no debbie hawk, not anywhere. and there was some drag marks and kind of smear marks leading out to the garage, where they stopped. keith morrison (voiceover): and debbie's van was gone, too. my initial reaction was, oh my god, what has happened? who could have done this? keith morrison (voiceover): the girls ran to a neighbor's house, conrad called 911. after the initial shock of it, i kind of start to be reasonable to think whoa, wait a minute, let's not overreact here. clearly she cut her hand with a knife or something and she was bleeding and she raced out to the car to go to the emergency room. this is all just a big misunderstanding. but it wasn't, though there were plenty of misunderstandings to come and questions that stubbornly refused to be answered. like, where was debbie hawk? what happened to her? and what happened to the sacred bond that once held three children together? back at the beginning, even the police were confused. daren matteson: this case seemed very unusual from the start. keith morrison

keith morrison (voiceover): surely not easy going for the children of dave and debbie hawk. well, we do the best we can. that's all for this edition of "dateline." thanks for watching. woman: it was a small new year's eve party. hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." we took off and then shortly thereafter we saw the police car. my gut was telling my feet to run back to that house. this can't be happening. narrator: when the party ended, the mystery began. it was just crazy. i didn't understand what was happening and why. narrator: his wife, the hostess, had seemed fine all night. then-- tom: my wife just shot herself in the head! please, help me! please help me! narrator: her death was ruled a suicide, but not everyone agreed. i always was afraid he was gonna hurt her. always, always. narrator: did a fight that night lead to something much worse? i knew that ashley wouldn't take her own life. narrator: a troubled woman, or a troubled marriage. interrogator: that wound on the back of her head isn't where she could do it herself, tom. it is not. oh! [bleep] narrator