ed a meeting and then not to hear from her, this isn't right.mpossible to get up every day knowing that she was gone. to believe we would find her alive.ext her, she always got right back.

>> there was no sign of her, and such a confusing trail of clues,were silent. >> no voice, no struggles could be heard.ew she's not coming back. >> one of the suspects had an alibi, until a camera caught hime. and the strangest clue of all, g lot. >> six perfectly stacked cardboard boxes. >> narrator: what was in there?nough date line to know that was probably not a good sign.n lester holt and this is "dateline."n with " "smoke and mirrors."

this, you understand. wasn't gray, wasn't cold. no flecks of snow to catch the bitter breeze. it was hot and after midnight, r, 2007. so it was, and it was clear and dark and still. and vacant.re the deep woods fought back against the decaying suburban sprawl. and then nothing was clear at all.s violent cry. >> you're experiencing not true. you're just waiting to wake up. >> it just feels like you're literally in a nightmare. narrator: yes, still does. the name, you'll want to remember, is nailah. this is nailah's mother, maria. >> i wanted her to be successful successful, and she was. she lived her name.

this big family. this is lehia, the first born.raph or a chart because it's kind of involved.ull siblings, half siblings, quarter siblings once removed that sort of thing. the family was very blended., it implies that it's something less and i have never felt that way, i have never used that word. >> narrator: one big, close happy family, so said john, the youngest. >> it's simple for us because we from the time we were young, so for us, it's like we're one big family. but two ashleys. >> she's ashleys with an e, and she's ashley with a y. s is kind of unusual, kind of rare, that everybody gets along. >> yeah, everybody gets along, it's a good thing.were kids,

people. >> hi. >> narrator: and in the middle this big family, was nailah. little mute, they used to call her, because once she decided rguments against were mute. >> she was sure of herself from really the earliest time.ailah franklin was going somewhere. >> she was like my hero, i always looked up to her. ed you for who you are. it's like she glowed when she came into a room.ator: she came to chicago and built a career in pharmaceutical sales. she owned a condo in the heart of the city.rything she wanted to be she was. the theme fabulous was the aspiration and she always met that mark.lways stayed

call her, she would call back , she would reply instantly, always. >> she managed to water all of hips, she would spend time with everyone, friends, family. ial skill. >> to manage that and your career. >> narrator: there were men, of course there were. though she was shall we say, discertain dis discerning. >> professional nice men. g with plastic surgeon guy, and this guy and that guy. >> she took up briefly with a or with a white bentley.uly of 2007, she met andre wright.

smile, a big beautiful woman, warm personality and we kind of walked around the space looking at different t my interests, what i was looking for in a piece of art. >> suddenly this was a different search. rt work became of little interest to me at that point. >> narrator: just like that, it was all over for both of them.'t want to go all hallmark card on you, but this was clearly like a trance moment. >> the family loved andre, who wouldn't wouldn't.me to my son's birthday party and he brought a gift. because he's a nice, quality person.ing on moving in together, right, on being together? >> we did. >> and it was happening pretty fast?elt good though, it just

>> it was long distance, he in milwaukee, she in chicago. they stayed connected by phone all day long. >> i would call her every morning. e seemed to notice any dark force, any unseen thing festering in the t late summer, didn't feel the warning, didn't know who said what to whom. it was september 18, a tuesday. >> that tuesday morning, i called her on my way to work. but i was interrupted and she called me and said, hey, what happened to my call.hought i had. so we spoke for a bit, exchanged e-mails later. and then just kind of went about the day. evening came, he in the flush of love, called again. no answer. ying i was heading home and got a text message back from her phone er and

>> wait a minute. you had been calling her every day, talking all the time. >> yeah.he said, i'm at dinner, i'll call you later? >> narrator: but she didn't. then, 9:00 p.m., one of the hleys call nailah, nailah who always picked up the phone for a sister. >> i texted her and i got g the lines of i'm at dinner and i'll call you in a few. >> was that like her? >> it's not like her to not ne. i have seen her step out of the shower to answer her phone.ail, in all caps, are you alive?ne of those things half in jest, half knowing.r: not only was nailah

work. >> one more ominous sign, three calls to 911 from her cell phone.o struggles could be heard, light music in the background. s got to be kind of eerie to hear that? >> it is. we know what it means to serve. get an insurance quote and see why 92% of our members life. pet moments are beautiful, unless you have allergies. then your eyes may see it differently. only flonase is approved toyour itchy,z watery eyes and congestion. no other nasal allergy spray can say that. complete allergy relief or

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narrator: september 19, 2007 dawned in chicago like any other

one thing, nailah frank in, ambitious, dependable, always on her phone, are silence, even with her new love, andre. >> i called her that morning, e-mailed her, called her again >>. >> narrator: that's when he sent her that all caps e-mail, are you alive? >> you probably didn't mean it the way it was? >> it's like to say to someone, are you there? >> later in condo, no answer. she got a key, went ins and coffee that she had just left there, just out. >> something's wrong. >> i'm like, you know what? this isn't right. >> narrator: then lehia got a knows how, she's a public relations executive. >> your p.i. experience really kicked in? >> yes. 's experience told her not to hope too much for media'snfortunate reason. >> quite frankly, i don't know of one woman of color that gets on by the media, in general. >> in fact there's some truth to it. looking young blond, the whole world wants to know about her, stay talking

>> there is really got that. it troubles the mind when people r if it didn't fit the narrative of gun violence or gang violence or something like that, then it's not real. >> narrator: though lehia knew, but lehia was not to be denied. well going to cover it. >> well, they were. >> narrator: maybe this is because of lehia's media salve ity savvy. >> we were in the streets and putting up any place we could, >> narrator: they phoned and texted and e-mailed their friends, but no one reported seeing seenailah, no one. nailah's sisters kept replaying their last conversation.

and before she could tell me, she got a call on the other line. she clicked over and said she ck. >> she didn't call you? >> she didn't call me back. >> narrator: awful what a person's mind can churn up in ay one became day two, and then day three. >> i just kept calling her, i was thinking, she's going to swer, she's going to answer. >> there's no handbook about this, you think you're going to wake up and it's a dream, but, reel. >> detective greg jacobson, who right away scanned nailah's phone records and found ming. just after 10:00 p.m., the night nailah vanished, her cell phone to 911. >> chicago emergency, may i help

be heard, no background noise, with the exception of some light music in the background.s kind of eerie to hear that. >> if a person is unable to physically complete the conversation and just able to e nang 911. >> narrator: so the investigators set about talking to just about everybody nailah knew. >> there was doctors she had to try to retrace her steps and everyone she had encountered. >> everyone we knew had a with her. >> narrator: maybe lehia's campaign worked because -- >> we had some anonymous tips ofad seen her at this location. >> narrator: but not a single one of them led to nailah, now detectives knew they were us crime. and yet -- >> she's missing, technically, there hasn't been a crime committed.omewhat awkward when you're looking into

>> we looked at the boyfriend e went to see from wisconsin the week before she went missing. in the search and soon was the subject of it. the perfect boyfriend, now to ectly obvious person of interest. >> reporter: coming up, a discovery in an empty parking lot.y secluded area and right adjacent to a lagoon.enough "dateline" to know that's not a good sign. >> reporter: but what if to do with nailah. when "dateline" continues.

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>> how overwhelming was that? o big when you're looking for someone., all of chicago, and nailah would be anywhere, tied up in a basement,f a car, or worse. then middle of the night, 20 miles south of town in a place a cop was on routine patrol checking out a golf course parking lot. his name is calvin lucius.his area right here, i noticed right in front me, six perfectly stakt ly ly stacked cardboard boxes right in the parking lot. something stood out, so i'm liket right here. >> narrator: inside the boxes, pills, hundreds of them.

narcotics and drug related case. >> except it looked like a pharmaceutical rep would be handing out to doctors. >> what were they?of medicines, i can't even pronounce the names. >> narrator: the label, the address to a storage locker and a name. pretty soon -- >> the fib and chicago police, ybody was out here looking. >> narrator: including detective greg jacobson. >> it was right next to a nature preserve, that was right to a lagoon. i watch enough "dateline" to a good sign. >> they drudged the lagoon.

found one thing.rom a tree. >> nailah wasn't here.lehia's p.r. campaign, not far away from there, next town over -- >> a person saw a newscast, and that car's been on my block for a couple days. and thank god they found that and thank god they cared enough it in. >> narrator: that call came in black chevy impala. >> we went out there to see it. >> narrator: it was hers. >> you opened that trunk, the want to think is there's something in that trunk. and fortunately there wasn't.d any prints, any

the way our technicians described it, it was wiped clean. >> narrator: determined that she might find her sister, the drove out there. >> the car was parked in front of an abandoned house.he door, i banged on the windows, i screamed her name. i didn't want to leave. i had to be taken from that area.f course the cops canvassed the neighbors, and what do you know? they had even a male loitering around the vehicle. >> did they give you a good description?frican-american. >> that description may have fit a lot of people in nailah's life. andre wright. police had questioned him about their relationship and where he ared. >> they asked when the last time

spoke.d that man milling around the car have been someone else, her ex-boyfriend, d pops. but before the cops could find him, he stepped up and called them. >> he said he wanted to know whylice wanted to talking to him. >> narrator: he agreed to stop by headquarters to talk. a year earlier, but purely by chance in the street on the ritzy gold coast, d, so was he. they dated on occasion, and realized it wasn't for life.s in a very large apartment complex, a high-rise. >> nice place? >> beautiful. >> in an upscale area.>> it's where you want to live.

everything they wanted to know.nds at target, bar hopping with not one, but an intimate plan with a third girlfriend. >> they made plans to meet at reginald's apartment around . >> this guy gets around. >> if you got a bentley, your en. >> as investigators went out to check reginald potts alibi, down in calumet, when a partner notices something. >> he saw a couple of ear buds he trees. >> bright little babbles hanging. what else was there at the edge of the midnight woods. >> reporter: detectives take a from nailah's past. >> she felt that there was

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it's a grassroots effort by family and friends. all the frannic activity, the phone calls, the flyers, the organized looking quiet time nine days in in nailah ter felt it. >> i knew, i was like, she's not coming back. >> narrator: and that very ght, in the 3:00 a.m. hush of calumet city, calvin lucius madethe ear buds his partner found hanging in a tree,deo store. >> i got right around in this area, and just looked over and the body was there. >> what was that moment like?don't know if it's her or not, but you have a idea,

to dental records to confirm, it was nailah. >> i think this type of death, it doesn'rson, it kills a lot in the family. it's the absence of a piece of you because that person is not here.n't describe it, it's like you know it's happening, but it just feel real. it just feels like you're in, e in a nightmare. >> narrator: an autopsy confirmed the death was by asphyxiation, so now it was who was the killer? not andre. confirmed he was in milwaukee when nailah vanished. thing with him checked out. >> narrator: as for being questioned -- >> are you upset by that at all? have done that, that's part of their job. >> narrator: what about reginaldo helpful. well, this is curious, when investigators went to visit his

couldn't help but notice -- the doors was extremely damaged, like it had been forced open. narrator: hmm, that's weird. but maybe not so weird. tts was visited by the sheriff's office in order to evict reginald pots.s 2006, a lot of people were falling behind in their mortgages. but reginald's was deeper than that. >> he was constantly in default. he had not a pot or pan in the kitchen, but what he believed to surround himself with, cars, clothing,

>> narrator: the bentley it turned out belonged to somebody else.s and a wife who was raising his children and another one who was raising another.t take nailah long to figure it out. >> she knew something was off about him, so she decided to deeper. >> narrator: so she ended it, and as she did, she warned whomever she could about one of his other girlfriends. >> watch out for this guy, he's bad news, and he's cheating on you? >> yeah, they were in about reginald. >> nailah told andre that when reginald found out, he wasn't happy. >> he got wind of that and out to nailah in a threatening manner. >> narrator: sent her nasty e-mails and voicemails. >> did you worry about that a lot?exhibit any worries to me about it. >> narrator: but she must have

t nailah had called a nonemergency police phone number, asked about filing an order of protection g ex-boyfriend. she mentioned mr. potts. so, yes, reginald pots was a . but he wasn't exactly hiding from the police. remember, he had given them a out. >> he was pretty specific on where he's at. >> narrator: and as the weeks e seemed quite eager to help. >> he continuously called me on my cell phone. >> really?tell you what? >> trying to direct the investigation, why haven't we lked to you eke echols. >> they were at a target store shopping. >> narrator: and sure enough, firmed his

security cameras at the target eem to exclude potts as a suspect if henot killing and asphyxiating nailah. >> if you're going to commit a crime, do not do it at target, to have everything from the sign to every transaction on the keypad very clear.ugh he managed to avoid every camera on the store, or his frchbd lied to him. only reginald wasn't at the target, but -- >> he got a phone call from and traveled to hammond in order to pick him up because he needed a ride.mond, indiana, where nailah's car was found.

of nailah franklin. but reginald, quite vehemently >> we would push you and then we would have -- >> fabrication? reginald, he was being framed. >> reporter: coming up, a suspect bears all. taking yours off? >> but would he reveal the truth when "dateline" continues. as little as two weeks, and help stop further joint damage.n lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma,s have happened. don't start xeljanz if you have an infection. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts, and higher liver tests and

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>> narrator: here we are in a little room in a chicago police station, reginald potts is underrest for the murder of nailah franklin, the detectives they are certain they have their man. but mr. potts? >> i had mant adamantly deny that i was anywhere near her the day she disappeared.ator: he was nowhere near her when she vanished.r her. >> narrator: of course they told them they had evidence.o of your bentley in the parking garage of your

>> i can tell you for sure that's a lie. police frame-up to which the detectives said -- >> you understand that video erywhere? >> narrator: yes, including nailah's apartment building, and there is reginald, plain as day rriving and leaving with her on that very day she disappeared. >> so you knew he was there? >> yes.ginald, doubled down on hiss denials. >> i am certain that i am near inside of nailah franklin's apartment. >> narrator: accused the police of fabricating evidence. >> i guarantee you you don't have video of me getting off thenailah franklin's house, if you do, you're very

>> narrator: he never expressed y desire for an attorney, but when they asked him to stand in so that witnesses could -- >> the state's attorney is representing the people in , i would not feel comfortable at all, at all. >> so they waited for reginald's attorney to arrive., it got odd. >> your attorney's right there.y are you taking your clothes off? >> your attorney's right here, we want to take him for a lineup right now.n the other room. >> reginald removed all of his clothing and refused to stand in the lineup. nteresting tactic. >> yes. >> have you ever seen that before? >> no.

capital murder. nailah by then had been dead three months. >> i was definitely relieved, i d that it took so long. but i was relieved. >> narrator: relieved too that potts as was his right, demanded a speedy trial, but then -- >> reginald potts used every isposal to delay the process.cago's charlie husky watched in amazen't as reginald turns speedy justice into something else all together.red lawyers, he fired lawyers, he tried to act as his own attorney.f the trial, the trial had to be reset. >> in the fourth half of the year, indiana had apolished ment, so that was off the table.

delays.'s family had reached out to the media, reginald potts tried to launch afrom behind bars. >> his family reached out trying to convince me that there may besome way that he was not ed with this crime, that it might be associated with someone else.very delay, every manipulation was slow torture. >> i very much believe that everyone should have a fair and just trial and that too often poor or people of color do not -- or most often, they don't get proper they don't get a fair shake in our court system. but this was not that.n finally, on october 28, 2015, on a crisp, in chicago, the trial

taken eight years to get here. >> when it was finally were confused about how things would go down. finally a trial, what type of >> narrator: they had no idea, how could they? assistant state attorneys maria io value lean entini were the district attorneys in the crime.nd not many cases with a defendant quite like reginald potts. >> reporter: coming up, an fense. >> he's smarter than the average criminal, but not as smart as he thinks he is.hen after eight years, a verdict. >> what really tormented me all

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the video at the target store that did not show him and thus blew up his alibi. d she showed them e-mails and played a voicemail in which he threatened her. >> nailah played that voicemail se she was so terrified and essentially, in said, nailah, i'm going to have you erased, i'm going to make you disappear. >> narrator: in fact said the hat's exactly what he did. snuck into her building, led herrrified to the garage,

into her own car.w did they find out where? cell phone towers, linked together like bred crumbs. anybody, she's not answering calls, her texts are all odd. but her phone and his phone were step, the entire rest of the day. >> narrator: right to the abandoned video store behind lah's body. no coincidence that he chose that particular spot so far from chicago, said the prosecutor. that the video store next door is owned by w. >> narrator: he said yes, he did lie for reginald, but he didn't was to cover up a murder. remember those odd, mails and texts her boyfriend and sister

hours after he murdered her, said the prosecution, a clever row off a missing person's investigation. >> he's smarter than the average criminal, but not as smart as he thinks he is.tor: but reginald potts is nothing if not strategic.orneys need to create reasonable doubt. so in this case it was very hardause of death. it's little things like that in the hopes that one juror or two jurors will latch on to that andnvict. >> narrator: they even disputed the cell phone evidence the lieved sinced the case. >> the idea that you can learn the location of a cell phone by cell phone tower is flawed. >> did reginald's art persuade them, two hours and 15 minutes

answered no.unced reginald potts guilty of first-degree murder. >> whew. i was so relieved.ay, that's past now is the next thing. >> narrator: the next thing was nths later. >> still waiting and hoping he doesn't get four years or something stupid like that.tor: but again, they had no idea. what was this man all about? there was a hearing to help the ecision about sentence, normally just arguments, recommendations from both sides. but not this time.n called 35 witnesses to tell the judge a hair raising story about reginald potts.ot quite the gold plated success story he appeared to be. >> he lived a live of a lot of

lot of people. >> narrator: and when the con ed, even law enforcement was a target. >> he said he would kill my family, my family would never be safe.k three times by mr. potts in the face. >> narrator: he has a long re he struck guards. all of that was too prejudicial to present at trial, but now >> he took her back by the elevator and i heard slap.as been a menace his entire adult life. >> and when a woman stood up to him. witness after witness testified at reginald betrayed them, by bullied them or worse. >> this guy not only had a hurt women, but he had a propensity to choke them

is, look at your watch. >> that bad, huh? >> the guy's a monster.er, who however briefly fooled even the sophisticated, successful ah, to her mother's eternal sorrow. >> you don't know who you're letting into your life. they don't always come looking like a monster. >> narrator: there was a kind ofe things, everyone gets to talk.rder is stole from our community of bright light. >> i can still hear her moaning ng out, begging for her life. >> narrator: but reginald cried, denied everything. my peers came back with a verdict that i believe is false and i believe is invalid, and i believe a als will overturn it. but right now this court has to

not the person that ms. mccarthy has tried to paint in this courtroom.ter. i'm not a monster. >> narrator: we waited to see ifginald's story, or the prosecutor's. and here it was. a cold, calculating, conniving, coward of a conman who must be punished. >> narrator: and indeed he was, parole. >> take him away. >> narrator: so that was justice, the most nailah's family could hope for.tant. and strangely, empty. >> it's still not done.s still not back. we still can't talk with her. >> narrator: no, they try to t as a murder victim, but as the beautiful

center of her family.al and painful, comes to visit every day. >> you know, people say, oh, your angel and she's in a better place and all this other stuff, i'm like yeah, but i want her nt my 28-year-old sister to be my angel, i want her to be right the thick of it with me. >> reporter: that's all for thisteline." we'll see you tomorrow for at 8:00 for the "dateline saturday s." i'm lester holt, for all of us at nbc news, good night. @ @ residents fed up. @a local apartment building @dealing with the bed bug @problem.

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