>> the desert is a strange place. it's so isolated. >> somebody got lost out there. his wife had gone missing. i never expected it to be a huge piece of a murder case. >> my heart just sunk. something that happened. >> we did know she was stranded in the present but she was -- before she meets a horrible. and >> it was a little suspicious that you waited to reported missing. >> they treated her as a

suspect. >> they were laughing and carrying on. >> we started developing a bond. >> there was something big going on there. >> i had no idea what we were getting into. >> it makes me think indiana jones. >> well one wrong turn could be your last. >> this could not be happening. we didn't realize there could be a predator. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> they say if you're feeling down, it is time to saddle up with a little love, trust, and respect. these majestic creatures can emerge as loyal and gentle companions. for both horse and rider there is nothing like it. >> she transformed into this awesome horse handler, she knew what she was doing and talking about. >> if only romantic relationships for that simple. this is the story of a young woman so gentle, so vulnerable.

she may have understood what makes horses tech but humans? a different beast indeed. this doesn't happen to people we know, it just doesn't. >> it was crushing. i cried for days. i still cry when i think about it. i wonder what kind of person it takes to do that. >> oak ridge, tennessee, is an unassuming place with a big story. >> capital of the world, oak ridge, tennessee. >> they call it the secret city for its part of the manhattan project which produced the first atomic bomb. oak ridge still prides itself on being a community of putting signs an education for us. and a great place to raise a family. this is where urban grew up. >> when she was six years old she joined us as a family as a foster child -- >> this is her mom. >> she was a tiny thing. five pounds, three ounces.

>> that small. >> we thought she was the sweetest little thing. our oldest girls were 16 and carried her around. >> she was like a little doll. >> they loved her. >> laurin their husband officially adopted their little doll which was three. aaron grew into a shy little girl. reserved around those she didn't know. but with the horses she cared for the east tennessee writing club, that was a different story. >> when i think of aaron and horses i think of her as a bigger cause -- she's very confident. she knows exactly what she wants and what she's going to do. >> aaron's friend, abby uche. >> but with people, she was much meeker, much quieter, calmer. >> courses would always be aaron's first love. and as she entered 13 years, a certain young man caught her eye. his name is john corwin. >> what is it about you that could break through to erin because her mom says how shy

she was and she was better with horses than people, so what is it about you? >> i guess it's my charming personality. i have no idea. it still surprises me today. >> really? >> yes. i guess it's always able to talk to her, figure out what she was feeling. >> aaron's parents had strict rules about when she could start dating. >> we were those parents. we were the mean parents. >> john was sure to get their blessing first. >> i ended up driving to her parents house and asked if i could say their daughter. >> that's very chivalrous of you to go to the parents. >> that's the way i was raised and you always get the parents permission before anything. >> after graduating from high school, john joined the marines. he asked aaron to marry him when she was just 18 years old with an unusual proposal. there was no champagne, but there was a cup of sprite. >> the [inaudible] i go to get a sprite, and put the ring on top and asked her to marry me. >> the ring was on the straw.

did she see it right away? >> no. i told her to look at you drank. >> what was her reaction when she finally looked down? >> she was crying tears of joy, ecstatic, screaming, yes, yes, i would love to. >> aaron's mom had heard that being a military wife comes with sacrifice. >> i'm a marine corps wife myself and i know that it can be a very lonely life for people and it's not easy. did you try to warn her? >> oh yes. >> did she listen? >> i know mom, i know mom. you know? of course, when i was 18 i knew also. you probably couldn't tell me a whole lot. >> the couple decided to elope to las vegas and tied the knot after an annual former celebration known as the marine corps ball. >> my husband and i have had a lot of fun at marine balls, however, i never thought about getting married at one of them. why did you guys decide to get married there. >> because we

were young. it was vegas. honestly, we didn't plan a lot of things. it was more like spur of the moment type deal. that's how we lived. >> john was a scientific twentynine palms marine base out in the california desert. and september 2013, aaron packed up for her move to join him. her mom saw her off at the airport. >> she's very direct, loves to be challenged. she had two layers and i'm like, when you get off that plane, you ask somebody where you need to go and you let me know as soon as you get there. >> what emotions were you feeling letting your baby go to start her new life? >> it was scary for me. i knew that the way it was going to be harder than she ever dreamt. >> like any parent, laura worried about her daughter finding her place in this new life. >> she's very shy and i did have concerns about her making friends. we felt like base housing would be safer for her because her husband was out in the field so often. >> it wasn't long before down

and erin learned they were expecting a baby. >> she was very excited. i was excited for her. >> sadly, her excitement was short-lived. in early 2014, she suffered a miscarriage. >> was it hard for both of you to hear that news? >> it was very hard and i was actually in the middle of a training exercise out in the field. and i received the message over the radio. lucia called me down to his vehicle and said that your wife had just had a miscarriage and she's in the hospital. so, it was kind of shocking and that night i drove back to the hospital and i met up with her and she was in tears. >> after she lost the baby, part of me wanted to go out there and be with her, but i felt like they would do a better job of getting through their grief if they didn't have to worry about entertaining mom.

>> wanting desperately to be a mother, erin vowed to try again. around four months later in june of that same year during a visit to the hospital for nausea, the couple got good news, erin was pregnant again. the here you are again. how did it feel this time? >> we were happy. but we were also fearful. they're afraid that it was going to happen again. >> yeah. were you cautiously optimistic? >> yes. >> she decided to wait to surprise her mom with the news. she already had a trip planned to visit the following month. >> we already had plans of just going for walks. we were going to go to san diego to see world in san diego zoo. but mostly spend time together. >> you both must have been really wanting, needing the trip. >> absolutely. >> in anticipation of her mother's visit, erin told her husband she was going to scout out some good hiking locations

at nearby joshua tree national park. >> she'd woken up and got dressed, give me a kiss goodbye and said, hey, i'm heading up for the day and i love you. i told her i love you too and rolled back over and went to sleep. >> a routine goodbye, or so it seemed until erin corwin vanished without a trace. coming up, what had happened to erin? >> i called her throughout the night. >> how many times would you say you could try to call her, text her? >> at least 50 times. i was just so stressed and worried. >> he said aaron's missing. he said she left yesterday morning and i haven't seen her since. >> john was concerned but he was withdrawn. when you have a spouse who is not extremely frantic, you get a question, why aren't they super upset. we had a lot of questions for john. >> when dateline continues. new advil dual action back pain fights back pain two ways. for 8 hours of relief. how do i love thee? fights back pain two ways. ...let me count the ways. ♪

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goli, taste your goals. when i first learned about my dupuytren's contracture, my physician referred me to a hand specialist. and i'm glad he did, because when i took the tabletop test, i couldn't lay my hand flat anymore. the first hand specialist i saw only offered surgery. so, i went to a second hand specialist who also offered nonsurgical options - which felt more right for me. so, what i'd say to other people with dupuytren's contracture is this: don't wait —find a hand specialist trained in nonsurgical options, today. >> 19 year old aaron core wind i found mine at findahandspecialist.com. couldn't wait. her mom would soon be making her first trip to see aaron and her husband john at their new home at 21 palms california at

the marine base in the middle of the mojave desert. around seven in the morning, erin said goodbye to jon and told him she was coming here, to joshua tree national park to gout for hiking trails during a month's visit. john expected her home that afternoon but she didn't show. he tried her phone, no answer. did you keep? calling >> called her throughout the night? >> how many times would you say that you try to call or text her? >> at least 50 times. i was stressed and worried. >> hours passed, and by the next morning, john was frantic. >> john paul's and he said aaron's missing. >> she got the call back home in tennessee. >> he said she left yesterday morning and i haven't seen her since. my question was how much water did she have with her? >> you are thinking this was a hiking situation. >> this is the child that has no sense of direction. so i'm assuming she's lost. >> john reported his wife's

disappearance to the local police station. san bernardino sheriff's department was soon notified. detective travis newport. >> obviously we were concerned, can we find her before something horrible, before she meets a horrible end. we don't have she's been held somewhere, we don't know if she stranded in the desert still. >> laura's phone rang again. this time it was a deputy. he had another idea about what might have happened to aaron. >> one of his first questions was, do you think she's driving home? >> to tennessee? >> yes. >> so maybe she's just left? >> yes. and i about laughed because i know how much she hates to drive, has no sense of direction, and there's absolutely no way she would give up a trip to sea world and the zoo. >> back in 29 palms, john rounded up some of his marine buddies and headed into the national park. it's a vast expanse of nearly 800,000 acres of rugged rock formations, twisted joshua trees, and desolate open desert.

where summer temperatures climb well past 100 degrees. >> we literally drove around joshua tree national park all day trying to find any signs, any clues of where she might have been. >> do you see anything, any signs of her? her car, a piece of clothing a piece of clothing, anything? -- >> nothing. >> there's a certain protocol detectives follow when investigating a missing person. start small and close to home. that inner circle of friends and family, the ones who know the person best. so when john corwin reported that his wife aaron had disappeared, it was natural they would look at him. >> like with any investigation you start closest to the source of the missing person. so we had a lot of questions for john. >> investigators learned that one's childhood sweethearts erin and john settled in 29 palms, things were far from perfect. >> their relationship wasn't intertwined, we knew that it was a relationship that was

probably starting to dwindle. >> there was her miscarriage in early 2014. john said it was heartbreaking and erin had trouble coping. >> she became very enclosed and depressed. would stay at home. and i'm definitely not the one that actually speaks his emotions, i've kept them bottled up my whole life. and she felt like i didn't care about it. and i did. it actually hurt me a whole lot. it really took a toll on our relationship. >> and erin's mom, laura, knew the young married couple had many problems. >> we gave each of our kids a certain amount of money when they got married. and they kept just behind things, and all of a sudden i think that huge chunk of money was not there. >> you struggled with finances? >> definitely, yeah. pay is not that great but we had food on the table. we just don't have any money for extracurriculars. >> was that hard for erin? i know it was an issue with her credit card. >> yes. it was hard. we ended up racking up debt and

they took away the car. >> times were lean? >> yes, very lean. >> they were grown up problems for a couple barely out of high school. erin shared her worries with her friend, abby. >> it's just hard to transition from being on your own to being married. and sometimes, hard times is what you need. and i think that's what john was teaching her. and she didn't like it. >> detective newport and his colleague jonathan woods wondered about john's behavior when his wife didn't return home. why did he wait a whole day to call police? >> it was a little suspicious that he waited till the next day to report her as missing. >> john said he explain to the investigators he thought that's how these things worked. >> you see these things on television and you think you can't report a person after 24 hours, i truly believed that. >> it made sense, maybe. but detectives noticed something.

>> john was kind of withdrawn. he was concerned, but he was withdrawn. at times we wondered if it his military background. when you have a spouse who's not extremely frantic, you've got a question why aren't they super excited and why aren't they superb set? >> john had gone into the park to search for his wife, sign of a concerned husband or something else? >> obviously as an investigator, you have to wonder, is this person trying to put themselves there? is this person trying to give us a reason why they would be there where the last person was seen or possibly contacted? >> you were seriously looking at him? >> yes. >> i did think maybe john. and i think that's normal. it doesn't make it right. but i think that it's normal human responds to think the spouse. >> but really they might have been getting ahead of themselves. aaron was missing and could well have run off on her own. there was no reason yet to believe any harm had come to her. much less that john was responsible. there were other people to talk to and a new place to explore.

a sanctuary for erin right here in the desert, one would prove to be full of clues and secrets. >> coming up -- >> they were a laughing and carrying on. >> anything flirtatious? >> giggling. i hadn't seen her act like that. it was like a kid in a candy store. i wasn't used to it so it's stuck out. >> erin, the shy young wife, exactly what kind of secrets which she keeping? >> anytime you have a spouse was missing and you hear there might be some infidelity, there it's human nature, not just as an investigator, is it human being, to question whether that person might possibly be involved in the significant others missing. >> when dateline continues. ♪ ♪ enough was enough. i talked to an asthma specialist and found out my severe asthma is driven by eosinophils,

a type of asthma nucala can help control. now, fewer asthma attacks and less oral steroids that's my nunormal with nucala. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. nucala is not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. talk to your asthma specialist to see if once-monthly nucala may be right for you. and learn about savings at nucala.com there's more to your life than asthma. find your nunormal with nucala. >> when erin corwin went

missing after a trip to joshua tree national park, detective started out by question her husband john. then they widened the circle trying to learn as much as they could about her life at the marine base here in 29 palms. they discovered that erin had been lonely when she first trip to the base. quickly bonded with other military families. >> it's kind of like melrose place in there. >> that's a perfect description of that apartment complex. >> everybody's friends, everybody's doors ten foot away from the next couple's door.

>> erin and john grew close with their fellow marine corps neighbors, including nicole and chris lee. a couple originally from our alaska. erin's mom, laura -- >> christened nicole, and john an error in, come together all the time. i was happy. you know, that she had this. >> erin and nicole shared a common passion for horses. >> i was excited when erin and nicole met because nicole was into horses and i knew erin needed the horses. >> nicole introduced aaron to the white court rescue ranch and its owner isabelle. >> you're not far away from 29 palms. >> no, 45 minutes. >> is this not only a sanctuary for the animals but maybe a little bit for the rain corps wives? >> yes. >> isabelle started the ranch in 2004. >> the spouses come to the ranch when their husbands are their fiancée's or boyfriends are out in the field. they have nothing to do, most of them don't work. and they get very lonely. loneliness is probably the biggest problem that they have.

>> this is where erin had a horse. >> named cassie. >> that was very special to her? >> yes it was. >> come here cassie. come here. you're erin's horse? >> she picked a horse that i would never have chosen for her. >> why? what's with the horse? >> the horse was standoffish, didn't like anybody, but i liked her. this horse was so bonded to her. and we can believe it. >> before long, aaron and jon, chris and nicole, we're spending more and more time at the ranch together. >> we would go shooting, in the desert and should our guns. and we'd go up to the horse ranch and typical shenanigans were held, doing buggy, we would all take off while the girls were doing horse stuff. >> isabelle said when the couples were together, chris was always the life of the party. >> at the ranch, chris was very funny.

he was a real soft individual when he talked about his daughters, his wife, his family. but he also had the ability to be very stern. >> the ranch was clearly an escape for chris who struggled after returning from deployment in afghanistan. >> there was something that -- you just stayed away that from that subject. >> he might have had a rough time overseas? >> yes he did. he had a very hard time. >> but, said isabelle, chris was a loving father to his and nicole's daughter, liberty. erin took to the little girl to and would help out her friends by babysitting the six year old. erin's mom said she was always good with children. >> gentle, very gentle. the younger kids at the barn, they knew that she cared about them. >> so erin had found her place here, surrounded by friends and horses. but isabelle said that around christmas of 2013, she started to see a connection between chris and aaron that seemed a little too close for comfort.

>> they were laughing and carrying on about something on the computer. >> was there anything flirtatious about it, or was it just too close for you? >> giggly. i hadn't seen her act like that. it was like a kid in a candy store. i wasn't used to it so it's stuck out. >> isabelle said that she found the behavior so alarming she mentioned it to chris's wife nicole. >> i said nicole, something's wrong. i said, the way they're acting. she says, no, no there's nothing going on. she says they connect. >> what was a bit could relate to each other about? >> she said they could relate to being sad. she said chris was sad and that when he came back from the service he was a different person and that he just wasn't himself. and erin could understand depression. she said they were just friends. >> but two months later, nicole

told erin's husband jon she needed to talk to him and by then she was singing a very different tune about erin corwin. >> nicole found out that chris was having an affair with aaron. i didn't actually, this was the -- i did know at the time. >> you're totally clueless. >> yes. this is a bombshell to hear this news. >> the it was a bombshell, it was earth shattering. >> but john says he still left his wife and was committed to his marriage. >> i tried my hardest to make it work. >> they are you in this for life? >> yes. >> this marriage? >> definitely. she was always trying to fix something instead of replacing it and i was trying everything i could to fix it. >> he said the entire time he and aaron reconciled and even patch things up with chris and nicole. >> i started hanging back out with us. >> really?

>> yes. >> you are able to accept them in knowing what chris had done? >> yes. it wasn't the same that it was before but you always give somebody a second chance. >> or do you? erin was now missing and the fact that she had been unfaithful to her husband just added to investigators suspicions about him. >> anytime you have a spouse is missing and you hear that there might be some infidelity they're involved, it's just human nature, not just as an investigator, but as a human being to question whether or not that person might possibly be involved in the significant others missing. >> but then detectives found something that made the detection pool of suspects a whole lot deeper. >> coming up. >> it's not just your friendship slight fidelity, it's full-on, they were completely involved with each other. >> stunner number one, the secret affair with the neighbor wasn't exactly over. >> how betrayed did you feel feel? >> it was earth shattering.

i felt like somebody just stuck a knife in my back. >> and stunner number two? >> this baby might not even be his? that's heavy stuff for someone to deal with. >> absolutely. jon realized that it was very likely not his kid. which again, that brings motive to a spouse. >> when dateline continues. here. aspercreme arthritis. full prescription-strength? reduces inflammation? thank the gods. don't thank them too soon. kick pain in the aspercreme. lysol is supporting schools by providing materials to teach healthy habits. keeping kids together, here. [boy] chicken nugget man. where they can share who they truly are. lysol. here for healthy schools. martial arts is my passion. i work out whenever i can. but with my moderate- to-severe eczema, it can be tough. my skin was so uncomfortable. the itching was so bad.

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several counties are in a state of emergency in michigan after more than a dozen and a half tornadoes touched down. the storm system started with flash floods on thursday has killed at least five people. some 300,000 residents are still without power. and, in geryville uziyah, marathon petroleum said it was shutting down the third largest u.s. oil refinery after a storage tank caught fire. officials from the country said the blaze had been contained and evacuation orders lifted. however, local officials are advising iran residents to stay indoors. and, now back to dateline.

now back to dateline. >> detectives and san bernardino, california were working around the clock to figure out what had happened to 19-year-old marine wife error erin corwin they soon found out that erin had an affair and that made hers suspect that her husband, john, might have something to do with the disappearance. some of the detectives thought your behavior was strange, that you weren't acting sad enough. do you get why they were thinking that? >> i understand. i'm a very reclusive kind of person, i don't show emotions at all. >> did you worry at all in the moment that they are looking at me? >> no, i did not. >> jon told detectives that his wife said the affair was over. he and erin had reconciled and he'd even reestablished his friendship with erin's former lover, chris lee and chris's wife, nicole. but in the first days of their

investigation, detectives learned that erin's relationship with chris seem to be going strong right up until the day she disappeared. >> it wasn't just your friendship, slight infidelity. it was full-on they were completely involved with each other. >> one of erin's close friends back in tennessee told investigators she talked and texted with arid nearly every day. erin, the friend said, was making plans for a life with chris lee. >> erin had expressed to this friend that she was going to get married to chris. >> the friend told investigators that chris was taking erin on a special trip the day she disappeared and she texted her friend all about it. erin wrote, so apparently the surprise trip is super important and i finally got him to tell me it's by the national park. erin told her friend she didn't know what plans chris had in store. yeah, i am clueless, lol. i'm ready to know what it is! i mean, i have a couple ideas. i feel like it's big but, yeah

lol we shall see. her friend responded with a series of emojis including a diamond ring, hearts, and question marks, suggesting perhaps an engagement? erin responded, may be. and mentioned he was mysteriously playing with my ring the other night. erin added we shall see, this day cannot come quick enough! and it apparently takes two hours just to get their. a long slow drive. good talking time though! after erin went missing, that same friend spoke to john. >> she told me that erin had supposedly gone out with chris that day. and that she was expecting that chris was supposed to propose to her that day. >> how betrayed did you feel? >> earth shattering. i was -- i felt like someone to stop a knife down my back.

i was honestly ready to struggle. chris >> but detectives soon learned something more explosive. remember, erin had recently found out she was pregnant. she told her friend that she believed the father of her baby was her lover, chris, not her husband. >> did you think the possibility existed that he did find out that this affair had not ended like he had thought and that this law be might not even be his? that's heavy stuff for someone to deal with. >> john realized that was very likely not his kid. which again, it brings motive to the spouse. >> did you have anything to do with your wife's disappearance? >> no, i did not. everybody who knew me personally knew that there was no way i could do that. >> but john says marines on the base who didn't know him well seemed suspicious. >> you could tell that they would look at me differently and i been trying to stay home because of it. >> were you not able to do your

job, then, if you don't want to leave the house? >> no, at that they considered me to be mentally unstable and they took me away from everything pretty much because we handle firearms every day. so i stayed home. >> but now, john wasn't the only one on detective's radar. if this fellow marine chris lee might be the father of erin's baby and the person she was gonna meet that day, then chris to might have a motive. and an opportunity. >> did you look at both chris and john as suspects? >> yes, absolutely. >> there was at least one possibility that erin, naive at just 19 years old, had simply decided to run away from her troubles. whatever happened, there were still no sign of her. that is until this woman noticed something strange. something she had never seen before. >> i don't know if someone was

doing drugs in there or if somebody was just up to no good. i knew that it was not supposed to be there. >> coming up. a breakthrough new clue. >> as we were driving down the road there, i noticed a car parked off to the left-hand side of the road that wasn't there the night before. >> there were shoe impressions, tire impressions. >> something happened to my daughter. i couldn't get to 29 palms quick enough. >> it must have been excruciating. >> it was. the plane could not fly fast enough. >> when dateline continues. ♪♪ voltaren. the joy of movement. ♪♪ how do i love thee? voltaren. ...let me count the ways. ♪ love can get a little messy... good thing there's resolve. love the love. resolve the mess.

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experience till about their. the desert is one of those places that you go out to find yourself and after you found yourself you really happy to leave the place behind. >> debbie pollack and her family lived just outside the marine corps base in 29 palms, california. >> it's pretty barren, it's really flat. you can see for hundreds of miles in every direction. >> it was so remote in fact that a donut craving found the nearest drive to the nearest grocery store. so in 2014, debbie and her daughter set off. >> we're gonna go get donuts together and my daughter was all excited. >> they took the typical path into town via ranch road. >> as we were driving down the road there, i noticed a car park off to the left-hand side of the road that wasn't there the day before.

>> debbie said it was extremely rare to ever see cars park near their home in this desolate stretch of desert outside the national park. a full five miles from the entrance. >> i thought it was odd because there was no reason for it to be there. there is no hiking trails near my property. there is nothing to do out there. and if you don't live out there, there is no reason for the car to be there. >> about 30 minutes later on the return drive from town, debbie said she was surprised to see the vehicle still sitting there. >> i decided to drive up behind the car and take some pictures with my cell phone. >> from inside her truck, she took three photos of the back of the car. >> i don't want to get out of my truck because i didn't know what was inside the car and who had belong to. >> she had no idea at the time how important those photos would become. debbie and her daughter went home and enjoy those donuts and

got on with their day. she said she thought about reporting the card to police but -- >> i think i thought my imagination was getting the better of me and somebody had probably parked it out there with good reason. >> so there it sat until two days later. 9 a.m., monday, june 30th, her family was eating breakfast went to their surprised, they heard choppers overhead. >> i think it dawned on me that i probably should've called the police because you could tell there was something big going on there. >> someone else had called police who quickly determined the abandoned vehicle was erin core winds. debbie's photos showed it it had been there for two days since the morning erin disappeared. what's more, next to erin's car, detectives noticed tire tracks and shoe prints. >> those tire impressions appealed to be allowed back towards the vehicle, erin's vehicle. and they were shoe impressions that appeared to walk from the driver side of erin's vehicle to those tire impressions that came through that area. >> it appeared to detectives that erin had driven to the spot and possibly switched into another car and gone off. >> i realized at that point we

were dealing with a situation where we're being led into one direction which is the joshua tree national park whereas in fact another car several miles north of that location. i'm concerned that we haven't been working searching the right area. >> that's a daunting task. joshua tree national park is huge and now you're adding on this new area. is it like finding a needle in a haystack? the good feel like that? >> it's like finding a needle in a thousand haystacks. >> when erin's mom heard about the car, her mind went to the worst possible place. >> when they found her car. without her that. that's when i knew something else had happened and i think in that point in time i. think i knew she was not with us anymore. >> you knew just for the car. >> yeah. i know my daughter. and it was just -- i couldn't get to 29 palms

quick enough. >> was it like getting on a plane, you've had this revelation, the worst kind of revelation and then -- >> you have to turn your phone off. you know? you can't get any communication. until you get back on the ground. i mean, it was -- >> it must of been excruciating. >> it was, the plane could not fly fast enough. >> but detectives had to keep an open mind. they had no way to know if whether erin had run away or got lost or was the victim of a crime. >> we had to bifurcate the investigation, we had to turn it into a search and rescue mission and potential homicide investigation. our hope was to find alive and well erin corwin and the other was work another -- unfortunately, we might be looking for a deceased erin corwin. >> whatever course the investigation, took they knew they had to check out a key

piece of information. erin had told her friend back in tennessee that she was supposed to meet up with someone the day she vanished. her neighbor and lover, chris lee. deputies first knocked on prices door the day erin was reported missing. >> christopher lee told the extent of any contact he had ever had with erin corps wind was waving high in passing in the hallway of the pargman complex. >> apparently that wasn't true. but it wasn't necessarily incriminating either. he had every reason to downplay's relationship with erin. nevertheless, detectives knew it was time to talk to chris lee again. >> coming up -- >> we found her car. >> oh did you? >> yeah, it was partked in that area. >> he seemed surprised that we found the car. >> did he start to tense up after this reveal? >> yes. i could see definitely him more tense and his body. >> marine corporal to sleep prepares for battle. >> your tire tracks are there

as well as her tire tracks. >> i was aware that if i told you guys i saw her car, because of my previous relationship with her, you would've automatically assumed i did something. >> it was just a very unusual wild story that was telling me. >> when dateline continues. rsv is in for a surprise. meet arexvy. ( ♪♪ ) the first fda-approved rsv vaccine.

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disappeared, chris lease sat down for a formal interview. >> was he being cooperative? >> yes, he was. >> detective daniel was a part of the team investigating erin 's disappearance. he wanted to know why chris didn't admit to police right away that he and erin were more than just friends. >> i didn't bring up mine and erin's thing because i didn't seem pertinent at the time. >> but now chris began to open up. he said his relationship with erin started innocently enough.

he was depressed after his 2013 tour in afghanistan. erin was someone he could talk to. >> i confided in her, i was feeling suicidal. and you know she's like, you can't be doing that stuff. you know, it's kind of like -- she was someone to talk to about stuff that i do want to talk about with my wife. >> he said erin confided in him as well. a terrible secret that she suffered physical abuse at the hands of her husband jon. >> she said her husband was beating her, and choking her, and she was scared for her life. she'd say that he would choke her whenever like he would get mad. >> the way chris told it, erin's story of jon's abuse, is what brought them together. >> i just like -- being in a state i was -- i was like okay, i can fix this. and then you know, broken pieces to fix each other. so we just kind of started developing a bond. >> chris said that bonding soon turned to love. >> when you told her that you loved her, did she tell you that she loved you? >> she did. >> okay. >> remember, police had heard from a friend of erin's that

she thought she was pregnant with chris's baby. but chris insisted the relationship had stayed pretty pg. >> and how many times did you guess? kiss >> for tops. maybe some like, hands up and down while we were kissing, but nothing real heavy. >> okay. >> nothing under clothes or anything like that. >> okay, so close never came off? >> chris said that they talked about running away together but he didn't want to risk losing his daughter liberty. >> and i told, or i'm not going to put liberty through a broken home. you know, we had bounced the idea back and forth. >> he said the affair and it abruptly when his wife nicole found out about it. chris also said that's when he learned a big part of his bonding with erin was based on lies. >> what did she lie to you about? >> she'd only that her husband was beating her, and that she was afraid for her life. >> he said that he never talked to erin again after that. but detectives had those text messages between erin and her friend back in tennessee. which seemed to show the affair was far from over. detective travis newport confronted chris.

>> so no reason at all, why she would message people saying that she's planning to meet with you on saturday? >> like, she very well could've overheard me and connor talking -- >> chris adjusted erin had overheard his plans for a trip to the desert and upset that she wasn't invited lie to her friends saying chris plan to meet her that day. >> i just don't think she ever got over the fact that we had to stop seeing each other. >> we all know cheating in the military, if that can be a dishonourable discharge. did you think that could be a possible reason you don't want to talk about it? >> yes, and is not uncommon to see military personnel deny such a relationship because they know that they could lead to repercussions. >> still, they pressed chris on his whereabouts of the day she went missing. he told them he taken a drive to joshua tree national park to hunt coyotes. and that he shot his 22 caliber rifle 45 times that some rocks, and at one point he said he encountered another man with a gun. >> i'm not sure if the

individual shot at me, or if he was just, like recreational shooting. but there was an individual out there with a handgun, and it was fired in my general direction. >> he was very descriptive about this guy and his clothing and where he was out on the ridgeline and he fired four rounds at him. >> i got lost and i came out, followed gold crown road to old dale mine road, and then followed that too the road that comes out of the national park, and came home that way. and then i got home about 3:30. >> it was just a very wild story he was telling. the >> detective hickey tried to shake chris up with new information. >> we found her. car >> did? you >> it was parked in that area. >> okay.

>> he seemed surprised that we had found the car. >> did he start to tense up after this revealed? >> yes. i could see definitely him more tense and his body. >> and then hanky tried bluffing. >> your tire tracks are there, as well as her tire tracks. and your tire tracks drove over hers showing that you met her. there but >> you did know for sure. >> i did know for sure but i had a suspicion. >> under pressure now, chris changed his story slightly. saying that while he didn't see erin the day she disappeared, he did see her car. >> i was aware that if i told you guys i saw her car, because of my previous relationship with her, you would've automatically assumed i did something. >> that didn't ring true to hanky and his ears perked up even more when chris said this. >> did you make any other phone calls, when you are? out >> no i couldn't. i literally like the ability to because of the area we were in. >> you heard that word. we. >> yes. that was a big deal for me. he was tell me this entire time whose by him self.

>> detectives interviewed chris for nine hours and thought they had called him in numerous lies. but they didn't have proof he had committed a crime or for that matter that anything bad had even happened to erin. so detective hanky drove chris home. >> anything telling from that car ride? >> yes, it was pretty chilly actually. some of the questions he asked me. >> like? what >> he asked me how good i was at my job and how good our detective team was. >> but did you tell? i'm really good. >> i told him we were really good. he asked me specifically how many bodies have we not found in the desert. >> that's a freaky conversation. >> yeah. >> it wouldn't be long before investigators heard another strange thing. this time from chris's wife, nicole, about something out of isabel's course french. >> nicole told you that something was hidden in elizabeth closet. what was that? >> it was a rifle. 22 caliber rifle. >> coming up -- christie's wife -- >> extremely uncooperative, angry, just know what you would expect of somebody who's trying

to assist an investigation. >> a chilling warning. >> tell erin that if she had anything to do with her husband she killed her herself. >> that's a strong statement and now very relevant. >> yes. >> did you have to consider her as a possible suspect as well? >> of course we did. hearing a statement like that obviously just raises all kinds of red flags, really makes you wonder did this person pay somebody to harm erin? >> when dateline continues. rsv is in for a surprise. meet arexvy. ( ♪♪ ) the first fda-approved rsv vaccine. arexvy is used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. rsv can severely affect the lungs and lower airways. arexvy is proven to be over 82% effective in preventing lower respiratory disease from rsv and over 94% effective

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erin told her husband, she was going to scout hiking locations in joshua tree national park, but, there was still no sign of her. so, detectives turn their attention back here. the horse rescue ranch, see review hold

so many secrets. >> jon kressley, erin core when, they were all tied to that ranch. >> you conducted a search of the whole ranch? >> yes. >> looking, possibly, for a body on the ranch? >> not just a body, but any piece of evidence we could. anything leaking anybody to erin's disappearance. >> i said, she is not here. but, they said they needed to follow every lead that, they thought, might be possible. so, that is what they did. >> detectives knew one thing they were looking for. nicole told them she had stashed a rifle in isabelle's bedroom closet. >> no idea it was there? >> no idea. >> a 22 caliber rifle that christa told detectives he took with him to the park, the day erin went missing. >> i was disturbed. i can't imagine somebody hiding something in the house. i started to get to more angry at chris, and nicole. now, i am part of it, and i didn't even know i was part of it. >> no, i'm a vote don't. >> it is the day that erin

disappeared is to receive a text from a call saying she, and chris, would have a ranch that day because she will stick. the next morning, chris, and nicole, we're back at the ranch. by then, it was a call that should be missing. >> i kind of blew it off, and i find her. >> isabelle noticed, things were tense between chris, and nicole that. nicole had nothing to say about her missing friend. >> nicole was telling me, erin's, probably, hiding out somewhere. to make chris's life miserable. >>. she setting us up, trying to hurt our family, erin is doing this to get even. she is trying to get sympathy. >> chris was about to be discharged from the marines, and planned move back to alaska. elizabeth had lent their suv to move some of their belongings. detectives searched the suv, and found a potato launcher, like this one. a sort of home made can, and shooting

chunks of potato, or other small objects. >> if you don't know, that is a weapon. i said, i had no idea it was even in my car. >> a weapon, as it happens, that is illegal in california. detectives, already, suspicious of chris, and now, used to that potato launcher to get leverage on him. >> he was arrested here. >> this patio, we are sitting on? >> they would handcuff the chair. >> they're charged? possession of a destructive device. chris had already spoken to detectives that length. but, now that he was under arrest, isabelle notice that he seemed to be getting nervous, and started to say some odd things. >> she was a very concerned that he would get his story confused. it is an in control of the facts as much, as she was. >> detectives had already noticed, nicole didn't seem

interested in helping find her friend erin. >> extremely uncooperative, angry, the and now what you'd expect of someone who's trying to assist in an investigation. >> isabelle told, i'm chris, and nicole, had searched the internet for some specific information. >> they researched how to dispose of a body, a dead body. she had said, we have watched enough of those csi movies to no, no body, no case. >> remember, it was nicole who told jon about the affair. according to isabelle she said she then confronted iran. >> it was important for her to tell errin, if she ever had anything to do with her husband, she would kill her herself. >> given that erin has disappeared, and it is now very relevant. did you have to consider her as a possible suspect as well? >> of course. hearing a statement like that, obviously,

it raises all kinds of red flags. >> nicole e. had an alibi. detectives learned, she was at home with her child, the day and disappeared. but, even if she wasn't out in the desert that day, investigators believed that she still could've played a role in arranging erin's disappearance. >> really, it makes you wonder, if this person pay somebody to harm erin? >> erin's mom had suspicions of her own. those initial days, following errands disappearance, they stated erin and jon's apartment from the base. >> i went for a walk, i came back, and nicole is sitting on their walkway. if looks could kill. >> towards you? >> towards me. >> it must have been an odd moment. >> i guess, for some reason, it did not surprise me. >> instead of shrinking, the suspect pool seemed to grow. but, still, there was no proof that any crime even occurred,

except, maybe, possession of a potato gun. chris bailed out on july 5th, 2014. one week after erin disappeared. two days later he was, officially, discharged from the marines. the lees, returning to alaska. >> people were having a fit because they let him go to alaska. >> meanwhile, to tech division, san bernardino, continue to hunt for clues as to where erin might be found. and, they learned something that would launch them on a massive, treacherous, search in the desert. >> coming up -- danger in the heart of the desert. >> it makes me think of indiana jones. >> what would investigators find? when dateline continues. dateline continues. ca) it wasn't until after they had done the surgery to remove all the toes that it really hit me. you see the commercials. you never put yourself in that person's shoes until you're there. (announcer) you can quit. for free help,

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>> but with such an enormous area to cover, the search dragged on and, in the withering desert heat, the odds of finding erin alive dwindled. her parents had long ago returned home to tennessee. it must have been so hard getting on that plane. >> was there any part of you that felt like, of course, it is reasonable, but did you feel guilt or -- you shouldn't be leaving, or what if they find her tonight or tomorrow? >> right. >> the investigation had narrowed in one way, detective cleared erin husband john of any wrongdoing with connection to her disappearance. cell phone and computer records show that jon was on the base the entire day that erin went missing, and concluded that chris was lying when she claimed that erin that jon had been abusive. >> over a period of that investigation jon was interviewed multiple times. jon submitted to a polygraph test. i mean, easily 20 hours a totally have spoken with john. >> did he pass the polygraph? >> yes.

>> i knew it was true and i gave them my honest answers and i never lied to them. a light shining through. >> but chris lee had lied to them and seemed interested in how to dispose of the body. and isabel had told him that he had taken a trip to the desert with a friend of the week before erin disappeared. >> we found a lot of minds, but i found this one mind that no one would ever find. >> detectives believed it was all adding up. chris that killed erin and then dumped her body in a mine shaft. so they decide to start searching. but here is the problem, the mojave desert is pockmarked with hundreds of mine shaft. detectives knew they needed help. >> the search and rescue folks explained that there was a guy who knew a lot about the desert, knew a lot about the caves. would be a great resource to us. >> this is the man they were talking about. doug killings, cave dug into

his pals. as much desert rat who as the gold miners who used to roam the mojave a century ago. instead of a pickaxe and a mule he's opted for a gps and a hummer. >> i've down every one of these mines, including the one we're standing in front of now. i know how deep they are, what is inside of them. >> when other kids were playing little league, he was hanging off a road catching rattler's. by the time he was an adult, he was traveling the world exploring the underworld but the mojave is his home. so detective newport and billings started talking and the relationship quickly formed. >> almost every day doug and i would talk on the phone and he would send the photographs, aerial images, satellite images, saying check these mine shaft. these are more that i have located. >> just getting to a mine shaft can be an ordeal, as we discovered. billings took us out to one of the high priority search areas, but the road got so rugged and treacherous we were forced to

leave behind our suv along with two members of the crew. and carry on in billings amber. >> this is really hard to get around. this is at times white-knuckle driving, i have to admit. you look straight down and you don't want to make one wrong little turn. >> one wrong turn can be your last turn. >> so this is one of the minds that was searched? >> billings and the other volunteers checked off one dangerous mine shaft and the other. >> we're monitoring the oxygen, it's all clear. we always throw a rock and you listened quietly for a rattlesnake. it's a general protocol. this part of the desert they love to come and hide out in these mines, out of the sun. you see the temperature drop. and, as we walk in here, you can click your light on. >> that could be scary if it dropped down. >> this could be a false floor here, we'll stay on the side. >> it makes me think of indiana jones, the unknown trap almost.

>> i have seen that. in realize. >> these are the most dangerous shaft to search. vertical ones that goes straight down into a crumbling abyss. >> originally we were physically going down the shaft. we would rig the ropes, propel in, check it, clear it, and move on. but it became not feasible with the amount of minds that we had to search. >> so they outfitted buckets with cameras. >> we just began feeding it down the shaft. >> it sped up the process to be sure, but with hundreds of minds to explore, the search dragged on for days and then weeks. detectives were often side by side with the hundreds of searchers looking for aaron. >> we were digging holes, we were searching, i was wearing a t-shirt and jeans going in the mine shafts. we wanted to find, her so we were doing it. >> and yet, there is no sign of erin corwin anywhere. no clothing, no footprints,

nothing. but then detectives caught a break. remember that trip chris took with a friend to look at mines? turns out chris's friends had taken pictures. detectives obtained the photos and, seven weeks into the search, showed them to cave dog. >> without skipping a beat mr. billings almost immediately began identifying each photographs and plotting them on the top of graphical map. >> the first picture that they showed me was the mine across, here i mediately recognize the tower. i recognize that, the second they showed me the cabin. and then the next picture was of the mind that we are standing next to. >> so they bet on billings memory and focused their efforts here around what is known as the rosette peru mine. >> around the pros of peru mind are hundreds of other abandoned mines like this one, and any one of them could have been a potential burial site. >> investigators had high hopes that they would finally target the right area. but, after an exhaustive and

expensive search that lasted for weeks and weeks, they decided that this was it. saturday, august 16th, 2014 would be the last day of the search. >> we felt we had one more shot at it. >> in the early evening they headed for the very last mine on their list. >> as nighttime falls out there, you don't want anybody out there still. so we began to collect your thoughts and decide that any minute now we need to start calling this search. >> a member of the san bernardino cave rescue team, a doctor in fact, camp on this mine and right away noticed a strange smell. it was the stench of gasoline. there was also a shell casing resting near the mouth of the mine. the searchers lowered a bucket cam. >> we received a phone call from one of the satellite phones that was out there with a search team and it appeared to be a leg or some sort of a body part down at the very bottom of the mine shaft. >> that is unbelievable.

that this search was minutes away from being called off after weeks and weeks and you find something. >> it was very unbelievable. >> a full exploration of the mine would have to wait until daybreak. >> detective hanky he called me at roughly nine or 10:00 that night and said that we had found a body at the bottom of this mine shaft. >> did you sleep at all that night? >> i did not, no. >> coming up -- >> i had no idea what we were getting into. do i want to put my life in danger? >> a journey to the bottom of the mine. when dateline continues. when dateline continues. running is awesome. but her moderate to severe eczema would make her skin so uncomfortable. i was always so itchy especially when i was hot. now my skin doesn't itch as much. now we're staying ahead of her eczema. there's a power inside all of us to live our passion.

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stories. after 19 defendants surrendered at the fulton county jail in georgia, attention is now shifting to a courtroom in washington, d.c.. judge tanya kaine is holding a hearing on monday in the

federal election crime against former president, donald trump and may announce a trial date. the fbi reported that more than 100 people who are on a list of nearly 400 missing in maui are, in fact, safe. the announcement raised concerns about coordination between local agencies locating individuals after those deadly wildfires. the official death toll remains at 115. and now, back to dateline. now, back to dateline. a massive search effort that once spread across 2000 square miles of desert was now focused on a single, four by six foot hole. >> and you had no idea what we were getting into. >> paul anastasia and brett balm are with the san bernardino county fire department elite search and rescue team. >> i was told they had found a body, approximately 140 feet in

a mine shaft. >> but there are problems. >> they detected propane, gasoline fumes. >> the bucket cam used the day before picked up images of a gas can and propane tank that preventing fumes into the shaft. that is why anastasia and bob or cold. they are trained to work inside tight spaces while using sophisticated breathing equipment. the two regularly risked their lives to rescue people in danger, but in this case, taking a grave risk in order to recover a dead body gave them pause. >> it is risk versus gain. do i want to put my life in danger? >> after talking it over and knowing how important their recovery efforts could be dissolving aaron's disappearance, they agreed to go. bob, who is admittedly claustrophobic, got the short straw and was first in the whole. >> i started to descending down. >> how deep were you going? in >> about 100 or 140 feet.

a lot deeper than i have ever been. >> what are you seeing on the way down? how tight is it? >> it was eerie. rock collapsing, snakes, and also just the heat. it was about 110 degrees top size, 90 degrees. working in that environment you only have a limited amount of time before you are fatigued. >> what did you see? >> a sprite bottle, a rope, attire, a propane tank, some plastic jugs, a lot of rock and rock debris, some road ties. >> and then he saw it. a human body. >> that sounds like out of a horror movie. i hate to say it like that, but to repel down and then see a decomposing body. >> obviously we see a lot of death in this time of work. overtime you develop method where you just ignore your emotions for a little while and focus on the task that you need to do. and then face up with your

emotions later. >> he first took photos while suspended above the grisly crime scene. the methodically said about gathering evidence and sending it back to the surface. >> the original plan for it was for me to do the whole operation but i had been down there about 45 minutes, and was pretty fatigued. so our captain made the decision to go ahead and rotate out. >> how did you feel when you finally got out of that mine? >> i took my mask off and was immediately -- it had all saturated my clothes. i started driving. >> then it was anastasia's turn. his assignment, get the body. >> i would be lying to say if i was excited about going down in that mine shaft. i never put a body in a bag. >> once in the mind, anastasia realized that retrieving the body was going to be far harder than expected. >> i did a little assessment with my flashlight and realized that that was a false bottom and then i got to a little more concerned with some rocks

coming down and knocking out that false bottom, or loosening it up. >> because then everything would be gone. it would go to the bottom of that mine. >> i had no idea how deep the shaft was. >> suspended in midair, anastasia began placing the body in the bag without disturbing the false bottom on which it rested. once that was done, he found something else. >> a torch in the corner of the mine. >> had it been lit? >> it didn't look like it had been late to me. it looked like it was brand-new, like somebody had to just made it. >> ever so carefully, anastasia made his way back up the mine shaft with that porch and the body. back on the surface, detectives made a positive i.d.. after eight weeks of searching, on the day they decide it would be their last, they had finally found erin corwin. >> all of these hours we had worked and just thinking, deep down inside, she has got to be somewhere in one of these last caves. and then actually having that

confirmed just overwhelming emotion. >> a few minutes before midnight and the phone rings again. it wakes us up and it is detective dan. and it says it is her. it is like this really can't be happening to us. you know, not that child. >> the cause of erin death, possible blunt force head injury and possibly strangulation with a sinister tool. >> the pathologist discovered what is known as a garage. i wasn't familiar with that at the time, but i quickly learned what that was. it was a pair accord with two rebar handles and encircled her neck. >> isabelle, from the horse ranch, told her that nicole lee once told her nobody no case. now, detectives finally have

the body and soon they had an arrest warrant. the charge murder. coming up -- >> ladies and gentlemen, at its core this is really a very simple case. >> an accused killer on trial, when dateline continues. eline continues. ther kinds of sweat? that's why i use secret clinical antiperspirant. it provides 3x stress sweat protection. danielle? [♪♪] secret works. [♪♪] (michael) copd is harder on the folks around you, i think. my wife smoked, and she quit. because she needs to be here for to take care of me. (announcer) the people you love are worth quitting for. you can quit. for free help, call 1-800-quit-now.

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core this is really a very simple case. >> october 2016, two and a half years after erin corwin death, a jury gathered in a san bernardino courtroom. the person on trial, chris lee. the charge? first degree murder. prosecutor sean darmody. >> all the evidence in this case points to one person. one person who prepared, planned, studied, and executed the murder of erin corwin.

>> there is so much connecting him out there at that mine shaft, even the very location of that particular mine that tied him to the crime, for him not to have done it you would be the unluckiest man ever. >> the prosecutor accused friends and family to lay out the case against chris. several people who knew chris, including this fellow marine, testified he had shown a lot of interest in how to dispose of a body. >> he did mention that -- in a vertical position so that they would be able to see the outline of a body. >> former downstairs neighbor and longtime friend ashley malaki also took the stand. >> how many times prior to june 28th -- >> she also told the jury about chris's wife nicole's odd and cold response when she heard erin was missing.

>> i called nicole and said where is your husband? there are people here looking for, him erin is missing. she replied with i don't care what happens to that little -- and she laughed at me and told me to mind my own business. and then i hung up on her. >> ashley's husband, connor malaki, testified he saw chris lee around 6:00 in the morning erin disappeared. in the back of his and ppe noticed something. >> i thought a bunch of items covered by a tarp, including a white propane cylinder. >> a propane cylinder? >> correct. >> like for a barbecue? >> yes. >> connor said the propane tank he thought in the jeep looked like the one recovered from the mine. >> i asked him why he was in there, what he is planning on doing it with it? >> what was the defense's response? >> he was going to blow up a mine shaft with. it >> is a bell from the horse ranch told the jury that she also recognized the tank pulled up from the mine. she said chris had forwarded

from her day before erin disappeared. >> i asked him if he was going to have a barbecue. >> what was his response? >> he said no, he was going to use it to play games. >> the defendant never returned the propane tank? >> no. >> detective woods testified that a search of the suv chris was driving at the time of his arrest yielded another piece of evidence. >> -- that was located under the front passenger seat. >> i had only seen one of those in my life and that was the one that was wrapped around miss corwin neck. for the second time in the same week i saw the second one. >> and there was another link to chris. that shell casing found near the mouth of the mine shaft. it matched courses rifle. the jury also got to hear from erin confidant back in tennessee. just get was erin close friend and secret keeper. she was the one she told detectives everything she knew about erin affair with chris. >> did she tell you how she

felt about christopher lee? >> fishy might have known that she loved him more than her husband. >> jessica said that erin had plans for a future with chris. >> she said that she believed she would be divorcing her husband, or that a divorce would come and that she was hoping to be able to stay with him. >> she said chris told erin she had a special trip planned with her the weekend she disappeared. >> she said he was going to surprise her with a trip out to the desert. >> how does she sound? what were her feelings about it? >> she was excited to -- >> just get also testified about a text she got from erin. my mother comes in a week, i'm excited? >> jessica responded, are you going to tell her? we -- >> that she was pregnant. >> erin texted back, well, chris wanted to tell everyone

next week. on june 28th, 2014, jessica spoke to her friend for the last time. at 7:19 a.m., california time, erin called just back in tennessee. >> she said she was getting ready and about to leave the apartment to go meet chris to have their special date. >> what was your response to that? >> i was excited for her. >> why? >> i wanted her to be happy. >> did you guys make plans or talk about her calling you later? >> she was supposed to call and let me know how it went. >> did you ever get that phone call? >> no. >> do you think she was planning to start this new life with him? with a baby in alaska? >> it seems so. it was really hard to hear that. i think one of the harder things is to know that she was going through all of that and she did not share it.

it just makes me wonder the level of his manipulation because obviously he was leading her on. >> but, perhaps the most damning evidence came from this dna expert who analyzed the items that were pulled out of the mine shaft where erin body was recovered. >> in this case i chose to go with more substantial testing. >> remember the homemade torch? it consisted of a piece of wood with a green t-shirt wrapped around one and. on the search caller, dna. >> this particular case, we have a major dna profile, which includes christopher lee. >> there is also dna around the mouth of this bright bottle found in the mind. >> it is a mixture of two individuals christopher lee and erin corwin. aaron and chris appeared to be sharing a sprite that day. the same --

>> i believe that christopher lee took erin out to the desert to kill her that day because she was a hurdle between him and the rest of his life. at the end of this and harvest geisha we realized that christopher lee didn't care about anybody but himself. >> the prosecution said that chris took erin out to the mind, strangled her with the garage and dropped her in. he may have intended her to use the propane and courage to blow up the mine and conceal her body, but apparently didn't follow through. the conclusion it was a carefully planned, cold blooded murder. the evidence seemed overwhelming. but now it was the defense's turn and jurors were in for a surprise. chris lee was about to testify and no one was prepared for the dark tale he would tell. coming up -- a story from the stand that stuns the court. >> i couldn't live with myself, i couldn't keep the secret

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>> chris lee. a husband, father, and

decorated marine would be the first and only witness in his defense. his attorney, david -- took chris through his version of events. >> i couldn't live with myself if i kept this secret any longer. >> by june 2014 crisp was preparing to leave the marines. he told the jury he knew it was time to end his relationship with erin. >> did you have fights after leaving the -- ? >> meet nicole and liberty were planning on moving back to alaska. >> have you told erin this? >> i did. >> chris said he planned a hunting trip and he invited erin so that he could talk. >> was it just going to be you and erin? >> no, it wasn't. >> chris had asked two friends to join him, including his neighbor connor. >> why were you inviting all these other friends of yours when you needed to talk to erin? >> because i didn't really want to have lengthy conversations, so i wanted to be able to go hang out with my friends and

actually do some hunting, but in case the conversation got too deep or came to the point where i was uncomfortable with. it >> christened by the morning of june 28th, he found out his friends had bailed. so he and erin set out to the park, just to the two of them. chris had a propane tank and he said he wanted to blow off some steam, literally. >> did you tell erin that you are going to try to blow up this mind? >> on the way. there >> you remember what her reaction was? >> she wasn't happy about it, she thought it was stupid, unsafe. she thought this trip was going to be about us talking. i told her that it was, but i want it to try to do this, to. >> when they arrived, chris began unloading his supplies. >> i took the tires out of my jeep and i tossed them down the mine shaft. >> what was erin doing this time? >> she was sitting in the jeep, listening to music. she didn't want to be near this. >> so what did you do next to

blow up the mine? >> i grabbed my torch and i realized that i had not brought enough gasoline. >> feeling frustrated, chris returned to his jeep. >> we started having a conversation. >> about what? >> about plans. she wanted to come to alaska. she wanted to be a part of my life. i said i didn't want that. i told her that i decided that you cannot be a part of liberty's life and she said that she wanted to, she loved liberty. i told her it is not your choice, not your daughter, you don't get to love her. she is mine. >> what were you thinking at that point? >> i was thinking there is no reason for erin to love liberty. she's not hers, she should have no kind of emotional attachment to.

her >> then, chris said, you remember to something else. a story that should be central to his defense and would stun this courtroom. he said he recalled something that his wife had shown him one night when she was giving liberty a bat. signs that nicole believed showed sexual abuse. >> she thought maybe erin had molested liberty because she was uncomfortable with the way that she was around her when she had been washing her. >> what was your reaction to that? >> i felt so safe in my little community that i didn't think it was possible. >> you didn't believe? >> no. >> now,, as they talked at the mine, he said erin seemed way too attached to liberty. >> when erin told me that she loved liberty and she wanted to be with her, something clicked. it turned a gear in my head and i said why do you care about liberty so much? why do you want to be a part of her life? aaron told me, i just love her. i stood up and i stopped around

and i said, did you touch liberty? and she reeled back a little bit and started stumbling over words and was saying -- i stopped her again and yelled at her this time. i said did you molest my daughter? and she said yes, but that was the last thing i heard her say. >> an explosive allegation against the victim. >> did you worry that that could really turn off the jury? >> absolutely. but it is what chris insisted was the truth. >> erin husband said it simply wasn't possible. >> she was nurturing, caring, and never did anything illicit or crude or harmful. no person that knew aaron, or even as sort of, aaron would believe that. >> for detectives -- >> i personally felt estate gusted. for all the people that we

talked to who knew erin, we didn't think this was even an angle that christopher lee would play. it came out of left field. >> but chris said at his hearing what he believed to be a confession from erin that caused the horrible events he now recounted in chilling detail. >> i stumbled back and i sat on the edge of my jeep and in my right hand i felt the metal from the grow. it set me off, i just felt so much hate, so much rage. i grabbed it and i stood up and i came up behind her and put it around her neck. training took over then. i started pulling. nothing would stop me from doing what i was doing. i told myself while i was doing this, never again. i wasn't going to let anybody hurt my daughter again. i had let her into my daughter's life. it was my fault that my daughter was hurt.

i just kept choking her. i don't know how long it was. it might have been five minutes, ten minutes, it felt like forever. i just kept choking her. and then, the anger, that feeling of discussed and hate waned a little bit and i let go and she dropped to the ground. >> christopher lee was describing for the jury how he had killed erin corwin. >> after a few minutes and i realized what happened, i killed her. and so the rope was still around her neck so i grabbed it and dragged her to the edge of the mine shaft and pushed her in. >> his story accounted for all the physical evidence and portrayed the killing as a crime of passion committed by an outraged father. but now the prosecution took over and shock to the courtroom all over again. coming up, a heart stopping

moment. -- you couldn't have stopped her? >> why not? >> the fate of marine corporal chris lee, when dateline continues. continues.

chris lee had shock to the courtroom, telling the jury that he did kill erin corwin, but it wasn't premeditated. instead, he said, he snapped when he claimed erin confessed to him that she had been molesting his daughter. now prosecutor sean dorothy cross-examined gross, confronting him on the accusations against erin. >> these accusations -- >> yes. >> you didn't call the police? >> no. >> nicole immediately picked up and call the police? >> no. >> you're still having sex with

the woman who your wife thought was molesting your daughter. >> the prosecution's mission, show the jury that they could not believe chris because he had lied, claiming not to know where erin was during all eight weeks she was missing. >> people live for a reason and it's important that i point out that he lies to protect himself. >> you had a choice to tell the truth, right? >> i did. >> you and erin had people that loved her. >> yes. >> you knew a lot of people what we're looking for. >> you essentially made the decision to hold them hostage, right? >> yes. >> perhaps the biggest moment in court came when the prosecutor found a striking way to demonstrate how chris had killed erin. >> for the record what you did is that you put it around the dummies head, you twisted it around and then turned backwards. >> yes. are >> you testified earlier that you pulled really, really hard. you could have stopped that, right? you couldn't have stopped it? >> you made the decision to kill? >> yes. >> and you can follow through

with that decision? >> yes. >> my goal was to show the jury how long it takes to kill somebody like that. to show them the brutality of what was done. it's one thing to say, as he did on direct, i strangled her and i pushed her down the whole. it's another for him to actually show us what you did. so i think the jury was entitled to see that. it was heavy. it's one of the heavier moments i've had in court. the that's about ten seconds in, you could have stopped, right? >> no. 20 seconds in, you could've stopped. >> no. >> nothing would stop me at this point, i was too angry. >> i saw the reaction of the jurors. it was pained. their expressions or pained. >> we are about 40 seconds in and you are still doing it. >> yes sir. >> that's about a minute in, you're still doing it. your testimony is that you couldn't have stopped.

you could never let go of those handles. >> no. >> minute 20, still no. you can like oh. then you threw her down a mine shaft, didn't you? >> i did. >> like a piece of trash? >> i threw her down a mine shaft. >> like a piece of trash? >> is that question? >> yes. >> yes. >> the jurors had heard a confession from chris lee but do they think it's voluntary manslaughter, a killing carried out in the heat of passion, or was it -- murder? the prosecutor made their argument to the jury. >> ladies and gentlemen -- the defendant is not remorseful. he didn't care. he didn't care when search and rescue and homicide and the

fire department were putting their lives at risk looking for her. he doesn't care that he was holding her mother hostage. he didn't care one bit, until it came time to talk to you. the people who are going to decide what crime this is going to be. >> defense attorney david kaloyanides asked the jury to consider the case as a tragic crime of passion, not one of premeditated murder. >> mr. lee was provoked. only you can decide if that just -- provocation was not justify the killing, because it was not justified. but was it murder? what was it deliberate, willful, premeditated, lying in wait murder? or was it a tragic killing?

that should've happened? >> the jurors pondered those questions for just an hour and a half. then they reached a verdict. >> we the jury find the defendant, christopher brandon lee guilty of first degree murder. the defendant intentionally killed the victim by means of lying in wait. >> christopher lee was convicted on all counts. i'll spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. >> what was that moment like for you? that was a pretty final at that point, guilty. >> it was like taking a breath of fresh air. >> although jon corwin still feels the lasting pain of regret. >> i wish i could've been there for her more. i tried my hardest, but it wasn't enough. >> erin was acquitted. she had her whole life ahead of her. she just didn't know that, in my opinion, she was dealing with the devil. >> chris's wife nicole told

detectives she had nothing to do with erin disappearance and has not been charged with any crime. >> is there still a chance, is nikole out of the woods? >> not every door has been closed. >> but for erin mom the door on chris lee's closed and she breathe a little easier knowing it. >> every time there is a hearing your emotional scab gets ripped off. to know that i'm not going to have to deal with that. >> laura finds comfort here, way out in the joshua tree desert where doug billings, cave dog, created this. in the desolate place where aaron's life was cut short, a garden now grows in her memory. when you look at that desert garden, what are you thinking? >> it is beautiful. like my girl. it is a peaceful place. i have a piece that can't be explained. i decided i couldn't be bitter

and angry. he has already taken enough from me and if i am bitter and angry he is taking my mind, my soul, and my heart. and i'm not giving him that. and this is "dateline." >> hello, i'm craig melvin. and this is dateline. >> never tell you you're like passes you by? everything you have a light, am i ready to die? >> he was a hollywood stunt man. this was no hollywood stunt. shot four times. but dying on the floor. >> someone definitely wanted him dead. but who? and why? you will meet lots of possible suspects. >> my