here's keith morrison with "graduation night." >> in the suburbs outside detroit, michigan, in the summer of 2009, a divorced mother of three named mary evans was poking around in one of her favorite places, facebook. >> you can look up what everyone is up to, where are they at today, are they successful, did they take the wrong path? >> dear mary, no idea that innocent poking into her past would drudge up a shocking truth, long buried. >> i was stunned. it was unbelievable. >> and a nightmare's worth of terrors. >> i could have been killed that day. >> to bring together an unlikely band of friends to right a terrible wrong. >> and then a miracle happened. >> in 2009, it was just an ordinary summer day. no sign of providence anywhere. just mary reminiscing about the old days and friends long since gone away and well, you know how it is. a person wonders. not such an uncommon thing among people who grew up as mary did in northeast detroit. >> it was actually a nice neighborhood when i moved in. you could walk around the streets, 1:00 in the morning in the summer. never had to worry about a

here's keith morrison with tangled. >> i can't put words to that. >> it's true, when you marry someone you marry their family, too. >> we need an ambulance. it looks like he's been shot. he's been shot, him and his wife both. >> not a bad thing to turn to mom or dad for advice, counsel. >> it's unreal. it's hard. sometimes you think maybe it didn't happen but maybe it really did. >> it's with their help and support after all that true love can deepen, grow and last. >> i watch the crime scene shows on tv and i never, ever thought that it's going to be my life. >> yeah, it really all is about family. >> the high desert opened ups near pueblo, colorado. this is where shannon palmer's mom and dad set out to create a holy life for their daughter. >> it was awesome. got to grow up with horses, dogs, chickens, free acres to run around on. >> shannon and her sister kelsey went to school. their mother pam devoutly a jehova's witness and their teacher. >> i loved it. i don't think i missed out on any aspect of my growing up. >> there were strict guidelines about sex and they learned that member

here's keith morrison with "the hometown hero and the homecoming queen." special, i think. >> these were the moments before they were born when a shot putter named dave laut became his family's superman. and his little brother watched him win a bronze medal in the 1984 olympics. >> i mean, after, i just cried. how do you not? how do you not cry when you see your brother up there getting a medal? it's cool. he was my big brother. but he was like my superman. he was my superman. >> don laut is dave's younger brother by nine and a half years. dave and don inherited a passion for athletics from their father. >> i remember my first milk when i was a kid, it was protein powder. >> it's built into your dna. it's part of your life. >> yeah, it really is. >> here is where that dna was planted, oxnard, california. a farm town on the beach north of l.a.'s encroaching sprawl. they grow mostly strawberries here now. lima beans back then. they were different in those days. >> when we grew up, you could ride your bike anywhere. everybody knew everybody. >> this is helen

here's keith morrison with tangled.

here's keith morrison. >> reporter: there are places even in our finest cities where only a particular kind of tourist might find what he or she is looking for, attractions for the damaged and the lost catered by agents who, for a profit, would damage them more. it was late. early april, 2013, peak of the spring tourist invasion, here in charleston, south carolina, so lovely, even in the dark as the horde of tourists drifted out of famous restaurants and into fine hotels. not far away, the moneyed elite of this storied city prepared to tuck securely into their beds, unaware of the cop prowling the avenue that runs north from the heart of the antebellum mansion district past century old houses now sadly derelict to a part of the street more comfortable in the dark. and under the watchful eye of officer daniel wilson. >> we've had various problems with different narcotics, and primarily crack cocaine. heroin's one of them. >> reporter: how horrified those wealthy folk would have been had they known the deadly secret officer wilson was about to expose about the prominent banker. >> i said

here's keith morrison. with a shot in the dark. >>> reporter: it was night when it happened. indian rocks beach, gulf coast of florida. two blocks from the water. 10:05pm. quiet at that hour, save for the odd passing car and snatches of neighborhood chatter, carried on a cooling ocean breeze. there was a moon, almost full. cara ryan was in bed. all alone, in a small darkened room. and then, fear, searing as a heart attack, the dogs. >> they were growling. that's one of the things that made me feel so -- scared. >> reporter: someone was coming into her house. >> the door crashed open. >> reporter: you said the lights were off. >> they were. >> reporter: was it so dark you couldn't actually make out who this person was? >> it happened so fast, and i was so afraid. >> reporter: she reached to the bedside table, opened the drawer, took out the gun. the one her ex-husband had given her. trained her how to use. aim for the mass, he'd always told her. aim for the chest. she heard the approaching footsteps from the front door to the bedroom. how many steps? >> like, 20. >> reporter:

here's keith morrison with "miami heat." >> reporter: it was dusk in miami. the day's heat retreated, parks filled up, soccer games were called to order. orlando mesa loved the evening ritual. he and his 18-month old son, noah. orlando doted on the boy. >> he was a hands-on dad. >> reporter: and noah's mom, cindy, was there to record it all. >> mhu pers so, you know, he was always doin' things with noah. >> reporter: and so, on a spring evening in the gathering dusk, orlando walked behind noah, who rolled along on his toy car. a security camera watched them toddle down the sidewalk. they disappeared around a corner. >> that was the worst day of my life. >> reporter: what happened? well, that's still being debated, in a way. a chain of events, certainly. of which a father-son evening stroll may have been the first. but certainly not the last. but, a moment first to fill you in. cindy, or janepsy, the name she was born with in cuba, came to miami as a teenager. she was bright, and ambitious. she learned english pretty much from scratch, became a hair dresser, e

here's keith morrison with "heart of darkness." >> reporter: they lay in wait, unseen under a thick green canopy, armed to the teeth. immersed in their defiant extremist belief, hunting, stalking, deadly, in this particular heart of darkness. it was the summer of 2011, a jungle-clad island in the southern tip of the philippines where they prepared the place. and the news of the terrible deed commilted -- committed here, flashed halfway around the world and came crashing down, out of nowhere, on a modest working class family >> i got a phone call from my mother. the first thing she said was gerfa and kevin were kidnapped in the philippines. >> reporter: kidnapped? sherry hutter tried to wrap her head around the inconceivable. gerfa was her aunt. kevin, gerfa's 14-year-old son. they were due home from a philippine vacation, instead they were in the clutches of something horrific. >> i felt like i was in a dream like it wasn't real. >> and i was just thinking, "what?" >> reporter: gerfa's husband heiko lunsmann had stayed behind in lynchburg, and was at work when he heard. >> you must have b