and few people in matt's circle could sleep that night. the next day, in one of those same nearby suburbs, a teenager cashing a paycheck would be pulled head-long into the mystery surrounding matt landry. she got the scare of her young life. coming up -- >> as soon as i set the check on the counter, i felt a gun to the

back of my head. >> a life and death drama at the bank. what could this have to do with matt when "dateline" continues. for twice as long as pepcid. get all-day and all-night heartburn acid prevention with just one pill a day. choose acid prevention. choose nexium. i'll remember that chapter of my life forever. we laughed, we cried, we protected that progressive home & auto bundle day and night. we were all of us dazzling... like knights sworn to protect our kingdom. we knew it wouldn't last forever, but... that's what made it special -- you know we'll be back tomorrow, right? yeah, but it'll never be today again. -[ groaning ] -just get on the bus, flo! when you're through with powering through, it's time for theraflu hot liquid medicine.

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ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingrix today. ♪♪ when does it become, where's matt, we've got to find him? >> i would say monday morning. >> matt landry, a hyper caller and texter, had been off the grid for almost a day. matt, running silent, scared everyone, especially his girlfriend.

francesca, why did you start calling the hospitals and police stations as you did? >> because nobody has heard from him. i wanted to know, like, maybe if he had gotten in a car accident, maybe he got a flat tire on the side of the road. maybe he was in a ditch, i don't know what happened. >> the parents, bob and dorene landry, were getting more anxious by the minute, waiting by the phone that didn't ring. it was monday when they called their local police in chesterfield. an officer came to the house. >> now, cops get these kind of reports from families very often. and usually what they say is, he's a kid, give it some time, he's going to walk in the door. is that what he was telling you, dorene? >> yeah, he alluded to the fact that most of the time these kids end up at crack houses and crash there for a few days, and they eventually come home. i remember saying to him, i -- i pray to god you're right. i pray to god you're right. >> reporter: as the landrys worried inside their house on monday, a few miles south in

harrison township, a young woman was walking towards the flagstar bank. >> i was cashing my first paycheck from a dog kennel. >> new job, first paycheck. >> yeah. >> sarah maynard, 19, noticed a young guy in sunglasses on the street, definitely checking her out as she approached the bank. it creeped her out a little, but she tried to ignore him and went directly to a teller's window. the man in the shades stormed in right behind her, as seen in chilling detail on the bank security cameras. >> i handed them my check, and then as soon as i set the check on the counter, i felt a gun to the back of my head. >> reporter: then, all calm and collected, he began giving the bank teller instructions. what did he say? >> he said, give me $50,000 or i'll kill her. >> reporter: and you could feel the muzzle of the gun on your head. >> he pressed me hard enough where i was bent over the counter and he had his hand on the back of my neck, too. >> reporter: the teller resisted

the bandit's demand for $50,000. she said she didn't have that much. the man with the gun continued to threaten sarah. so give me $50,000 or she's dead. >> yep. >> reporter: how long did this go on? >> not that long. she ended up opening the drawer and giving him what she did have. >> reporter: the robber then let go of sarah and crossed the bank lobby where he grabbed some more cash as others hid in fear. but he wasn't done with the pretty blonde who had apparently caught his eye. >> he came back over to me and grabbed me and said, "you have to come with me, or i'm going to kill you." >> reporter: what did you say? what did you do? >> i sat down and said no. >> reporter: so you sat right down on the bank floor. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: it was a standoff of sorts. the man had his firepower, sara, her willpower. >> reporter: and he's saying get up, you're going with me? >> yeah. and he tried to pull me. and he said, "get up, or i'm going to kill you." and i just sat there. and then he ended up running to the door. >> we begin with breaking news

out of macomb county. a manhunt under way right now for a bank robber who hit a flagstar bank in harrison township. >> reporter: the armed robber had fled. bank employees and customers knew they had literally dodged a bullet. police would say later that sara, by refusing to go with him as a hostage, had done everything right. they give you a lot of credit that you may have saved your life in that moment. >> i was just scared. i didn't want to go with him. it just seemed like the best option. >> reporter: but that gunman gave the cops chills. a robber, cool, poised and seemingly all too ready to do whatever it took to pull off his crime. scott black wellington arch was a detective with the chesterfield p.d. >> normally, bank robbers come in, pass a note and get the money and move on. this was a violent bank robbery. >> but what did the brazen young robber have to do with matt landry? that connection would have to wait for the story told by a gas station atm and the security camera pointed at it.

coming up. >> i can't believe i'm doing this right now. searching through dumpsters for my boyfriend. i didn't know what to do. >> reporter: at last, a break in the case. >> big development. >> yeah. huge development. >> when "dateline" continues.

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welcome back to "dateline." i'm natalie morales. our story takes place in the suburbs of detroit where matt landry disappeared. his parents worried while miles away a young woman at a bank was

threatened at gunpoint. was there any connection? once again here's dennis murphy with "taken." bob and doreen, the parents of matt, the young man missing for the third day now, could only pray that he would walk in the door. the police told them, often kids go off like this, and it's something to do with drugs. the parents weren't buying it. >> didn't fit the pattern for matt. >> reporter: something innocent would explain matt's absence. >> i still had hope that it was something crazy. it was something, you know -- he'll show up. >> yes. something that we would laugh about. >> reporter: but just in case it wasn't that, matt's mother and girlfriend, after waiting the required 24 hours, went to matt's hometown police in chesterfield to get an official missing person case going. >> in the state here, just in case, we wanted to make sure someone was always here at the house. >> reporter: at first, chesterfield p.d. told the landrys it wasn't their case. they would need to go to the

cops in another jurisdiction, roseville, some 13 miles south where francesca lived and where matt had last been seen. did you get the feeling you were being brushed off? >> yes. >> reporter: it was a nuisance case? >> yes. and he was like wait in the lobby. >> reporter: was the family frustrated? >> i think they were frustrated. >> reporter: but chesterfield detective scott blackwell was struck by doreen landry's unshakable belief in her son's integrity. >> i said the right person will be taking care of this. it will be taken care of. we're not going to leave you hanging. >> reporter: detective blackwell was especially interested to read doreen's printout of the suspicious atm withdrawals from matt's account. >> he said the first thing he's going to do is let's find out if this was matthew who did these withdrawals. >> reporter: so the detective, hoping to find an answer on the security cam video, went down to the sunoco in the crime-ridden streets and caught a break. >> i went to sam's club, and just for that, to get that system. >> reporter: the gas station owner, moses rahimi, just three days before matt

went missing, had bought a new security camera system. the security cam he was replacing had a blind spot in the back where his atm dispenser was. moses opened the carton and set to installing his new video security system. it was the weekend. his son said, forget it, let's wait. >> i said, no, we're not going home until we hook it up. >> reporter: and on the security cam video, detective blackwell was seeing something that filled him with dread. someone else is using his card at that point. >> that's correct. and it's obvious foul play. >> the news didn't surprise me. for some reason i was hoping it was matt. >> reporter: meanwhile, on that tuesday, back north in the near suburbs, matt's friends and family fanned out through the county, putting up flyers with matt's face. they checked autozone stores. maybe he had stopped by one of them for his broken car alarm. francesca was searching, too. checking out dumpsters. >> and i'm like, i can't believe

i'm doing this right now, searching through dumpsters for my boyfriend. i didn't know what to do. >> reporter: as francesca moved south into detroit proper, she saw a crush of police cars flashing lights. she elbowed her way through the gawkers to see what everyone was looking at. it was matt's abandoned car. >> and i was like, yeah, that's his car. >> reporter: big development. >> yeah, huge development. >> reporter: francesca managed to put one of the police officers on her cell with doreen, matt's mom. did they tell you about anything they had found in the car at that point? >> he mentioned some maps. but matt delivered pizzas, so matt keeps maps in his car. >> reporter: by tuesday, august 11th, 2009, 21-year-old matt landry's disappearance had become a tv news story. >> family members have been busy during the last few days, handing out these flyers, hoping someone will help them find matt. >> reporter: in that same newscast, viewers were getting an update on that brazen bank stick-up the day before.

>> a local teenager and a look of terror that has gripped metro detroit in fear. >> reporter: just watching the news, like anyone else, was a police detective from roseville. lieutenant ray blarek. this was a vicious incident. huh? >> very vicious, yes, sir. >> reporter: the detective watched the security cam pics of the bandit in sunglasses, holding a gun to a young female customer. a bad crime, but still one he never expected to investigate. >> because it didn't have anything to do with the city of roseville, where i'm in. it's a couple jurisdictions over. >> reporter: but by the next day, the detective would prove himself wrong. he would be thick in the bank robbery case, as well as the disappearance of matt landry. a missing person report he knew virtually nothing about. but dots were getting connected, and there was one more to come. >> coming up -- >> he's scared to death. could you get someone down here? >> another brazen attack on a bright afternoon. will it shed light on what might have happened to matt? >> you need to get a detective

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good morning, i'm jessica layton. e. jean carroll who accused donald trump of raping her filed a second lawsuit against the ex-president alleging battery and defamation. trump denied the accusation. amid ongoing unrest in iran, the u.n. human rights council voted to launch an investigation into the country's suppression of mass protests. the world cup is in full swing with top ranked brazil beating serbia. team usa faces england later today. i'm jessica layton reporting in new york. now, back to "dateline." i just got carjacked. >> reporter: lieutenant blarek of the roseville police was at his desk tuesday when the call came in, august 11th, 2009. a carjacking in progress at the walmart, just down the street. >> he told me to run and i ran.

>> reporter: blarek and his fellow officers responded quickly. but surprisingly, the carjacked car, a red civic, was still in the walmart parking lot. the vehicle's owner was shaken up, but okay. >> he was approached at his driver's door by this suspect. >> reporter: guy displaying a gun? >> displayed a gun, told him to get out of the car. >> reporter: and why didn't the gunman take off with the car? >> when he got in the car to attempt to drive away, he didn't know how to drive a stick. >> reporter: you're kidding? >> no. >> reporter: nearby an officer spotted a nervous-eyed man with a bad '70s era afro wig. >> during the foot chase, the wig fell off. >> reporter: a guy who steals a car he doesn't know how to drive and then bolts in a jimi hendrix wig might have been comical. but this suspect on the run was also armed. >> he was putting his hand in his pocket, possibly trying to get the gun out. >> reporter: the gun and a clip

were tossed away that ended when police zapped the man from a taser gun like this one. when the jolts wore off and the man was back on his feet, lieutenant blarek recognized a familiar face, someone he had seen just recently on tv. >> he was standing right there, right in front of me in the walmart lot when i said, that's the bank robber. >> reporter: the same ice-cold bandit who had held a gun to 19-year-old sarah maynard's head and demanded money. >> give me $50,000 or i'll kill her. >> a violent suspect, involved in two things that we know of, and who knows how many others. >> reporter: could one of those other things be a missing person? just that day, the detective had become aware that doreen landry had reported her son missing to the police in roseville, where matt's girlfriend lived and he had last been seen. and lieutenant blarek knew something else. detroit police had just found the young man's car abandoned in a bad neighborhood. he wondered, did the walmart suspect now in his holding cell have an appetite for

carjackings? had he also maybe stolen matt's car? by then, the abandoned car had been towed to the police station in matt's hometown, chesterfield. the detective called a counterpart there about his hunch. >> i told him, i said, i think it's all related. i said, can you get somebody to go into the car without destroying any evidence and see if there is anything in there that links the bank robbery to matt landry. >> reporter: and sure enough, there was. and it had to do with that map found inside matt landry's car. when investigators got a closer look at it, they saw an x marks the spot pinpointing the flag star bank, which the guy in the shades had robbed, and where he briefly held a 19-year-old hostage. now lieutenant blarek began filling in the blanks. he figured that the guy who pulled off the bank job was the same guy who carjacked matt landry's honda with matt in if. but he wasn't ready to share his conclusion with matt's parents yet. he had something to do first. at 11:30 tuesday night, the

detective and a partner went down to that bleak section of detroit where matt's green honda had been ditched. >> we started looking for matt landry. >> reporter: so the question in your mind, lieutenant, is are we going to find the body of matt landry, or do you expect to find this guy bound inside one of these houses? >> i didn't know what we were going to find, but i was hoping he was still alive. that's why i went out there. >> reporter: two other people were searching that same bad neighborhood tuesday night, but they weren't the police. >> this was our first house we looked at. >> reporter: two friends of matt's father, bob and chris, had come down to investigate on their own. >> they think your friend's son could be in one of these houses. you know you're going to search until you find him. >> reporter: the family friends, amateur detectives armed with only a flashlight, managed to search dozens of homes, many of them burnt-out shells. a local guide challenged them. >> we had to tell them we were working on a case, and he believed -- we were the police, which was good for us. who knows what he would have tried, you know? >> reporter: the two friends,

like the cops before them, also went to the sunoco station and got the owner to play them the video of the atm withdrawal made on matt's card. as the friend studied the security cam video, a clerk behind the counter was watching local news. up popped a recap of the bank robbery story. it was a, hey, that's him kind of moment. they swivelled heads from the news clip of the sunglasses-wearing bank robber to the figure on their security cam who had just withdrawn the money. bingo. >> we all put together that it's the same guy. it was the same guy who did the bank robbery, same guy that used matthew's atm card at the sunoco station. >> reporter: what's more, the guy behind the counter recognized the person in the atm security cam video. a local guy who went by the name of ihop. the counter man said he had a rep as being a gang member and a violent thief. the friends told the landrys what they had learned, that a kid named ihop seemed to be

behind matt's disappearance. and the landrys also heard on local news that the very same guy was already in police custody for the botched carjacking in the local walmart. matt's mom called the roseville p.d. >> i said the man you're holding who just robbed the bank is the same man who used my son's debit card. and my son is missing. you need to get a detective in there now to talk to him. >> reporter: that detective would be lieutenant ray blarek, who just pieced it all together himself. now he needed answers from the man they call ihop, and the veteran cop had a few tricks up his sleeve to get what he wanted. >> as detectives prepare for an intense interrogation, friends uncover troubling new information and an eyewitness on the day matt vanished. coming up -- >> they're beating him up now. hurry. >> when "dateline" continues.

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away things. fit together with away things. ♪ ♪ that's our thing. ♪ ♪ by early wednesday, august 12th, 2009, matt landry's fourth day missing, his parents, bob and doreen, had put together some facts that scared them to death. the same guy seen on tape using matt's atm card looked to be the man who had robbed the flag star bank. >> when i saw him holding a gun to that girl's head, knowing he was the one who used my son's

atm card, i knew it wasn't good. >> reporter: and the suspected bank robber, street name ihop, was also carrying a gun when he attempted a carjacking at the walmart, according to the police. ihop was now in a holding cell at the roseville pd. and the landrys, getting desperate, time not on their side, began pressuring the police there to get immediate answers from him as to matt's whereabouts. even though matt's disappearance wasn't officially their case. >> give me back my brother. just bring him back! >> reporter: sister gina turned up the heat on the internet. >> i actually put on facebook anyone who can go up to the roseville police station and all these people showed up at the roseville police station at like midnight just to kind of show power in numbers to get them to question him. >> reporter: bob and doreen went over to roseville to talk to the detectives in person. >> you need to get somebody in there right now. don't you understand?

every minute counts. >> reporter: lieutenant blarek didn't need the prodding. he and a partner were itching to question the suspect after they had returned from detroit, where they had spent a long night searching for matt with no results. >> we're just checking abandoned houses, checking alleys, checking burned up garages. >> and you're seeing nothing? >> no evidence of matt landry at all, sir. >> reporter: at 3:45 in the morning, a bone-tired blarek and his partner devised an interview strategy, hoping ihop would cough something up. >> i was just going to sit there in the chair, and i wasn't going to say anything to him. >> reporter: in the interrogation room, the other officer peppered the suspect with questions, but ihop was dodging him. so blarek pulled an investigator's trick to rattle him. >> i had a picture of matt landry inside of my notebook. so at the point where it wasn't going anywhere, i took out that picture and i held it up and i said, we found him. >> reporter: reaction from him.

>> he saw a ghost. he saw a ghost. >> reporter: but not shaken enough to spill whatever he might know about matt landry. what are you seeing, lieutenant, when you're right there with the guy. you see anything in his eyes? >> just a cold, callous, heartless person. he is definitely near the top of the list. if not on top. of one of the coldest people i've ever talked to. >> reporter: the landrys headed home from the roseville p.d., satisfied at last that the police were now seeing their son's disappearance as they were. gina, their daughter, meanwhile, was learning more troubling information about her brother, something she had picked up on the internet. >> i got a phone call from one of my best friends. and she said, gina, check your facebook when you get home. and, you know, there's an important message on there. >> reporter: the heads up was from a woman gina had known in high school. >> her parents had witnessed on sunday a violent carjacking, and it was a green honda. >> 911, police. >> in back of quiznos.

i'm not sure. but it looks like a robbery. they've got a guy cornered over here. >> reporter: the previous sunday afternoon, the police in yet another small city near detroit, east point, got a 911 call. the distressed witness was reporting an apparent carjacking and abduction in the parking lot here behind the quiznos' sub shop. but when the police officers arrived, the car in question was gone, and they weren't sure exactly what it was they had to write up. the incident at the quiznos went largely unnoticed, until matt's sister got tipped to it by a friend online. so now you have a lot of very bad information at your disposal, huh? >> well, i just felt sick when i showed my mom the facebook message and it said carjacking at the quiznos. >> as soon as she said quiznos, i said that was the last place matt used his debit card, other than the atm. >> he's got him by the neck now. i think he's putting him in the trunk. they're beating him up now. hurry up now. hurry, hurry! >> reporter: what the 911 caller had seen, in fact, was matt landry's abduction.

so there was the missing piece of the puzzle. and as francesca put it together, it all started because her concerned boyfriend had decided on his own that she, feeling crumby, needed a tlc sandwich to get back on her feet. >> well, he had mentioned to the girl at quizno's, my girlfriend is sick, i don't know what to get her, can you help me. and that's why he got two subs. >> reporter: two subs that started a three-day crime spree in the detroit suburbs. from the quiznos in east point on sunday afternoon, spreading ten miles to the flagstar bank in harrison township at high noon on monday and ending eight miles away at the walmart in roseville, midday on tuesday. bad news, bad patterns. but matt's family and friends were still clinging to a sliver of hope. >> okay, he's still alive somewhere, he's still alive somewhere. maybe he's just tied up. maybe he's just tied up. maybe he's just -- they're holding him at a crack house or something. maybe, maybe, maybe. >> reporter: you had a dream. >> i had a dream before he went missing that he was kidnapped.

and i found him in a basement tied up to one of those old-time heaters. >> reporter: five days in, a joint police task force had been formed to search those basements and burned-out homes on detroit's northeast side near where the car had been found. the same suburban police departments who initially couldn't agree on whose case it was now came together for one purpose, to find matt landry. from chesterfield, where matt lived, roseville, where he was last seen with francesca and where the walmart carjacking went down, and east point, where matt had been abducted at the quiznos. >> they're working with the gangs unit in detroit p.d. >> yes. >> reporter: and they had been going frustrating, block by block, finding not much of anything. >> right. >> reporter: and then there is thursday. >> yeah. then there's thursday. >> reporter: thursday, the task force was out in strength, 15 officers banging on doors,

issuing search warrants, pressuring gang members who may have known the suspect called ihop. >> i have a son. i have kids too. i had made a promise to doreen, i said even though it's not roseville's jurisdiction. i said, i will do whatever i can to help you find your son. >> reporter: helping, walking mean streets. >> more homes are abandoned than are occupied. and it's a rough neighborhood. >> reporter: that thursday morning, lieutenant blarek had teamed up with fellow roseville detective jim noblesdorff. >> we were just coming to dead ends, and we walked out of one of the houses, and there was a penny lying in the street and had the heads up. and i picked it up, i says, this is it. this is it. >> reporter: your luck is turned. >> yeah, my luck turned. a short time after that, we ended up going for a ride, and we ended up here. >> reporter: it was the first house they checked after blarek had found the lucky penny just minutes before. >> and how we got here, why we

got here, i can't explain that one. but we got here. >> reporter: it was now 10:30 in the morning. >> i see what looks like a little footpath where somebody had gone through there at some point in the summer. i make my way up what used to be the porch. and i look in. the house is all burned out. as i peeked around the corner, i saw some flip-flops here. i stepped in further. and i saw the body itself. >> reporter: in the august swelter, the body had decomposed beyond recognition. they knew they had a white man with an apparent gunshot wound to the head. the victim had been wearing jeans and tell tale flip-flops. >> it's not the outcome we wanted. >> but at least he was found. >> reporter: the hometown detective, scott blackwell, rushed over from nearby streets to confirm the finding. >> when i saw this body, i knew it was him. >> reporter: detective blackwell's immediate concern

was to let the landrys know in the most humane way possible before the media was on to it. he called his chief of police. >> i remember chief of police coming to the front door. i knew when he walked in. i could tell by the look on his face what he was going to tell me. i didn't want to hear it. after i got done crying, i wanted to take a shower, like i was going to wash it all away. my matt. coming up, could one man have done this? >> i'm 6'6", 280 pounds. matt could take me out. matt was that strong. >> maybe one man didn't when "dateline" continues. then own it

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we stayed up late. it felt so right. i'll never forget that wonderful night. in a journal she keeps, a reworking of last kiss, an oldie mash-up by pearl jam. >> now he's gone even though he's in my heart the i lost my love, my life that night.

>> so when do you guys miss him? >> every second, every day. >> yeah. >> like i miss him any time i touch an instrument or listen to our favorite band. >> they identified him on friday. >> reporter: matt's decomposed body, discovered in a hell hole of a house, was positively i.d.'d by the medical examiner through dental records. the cause of death was a single gunshot to the back of the head. already under arrest and now charged with a fresh crime, killing matt, was a man known on the streets known as ihop. he had given police the phony name giles, but his fingerprints revealed him to be 17-year-old ihab maslamani. born in this country? >> no, born in libya. >> reporter: his attorney said he came to michigan to live with relatives, who, according to juvenile court records, neglected him. he then entered the state's child welfare system and it didn't go well, fleeing foster homes for a life

on detroit's gang-ridden northeast side. >> my job here is to make sure he gets the best and fairest trial he can get. >> state your name for the record. >> ihab maslamani. >> reporter: he faced a slew of charges, including murder, kidnapping and carjacking in the landry case, bank robbery in the flagstar stick-up and carjacking in the walmart incident. he pleaded not guilty to all charges. >> maybe his best shot is ironically the homicide. >> correct. i'm not admitting that he committed a crime. however, those cases are very strong cases for the prosecution. >> reporter: showing him brandishing a gun and clues from the walmart including a discarded gun don't lie. >> it is not a slam dunk.

nobody can put a gun in his hands. >> reporter: he had been charged in both. >> they're hitting him now. they hit him in the face. they're beating him up now. >> but there were two assailants who attacked him at the quiznos. he had been double-teamed. an explanation his friends say for why this powerfully fit drummer was sustain against his will. >> i'm 6'6", 280 pounds. matt could take me out. matt was that strong. >> reporter: after matt's body was found, the task force continued combing northeast detroit for quiznos suspect number two. sources squeezed on the street told the cops they should be looking for 16-year-old robert "fat daddy" taylor. >> we flooded that area, and we shut down the drug trade in that area. >> reporter: you guys were bad for business. >> we destroyed the business for one week, and we made a statement to them. therefore, i believe they made a

statement to fat daddy that you better get out of our neighborhood. so he ultimately turned himself in. >> reporter: taylor was also charged with murder and kidnapping in the quiznos abduction. he pleaded not guilty. at the trial, the defense theorized that matt had gone voluntarily with maslamani and taylor. >> they were doing a drug deal and what happened happened. >> any idea he would have known who they were? >> no, sir. we believe it was totally random. >> wrong place at the wrong time. could have been any one of us. >> reporter: and these detectives have advice for anyone ambushed like that in broad daylight or even at night. >> at no time should you allow someone to take you from point a to point b. >> reporter: don't go. >> don't go. >> you fight. you fight to the death, period. because once you're on their turf, it's over. >> the young woman at the bank dropped right to the floor. she says, i'm not going with you.

>> that's what saved her life. >> grass is growing. my flowers are blooming. but i am just dead inside. just dead inside. >> reporter: in the days after she lost her son, a grief-stricken doreen landry went public with a cause important to her condemning the burned-out and abandoned houses in northeast detroit that area gangs call home. >> i'm pleading to the mayor of detroit, that area needs to be cleaned up. it's nothing but a garbage pit. >> there's thousands of houses in detroit that are abandoned. that they live in. >> reporter: just raze 'em, knock 'em down. >> just flatten 'em. >> reporter: in fact, in 2010 the detroit mayor started a program to do just that. this house where matt's body was found was demolished. in the fall of 2010, maslamani and taylor were tried and found guilty of all charges.

both have appealed their stejszs. . >> it took one second. literally one second to end matthew's life and that one second has literally turned our family upside down. >> reporter: matt's funeral service is that day's program explained was intended to remember the joy, the laughter, the smiles. and no one would forget on that sad day that matt was also a rocker. >> matthew was a drummer. but he had an acoustic guitar. he would always start "stairway to heaven," and it seemed like through time he would get through a little bit more. you know, he would learn a little bit more of it. i would love to listen to him doing that. and we asked the priest, father, i know this is unusual. i said, but if you have anyone

that could play "stairway to heaven," that would be beautiful. he says, let me see what i can do. ♪♪ >> reporter: and so he came up with a group of musicians to honor matt with a song he loved. about a symbolic stairway that he climbed way too soon. >> and it was so beautiful. and it was just perfect. matthew loved it. he would have loved it. ♪♪ that's all for this edition after "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thanks for watching. a beat special report. the january 6th investigation. the committee writing its final report, donald trump defying its subpoena.