commonly called witness protection, or witsec. >> we were ushered into black vance. i remember stopping and switching vans. >> reporter: it's a program shrouded in secrecy run by the u.s. marshals service. witnesses in danger are protected, relocated, given new identities in exchange for turning state's evidence against organized crime, cartels, or >> your new identity, relocation -- >> reporter: most of what people know about it, based on hollywood depictions like the movie "eraser." but where jackie and her family landed was far from hollywood. >> i was right 31. >> reporter: here in a motel next to a casino in billings, montana. >> not exactly the best place to put a mother and her three children to start their lives over again. there's no new car. there's no this is your new reality. >> reporter: most of the more than 18,000 people in witness protection are not witnesses but family members of witnesses. many of them innocent bystanders caught in the middle. >> daddy, i love you. >> reporter: some of them mere children like jackie shown here in this rare footage.

says is still assigned to him, despite having left the witsec program decades ago. he doesn't get anywhere. >> he's just in this horrible cycle he can't get out of. it pisses me off. >> says he has to look at the file. and get back in touch with me. >> reporter: a few weeks after his montana trip, c.j.'s back in pennsylvania, heading to the federal courthouse in pittsburgh. >> looking for a number -- >> reporter: jackie has advised him to try to find court documents proving his family was in witness protection. >> thank you. thank you, appreciate it. >> reporter: that his multiple identities are not somehow his own fault. he finally comes across the needle in the haystack. >> it says right here my family was in the witness protection program. our names were changed. this will definitely help out my issues, i'm hoping. can i get a couple of these >> reporter: he later calls jackie to tell her the good news. >> oh thank god you finally have that proof on paper. that is awesome. >> reporter: shortly after -- >> how cool is this? >> reporter: c.j. decides to make the mo