home. but after annie had been flung back to the state nine times, veronica, young, naive and stubborn, made a surprising decision to adopt annie. did your superiors tell you, you know, we don t do that, veronica? oh, yes. reporter: don t cross that line. you have a professional relationship with this child. but don t bring her into your home. well, and that was very true. and because at the time, i also happened to be about six months pregnant. and so i m sure the thought was, okay, crazy pregnant lady. she doesn t know what she s doing. but it was very much, are you sure? you can t save everybody. reporter: but veronica was determined to try. she and her then-husband dennis adopted 10-year-old annie in january 2007. annie, who had bounced around from house to house, finally had a home, parents and brothers who adored her. she was the immediate cool big sister. she liked being the oldest, being in charge and teaching
them all of this cool stuff. reporter: she was wanted, happy, making memories. opening gifts on christmas morning. her first trip to the beach. not that everything was perfect, mind you. there was still definitely a i m going to test you. as much as you say you love me and you re keeping me, i m going to make i don t believe you. how would she challenge you, for instance? just the quintessential, i m not going to do what you say. i m going to do whatever i want. reporter: so psychological tussle going on here? uh-huh. reporter: which only intensified when annie entered her teen years. she was about as boy crazy as i could imagine. she always had a boy that she liked or that liked her. and it was never a, here, let me see. it s a, oh, i m so in love with you. this is forever. i couldn t imagine anybody being more amazing. she was very all in. reporter: but annie was also into her education and her future. she wanted to be a therapist just like veronica.
l.j. were one and the same. either way ferry seemed like their man. but the d.a. wanted more evidence before filing charges. derek johnson and chad carpenter thought the blood samples taken from daniel ferry s home would push the case over the finish line. you and derek have to think bloodwork came back, and it was negative for blood. reporter: not only were the samples not annie s blood, it wasn t even blood at all. a major blow to the investigation. didn t mean he s not good for the crime? it doesn t mean that he s not good for the crime. it just led us to believe that, okay, it didn t happen here, at the ferry residence. reporter: so ferry might be good for this thing, but boy, you re just not getting there? yeah. reporter: the only bright spot, daniel ferry wasn t getting out of jail. he was also being investigated for an unrelated kidnapping and assault case in a neighboring town. so he s on ice while you guys can develop your theories about his involvement in this thi
now there was no hope offer ever coming home. so there s the very worst moment of your life at that point. here they are, three people at the door. they confirmed that it was annie. i think we were in shock. we went into automatic, what do you need from us? tell us what you want. you can have it. look at anything. reporter: veronica told investigators what she learned from annie s on-again/off-again boyfriend chris bagshaw. that annie had run away with a boy named l.j. when you talked with l.j., how did you talk to him? i talked to him once. okay. actually on the phone. okay. reporter: police spoke to chris bagshaw and his father at their home. and when you talked to him on the phone, did he speak with an accent or did you notice anything distinctive about his voice? no. reporter: naturally, police also had to ask chris where he was. i was with my grandma. okay. and at one point i did walk up to see if my friend can hang out, but he wasn t home. okay. re
okay. show me a picture, then. reporter: you showed him a picture of annie. yep. brittany? is her name brittany? no, it s annie. reporter: detectives thought daniel was lying, and they were done playing around. what if i told you she s dead? i didn t do it. what the [ bleep ]? if you guys think i did this, i do want a lawyer. okay. because there s only we re done. the only thing that is shaking me. we re done daniel, because i think you did it. well, if you think i did it, then you ve got the wrong guy, man. for real. good luck. find the right guy. reporter: derek was confident he had. they booked daniel for annie s murder. reporter: l.j., whoever he was, still hadn t turned up, but detective derek johnson still thought he d wrapped up his first homicide. all he needed was the lab to confirm that the blood found in daniel s home was annie s. but then the lab called and everything unraveled. coming up