and the clues came pouring out. blood in the bushes. this was the hotspot. this was your crime scene. craig melvin: a stunner of a surveillance tape. jeff wilbert: a tarp, a rope. everything you might need for a murder. exactly. craig melvin: and what just may be-- the most sinister mother daughter conversation you've ever overheard. these are not the same people that the public thinks that they are. you realize how cold this family is. it's pretty twisted. very twisted. [music playing] hello, and welcome to "dateline." stephen moore was a champion speed skater who was fast on the track but slow to find direction in life. that is, until he fell for kindergarten teacher kathleen dorsett. soon came a marriage, a career, and a baby. when stephen disappeared, detectives wondered if there was trouble in his seemingly normal life. but even they could not have imagined the sinister scheme at the heart of this case. here's andrea canning with "shattered bonds." [music playing] andrea canning: as a hot august night turned into day, a car burst into flames. the sound of popping tires woke up the neighbors on a quiet street near the jersey shore. no one knew how it happened or why. but when those questions were finally answered, a bigger mystery unraveled. [ominous music] only four miles from there but a world away was a cozy cul-de-sac where the dorsett family lived. everyone knew the dorsetts. there was thomas, busy with his refrigeration business but not too busy to lend a hand, wife lesley, a school board member, and daughter kathleen, a kindergarten teacher. [children chattering] kathleen loved her work, loved her parents, and seemed happy nestled into the neighborhood where she grew up. but she longed for a family of her own. and then she met stephen moore. [music playing] could she have found someone more different? stephen grew up in southern california, chilling at the beach, taking things easy, according to his friend cam graham. never really held a job, but he always was working. he always would find something to do. andrea canning: stephen's mom evelyn says her son wasn't lazy, just laid back. evelyn moore: he got by, but he wasn't truly motivated. [disco music] andrea canning: but if stephen was serious about anything, it was skating. [disco music] we'd go skating on the beach. andrea canning: his friend missy queen skated too but not like steven. he took the bronze at the national speed skating competition. he would encourage me to skate fast, and he'd be way ahead of me. [laughter] andrea canning: when he wasn't skating, he was happy to go wherever, whenever, like when his mother evelyn, a travel agent, invited him to see the world. he was 30 something, free, and he loved his mom. so why not? evelyn moore: he was adventurous. here i am on an elephant ride. andrea canning: what countries did you take him to? evelyn moore: oh, boy. well, we did most of asia. they can hear you. steven moore: every smile is beautiful. evelyn moore: most of europe, south america. we had a lot of interesting experiences and had a lot of fun. [music playing] andrea canning: eventually evelyn decided to retire to the jersey shore, and she wanted steven to come too. she needed his help, so her loyal son grabbed his skates and the rest of his stuff and jumped in his car. it was packed with every-- every single thing that he owned was in that car. it was funny. [music playing] andrea canning: he knocked around for a few years. and then one day in 2006 he met kathleen dorsett. cam graham: i knew she was a schoolteacher and that she lived in jersey and that he was in love with her. and it seemed like he found the one. [music playing] andrea canning: and if opposites attract, this match couldn't miss. kathleen dorsett seemed as grounded as it gets. she had her own house right across the street from her folks, and she was great with children, as friends noticed when steven brought her out to california. they came down and stayed i think a week with us. she seemed really nice. they took my kids out and took them shopping and bought some games for them and stuff like that. andrea canning: steven started taking life a little more seriously. he got a job at the local honda dealership and did really well according to his co-worker and friend lloyd mccracken. oh, absolutely, absolutely. it's more. he was a team player. if you needed something, you can always depend on him. andrea canning: kathleen was eager to start a family of her own. so about a year after they met, she and steven got married. he couldn't believe this was happening. he was so happy. andrea canning: so there he was, steven moore, solid citizen with a steady job, the wife, and the nice in-laws across the street. lloyd mccracken: he's finally settling down, got a family. besides taking care of his mother, he had somebody else he could actually take care of. [music playing] andrea canning: and kids couldn't come fast enough. elizabeth was born about a year and a half after the wedding. do you remember the day she was born? oh, my god, yes. and i can remember standing at the nursery, and he stood there with his arms around me crying, both of us, looking at her. andrea canning: kathleen seemed born to be a mother. and steven? evelyn moore: all of a sudden, it all came together for him. and his daughter made a man out of him. andrea canning: that should have been the beginning of the happy ending for steven and his wife kathleen. but in 2010, on a monday morning in august, steven just didn't show up for work. the guys at honda called kathleen. she hadn't seen him since early morning. i knew something was wrong because he's there before me. and when he didn't show up, i started calling his phone. but it kept on going to voicemail. andrea canning: his mom evelyn was taking a little vacation in maine. maybe he'd blown off work to join her. lloyd mccracken doubted it. when i finally got hold of her, i just said, do you know where your son is? she says no. and then she started panicking. i called him, and he didn't answer. [music playing] andrea canning: the honda folks waited a couple of hours, then called the police. al vega, then a detective, handled the missing persons investigation. about noon on august 16, we received a call from the employer of steven expressing that he didn't show up for work. andrea canning: police learned steven had loaned evelyn his own car to make the long drive to maine because it was newer and safer. he was driving his mom's car until she got back. maybe he drove somewhere, and he's in a bad car crash, and no one knows where he's at. andrea canning: where was steven moore? as police followed his trail, they caught a tantalizing glimpse of where he had been. but the question remained, where did he go? detectives pieced together the timeline of steven's sudden disappearance, and they uncover the first clues. coming up, a text from kathleen. where are you? everyone is looking for you. craig melvin: a stop at the store. there was a transaction at a local quickchek. craig melvin: where would they lead? even investigators couldn't have imagined that. i've never had a case with so many twists and turns. 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[piano music] andrea canning: detective jeff wilbert learned that steven's father-in-law thomas adored his granddaughter, and he got along with the neighbors too. we had stories of thomas shoveling sidewalks and driveways. and if there was a mechanical failure on an air conditioner or something like that, a simple phone call, and thomas would be there. andrea canning: and steven's mother-in-law lesley? nearly everyone saw her campaign ads when she ran for the school board. today, i wanted to introduce myself and tell you who i am and why i'm qualified to serve you. andrea canning: detectives also learned that the dorsetts often hosted pool parties and barbecues on this little block. steven's friend cam came for a visit. her parents lived on the corner right there. so it was just like right across the street. [ominous music] andrea canning: but when investigators talk to kathleen and her parents about where steven might be, they weren't much help because, as it turns out, steven didn't live there anymore. for steven and kathleen, wedded bliss didn't last very long. detectives learned the marriage went downhill after the baby was born. kathleen, always driven, was a super mom. and friends say she made steven feel like he couldn't do anything right. he wasn't holding the baby right. he wasn't changing the diapers right. he wasn't putting her down for naps at the right time. just very protective of the child, which is sometimes-- mothers are like that at the beginning. andrea canning: so in love with her baby, friends told police how kathleen hovered over her care. so i was like, hey, it's the hormones and everything going on with her, and blah, blah, blah. just relax, and just go with it a little bit, and see what happens. [ominous music] andrea canning: but stephen complained it didn't get better. she wasn't showing him any love anymore and no-- the intimacy-- everything was gone. [suspenseful music] andrea canning: and there was another problem for stephen. the cozy life across the street from the in-laws had gotten a little too cozy. police learned that the doting grandparents couldn't stay away. they would just pop in unannounced, not even knock, just walk in the house at any time. he just felt that was kind of weird. [ominous music] andrea canning: investigators learned that stephen felt so smothered that, when elizabeth was 10 months old, he walked out on his wife and in-laws and moved back in with his mom. the divorce became final just a few months before stephen disappeared. cam had to wonder, maybe stephen just needed to get away. it did cross my mind when you're going through this thing, sometimes you just want to disappear for a little bit and not talk to anybody and get your thoughts together and find out exactly what's going on. andrea canning: but that's not the vibe investigators were getting. his mother said stephen didn't sound like he wanted to get away. in fact, he sounded pretty happy the night before he disappeared. he was enjoying an overnight visit with 20-month-old elizabeth. evelyn moore: he called me. he said, we're in our jammies and we're watching cartoons. and i said, sleep tight. i'll talk to you tomorrow. [ominous music] andrea canning: the next morning, he left the baby with kathleen. stephen showed up to her house around 7:45 am with their daughter. he drops them off. andrea canning: kathleen told investigators she hadn't heard from him since, even when she sent him a text. what was the text message she sent to him? she showed me her phone, and it said, where are you? everyone is looking for you. andrea canning: so investigators ran through all the possibilities. did he have a girlfriend? no, not that we were aware of. was he into anything bad? was he into drugs, anything that would get him into trouble? no, not that we're aware of. financial issues? no. andrea canning: but when police looked at his checking account, it showed something, two debit charges posted on monday afternoon. i found out that there was a transaction at a local quickchek on that date for like $9. and then there was another transaction later on that day at a chipotle in eatontown, which is in the same town that he works in. this is after he dropped off his daughter at kathleen's. correct, correct. andrea canning: so whatever happened to stephen could well have happened later on monday. another day went by, no stephen. then, in the early morning hours of wednesday, august 18, a 9-1-1 call came into dispatch. [ominous music] andrea canning: a car fire had erupted in a lonely section of long branch, new jersey, not far from the dorsett's tidy, peaceful, little street. the question, where was stephen moore was about to be answered. craig melvin: coming up-- i'm like, pfft, gosh, here we go. i had that intuition, it's going to be bad. and it was. craig melvin: a whole new mystery begins as police uncover a secret diary. it's one of those few homicide cases that, when you really want to get into that victim's head and know exactly what's going on, steven left it for us. craig melvin: a recording by steven himself-- when "dateline" continues. smile! you found it. the feeling of finding psoriasis can't filter out the real you. so go ahead, live unfiltered with the one and only sotyktu, a once-daily pill for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, and the chance at clear or almost clear skin. it's like the feeling of finding you're so ready for your close-up. or finding you don't have to hide your skin just your background. once-daily sotyktu was proven better, getting more people clearer skin than the leading pill. don't take if you're allergic to sotyktu; serious reactions can occur. sotyktu can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections, cancers including lymphoma, muscle problems, and changes in certain labs have occurred. tell your doctor if you have an infection, liver or kidney problems, high triglycerides, or had a vaccine or plan to. sotyktu is a tyk2 inhibitor. tyk2 is part of the jak family. it's not known if sotyktu has the same risks as jak inhibitors. find what plaque psoriasis has been hiding. there's only one sotyktu, so ask for it by name. so clearly you. sotyktu. so clearly you. andrea canning: the call went out just after 4:00 in the morning. a car had erupted in flames in long branch, new jersey. by the time detective al vega arrived on the scene, he'd already gotten word. the car was evelyn moore's, the same one her son steven was driving when he disappeared. detective vega had a bad feeling. i'm like, pfft, gosh, here we go. i knew-- i had that intuition, it was going to be bad. and then it was. during fire suppression efforts, they found unidentifiable human remains in a trunk. [piano music] andrea canning: it was the body of a man burned beyond recognition. but investigators could make out a tattoo that was identical to stephen's. the missing persons case had just taken a tragic turn. stephen moore, devoted father and loving son, was dead. [traffic noise] andrea canning: detective jeff wilbert with the monmouth county prosecutor's office took charge. the vehicle was parked here, and this is when we picked up the homicide investigation. and then it took on a whole new direction. it did. did you have any theories as to what might have happened? no, at that point in time, we did not. andrea canning: one thing was clear, whoever torched the car had started with the trunk where the victim was. jeff wilbert: the rear bumper just completely melted off the rear of the vehicle. could you tell how the fire was started? once you opened the trunk and once the body was removed, there definitely was an obvious odor of gasoline. [gong] andrea canning: now that he had gone from missing person to murder victim, investigators had to look at everything in steven's life. we spent some time looking into steven's background. we learned that stephen was a competitive speed skater. andrea canning: but his life as a skater turned up nothing. how was he doing at work? we learned that he was doing really well at work. andrea canning: so investigators took a closer look at steven's brief marriage to kathleen and learned how bad it really got. friends like missy queen thought kathleen had gone mad with motherhood, like the time steven tried to feed elizabeth a smidgen of sauerkraut. she just screamed at him. there's that-- you don't feed a baby sauerkraut. that's not baby food. andrea canning: steven's divorce attorney, veronica davis, said she'd never seen anything like it. she had a list. so she gave him a schedule, a written schedule, an outline. and she wanted him to fill in the blanks. what did she eat today? when did she nap? when did she go to the bathroom? how long did she sleep? and she would call. even if he had her for three hours, she would call four times. what is she doing? it was very disconcerting. it was dysfunctional. andrea canning: the dysfunction was seeping into steven's life at work. lloyd mccracken told police how kathleen would bring the baby over, it seemed, just to humiliate him in front of his co-workers. i think it was more out of spite. she would bring the baby in, and he would try to pick up the baby or hold the baby. and she would just take the baby out of his arms, and then it became into a yelling match. and then she would storm out. because i just feel like that's all she wanted out of me was just the baby. he was basically a sperm donor, basically. yeah, that's how he felt. [music playing] andrea canning: investigators learned that, even though the divorce was final