weekend, actually. i'll be joined by two co-hosts to be named soon, so watch this space. the current hosts of the weekend, my good friends and colleague symone sanders townsend, michael steele and alicia menendez will be moving to weeknights at 7 p.m, but that'll do it for me. as always, thanks for watching. tune in tomorrow to the sunday show when senator chris van hollen of maryland joins us live to discuss how democrats plan to counter trump's joint address to congress on tuesday night. that's tomorrow at 6 p.m. eastern, right here on msnbc. follow us on instagram, tiktok and threads using the handle at and threads using the handle at weekend and blue sky those are powerful words from a teenage girl, i fear he could kill me. she was scared to death. narrator: a daughter and a dancer murdered one day after school. it was just so brutal, and she was all by herself.

i think that was the worst part. who in the world could do this? and are they going to do it again? this was personal. narrator: clue after clue. there were footprints in megan's blood. narrator: suspect after suspect. did you kill meghan? no. i was in shock. they were looking at everyone that she had contact with. narrator: twist after twist. instant panic. instant, instant panic. i still get chills. people have secrets. people have a lot of secrets. [music playing] narrator: the family that lived in this cozy house on this quiet street never came back after the awful thing that happened here. it's terrifying. it's terrifying to think of. narrator: it was april 10, 2008, portsmouth, virginia.

police sergeant robert mcdaniel was right nearby when the all points bulletin went out to law enforcement. the call comes out, and it's literally one block away from where i'm standing. did the address ring a bell? it did and it didn't. narrator: all he knew was that someone had been killed inside that house so you go there, and what do you discover? i went in to clear the house out of anybody inside the house, to make sure the scene stayed as pristine as possible for them. and when i looked down, i realized then that it was megan. narrator: meghan landowski the teenage victim, was someone he knew. he knew her whole family. it was her stepfather, chris, who found meghan's body as he came in from work. she was just white, just laying there as peaceful as she could be. then i went, i looked again. then i noticed-- i saw blood.

sexually. >> assaulted and. >> she was bleeding. >> to death. >> to death. narrator: she was a tiny 16-year-old girl who cared about people and loved to dance. he couldn't comprehend what had just happened to her. could you tell how she had been killed? i recognized what i saw, but i wasn't processing what i saw, does that make sense? when i found chris, he was going into a state of shock and he had this distant look in his eyes. i still had the phone in my hand, and he was the one trying to bring me out of the trance that i was in. he pointed at his eyes and said, you know me. look at me. narrator: chris pulled himself together and called his wife angie at her office. her coworkers drove her home. so we get there, and they've got the house taped off

and i'm running towards the house. and i had a guy grab me and says, you can't go up there. i said, oh, i'm going up there. that's my that's my child. that's my house. and i'm like, i want to make sure it's her. i want to see her. i want to make sure that it's her. and chris grabbed me and said, it's her. you were trying to protect her, to not have to see what you saw. right. narrator: with good reason. meghan had been stabbed over and over. there was blood everywhere. she never stood a chance. it was a terrible sight, even for veteran law enforcement. you can't get it out of your head. and it's something-- you want to go home and hug-- it's ok. i know how hard it is, given what you saw.

you just want to go home and hug your children. narrator: investigators put aside their personal feelings and started to decipher the story told by the evidence. they learned fairly quickly that after school, meghan dropped in on a neighbor. so they have a conversation-- - for a few minutes. - a short one. a short conversation. and-- does she say if anyone's coming, she's expecting a visitor, or anything she's doing? she's talking about school, normal stuff, how is she feeling, ttells her that i'mthen s going to go back and make macaroni and cheese for my brother when he gets home. narrator: suzanne sequeira and her husband karl are crime scene investigators. they arrived at the house and quickly started to identify clues, like a small leaf found on a bedroom floor. that told them how the killer might have gotten inside. finding this leaf was kind of a surprise. when we went outside, there was this big bush right

under the parents' window that actually had this type of leaf to it. narrator: the bedroom window was unlocked, the screen pushed up. they surmised the killer climbed over the bush and through the window, and forced meghan upstairs, where she was bound with tape and sexually assaulted. her underwear and her skirt were on the floor. there was also-- she had a watch, hair clips, like-- and it was thrown through the room. so it looks like at that point that there probably had been a struggle. she had been fighting back. we believed that somehow she gets up and gets down into the kitchen. narrator: it was there that the killer finished his attack. with a knife from the kitchen, he stabbed meghan about 40 times. 7 of those wounds were inflicted after she was dead. just the mere volume of these stab wounds, there's a whole lot of anger involved in that. that's not what you would typically

find on a random attack. this was personal. this-- somebody knew meghan. narrator: at the base of the sink were bloody shoe prints. the investigators noted how the prints led from the kitchen to the front door. we could see them leading from the body coming out the door. based on the fact that there was blood on the storm door coming out from the inside, so we know that he came out the front door. was megan's blood found on the doorknob to the front door? it was a mix. there was a little bit of hers and the suspect's. narrator: police believe the killer was still carrying a second knife taken from the kitchen. it was from the butcher block, a missing knife? it was the missing knife. you believe the killer had dumped the murder weapon as he ran down the street. as he was running down the street, we believe he just tossed it down the sewer as he was running away. narrator: while police launched a murder investigation, the news spread quickly through the community. heather manousos was a friend from meghan's dance group.

my dance teacher called a meeting. they wanted everyone there who knew her. most of the other students in the room were a lot younger, so i think she was trying to be very, very sensitive to that. i just remember her saying that meghan had died. and it was at that point that i asked, you know, did she get into an accident? and they told us, we don't really have any details right now. narrator: but it wouldn't be long before details of the killing did come out britney hoffler was a friend from school. it's hard enough to lose somebody-- sorry. but it was just-- it was just so brutal. and she was all by herself. i think that was the worst part. narrator: meghan's lonely, painful death was something

everyone took to heart. friends, family, police, they remembered a girl brimming with life. now, finding her killer would require determination, imagination and help from everyone her life had touched. coming up-- i didn't know if it was somebody who had targeted her specifically or if it was just a random. to me, it sounded like someone who would have been pretty angry with her. narrator: a sudden realization hits megan's stepfather, one early obvious suspect. i was in the back of the police car. and i called the agent at ncis, and i told her, i said, the bastard killed her. narrator: when "dateline" continues. (♪♪) ♪ (slow down) ♪ (♪♪) cut!!!! i get it! slow motion. slow down geographic atrophy.

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prompted a far reaching response by law enforcement. is this all hands on deck? everybody was there. a lot of our resources were used on that case. narrator: as investigators began talking to meghan's friends and family, they were hearing pretty much the same thing. meghan had really close friends, and then she had-- basically, she was friends with everybody. narrator: more than that, they heard that meghan lived to make people happy. but her parents say she was happiest when she danced. she was really good at it. and she was so small. she was so tiny. and she just would float across that stage. and she was beautiful, just beautiful. i remember her parents coming in with this wild child. you can kind of tell when they first walk in what they're like. and she just had tons of energy.

narrator: her after school dance coach, kelly derek, says her favorite kind of dance was also the most rigorous. as soon as she started ballet, it looked good on her. it looked right on her. she had really, really great ballet feet. we used to call them like banana feet. she had a perfect arches. oh, wow. is that what you call ballerinas with good feet, ballet feet? that's what we called them, yeah. narrator: the girl with the banana feet also had a sense of empathy beyond her years. i met her at my audition for the kelly's dance explosion dance team. i was really, really nervous. i had no friends there. i didn't know any of the teachers. and meghan was the first person to approach me and kind of walk me through the audition. narrator: investigators learned that kids and adults just liked being around her. she always had her hands hugging or jumping on somebody, or she was just always in your face, always.

if i would walk down the hallway, she was always, what are you doing miss kelly? what are you doing? where are you going? do you need any help? one of the jokes that she started kind of around our dance school-- i'm not sure if i should say this or not. sure, go ahead. she would say, my balls hurt, like the balls of her feet. so that became like a saying that we joked around the dance school for many, many years because of her. narrator: meghan and her family lived right across the elizabeth river from the naval station in norfolk, virginia. mom angie had a job at a construction company. her husband, chris, worked at the naval hospital. so meghan was your stepdaughter, but really like your daughter? absolutely. we just hit it off as just-- she was my daughter. i mean, we joked and carry on. she was the protective older sister. she was the comedian of the family. she was the entertainer. and the boss. and the boss.

narrator: and as it turns out, a pretty chatty boss. there was a joke in the family to say, meghan, five minutes, can you go five minutes without talking? and she goes, ok, time me. so i'm like, ok. so we did it one day, and she couldn't. she couldn't do it. from what i've been told, she cared a lot about her grades. yes. so everything-- it sounds like everything with meghan was sort of-- was she like a perfectionist, or no? i wouldn't say she was a perfectionist. she just wanted to please everyone. narrator: her freshman year, she got into a high school with a special arts program. she found herself surrounded by talented dancers, singers, classical musicians. she was putting in long hours, commuting on the bus. would you two sit together on the bus? yeah, all the time. what did you talk about? anything and everything, just friends, people that she had met. would you talk about boys on the bus? yes, yeah. we would, here and there, for sure. she did talk quite a few times about certain guys, but it wasn't anything serious.

it was all, you know, like little crushes here and there. was there a type of guy that she liked? um-- whether it was like an athlete or-- not that i know of. i mean, like i said, she just kind of loved everybody in their own way. it didn't matter where you came from, what you looked like, what your story was. she was going to be your friend. narrator: and that's how it was, until it seemed that meghan's smile started to disappear. she just wasn't herself. a little over halfway through the year, her grades started slipping a little bit and she kind of changed out of nowhere. and she was kind of just rebelling a little bit, was getting into trouble a little bit at school. would she confide in you at all about what was going on? yes, typically, she would. but this, it was a complete switch that kind of changed. narrator: something was seriously wrong. and a few months later, meghan was killed. i just didn't know what to think. i didn't know if it was somebody

who had targeted her specifically, or if it was just a random. to me, it sounded like someone who would have been pretty angry with her, and i couldn't think of who that would be. she didn't have any enemies that you knew of? not that i know of, nobody. narrator: but her parents knew something the friends didn't. in his grief and panic, his home now a murder scene, her stepfather made one more phone call, this one to investigators with the navy. i was in the back of the police car and i called the agent at ncis and i told her, i said, the bastard killed her. narrator: a secret was about to come out, a secret that meghan's family believed had everything to do with her murder. coming up-- i said, tell me what happened. tell me what's going on. narrator: meghan shares her explosive secret, first with her parents, then with the police. this has got to be excruciating

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trump's first 100 days. watch. >> i'm going to be here five days a week again. >> read and listen. >> staying up half the night reading. >> executive orders. >> for this defining time in the second trump presidency. stay second trump presidency. stay with meghan landowski's parents were blind with grief. but even with all the chaos that followed her murder, they felt certain about who did it. it had to do with something that happened months earlier, when megan's grades took a dive, along with her spirit. she was very emotional. and we finally told her, said, ok, your grades are our only concern right now. we got to get them up. whatever we have to do, let's do it. narrator: meghan's parents thought the school was the problem, so they switched her to a different high school closer to home for her sophomore year. it was that fall when even heather noticed the change. i hadn't seen her in probably

about a month and a half, so i was excited to see her. and she did not seem like herself. she just seemed-- i don't know, not her bubbly personality it was. almost like she didn't even want to say hello. like a light had gone out? kind of, yeah. narrator: her parents also wondered about some of the kids she was hanging out with. they suspected one of them was involved with drugs. we noticed that she came home a couple times and all she wanted to do was sleep, which threw up red flags with us. narrator: they had her take a drug test. it was positive for marijuana. we confronted her about it, you know. and she finally admitted it that she had tried it. and i said, ok, well, let's try not to do that anymore. so she agreed. narrator: but meghan continued to have problems. i asked her what is going on, and she told me, nothing. and i'm like, no, this ain't nothing.

so this is more than just pot at this point. you feel like-- your gut's telling you something's up with meghan. she actually ended up leaving dance. her parents were kind of having her take a break for a little bit, hoping that she would bring her grades back up and that then she'd be able to come back. did you try to call her or text her to talk about it? no, i just figured i didn't want to intrude on her. maybe she just needed some space. narrator: at home, the problems were getting worse. chris says he threatened to do something he had never done before. i told her, i said, if you don't tell me right here now, you're going to be severely punished. and i told her, i said, i'm going to blister your butt until you tell me the truth. narrator: she told chris something that changed everything, something that convinced him the grades, the attitude, the pot weren't the problem. they were symptoms of something far more serious.

then she tells me that rob hicke had been touching her. narrator: robert hicke, a married father of four daughters, a navy health specialist, a close friend of the family. he picked up for officer, and he was on his way to make captain. narrator: their families hung out together-- birthday parties, summer cookouts, grownups and kids. this is your close friend. this is my best friend, and i trusted him more than i would trust just about anybody else. narrator: chris immediately called meghan's mother and told her what he had just heard. and i'm like, are you serious? are you sure? and she got on the phone with me and i told her, i said, tell me what happened. tell me what's going on. and then she told me and i sort of said, are you sure? because this is someone's life you're going to ruin.

and she goes, mom, i am absolutely 100% sure. how did you feel on the phone when you were told this news? i was hurt. i was mad. i was sad for his family because of what they're about to go through. and i was more hurt for chris, because that was chris's best friend. it was betrayal, plain and simple. but you don't expect it from a guy that you trust with your life. is it that feeling like, you've got this news, do you want to just like run over there and-- you know, i don't want to say it, but-- you know? - oh, trust me. - oh, yeah. do some harm? absolutely. 100%. narrator: meghan's parents decided she needed to talk to the police, and that's when she first met sergeant robert mcdaniel. i was a detective in the special victims unit. narrator: that's right, the officer who would go on to investigate meghan's murder

is the officer who first heard meghan's story about robert hicke. so this has got to be excruciating for a 15-year-old to come in and talk to a total stranger, even though you're there to help her, to expose this potential secret. yeah. narrator: he remembers she started slowly, fearfully. and then i told her, i said, i've heard just about anything that you're going to say. you're not going to embarrass me. narrator: she said it all began with hicke paying special attention to her when she was 14. and he started talking about how pretty she was and that kind of stuff. and then he kissed her one time. and that was closer to when she turned 15. he'd always catch her by herself. and that's generally what we call, like it's a type of grooming, to get her used to being around without her parents around. and then she was kind of impressed that somebody older was paying attention to her that wasn't her parents or her family. narrator: meghan told him that after she turned 15,

the relationship became sexual. how old is he at this time? he's in his 30s. narrator: after megan told her story, sergeant mcdaniel came out to speak with chris. i said, all we can charge him with is a misdemeanor, and he could get maybe 12 months in jail for it at the most. and i looked at him, i'm like, are you kidding me? he said, unfortunately not. narrator: that's because in virginia, while sex between an adult and a child 14 and under is a felony, sexual contact with a 15-year-old is only a misdemeanor. so as a father, as a mother, you must be just infuriated by that. i was furious. and i was like, where do we go from here? narrator: sergeant mcdaniel had an idea. hicke was in the navy, and the military takes a harsher approach to adults who engage in sexual contact with minors. the age of consent in the military under the uniform code of military justice is 16.

narrator: special agent dana shutt handled crimes against children for ncis, the naval criminal investigative service. the first thing we did was bring in meghan to talk to her and get a sworn statement from her. the agent found her to be credible, believable, that this young woman was telling the truth? yes, the agent found her to be very credible. narrator: now robert hicke was facing possible military charges that could put him in prison for years. they brought him in for questioning. he said nothing. he invoked his right to silence. narrator: with that, the navy continued its investigation toward a possible court martial. do you feel that meghan has some relief? meghan's stress level dropped tremendously. her grades were starting to come back up. she was actually looking forward to trying to help put robert hicke away. narrator: then came that april afternoon when meghan's short life came to a terrible end.

and suddenly, robert hicke was the number one suspect in her murder. coming up-- we handcuff robert hicke. he was in a state of panic. so-- what's his response? he drops to the ground and starts crying. narrator: robert hicke in police custody, and the heat is on. narrator: when "dateline" continues. ♪♪ life with norman is fun and full of adventure. he just started to slow down a little bit on walks and seemed like he had some discomfort. his doctor diagnosed him with osteoarthritis pain and recommended that we try librela. veterinary professionals administering librela who are pregnant, trying to conceive, or breastfeeding should take extreme care to avoid self-injection, which can cause allergic reactions like anaphylaxis. librela has helped norman

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the gold. hey, that's my line. >> i'm richard. >> lui. with a news update. >> a white house official. telling nbc news. >> direct negotiations between the trump. >> administration and ukraine. >> are on hold. >> after friday's tense oval office exchange. >> trump said zelenskyy. >> must, quote, want to make peace and stop. criticizing putin to. >> restart talks. and former. >> new york governor. andrew cuomo officially launching his

campaign for new york. city mayor. cuomo was teasing a return to. politics for weeks, and he jumps back into the limelight. just four. years after resigning the governorship amid sexual harassment allegations. allegations. >> for now, meghan landowski was dead, and police had a prime suspect, robert hicke. months earlier, meghan told investigators she had sexual contact with hicke when she was just 15. it was chilling now for sergeant mcdaniel to recall what meghan had said when they'd met. she was worried that she was going to get killed by him, because he had a lot to lose. and she was coming forward and telling on him. those are powerful words from a teenage girl, i fear he could kill me. she asked me, she says, do you think that he'll come back and kill me? and the time i told, her, no. i said, that generally doesn't happen in these cases. narrator: but meghan's family said she wasn't reassured.

she was scared. that's a heavy burden for a 16-year-old. absolutely. very heavy. and every car that came down the street, she would call angie and say, hey, i think i saw his truck. and angie said, no, don't worry about it. it's not him. he knows better. he'll get in more trouble if he comes by our house. but in the back of her mind, it was always there that he was going to come after her. narrator: her family and police told meghan not to worry, but now it seems so obvious to them. hicke had plenty to gain from her death. it meant the end of the investigation into those sexual allegations. so robert hicke's case kind of vanishes, right? his case vanishes because he has a right to confront his accuser. so he can no longer do that, because she's dead. there's only one person we thought it could be,

just one. there's only one person that didn't want her to talk, and that was robert hicke. narrator: chris also told investigators at the scene he had another reason to suspect his former friend. he said one of the footprints looks just like the shoes that he has that he wears when we go to the jump. narrator: and that scene had looked personal to investigators, like the killer was someone who was angry with meghan. they went right from her house to find robert hicke. nobody was home. he wasn't responding to phone calls or knocks on the door. bad sign? that was a bad sign for us that he was running. we staked out his house for a while. we were there for a couple of hours. and then robert hicke came up in the family van with his wife and his kids. we're taking him at gunpoint at this point, because we have a severe and brutal murder that occurred. we get him out of the van. we handcuff robert hicke. he was in a state of panic, and his family's in the van. and i walked up and i told him, i said meghan landowski has been murdered,

and we want to know where you were today. so-- what's his response? he drops to the ground and starts crying. so we took him into custody. we put him in a car and we brought him back, and we sat him in an interrogation room. narrator: and then they watched for a bit, letting him stew and pray. narrator: he was clearly upset and visibly nervous as investigators walked in. narrator: hicke seemed shaken but not surprised to find himself in the hot seat. >> told me somebody killed

megan. >> yes. what? >> he told me. and i'm like. and because of an investigation that was done. >> prior. >> he said. >> that they had to consider me. >> a suspect. i don't know the background between you and megan. did you and megan have a sexual relationship with your boyfriend girlfriend? one time? >> i can't. >> really say anything. >> about that because i had something to do with another investigation. >> when was the last. >> time. >> that. you were. >> at her house? >> sometime in december. >> sometime in december. >> you don't. you don't. >> i don't remember one now. >> so there's no. >> reason why your fingerprints or anything like. or anything like. >> that narrator: on the day meghan was murdered, hicke said he was busy. he and his wife had an appointment with a marriage counselor. narrator: and before that, he said he'd been at work. can tell.

>> you, from. >> the time i got. >> up to. >> the time that. >> you saw me, i was. >> with someone every second of the entire day except for the time i went to the bathroom. >> now i've. got computer records. >> i've got people that i saw. >> i mean, it would. >> never. >> even occur to me to have to the to. >> to today. >> to have to tell everybody where i was every second. >> of every day. >> you have a. >> computer there? >> yes. >> is there. >> anything on that computer that's going to relate to megan? no. okay. nothing. nothing. is there any. >> pornography or anything on the computer. >> that's going. >> to. >> jam you up? no. >> the computer. >> and there's nothing. on that computer. >> because i did use it better to tell me now. >> than. >> you. >> you. >> up narrator: detectives wanted to get their hands on hicke's sneakers to see if they matched the footprints left at the scene.

narrator: and then detectives asked hicke flat out. >> do you know who went. >> to megan's house? >> no i didn't. that was the absolute furthest thing from my mind until they told me what was going on. i have no. >> clue, sir. >> i wish that i did, but i don't. >> did you kill megan? >> no. >> are you. >> angry at her? >> no. not at all. >> not at all. the stuff that's going on. you're not angry with her? no. her? no. narrator: hicke insisted he was not their man. narrator: but was he telling them the truth? the investigation was just getting started. coming up--

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we got into the garage, there were no shoes. he easily could have disposed of the shoes. and that was what we were worried about is that he threw the shoes away or got rid of them or left them at the base. narrator: it only notched up investigators' suspicions. back in the interrogation room, detectives noticed hicke's nervousness but began to think his grief over megan's murder seemed genuine. >> yeah. >> they're pretty upset about it. >> i can't imagine. >> that. >> my kids. >> well, it looks like it looks like something probably didn't mean to happen the way it did. mean to happen the way it did. and just things got out he's acting more distraught. so is he almost acting like a loved one? yes. here we are, accusing him of possibly murdering meghan,

and he isn't lawyering up. he's giving us a pass to search his house. he's giving us information, telling us what time he left work, telling us where he had been. narrator: police didn't have enough to hold hicke, but they did ask for one thing during the interview. he willingly gave up a dna sample. and he willingly gave a dna sample. which is a big deal-- it is. --given that you believe the killer had left his dna behind. yes. narrator: hicke's sample was rushed to a lab and the testing was fast tracked against the killer's dna found at the scene. police also had to check his alibi. we eventually were able to through his command determine he was at work that day. oh, he had never left. he had never left. narrator: then the results from that dna test came back. investigators were floored. he was your prime suspect. he was. and there's no match. there's no dna match. what's that moment like? it's frustrating because what you think you have,

you don't. narrator: a solid alibi and a negative dna result. investigators believed hicke had the motive to kill meghan, but there was absolutely no proof he did it. and i'm like, are you 100% sure? you still believe he killed her? at that point, i still believe he killed her. yeah, we still thought. so even with the dna? yeah. and then we thought he had something to do with it. you thought maybe he hired somebody? yes. even if it wasn't him, he had someone do it. did you believe that there was a possibility that robert hicke had paid someone to do this? yes, that was absolutely a possibility and something we looked into. we pulled financial records to determine was there a large amount of money that was passed to someone. and that came up to a dead end. narrator: again, no evidence. but one more possibility, thought investigators, someone else they believed might have motive

to kill megan, hicke's wife. she had a lot to lose-- her husband, his retirement, the benefits. they had for kids, a lifestyle that they were accustomed to living. there was a lot for her to lose, at the same time. so she could not be crossed off the list, either. no. narrator: investigators spoke to her, and it didn't take long to determine she was not involved in the murder. overall physical ability and the fact that she had the four kids all the time, there was a lot of different things that we looked at that just kind of eliminated her. did she have a solid alibi? yes. narrator: neither robert hicke nor his wife had anything to do with meghan's death. hicke's attorney told "dateline" his client denies any sexual contact with meghan, and says being suspected of her murder ruined hicke's life at the time. still, the investigations didn't look good to the navy. he was given an other than honorable discharge

and denied his pension. as for the homicide detectives, they were back at square one. are you stumped? we all were. the two lead investigators at the time thought they really had the case solved, and then there's no dna match. so they had to start all over again. now it's come down to, ok, we have to find her killer. and we need to find her killer as quickly as possible because with every passing day, that makes an arrest even more unlikely. or puts someone else in jeopardy. yeah, absolutely. narrator: investigators were going back to the beginning, a closer look at the crime scene and the people in meghan's life. who would have wanted this young girl dead? coming up, that trail of bloody shoe prints is about to lead investigators in a brand new direction. one of the neighbor's kids had

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deodorant to. >> try it. >> try it. >> start word was spreading throughout portsmouth, virginia, that the prime suspect in meghan landowski's case wasn't involved in her murder. meghan's friend, heather, read about it in the newspaper. at the time, they were saying, we knew that they had dna, and that his dna did not match. so we were shocked by that. but at the same time, the dna doesn't match, you know-- where do you go from there, you know? there's a killer out there. right. and we had no idea, no idea. i think your mind just goes through who in the world could do this? and if they'll do it in the middle of the day to someone so young, are they going to do it again?

narrator: detectives promised meghan's family they would only call if they had an arrest. weeks passed, and that call didn't come. reporter mike mather covered the story, and says there was a growing sense of frustration. i mean part of you hopes it is something that sews up quickly. part of your hopes that it's something that is just obvious enough for the police to solve it right away and not have this community worry that it's somebody who has come in, done this horrific murder, and is now free in the community. narrator: there was fear, but also profound sadness, even for those who barely knew meghan. in the wake of her murder, a local church dedicated a tree in her honor. this is meghan's tree right here. this has been making tree and always will be meghan's tree. narrator: it was a place where those who had loved meghan could mourn, and the grief was shared by sergeant mcdaniel an agent shutt. most investigators meet their victims in death. these two had tried to help her in life,

and now they were united in the effort to find her killer. having known her and met her, we knew that we wanted to do this for her. we needed to find out who had hurt her so terribly. you had a war room of sorts with this case, and you met often. yes. i essentially moved in to portsmouth police department. i was there every day, and we were all collaborating. we had a list of-- a to do list, if you will. and it was every day, day in and day out. it consumed all of us. narrator: another look at the house gave them greater insight. according to crime scene investigators suzanne and karl sequeira, the attack appeared unsophisticated. the killer had tried to clean up in a hurry. we saw some water in the sink so there's a good chance that he or she has washed

their hands at some point and possibly gotten the victim's blood off their hands. narrator: the killer had also cut themselves, and the killer's blood was mixed with meghan's. there was no shortage of physical evidence left behind. you've got your killer in dna form. yeah. forensically. you just don't know who he is. we had his touch dna, his blood dna, his semen. we had his fingerprints. so forensically, we had what we needed. it fell on the detectives at that point in time. it was a matter of them just really doing old fashioned detective work. narrator: ncis asked a psychologist to create a profile of meghan's killer. the profiler believed meghan's murderer was most likely a schoolmate or a member of the victim's social groups, which made sense because they now knew whoever left those footprints had been wearing nike air force 1's.

air force 1 was the hot shoe at the moment. believe me, we looked at a lot of air force 1 tennis shoes in different places, especially on young kids. that was the really sought after tennis shoe. narrator: but there were a lot of young people in meghan's life, not only at school, but in her neighborhood, too. and it was on megan's block that sergeant mcdaniel got his next lead. one of the neighbor's kids had a pair of air force 1's in the right shoe range that we were looking for. they were very close to meghan and her brother at the time. narrator: that neighborhood kid turned out to be the younger brother of one of meghan's close friends. meghan's parents were skeptical that he could be involved. i knew this kid, and he was harmless. he was kind of the younger of the group, but he always like followed them around. he never came up on my radar. and they were like, well, the pattern's similar. narrator: it turned out that boy had been given the shoes by a couple of male relatives shortly

after meghan's murder. those relatives were older than the profile, but they had had brushes with the law. the family members were known to be into criminal activity, and both of them fled the state right after it happened. so you thought maybe they were trying to dispose of the shoes by giving them to this boy. right. narrator: the two relatives were picked up by us marshals on outstanding warrants and were about to be brought back to virginia. what, if anything, did they know about megan's murder? coming up, someone else in the interrogation room. everything he was doing would make you believe that he was the one that killed her. narrator: when "dateline" continues. when i was diagnosed with h-i-v, i didn't know who i would be. but here i am... ...being me. keep being you... ...and ask your healthcare provider about the number one prescribed h-i-v treatment, biktarvy.

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