>> significant frustration about the inability of it to work. the question will be, as the speaker has said this week, is there going to be common ground? and i think you will see very quickly within six weeks whether there's going to be common ground. on the one hand, we have heard a lot about the president saying he will act on this question of an executive order for immigration. if he does that, that's incendiary. i think we are going to be in store for a very, very -- >> isn't repealing healthcare just as incendiary? >> i will say this. there's probably something more incendiary. that's not incendiary because we know that that's going to happen, just like in 20 -- after 2006 election when the democrats won, they went over and over again to pass bills condemning the position on iraq. in the end, congress ended up supporting president bush's position.

>> is this equal incendiary? >> yes. i thinkny the difference is tha even though the house and the senate, the new republican majorities have committed to attempt to repeal healthcare, the president said i disagree with you. but that's not going to stop me from working with you on other issues. contrast that to republicans who say, if you move forward on immigration, mr. president, even though we have not acted over multiple years, then we're just going to shut down and stop working with you. that is no way to start a new republican majority. we have to find ways to work together, even if we disagree on some issues. >> jose, what's the hispanic committee going to do if he tables for another six months? is that incendiary? >> yes. by the way, the congress did act before going on the break. they voted to defund any future actions the president may take. they did act and make a statement. i think the key here for immigration is that with the loss of mr. canter among other

things, back then, it was a message that the house should not support immigration reform. if they had done it back then, we wouldn't deal about this now. the president made a promise. i think he will keep it. >> this is two nuclear bombs, it sounds like to me. is that fair, that each side ha back like that? >> it could come back. the biggest problem is intraparty rather than democrats versus republicans. >> each side has to sort their own politics out. >> it's more within the republican oparty, deciding who they want to be and knowing what they are up against in 2016, which is their own map problems. can mitch mcconnell help protect them while pushing an agenda? >> you will weigh in more. we have more for you to talk about. you canby3x imagine how frustr they are at the white house, by the way. so many economic indicators have been good. still voters threw democrats out of office because of the

economy. unemployment rate has fallen more than four points since the bottom of the recession to 5.8%. the stock market has risen to an all-time high on friday. the deficit has shrunk to its lowest level compared to the size of the economy since 2008. the deadbt accumulation is growing. yet, americans disapprove of the job the president is doing on the economy. there's a reason for that. the recovery is concentrated in more densely populated areas. we asked luke russert to visit the america that the recovery has left behind. >> reporter: far from cities, and often too far from campaign trail, rural america is not feeling the economic recovery. unemployment in georgia stands at roughly 8%, the highest in the nation. and in the small towns, jobs with a future are hard to come by. >> we may be in a recovery in some places but not in rural

america. tough times. >> if i don't work, i don't eat. >> reporter: these towns once thrived growing peaches. but jobs left and the work never came back. what's not working for them? washington. >> you can't control &stuff. >> reporter: at lunchtime, bar be bers and clients say they can't be heard. >> how can my voice be heard? >> reporter: feeling ignored, small business owners, like this man who owns a landscaping company "oinearby, he wants to create jobs and pay his employees higher wages. but says taxes and government regulations stand in his way. >> only time we hear from the federal government is if where he in trouble. >> reporter: while business has returned to some degree, it's not booming. >> wall street investors and they are happy. but small businessowners, i

can't say there's that much enthusiasm. >> reporter: in fact, there's a helpless feeling here in rural america that the political system is not set up for them. >> they don't seem to want to do anything. they are fighting each other. >> reporter: had is your father's furniture store? his father sold furniture but had to close down in the '80s. >> they need to come listen to people in small rural towns. >> reporter: while the struggle continues, rural americans voice an unending desire to be heard and not forgotten. >> we hope and pray. >> reporter: for "meet the press," luke russert. >> nothing says economic growth than when a starbucks shows up in your community. i thought it would be a good idea to bring in the ceo of starbucks, howard schultz, to talk about this issue of rural america and this uneven economic recovery. thanks for coming on "meet the press." >> thanks, chuck. >> in many ways the starbucks

symbol, there's this feeling, the neighborhood is on the move. if you are not in a neighborhood, then it's the feeling that that neighborhood isn't moving. what do you look for in a rural or ex-urban community? we know where you go in urban communities. what do you look for that tells you this is going to be a good place to put a starbucks? what needs to happen to make you feel as if the economy is growing? >> my heart going out to those people. the truth of the matter is, problems exist throughout the country, not only rural america. we have stores everywhere. i just -- i feel as if the economic situation that we are dealing with is directly linked to the situation in washington in which there has been a fracturing of trust and con confidence for over ten years. >> you think that's directly tied to washington? >> absolutely. >> explain. >> here is an example. i was at west point friday. i spent the day with an extra

ordinary young candets. can you imagine if the new congress embraced and lived by that. country would have -- would be in a better position than we are today. in addition to that, we have a million veterans now entering  2.5 million have served in iraq for the last -- >> disproportionately from urban america that they are coming home and not finding jobs. >> it could be catalytic if we hired these veterans. but we're not. as a result of that, we have written the book. we have a big concert tuesday night. we are encouraging businesses and business leaders to do one thing, forget washington for a while. let's forget pointing fingers, stop blaming them. as business people and leaders, we need to take the lead and do what we can to move the country fo forward. >> what would be your recipe for this sort of -- the issue of rural economy? here is what's going on.

they were one manufacturing towns. that manufacturer leaves. it's been replaced -- the jobs are replaced, sometimes a casino, sometimes it's home healthcare workers, the only growing j ining job opportunity. they just leave. what do you do? >> an example. i was in ohio right outside of pittsburgh, we saw an old factory that has been out of work for over ten years, a pottery factory. we went to that factory. starbucks gave them an order. we started employing people and restored the factory. businesses across the country need to recognize, we need to bring manufacturing back to america. these rural towns cannot be left behind. >> so do you think it should be ì(lc&ority of companies

it's not only about the bottom line. it's not our stock price. there has to be a balance between profitability and doing everything question to get the country moving again. that goes back to washington. washington has let the country down. the congress now has a unique opportunity with the administration to stop the polarization, dysfunction and demonstrate immediately a new set of rules. that rule has to be civility and conversation and co-order raper. if we don't get that, they will dismiss washington. we can't have that. this is a unique opportunity. >> let me ask you, you are doing this concert. you wrote a book. this is about the veterans coming home. there's been a lot of talk about trying to help them get back into civilian life. what is the one thing that you think the public needs to understand about helping these folks back into civilian life? >> 2.5 million extraordinary young men and women have served for the last 10, 15cm years in all volunteer service. as a result of that, most of america -- 98% have not had real

skin in the game. we need to have a conversation, be empathetic, be understanding and do everything we possibly can across the country in rural america and every town to hire a veteran. >> all right. howard schultz, ceo of starbucks, thanks for coming on. thanks for doing the concert. it's an amazing lineup. it doesn't matter your taste, you have something there. tomorrow nbc news will put a human face on the ebola tragedy that's taking place in west africa. that's where this is a true epidemic. we will tell 24 stories of people fighting this deadly disease. if a few minutes, why democrats might have reasons to be optimistic about 2016 ♪ over 12,000 financial advisors. so, how are things? good, good.

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welcome back. we have heard a lot about what the next congress might or might not do. it feels like a good moment to get answers from newcomers. i have mike rounds, a former governor of south dakota. he wonui a senate seat and gwe graham, a democrat who knocked off a republican incumbent. she's the daughter of former florida governor and senator bob graham. welcome to washington. senator, you will be here soon

enough i imagine. let me start with you. why the message -- what is your mandate that you believe the voters gave you when coming to congress next year? >> washington is dysfunctional. it has to be fixed. america's not broken but washington is. part of it says is that south dakota common sense can help. you work side by side with other people to get the job done. i think the republican majority now has an opportunity to show that we can actually govern, we can put together an agaenda and we can get results. you take apart obamacare section by section. you pass the keystone pipeline. get energy production started again. get our grain back on the railcars that can't get to market because of the glut of oil. >> dismand ledismantling health

rye po priority? >> you start out with section by section. you do it in such a fashion that you pick those items which have to be fixed. there's a section in this, the independent payment advisory board which needs to be eliminated in my opinion. most people out there would agree with that. the medical devices taxes that are there right now has to be taken apart. i think there are pieces which republicans and democrats recognize have to be fixed. it's more than that. it's the fact that republicans have to set the agenda. we have to execute. we have to tell people what our plan is. let's get a budget and let's pass a budget every single year and let's do it on time. let's make government functional once again. that's what the american people are expecting. they want us to go in and do our jobs. the message that i think a lot of us have is we didn't come there to sit on our butts. we came there to get the job done. >> congresswoman elect graham, you just laughed about that.

what parts of what you heard do you agree with? >> i completely agree that we need to find compromise and break through the dysfunction. as i traveled around my district, that's what i heard over and over and over again. people want a government that functions. they want a government where people get along. that's what i ran on a platform of saying the north florida way is finding a way to get along, find common sense solutions. we may not always agree but we have to find compromise in order to make the decisions that need to be made to move our country forward. >> you won voters that voted for rick scott for governor, t. why were you able to pull that off? >> from day one, i have just been reaching out to all 14 counties of the district. i wanted to make sure that everybody knew that i cared about earning their support. and i think that's what made the decision. i put 37,000 miles on my car since i entered the race and met

as many people as i could. ph experience. and i think it was that connection with folks that i had that made the decision. >> governor elect -- senator elect, i say this and i meant governor because many former governors that serve in the senate don't like it. what have you heard from former governors about your tenure that you are about to begin? >> they have told me to be prepared to be frustrated. they have said time and again, look, you got to get in and you got to go to work on it because you've been measured on results already. washington has not been. and so there's no time frame there. there's nobody there that seems to understand that the people outside of washington expect results. so part of the message has to be that the bureaucracy which has taken over the vacuum because congress has been dysfunctional has been not been doing their job, you have a bureaucracy which has grown. we have to get that under control. >> advice your father gave you?

>> he said, first of all, be informed. >> nobody was more informed than him. good luck keeping up with that. >> i will. and to make sure you are not part soisan partisan. bring people together to make the right decisions. that's what i'm committed to doing. >> it's your father's birthday today. >> happy birthday to my dad. >> welcome to washington soon enough. thanks for coming on "meet the press." i should note my step-father is having a birthday today. happy birthday to him. what the midterms mean for the big one. we will read the tea leaves and the big one. we will read the tea leaves and look ahead to 2016. get to the terminal across town. are all the green lights you? no. it's called grid iq. the 4:51 is leaving at 4:51. ♪

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there are still 730 days until a new president is elected. the results of the midterms can give a hint of where the fight will be fought. let me explain the 242 and 191 that we start with. the states in blue that add up to 242, states that democrats have won in six straight presidential elections. with this cycle, they hope to add to their sort of permanent blue walllvax here. they were open with victories

that in a midterm year that they would be able to say to the republicans, you can't win there in 2016. guess what happened. republican wins in colorado, iowa. those two states right in the battleground, florida governor, back in the battleground. virginia, mark warner may have won but back in the battleground. how about wisconsin? if scott walker keeps winning there, you have to put that back in the battleground. minnesota and michigan by the way, senate races that republicans thought they could make competitive, they didn't. not making it into our battleground. there is good news here if you are democrats. look at a few other states that may have been added to the battleground as well. take georgia, yes, david purdue won, but it was a wave year. he got 53% in a good republican year in georgia. georgia is back in the battleground. look at arizona. they had five democratic members of congress running for re-election.

four are coming back and the fifth when all the votes are counted may indeed come back. arizona, back in the battleground. there you go. the democratic blue wall may be down to 232 rather than 242, by throwing in wisconsin, but the republican wall is now down to 164. for now, look at this. it's an impressive battleground map. goes from coast to coast, who is to say there isn't

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you have been having an interesting conversation about immigration, which i wish we could have put back on camera. it's a very -- i want to do a little bit here of sort of future of the democratic party. stephanie cutter, is it -- is this a project, a wreck la mags project or it's the midterms, everything will be okay? >> i hope it's a serious project. >> you think it should be? >> a project that -- >> dnc feels like they have to look at it. >> yeah. i think that if we don't take it seriously, it's to our own peril. we have a midterm problem.

that's serious. we have a bench problem of how we are cultivating new democrats come into the fold of the party and to be willing to run for things. we can't show up every four years and think we're going to win midterms unless we invest in it. we saw governor dean make that point with you earlier. >> amy, look at the leadership of the democratic party. you say, do they have a staleness issue? hillary clinton is a familiar face. there's no new faces. look at what the republicans, they elected a ton of new faces. their leadership is the same, but that's a lot of new faces versus the democrats' party of old faces. >> there's a bigger problem. a lot of it is, this election was a referendum on the president as it was about the fact that people didn't feel like the economy was working for them, even though as you pointed out the statistics would tell you it is working for them. this is the challenge for hillary clinton going forward which is, you are going to be

tagged with the obama economy, tagged as being a democrat. how do you convince voters they want another four years of a democrat in charge of the economy? that's the bigger challenge i think than all the talk about what doi we do about demographics? how do we convince four more years of a democrat is good for them economically? >> eric cantor, do the republicans -- a good midterm year didn't solve your presidential problem. >> let's look at the benches. stephanie talks about the lack of a bench on the democratic side. that's the striking difference. hi hillary clinton -- she will have a difficult time disconnecting herself from the obama administration. i also think that if you look at at least what's going on in the democratic party, they look like elizabeth warren is where the passion and -- >> if she doesn't run, where does that go? >> you see hillary clinton to amy's point trying to appeal to

the base by saying businesses don't create jobs, which everyone knows is counter intuitive. look at our bench. we have will have -- i bet there's a dozen people looking out there to run. >> but if you solve the bigger democratic challenges? >> i think if you look at the midterm elections and what's going on, people are looking for idea and solutions to get them out of this funk that they don't feel their life is working. they don't feel the country is working for them. it is about ideas. what you have seen though -- take a look at cory gardner's race. had you mark udall practice the politics that the left has been trying to undertake for decades, the war on women, and that fell flat on its face. it proves that the democrats, they are out of ideas. the republicans, will have to sift through the different players to see which ideas are going to take our party forward. >> back to the basic question, if the republicans can't connect

hispanics, they aren't going to win a presidential election. >> that's correct. it's going to be tough for them to come out and support them like they did president obama. let's not forget obama got 71% of the latino vote because romney's official position on immigration was self-deportation. both parties have a lot of work to do. the fact is, every day in this country, 1,000 people are deported. a vast majority aren't criminals. the people being deported many times are family, fathers and mothers. those people don't see anywhere in washington standing up and saying, let's deal with this problem, because it's more than just discussions in offices. it's also about people whose lives are being affected every single day. that they don't see as a concern in washington. >> let's talk about the dysfunction in washington. there was a lot of talk about bipartisan compromise this week. what are the chances of washington politicians breaking

the habit of a lifetime and hugging it out? according to the winners this week, it sounds like it will be priority number one. >> they are not red. they are not blue. but they are crystal clear in their message to washington, d.c., get your job done and get the heck out of the way. >> i promise you i will work with anyone in the senate, democrat, republican, independent, to get things done. >> i want to come back here next year and talk to people about the bipartisan things that we accomplished for the good of the nation. >> so far, so good. right? guess what. we have heard hopeful like talk like this before from leaders. >> we needed to work together on behalf of the american people. >> we both expressed our wish to work in a bipartisan way for the benefit of the american people. >> to have a serious discussion in the next few days about the places where we do agree.

>> of course, all that -- it gets chuckles from everybody qt here. guess what follows after that happy talk? gridlock. is there a different path that might stop the gridlock in congress? the president has had a change of heart. >> some folks still don't think i spend enough time with congress. why don't you get a drink with mitch mcconnell they ask? really? why don't you get a drink with mitch mcconnell? you know, actually, i would enjoy having some kentucky bourbon with mitch mcconnell. i don't know what his preferred drink is. >> the best way to drink it in my opinion is to make a manhatt manhattan. >> how about that? you won't hear mitch mcconnell say nice things about manhattan very often. if you ever want to come in our studio, work through the gridlock, here is what we7j got?

we got the bourbon on ice. eric cantor, you said six weeks will test bipartisanship. why? >> the republicans -- congress needs to pass the spending package. >> they do it in a big way and that shows that's a republican, hey -- >> we will work together and the president cannot sign that executive order. he will light a fuse. >> stephanie? what's the test? >> i think that i agree with eric that over the next six weeks, we have to see progress. they have to get things done together. i think that what mr. schultz was talking about in terms of veterans employment, it would be a good opportunity. >> very fast. >> there's no one left to compromise with. that's the problem with avenue elections. >> where are the -- >> there's no one left to compromise. >> president has to act. he has to follow through on his promises. he will do that. if that poisons the well, maybe it's time to change the water. >> here we go. by the way, this marks the 67th anniversary of "meet the press."

thank you martha roundtree. i would like to congratulate "face the nation "this more t" . welcome to your 60s. you will get social security check soon enough. that's all for today. we will be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." i'm in pain and so hurt and so sad. i would give anything for christian to be here. >> they were new to college and newly in love. the whole world ahead of them. >> he grabbed my chin and he pulled me up and just gives me this magical kiss. >> but their secret romance would lead to something

shattering when christian vanished. >> oh, god. my young life went out the window. >> it was tense. we were nervous. we were scared. >> i'm starting to believe that there might be more to this than just a missing person. >> where was he? did someone have something to hide? >> there was blood found in the car. >> a lover's triangle, a circle of friends. is one of them a killer? >> this was planned. this was on purpose. >> how could you do something so horrific? >> i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." here is dennis murphy with circle of friends. ♪ >> reporter: remember going away to college, maybe your first time away from home. there were new friends waiting to be made, the tingling of possibilities. >> oh, god. the first kiss was amazing. >> reporter: sometimes

disappoint when things didn't work out. >> i thought he was just depressed. just didn't take it that seriously. and, you know, maybe we should have. >> reporter: for three florida teenagers, the decisions they made as they started campus life had terrifying lethal consequences. >> i mean, it all seems so surreal. when we were told about it, this can't possibly be happening. >> reporter: the story of our three begins at a high school near miami, not quite hog warts, but erica, pedro and christian were inseparable. a trio of friends laughing and wrestling through adolescents together at a charter school for high-achieving smart kids. >> i moved there in 2006 for sixth grade. >> for erica freeman, doral academy was a special place. >> i met people from all over the world actually. it was really interesting. they had a lot of opportunities, academically that i don't think you get at an average high school. >> erica was smart, up beat,

pretty. she loved everything from skydiving to shakespeare. in in her sophomore year, she caught the eye of a cute guy in class, pedro bravo. >> he was a big clown. he was kind of a funny guy around people. he was always making jokes. not really act out in class, but he would act out as soon as class was over. it was just, you know to get a crowd laughing or this or that. >> pedro was a fellow rock, solid student with an artistic flair. his journals were full of sketches and doodles that friends thought showed real talent. >> i mean, he could draw anything, anything you wanted. >> robert lopez was a friend and classmate. >> so anything from graphic comics up to -- >> yeah. >> a picture, art, right? >> yeah. he was very, very, very gifted in that sense. >> erica and pedro quickly became an item. teenage lovers but with adult dreams. >> we were in a pretty serious relationship. we were a little more mature

than the average. we didn't go out and drink. we were just very focussed on school and each other. >> another sharply focussed classmate in their circle was pedro's good buddy, christian aguilar. >> i met him through pedro. he was awesome. he was funny and he was nice and we instantly were good friends. >> christian was the soccer player who hit the books. the son of columbian immigrants became the all-american boy. video games, kanye west rap in his ears and plans to become a doctor. >> it sounds as though to understand christian, you have to realize how academically motivated he was. >> oh, yeah. he was very driven. it wasn't like his family was pushing him. it wasn't -- it was just that he wanted to make them proud. >> reporter: these three high-achieving musketeers, christian, erica and pedro, all doubled at prom together and posed for this snapshot in the waning days of high school. >> i mean, did you guys do a limo and the whole thing? >> we did. we all showed up. we took plenty of pictures. you know, it was fun.

>> reporter: for a lot of american kids, it was for these three, graduation from high school is one of those big paths crossing in the woods a lot of what are you going to do next? let's stay friends forever kind of good-byes. >> mr. christian aguilar. >> reporter: christian, scholar that he was, intent on pursuing premed, got admitted to the selective university of florida gainesville. >> reporter: was he happy when his acceptance came through? >> he was so happy. he was ecstatic. >> they all wanted to be gators at the u of f as a top school, only christian got in. erica was headed to a different college in gainesville, santa fe. and pedro planned to take classes near his home in miami. erica broke it off with pedro. she didn't want a long-distance relationship. after all, they were just 18 years old. and the big, wide world was ahead of them both.

>> i wanted him to find someone and fall in love with them and live a normal life. i just didn't think he was the one for me. >> reporter: they were barely uncked, classes just starting when a sudden change of plans. pedro didn't want to be left behind in miami after all. as the fall semester started, he showed up in gainesville, as his friend robert remembered. >> he just visited gainesville and that was the intention was just to visit. and then he ended up signing a lease and enrolling for classes in the fall at santa fe college. >> maybe there was life after hog warts for erica, pedro and christian. could the friendship be renewed? ? if that was indeed the hope, it was dashed with awful news on september 21st, 2012. >> it was tense. we were nervous. we were scared, you know, what could have happened? >>reporter: christian never showed up at his dorm that night and wasn't answering his phone.

>> it's not like christian to just not answer. it's not like him to just disappear. there was something wrong. >> reporter: christian aguilar had vanished. what could be behind christian's sudden disappearance? when we come back, retracing his last steps a rough neighborhood, and a curious stranger. >> he tells me at one point that he stopped and picked up a hitchhiker. >> then eventually the hitchhiker was like, i want to get out of the car. shortly after, christian said, i want to get out of the car, too. the most adventurous couple. once we kept the lights on. but then we started using k-y yours & mine. yeah, we were nervous to try it. there's an amazing sensation for her. amazing. this one feels fantastic for me. and combined... ohh, it's a completely new sensation for us both. it's opened a whole new door for us. i've come to clean your pool. but we don't have a pool. i'll come in anyway. next week i'm going to be a maid. [ female announcer ] k-y yours & mine. his excites. hers delights. together feel them ignite. keep life sexy.

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♪ three teenagers, all college freshman in gainesville, florida, long-time friends, but now one of them, christian, was a no-show for meeting with his circle of friends. didn't pick up the phone. not so much as a text. >> and it got later and later and i started calling our friends. i'm like, hey, i just want to make sure -- have you seen christian? >> we're not getting texts back, when do you start to go from worried to freaked out? >> all that night, i couldn't really sleep. i had passed by his dorm room to see if possible, you know, his phone died and he couldn't answer, his phone got wet. i was thinking of all these different scenarios and he wasn't in his dorm. where was he all night? where was he staying? where with husband sleeping? where is he? >>reporter: the next morning, still nothing from christian. he hadn't come back to his dorm

room. so erica and pedro, her ex-boyfriend, together went to the gainesville, police. >> we go to the window and start explaining our situation and the lady pretty much laughs at me. >> r. >> reporter: they're blowing you off? >> yeah. i was just there like, this lady better hope there's nothing wrong here. i was so upset at this point. i just wanted someone to pay attention. this was a serious thing. >> reporter: but after all, christian wouldn't be the first college freshman to go off the grid for a bit, maybe taking a break from his studies, crashing at another dorm. but his friends were worried. and the cops told them to go see if the campus police could help. >> the big thing that i want to find out is, has anyone been in contact and when was the last time they contacted them, where was the last time anybody was in contact with them? >> reporter: officer tim peck talked to the concern pair. found out that pedro was the last friend to see christian the previous day. >> and he kind of walks me through the day, you know, once he meets christian. they go to infermry, christian needs to get a flu shot.

then they go back to pedro's car, which is parked on campus. at that point, they go to best buy. >> reporter: a pretty routine afternoon, until pedro told him, they decided to do something a little impulsive. >> he tells me at one point they stopped to pick up a hitchhiker. >> reporter: pedro told officer peck and air karks they drove around town for a bit. >> eventually the hiech hiker is like, i want to get out of the car. shortly after, christian said, i want to get out of the car too. just pull over. i want to get out. >> r. >> reporter: and that is where the friends parted. near this auto body shop a few miles off campus. that neighborhood around the body shop raised alarms for officer peck. it had some rough spots. >> some of the area is known to be a high drug area, has some gang activity as well. so that kind of concerned me were they up there specifically for that reason or in the process of christian getting dropped off, did he run into something or wander into a bad area. >> i knew there was a large

homeless community in gainesville and still is, so i was a little concerned about that. if he was in the woods somewhere and he stumbled into a campground of homeless people and, you know, they decide to do something to him, you know, that was one of the options i had thought of. >> reporter: a gang area? homeless camps and a mysterious hitchhiker, there seemed reason enough to be worried. erica called christian's parents, carlos and claudia aguilar down in miami and told them that christian was missing. >> what did you think? >> i knew that something was wrong. >> reporter: it was that worrying for you. >> yeah. >> >> reporter: whaif yor was not christian. >> that was not christian. >> they jumped in the drive to make the long drive to gainesville. >> we really didn't talk. we didn't know what to say to one another. >> reporter: what did that word missing mean to you? >> at first, maybe i was trying to be positive, was just him went out to a party. maybe he got injured. maybe he got into a car

accident. we couldn't tell because we don't know who he hangs out with. >> reporter: once they arrive, police had questions for alex and his parents, too. >> they bring us into this small little room. we have an officer who gave us a few questions, asking what type of person is christian. is he normally like this? would he usually go out? did he drink? does he do any drugs? >> what were you seeing in christian's parents during this period? >> confused. pain. there was pain in their eyes. >> but erica says they were all about to channel that pain into determination. with more friends heading up from miami. >> i had a whole group of individuals who were now just as concerned as i was, just as focussed as i was, just as driven to find christian. i didn't feel so alone once they got there. i felt like, we're going to find him. we can do this. >> reporter: christian's family and friends were hopeful he would turn up and soon. and for officer peck, the case of the missing student got more baffling when he caught wind of a secret. christian had been trying to hide something.

was his secret the key to finding him? >> there's something else going on here that i'm not aware of what exactly that is, i'm not sure. coming up -- the secret turns out someone else knew it, too, and it was about to be revealed right there at the police station. >> do you know christian? >> yes, yes. >> had you known -- >> i was just concerned that i was going to push him off the

good morning. getting ready for a frigid week ahead. an extended arctic blast will blanket much of the country and a foot of snow is headed to minneapolis this morning. president obama begins a crucial week in asia, beginning with world leaders in beijing. we are going to take you there live. a massive celebration marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall. plus, a drama mat eck rescue at the scene of this burning car. a big hero ruled the weekend with matthew mcconaughey's "interstellar" hot on its tails. this is monday, november 10th, "early today" starts right now. good morning. on this monday. thanks for joining us today. all right.