tv, the strangest thing happened. >> commercial came on, burnside lake, tours now. >> reporter: hadenake from camping trips. >> so you saw the commercial. >> yeah. >> and that made you think maybe that's where they are? >> yeah. and i came out and told grandma. >> reporter: to dee, it was as if he had heard his mom. so she called her local sheriff's office to suggest a search of burnside lake. >> they've camped back in there several times. just in case they might have gotten stuck or the car quit working on them. >> reporter: an alpine county sheriff's official was dispatched to look. he reported back to his boss. >> burnside lake is closed and the road is snowed in. >> they called and told me they couldn't go in there. because of the locked gate and the snow. >> so did you just think, okay? >> i figured they knew what they were talking about. you know? i didn't push it and i -- that's a -- horrible regret, not safing you guys got to go down there. >> reporter: that night paula wasn't just cold and lonely and scared, she was grieving. you didn't know what happened to rod obviously but