this is "nightline." >> tonight, paradise lost. >> oh my god! mom! >> the devastating mudslides in california dropping boulders engulfing homes, killing at least 17. the search for survivors and rescues still under way. >> fighting with all my heart to find her, but she's most likely dead. >> how this idyllic town was flattened, seemingly in an instant. plus confessions of a cartel killer. a former hitman for a rival of the notorious el chapo coming clean about decades of brutal murder. >> he's begging for his life. "don't kill me." i wanted him to know why he was dying. >> his life of crime beginning in california as a teenager now using his inside information to give an edge to law enforcement.

>> you can never make amends for taking a life. and the jump before the fall. before that infamous attack on nancy kerrigan it was the triple axel that defined tonya harding's place in history. her now-overshadowed moment. but first the "nightline 5." >> feel the power of theraflu express max. new power to fight back. theraflu's powerful new formula to defeat seven cold and flu symptoms fast. so you can play on. theraflu express max. new power. we do whatever it takes to fight cancer. these are the specialists we're proud to call our own. experts from all over the world working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. expert medicine here. learn more at ncercenter.com. >> number one in just 60 seconds.

good evening. thanks for joining us. we begin withrch and rescue efforts in california. over a dozen people still missing after theadly catastrophic mudslides. tonight we are with frantic family members braving the muddy ruins in search of their loved ones he that they're thought been swept away. here's abc's matt gutm >> josie! >> reporter: calls of the desperate ringing out. slogging through two feet of mud, gower and friends frantically search for his mother josie. >> i don't know why she didn't stay upstairs. >> reporter: she was here in her home with her boyfriend when horror stroke. >> the mud just came strai through. it was just -- it just happened too quick. and she couldn't hold on. >> reporter: josie's friend doug has been searching too. >> you look at disaster, you watch it. watching it. and you're seeing it and feeling

it there's no comparison. >> no. >> oh my god. i can't even imagine josie, a horrible experience oh my god. >> reporter: in montecito, california where mudslides have molded that tortured landscape, already there are 17 reported dead including roy router founder of the st. augustine's academy. >> here comes a flash flood! >> reporter: video of one of the mudslides here. >> oh my god, mom! >> reporter: tonight in the santa barbara county community, 17 people reported missing. 100 homes completely destroyed.ged. >> the only words i really think of to describe what it looked like it looked like a world war i battlefield. >> reporter: none of the boulders you see in this field of boulders was here 12 hours ago. they have literally submerged entire homes. you can see the chimney poking through. >> it doesn't feel real. >> reporter: last night we found

robert risken searching for his mother rebecca. >> there's clearly no one searching here now. i know they searched the houses they've been checked, but i don't get the sense that anyone looked downstream. >> reporter: light was fading and his hope was too. >> you know, it's my mom. i'm fighting with all my heart to find her. but like -- i can't focus on -- she's most likely dead out here you know. just push my way through. >> reporter: he felt there's no option but to keep searching. just last month, the thomas fire the biggest in california history, charred nearby hillsides. >> scorching that hillside burning the trees, shrubs all the vegetation. now you have basically a naked hill that has nothing to hold all that dirt and mud in place. when you get rain on top of that it's going to slide with gravity. >> reporter: today the skies have cleared. but montecito's plight only intensifying. the storm took out montecito's water main. taps are dry.

power is out. >> follow my treads okay? >> reporter: for many here the only option is to evacuate. at the 101 freeway, which was hacked up by debris flows, closed through monday over a 30-mile section. montecito is one of the nation's most exclusive neighborhoods filled with multi-million dollar homes. but no one was shielded from the damage here not even oprah winfrey. >> there used to an fence right here. that's my neighbor's house. devastated. >> reporter: winfrey also sharing a video of a blazing gas fire and helicopters searching for the missing. >> destroyed it looks like several vehicles and that rv there -- >> reporter: with the hop finding those swept away alive dimming, those search and rescue efforts are intense fying. overnight the coast guard rushing to rescue a family of five. they carefully place the mother and her baby in a basket then lift a child up to the roof away from that churning sludge.

they even managed to save the family dog. in just the past 24 hours, the coast guard has assisted in 29 rescues. 14-year-old lauren canton miraculously pulled from a pile of rubble. she was coated in mud but alive. she's now recovering in the hospital. her father and brother are believed to be missing. and also among the missing, sisters sawyer and morgan corey. a cousin of the family posting this photo. their mother and sawyer's twin sister summer currently in the icu. summer's heart reportedly stopping not once but twice. you can only see the scale of this from the air. this debris field goes down hundreds and hundreds of yards. almost every house in its path obliterated. and what has made this recovery and rescue so difficult is the thickness of this mud. and right in there is an actual pool. rescuers have fallen into it. there are so many pitfalls and traps here for them.

a pitfall i experienced firsthand. these catastrophic mudslides and flash floods are not precedent here. in 2005 a mudslide just south of here in la cancita, california killed ten people. >> what you see immediately after a mudslide is basically mud that you're able to get through, able to dig out. over the next few days as it drys out, it's going to become more or less cement. must have much more difficult to remove. if you think things are ba bad now for people affected by this mudslide it's only going to get worse the next few days. >> reporter: this search and rescue team going house to house, relying on zero's nose to sniff out survivors. some of the spaces they navigated were so tricky that zero needed a ride. >> they're taking zero in through the >> reporter: for hours, some family members like teresa tried to flag down professional rescuers. finally she found a sheriff's

deputy. >> he saw her go in we know she's down there. >> reporter: as she continues her search she comes across doug scott, who is still looking for josie gower. >> that's all you can do. is close your mind off to pain and anguish. >> reporter: josie's son hayden in anguish over what he says could have been prevented. >> voluntary evacuation. if only she was in the mandatory, she would have left. they screwed up. they screwed up big-time. they should have -- they should have said anyone in the floodplain should get the hell out. they should have said something like that. you know? >> reporter: later, hayden gower would tell us his mother's body was found. but for those two families a fleeting respite from their grief with that shared embrace.

for "nightline," i'm matt gutman in montecito, california. up next a cartel hitman confessing his crimes after using his story to put high-level traffickers behind bars. easy booger man. take mucinex dm. it'll take care of your cough. fine! i'll text you in 4 hours when your cough returns. one pill lasts 12 hours, so... looks like i'm good all night. ah! david, please, listen. still not coughing. not fair you guys! waffles are my favorite! ah! why take 4-hour cough medicine? just one mucinex lasts 12 ho start the relief. ditch the misery. let's end this. end susie cracks me up. but one lau

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>> about to meet a man who spent life committing horrendous crimes. a former hitman for a mexican drug cartel brutally killing strangers on command. now he's asking his victims' families for forgiveness. isssible? his answer may surprise you. here's abc's nick watt. >> the suspects drove up on first avenue parked out of eyesig victims were out the

middtreet talking to a subject in a car. >> reporter: the mexican drug cartel hit on an l.a. street. the assassin. >> broad daylight 9:00 10:00 in the they hado anticipation of wha happen. >> reporter: martin corona a hitman for a mexican cartel in this rare television interview tries to explain what it's like to kill for a living. >> i've s that you reporter: he speak to him in shadow and martin corona is not his real name. >> this was revenge. that's why they carried it out with so much drama and aggression. >> you didn't get away with anything. know what i mean? >> reporter: steve duncan was a probation officer who started working with dea on cross-border drug cases. >> one of to get back hoo the house, ands he was walking up the steps towards the front door. >> reporter: revenge for on his cartel bosses the arellano brothers. you've a guy on the ground who's inju begging not to be killed. >>he's begging for his life.

"don't kill me."or his life i did "this is from ramon arellano." >> i later talked to the fro>> i wanted him todying. an assassin a multipl murderer. >> reporter: steve duncan had no idea corona would lacome part of his life. wouldw friends? >> we share a fondness. >> i have wanted him 1997. >> reporter: corona admits ters.be more. did you end up actually killing people in>> while i was in -- ipe that. >> reportee was born he beautif socal coastline just outsideve anybody is just born a natural gangster. nobody's born a charlesmanson. >> reporter: corona says he ran away from home jtreet gang. >> and that became my family. >> are you involved i at this point? >> uh-huh, absolutely. >> reporter: in and out of ost inevitablith the mexic and absolutely the cartels. >> you either accept that you e the a third subject the alley -- >> their number came up. andy, it was time for them to go. >> reporter: firalled arellano felix cartel.

inspraffic."they controlled the cocaine smuggled through tijuana, locked in a turf war with the notoriousaqui el chapo guzman. chapo guzman was killi their family memberslling family the fbi has added name to its tenlist, ramon oar >> reporter: ramon decided who got wh u.s. official put it.ested a gun byrian he happened to in his car. he led a death squad for ramon. how does it changeu've taken a >> something ramon used to sknl say, we're already damned, we'reanyways, so ther having a conscience about it. >> reporter: in san diego he shot a pregnant suspected of talking to the cops. along with her sister, a fashion model. >> when i shot the two people i heard her scre and i looked back there and i seen a little girl back there in the back seat. >> reporter: the girl was okay. but a month later, across the border in tijuana, corona and killed her father. >> we hogtied him with his han his

back, covered him with a sheet. all of a sudden we hear this sound.ike a watermelon bein y they you hear radios thethey get off on it. >> reporter: a life the 2015 movie that's "hitman" in spanish. did the movies get itly loyalty. you're sacrifimoment. >> reporter: his friend and mentor was killed on thjob. corona violence. >> the day i away mexico was the day my daughter was born i held her in my arms. and i told my wife right and there, done. >> reporter: not so easy. >> i wasn't in long before i got arrested. >> reporter: after a weapons corona found himself in an inter room opposite ableut steve duncan. >> he had just gotten back fromg near where i go camping. we tal fishing. you know we hit ioff. a was potentially facing murder charges. life in prison. >> one of the things that theystill talk don't talk don't rat. and i decided, i'm do th for my children. >> rona ratted. >> we used him withr witnesses to indict the

upper echelon of the tijuanaorona served 13 years for a weapons charge and dealingcocaine. got out in 2014. >> he should have got the depenalty. martin's the the death penalty. >> reporter: instead, he tours country with from time to time schooling law latino >> i want to be able message out there. >> reporter: wrote a book "confessions of a cartel hitman." he lives in a secret location declines witness >> when my time comes, my time's going to know? i know defend myself. >> reporter: martin to be reformed. claims remorse. for those he hurt. out and apologizing. >> reporter: that former model he shotnk in the head survived. corona reads from a letter he wrote to her. >> i can never find the words to apologize for my acts. nor can i ever expect any emotion other than hate from you. but i truly am sorry. >> reporter: she says she does not forgive him. apparently others do. >> you hear somebody tell you that they didn't blame you for

doing the things that you did, it's -- it's a little overwhelming. still hurts, still bothers me. >> reporter: as far as i can tell, martin is one of the worst of the worst. >> yeah. yeah. he was. not anymore. and let's hope that you know he stays that way, you know? >> reporter: after our interview, corona violated his probation, tested positive for cocaine and meth. after a short stint in jail he's about to be leased again. >> mornings i wake up and i wash my face and look in the mirror. and i can stillhe monster at i once was. you can never make amends for taking a life. you can never pay that back. >> reporter: i'm nick watt for "night up next tonya harding's triu before that other figure skating moment. lieve how much is new at r ...that til you taste our new menu. ways to enjoy seafood with small plates, with big flavor- like yucatan shrimp in chili-lime butter an and if you like hot, buttery maine

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wooooooo! get up to now through january 10th. ikea. finally tonight, before her name was attached to scandal, tonya harding was known in the figure skating world for something quite different. here's abc's amy robach.

>> reporter: for tonya harding there's one jump that's synonymous with her name and it gave her the edge over her competition. what is a triple axel? >> it is a jump that takes off forward position on a left forward leg that comes d 420 pounds of pressure on one foot. >> what ever made you think that you could do that? >> what makes people think i can't? >> reporter: after perfecting the triple axel in practice tonya took it to competition for the 1991 u.s. championships. >> and it was like bam. i was like, yes! >> reporter: with the tripl axel tonya s in the history books and was now ready for the olympics. tell me what you were thinking. >> holy [ bleep ], i just did it. nobody else did it. nobody helped me. nobody helped me land that

triple axel right there in that moment. >> you made history. >> i did. i did. >> "truth and lies: the tonya harding story," a two-hour documentary, airs tomorrow at 9:00/8:00 central here on abc. thanks for watching "nightline." as always we're online >> welcome to whiz kids week. we've got a bunch of young people with big brains and equally big dreams here today. all of them determined to win that million dollars. so what are we waiting for? let's play "who wants to be a millionaire." [cheers and applause] [dramatic music] ♪ ♪ hey, everybody, welcome to "millionaire," it's whiz kids week. and oh, are we in the middle of a great game. from ponte vedra beach, florida with an iq in the 99th percentile, please welcome back chase magnano. [cheers and applause] welcome back. >> thank you. >> last we saw y one of the best runs i have seen

in a long time on this show. and whiz kids week or any week you're just having a great game, because yot $50,000. [cheers and applause] you still have all three lifelines available as far as "ask the audience," you have "50/50," and your "plus one," who is your dad. all right, how are you feeling? >> feeling good, really good. >> this is fun, a fun game for you. >> yeah, it is. >> what would you do with this kind of money? you've already got 50 grand your pocket. >> yeah, so for the past seven years, all the money i've been getting for my birthday i've been donating to charity. and i'd like to continue that tradition today by donating the money i get here.[applause] >> all right, buddy. you're doing great. let's keep it up. let's get back to your game.