>> he said lesley didn't show up for work and i just went -- [ gasps ] >> no sign of a struggle? nothing is what it seems, tales of a double life. >> i think she really wanted people to believe she had it all

together. >> she mentioned going underground? >> yes, she did. >> reporter: was she a woman on the run? or had this script taken a more sinister turn? >> the dog told you that a dead body had been in the back of lyle's car? >> correct. >> reporter: to learn the truth, police would devise a trap. >> it paid off? >> immediately. >> i was just floored by what was happening. >> reporter: in the movies and on tv, people can just disappear without a trace leaving family and friends with nothing more than memories, questions and worry. in real life, vanishing is more a magician's trick than an everyday occurrence. which brings us to that crossroads where magic and

entertainment collide. hollywood. the cops who roll down these streets call it "holly-weird" because they know anything can happen here, and sometimes what does happen makes no sense. hollywood is a real place but it's also a myth, but the fantasy of what might be has always drawn the hopeful from every town in america with a bus station. for quite different reasons it drew these two sisters, lesley and aasha. maybe you recognize aasha davis. she's one of those lucky few for whom that hollywood fantasy came true. within a few years of her move west, aasha's star was rising first with small parts on tv. a college student on the "gilmore girls," a patient on "house," a streetwise girl on

"the shield" and in 2007 her big break on "friday night lights." she was cast as waverly, the sharp-as-a-tack teenage preacher's daughter. >> you asked me all your questions. we caught up. blah, blah, blah, so just go score some goals. >> reporter: but just as aasha's career was taking off, a real life drama began, one that would test her strength in a way the climb up the hollywood ladder never had. >> hi, i'm here to plead for help to find my sister, lesley. >> reporter: aasha was used to facing the cameras, but this wasn't on a set or for a publicity tour. the scene was a news conference where aasha begged for help from anyone who would listen. >> we're heartbroken and extremely concerned for her well being. >> reporter: any sister would be frantic with worry, but aasha and her big sister lesley were closer than most, despite their gap in age. >> lesley was how much older? >> um, she was nine years older

than me. >> and so she was sort of a surrogate mom when your mom wasn't around? >> yeah. she was almost like having another mom 'cause my mom was a single mom. so she worked day and night, double shifts. and lesley was in charge of us. she was a mama bear. >> reporter: lesley always wanted things a certain way. her way. she was definitely type-a. everyone in the family knew that if lesley was in charge, everything would be just right. >> you know, my sister was the type that even when we were younger, she would take me on dates with her. >> i'm sure they loved that. >> i know. they're like, little sister. like -- but that's who she was. she made sure that we were taken care of. lesley never stopped feeling responsible for aasha. and so a few months after aasha moved west in late '97, lesley followed. she found herself an office job that some of us would call boring, but in it lesley saw material for stories that kept her sister laughing.

>> she was so charismatic and such a great storyteller. she could take a little tiny thing like, you know, a tape dispenser and create this amazing story. >> reporter: the move west had been good for both sisters. especially for lesley after she met the right guy in an unlikely place, the 99 cent store. >> by the time we were checking out, he was giving her his number and i think they went to the movies afterwards. inseparable after that. >> reporter: his name was lyle herring and he had a good job as a recruiter at a local university. he'd grown up in los angeles and his wooing of lesley was spent introducing her to her new city. it was a courtship at warp speed. >> she called me one day and she said, "do you wanna be a witness in my -- at my wedding?" and i was like, "you're getting married?" and she's like, "yeah." >> reporter: married less than a year after they met, lesley and lyle were clearly happy together. >> they seemed a pretty good match.

>> yes. >> reporter: vivian telford, lesley and aasha's mother, thought her oldest daughter had found -- for her -- the perfect man. >> lesley and lyle even dressed alike. they had the same jackets. they had the same sweaters. they had the same caps >> and they were together all the time? >> all the time. >> reporter: it was funny about lyle. after the marriage, he became closer to lesley's family than he was to his own. vivian felt it. >> he always told me he loved me more than he loved his own mother. and he told me that my family was better to him than his own family. >> you loved him like a son? >> i loved him like a son. >> reporter: as for lesley, she was the mama bear first to aasha and then after they got together, to her husband lyle. but it was her own mother who lived all the way across the

country to whom lesley turned for comfort. >> and you talked to her almost every day? >> every day. a quarter of 11:00 every morning on her way to work and sometimes in the afternoon. >> how old was she? >> 45. >> and she was still calling her mom every day? >> she called me in the morning so we could pray together. and then sometimes i say to her, "where are you now?" she'd say, "i'm in the elevator." i said, "you'll make me pray all the way to the elevator?" she said, "uh-huh." >> reporter: they shared daily prayers and they shared confidences. in fact, lesley would talk to only her mother during those rare times when she was ticked off at lyle. >> whenever she was unhappy, if i wanted her to laugh, i would always say to her, "what do you expect? you met him in the 99 cent store." >> reporter: soon enough aasha was married too. and in 2008, she and her husband jesse found out she was pregnant with a boy. >> lesley was so excited to have

a nephew. and she was so supportive. she threw my baby shower. she was gonna get to see her, you know, little sister become a mom. >> reporter: the little boy named ever joined the family in january of 2009 and though aunt lesley was sick with a cold, she couldn't resist coming by to look through the window at her brand new nephew. those should have been happy times for aasha and her sister. a time of the family bonding with its newest member. but then aasha got a phone call from lesley's boss that changed everything. >> he said, "lesley didn't show up for work yesterday and she's not here today." and i just went -- [ gasps ] instantly felt wrong. >> reporter: the joy of new motherhood melted away. it was tuesday, february 10. lesley had missed two days of work and she hadn't called in sick. together, it was completely out of character for the

always-responsbile lesley. >> so i instantly call the two people who would know where she is. and that's the one she's always with, lyle herring, and my mom, who she talks to twice a day. >> reporter: aasha's mom hadn't heard from lesley. and now they realized lyle couldn't be found either. but no one disappears without a trace. do they? lisle would briefly reappear. >> he got into the back seat, slides down in the seat and pulls my suit coat over his head. >> he's hiding? >> he's hiding. hey amanda, sorry to bother you, but i gotta take a sick day.

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>> reporter: when someone you love disappears, it's hard to know what to do. there are no drills like for fires or earthquakes. no how-to books. aasha davis had a million questions and almost no answers. >> we were wondering if we had to file a missing persons for both of them. we were nervous about what, you know, what will we find in the apartment? like, what if they got robbed? >> reporter: aasha's sister lesley and her husband lyle were always together during their marriage. now they were both suddenly gone. >> lesley's missing and lyle's missing. >> yeah. >> did you think that wherever they were, they were probably

together? >> yes. >> reporter: aasha and her husband jesse grabbed their newborn son and headed to the herring's condo complex in the hollywood hills to see what, if anything, they could find there. >> lesley's car's there in her assigned parking spot. and that made it feel a little heavier. all of a sudden you're like, uhhhh, like, her car's here and she's not answering the phone. >> reporter: they went into the building to knock on lesley and lyle's front door. aasha wondered if lesley, who suffered from migraines, might be sick inside. but their knocking got no response. they waited and they waited. they returned to the garage where they saw a man parking in the spot next to lesley's. >> we both said, "hey, have you seen the woman who owns this car?" and it's like, "oh, i haven't seen her. but i -- i saw her husband yesterday." >> reporter: that was strange, so aasha and jesse waited in their car by the front gate, because if that neighbor was right, maybe they'd find lyle

when he came home from work. >> and i remember a few cars coming in like, "oh no, no, no." and then all of a sudden a car that matched his description came in. >> reporter: but then the car turned away from lyle and lesley's building. >> and we said, "oh, i -- i guess it's -- it's not him." >> because it went in a different direction? >> right. that's what we thought. >> reporter: aasha and jesse probably would have waited all night, but they had a new baby with them so they headed home. it wasn't the last time aasha would have to balance being a sister and being a parent. >> during -- while all -- while all this was going on, you had a brand new baby. so i'm guessing you weren't sleepin' a whole lot anyway. but i'm thinkin' maybe this made it just about impossible. >> oh, i did not sleep at all. it was, like such an amalgamation of, you know, sadness and -- and -- fear and -- and love and excitement for this baby. it was, you know, what kept us going was him.

>> reporter: a new life is always a reason for hope. but the situation with lesley and lyle both missing was leaving the family feeling hopeless. so they called the lapd. aasha and jesse couldn't get into the herring condo. but police could. officers went inside, and found nothing that looked unusual. they also found no lyle. and no lesley. >> reporter: aasha worked the phones. friends and relatives knew nothing. then she reached lyle's boss who said he hadn't heard from lesley, but he thought he'd seen lyle on tuesday, which was the day after lesley missed work. no less confused, aasha decided it was time to file that missing person's report. >> reporter: we went to the police station and we gave them, you know, a picture of lesley. and guy said thank you and he put her picture on a pile.

in california, i'm sure, i don't know how many people go missing, especially in hollywood, a day. >> reporter: a lot of people come to hollywood from somewhere else, but their dreams of making it big here don't always work out. they lose touch with their families and suddenly the folks back home are calling the cops thinking they're missing, when they're really just lost in the meat grinder that is hollywood. aasha desperately needed something that would make lesley's case stand out. >> we went back to the car and we thought, "i -- i don't know where to go from here," you know? and the phone rang. and it was malcolm thomas. >> reporter: malcom thomas is lyle herring's cousin. he wanted to talk about a very distraught lyle, whom he'd also seen in the days after lesley missed work. malcom told aasha that lyle seemed almost suicidal. >> did he mention lesley at all? he said, "don't bring up her name anymore. he doesn't wanna hear about her

anymore." >> did you get the feeling that was because they'd had a fight? or they were splitting up? or she'd dumped him? >> well, i thought maybe there was a disagreement. people do have disagreements. people split up for short periods of time, and get back together. and i said, "well, maybe she's just upset over something." >> reporter: lyle asked malcom to drive with him to his condo complex. lyle led the way in his suv. >> you're following lyle to his house? >> yes, i am. >> but he doesn't go straight to his house, does he? >> no. as soon as we pulled into the driveway, he made a sharp left turn. and that was different. >> away from his home? >> away from his home. >> reporter: they ended up in a remote garage underneath the condo complex. >> he opens up my back passenger side door. he got into the back seat, he

closes the door, slides down in the seat of the car and pulls my suit coat over his head. >> he's hiding? >> he's hiding. and i said, "man, don't do that in my car." i said, "what's going on?" he said there are some people at the end of the driveway that he doesn't want to see or have them see us. >> reporter: some people near the end of the driveway? as she listened to malcom's story, aasha suddenly realized -- >> that's you. >> it was us. and so we ran back into the police station. took the baby out -- back out the seat. went back in. and we said, "you know, we just talked to my sister's husband's cousin. and he had, you know, a really -- a really frantic interaction with him." the policeman said, "wait a second, i'm gonna get you guys a detective." >> reporter: the next person aasha met was detective chris gable. >> missing persons cases are not usually your department? >> no, they're not. >> but this was different? >> this was different. 3 f2

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>> reporter: wednesday feb 11, 2009. detective chris gable was working the homicide table that night at the lapd's hollywood station when the officer from the front desk walked aasha, jesse and their baby back to the detectives. >> we went back to the detectives and we explained everything about lesley. and about how worried we were. we didn't know what was going on. >> reporter: lyle and lesley were both missing and unreachable. maybe they were together, maybe they weren't. maybe they were safe. and maybe they weren't.

>> my instincts are that -- that there's something suspicious going on. i still don't know what it is. they could've both taken off. i don't know these people. you know, they live a pretty isolated lifestyle. but from the things that i'd found so far, it seemed suspicious. >> reporter: gable checked hospitals, coroners offices, and the highway patrol and came up with exactly nothing. he put out a bolo, be on the lookout for, asking police throughout southern california to look for lesley and lyle herring and he brought cousin malcolm in to hear first hand about lyle's strange behavior. >> most of the family is telling you that the relationship between lyle and lesley is terrific? >> yeah. >> malcolm's the only one who sends up some sort of red flag? >> based on his conversations with lyle that, previous days after she was missing, yes. >> reporter: whatever had happened was beginning to feel like foul play. gable knew he had to move fast. and so at 3 am, some eleven

hours after first meeting aasha, gable and his partner vicki bynum were in the herring condo. warrant in hand. >> the apartment didn't appear to be a place where a murder had just been committed. >> it didn't but the apartment was real telling to me about the two people that lived there. we didn't know much about them. but it was almost like an apartment divided. the part of the apartment that was lesley's, for example, was very orderly and put together. then there was a room that was lyle's and it was just like a tornado had been through it. >> reporter: but still. >> no sign of a struggle? >> no. >> no blood? >> no visible blood >> the only thing that caught my attention that night was there was, large amount of towels hanging on the -- over the showers of both, in both bathrooms. >> i just made note of it, but it was -- i -- i -- i thought there was some sort of a flood or something that they sopped up. >> reporter: inside the apartment, he also saw spilled candle wax. if the ocd-intensive lesley had seen that, she'd have cleaned it

up right away. so did it happen after she left? and gable and bynum found something else, a receipt from starbucks dated feb 9, at 9:17pm. that was the first day lesley missed work. >> where'd you find that receipt? >> that receipt was found inside of a purse, inside of lesley's purse, inside of her closet. >> so presumably, it was lesley who went to starbucks? >> exactly. >> reporter: it was 6am when they finished collecting their evidence, and night turned to day in hollywood. and what had dawned on these detectives was that this may not have been the happy home of a happy couple. a visit with aasha and lesley's mother vivian gave them a glimpse behind the bright picture lesley had always painted. >> that weekend, they were feuding. lyle cooked some food. and he put a certain spice in the food. and when she asked him what

spice he had in the food, he couldn't tell her. >> reporter: vivian knew that certain spices triggered lesley's debilitating migraines. but vivian also knew, and was the only one who did know, that this fight over spices was just a symptom of so much that was going wrong between mr. and mrs lyle herring. >> things had not been good between your daughter and lyle? >> no, they financial problems. >> reporter: to say these were financial problems is to understate what had been happening. vivian said lesley had told her that lyle needed cash. badly. so badly that he had committed identity theft against his own wife. >> he forged her signature, and he took money from her credit cards. >> and she found out about that? >> yes. >> and, i'm guessing, was pretty furious? >> she was furious >> reporter: it turned out that for four months, lesley had been telling her mother she was

nearing the end of her rope. vivian cautioned lesley not to tell lyle she was thinking of leaving him. >> i said, "if you want to leave, you cannot let him know what your plans are. just leave. >> so don't tell in advance? >> no. >> don't leave a note? >> no. >> reporter: was this mother just trying to hold on to anything that might mean her missing daughter was still alive? or did she know more than she was saying? a new clue pushes the investigation into high gear. >> i'm guessing you watched that video several times. >> why this changed everything. cold sore, fast, as fast as two and a half days

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>> reporter: no one seemed to

know where lesley herring was. her husband lyle had been seen, but wasn't returning anyone's calls, not even those from the lapd. had lesley simply left her husband without a word to anyone? it seemed unlikely. but then, her sister aasha was still in the process of learning about lesley's marriage. how bad it was. how unhappy lesley was. things lesley was apparently telling only their mother. >> the thing about my sister is i think she really wanted people to believe that she had it all together. so she would -- wouldn't tell us about the problems that she was having with lyle. >> she'd always taken care of you. you're on tv. and doing great. and maybe she thought, "you know what? i'm not -- i'm not gonna break aasha's concentration for a minute." >> oh, definitely. it -- yeah. out of protection. a little bit of pride. >> reporter: so perhaps lesley

was still alive somewhere, and just keeping her head down. it's what vivian was hoping. >> i believed that lesley would come home. i went to sleep every night and imagined i could hear the doorbell ring. i could imagine that there were knocks on the door. i imagined the phone would ring. >> reporter: she believed it, because vivian knew something aasha didn't know. something vivian didn't tell the detectives right away. that lesley had spoken openly to her mother months earlier about some people who could help her just vanish, an underground. >> she mentioned going underground? >> yes, she did. >> did she seem serious about going underground? >> yes, she wanted to leave. >> reporter: as much as he knew her family wanted to believe that, detective chris gable knew it didn't make sense. >> you would bring something. you'd need cash. she had a lot of cash she left behind. she would certainly have her migraine medication.

it, for all intents and purposes, from what we could tell, there was nothing. she took nothing with her. >> reporter: and one week after lesley was a no-show at work, their investigation changed course. remember that starbucks receipt police found in lesley's handbag? gable and his partner vicki bynum got their first look at the security video from starbucks, showing the cash register at the exact time the purchase was made. >> i'm guessing you watched that video several times? >> oh, yeah. >> reporter: it's pretty clear video. and it's pretty clear that it isn't lesley. >> and lo and behold, it's lyle herring. lyle herring by himself, no wife, with his long dreadlock hair and he purchases a single item. >> he doesn't -- >> no. >> somebody who might be waiting outside? >> no. and we are looking for that obviously. >> you thinkin' you were meant to find it in lesley's purse? >> i suspected so, and as the

investigation moved forward, i knew that's -- we were expected to find it there. >> reporter: three more days passed. an instant in hollywood, an eternity for aasha and her family. and then the bolo got a hit. lyle herring had been stopped at the mexican border. not fleeing but returning to the united states. the detectives dropped everything and headed south. >> you don't wanna wait 'til the next day? >> oh, no. our spidey senses were up, thinking that something could be awry, we didn't know, so we needed to get down there and talk to him. >> i'm chris gable. glad to finally meet you. >> we needed to find out if lesley was with him. if not, where is she and what does he know? >> reporter: finally, the detectives heard from a story from lyle that explained just about everything. he confirmed what his mother-in-law had told the cops, that he and lesley had been fighting that weekend. they'd been fighting a lot, but this time he said was different. lesley had apparently had about

enough of him. and lyle said when he woke up sunday morning in their apartment, lesley was gone. >> did she just leave to go to the store and never come back or how'd that happen? >> she just got up and left. >> reporter: the detectives were surprised to hear all this from a closely cropped lyle herring, a man who'd been known for years for his long dreadlocks. lyle explained to the detectives that he owed money to some gang members and that when he couldn't pay them back they held him down and cut off his hair. >> they cut my hair. they cut my moustache. and all the stuff down here. "next we're going to cut you." >> you used to work the gang unit? >> yes. >> have you ever heard of a gang holding someone down and giving them a haircut as a way of getting money that they wanted? >> not only have i not heard of that, but the shave was a little added touch that i'd never heard. a little hard to keep a straight face when i heard that. >> reporter: lyle said that

before she dumped him, he and lesley had planned a valentine's vacation in mexico and that he'd gone there to look for her, a week after she'd disappeared. >> so we were both planning on going away. >> ok so you want -- so part of it was to look for her? >> it looks stupid right? >> no it's not stupid. if it was me, i would be looking for my wife where ever i could. >> reporter: but lyle had come up empty. >> do you have any idea where you wife is? >> i do not >> reporter: then gable asked lyle if, during his search, he had tried to phone or email his wife. listen to lyle's answer. >> i called her, well, but uh, i believe. i can't verify this in my mind. i'm so tired, but i guess you can verify it from my cell phone to hers. you can check my cell phone records, i guess. >> he volunteered, "check my cell phone records?"

>> yes. >> did you think, "he wants me to see his cell phone records, the same way he wanted me to see that starbucks receipt?" >> yes. >> reporter: suspicious? yes. but proof of a crime? not even close. lyle herring was not under arrest for anything. but gable was able to seize lyle's suv. he then brought in indiana bones from the l.a. county coroner's office, a german shepherd trained to sniff out the scent of human decomposition. they sent the dog through lyle's suv and also through a classic cadillac he owned. in both vehicles, she stopped in her tracks and alerted. >> the -- the dog told you that at one time, a dead body had been in the back of lyle's car? >> correct. >> that's when you know lesley's dead? >> yes. now i know she's dead. >> reporter: gable did not share that with lesley's family because he wasn't close to closing this case. there was still so much he

didn't have, a crime scene, a witness or, the one thing most homicide investigations begin with, a body. >> had you ever done a murder case in which you didn't have a dead body? >> no, this was the first one. >> you'd never done that before? >> no, i never have. >> reporter: the herring case wasn't going to be easy. so detective gable decided he needed a little help from the media. he held a press conference. but this would be a press conference unlike any you've ever seen. it would be pure theater, worthy of hollywood. everyone would be there. detectives, family, even the prime suspect. 3 f2 y el sospechoso principal

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>> reporter: lesley herring was still missing. she hadn't turned up dead or alive. now detectives turned to

lesley's family with a request, and it wasn't an easy one. >> you and your mom all give police a dna sample. now, you know that when police get to that point, they're probably not looking for a live person anymore. >> yeah. >> hard to do? >> yeah. it's like, you end up talking and -- and dealing with all these morbid things, talking about finding bodies, where is she, what kind of ending did she have? >> reporter: those were questions detective gable had too, questions he wasn't close to answering. so 44 days after lesley went missing, the lapd held what started as a press conference and ended as something quite different. >> thank you all for being here this morning. >> reporter: gable hoped that getting lesley's story in the news might jog someone's memory in a way that would roll the investigation forward. aasha and her entire family were

there. and so was lyle. >> okay. did you think he was gonna speak at the press conference? >> he didn't want to speak. >> i'd like to introduce lyle herring, the husband of lesley, at this time. >> our captain just went ahead and said, "the next person to speak is lyle herring," and i think he had no choice at that point. >> if lesley's out there listening to us, please give us a call. come home. let us know what's going on. >> reporter: then it was aasha's turn. >> it's very unusual for her to not to be in touch with her family. she is a creature of habit. this is why her disappearance is so alarming to us. >> reporter: for aasha the actress, this day played out more strangely than any script she's ever followed. >> the press conference was really difficult because it was the first time i was gonna see lyle since it happened. >> how did you not run up to him and start shaking him? >> to me, approach everything with love. i didn't think shaking him was gonna get an answer. i -- you know, i -- i hugged him

like i always do when i see him. >> but that didn't make a difference. >> no. >> she did not run away. >> reporter: unlike his sister, aasha and lesley's brother linden did not approach lyle with love. >> i would like you, lyle, to tell me what's going on here because we came a long way to know what's going on. this is -- this is killing our family. >> reporter: through it all stood lyle herring, either a husband worried about his wife or a killer worried about being caught. >> i'm the lead investigator for this case. >> reporter: when detective gable began to speak, a reporter asked if lyle was being helpful in the search for his missing wife. >> has he been cooperative? i would describe his cooperation as fragmented and less than helpful. >> at one point, reporters asked detective gable, "is lyle cooperating?" and with lyle

standing right there, detective gable says not really. >> no. i was, you know, just floored by what was happening. >> reporter: and gable wasn't done laying out the inconsistencies in lyle's story to an audience of eager listeners that included lyle. >> he left the condominium on tuesday, the following tuesday, and went down to san diego to apply for jobs at some colleges down there. um, following that he went down to mexico for a day. >> reporter: then reporters turned on lyle. >> they said you're less than cooperative. those are some rather charged statements. >> reporter: lyle told gable he did not want to answer. >> this is your opportunity to speak. this is your opportunity to speak. >> reporter: and lyle took it. >> let me clarify one thing. so we will be taking things out of context, okay. i had an opportunity to take a trip uh -- we've had an opportunity to take a trip to uh, mexico -- rosarita, to celebrate for valentine's day. i went to look for her.

all the places i thought she would be. okay. that's one of the places we had planned to go. okay, so for you to -- for detective gable to take out a context, just throw it out there arbitrarily, well he went to mexico, yes, to look for my wife. >> but gable had never believed lyle went to mexico to look for lesley. >> it's obvious he's lying, and i can see he's lying. >> reporter: seeing through lyle's lies was one thing, but what gable really needed was a break. >> i kinda get the feeling that what you were hoping for with that press conference was not somebody who had seen lesley alive, but maybe somebody who had seen lyle in the process of moving her, disposing her body? >> yes. that's what i was hoping for. >> somebody maybe you hadn't talked to before? >> correct. >> and it paid off? >> it paid off immediately. >> thank you very much for coming down. 3 f2 valió la pena

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>> all her friends are going to gather and we're going to get quick and think about her as hard as we can. it's all about her today. >> reporter: in the weeks after that surreal press conference, aasha davis continued getting the word out about her sister, lesley herring. >> she was amazing. >> reporter: lyle herring continued to play the part of

the grieving husband. inside hollywood station, detectives gable and bynum were continuing to put together the case against lyle. one with no dna, no blood and still no body. but there was evidence that came in tiny little pieces. they'd found an undated "dear john" type letter lesley had written to lyle, saying she was leaving him, that she was broken and detectives finally got those cell phone records that lyle was so eager for them to see. >> here, we have february 7 and this is the condo right here and there's the cell site tower. >> reporter: it turns out lyle did call lesley after the time he said she'd run off. but the records had more details than lyle expected. >> there was activity between both phones. that part is true. >> but? >> but the problem was where the phones were located. based off the cell towers we were able to show that the phones were in the same

location. >> suggesting that what? lyle was holding his phone in one hand and dialing lesley's phone, which was in his other hand? >> exactly. >> reporter: and then came the lead spawned by that press conference. >> thank you very much for coming down. >> reporter: a neighbor from the condo complex had seen lyle herring getting into the elevator at around 1230 a.m. sunday on that weekend that lesley disappeared. lyle was moving what looked like a big rolled-up carpet. >> how, the diameter, would you say? >> it was pretty thick, it was round, round enough for a body to be inside. >> you think that was lesley inside that carpet? >> absolutely. >> reporter: it would take more than a year but did and in april 2010, lyle herring was finally arrested and charged with the murder of his wife lesley. it would take three more years to get to trial. >> over the next few weeks, my

colleague here and i are gonna present to you the layered web of evidence that caught him, put him in this courtroom and proves beyond a reasonable doubt that that man, that calculated husband, that killer is the defendant, lyle herring. >> what do you think happened? >> i think that i learned throughout the investigation that one of the things that lyle does when they're having arguments is that he washes lesley's hair. >> as a way of what? >> getting back into her good graces >> reporter: gable believes the herring's bathtub was the real crime scene. >> and i believe that they were talking about the letter that he had already received, and she was likely adamant that she was leaving. he was gonna have no part of that. and i think he just pushed her under. >> and drowned her right there in -- >> --drowned her right there. >> reporter: remember all those

towels gable saw? he believes lyle used them to mop up the bathroom. then he wrapped up lesley, put her on the dolly and had the bad luck to run into a neighbor in the elevator that night. the defense said none of that happened. that lyle was not guilty because lesley wasn't murdered. she's not even dead. >> i don't want you to expect or hold me to any promise that there's going to be some perry mason moment and lesley's gonna walk through the door and just say, "here i am." but i will tell you at the conclusion of this trial there will be more than sufficient evidence to believe that she in fact could. >> i wish they were right. let me say that, you know? i would love to be hugging my sister and i wish that were true. but i know who she is. and i know she's not alive. >> we are on the record. >> reporter: after a three and half week trial, a jury agreed with aasha. >> we the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant,

lyle stanford herring, sr., guilty of the crime of murder. >> reporter: this morning, >> reporter: june 2013 lyle herring was sentenced to 15 years to life for murder in the second degree. it's not quite the end because lyle is holding onto one last secret from a marriage that apparently had a lot of them. he's never told anyone where lesley's body is. >> lyle's probably gonna see this program. >> i know. >> anything you want to say to him? >> yes. we pray that you will tell us where lesley is so we could have closure in our life. we know that you know exactly where she is. >> reporter: through her pain and loss, aasha is trying to find a lesson. >> it's so important to me that women or anyone who's fearful about what other people are going to think about the way they're living their life, like, it's so much -- it's hard to not live up to what we think is

success. but it's so much more important that you share even your sadness with people. >> you wish lesley had talked to you. >> i really, really wish she had. yeah, i do. i think -- i don't think i'd be here right now. >> reporter: but aasha has also had an opportunity to bring some laughter back into this family. >> hi, i'm racy. >> reporter: she's starring in a web series called "the unwritten rules." >> why can't the people in my office think for themselves? >> reporter: it's a comedy about a black woman working one of those deathly dull jobs in a mostly white office. it's a little like lesley's life. >> and -- and i read those scripts and i just -- i -- i felt lesley. i felt her in my heart. i felt -- i -- i laughed again the way she used to make me laugh. it feels so soft and real. >> reporter: and so one sister is paying homage to another. it won't bring lesley back, but it makes her loss a little less

painful. in this hollywood story, it's the only happy ending that avlable. - mom, get down! - i'm gonna hit it. i'm gonna hit it! - aaron! oh, god! - aaron! get her out! get her out! - no problem, we got you. - get the senator out. - go with jack. maureen, come on. - senator payne, come with me. - aaron, help me out. - charlie, you too. - go, go, go! [gunfire] - hang on! - we've got front contact. front contact! - oh, god! [labored breathing] - hang on, charlie! hang on!