tonight on "nightline" -- shopaholic. it starts with hiding purchases. or lying about price tags. but can a major mall habit escalate to a toxic shopping addiction? how one mother's compulsion led to keep debt and landed her behind bars. and i-workers. my co-anchor bill weir's exclusive look at apple's biggest factory in china. but why is it there and not in america? why their manpower builds our machines. plus, cry for help. syrians dea moving tribute for an american killed today.

for a haunt iing last report, ia city raining with hostility against his own people. good evening. i'm cynthia mcfadden. tonight, the verdict in a much-anticipated murder trial. university of virginia lacrosse player, george huguely v was found guilty of murder in the second degree. it took just nine hours for the jury to reach a verdict. formal sentencing will take place april 16th. but jurors tonight recommended he receive 26 years in prison. "good morning america" will have more in the morning. we turn, now, to americans in debt. and a new report from the federal reserve showing that consumer debt rose 7.5% at the

end of last year. much of that was wracked up on credit cards. well, tonight, we meet a woman at the extreme, who says she can't stop charging. even things she doesn't need. here's abc's cecilia vega. >> i want it. i want it now. >> reporter: clothes. shoes. housewares. >> i think i'll get these. these are really cute. >> $80, just by itself. >> i'll take it. >> reporter: you name it. ronnie haring wants to buy it. for most people, a trip to the mall is, well, just a trip to the mall. for ronnie, it's a universe of dangerous temptations because ronnie is a shopaholic. >> when you come to a place like this, do you feel like you want to go shopping? >> yes. well, it's more than wanting to go. it's a feeling of needing to go. >> reporter: the term shopaholic has become shorthand to describe legions of women who love to shop. but ronnie is among the 6% of

americans struggling with compulsive shopping. a rollercoaster ride of endorph endorphin-filled highs and guilt-ridden lows. today, ronnie's credit card debt is more than $50,000. that's more than the $50,000 she borrowed against her last home. she says she has no choice but to declare bankruptcy. >> that would be a creditor saying -- i usually don't listen to. >> reporter: still, ronnie's husband of almost 20 years, works 2 jobs to keep the family afloat. and he says, enough is enough. over $100,000 in debt because of your shopping? >> yes. >> reporter: is that number infuriating to you? >> it's to the point where you'd just like to throw in the towel and walk away. >> reporter: at what point did you go from being a girl that likes to shop to someone who is considered a compulsive shopper? >> i think it was so slowly escalating that you didn't

realize it until it was all over. >> reporter: it started as a young girl. wanting the latest fashion. then, later as a mom, wanting the newest toys for her two kids. soon, she was shopping in secret, hiding new things from her husband. >> he'd say, is that something new? no. i've had this for a while. >> reporter: when she maxed out her credit cards, she then moved on to her husband's. >> going to the extreme of copying down card numbers and hiding them. she even went to the point to call the bank and disguise her voice as me. >> reporter: how is it possible for a woman to lose it all over clothes and shoes? >> i need three. >> reporter: all it takes is one shopping trip be ronnie to see. >> but then, i don't want just one thing. then, i want to come over here and pick up five of this kind. >> reporter: ten bottles of soap? >> probably 15. >> reporter: part of her compulsion, she buys everything in sets. >> i have to cover every possible outcome. if you want to do it, do it right. the only way to do it right is to do all of it. >> reporter: back at home in her wardrobe, dozens of identical

pairs of shirts. and when ronnie finally went completely broke, she still went shopping. she just couldn't afford to pay for what she took. >> and the only way to fill the want is to take things. to take the place of the things you would have bought before. >> reporter: last month, ronnie was busted. this midwestern soccer mom was cuffed, and thrown into a cell. >> you've hit rock-bottom now. there's nowhere else to go. >> reporter: ronnie said it was the wake-up call she needed. >> oh, my god, my babies are at home. this is destroying you. >> do you admit you were powerless about your shopping. >> reporter: a few days later, ronnie reached out to shopping addiction terry shulman. >> there's a feeling that i'm not good enough who i am. she wants to fill that void. the problem is, it's unfillible. >> reporter: terry takes ronnie to her favorite stores to teach

her how to look but not buy. >> i see the "sesame street" characters and we love all of them. i need to get all of them. >> reporter: that urge to buy things in sets, ronnie says it stems to her childhood, when her parents got divorced. >> it's almost like you don't want to separate them. there's a feeling of being abandoned or being rejected. to just take one was like taking away from a family. >> reporter: for ronnie, recovery could take years of therapy. but the first step includes strict, new rules. >> we have one checkbook, with just my name on it. if she wants a check, i have to sign my name to the check. >> reporter: you're kind of a dad of a teenage girl, in some ways. >> you got it. that's exactly what i said myself. 150 bucks for something. >> reporter: it is chloe's 10th birthday. and bill is trusting ronnie to buy the party supplies. >> i'm worried to make sure she doesn't spend too much. >> i don't need any of this other stuff that normally i would buy.

i'm going to walk away from that. >> reporter: ronnie has clearly made progress. but she doesn't know if she'll ever be fully cured. what she does know now is how much her addiction has cost her. but will you ever be able to go back into a store and feel like it's okay to walk out without buying something? >> yes. i will get there because i can't not do that. i have to do that. or i'm going to end up in jail. i lose my family. and that's too high a risk to pay. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm cecilia vega, in lansing, michigan. >> when shopping isn't fun. up next, for the first time ever, our bill weir takes cameras inside the apple factory in china and asks, why these electronics aren't made in the usa. if you're one of those folks who gets heartburn

and then treats day after day... well that's like checking on your burgers after they're burnt! [ male announcer ] treat your frequent heartburn by blocking the acid with prilosec otc. [ male announcer ] one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn. and don't get heartburn in the first pla and here's my depression. before i started taking abilify, i was taking an antidepressant alone. most of the time i could pull myself together and face the day.

but other days, i still struggled with my depression. i was coping, but sometimes it really weighed me down. i'd been feeling stuck for a long time. i just couldn't shake my depression. so i talked to my doctor, and he added abilify to my antidepressant. he said it could help with my depression, and that some people had symptom improvement as early as 1 to 2 weeks. i'm glad i talked to him. i wish i'd done it sooner. now i feel more in control of my depression. [ male announcer ] abilify is not for everyone. call your doctor if your depression worsens or you have unusual changes in behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. elderly dementia patients taking abilify have an increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor if you have high fever, stiff muscles, and confusion to address a possible life-threatening condition. or if you have uncontrollable muscle movements, as these could become permanent. high blood sugar has been reported with abilify and medicines like it. in some cases, extreme high blood sugar can lead to coma or death. other risks include decreases in white blood cells,

which can be serious, dizziness upon standing, seizures, trouble swallowing, and impaired judgment or motor skills. my depression used to be more of a burden. then my doctor added abilify to my antidepressant. now i feel better. [ male announcer ] if you're still struggling with depression, talk to your doctor to see if the option of adding abilify is right for you. and be sure to ask about the free trial offer.

>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city, with cynthia mcfadden. last night, we devoted our entire program to my co-anchor, bill weir's, exclusive report about the factories in china where apple manufactures most of their products sold here in this country. for the record, our parent company, disney, and apple have strong ties. our ceo sits on their board. and the steve jobs trust is the largest disney shareholder of stock. we agreed to go forward if only we could do so independently. tonight, we continue bill's tour of the ifactory, as he asks a controversial question. why does apple manufacture these products in china instead of the united states? >> reporter: it's all so stylish. the see-through stores.

the pristine, white packaging. touch-screens all the more touchable since the company that makes them has been shrouded in tantalizing secrecy. until now. this is the first time anyone has ever been able to record the manufacturing process of the ipad and the iphone. and it is staggering to understand why these machines are made here in china and not in the u.s. the first and most obvious reason, is the sheer scale. foxconn, the company that makes most of apple's products is not just a factory, it is a manufacturing city. with a population the size of scottsdale, arizona. and it sits in the middle of shenzhen, a manufacturing metropolis, with a population well above new york city's. and those masses don't just work here. so, this is home. they live here. bunking up in dormrooms with seven strangers. hard to imagine the average american employee going to these lengths just to be close to the

factory floor. their work ethic is also super-charged by the fact that most, like zhou ying is providing for distant families. she says her savings to her two kids and parents and gets back to see them about once a month. what are you thinking about while you're working? a lot of times i think about how tired i am, she tells me. and i think about resting. but it beats the job she had before. and by making just $2 an hour, she is the envy of thousands of applicants that line up at the recruiting center each morning. a stampede. and more stunning is the fact that foxconn will hire almost all of them today and have them working on a line in three days. and if they need 100 manufacturing engineers to supervise them, they can hire them just as fast. a year ago this month, steve jobs complained to president obama that he would never find enough engineers in america to run these kinds of lines. but over here, apple can ramp up a new product assembly without

missing a beat. it's easy to fixate on the staggering difference in wages. a new foxconn worker will make a $1.78 an hour. while the average american as assembling electronics will pull down $26 an hour. but cheap labor is one piece. but what makes it harder to compete, as a nation, china has created the greatest manufacturing ecosystem the world has ever seen. once they decided they would feed the masses by building our stuff, the chinese government spent billions building factories, moving workers and engineering the kind of engineers that can run this line. but here's the twist. inside the most gee-whiz top-secret factory at foxconn, the most expensive machines in here are made in america. wow. look at that. like a scene out of "wall-e." and they're replacing chinese workers. on this line, you only need four skilled employees, instead of 40

or 400 unskilled 1s. and they know they have to study hard and keep moving up the value chain, as automation replaces elbow grease. and once they get more skills, chances are, they'll realize they have a lot more power. what would happen if, for example, the people we saw on the iphone line this morning got together at lunch and said, we have some demands? what would happen to them? >> well, so far, we haven't seen the massive movement of labor union, organized by the workers. i do see hope of labor unions become more powerful and more the instrument of the labor rights. but it's not here yet. >> reporter: years ago, henry ford dreamed of needing an entire state to build his product. these days, foxconn ceo terry woo is the modern henry ford. a guy who started making plastic knobs. and now makes iphones for apple. but here's the big difference. ford hoped to pay his workers enough to buy the products they

built. wo is reportedly fond of saying, hungry people have especially clear minds. and most of his workers can't imagine ever owning the product they build. have you ever actually used an iphone? no, she says. but we admire the people who have them. i'm sorry. i didn't mean to be showing off when i pulled out mine. but i love it. and if you made it, thank you. one trip to foxconn seems to prove that the world, as it is, we can either be the country that lines up to make iphones. or we can be the country that lines up to buy them. but it's impossible to be both.d why you fell in love with her in the first place. and why you still feel the same. but your erectile dysfunction -- that could be a question of blood flow. cialis for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently.

tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial.

and finally tonight, the brave men and women who, through their words, try to move the world to action. in syria today, 70 people were reported killed, as president assad's brutal assault on his own people continues. one of the dead was an american, marie colvin. a reporter legendary for her courage and her signature eye patch. she earned that covering another war. for a decade, she risked her life to send pictures back to the rest of the world. abc's global affairs reporter christiane amanpour reported alongside her. and understands that compelling need to bare witness. >> reporter: last night, our friend and long-time colleague, marie colvin, filed this report from homs in syria. >> there's 28,000 people in

homes where i am, besieged. they're here because they can't get out. the syrians won't let them out. >> reporter: her words beseeching us to understand what's really going on behind the hours of video that have been posted on the internet, by desperate residents of this city under siege. >> there is just shells, rockets and tank fire, pouring into civilian areas of the city. >> reporter: she was crouched in a basement filled with bereaved women and children, as she filed this report for the bbc about a little boy she watched die yesterday. >> the doctors just said, we can't do anything. and we had to watch a baby -- desperate for breath, die. >> reporter: marie had gone to homs because syrian civilians have been struggling against their government for nearly a year now. it started peacefully. they demanded reforms and changes, like across the arab world. but because they got nothing in return, because the government turned its artillery and tanks

on the protesters. it has turned into a deadly, armed and unequal conflict. and here is what one activist from homs told us by phone just today. >> you don't fear death anymore because death is everywhere. >> reporter: there are no accurate numbers of how many have died. the u.n. says more than 5,000 in the past year. but that it started mounting in january. the syrian government, has let precious few journalists across its borders to tell the world what is happening here. and the international community, which was finally so resolute in libya, has not intervened. marie colvin was killed telling this story hours after filing these last, sad dispatches. >> the syrian army is shelling

the city of cold, starving civilians. >> reporter: we got the word this morning. she had smuggled herself into the country with a few other reporters. she died in a suburb of homs called baba arm, which is bearing the brunt of assad's brutal armed defensive for 19-straight days now. killed with her was french photographer, remi ochlik. tonight, these scenes were posted on youtube, for residents of homs for the fallen journalists. they were not the first who have lost their lives bearing witness there. "new york times" reporter anthony shadid last week. but marie and remi would be unhappy talking about their sacrifice. they would want me to talk about the people. and to implore us not to forget them. this is christiane amanpour, for "nightline" in new york.