about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding or have kidney or liver problems. if you have hepatitis b, don't stop taking biktarvy without talking to your healthcare provider. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. no matter where life takes you, biktarvy can go with you. talk to your healthcare provider today. keith morrison b(voiceover): private eye joe dalu was so intrigued by the mystery of what happened to chris smith that he

went to work on it pro bono. he knew the laguna beach police had opened a missing person case, but they hadn't checked out chris's old office. so he went to the building's property manager. so we asked if the office was still vacant, and they said yes. and i kind of looked at my partner and said, well, can we go in there and look? and he said, sure. they opened it up. yeah. everything was was empty. keith morrison (voiceover): this is the old 800 exchange space. chris's desk was here. there was a credenza behind him. keith morrison (voiceover): soon enough, dalu started to notice things-- a stain by chris's old office. there was a white powdery substance coming from sort of the ground and seeping through the carpet, which a partner identified as, like, a sulfur. yeah, it makes sort of like a salt stain on the carpet. yes. keith morrison (voiceover): dalu took a picture of it and thought some sort of heavy chemical cleaner had on the spot. but of course, ed shin said chris threw up on the carpet

after a drunken binge at the office. so that made some sense. but dalu was an observant type, all eyes. and what do you know. joe dalu: when i stepped in, i looked at the light switch, and it was white. and there was a blood smear, what i thought was blood. it was red-- dark red. keith morrison: what appeared to be blood on the light switch. yes. and then on the door frame. when you saw that, what's the first thing that occurred to you? that it wasn't just a missing person's. something seriously happened to chris. keith morrison (voiceover): dalu called the sheriff's office. so you found out from joe dalu about some weird thing going on. yeah, i did. he said he saw what he thought might be blood on the doorjamb inside-- inside the office. so-- that'll get your attention. it got my attention. keith morrison: for don voght and ray wert, then sergeants with the orange county sheriff's office, the first thing to do was to send some texts over and take a good look around the old 800 exchange office.

that's when they started finding more suspicious spots on some ceiling tiles behind some molding. they pulled up carpet and found dark colored stains on the concrete underneath. the spots tested positive for human blood. of course, could have been anybody's blood, even another tenant. ok. we got blood in the office. we don't know whose it is. so-- he hasn't been around for over a year. correct. keith morrison (voiceover): of course, since chris wasn't around, there wasn't a blood sample to compare it to. but maybe chris's family could help with that with a dna sample. i had already taken a swab test. they did both swabs on paul and my wife, debbie. keith morrison (voiceover): meanwhile, pi dalu remained deeply invested in finding out what happened to chris. after that blood, someone's blood, was found in the office, he felt it was time to have a heart-to-heart talk with chris's dad, steve.

i said, listen, i think now is the time to understand that maybe chris is not going to come back. and steve is just quiet. and he came back and he said, well, we have to wait. we have to wait. i provided dna. let's just wait. i said, i understand. we'll wait. maybe chris is still alive. it's a very tough thing for a parent. i can't imagine. i really can't. keith morrison (voiceover): but then the results came in. we confirmed that all the blood in the crime scene was, in fact, chris smith's. - all of it? - all of it. nobody else was bleeding in there at all? no. in the end, it was all from one person, and it was one person's dna. keith morrison (voiceover): and even though they didn't have a body, ray wert and don voght came to a sobering conclusion. chris had to be dead. still, the smith family was just not ready, not yet, to accept that chris might be gone.

did you keep hope alive until then? oh, yeah. you just-- you've always got to have hope. i was holding out for hope a little bit, but in my heart, i felt like chris had passed and gone to be with the lord. but the back of your mind, you're just-- yeah, you're still hoping that you'll see your brother again, that this is all just going to make sense somehow in the end. it didn't make very much sense, did it? mm-mm. keith morrison (voiceover): back at the orange county sheriff's office, a missing person case turned into a homicide investigation. it was up to these investigators to figure out what happened to chris smith and why. coming up, detectives, talk to everyone-- chris's girlfriend-- her heart had been broken. keith morrison (voiceover): --his business partner-- he was very agreeable to help. keith morrison (voiceover): --a new employee. didn't he actually move into chris smith's apartment? he did. keith morrison (voiceover): what would they uncover?

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[music playing] keith morrison (voiceover): forensic testing is a little bit like turning on a light in a darkened room. and the empty place it was once the headquarters of 800 exchange told an enlightening story. chris's blood was all over the place-- his office, the break room, doorway, hallway.

but what did all that mean? and what exactly went on in there? chris's brother worked in that very office, so he was able to provide us with very intimate details about who's in what office, how the furniture was set up back then. keith morrison (voiceover): armed with what they had seen, investigators called around, talked to chris's colleagues, the rest of his family, his friends. did you talk to chris's girlfriend? - we both did. - yes. yeah. she must have been a pretty unhappy woman. she was. her heart had been broken, and she was dumped by a text. keith morrison (voiceover): they didn't tell her about the blood in the office at first. they wanted her unvarnished reaction to her former boyfriend, the man who dumped her and ran off with another woman. they were pretty serious, from everything we had learned. and yeah, she was, you could say, scorned, absolutely. did she say negative things about chris?

she did. she did. she-- she talked about some times where he would be upset. keith morrison (voiceover): that's perhaps an understatement. in fact, the police interview was an opportunity for chris's girlfriend to unload on her ex, and did she ever. she said he could be paranoid and volatile and at times erratic. we tore the bandage off an old wound. keith morrison (voiceover): and the investigators decided they wanted to talk to a guy named kenny kraft. christina remembers he showed up at the office after chris disappeared. kenny just kind of needed a job at the time. and so he was a friend, i believe, of one of the other coworkers there. and ed gave him a job and put him to work doing random errands. keith morrison (voiceover): but here's what intrigued investigators. while kenny didn't know chris, he seemed to be trying on his life. didn't he actually move into chris smith's apartment? he did. did you search that apartment? we did.

yes. but there was-- there was nothing in there. all the property had been moved out of there of chris's. keith morrison (voiceover): of course, chris's ex-business partner, ed shin, drew a lot of attention too. the investigators learned that ed was an interesting guy, ambitious, outgoing businessman. he sailed through the university of california at san diego and after graduation, got married, had four kids, was a faithful churchgoer. i felt that the lord had put ed in my path, somebody who i could help as, like, a brother. keith morrison (voiceover): joseph gray met ed at a local church. decided to invite myself, ed, and another gentleman into a weekly, like, small men's-- small men's bible study, i guess i'd call it. we did get close over the course of a number of months, sharing our struggles. keith morrison (voiceover): it was 2008, and the financial meltdown was certainly impacting people like ed, who had started his own sports

memorabilia business. and seeing someone in need, joseph said he loaned him money, helped him get a house, even counseled him about his marriage. i saw as ed's life was falling apart. and i was starting this new division of our company, and i thought i would give him a lifeline and invite him to come on board. keith morrison (voiceover): it was at his new job that ed met chris. eventually, ed and chris made such a good team they spun off, started their own company, 800 exchange. and ed was now a boss and made quite an impression on christina. just a normal young guy who was smart and had a great idea and was going to take this business somewhere. keith morrison (voiceover): christina also thought ed was a great dad. he brought his kids by the office often, and so to see them made me seem that, you know, he made family a priority. keith morrison (voiceover): so well-spoken, so easy, that when ed shin first presented himself to the laguna beach police department

a year after chris disappeared, investigators seemed to have sympathy for him. after all, it was chris who left 800 exchange. keith morrison (voiceover): the orange county investigators took a close look at that interview. ed was questioned. he had answers. of the questions he couldn't answer, he was very agreeable to help in any way he could. he expressed that. he even agreed to do some homework that was given to him to get some more materials that the laguna beach police department had asked him to. he was being very cooperative.

keith morrison (voiceover): but ed shin, the man who made such a good impression, presented a good case, had a secret, lots of secrets. coming up, high stakes and risky business. ed shin was a man with a past. i remember thinking, he's not who i thought he was. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues.

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let me set the record straight. are people born wicked? or do they have wickedness thrust upon them? oh! -ah! [ laughter ] no need to respond. that was rhetorical. hm, hmm.

keith morrison (voiceover): what happens in vegas stays in vegas. isn't that what they say? but it didn't take long for investigators to find out about ed shin's vegas. pull a string, and the things you hear. my, my. ed shin loved going to vegas, but he didn't just play the slots or spend an hour or two at the $5 tables. oh, no, not ed shin. you said he traveled on a private plane? there was times he did, yes. keith morrison (voiceover): christina, the 800 exchange receptionist, told investigators about one of the times the staff went on a business trip to vegas with ed. a rolls royce phantom takes me to a beautiful hotel. and i remember seeing ed's room that he was staying in, just the most extravagant room-- two stories, of 24-hour butler, a massage room, a pool room, multiple bedrooms, an elevator. it was-- it was beyond what i had ever seen. keith morrison (voiceover): the investigators

learned ed not only liked stunning hotel rooms, he also liked to keep company with beautiful women. there's a group of women that come down. and they're around my age, maybe a little older, maybe a little younger, and very scantily dressed. and i remember thinking, oh, you know, it's vegas. they're just walking by us. and then i see them get in the car with ed. keith morrison (voiceover): ed told christina he hired the women to bring attention and potential new clients to the company. and when it came to ed spending money, it seemed like it was coming out of a fire hose. we had co-workers tell us that he would sit at a table for 10 hours, and they saw thousands, tens of thousands being gambled. it was after vegas that i remember walking away from it thinking, he's not who i thought he was. keith morrison (voiceover): that was something joseph gray found out too. remember, he met ed at church, took him under his wing, got him a job at his company, lg technologies.

and then ed betrayed him. gray discovered ed repaid his friendship and generosity by secretly manipulating lg's bank information. this electronic systems you put your bank account in, the funds get transferred. ed went in and changed that information to his own personal bank account. keith morrison (voiceover): in other words, he stole it, then left the company before lg discovered the theft. so a young man that i had helped out ended up absconding with between the leads that we assume were stolen and the physical funds that were taken just shy of $2 and 1/2 million. keith morrison (voiceover): ed pleaded guilty to embezzlement, and he worked out a deal to pay partial restitution. that was 2010, when he and chris were already at 800 exchange. the deal? as long as ed repaid $700,000, he'd avoid a prison sentence.

keith morrison: so one by one, you'd encounter these people who had a different view of ed shin than the one he would like them to have. we did. people who-- that knew him and other people we did talk to said, yeah, there's a different-- there's a different side to ed shin. keith morrison (voiceover): the more digging they did, the more investigators could see that ed was living in a house of cards, falling down from the weight of his own money problems. that's something christina saw just before she quit working for 800 exchange. a lot of phone calls from vendors saying they didn't receive payment, that we owed them money. and it wasn't, you know, not small amounts. i'm talking like 30, 40, $50,000 that we owed these people. ed shin's desperate. he's got a large debt that he's paying off because of a criminal case. and he's got a wife and four kids. and a gambling problem. and a gambling problem. and the biggest thing is one of the expenses if he doesn't pay off, he's going to prison.

keith morrison (voiceover): investigators had ed shin on their radar. did he have some idea that you were after him? i don't think so at that point, no. he had no clue that we were-- that we were looking into him. keith morrison (voiceover): then the sheriff's office got an urgent call about ed from the feds. we had flagged his passport in case he was-- you know, would flee the country for-- for some reason. and sure enough, we were notified that he was boarding a plane in la and headed for canada. keith morrison (voiceover): ed, in fact, had already boarded, and the flight was literally minutes from taking off. they made a call. ed was pulled from the plane. he was still on probation for the embezzlement case, so the investigators could pull him in for an interrogation. but they weren't really interested in talking about that case. keith morrison (voiceover): ed told the investigators over and over he had nothing to do with the disappearance of chris smith.

i don't know what you're talking about. he's gone. i don't know nothing. and then ray told him, well, guess what? you're under arrest for murder of chris smith. keith morrison (voiceover): then they left the room for a bit, let him think. and when they came back, ed shin had a whole new story. coming up, what had happened to chris. it's a hard night. i fell to my knees. it hits you right in the gut. this case was about greed at its most diabolical. it's awful. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. go-friends, gather! keke! chris! jason! boop! friends.

let's go, let's go, friends! hold onto your dice. woohoo!! -nice frosting, pratt. -thank you! how we doin', keke? tastes like money to me. i can't go back to jail! wait, did you rob my bank? -hehe. -are we winning!? -ha ha ha! -oh boy! yeah! money, power, friendship. let's go! no more gross cough syrup. we all want you to feel better. i want extra tv time or i'll walk! how about this? introducing the only kids soft-chew for medicated cough relief. aaaaghhh! new mucinex children's mighty chews are mighty clever. regina king is in our studio looking radiant as ever. don't cover up your glow. ♪♪ flawless. all eyes on you.

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hi, i'm richard lui with a news update.

arctic blast hitting the northern plains in western great lakes this weekend. the snow is expected to taper off as it moves across the great lakes from canada. 60 million people were under win alerts on saturday according to the national weather service. southwest airlines announcing it will end cavan service early on flights starting december 4. flight attendants will prepare for landing at 18,000 feet instead of 10,000 to help reduce injuries caused by turbulence. for now, back to dateline. m , , but ed was insisting he had nothing to do with it. so investigators left him alone to reflect. i walked out of the room. and within a very short period of time, less than 10 minutes, he told another detective, hey, can i talk to them again? now he wants to talk. first words out of his mouth were, i don't know what you guys think, but it's not first-degree murder. keith morrison: sure. he said, well, if i tell you what really happened,

am i still going to jail? well, i don't know, ed. what do you have to say? you haven't told us yet. i haven't heard what you have to say. keith morrison (voiceover): his story? it was self defense. the paranoid, erratic chris smith, he said, had finally come unglued and attacked him. keith morrison (voiceover): finally, said ed, chris hit his head on his desk and collapsed on the floor, dead, or at least dying. keith morrison (voiceover): he insisted it wasn't like he meant to kill chris. but it certainly confirmed that chris was dead, and the family had to be told. it's a hard night. then we told paul, and then it was a rough thing for you.

i mean, he fell down into the street just crying, you know. it's like just awful. i fell to my knees. dad showed up and mama just cried it out in the parking lot for quite a while. i just had never felt that before. it was so-- it was a really horrible feeling. you know, it hits you right in the gut. keith morrison (voiceover): but where was chris's body? if investigators could find that, they would know exactly how chris died. keith morrison (voiceover): didn't know, he said, because somebody else got rid of the body. but then the investigators got ed's phone records and, well, well, where was ed's phone days after whatever happened back in the office?

those same phone records showed him going all the way out to boulevard, california and ocotillo, california, which is in the middle of the desert near the mexican border. keith morrison (voiceover): here it is-- vast, empty, among the loneliest places in america, the california desert just north of the mexican border. there are holes out there somewhere. every lawman around knows it. places where the bones of terrible crimes lie under the sand, undiscovered, their tales untold. in fact, ed's phone pinged out here two different times in the week after chris disappeared. two trips? two trips. and one of the trips was at 1:00, 2:00 in the morning. did you bring in cadaver dogs? we did. cadaver dogs, well over 100 searchers, horseback, motorcycle, dogs. detective: tv. keith morrison (voiceover): our cameras were there

as searchers found nothing. and over the following years, the family would beg for information from ed shin, and here, again, nothing. so when ed finally went on trial in november 2018 at the orange county superior court, seven years after he was arrested for murder, prosecutor matt murphy was loaded for bear. and for murphy, this case was a perfect fit. he's a surfer too, knows chris world, maybe even caught a glimpse of him out there. so what was it all about, this case? this case was about greed at its most diabolical and base form. he killed a really nice guy over money so that he could go gambling in vegas. but to then assume his identity online and torture his family like this, it's awful. the evidence is going to show that ed shin owed a lot of people a lot of money.

the evidence is going to show that in trying to legally protect his own financial interests, chris smith became an obstacle for ed shin. keith morrison (voiceover): the prosecutor told the jury that chris suspected his partner was stealing from their company, wanted new rules to stop him. but ed was starved for cash and desperate to get it, desperate enough to kill. it was that blood that was never fully cleaned up, said the prosecutor, that proved the attack was sudden and violent. there's blood on the ceiling. there's blood on the carpet. there's blood on the walls. there's blood on the furniture. the evidence is going to show that man there beat or stabbed chris smith brutally to death in that office. keith morrison (voiceover): and then the prosecutor told the court, ed got busy. it was the beginning of a brazen cover up. ed got into his dead partner's email accounts, masqueraded as chris. and his very first email sent minutes after the killing was to a company lawyer.

attorney: at 6:01 that night, did you receive an email concerning what appeared to be a change in heart or a change in direction for mr. smith concerning the future of these companies? yes. attorney: ok. give us the gist of that, if you could. he sent an email saying that they had reached a resolution and he was going to be bought out. keith morrison (voiceover): ed had faked a buyout, and with that email, he severed chris smith's ties to the company, which allowed ed to steal everything, hundreds of thousands, maybe more. and then he started getting rid of the awful evidence before the staff could get wise. ed had told us, via email, i believe, to work from home. i'm having the office redone a little bit. everything's going to be repainted, so be aware that there might be tarps on the floor just because of the painters. keith morrison (voiceover): and ed, posing as chris online, turned his attention to chris's family, spinning fabulous tales of world travels

for months on end. look, i've never seen anything like those emails. keith morrison (voiceover): but ed mingled fact and fiction in those emails. it was ed acting as chris who dumped chris's girlfriend, ed who said chris had taken off with tiffany taylor. and paul was right. he did see tiffany in vegas. of course, she had nothing to do with the whole mess. no wonder she looked at him blankly. court worker: raise your right hand. keith morrison (voiceover): the prosecutor called kenny kraft to the stand. ed hired him to get rid of chris's stuff-- his car, his clothes, his surfboard. attorney: so you-- you took the surfboards down and gave them to your friend. is that right? correct. attorney: now, did you sell them, or you gave them to him? gave them to him. keith morrison (voiceover): that was a big tell. any surfer, and most especially a surfing da, knows you don't head out on a surfing trip and leave your boards behind. there's a whole laundry list that anybody that's ever done a surf trip knows and ed shin didn't.

keith morrison (voiceover): how would the defense counter all that? oh, ed shin had a plan. his stock and trade is manipulating people and lying, and all they need is one. all i need to do is get on the stand. i can persuade those people that i'm honorable. right. and just one-- all he needs is one, and he avoids a conviction. that's a siren song to a con man like ed shin. keith morrison (voiceover): would he take the stand? how could he resist? coming up. ed shin tells his story. that's when he grabbed me. attorney: how did he grab you? he made a move towards my throat. attorney: did he place his hands on you? yes. keith morrison (voiceover): what really happened in that office? when "dateline" continues. billy: one second, grandma. this guy is going to buy my car. okay? grandma: you need carvana... entering plate number... grandma: no accidents, right? billy: no. grandma: generating offer... carvana can pick it up tomorrow! billy: that's an amazing offer. announcer: sell your car the easy way with carvana.

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keith morrison (voiceover): defense attorney ed welbourn opened his case with one big idea, that chris smith was the architect of his own death. and ed shin was a thief, maybe, dishonest, sure, but not a killer. it was more or less the same story ed had been telling since he was arrested, that chris attacked him before hitting his head on the desk, causing his own death, that chris was an angry, volatile alcoholic. why should the jury believe that? here was the defense strategy. call the girlfriend who talked to the police seven years ago when she still thought chris dumped her for another woman. his girlfriend was a reluctant witness, and her testimony was not recorded.

on the stand, she was forced to confirm the story she told police, the negative things she said about chris in anger, things she now regrets saying, like-- he broke things, threw things, punched holes in the wall at his own home. he had a new phone every month because he would throw it against the wall and break it. this is stuff that she witnessed. keith morrison (voiceover): and then ed shin himself appeared. to tell the truth? he promised he would. court worker: --the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? i do. keith morrison (voiceover): the true story, said ed? chris was unstable, dishonest. he claimed that chris helped him with the embezzlement scheme that he, ed, was convicted of. and on that day, june 4, 2010, the day chris died, ed threatened to rat chris out. and that, said ed, is when chris blew. i think that's when he grabbed me.

attorney: how did he grab you? he made a move towards my throat. did he place his hands on you? yes. keith morrison (voiceover): what followed, ed told the court, was a monumental brawl, with ed portraying himself as a reluctant fighter up against a violent, remorseless chris. there was grappling and wrestling, even a kind of midair collision, like a ballet gone bad. as he was making a move to jump, i think i kind of went up, too, to try to just catch him midair. and it was almost like a-- like a midair collision. keith morrison (voiceover): and blood, ed testified, blood everywhere. and then finally the end, chris lunging at ed. i just sidestepped, and i grabbed him. and i remember just turning around and swinging him into his office as hard as i could. attorney: and were you able to throw him into his office? yes. attorney: and what happened to-- when he went into his office?

i think he took a couple steps, and that's when he fell, and he hit-- he hit the desk really hard. keith morrison (voiceover): ed said he didn't know what to do. but because of that embezzlement scheme, he didn't think the cops would believe a thing he said. so he didn't call 911. attorney: what were you scared of? i guess, getting rearrested, losing my family. keith morrison (voiceover): he had to get rid of the body, he said. so he called his old fixer, johnny vegas, the operator who'd once lined up girls and parties in las vegas. attorney: what was your understanding from that phone call? that he's going to reach out to somebody, see that he could help. attorney: and what were you supposed to do? i was supposed to have some cash. i believe it was 10,000, could have been 15,000. and i was also supposed to just be

ready to take a phone call. keith morrison (voiceover): and sure enough, he said, somebody called, a guy with an eastern european accent. so you got some instructions from this person. ed shin: yes. what were the instructions? just meet this guy at some gas station up in long beach, give him-- give him the money and the directions, leave the office unlocked. keith morrison (voiceover): the guy was tall and blond, said ed, leather jacket, probably russian. and over the weekend, ed testified, the body was removed. the clean up followed. but then ed told the court the whole thing became too much for him. and he decided to flee to mexico. almost made it to the border. and i couldn't do it. i couldn't get myself to leave my family and just run away. so i turned around, went back. keith morrison (voiceover): and he got back to his emails,

emails that would torture the smith family for months to come. attorney: mr. shin, looking back at this situation, do you regret the things that you did after the fight? everything. attorney: why? because it was wrong, on every level, not to call the police, not to trust that everything would have sorted itself out, to-- to completely deceive a family. keith morrison (voiceover): but of course, ed's story was not about to go unchallenged, was it? not a chance. prosecutor matt murphy came prepared because, in his words, he had a con man on the witness stand to outwit. where does he rank in the realm of con artists? oh, boy. he is a horrible, lamentable, disgraceful human being.

keith morrison (voiceover): it was curious, said the prosecutor. when ed told investigators about fighting chris, he never once mentioned anything about being grabbed by the neck until now. matt murphy: that's got to be a very significant moment in your life, right? i mean, this is when your partner grabs you by the throat. ok? right? - yes. matt murphy: ok. did you ever say anything to detective voght about him grabbing you by the throat? i do not remember if i did. matt murphy: well-- i don't think i did. keith morrison (voiceover): if the fight was as violent as he claimed in his interview with investigators, wasn't it strange, asked the prosecutor, that only chris's blood was spattered around the office, that ed somehow emerged apparently unscathed? can you explain that for us? i cannot. keith morrison (voiceover): as christ lay dying, ed elected not to call 911. instead, he testified, he got out of the office

and drove around for a while. but ed's next move, according to prosecutor murphy, was proof that he planned to kill chris. ed hit send on that carefully composed email to a lawyer, which claimed that chris agreed to sell ed his share of the company. which he'd written beforehand-- had to have. had to have. ed absolutely had to have. there isn't a typo in that thing, you know. i mean, that's calm, cool, collected, cold-blooded, and ruthless. keith morrison (voiceover): near the end of his cross-examination, murphy tried a little sarcasm. matt murphy: are you tearing up a little bit right now? i'm ok, sir. ok. were you tearing up when you wrote that email to debbie smith saying that her son was committing suicide or suggesting that he was going to do that? were you tearing up when you did that? yes. ok. you were actually at the computer tearing up as you were going to break a mother's heart by essentially blaming her for the death of her son.

that was making you feel sad? it was one of the many emotions i felt, yes. keith morrison (voiceover): in his closing, the prosecutor assured the jury that chris smith was not the person the defense portrayed, not even close. that, in fact, chris was not violent, was not a fighter, not a drunk, but was a happy, friendly, creative guy who didn't deserve to die. so what does it do to your heart and your stomach as you're-- they're wrapping things up, and the jury's going to get the case, and now you have no control whatsoever over how these strangers are going to decide? it's kind of like when you hold your breath and you get to that point where you, like, just can't hold your breath anymore. you just want it to be done. it's like-- it's hard. keith morrison (voiceover): soon a verdict, and perhaps finally a chance to exhale. coming up, a powerful confrontation.

i don't give a sweet flying [bleep] about that. i don't. i kind of care that the family has a chance to get some closure. keith morrison (voiceover): will ed shin reveal his final secret? when "dateline" continues. why just give a gift, when you can give a gift with meaning? shutterfly, make something that means something. enjoy 40% off your order with code gifts40. order now for holiday delivery.

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the defendant is present. the jurors are present on behalf of the people. keith morrison (voiceover): after eight painful years and an emotional month-long trial,

the family of chris smith would spend one more day in an orange county courtroom. the jurors got the case midmorning. and less than an hour later, they had a verdict. [no audible dialogue] keith morrison (voiceover): guilty of first-degree murder for financial gain. ed shin was done. what's it like to hear them say what you've been waiting so many years for them to say? it was wonderful. i just felt, like, waves and waves of just, like-- it was-- it was like the grief that i've always been holding it, but also but now i'm going to be able to breathe a full breath. keith morrison (voiceover): that breath, it's bittersweet. because through the hours of interviews and testimony, ed shin has not provided one piece of the story that would bring chris home. his body's somewhere out there down on the desert

in southern california. would you want to know? would you want to find it? i think so, yeah. we didn't have any of his possessions. we have nothing. keith morrison (voiceover): after all the smith family endured, perhaps it was time for answers. keith morrison: good morning. keith morrison (voiceover): we made an arrangement to talk to ed shin in jail, now a convicted killer. what you did, you confess, is terribly cruel, allowing them to think that he was alive all that time when he was dead, when you had already killed him. i mean, that's terrible. i know. i definitely know that those things that i did were terrible and beyond wrong. and, you know-- and i know that ultimately that there's a price to be paid for all that. keith morrison (voiceover): he will pay the price, life in prison. he was sentenced a few weeks before we met. [no audible dialogue]

keith morrison (voiceover): whether ed shin panicked, like he claims, or is, in fact a cold-blooded killer, the fact that chris's body has never been found is-- well, it's troubling. investigators, of course, believe that ed, ed himself, buried chris's body out in that vast california desert. that day, you had to get rid of the body. you had to get it somewhere. so if you didn't do it, then who did? that's something i can't talk about. that's-- that's the big issue. so you're going to take the fall for this guy? absolutely. keith morrison (voiceover): take the fall for who? remember, ed claimed some russian brought in by johnny vegas rid of the body. we actually found johnny vegas and asked him about that. (chuckling) it's funny, though, because that's the first time i've ever heard of this. keith morrison (voiceover): his real name is john [indistinct]. right there i can tell you that whatever that guy's

telling you guys, it's a lie. keith morrison (voiceover): and that russian cleaner, the body disposer? i don't know any russian people [indistinct]. the russian cleaner-- what's a russian cleaner? you kept throwing out these names, like johnny vegas, people who supposedly helped you, the russian. it was all fantasy. it was all untrue. but you wouldn't reveal either where you put the body personally when you drove that rental truck down to wherever you drove it to. you won't reveal that. i can't. i don't-- i don't have that. that's-- and it's not something that i can do, unfortunately. and you're absolutely right. a name, that's all i need, a name. no, that's not-- that-- a place. that's impossible. you know, i understand that that's what everybody wants. and if-- yeah, i know. so it's blatantly obvious, right? and it's so easy, right? it's easy to just sit here and say, well, it all comes down to this. well, it does kind of. right.

so then if it was that easy for me, then don't you think it would have happened already? it's not. so unfortunately-- well, let's understand-- let me understand that a bit because the body went somewhere. mm-hmm. the condition of the body would reveal what happened during that fight. yes. and if you're telling any kind of-- any sliver of what you're talking about is true, then it would make things less bad for you, right? absolutely. then maybe you could explain why it's impossible for you to give us the answer. i mean, it's one or the other. either i can answer the question or i can tell you why i can't. there are just some secrets that a man is willing to give up his life for. all right. so then i think we're kind of at an understanding, which is that you know-- this is somewhere that i can't go. it's-- right. that you know-- i'm sorry. you know, i know as a journalist, that's-- you know,

everybody wants-- that would be a coup de grace for you to unearth some-- ed, i don't give a sweet flying [bleep] about that. i don't. i don't care. i kind of care-- well, you do care. --that the family has a chance to get some closure-- they have closure. --that they have been begging you for. they don't have closure. - yes, they do. they don't know where their-- they don't know where their child is. you're a parent. i am. right. so let's get to this. we're at a point where you're saying you can't provide the information. so second best, why can't you provide the information? you get all mysterious when i ask that question. just tell me that. are there bad guys waiting to pounce on your family and harm your children or something? no, but like i said, just-- so ed shin did it himself, didn't he? no, absolutely not. i did not. keith morrison (voiceover): but that is exactly what don voght, now retired, still believes.

we felt then and we feel now that ed knows where the body is. we feel he buried the body. keith morrison (voiceover): and he refuses to give up that location, they say, because he knows that chris's body would reveal the truth about how ed killed him. but ed shin insists it's really just about that one thing. it's about protecting, and that's it. and there's nothing else. so, you know-- protecting who? i told you already. your family. absolutely. from what? i'm-- i'm not-- i'm not going to talk about it. the more we go down that road, you know, it's-- it becomes this useless cycle. keith morrison (voiceover): over and over, he wouldn't explain. this is where we're always ending up. keith morrison (voiceover): and so a family's frustration and grief will remain without a final resting place.

surfers are a tight crew. when one dies, they gather for what's called a paddle-out ceremony. and this was chris's crew. friends from high school, work, family gathered at the beach on the central coast where chris and paul grew up. there were flowers and memories, laughter, tears. chris smith may be buried somewhere in the great, big desert, but this is where his spirit lives on, in the crashing surf he loved. red flags ever pop up that maybe there was some evidence that was being hidden? certainly, certainly. you smelled a rat. yes. andrea canning: secrets, lies, corruption. the biggest part of this problem is the abuse of power.