keith morrison with "crossing the line." >> good evening, and welcome to "dateline." i'm lester holt. big sky country, a small town, and a famously dangerous highway. that was the setting for a deadly crash that would seem to unite two families in shock and heart break. except they were about to find out this tragedy was also a mystery, and the truth about what happened on that late winter night might be darker than anyone knew. here is keith morrison. >> march 19th, 2009. night fell heavy in montana's flat head valley. something off that night, something wrong. at mary and randy winters' house, anxiety spiked. where was she? >> it just felt like something was not right. >> it is hard to explain that there's something not normal. >> you could set your clock by their daughter justine. that reliable but a new driver, age 16. due at home from her boyfriend's house. and though she wasn't very late, the feeling seeped in like a poison, something wrong. >> i called her starting about five after 8:00, and no answer. called the house where she was at, and they said she had le

here's keith morrison. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >> reporter: many years ago late on a september night, a family in anchorage, alaska, got a knock on the door. >> one of those eerie feelings instantly when someone knocks on the door at 10:00 at night and asked to speak to my dad. >> reporter: 1994, samantha was 12, her brother adam 13, they huddled on the staircase overlooking the front door wenchtsz heard my dad collapse and scream "no, not bonnie." and i remember thinking, please let her be in the hospital and let her be okay. >> reporter: bonner was elder sister, 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. >> reporter: their mother karen was on vacation, was on a sailboat off the coast of florida, four time zones away. it was 2:00 a.m. when she docked, t the news, bonnie would not be okay. >> alaska state troopers had called and said that bonnie had died in a hiking accid

keith morrison, "dateline" msnbc. >> and dateline friday airs tonight at 10:00 right here on nbc 4.00. we hope your weekend is a good one. stay right there. news 4 at 6 starts right now. >>> a maintenance worker makes a disturbing discovery. a body left in plastic in a dumpster in prince george's county. >> mayor gray calling for the occupy protesters to be evicted from the mcpherson square. >> former presidential candidate john edwards diagnosed with a life threatening condition. how this health scare is impacting his trial on alleged campaign corruption. >> good evening. i'm jim vance. >> i'm wendy rieger. doreen is on assignment. >> we begin tonight with breaking news at prince george's county. a woman was sexually assaulted in her home. it happened this morning in the 2500 block of berkeley street in temple hills. investigators are trying to figure out if the suspect is the same man who did two other home invasions earlier this week. jackie benson of the prince george's county police headquarters with more on this. >> reporter: jim, this happened about 6:40 a.m. and i c

here's keith morrison. >>> we know the truth, and we know everything that happened. >> how do we know what we know? >> emotionally unsatisfying not to have that answer. >> reporter: though it is, even if we've seen something. or if we think we have. and thus the question at the heart of the whole puzzle. is this woman right? >> i know what i saw, and i know the conclusion of my story. >> reporter: of course she does. of course she does. so why does this other woman think this? >> she didn't know for sure what she saw. >> reporter: the question, we say, on which all the rest will turn. why don't we begin here, cal la mesa, california, riverside county. historic missions, sprawling suburbs creeping out to the rim of mountains around the eastern flank of los angeles. here is where chris and christy hall had come to live out their golden years, though they were far from old when it happened. just experienced with life and each other. >> as far back as i can remember, it's always been chris and christy. they were never thought of as separate. they were a unit. >> reporter: these are their

here's keith morrison. >> reporter: it was her first time in las vegas, her first look at that famous strip, its outsized kitsch, its gaudy, cavern ourselves casinos with its endless electronic pattern and their darker places where men in black suits hover over the steady calm of high, rolling, wishful thinkers. her name was adrienne salomon, and she was here on business. >> i was excited to go to get to see what this city was all about. >> reporter: adrienne came to las vegas to plan a medical conference. meeting planning was her business, a road job. >> i was probably gone 50% of the time. >> reporter: and now the job had brought her here to a vast casino, all alone. exciting, of course, though buttoned down compared to her previous, more exotic occupation, teaching the flying trapeze. >> i went to work for club med and worked for the vacation resort for seven years, went all over the world. >> reporter: i can't imagine what it would be like to have a job where your responsibility is to teach people how to relax and have fun and do it in a wonderful setting. >> it was the best job.

here is keith morrison. >> it was her first time in las vegas. her first look at that famous strip, its outsized pitch, its gaud ee casinos with endless electronic clatter. and the darker places, where men in dark suits stand over the calm of wishful thinkers. her name was adrian solomon, she was here on business. >> excited to go to get to see what this city was all about. >> adrian came to vegas for a medical conference. meeting planning was her road business. >> i was gone probably 50% of the time. >> the job had brought her here to a vast casino, all alone. exciting, though buttoned down compared to her previous more exotic occupation, teaching the flying trapeze. >> i went to work for club med, worked at the vacation resort seven years rgs living all over the world. >> i can't imagine what it would be like for a job where your responsibility is to teach people to relax and have fun and do it in a wonderful setting. >> it was the best job. >> in which she learned to embrace moments of fun, new experiences. but learned something, too, about ho

here's keith morrison. it begins here, at the moment of birth, something unconscious, uncontrolled. the world of sleep. the half glimpsed world of sleep, soothing, amusing. sometimes terrifying. and on the rarest of occasions, unconsciously deadly. sleep, love, sex, what is a person capable of without even knowing it? such a beautiful place, catalina. such a perfect evening for a escapist dreams, an island tryst with a younger man. her name was eva, and she was exotic, lovely and magnetic and 42. >> eva was always living like she was 22, care-free, very young for her age. she was fun and she was generous, and she'd light up a room. she's the person you call. and no matter what, you always feel better for what she had to say. >> she told her niece, lannelle piro, about the young man. stephen was just 25, not that it mattered. >> i he is he had come over to the house one day. >> came to hang out with eva's son who made the introduction. >> i remember she called me and told me she met this really nice guy. he's really good looking, you know. >> it was instant chemistry. >> he was obvio

here's keith morrison. ♪ >> five to seven minutes. the time it takes for a cigarette to burn.he time it takes to tamp down a craving. to cover up a crime. or mark the time between life and death. it was mother's day weekend 1989. the los angeles suburb of whittier. that's when it happened, in a condo there where they found the burned-down smoke at the heart of the mystery, or maybe smoke screen is what it was. at the start of the search, it would go on 14 years and would lead, well, who would have believed it. certainly not rhonda fleming and her 25-year-old sister, christie, who were scheduled to take their mom to a brunch that morning. >> we were going to meet at my mother's house. i just called christie just to check in, and the line was busy. a few minutes later i called again. the line was busy. i called, called, called. her phone was busy all saturday morning which seemed strange. >> so rhonda went to her mother's house anyway, thinking her younger sister would show up, but -- >> christie wasn't there, which was very unusual, because she was always on time, never, never

here's keith morrison. ♪ >> it is, need it be said, beyond bizarre, the sort of scrapes people get themselvesn to, odd accidents, freakish, improbable. lightning striking twice. still, it does happen, doesn't it? though sometimes in the wounded wake of an incident especially strange, a question darkens the mind. was it really an accident? take, for example, this. on a warm sunny day in october 2005 in a sweet little town by the sea, virginia beach, virginia. >> she came in the store and was kind of chuckling about it. >> robert katz owns a jewelry store in virginia beach. he and charlene, his wife, are transplanted new yorkers and close friends of the injured party. >> she says he tried to shoot me with a crossbow. i said, you're kidding! and she goes, no. and i go, really, what are you talking about? >> shot with a crossbow? and she was smiling? the customer whose lighthearted remarks who so confused katz was a woman anna kramer. the shooter, her husband kenny. the location of this unfortunate mishap? the two-car garage at the front of the kramer's comfortable suburban home. >> she said it w

here's keith morrison. >>> honestly, i was living my dreams and then some. >> it was a perfect morning, a brilliant sunny day in june in a place that felt like paradise. >> i would be packing the lunches, the kids getting dressed. >> they'd pile into the jeep for the short drive to school. fernando, the eldest, would ride the 4-wheeler ahead of them. in the car they would sing with the little ones, just like always. ♪ no idea what was waiting, what was about to happen here in paradise. she, the woman who went through it, the one you're about to meet is jayne, j-a-y-n-e, a detail that will matter later. and she must have been a beautiful baby. >> here i am. >> this baby, in fact, this is her first tv commercial at 7 months, for the red cross. >> it is a happy day at mcdonald's. >> and there she is in a mcdonald's commercial when she was a high school student in silver spring, maryland. >> my whole life i worked as an actress and did a lot of television commercials, bit roles in movies and soap operas. i don't care if i get wrinkles. >> i always put on sunscreen. >> what is that, spf 20?

here's keith morrison. >> it was august, hot in coral gables. the air was shirt-sticking thick as night fell. a small damp breeze pushed weakly at limp palm fronds. in the artificial cool of attorney john sutton's house, an intimate party was winding down early. it was susan sutton's birthday. attending, their son, his girlfriend and john's law partner. daughter melissa just off to college in north florida, couldn't be there. so she phoned her mother to say she missed her. were you two close? >> extremely. my best friend. >> i was going to ask how old your mom was. >> 57. no, you can't put that on. she was a nice 45. let's leave it at that. >> the guests left. the law partner went home. son christopher and his girlfriend went out to a movie. john settled in to watch tv in the master bedroom. susan, in another bedroom, talked on the phone with a close friend. a quiet end to a pleasant evening. quiet, but not for long. >> 911. >> i need police. i've just been assaulted. >> what happened, sir? >> somebody came in and shot me. >> they shot you? >> y