>> she was amazing. a feeling went through my mind, i couldn't think of anybody that would ever want to do what they d to her. >> reporter: amyjane was an angel, traveling the world with her church to help children. >> they loved amy. >> reporter: months later, a mom out for a walk vanishes. >> karen is gone.

i don't know where she is. i just cried. >> one murder, one disappearance in the same small town but soon police could discover a creepier connection. >> one of the detectives had gotten his hands on an image of amyja amyjane. >> in the most of the moment most of us knew it wasn't a coincidence. >> was someone stalking the women in this tight knit church. >> this sounded like a zodiac killer. >> a truth darker than anyone would image. >> i don't get that. this is evil. >> i'm lester holt. this is "date line." here's keith morrison with "someone is out there." >> reporter: there are children born into this world for whom the dance never ends -- for whom joy seems uncontained -- for whom exuberance is

uncontainable... >> amyjane! what are we doing right now? >> we're riding on the roof of a car! >> reporter: there was this young woman. a sprite, really, in a young woman's body, who loved adventure --and people -- and who danced to music no one else could hear. which is why -- >> it haunted me. this case haunted me. >> reporter: haunted the police. haunted the whole town. >> reporter: is there a serial killer around? a serial killer with plans --for two women in one particular church --in one particular photograph? >> i was like --this is insane and everybody needs to find this person! >> reporter: yes, but it began with that girl, that sprite. >> just the freest spirit you can think of, like literally, not having a care in the world. >> reporter: kate cook is talking about her friend, and fellow missionary -- amyjane brandhagen. talking about her now that it's

happened, that it's all over. kate and amyjane went to india and nepal together two short years ago. small town girls. kate from wisconsin, amyjane, from oregon. >> she was always ready to give and pour her heart out to people and give everything that she had to offer. ♪ >> reporter: they were 3 months --for something called 'youth with a mission' or y-wam for short. like tourists they went to the taj majal -- and like preachers they spread the word. to children, mostly. for whom amyjane was magnetic, irresistible. >> when they would see her they would run up to her and they'd go 'dee dee! deedee! which means sister, sister. y'know? like so excited. and when the three month mission trip was over? >> she hated it! she was like, i don't want to go home. >> reporter: home for amyjane was a universe away from vibrant, teeming india.

here it is. pendleton, safely tucked into a small valley on the vast rolling flanks of eastern oregon. cowboy country. >> ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the pendleton roundup. >> reporter: home to one of the nation's biggest rodeos, the pendleton roundup. which, each september, celebrates the town's rough and tumble past as a brawling-and-bordello filled cowtown. and then? then good, conservative citizens wave goodbye to departing cowboys and settle into a safe and predictable life, and fill the pews every sunday morning without fail. people like bill caldera, who was like family to amyjane and her parents, dave and cathy brandhagen. >> they brought amyjane home when she was three days old, and we were there when she --

she was brought home. >> reporter: bill knew -- and adored -- the remarkable little girl from the very beginning. >> reporter: you watched amyjane grow up? >> yes. >> reporter: and saw what sort of girl emerge? >> she was very carefree, loving, didn't know a stranger. >> reporter: the brandhagens asked bill to speak for them after what happened, when they sorely needed their church family at pendleton free methodist. like youth minister jed hummel and his wife lisa, who encountered the dancing sprite when she was in middle school. >> if she got the feeling that you were left out, she'd find you and make sure you knew that you had a friend. >> a little bit like pippi longstocking! >> absolutely. certainly. >> that's exactly --oh certainly! and i always remembered she knew everyone's name! she was just fun. >> reporter: mind you, when she was far away in india, the people who loved amyjane worried --a lot. and didn't breathe easy until she returned home to the safety and security of pendleton where --

>> she was waiting for god to tell her what to do next whether it was gonna be to travel the world, or go back to y-wam or go to school. >> reporter: she wanted more freedom, too. so she moved out of her parents house and got herself a little apartment in downtown pendleton. worked two jobs to pay for it including a job cleaning motel rooms at the travelodge across from city hall. >> she was excited to get this other job, but she wasn't so sure about working at the hotel. she was a little nervous about it. >> reporter: after all, she'd never done that sort of thing before --or answered to a boss who, well this one sounded gruff. but she went. and she scoured and scrubbed those little rooms that looked out on downtown pendleton. and then it was august 14th, 2012. >> 911 what is your emergency? >> i am calling from travelodge. in pendleton. there's a girl dead in the barth room -- bathroom. i don't know. >> a girl dead in the bathroom? >> i think she's passed out or -- >> okay i'm gonna get police and

ambulance headed that way, okay? >> reporter: in his office down the hall from the 911 operator, bill caldera listened and felt the dread flood in. >> it just gave me a feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was not good about this call. >> reporter: bill, remember, was a close friend of the brandhagen family, attends the same church. but he's also a policeman --and that day, with the chief on vacation, lieutenant bill caldera was the man in charge. >> as soon as one of my patrol sergeants arrived on the scene, he requested my presence. which i knew then we were probably dealing with a homicide. >> reporter: but as he raced to the motel, he couldn't know what had just been started there, any more than whose life had just ended. >> what this veteran investigator was about to find would leave his stunned? >> i just can't tell you the feeling that went through my mind. >> when we return, a crime that

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>> reporter: if god had a plan for pendleton, oregon, on the afternoon of august 14th, 2012, one could hardly have imagined it would be this. >> 911 what is your emergency? >> there's a girl dead in the bathroom. >> reporter: lieutenant bill caldera prepared himself -- as he drove over to the travelodge -- and then climbed the stairs to room 231. all the preparation in the world would not have been enough. lying on the bathroom floor, her lifeless body punctured by the startling scarlet of a dozen stab wounds was the sweet free spirit he'd known since she was a baby. 19-year old amyjane brandhagen. >> it felt like somebody had

kicked me in the pit of my stomach. i just can't tell you -- [ crying ] >> -- the feeling that went through my mind. >> reporter: yeah. almost like she was your kid, in a way. >> very much. >> reporter: lieutenant caldera took it upon himself to notify amyjane's parents. >> that was probably the toughest thing i've ever had to do in my career and i just can't tell you the feeling that we all had. we broke down in tears. >> reporter: but why would anyone want to kill amyjane, of all people? >> i was just crushed. like how is this even possible? i'm just speechless. and then i sat crying in the bathroom for probably like the next hour, not understanding, craziness. >> reporter: as word spread throughout amyjane's church family so did the questions. high school youth pastor chris thatcher. >> early on, was there any indication of who may have been responsible?

>> i don't think anybody had any idea. and i think that's what made it so hard is that, so many of us, we know each other. we're family here. >> reporter: but there was the dismal work to do. lieutenant caldera returned to the motel where amy was murdered. >> it'd be pretty hard for you to take part in an active investigation! >> no. i wouldn't have. i couldn't have. not with my relationship. >> reporter: lieutenant caldera turned the case over to detective sergeant rick jackson. >> it was a pretty, pretty horrific crime scene. >> reporter: it was obvious amyjane fought for her life. her glasses lay in the bathtub. blood spattered the walls. dna of a male, presumably her attacker --would be found under her fingernails. but the medical examiner said it was not a sex attack. and it wasn't robbery either. amyjane's purse and cell phone were still right there on the bedside table. and nobody saw a thing. even though -- >> this was during broad daylight with a motel room door, with motel room doors open. >> reporter: the only potential

witness -- if he was a witness at all -- was a painter working at the motel. who said he saw a young man with longer hair, darker skin, perhaps hispanic or native american, walking near the back parking lot. >> it may have been the person who did it or it may not have been. it might have been someone just passing by. >> sure! while we were there shoot, within the first hour of being at the crime scene, upwards of 50 people walked by. i mean this is a pretty busy area of town. >> reporter: busy, yes. and studded with cctv cameras. banks. bridges. city hall. walking trails along the river that runs through town. detectives painstakingly went through the footage. >> there was nothing. >> reporter: they took dna from dozens of motel guests to check against the sample taken from amyjane's fingernails. wasn't any of them. so detective jackson went to the people who knew amyjane well, or

or perhaps, romantically. those stab wounds were all focused around her heart, which often indicates some kind of crime of passion, but >> i think most of the males we spoke to really viewed themselves as her protectors. >> reporter: pendleton police chief stuart roberts hurried back home from his abbreviated mexican vacation and encountered a case going nowhere fast. >> everybody that knew her characterized her in the same way. she knew no stranger. she didn't have an evil bone in her body. >> reporter: as the investigation entered its second week, amyjane's family prepared a memorial service --at the church where they'd raised their daughter. >> amy loved thunderstorms. and it was one of her favorite things to do was to go out barefoot and dance in the rain, because she just loved it. and the morning of her memorial service there was a loud clap of thunder that came over town about 6:30. and several of us heard it. i think we knew. >> up there dancin' in the rain somewhere, huh?

>> i think she was. >> and together we pray, in jesus name, amen. ♪ >> reporter: hundreds crowded into amyjane's church --and many, like jed and lisa hummel, were amazed by the strength of amyjane's parents. >> they were hurting deeply. but they weren't looking for vengeance. >> me, on the other hand, i was just ticked. i was like, 'this is insane and everybody needs to find this person. ' >> oh, they were certainly trying. even at that very moment. >> we had about 10 or 12 undercover officers in and about the memorial service looking for anybody that would strike us as odd. >> reporter: but no one stood out. a month after the murder, the famous roundup filled the streets as usual. and then they emptied again. and as the autumn wind turned raw, detective jackson's investigation chased down every

lead and got nowhere. >> we call them rabbit trails. we ran hundreds of rabbit trails down. >> reporter: the holidays came and went, holidays for other people. not detective jackson. not chief roberts. >> it haunted me. this case haunted me. >> reporter: and then? a spring breeze dipped into the pendleton valley, curled its warming fingers into secret corners and came out whispering a name. >> coming up. >> we've gone more months with nothing and now this. >> out of the blue, a tip that -- had cops found their killer. >> we go out and find his girlfriend and she's i always believed he could have done this. >> when dateline kins. -- continues.

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>> reporter: six months after the murder of amyjane brandhagen, investigators finally caught a break. a county jail inmate looking for a deal got word out to the cops. he claimed to know who killed amyjane. >> i mean we've gone for months with nothing and now this. >> reporter: there were two of them, said the inmate. ira draper. and eric torres. both, well known to local law enforcement -- who soon confirmed the men were in the area the day of the murder. they found torres first.

and? looked like they were onto something. torres said yes, he was in on it. but he didn't kill her. it was the guy he was with --he said, draper --who went into the motel room and came out very bloody. >> he basically tells 'em, yeah i was driving the getaway car. >> reporter: it was his buddy who did the killing, he said. ira draper. >> so we go out and find his girlfriend and she's going, i always believed he could have done this. he's aggressive. and he has these journals they are journal entries about defiling women and killing and burying them. >> reporter: they found and questioned draper -- who said he understood why he was a suspect. >> have you ever thought about killing anybody? >> i've never really planned it out. but maybe thought about, yeah. >> reporter: but after a few minutes with draper, jackson had a familiar, sinking feeling. >> he was very much so enamored

by the fact that the police were giving him attention. >> he was playing you. he was playing it for all it was worth? >> he was getting a little 'street cred' for it. >> reporter: and the dna confirm. it was all an act. two unpleasant men, police said, who seemed to be enjoying themselves at the expense of the cops. so back to zero. by august 2013, it had been almost a full year since amyjane brandhagen's murder in pendleton. investigators had exhausted hundreds of leads, and themselves. >> i knew it was having an impact on my physiological health as well as my mental health. >> reporter: on august 8th, the chief took his family out of town for some r&r. and the very next day, a woman named karen lange, happened to be a member of amyjane's church, announced to her husband, dan, she was going for a walk.

>> she came down, and i'll never forget what she said. she said, well, you know, i was thinking that maybe we can go out for dessert afterward. >> reporter: karen was an accomplished singer and pianist, dan, vice president of the local community college. her walk along the river levee near downtown pendleton the riverwalk was an almost daily habit. it was 4:30pm. lots of sun left on a warm august afternoon. >> and the last words she said to me were, 'well i guess we'll just have a nice boring evening..' >> reporter: dan went back to tinkering on his motorcycle -- lost all track of time. it was dark when his son walked into the room and asked an innocuous question. >> where's mom?' i said, hmm, well, i don't know. i'll give her a call. so i went and i tried to make the phone call and i couldn't get ahold of her.

>> reporter: but it was after 9:30 p.m. karen usually walked for less than an hour she had been gone for five. in some people, anxiety stokes panic. dan is not like that. it's a coping mechanism. he stays calm. he made another call. >> long day. ten o'clock at night. my phone rings. and so, 'hey hi dan.' >> reporter: remember jed and lisa hummel? friends of amyjane's from church? karen always parked her car in front of their house when she took her late afternoon walks. >> he says 'is karen at your house? no. i just got home. and i asked lisa if she'd been over. i said no, haven't seen her. >> and i had looked outside and sure enough the car was still there, so we went out to the car and she wasn't there. >> reporter: so jed and lisa grabbed flashlights and walked the couple blocks from their house down to the river levee. and there in a parking lot, sat a pendleton policeman. what should they do, they asked him? >> and he just thought it was unusual enough that he got a hold of dan.

>> reporter: as the officer left to talk to dan, jed and lisa kept looking through the dark along the river bank. >> there's a fear of not finding anything, and there's a fear of finding something. >> when i got to the -- where the policeman was, we were talking and he said 'you seem to be awfully calm for your wife being missing.' and at that point, i thought 'holy mackerel, you know, if there's something -- something bad that happened to her, i could be a suspect. >> reporter: from his patrol car, the officer was able to pull up images from cameras stationed around the river levee. no sign of karen. then, her cell provider sent a 'ping' to karen's phone. it turned up across the main road about a half-mile from the river in the parking lot at walmart. where again, the officer could not find karen. what was going on? around and around the riverwalk they went. pointing their puny flashlights

at a sea of dark. >> i did go home at about 5:00. i wrote an email saying karen is gone. i don't know where she is. i just have to go to bed. and i went and i just cried. >> reporter: he did not sleep long. the phone call that startled him awake brought news. some good. some very, very bad. >> coming up. amyjane's murder and karen's disappearance, could they be connected? investigators are about to discover a disturbing clue. >> i think in that moment, most of us knew that that wasn't coincidence.

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>> 19-year-old amyjane brandhagen has been found stabbed to death. there have been few clues and no arrests. now another woman in the same small town has disappeared. as we rejoin our story, police are about to discover a chilling

connection between the two that will terrify an entire community, but will it help them catch a killer? again, keith morrison. >> reporter: dawn took its own imperious time on the morning of august 10th, 2013. by that time, going on 6:00 a.m., karen lange had been missing more than 12 hours. and then finally, the morning sun lit up the banks of the umatilla river. and.. >> the policemen called. he said we found your wife. >> reporter: she was found and alive. but what the policeman said next was terrifying. >> well, when he said we found your wife and she's alive, that was a great relief. but, he certainly made it sound like it was a tough, tough thing. >> reporter: oh, it was. karen had been struck from behind by some heavy, blunt

object. her skull was crushed. the wound was massive. right away the detective called the chief on vacation in the mountains 5 hours away. and described the way they found her. >> did he think she was dead already? >> he thought she was dead. tremendous amount of blood. he indicates that he reaches for her wrist to see if she has a pulse, and her leg moves, and she gasps. >> reporter: but it didn't look like she'd be alive for long. the detective drove dan lange to the hospital. told him, prepare for the worst. as he arrived at the emergency room, dan ran into a nurse he knew. >> and she took one look at me, and, of course, it was so heartbroken, that i, of course, broke down, and then i had a chance to see karen. >> reporter: the doctors gave her a slim chance. one in a hundred maybe. she was airlifted to a bigger hospital in portland for specialized care. and as dan kept watch at her

bedside, he remembered an odd comment karen made a few days before she was attacked. her boys were in college, nearly grown. she wasn't sure what her purpose was anymore. as she told dan. >> i really wish that i could be, you know, more useful, if i'm going to remain here. >> on planet earth? >> on planet earth, yeah and i would assure her with 'but god has a plan and you will be used.' >> reporter: but what kind of use was this? if she lived, she might never regain conciousness. if she regained conciousness, she might never be the same. how useful could that be? and then, suddenly, the case of the murder of amy brandhagen, and the attack on karen lange seemed to take on a new and terrifying meaning. chief roberts returned from his vacation to be handed this photograph by investigators. it had been taken four years earlier. >> one of the detectives had gotten his hands on an image of

amyjane brandhagen and karen lange together dated august the 14th. >> oh my god! >> amyjane brandhagen was murdered on august the 14th. karen lange was assaulted on august the 9th, one year after amyjane's murder. >> like somebody's targeting them, or somebody within the church has some strange motivation. >> it could be a member of the congregation, or it could be somebody who they provided outreach services to. >> reporter: in pendleton, at the free methodist church, the word spread quickly. >> i think in that moment, most of us knew that that wasn't coincidence, and i can't tell you how we knew. >> well, small town. same church. >> small town, same church, we all knew each other. i think we just knew. >> reporter: in a town where murder is rare, two women, one photo, and dates that lined up like a message, had to be a connection. >> oh it certainly crossed my

mind. i think it crossed everybody's mind. >> reporter: so once again, detective jackson and others scoured hours of video recorded by dozens of cameras stationed around town looking for a suspect. good luck. when amyjane was murdered in broad daylight, those videos turned up exactly nothing. and then luck turned. they saw this. recorded by one of the cameras stationed around the riverwalk karen lange -- there she is right there --out for her walk -- and following her -- a man -- watching her -- with what looks like a pipe hidden behind his back -- right there. >> they cross a small footbridge there's a short stretch there of maybe 50- 60 yards where there's just no visibility from any

direction unless you're actually on the path, and right there, where he attacks her. >> is that where she was found? roberts she was found about 30 feet down the path. >> reporter: and then they found this video, recorded by another camera about an hour after the attack. same man enters a park bathroom -- and minutes later, emerges --to use a drinking fountain. >> i immediately said, 'it's the same guy. we've got to show it's the same guy! >> reporter: wait. the same guy --as who? chief roberts remembered -- after amyjane was murdered, the only witness who saw anything reported a young man with dark hair -- wandering near the motel. >> basically the description was fairly generic. male 20-something, dark hair, a little bit longer, with dark toned skin, now we have the second crime almost a year later, almost to the anniversary, and here's a male profile, or image on our network camera system that fits. it fits. >> reporter: but who was he? and why was he targeting women from the same church? within hours, a very unusual

kind of pendleton roundup was under way. the order was clear. find him, fast. >> coming up. the evidence that was about to send this case into overdrive. >> it gave me chills. >> when "dateline" continues. . that's the healing power of vaseline. if you're suffering from constipation or irregularity, powders may take days to work. for gentle overnight relief, try dulcolax laxative tablets. ducolax provides gentle overnight relief, unlike miralax that can take up to 3 days. dulcolax, for relief you can count on. duget up to 50% offsears can outerwear for the family, and members get up to $100 back in points

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♪ >> when the free methodists of pendleton, oregon, went to their weekly worship services that sunday in august 2013, they offered their prayers for karen language lying in a portland hospital in a coma. her husband dan a constant presence at her bedside. the prognosis was poor. but dan, optimistic by nature, struggled to hang on. >> it's just the faithful attitude that says, no matter what happens, it's god's plan. and his plan is to prosper us. even if i were to lose karen i had to hold onto that and realize that. >> reporter: in those first two days since karen was found in

the brush alongside the pendleton river walk, shock spread like bad electricity. >> someone came up to our senior pastor and said, you know, i think i'm glad i'm not part of your church after all these things have happened. you're thinking is there a serial killer around? >> reporter: not fear, exactly. not yet. but someone was out there, was among them. had killed once, perhaps twice. and so the unease grew, dark places were avoided. >> the odds of a stranger picking two people that were as connected, difficult to wrap your mind around. >> reporter: umatilla county district attorney dan primus. yeah, this sounds more like a zodiac-type killer. it's like one of those weird puzzles. >> absolutely. as you're working these investigations, you're

thinking of all those things and trying to determine what connection is there between karen lange and amyjane brandhagen? >> reporter: it seemed very likely to the police and the da -- that the man seen in the surveillance video -- was the one who attacked karen lange. and that he might have also have been the killer who stabbed amyjane to death in that motel room one year earlier. but who was it? the chief asked his street cops to look at that video anybody recognize him? and what do you know? one of them did. >> he looked at the image for a second, said 'that's danny wu!" >> reporter: how did he know? because he'd encountered him four times in the previous year. minor infractions, though, so they'd never confirmed that his name actually was danny wu. but there was one thing that might help id him. >> he had a very distinct tattoo on the inside of his left wrist which read, semper fi. >> he's a marine. >> that was my initial reaction. >> reporter: but while chief roberts didn't know who the man really was or where she was now

or why he had targeted two women who once taught bible school together. he knew they had to track him down right away. >> this was a community on edge. >> now he's out there. >> he's out there. we've got to find him. there could be more victims. >> reporter: the chief cancelled all time off. called in every available officer. a manhunt was on. and then a bit of luck. sharp-eyed detective who found karen noticed something odd nearby. a wooden panel on the back of an old batting cage beside the riverwalk looked not quite right. so the officer reached behind the loose panel and found a pipe, that appeared to have blood on one end. the dna confirmed it was karen's blood. and then when the crime lab compared a dna sample from the other end of the pipe, with the material found under amyjane's fingernails? >> i get that call on a sunday afternoon.

now we've connected the dots. >> reporter: the man who assaulted karen -- and amyjane brandhagen's killer - - were one and the same. right away the police chief shared the news with the d.a. >> i was at home. chief called me and asked if i was sitting down. he told me that the d-n-a from the pipe matched the d-n-a found underneath amyjane's fingernails. and..uh it gave me chills. >> reporter: but --though chief roberts officers scoured the town even distributed flyers with wu's pictures on it. they found nothing. hours piled up. days, more than a week. no danny wu. but anxiety? oh, yes. >> you didn't leave garages unlocked. sheds, doors windows, cars.. you do. you feel kind of like there's a serial killer in town! >> reporter: and then? a call from the local convention center, two catering company

employees told the dispatcher they had gone in through a side door to the kitchen. >> and here sits this person who they readily recognized as this danny wu that we had disseminated the images of, and he was sitting there drinking a coke. and he basically picked up his stuff and disappeared into the facility. >> so he's in the building somewhere. it's a big building. >> it's a big building. >> reporter: within minutes, the police sourneded the convention center. a search dog trained to bite soon joined in. they set up a command post outside one f the center's windows. >> the dog's just woof, woof, woofin' at the door. and the oregon state trooper behind us says i can see a leg hanging out of the ceiling. and there was this. >> looking through a window? >> i take about two steps back from where i'm standing and i can see it. so i give em the command to enter. they go straight to this location in the stairwell and there he is. >> reporter: minutes later, the suspect -- the man known as danny wu the man who may have murdered one woman possibly even two and terrorized the town of pendleton walked out in handcuffs and into the flashing cameras of the local paper. later, officers took this video

of his hiding took this video of his hiding spot in an air conditoning duct in the convention center's ceiling where he had a blanket, a radio and some clothes. >> it looked like a nest. looked liked he'd been there for awhile coming and going hiding in plain sight. he had been here all year. >> reporter: but now what? would he talk? lawyer up? or even would he reveal who he really was and why it appeared that he'd targeted the women of the free methodist church. >> coming up. inside the heart of darkness. >> i didn't understand that. i had never heard that before. >> revelations that would leave this town and its investigators shattered. >> i didn't know whether to cry or to scream. i was just dumbfounded.

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>> reporter: here he was. the man they knew as danny wu. the man detective sergeant rick jackson had been chasing for a year. >> i'm sergeant rick jackson we're at the pendleton police department. i know i'm not dressed like a normal police officer. >> reporter: jackson was out

hunting elk when they caught danny wu, and rushed in still in his camo, hoping to final get answers to a year of questions. >> are you willing to talk to me? >> to a certain point. >> reporter: the chief and the d.a. watched from a nearby office. >> i didn't expect him to say anything. i expected him to ask for a lawyer. i wasn't sure how he was going to respond to any of the questions. >> reporter: but da primus- and all of them - were in for a big surprise. >> what's your name? >> my name is luke ka chang. >> i'm going to write it down. >> what's your last name? >> chang. c-h-a-n-g. >> reporter: sure enough. not danny wu. lukah chang. 23 years old. the son of christian

missionaries. a deserter from the u.s marines who drifted into town without any plan. and stayed briefly at that downtown motel where he encountered a maid named amyjane. >> did you talk to her? >> no. only in passing. like, she would knock on doors and say, 'hey you want your room cleaned? like, no. >> reporter: soon chang was broke, living on the street, spending his days at the town library, across the street from the travelodge. >> so you walked by and you saw her..? >> i saw her working and it's, oh, look, a target of opportunity. attack! >> i just walked in and waited. >> 0 okay. >> how long did you have to wait? >> probably half an hour. >> as you're waiting there a half hour, you're thinking to yourself. what? >> i'm gonna do it. >> so you grabbed her, brought her into the motel room, er the bathroom, and then what happened? >> i stabbed her. >> with what? >> a knife. >> reporter: but, when detective jackson tried to get into this young man's head -- the conversation veered off to a cold and disturbing place. as a missionary's son, was lukah chang rebelling against his parents? against god? detective jackson asked the question on just about every mind in pendleton, oregon. >> why?

>> see how it felt. >> see how what felt? >> taking a life. >> why? >> i was curious. >> how did it feel? empowering. >> empowering, saddening. >> empowering and saddening at the same time? >> uh huh. yes. empowering because i took a life. saddening because i realized at the same time, life is precious. >> reporter: that was it? to see how it felt? >> i didn't understand that. i've never heard that from a killer before. >> reporter: but why the second attack? did he target those two women because they taught bible school together? because they appeared in that photograph together? >> not really. it was approaching the anniversary of the first time. >> reporter: and that was just about it, said lukah chang. >> she was walking by. i noticed, followed, attacked. >> reporter: he was a brick wall. if the real answer was buried in his religious past, or his failed military career or some other secret corner, we were not

to know, ever. >> do you feel remorse? >> not really. >> why is that? >> i got tired of feeling emotions and stuff like that. i got tired of feeling the feelings. so i'm like, 'all right, let's just cut that out.' and so i did. >> reporter: and then, having had his say, the man the police had been chasing for so long, was safely tuck away in a jail cell, soon to plead guilty to murder and attempted murder and begin serving 35 to life. >> i can't even describe the relief it's like the world is lifted off your shoulders. >> i didn't know whether to cry. i didn't know whether to scream. i was just kind of dumbfounded. >> reporter: across the state in portand, dan lange told his comatose wife, karen, they caught him. though, of course, she couldn't hear that. and then? then, a few days later, dan turned on his video camera, and, well, see for yourself.

>> karen, can you raise your hand again? can you raise that hand up? there you go. yeah. very good. >> reporter: to the astonishment of her doctors, life flooded back. >> i was doing well. i feel great. >> reporter: and now, one year after that young man tried to murder her - here she is karen language. the woman whose ordeal wound up catching a killer. not exactly the purpose she expected when she talked to her husband dan that day >> like i told him not long ago, "don't ever pray for more to do with your life. 'cause boy do you get answered on that!" >> reporter: her recovery took a long time, of course. 3 hospitals, surgeries to rebuild her skull, months in a protective helmet but of that awful night she has no memory at all. >> what was the sense that you recall, at least, of coming out of this blackness into back up

into life again? >> well, a lot of it was just a feeling that i didn't know what was wrong. i didn't know why i was in a hospital. i didn't know i was in portland. >> reporter: the lange's troubles are not over. a few months after dan brought karen home from portland, he was diagnosed with cancer. so a skeptic's question -- you know, you two have been through so much in the last year. i mean, has this not damaged your faith? you're not angry at god for picking on you? >> no! >> i mean, if there's a plan for you, it's your plan to be so brutalized by an attack and by cancer? >> well, the beauty is that we also see the blessings. see how it's had such a positive effect on people and how it could be so much worse for me.

i see it as we need to go through it. it will be a season of recovery for us. >> reporter: and then, in september, it was pendleton roundup time again. and the emcee's voice boomed through the arena. miracles happen, said the announcer. >> no one knows that better than our singer today. for our national anthem, please welcome miss karen lange to the arena. [ cheers and applause ] [ singing the star spangled banner. ] >> i look at it as an opportunity to really just thank the people of pendleton for all the support, all the things that they did they for me and my

family. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: in pendleton, the world was back on its axis, though perhaps a smaller, sadder, place without the girl who always reached out to the lonely...the strangers just like the one who drifted into town...and killed her. pretty remarkable, huh? i mean, isn't he exactly the kind of person that she would have sought out? >> i find that very ironic, and it's also the same person that if she were here today, she would say, take the way of forgiveness, it's the better way >> reporter: and every sunday, the faithful still fill the pews at the pendleton free methodist church. and a barefoot sprite who loved to dance lives on, least in memory. >> amy's life was great. and i think the people who knew her would want to live better lives because of knowing her and knowing who she was. >> that's all for this edition

of "dateline." we'll see you again next friday at 8:00, 7:00 central and i'll see you tomorrow on "today." i'm lester holt. for all of us on nbc news, good night. i think i know who the grimm is. - you okay? - [groaning] - hey, hey, hey, hey. - ah! - what's going on? what the hell? - i don't know where i am. - i don't know where i was. - what? do you know where you are now? - yeah. i had this blinding headache. - you said you saw something. - some kind of old room.