. >> reporter: it was 2011 and jesse shockley was stealing the hearts of everyone she encountered. the five-year-old girl from glendale was pretty in pink and bright and bubbly in blue. but on october 11, that all changed when her mother, sharice hunter called 911 to say her daughter disappeared. >> i went to the store and came back. my oldest was watching m where to be seen. so glendale police scoured the apartment complex where the family lived while the commuter prayed for a miracle. hours passed, days drag onto weeks and weeks turned to months with no sign of the little girl. jesse's mother blamed glendale police for dragging their feet but they were womenning a case black woman didn't do nothing to her child. >> reporter: police didn't think it was a case of race, but child abuse. they think she killed her little girl and put her in a suitcase and threw her away. hundreds of heavy machinery combed the landfill 96 days but could not find jesse. and eventually, investigators solemnly conceded they never they found the hiller and almost a year after jesse disappeared, they arrest