here's keith morrison. >> march 19, 2009. night fell heavy in montana's flathead valley. something off that night.3 f1 something wrong. at mary and randy winters' house, anxiety spiked. where was she? >> it just felt like something was not right. >> it's hard to explain that there's something not normal. >> you could set your clock by their daughter justine. that reliable. but a new driver, too, just 16, due home at 8:00 from her boyfriend's house. and even though she wasn't very late, the feelings seeped in like a poison. something wrong. >> i called her starting about 5 after 8:00 and no answer. called the house where she was at, and they said she had left 15 minutes before that. >> i was thinking she went off the road between their house and us. >> not far away, another family, the other half of our story, was on the road, too. erin thompson was driving her son caden home from a school concert. he played the drums. >> i had always attended all of caden's concerts, and this is the first one i didn't attend because i had car trouble. >> this is caden's stepfather, jason

matt. >> keith morrison. keith, thank you very much.ou can see more of keith's story tonight on a special "dateline." crossing the line at 10:00, 9:00 central time. let's get a check of the weather now from al. >> thank you very much, matt. as we look ahead toward the weekend, we can show you that we're going to be seeing sunshine along the eastern seaboard. it will be sunny and cool. some showers move into the pacific northwest with mountain snows. windy throughout much of texas but at least it will be mild. on sunday we look for more sunshine up and down the eastern seaboard, some clouds along the southeastern coast with windy conditions and another storm system roars into the pacific northwest and northern california with wet weather. that's >> good morning, everyone. we're starting with a little bit of cloud cover today. it will turn breezy, and there's an outside chance you could see a couple of sprinkles with a high temperature >>> and of course we're coming up on sunday, you know what that means. that's right, the best night of t

here's keith morrison. >> is everybody out of the house? >> i don't know.venue was hungry, devouring almost everything in the bedroom. >> all right. we'll have the fire department on the way. do you see smoke coming out of the windows. within 15 minutes. fire fighters knocked it down. the smoke clearing. sooty water running in the streets. then as the mop-up began, the word flashed out like something electric. the house was occupied. someone didn't get out. and up through the ashes a mystery flared. like a stubborn ember, glowed, smoldered. and demanded an answer. the inhabitants of the rented cottage, as investigators soon learned were two young beautiful peop people, the sort of glossy successful types you may expect on a reality show. paul and jennifer. jennifer an ambitious award winning real estate agent who lived like a rock star or so said her buddy roy endeman. >> she would pbe like i am knocking them out. worked out. on the way to starbuck's. it's 6:33. >> paul seemed just the right kind of guy for jennifer. said roy. >> he was an entrepreneur. he

here's keith morrison. >>> it was a little girl who learned it first, the 12-year-old. she who was there at the beginning when the family secret was born. >> it's not something we like to talk about. >> why did it get started? >> i honestly didn't know what else to do. >> why did she keep it so long? >> she was all i had. >> while it did its evil work. >> the things that she had locked away. we couldn't even stand it. >> what would that secret do? >> everybody has a secret or two. but this? >> ah, yes, family. i suppose you could say this one, the family, if not the secret, got started in the middle of nowhere, which is what they like to call it here in ainsworth, nebraska. it wasn't so surprising perhaps that when young lloyd ford was done with school, he got out, joined the navy, sailed off to see the wide world from an aircraft carrier. this man at the center of the secret. sandy burke is his eldest daughter. >> my dad was just a fun guy. he was very fun loving. he loved people. people loved him. people tended to gravitate towards my dad. >> especially women. that wa

here's keith morrison. ♪ ♪ >> five to seven minutes, the time it takes for a cigarette to burn. time it takes to cover up a crime. will mark the time between life and death. it was mother's day weekend, 1989. the laos angeles suburb of whittier, that's when it happened in a condo, where they found at the heart of the mystery a smoke screen was it was. it was the start of the search that would go on 14 years, and the lead, who would have believed it? certainly not rhonda flemming and her 25-year-old sister christy who were scheduled to take their mom to a brunch that morning. we were going meet at my mother's house. i w i called and the line was busy. i called, called, called and it seemed strange. so rhonda went to her mother's house anyway thinking her ungioer sister would show up. >> but christy wasn't there which was very unusual because she was always on time, never, ever late. and my mom hadn't talked to her. i called christie again. the phone is still busy. now i know something is wrong. >> panic now. rhonda called her father, bud fleming. he was divorced but raised both g

matt. >> keith morrison. keith, thank you very much. you can see more of keith's story tonight on a special "dateline." crossing the line at 10:00, 9:00 central time. let's get a check of the weather t here on nbc. >>> let's get a check of the weather from al. >> as we look ahead towards the weekend, we can show you that we will be seeing sunshine on the eastern seaboard and it will be sunny and cool, and showers move into the pacific north wegs with mountain snows. and on sunday, we look for more sunshine up and down the eastern see boards, and windy conditions and another storm system rolling into the pacific northwest and northern california with wet weather. >>> a cloudy start on this friday morning. we have a little bit of light rain falling in southern maryland, and it's just passing to the south and east of washington in the next hour or so and then later today we will get sunshine back. right now it's chilly, and later today we will climb into the upper 50s by later this afternoon. by then we ought to get sunshine out. a wind wi

here's keith morrison. ♪ >> narrator: it was late, past midnight, when the farmhouse loomed up in theireadlights. no sign of life. not to them, anyway. he hit the brakes. this was the place. they grabbed their weapons, headed for the house. a window unlocked. pay dirt. the prairie takes on a sweet, rolling pitch as it tucks into a nebraska corner an hour south of omaha. here the rich black soil has grown solid and faithful american. a tiny remnant of whom have planted themselves in and around a place called murdock, the sort of place where heads turn when a stranger drives by. and a family's name is carved on a local stone. it was easter sunday, 2006. a big farm yard and like every year, an easter egg hunt. >> grandma and papa's yard. >> narrator: or mom and dad to tami who brought her own son, like always. >> found their easter eggs. they found their easter baskets. mom always made every individual easter basket special to that child. >> narrator: they were like that were wayne and sharmon stock, generous, steady, always there for their children. the eldest steve and daughter tami, the