taught her. lives for others as well as herself. she flies like he did and she looks for the light. >> our dad taught us, make this world a better place and give to others who are less fortunate. we do that. my sister and i do that today. that's part of our mission in life and we go about with our dad is an angel on one shoulder and her brother is an angel on the other shoulder. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. eline. [music playing] this is "dateline". only her feet were exposed. her last hours on earth were

not pleasant. >> reporter: young women murdered were missing. families in anguish. >> i would text her and she would text back. nothing. when they killed her, they killed me. >> reporter: a serial killer at work and maybe he had a friend. >> that is crazy. serial killers are loaners. >> everywhere. >> reporter: to suspected killers on the hunt. hunting them. a detective devoted to justice and more. >> it is almost like he adopted these young women. >> a lot of visits to my local church saying, don't screw this up. welcome to "dateline". they were young women with their whole lives ahead them.

then one by one, they started to vanish. it take a determined detective willing to go into dark places to uncover the diabolical plot behind the disappearances. here is t more send with "good & evil". >> reporter: how do you measure a mother's love? or gauge the ferocity of her impulse to protect. >> love her as much as i could, was the thing. >> reporter: how to measure love as visceral as the beating heart in her own body. >> she was my firstborn. she was my best friend. >> reporter: how to understand the four mothers you will meet tonight and their connection. not one of them would ever have thought possible. not in 1 million years. any more than they would've expected to meet her, their guardian angel. >> if i don't bring her home, who will? >> reporter: it is a rare mystery that is truly comfort patiently good and evil.

>> you have to go to dark places to find answers. >> reporter: where history. it was march 14th, 2014, early morning. an army of garbage trucks made their growling way around the thousands of trash bins and dumpsters in anaheim, california. their destination, a landfill that is also a literal mountain of garbage, 500 feet high. and then midmorning, and attended separating debris on the conveyor belt saw something. is that a human foot protruding from the pile of trash? surely not. >> on a conveyor belt and only her feet were exposed and initially the workers thought it was a mannequin. >> reporter: it was not a mannequin. detective julissa trapp could see. it was, or have been, a woman.

her body wrapped in a blue plastic tarp. >> we had no idea who she was. we had no idea where she came from. how did she end up there? >> reporter: something about the dead girl got to detective julissa trapp. ending up this way. anonymous child of god in a garbage dump. so the detective did what she always does, she bought a rosary. >> it is a way for me to kind of connect to my victims. >> reporter: unusual? maybe. the detective should lean on her profound catholic faith to help solve crimes. the julissa trapp does. >> cases don't always get solved and 48 hours. >> surprise, surprise. >> they take time and work. >> the rosary helps you? >> it does. >> reporter: if she could solve this case should give the rosary to the dead woman's family. after she had to figure out who she was.

from just one identifying marks on her neck, a tattoo. jodi. was that her name? reaching out, detective trapp called the anaheim police department. of tattoos. they have one. descriptions of tattoos collected from anyone they encounter. and what do you know? there was a match. but her name was not jodi. it was jarrae. tran five she was 21 years old. >> she had been contacted the year prior and anaheim on beach boulevard. >> reporter: beach boulevard? suddenly detective trapp's case took on a new complex him. >> if you want to buy drugs, beach boulevard is where you come. if you are looking for a girl, beach boulevard is where you come. a lot of them came from stable families who happen to run into the wrong guy who somehow got him into the job. the pants are really good about breaking down

the women. and getting control of them. >> reporter: making them a prime target the predators. >> a lot of predators, will start with prostitutes. because they think that people will miss them. >> somebody does. >> yes. somebody does. somebody did. >> reporter: like jarrae's mother, the records revealed, lived in a tiny town in oklahoma. that tattoo on jarrae's neck, this is jodi. and even before the detective got the words out -- >> i felt that she was gone. >> reporter: her daughter had been so happy and charming, outgoing. but then said jodi, a unconvinced jarrae that to please him she would have to turn tricks. but jarrae left the boyfriend , and turned her life around. so jodi thought.

but then the awful phone call from detective trapp. promised to the mother did not matter what choices jarrae made, she, detective, work this case is hard as any she had had. >> we literally went from each little motel to each little motel showing her picture and having the clerk run her name to see if she had stayed there. >> reporter: and eventually she found the room where jarrae had been staying, in which for $700 in cash and mascara and lipstick and contact lens solution, but nothing whatever to beat her to a suspect. not here, anyway. from the disposal company she got a list of the dumpsters those garbage trucks and service that morning. and then she, and other officers , went dumpster diving, hundreds of dumpsters. what would you look for? >> they were given pictures of what the trash looked like that

was around her. it looks similar, take pictures of what is inside. >> reporter: no luck. a waste of time. but then, back on the conveyor belt, an odd thing turned up in the trash collected near jarrae's body. >> they got a print hit. >> a fingerprint. >> yes. >> reporter: it was on a caulking tube and it match someone. a window installer, who worked for a company called hardy windows. >> he said we never throw trash out. at customers homes. we always bring it back to hardy windows. >> reporter: where they found, one dumpster no one had checked. the trash company inadvertent, had left it off the list they gave the police. detective trapp looked inside. >> the same blue plastic wrapping and it was almost like i was looking at the same trash i had seen on the conveyor belt . >> reporter: a bingo. if not for that lucky fingerprint, they would have missed it. what was that like?

>> it was a combination of frustration but okay, all right, we are moving somewhere. >> reporter: so was dumped here sometime before the morning of march 14th, miles and miles from the spot where according to cell phone records she placed her very last outgoing call. at 7:00 p.m. the night before. how far away would have been? >> 20 miles. >> reporter: that is all the detective new. a week gone by. everyone at hardy windows was cleared. so no suspects at all. detective trapp went to church, set a rosary, worried and played. and wondered. >> i heard a story on the news that there was three missing prostitutes in the city of santa ana. >> which is right next door. >> right next door. >> reporter: what if this does not the killers first time? or last?

coming up. four young women in two neighboring towns, now missing or dead. was there a link?>> we would like, what are the odds that they are related? >> reporter: when "dateline" continues. arexvy is proven to be over 82% effective in preventing lower respiratory disease from rsv and over 94% effective in those with these health conditions. (♪♪) arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue,

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and who doesn't love a good throwback? ♪♪ now with vitamin d for the dark days of winter. now with vitamin d keith morrison: detective julissa trapp couldn't sleep, kept awake by the puzzle of the girl someone detective julissa trapp

could not sleep. kept awake by the puzzle of the girl someone threw away in the trash . that is when something job her restless mind. having some young women vanish and the town next-door, santa ana. >> we rely, what are the odds that they are related? >> reporter: she looked them up and learned about kianna jackson, 20 years old when she disappeared five months before jarrae's death. her mom is kathy. >> she was a fun loving, child. always made you laugh. >> reporter: look at her childhood photos. that silly grin. she loved her dog, her little brother, playing softball. and then it started happening, said kathy. eighth grade or so. >> she was kind of getting typical teenaged, and then high school came and getting around the older kids she got a little worse. >> how did you cope with that?

>> one day at a time and love her as much as i could. this was about the only thing. >> reporter: after high school kianna jackson went to college. about three hours from home. a year later she moved to las vegas. far from home now. she got closer and closer to her mom. >> she will call me everyday and talk to me everyday and text message. >> a loving daughter. >> i did not think anything that was happening. >> reporter: no idea. even in october, 2013, when kianna jackson called to say, she was on the bus toward santa ana. >> did she tell you why? >> visiting friends is what she told me. >> reporter: but the girl who called her mother almost daily stopped calling. >> anything over a day or two i would say, this is not right, something is not right and i would text her and she would text back but this time, nothing. nothing. >> reporter: gone. nothing to her mom, her friends, to her boyfriend. kathy went to the police. >> when i went to file a

missing persons report they said she is an adult and there is nothing we can do for you. >> you knew there was a problem. >> yet. >> reporter: kathy started doing her own digging. tractor daughter down to a motel in orange county. where the trail ended. her clothes were there. but she was not. again, she called the police. >> they said, that happens, sometimes prostitute work circuits. >> reporter: prostitute? >> no. they cannot be. >> reporter: but then the truth came crashing down. kianna had missed a scheduled court date in santa ana for a prostitution charge . you talked to her every day. all the time. >> exactly. >> you knew nothing of the secret life. >> nothing. >> what does it feel like as a mother to hear that? that you do not know. >> heartbreaking. >> reporter: when she heard kathy story, detective trapp thought she was onto something and then she discovered that

just two and half weeks after kianna disappeared, there was another one. josephine vargas. >> she had a beautiful personality. they used to color giggles because she always made people live. >> reporter: joseph his mother had been on the new searching for answers for months, ever since her daughter left a family barbecue, telling them she was walking to buy groceries. >> that is the last time any of us heard of her or saw her. >> reporter: priscilla went to the santa into police department and filled out a report. >> they did not really do anything to look for her. >> reporter: so she did. >> nothing was going to stop me from looking for my daughter. nothing or no one. >> reporter: it was pure chance when priscilla ran into another mother desperate to find her daughter. martha, 28 years old and a mother herself. you just vanished one day. interpreter there is no way she would've left to say i'm going and leaving everything behind. >> reporter: so they went

together, up and down the boulevard. >> we may thousands of flyers. me and her were on a mission to find our daughters. >> reporter: but no sign of their daughters anywhere. detective trapp collected their portraits, hung them on her office wall . and she stayed away and prayed in her catholic way. do you ever wonder why god would allow this to happen? >> i do. there have been plenty of times i have been angry with our maker because you have to wonder why does this happen. i wish you would talk back to me and tell me, that would be very helpful but i just have to figure out what happened. just read the clues and collect the puzzle pieces and the more you can kind of keep a neutral mind, the easier the puzzle pieces fit together. >> reporter: no getting around it. the pieces pointed to a chilling conclusion. those three missing women just like jarrae, may have been murdered . and if that was

true, it would mean there was a serial killer out there in the night, had to be. more deaths would be coming. unless, one idea, was grasping at straws, yes, but. >> it may work now. why not? it is a hail mary but let's try it. coming up. >> all sexual offenders on parole and would have and anklet, gps monitor. >> reporter: tracking a monitor victim by victim. when "dateline" continues.

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keith morrison: the autopsy came in. the one for jarae estepp, the girl on the conveyor belt. the autopsy came in. the autopsy came in. the one for jarrae estepp, the girl on the conveyor belt. >> it is bad. it was bad. it was bad. >> reporter: strangled, beaten, sexually assaulted viciously, according to the deputy da. >> it should have been a college:worry about grades and boyfriends and football games and those things. >> one wrong turn and you never know. >> reporter: but almost 3 weeks in, detective julissa trapp seemed stock. >> i think she got frustrated and got a little desperate came up with the idea of using the computer database. >> reporter: that is the computer database of sexual offenders, if they had a serial

killer on their hands, it was a chance he had run afoul of the law at some point. it was a bit like come just poking a finger into the haystack, frankly and helping to encounter a needle. but worth a try. so trapp called this woman. sexual assault protective laura lomeli. >> all sexual offenders on parole will have a gps monitor. >> reporter: she asked if any gps monitors were here where jennifer placer last phone call or here where she wound up in a dumpster? and you find the same guy in both locations. you are getting somewhere. and she ran the search and what are the chances? she got a hit in both locations. she called detective trapp. >> there is only one person. and she said she knows him. i said, who? and she said, franc cano a registered sex offender. >> reporter: in 2007 franc cano pleaded guilty to emitting a

lewd act on a minor and he was now on parole wearing a gps monitor. but the next question, did franc cano's monitor put them near the places those other three women , according to phone records made their last calls? kianna , josephine and martha. one by one the detective into the coordinates. >> and every intersection for that date and time they gave me, franc cano came up . for every single intersection, i was shocked. >> reporter: but something about that man, franc cano . he had a buddy and she had run into them both. >> i mentioned, i do know that he is a friend stephen gordon. >> stephen gordon had done time for molesting a minor and later for kidnapping. he and janet were inseparable, apparently.

so why not at the first location? she checked the record and discovered at that particular moment, gordon wasn't on a gps monitor. but he was wearing one at the other three places >> reporter: one out of the first location? >> reporter: one out of the first location? she checked the record and discovered that at that particular moment, gordon was not on the gps monitor. that he was wearing one at the other three places. and here they were. franc cano and gordon driving together up and down beach boulevard and all-around sand into an anaheim. >> even when they are on the freeway they were in the same vehicle. >> reporter: julissa trapp prayed for a hail mary but never expected anything like this . >> i soon realized i am not just dealing with one. we are

dealing with two. two sexual offenders wearing gps bracelets. >> reporter: for all the electronic cross-referencing the case against franc cano and gordon was purely substantial. detective trapp cannot arrest them. not without more evidence. but that was terrifying. i mean, there are young women who are at real risk. >> yes. >> if you waited too long, how would you feel if someone else was attacked? >> a lot of rosaries being prayed. >> reporter: she set up a surveillance team to watch cano and gordon around-the-clock and got authorizations for wiretaps and pulled cell phone records. >> they started reading text messages and started to see how prolific they work at hunting. >> reporter: hunting? >> hunting. almost a daily basis and how nonchalant they were about it. it was almost like ordering takeout. when you start reading, what do

you feel like today? asian a mexican? >> what would they call these girls? >> that was the other thing. cats. be careful when the cat knows it is not getting away. it will fight. >> reporter: the next 15 could not be far away because gordon texted cano, kitty cat later, yes. in which cano responded, okay. and then a sudden change. and they spotted surveillance. as trapp listen to the wiretap, she heard gordon talk to cano about skipping town. >> i could hear the desperation in craig cano voice . the desperation just kind of santa hair on the back of my neck and i said, no, i am not waiting. they are going to run. >> reporter: time to move fast. the caught up to franc cano as he was boarding a bus. and stephen gordon, they found him where he worked, and auto body shop next door to hardy

windows. >> he made a run for it. on a bicycle. yes. he had a little collision with one of our surveillance units. and a little flying over the handlebars and he was taken into custody. >> reporter: both men were charged with four counts each of first-degree murder and forcible sexual assault. and detective trapp prepared to confront a suspected serial killer. coming up. >> i knew this would be a lot different than any other interview i had done. >> reporter: takeout with the killer. >> it is spicy. >> i told you to be careful. >> reporter: when "dateline" continues. elps h your skin from. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes

including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. ask your eczema specialist about dupixent. emergen-c crystals pop and fizz when you throw them back. and who doesn't love a good throwback? ♪♪ now with vitamin d for the dark days of winter.

president biden confirming the israeli military recovered the bodies of six hostages including american hersh goldberg-polin. in a statment the president

said he was , "devastated and outraged by his death. was attending a music festival for peace in israel on october 7th , when he was attacked and later captured by hamas pick a representative for his family also saying they were devastated by the news and asked for privacy. the six-month, kathy waiting for news about her daughter. still woke up every day, hoping she will call or text and dreading and knock at the door. which in april 2014, is what happened. >> my heart sunk when they can because i knew right away it was not going to be good news. >> reporter: no. not good news at all. anaheim police told her that two men, franc cano and stephen

gordon were under arrest for the murder of her daughter and three other young women in orange county. what would you like that night? >> i just wanted to sleep. i wanted to go to sleep and wake up and pinch myself. >> reporter: detective julissa trapp wanted to speak with both men, but cano lawyered up so she tried gordon. still in a wheelchair after his bike accident. >> hello, stephen. how are you? i knew this was going to be a lot different than any other interview i had done. he is cunning. manipulative, >> he did not have to talk to you. >> reporter: but detective trapp has away, as a say. >> you were compassionate. you were kind to him. and brought him blanket. food.

>> yes. we actually shared two meals together. >> it is spicy. >> i told you to be careful. >> reporter: even so, gordon was reluctant at first. >> he watched me very carefully. if i swallowed too hard, if i looked at him differently. he was a, what is wrong? >> you had a weird look on your face when i said where and why. >> so he was constantly trying to keep a poker face. to continue elicit information from him. >> reporter: did he try to play you? >> i think he thinks he did. >> reporter: bit byfó@ñ bit she u and for those four mothers. >> that she go by the name kayla?>> kianna .

>> reporter: detective trapp presented him with photographs and he identified all women. >> her? her? her? right? >> reporter: each murder went the same way, he said. he and cano picked them up in his suv and drove them back to the auto body shop where gordon worked in the took turns having their way. and then just as each woman prepared to leave -- you strangled her? some of the details on the 13 hour interview are almost more than even a seasoned detective could stand to hear. >> as he was hurting martha, she told him, i did not believe in god but i do now. there is a part of me that is grateful that she found god at the end. it is disturbing to me that in response he said come you

picked rachel of the time to start believing in god. i will never forget that. >> reporter: she had it. a full confession. she called jarrae's mother, jodi. >> i dropped to my knees . detective trapp gave me her word that she would find who killed my daughter. >> reporter: detective trapp had kept her word. and now she bought three more rosaries and wondered, should -- could she bring this women home? gordon told her all of them had been left in the same dumpster in the contents of which were brought here, orange county's linda landfield where except for jarrae, they all still were . somewhere. >> we did a lot of research and we had every intention to try to dig for them.

>> reporter: the bodies had to be 40 feet deep now and digging for them would cost millions and they might never be found. the county could not afford that. they are just over there somewhere. 40 feet down. what is that like? what does that feel like? >> it is frustrating. it is frustrating knowing that they are here and we cannot bring them home. it is like the one thing that the mothers want and i get it. to not be able to do that, it feels -- it is in complete. >> does it drive you crazy? >> yes, it does. >> reporter: kathy knows logically her daughter kianna must be dead but how to truly accept it without her body. >> i would go there today and start digging if they would let me. >> it matters. >> it does matter. >> you gave birth to them and you see them through to the

end. >> exactly. >> reporter: an attempt to make sense of it all she asked detective jarrae and her partner to try to do with the killers picked up kianna . >> she wanted to go to this last spot. why? may i ask why? >> kind of because it was like the last known spot that she was at. that i was told she was alive at that spot. so kind of the closure. just to see. where she was at before they took her. you know. >> reporter: but it broke her heart to do it. take this tour of her daughter's last hours. >> i think this is the dead-end street. that gordon cano entered and turned around and -- and somewhere in this little intersection right here, is where she was at.

>> reporter: just an ordinary place. but so painful. >> it was hard. it is difficult to see. it is not what i expected the area. i mean, you know, when she was doing, is no mothers wish. just to see this area to know that it was not what i envisioned. it was not a dirty, dark, nasty, gross, area. >> reporter: kathy found some peace and that, the knowing and seeing. but why her life was taking, so much harder to comprehend? >> i don't think i will be ever able to accept it. it is hard. it is hard. >> reporter: criminal trials are one way the grieving find answers. and with a confession on tape the trial of stephen gordon looked like a formality. or so the prosecutor might have hoped. and then the judge made that ruling.

structure suspected serial killer to the case against him upside down. coming up. >> it is the piece that brings everything together and that was gone. when "dateline" continues and now i'm back in the picture. feel significant symptom relief at 4 weeks with skyrizi, including less abdominal pain and fewer bowel movements. skyrizi helped visibly improve damage of the intestinal lining. and with skyrizi, many were in remission at 12 weeks, at 1 year, and even at 2 years. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. liver problems may occur in crohn's disease. ask your gastroenterologist how to take control

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took his chances against accused serial killer stephen gordon, especially gordon decided to act as his own defense attorney.>> he is very bright. very bright. >> smart enough to know he should not be doing that. >> smart enough to know should not be representing himself. >> reporter: but expectation can be a dangerous thing. before the trial even began, gordon caused a major blow. remember the moment early in his interview when he seemed to reject detect trapp's questioning. gordon argued that continuing the interview at that point was a miranda violation. even though detective trapp had read him his rights at the outset. the judge agreed. ruled that the jury could not see a frame of gordon's confession. >> when he makes the ruling, it is out. a punch in the stomach.

>> what you missing then? everything. >> a confession. it is the piece that brings everything together. and focuses on the four girls and now it is gone. >> all of these women have a special meaning for me and when it got thrown now, i had a really hard time. >> reporter: and gordon asked for a meeting and spring another surprise. he wanted them to drop the sexual assault charges. what would he give you a return? >> you said i will give you a statement that you can use against me in this case. >> reporter: on the eve of trial detective trapp sat face- to-face with stephen gordon and he once again to occur through each crime. >> is it fair to say your intention was to kill her? >> yes. >> reporter: that was played for the jury and then help is always this? gordon suddenly, and the

mothers had to hear the details of their daughters murders. >> maybe i prayed a little too hard because now we have two statements. >> reporter: the jury wasted no time, convicting gordon of four counts of murder. >> guilty of the crime a felony -- >> reporter: and recommended the death penalty.>> the vertex be recorded. >> reporter: for four mothers a measure of justice. kathy sat through the entire trial. as brutal as it was. what is your understanding of human beings? >> they are evil. there is lots of evil in this world. lots of it. >> reporter: the mothers would not have to sit through another trial. >> murder in the 1st degree. how do you plead? >> guilty. >> reporter: in 2022 franc cano pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual assault and murder and sentenced to life without parole.

for detective trapp it was a measure of relief . and finally, she gave those rosaries to four grieving mothers. it is interesting to discover in this line of work that homicide detectives are actually softies. >> i think that the more you allow yourself to feel the better you will be as a detective. and we have to go to the dark places to find answers. so we can get in and out, the better it is for all of us. >> reporter: answers from dark places. we went to the jail where gordon was kept before his transfer to death row. here he was. a man who claimed to know the nature of his evil acts. but did he? we wondered. >> i screwed up. >> is screwed up the right expression to use?>> probably not. i just did not want to say it. what i really think. >> why don't you? >> it is beyond evil. what happened.

what me and him did was beyond evil. >> reporter: but then came the excuse. he has worked it out in his head. the parole system is somehow to blame for his crimes. after all the sexual offender that he and franc cano should not have been allowed to be together and that was a parole violation and the fact that there parole officers did not prevent that violation, he said, means the state is responsible. >> we chose to be together but we were allowed. there is a difference. >> no. come on. are you three? that is what little kids safety their parents, you let me do a bad thing. >> i did not say they led us to a bad thing, i said they let us sleep and hang out at the same spot. and they did. besides what anybody believes -- >> you're going to parse that argument. >> the cause until the day i die. >> because that is on you, what is going on in your head to

make you want to do it? to participate in whatever way you participated, to get whatever thrill? what was the thrill? >> i don't think there was a thrill. >> why did you do it? >> there is no thrill watching women die like that. but i will go back to it again and again. it was my anger issues that i have from everything that happened while we were on parole and probation. >> reporter: we may never know exactly why jarrae was killed or martha or josephine or kianna . but there is one more mystery hiding somewhere in this mountain . the final mystery. coming up. >> to me, she is an angel in disguise. an angel that carries a badge and a gun. >> reporter: and angel whose job is not done. >> he looks at me goes, you are missing one. >> reporter: when "dateline" continues.

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keith morrison: four mothers, four dead daughters, there is sorrow, of course. four mothers, four the daughters. their sorrow, of course. >> when they killed her, they killed me. >> reporter: and a measure of solidarity. to have each other, especially priscilla and linda.

>> now that we know what has happened to her daughter's, i know we will still be friends until the end. because she is walking in the same shoes i am. >> reporter: we asked them about julissa trapp. >> this case was solved because of her. >> to me, she is an angel in disguise. an angel that carries a badge and a gun. >> reporter: their own guardian angel. he brought all of them answers. how they wondered the two men under supervision by parole officers who were being tracked in real time by a gps ankle bracelet, how could they have committed the terrible crimes they were charged with? how could this happen? >> how can this happened? why were they not being monitored? but it was definitely a hard question to get from the mothers themselves, as well. why was it not caught sooner? >> reporter: jarrae's mother sue the department of

corrections and rehabilitation claiming it failed to adequately monitor cord and intranet. state denied the claims. and the case was dismissed. judy also sued the u.s. government and agents of u.s. probation, and that case was dismissed as well. and the ministers in office of the was court published a report , the said federal probation officers followed policies and procedures. >> we actually look at -- >> reporter: as for detective trapp there was one last mystery to solve . because when she first talk to stephen gordon, he revealed something that she was not expecting. >> he looks at me goes, you are missing one. which caught me off guard and i tried not to show too much emotion. and i said, okay. and that was the first time i learned about jane doe. was from him.

>> reporter: jane doe. according to gordon, there was a fifth the victim. >> did she say where she was from? >> she switch was from compton. >> i feel a responsibility because jane doe is not a missing person, she is an unknown and i feel like if i don't look for her, who will? i know there is a family wondering where she is. >> reporter: and so she looked, she combed through missing persons reports. she put up flyers, searched, parade and yes, bought another grocery. why is it so important to give jane doe a name? to you personally. >> i think because she is so hopeless. you were on the street and working as a prostitute and he run into steve gordon and franc cano and your last hours on this earth are horrific. and then they discard you like trash.

>> reporter: trash. detective trapp is still haunted by trash . and that keeps bringing her mind back here. >> even though it is a landfill , i mean, it is quite peaceful when it is quiet. >> reporter: somewhere under here, in addition to kianna , josephine and martha, there is victim number five . and so detective trapp worked her sources until she had a name. it would be reasonable to say that is her. >> logically, yes. absolutely. >> reporter: and when we first spoke with her she cannot quite bring herself to tell yet another mother her suspicions. >> not only do i have to tell her she is dead i have to tell her that she is one of these girls. that will be hard, i think.

>> reporter: out here with us she seemed to be willing herself, pulling strength from the jane doe herself. >> i think it her way she will help me. she will help me. i don't think she wants to be jane doe. forever. >> reporter: and then a couple of months later she let us know she called on the fifth mother and delivered the news. that sable picket, just 19 years old, cross paths with gordon and stephen and did not survive. no charges are pending for her murder bird another family could finally stop wondering. homicide detectives often tell us they work for the dead, up here on landfill mountain we understood that a little better. as detective julissa trapp gripped her rosary , the one sable, we walked away gave her time and are microphone picked up something.

>> hail mary, full of grace, blessed are you -- >> reporter: mountains of trash and things we use and cast away. before detective julissa trapp, this will always be hallowed ground. >> it is hard to look at that, and no that is the end but you are in a better place and you are together and helping each other. you can rest now. and i can take it from here. that is all for this edition of dateline. thank you for watching. hello, i'm andrea canning, represent the malignant sidemo of humanity. these people enjoyed killing. woman: things that the police had never seen before. the malignant