e go? who did she see? i just want to know what happened to my sister.ng mher i a case gone cold. >> it was so important to me to know >> then, detectives had an aha moment. turn to someg i thought that could actuay ndh started to change. t, you'll se come pouring out. a hidden crime and a son's heart-pounding moment.>>his is . i'm glad we know the truth.

>> wharepot vicente, california. the wet, gray cold has settled in to stay. at noon a police a hail mary pass, apparently a slim chance to find the truth at before they came along with their wild ideas about murder and facebook, of all things. bahnnow this. hen all this happened back in march,

1981. the night of the slam doors, the harsh words, the car roaring away. and it's an old story anyway. pretty ggee's something with two 20 and a hankering to live, really live for a change. and th pun, e was outgoing. she had a lot of friends.tholde >> we were very close and made each other laugh all the time. >> reporter: but carol wasn't laughing at the end ofd to be somebody, her own somebody. >> i know that carol wanted to complete school and fuhe . >> reporter: sure, her husband was a nice kid and she loved hi first love. the handsome high school football player who would hang around on her front porch. >> his fri w

i thought that was kind of cool. all these football athlete friends. >> reporter: mike stepped up and married her afr >> reporter: enjoyed carol's family. >> >> he just took tos, everybody. he was always a very likeable person. >> reporter: friendly, loyal, but not exactly ambitis. he didn't seem to mind at all settling down to a modest all cramped up in a two bedroom, one bathhouse in torrance. >> i think she may have outgrown him somewhat. >> reporter: h maybe more than one. she got herself a cute litdetle personalized plates. the car did this one up to look just

like it. and quite often, she'd get in n't part of?ar alone and go >> yeah. >> reporter: and then that night in march, kids off to bed. >> i was in bed. my 10th birthday and was listening to the headphones. >> reporter: from his bed, he could see something happening out in the hallway. >> i remember them getting into an argument, w w >> because they just didn't? >> not that i knew of. i remember her marching past and slamming the door. >> yourdeardhe slam of the front door, i know that. >> and the next morning -- er >> reporte m demanded he sign papers to sell ed. s was just he didn't wa

l parted, her red audi foxneeded showed up in the parking lot of the red onion, dusty, as if it had been there a while. >> i remember being upset about .. >> reporter: they drove around, looking for her. went to bars. carol's picture in hand. >> and? >> nobody had seen her. es you know, where did she go? department opened a file but they couldn't an ato start a ne somewhere else? or had she been in an accident strge

happened here at the house.d it back in here when nobody else was around? imagine what it was like back then in that little house. mike thinking things over. on a hunch he said he placed ta oe dahe took the kids to universal studios, and sure enough, when they returned, he noticed the tape was broken and some mail on the counter was moass ter, it happened again. some of carol's clothes went miss a from a place no burglar would u dish in the refrigerator, where was missing. of it. that was in carol's personality,

re those mysterious phone calls. >> we'd get the calls on special days. her birthday, my birthday, my grandmother, we'd get calls. >> and just silence on the other end? >> yeah. >> what did you do? >> we'd saasy, carinding a happier life somewhere. th succ to make a complete and total >> reporte play involved. d i used to play records over and over that she liked. orst thinking where is she? r: eventually mike started dating a 19-year-old named carrie, brought her into the fold. >> we were happy that mike was on with life.life. and many years went by.

until the morning in a whole new millennium when a torrance detective happened on the case somewhere in the back of his brain, a little light turned oni just didn't sound right to me. coming up, doubts about carol's disappearance grow, d ansr on ansr on facebook? yeah, i just saved a whole lot of money by swhuh.serlook at ge. boats, mot geico insures rvs? uh, the thing we've been stuck on for five years! wait, i'm not a real moose??f!

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in march of 1981, carol bahf two, known to be unhappy in her departed for parts unknown, husband, mike, but her son, mike jr., then just 10 years old. >> i was never upset with her, never. i just was upset she was never there. i thought she wo i always thought, ll up. >> but she didn't. and at family gatherings as the them, rema >> when it came to my family, i think they didn't talk about it igeduse they f upset me or my sister, so they just kind of -- it was a taboo about her. >> my family is pretty closed to

talking about heavy things, so >> it was an awfully heavy thing. ea >> could you see it in your th >> what d sadness. i' >> reporter: 1987, almost six years after carol vanished, the revisited the case and time memory a little. to him. remember soon after carol vanished, mike said they argued, het in the morning early and she was gone? but in 1987, he remembered they argued, went to bed together, morning to go to the bathroom.w of a car engine starting and dro pl tricks.

anyway, it didn't seem terribl significant, so the case went back into the tk over the hous painting business from carol's dad and went on to marry carrie and have two me gail and terri raised their own babies started to change terri' disappearance. e your life, you might leave your husband, you would take your kids with you. suspect that she wouldn't leave her children, d >> that something happened to her. ad heard from carol, the police came around again. lubahn's background with ground-penetrating radar

didn't find a thing. funny thing, though. about four months later, the local paper did a little story, interviewed mike, and thisdie e. he rememre terrible morning when carol left, he heardhe go up before she drove away. just one more lile though nothing profoundly rse diff evidence whatsoever of any crime. and then one day in 2002, a detective named walt delsigne cabine i thought what was this. >> reporte i over 20 years old and as cold as they come. >> i thought this is interesting. >> reporter: of course she w police reports. couldn't help notice the subtle.

of strange, because i wouldn't last time you saw your wife. >> reporter: so he went to see carol's parents, her mom, melba, her dad, milt. >> he looked up at me and was starting to cry. and he goes, oh, i'm just so happy. i can't believe you guys are l >> how much did that have to do with you driving ahead on this >> a lot. i'm the father of three i thought what if this is my middle daughter. mildied one m never knowing what happened to . t a pvate thought ate at her. mike must know something. >> i didn't say anything. i tried to keep away.

th him. litt obsessed. he h m pulling him >> i actually would shove some of my work away. i got in a little trouble for that sometimes. >> reporter: for years the detective chipped away until finally in 2010, blue file, he decided to pay a . his colleagues thought he was a bit nuts. >> there was those that thought, yeah, what do you think he i thought, well, i played enough sports in my time, i know you'rs you try. detective delcine. i want to talk about carol. coming up, thi >> i think i did that james bond thing with the paperth

>> but one thing did ring true. crawl.

didn't disappear voluntarily but actual evidence of a crime, th supposedly walked out on her

fa a >> he invited us in. but that was the plan. >> rorte or thrown off? not at all. >> very i h, now heard from everybody in the >> reporter: so together they that last ni 1981, and right away mike remembered a little more about eae estate contract and a demand they sell their tiny house. >> did she just turn and walk away with it or what happened? crawl. >> you make my skin crawl? >> y i' bet you she did say tha.

>> and the details were, once about when and where he last saw her, for ele he went to bed one occasion or 5:30 the next morning, ahe, this time mike sa saw carol about 10:30 or 11:00 ly i used the bath. saw carol's car driving away. >> see taillights. >> yes dresser drawers after carol lef. but as he sat re morelaborate.

right inside the door so if ppe. >> baby powder. anything else? >> ike i did that james bond thing with the paper on the okay. >> by now detective delsigne was wallace and deputy djo >> do yowhatmeou thought? >> memory had grown in areas where he shodeceuld beion. >> sure. >> but the mind plays tricks. believe them as strenuously as t>> that's an interesting theo. i don't think it's really supported.

but memories don't increase in y don't increase in different details. and that's a sign of what we call a lie. >> his version of what happened. >> and whyld to the cold case team it seemed obvious. >> he killed her that night. she stopped living that night. everything else that's going if you know it's a lie, then it all lines up. talk to them three more times of his own free will. very friendly, without an he even let the prosecutor take a crack at him. in my position, tell me what you would think. >> probably what you're thinking. >> well, mike, i can tell you, sometimes you know the kind of murder cases we get, we get

him and he kills her. so -- >> it had nothing to do with that. >> did you catch what mike said? it had nothing to do with that. >> when you just look at sentence structure and how people talk and communicate, it what is the "it"? >> you gave that great significance, didn't you? >> reporter: so they kept at mike. and at one point it seemed to them he was on the verge of co >> listen, why don't you give me a few days to think about all of it. >> reporter: but when he came back, he didn't give them anything and they were right back where they started.suspicie of a crime.ay teven prove carol dead. jim wallace hit on an idea. to use a tool that didn't even

exist when carol lubahn fought with her husband on a march night in 1981.arm of facebook. >> it's the kind of a place where we say here i am. it's also a place you can find people. >> the result, a dramatic turn in the case and fresh heartbreak >> another nightmare on top of the first nightmare. clearasil rapid action begins working fast for clearly visible results in as little as 12 hours. can it fix ? will clearasil act fast to help thiacne.n concentrate on his math test?y woed on the can it hel... nope. no. so let's be clear: clearasil works fast on teen acne, no and now there's new clearasil overnight spot patches with patented technology for faster healing. (whispering mom) you really (kids laughing)oing to work?hi

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deputy d.a. john lewin and cold case team believed mike lubahn killed his but they had one big problem. they couldn't prove carowa >> the biggest assumption is going to be how do you know she's s th ncountry or changed her identity. >> kind of an important question, with no answer. and then in january, 2011, jim wallace got the flu. lucky break. no, really. >> and i was laying in bed. my wife came in and fot is, because we were a dedicated cold case team, you're talking about cam sure she was tired of hearing it. but she mentioned to me, why don't you establish a facebook account for carol.

i thought that could actually accomplish a great deal. 1 when carol disappeared, facebook creator mark zuckerberg wasn't but 30 years later, detective wallace knew social media and its potential to con globe instantly. it could determine once and for all,e >> because all of us know from using facebook, that number one, say here i am. it's also a place you can find people. >> surely if carol was still al on facebook or twitter would know something. h found an age progression artist to create an image of what she might look like and then he placed that photo and others like it on facebook and other sites. >> it turned out it was a great point of contact for me to contact 350 friends and family of carol. right away we said has anybody seen carol? we discovered immediately that nobody had seen carol since the

night she disappeared. >> if carol merely googled her own name, she'd find herself at wallace's website. but that never happened, which meant something very significant, said the detective herself. she's dead. >> or, a farmer's wife in uruguay who doesn't go on the computer much. >> it doesn't mean she is dead for sure. >> absolutely. >> it just means you made a fairly good case for it. >> in thit's another piece that points to the same conclusion. if mike killed her, taking the accusation to court would be risky. totally circumstantial. but they decided to roll the dice.

30 years afterwards on april 13th, 2011, mwa >> when you went to the family and said we're going to charge him, what was their reaction? >> mixed at best. >> reporter: mixed? such a mild word.orfied, mystified? in fact most of carol's family could have murdered carol was just ludicrous. >> well, he was a member of our family, you know. arrested or him be the reason or it's like another nightmare on top of the first nightmare. >>hk the family would have been more than happy to believe that carol is still out there somewhere, she's not dead, and their killer. l mike sr.'s family members, perhaps no

one was as torn as his name sake first born son, mike jr., who loved his father unreservedly. followed him into the family painting business, worked side by side with him for deces and who had confessed to detectives that, like his aunt his father. doubts that had taken root shortly after mike sr.'s second wife left him. >> he talked about my stepmother >> and why was that so significant to you? >> because he never talked about my mother. >> at all? >> never. >> reporter: but mike never confronted his father. >> i just knew in the back of my mind that this could be a possibility, and i really wanted my father to go to jail, i just wanted to know. it was so important to me to know the truth behind that evening. >> reporter: to get the truth d john lewin was willing to make a deal.

>> we had offered him voluntary manslaughter if he gav >> and he tu y >> reporter: mike pleaded not guilty. and if members of carol's own and a son on the stand. t th. t batub when you his dad answ murdered her?

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it was septemb1t september 11th, 2012, 31 years, five months, 12 days after the last known sighting of carol lubahn. an inauspicious day to begin the prosecution of a man. ul >> what i'm going toab lubahn is a deceoranr: of cours occurred, he had to show the victim was no longer alive. for that he ed wallace who explained to the jury the facebook and soci carol had turned up a whole lot of nothing. >> have you been contacted by e-mail, in writing, who says, you know what, i've seen c lubahn after the day she disappeared?

>> no. >> though as lewin and his team also let the juror hear, family members like carol's sister, gail, believed wt them, that carol had run off. >> has it been hard for you to accept the possibility that she may be dead? >> well, yes. >> is it maybe even more difficult by the fact that you cared deeply for the defen >> reporter: and you s suspected mike for years -- ink lubahn sr. as a part of your family? >> yes. >> reporter: but most anguished. >> is there anything about the would make you think or made you feel that she would leave you say good-bye?

>> no. r: hloved his dad. but also secretly doubted him. something he had never revealed until now. oltrial, he ad to basically sye, ally stressed about that. >> how hard is it for you to b >> do you want to believe that your dad is responsible for your mother's disappearance? >> do i want to believe it? >> yes. >> no. dad in fact did kill your mom.o see hi punished for it? >> no, not pti >> reporter: prosecutor lewin knew the ambivalence of the mi case, but -- theamily t at the. my responsible.

>> but was mike a killer?s atrn >> i think the police are just on>> reporter: no forensics, no witnesses, not even a body. the defense might have stopped right there.at and if the details had been a little different each time ht f jury. t, the way he discovered she was gone. >> i opened the front door and went out and the garage door was up and the casions, didn't mike heard the garage door go up and why had his story changed again? >> what's the deal with that? did you hear the garage door? >> i don't think >> why do you think that now?yo? >> because i think over the

years, i thought about this night so many times, and i just -- you know, i seen that car back out owhenat she was leaving.nk just thought repeatedly in my mind that that's what i thought happened. i saw the car, i can see it gh >> reporter: he ve be the last time he's see his wife. >> thought she had gone o that night and went dancing and stayed the night with a friend. >> reporter: what did happen to her? know. >> did you have anything to do with killing her? >> no. with her disappearance? >> no. other than i didn't sign the papers andt >> reporter: successful testimony? maybe. but now do he'd have to answer questions fr j >> do you lie sometimes? n >> i wouldn't say never.

a white lie, who knows. >> let me ask you, have you ever lied about something ser >> in your entire life, you've that wasn't a white lie?>> il j remember. >> reporter: in fact mike had a things prosecutor lewin asked about. i don't remember saying that. >> reporter: but how on earth, his wife? wou you agree that th would be one of the most 'tean i have to ts, details of remember it. ep >> isn't it true, mr. lubahn, th t in that bathtub when you murdered her?

why are you looking at the judgim e? to correct you. no, i didn't murder her, i'm in the bathtub?d murdered her, you would tell us o you think that statement tted is believable? don the jury to decide.l se that wasn't the end of the story. coming up, a son overce >> please, for your family, for >>an

this is it.

let's call the jurors out. >> there are few things in eric weighted with consequee,s in a she was dead? mike's family held its police.t.

>> and now, here was mike's fate >> we, the jury in the above-entitled action, find the defendant, michael clark lubahn sr., guilty trder. mike lubahn was going to prison. long-time dect you get done, you know, and you. that's not this case. that the jury would convict him and i don't think any of us aret were some answers. to pay for what he did, i just y

sister. >> reporter: and at a eng in de mike's own son echoed those sentimen ease let me know. jr.aside, t made a heart-breaking plea to the court.thernd a good person., i want him to know i'm going to world change without him. unity to speak. >>e oforhe much-loved convicted killer too. it happened that very chance. please for your family, for your kids, just let it go.ou speak w

his attorney privately. did he actually have something to confess? he returned a few minutes later the sentencing. e judge pushed g by a month. he wld tell us what happened, that he would tell us what he did with carol and that he would be honest about b all eyes were on mike lubahn as ew entered the courtroom. who told the court th mike finally revealed to him the secret almost 32 years, and so now lewin did the talking and mike, for once, said not a word.e inf

them fighting about the selling of the house, he says that was wn over, as argum would not blow over. not ever. >> she told him that she was going to be taking somebody he said he was very upset. then, he said, and she was era. last thing carol lubahn ever said. e di't want to hear it and he said that he pushed her. she fell and hit her head on a heavy ta th s lubahn up to a polygraph

machine. how much of this was true? >> after the polygraph, the test was done, he confronoutsimidn't. now the defendant changes his story and punched her in the head. and i punched her hard. but he said only one time. what he did with carol's body.h her in the garage behind some carpet. he took her car the next morning to the red onion parking lot, du at some point she was placed in the trunk of mr. lubahn's vehicle. >> reporter: andaft,addled out and dropped her down, a cinderk of it, believed mike.

and now in this very public way, they finally knew that carol wa killed her. but the whole truth, was it actually out there somewre and so on that cold and foggy january,d out to fd carol. to >> if they they find that, that will give me half of the closure i need. because after the boat ride, mike admitted his ocea and perhaps it was f the son who never abandoned him to the place he now says mike's years.

--no one knows if they find her. >> i don't really know why getting her back is the ultimate book end for me. i want to know that she is coperly burie with her. >> why is that so important? >> i think it's just the ultimate answer. this is it. there's no more wondering. >> reporter:o,prison, 15 to life. a good deal of wondering left to do about that man and what he took away. >> yeah, i do. i mean i always will. i've just got to figure out how i'm going to proce i kind of thought a perfect punishment for my father was i was going to ask him to write ain.sentence a m

hat'all for now. i'm lester holt. sunday, credibility trump's un defense unsubstantiated claims. >> as far as guess -- you know,sha something f u.s. intelligence -- >> activity. >> the speaker of the house. >>this. >> the republican house intel chair. at t>>et took place. >> the top democrat on the hous

basis for director james comey will testifytomorrow on spy cla russia's role in