bonnie craig, 18 years old. i remember my dad dropping to his knees, crying on the front deck, and that was about the first time i've ever seen that happen. keith morrison: their mother karen was on vacation, was on a sailboat off the coast of florida four time zones away. it was 2:00 am when she docked, got the news bonnie would not be ok. alaska state troopers had called and said that bonnie had died in a hiking accident. and you're thinking they're nuts. what's going on? why? why would you say something like that? keith morrison: but it was true, at least that bonnie was dead. it was a hiker who found her body floating in mchugh creek a few miles from anchorage, though at first they didn't know who it was. no id on the body. alaska state troopers finally figured it out from the class ring she was wearing. but karen could not take it in. not bonnie, her model child, her conscientious college freshman, who she knew was going to school that day, not hiking miles and miles from home and the university. none of it

craig melvin, and this is "dateline." she was so sweet to everybody. state troopers said bonnie had died in a hiking accident.