that quote incensed maciel's victims. they would go public with the testimony they now had on maciel. >> cardinal joseph ratzinger... >>narrator: the official responsible for investigating child abuse cases, was cardinal ratzinger. he had to respond to the news media about the charges against maciel. >> there's a question whether... >> come to me when the moment is given-- not yet. >> narrator: but he was in a bind. john paul's public celebration of maciel made it very difficult for him to take action, and all the while, maciel's activities went unchecked. >> the situation changed at the end of 2004. at that time, cardinal ratzinger made a decision, to his credit, that maciel had to be investigated. so he sent a canon lawyer in his office, monsignor charles scicluna, to america and mexico to take the testimony of these men. he clearly knew that whoever would become the next pope needed to have maciel under investigation, lest the vatican be tarnished by this scandal of a much accused pedophile and nothing happening to him

the recipient, lance corporal fred maciel. >> it is priceless.ess. >> reporter: it is a mystery how this personal piece of red, white and blue ended up where it did, but using facebook, the browns were able to track down patsy. >> i can't wait to meet them. i can't wait. >> reporter: rather than mail the flag, they decided to meet in person saturday at the cemetery where maciel is now buried. >> piece of my son, coming back to me, you know? that was great. and i loved him for that. >> reporter: two marine moms now bound by one priceless flag. for "today," joe fryer, nbc news. >> amazing how that all came together. >> it is. we talk about social media in many ways, the good and bad, but without social media, they perhaps would have never found one another. it is amazing. >> that last photo is stunning. >> flag is beautiful. >> let's get a final check of the weather now from dylan. >> good morning, guys. good morning, everyone. we're going to watch out for some stronger storms later on this afternoon. the heat is building down south. so that's goin

. >> reporter: this flag is a surprise and a blessing of a lifetime for patsy maciel. >> get a piece >> reporter: when her son, lance corporal lance maciel was killed in 2005, she received her son back for burial and was given all of his belongings, or so she thought. >> i told my sister a couple months ago, i was scared i was going to forget what he looked like, and fred said, no, you're not, mom. boom, pictures of him all over the tv. >> reporter: his picture is all over the news because former marine walter brown and his wife, lani, were shopping at a flea market more than 100 miles from houston and they came across this flag for messages from deceased lance corporal maciel from his marine buddies he served with. >> i got goose bumps all over. just watching all this. all this for my son. >> reporter: this ceremony is so the browns can return the flag to maciel's mom. >> when i realized that the boy had been killed, that's when i -- that was probably more emotional for me, because i didn't -- i knew, that's when i knew that the flag had to come back to his mom. >> i got pretty chok

it was in tribute to marine fred maciel killed in iraq.it was signed by the other marines in his unit. the browns bought it and searched out maciel's family and today presented the flag to his mother at his grave. new rules for baseball's hall of fame could hurt the chances of some steroid-era players to be inducted. players now have 10 years to get elected after becoming eligible instead of 15, which was the rule which means mark mcgwire can only appear on ballots for two more years. barry bonds, roger clemens and sammy sosa will also be impacted. still ahead, a new baseball talent on the rise. a college pitcher who can throw from either side. tis pain and two pills. afternoon arrives and feeling good but her knee pain returns... that's two more pills. the evening's event brings laughter, joy, and more pain... when jamie says... what's that like six pills today? yeah... i can take 2 aleve for all day relief. really, and... and that's it. this is kathleen... for my arthritis pain, i now choose aleve. get all day arthritis pain relief with

of an islamic caliphate on the occupied territories the militants are making major gains culture maciel will field on the syrian border that's on top of the other resource rich sites they've already so much from baghdad which take a quick look at how much of the islamic state group already has under its control it's coming up here in black a lot as you can see that is the self-proclaimed caliphate straddling the border. between syria and iraq the success of the islamic state group seen a number of rebel factions in syria now pledge allegiance to it and the groups eager to show off its military might as well to persuade other fighters to join their cause a parade of tanks and other combat vehicles some of them of american origin filmed in eastern syria iraq insists it can defeat the jihad this but is loosely caffein off explains that could prove harder than it thinks. two harvests formally known as isis this week to clear the completion of their islamic state this up with a sham but now so one country there is no more or less. the iraqi army meanwhile is fighting back in televised news b

lanie brown bought the flag and knew she had to get in to see maciel's family. over the weekend she did just that. >> our family feels honored to be the ones chosen to find this flag and return it to you. >> she paid just $5 for the flag. the soldier's mother says she'll have it with her for the rest of her life. what a great story. love that one. >> yes, indeed. >>> new this morning, why taking a daily dose of asprin to prevent a heart attack can be doing more harm than good. >>> and lost in the wilderness, an olympian's family is found after missing for more than 24 hours. how jolly ranchers candy led to their rescue. >>> plus growing concerns over the ebola outbreak overseas now that two americans have been infected. y ranchers candy led to their rescue. >>> and the ebola virus, two americans have been infected. y a (tiffany) ask yourself what your children or cigarettes. for as long as i can remember, my mother smoked. she died from lung cancer when i was 16. i could not take the chance of continuing smoking and not being here for my daughter. i know how muc

the word spread and the master musicians have ended up being featured on albums by maciel parker andhe rolling stones. for years, if you were a rock god, you had to come here, dig the crazy percussion, strings and pipes that took you to another place. it's intricate, hypnotic, beautiful. if you're in the right frame of mind, mesmerizing. you fifteen percent or more on huh, fiftcar insurance.uld save yeah, everybody knows that. well, did you know that playing cards with kenny rogers gets old pretty fast? ♪ you got to know when to hold'em. ♪ ♪ know when to fold 'em. ♪ know when to walk away. ♪ know when to run. ♪ you never count your money, ♪ when you're sitting at the ta...♪ what? you get it? i get the gist, yeah. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. you're an emailing, texting, master of the digital universe. but do you protect yourself? ♪ apparently not. when you access everything, you give everyone access to everything about you. but that's ok. while you do your thing... [ alert rings ] we'll be here at lifelock, doing our thing. watching

troops, all of them writing about a brother who had been lost at war in iraq, lance corporal fred macieleant writing "we'll always remember the sacrifice you made, god bless" and the mom who found that flag at the flea market bought it with one purpose, to find the other mother, and she did. this weekend traveling across texas to meet that mom and present to her the flag that somehow never made it home. >> our family feels so honored to be the ones chosen to find this flag and return it to you. >> oh, god. >> reporter: that flag right where it belongs, in the hands of a mother who never knew it existed. this flag filled with all of those messages and memories of her son all over again. >> but in a good way, i got peace in my heart. you know, i'm happy. this is all for my son. >> reporter: david muir, abc news, new york. >> what a moving story. >> touching story and, you know, it's remarkable that this took place in humble, texas. such a humble story and the mother here, hats off to her for going that extra mile, the woman who found this at the flea market. you know, so many people would

marine lance corporal fred maciel was killed in a helicopter crash in iraq nine years ago.know that something was missing from that box. it was the flag. the flag with heartfelt messages from surviving members of his unit. another marine family found it at a flea market and then reached out to his mother on social media. >> my son is coming back to me and i love them for that. i can't wait to see what they wrote. >> fred's mother will get that flag and will meet the people who found it tomorrow. >>> a very bizarre case of a southern california case solved now and it has a much happier ending than many expected. police know who left all of these porcelain dolls on the door steps of at least 11 houses where a ten-year-old girls live. what was giving people the creeps is that all of those dolls, or each one left on the doorstep looked like the little girl who lived there. good news is, it turns out a woman in the neighborhood decided to clean out her doll collection and she thought that some young girls from her church might want them. so it was all a surprise. >> so it's just

. >> maciel died in a helicopter crash in 2005.ozens of heartfelt messages for him on the flag. it's not clear how it ended up in the flea market. >>> let's talk about a story you won't see on any other network. the genocide unfolding against christians in iraq, certain cities like mosul where 60,000 christians lived for many years and decades. remember, iraq is really the seat of the bible. next to israel it's where most of the bible unfolds. most of the stories of the bible unfold. now you have christians being forced out of mosul down to zero. the number in the city is zero, being forced to northern regions. churches being bombed and destroyed. being asked to cop vert to islam or to be pushed out or killed. >> or pay money or we'll have your head, essentially. we had the former adversary to iraq and author of "shock and alarm" on earlier and said back in 2003 there were 60,000 christians in mosul. 35,000 in june. and this morning, zero. because of these policies. take a listen. >> it is, in fact, genocide going on. what's happen