>> how could this happen? how could this happen to someone that we knew? it's been very long 13 years. >> homecoming queen, hannah hill, was just 18 when she disappeared. everybody sweetheart. >> this doesn't happened to people like her. what? why? where? when? >> and who? was it her boyfriend? they had fought before? >> did you verbally abuse her? >> yes. >> did you physically abuse her? >> yes. >> or was a another man in her life? they had been together the night she died. >> we kissed and stuff. >> did you have sex with hannah? >> no, i did not. >> more than 13 years would go by as hannah's family fought for that justice. two possible suspects. >> did you kill hannah hill? ? >> absolutely art. >> did your kid kill hannah hill? >> two trials. >> i was a wreck. it was just very intense. >> were there ever be justice for hannah hill? >> the truth always comes out. >> hello, and welcome to "dateline". hannah hill was an outgoing teenager with a future as bright as her smile. then suddenly, hannah went missing. when her body was found a week later, police zeroed in on two potential suspects. her boyfriend and another young man who caught hannah's eye. but to crack this case, detectives would have to unravel the clues held in a mysterious black bag. one that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. here's dennis murphy with "the night hannah hill disappeared". >> she was a girl who made big entrances. >> she could walk in the room and light up the place. she'd make a whole room smile. >> she was always happy. just wanted to have fun. >> but it was her exit, her sudden disappearance. proof, gone from her house just like that. that enshrouded young hannah hill in mystery. >> miss hill was last seen last wednesday. we're asking anyone to contact the protective bureau. >> she was 18 years old. just days from turning 19. and it seemed to be in for the night. a former homecoming queen in her pjs, phoning a few friends from the basement bedroom at her mom and dads in akron, ohio. it's too late now, but you wished you could just ask just one question. why did you leave the house so suddenly that night? her brother justin doesn't know. >> she got dressed and said, i'm going to go off for a little bit. i'll be back. i love you. >> and that was it? >> we've never seen her again. >> the thing was, the next morning, thursday in may of 1999, was going to be a red letter day for hannah. she drives her geo prizm, the used car she was proud to be paying for, to her first day of full-time secretary work atn a year, brad, expected her to swing by her place in the morning to pick him up. he says, she was a no-show. >> i remember waking up with this eerie, gut feeling that something wasn't right. i paged her. no answer. she'd always call me back. always. and she didn't. >> the kids relied on pagers back then. cellphones and text messaging were off in the future for hannah's circle of friends. her mom, kim, was a homemaker. and dad was scratching out work as a boiler maker in the smoke stacks of the rust belt. dad loved his girl. >> she was a very bubbly kid. she would always love everybody. >> she liked the spice girls and signed her letters with tiny pink hearts. a nice kid. these friends of hannah thought so. >> she was a very easygoing person. definitely someone you could be friends it very easily. >> she was a great friend. she was a great girl. >> tara ferguson was the best friend for ever. >> she's so fun and silly and funny. >> there was no doubt she was a very brilliant girl? >> yes. she was a hopeless romantic. and she was bound to try to find that prince charming. >> now, not every teenage girl has the same definition of prince charming. hannah's boyfriend brad for instance, was a high school dropout with more than a few offenses. but by all accounts, hannah was smitten. >> definitely her one true love. she just really loved him and was really happy. >> and brad? they he remembers like yesterday being captivated by the girl at the party with a lively brown eyes. they quickly became a couple. did you think, i'm really lucky to have this girl? >> i did. and we still get compliments. people would say, you guys look so cute together. >> but by late spring, 1999, hannah's friends and family thought she was going distant. they worried that brad was tugging her into a world where she didn't belong. >> she trusted everybody. >> saw the best in everybody? >> yes. >> and did it have a radar up? >> no. that's where we differed. >> and now hannah hill had vanished into the night. out there, some were, but where? thursday turned to friday. close friends were frantic. >> brad and i are calling each other, back-and-forth. i'm calling the hills. i'm paging her. she's not calling. that just wasn't like her. >> we were freaking out. so, we make up a thousands of fliers and we're passing them out. have you seen my sister? has anyone seen my sister? >> you are hearing, no, no, no. >> nothing. >> brad, the boyfriend, took a step further. he went down to the police station on that friday. the first to several visits to the cops. >> my girlfriend is missing. it is a scene like the police are doing very much. >> long days became longer nights. with no word from hannah. by tuesday evening, she was missing nearly a week. the police finally turned to the media. >> an 18 year old girl has vanished and tonight, police are asking for your help. >> when i came across the tv that she was missing, i thought, i got really real. >> the very next morning, a breakthrough. news that police had located hannah's car. it was parked on a quiet dead end street called keen road. jerry hughes, then with the akron pd, raced to the scene. detectives pop to the trunk. it was worse than he'd expected. you've seen a lot of stuff in a lot of years. how does this fit? and the awful things that cops encounter? >> it's something you can't even see. you'll see that for the rest of your life. >> the body of hannah hill had been found naked from the waist down. posed. her shirt pulled up. >> approximately 7:30 this morning, the missing person hannah hill had been seen parked on cane road >> pictures of her car being totally made the evening news. >> devastated. how could this happen? >> i just totally got blacked out. every emotion just hit me all at once. >> what has happened to hannah? and why? >> and the even bigger question, who? who had killed hannah? police quickly focused on one man. hannah's boyfriend, brad. coming up -- >> he was a drug dealer and he likes to chase other girls. >> when "dateline" continues. airways open for a full 24 hours and prevents future flare-ups. trelegy also improves lung function, so i can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ [laughing] ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy for copd because breathing should be beautiful, all day and night. 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>> well, i think that entirely possible for a car to be part for many days many anywhere. >> did somebody drop the ball here, captain? >> well again, like aca, that's under investigation. >> was the investigation compromise horribly because of that delay? the condition of the body? the forensic results? >> very possible. it gave time for whoever did this to cover his tracks. >> who did do it? in the week after hannah had vanished, all the while her body in the trunk of the car, undetected. the police were trying to make sense of her boyfriend, brad. when detectives checked him out with hannah's family, they got an earful. >> mister hill was never a fan of bread. >> they knew very well who he was? >> yes, mr. hell didn't like him. and mr. hill made no bones about it. >> i try to take her away from bread. and you know, when kids get something in their head, the more you try, the father they get away from you. >> hannah's friend saw things they didn't like about brad, to. >> i probably told her she was better than that and she could do better. and he wasn't good for her. >> and when they met him, the police rice struck by brad's demeanor. before's car had been found, washington lacy, -- when they again into the station walk a fuming teenager demanding to know what was being done to find his missing girlfriend. >> first impression, didn't like him. he was abrasive. >> brad's attitude was the only thing to catch of the officers i. >> right away i noticed some scratches on him. it kind of raise our eyebrows at that. >> lieutenant hughes was on duty that we can, to. he made no of the angry boyfriend with the scratches. >> he's got physical injuries. he he's coming in like a house on fire. >> right. he was completely instruct innocent, concerned about his girlfriend, really loved her. or he had done something and was going to use us as a tool. >> could've followed either way? >> right. right. >> the detective said brad was visibly upset and told him he'd been a bad boyfriend. jealous, controlling. >> we found out he was a drug dealer. and he liked to chase other growth. >> it takes a pretty closely into means an opportunity. country hughes had tough questions for boyfriend bread. >> take off your shirt. do full fingerprints, palm prints. >> so is he saying, slow down? >> no, absolutely not. here's the thing, he never once said anything about attorney, his rights. just, find my girlfriend. whatever you need, find my girlfriend. >> and then came the awful day they discovered hannah's body. >> and i were hammering him. we're peppering, if not you, who? basically? >> you think he's good for this crime. >> that's true, but i want more information. give me something to go on. >> to detectives brad was a puzzle. angry and abrasive on one hand. and yet, cooperative and seemingly distraught about hannah's death on the other. >> it just didn't click. >> questions still scrolled swirled around brad in the hours after hannah's body was discovered. but now, the case was about to spin off in a whole new direction. investigators had obtained hannah's's phone logs and learned she'd made phone calls in her last night. one to a girlfriend. two to brad. and another to a boy named denny ross. denny ross does it mean anything to anybody? 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>> no. i mean, we hung out with people that didn't do some great stuff. but i guess we just kind of thought it was -- not that it was okay but we were doing it, so i guess we were pretty naive, too. >> denny was days into probation on a drug charge and asked to have his lawyers present when detectives arrive for a conversation. once the lawyers showed up, detectives took out a tape recorder and began an interview. >> would you say your full name, sir? >> denny, frederik cross. >> then he told it attempt if he stayed in the night hannah disappeared. but then volunteered and a stall issuing bit of information. >> was there anybody here at the house with you? >> had a stopover for a little bit. >> hannah stopped over wednesday evening? -ing. and you know, then one thing led to another. and then we kissed and stuff. >> did you have sex with hannah? >> no, i did not. >> denny offered up a tit for the cops. take a look at hanna's boyfriend, brad. >> why would he do it? do you know? >> jealousy? fear that maybe she sin somebody else? i recall many occasions that he would basically have hanna basically under control. so she could not go anywhere. >> but denny, not brad, was suddenly the person cops wanted to know a lot more about. at 3 am, they returned to denny's with a search warrant. the officers charging up these exterior stairs said they heard a thud. it wasn't long before one of them found a garbage bag beneath denny's window. in a? hannah's missing clothes. is that case closed? >> it's not case closed. but it's a big factor. >> i've always called that bag of evidence the key factor in this whole case. the magic bag. >> critics of the police work in the case, like local journalist admire, were skeptical. >> we didn't buy it. why would he keep a potential bag of evidence that could hang him inside his apartment for a full week? >> denny insisted he did not toss the bag out the window. his fingerprints weren't found on it. and it didn't match any of the garbage bags he had at home. the officers didn't take the temperature of the bag and couldn't see it had been outside four minutes or four days. still, the next day, was denny charged with hannah's rape and murder. >> breaking news at this hour. unrest has been made in the murder of 18 year old hannah hill. >> the arrest of good time denny was incomprehensible to hannah's friends. >> i just can't see why someone we you knew would want to hurt her. >> denny's father, alan ross, says he was son stunned to. early air you telling me your boy was -- >> danny was a young kid who got himself in a situation by telling the truth. >> the father says, denny was an a