>> edward raulerson. >> reporter: police dialed a phone number they found for ed.eastern tennessese and agreed to make the eight-hour drive to germantown to be interviewed. detectives wondered had he made the trip once already that week, to take heather away? and most importantly, could he tell them where she was now? >> just because you've got somebody living 500 miles away does not mean that they didn't have anything to do with this disappearance. >> reporter: police recorded ed raulerson's interview. during questioning, ed made a potentially important admission. >> i love her to death, i would do anything for her. you know, one of the detectives asked me, you know, who would she call if she wanted to disappear. i said, me. i'd be here in however many hours it took for me to get here today. >> reporter: but, he insisted, heather never made that call. and there was more. ed told detectives he was surprised by the first question he was asked when initially contacted by the police. >> detective cook called me and he said, "is your girlfriend there?" and i said, "yes