>> we interviewed her roommates, boyfriend. everyone is a suspect. >> and then a man said i kidnapped her, we have her, we ran the criminal history. that's when all the bells went off. >> he pulls in, asking me to get in the car. i feel the cold blade against my neck. he carries cme to the basement of his home. >> it was jaw dropping, just chilling. >> they started digging and they found women's clothing. >> it was escalating. >> there were so many victims? >> yes, there still are. >> until this guy is in longer in existence. i'll carry this fight. ecome a supreme court justice. ge, hello and welcome to dateline. shannon melindi dreamed big. at 15 she wanted to become a supreme court justice. in college she scored a foundation. detectives had a suspect in their sight, but it would take years. a horrific tail to unravel the mystery of shannon's disappearance. here is dana murphy with shannon's story. >> reporter: the videos, the document reof her life. >> reporter: the professional dad who captured every moment of his daughter's life. >> she loved life. she wanted to do everything. >> reporter: these parents didn't foe how difficult it would be to look at these memories. >> i want to remember her voice, yipped. >> it is definitely a sweet memory. i look back at how innocent we were. >> shannon was someone that wanted to live. >> reporter: but then came that phone call way back in march 1994. shannon melendi's sister, monique, was just 13 years old. >> i receive add phone call from her roommate. >> reporter: shannon was mid way through emery university in atlanta. their childhood home if miami and the other end of the line was athena, her sister's college roommate. >> and she asked if i had spoken to shannon. >> reporter: shannon had not been seen for more than a day. are you starting to do the calculation? >> i knew immediately that something was terribly wrong. >> monique hung up with her roommate and made a few calls of her own. >> i immediately called my grandmother who was living in atlanta. asking her if she had heard from shannon. she had not. i called my aunt and she had not hear. she called her parents and her grandparents came to pick her up. monique's dad was photographing a baptism, and her mom, yvonne, was with them. louis and his mom went to their sister's house. >> they said shannon is missing. i dropped to the ground on my knees and i said we'll never see her again. >> u saw my father collapse to his knees and i knew i was right in feeling the fear that i felt. >> reporter: when you heard the word missing, what did you think? >> i kept thinking no, this can't be. >> reporter: shannon missing. it was beyond all imagination. from the roommate, a rough timeline emerged. when she wasn't home by sunday morning, her roommate had started to worry. >> she said where is she, so she went looking for her. the first thing she dent was go to the south ball country club. the roommate went out to look with two other friends, but when they turned around, they spotted something. >> she saw her car parked at a convenience store. >> a gas station. >> shannon's black nissan unoccupied, parked at the far end of the gas station. she was as proud as she could be? >> yes. >> what was the condition of the car when it was found? >> it was unlocked with keys in the ignition, and the biggest thing was the plate on the radio. at that time radios were a commodity, and shannon would always take the plate off and take it with her. >> reporter: but that expensive radio plate was still in the car, which to e her business.. >> we worked a lot of missing persons. that day it was something we investigated a lot. >> one of his officers were set out to meet at the gas station. >> inside that vehicle, there was no blood, no real signs of anything, struggle of. shannon's friend drove her nissan back to campus. the question is where was she? >> reporter: it did not take long for shannon's friends to hear she was missing. >> i got up and was getting ready to go to class when my father looked worried. he just handed me a copy of the local section of the miami harold and said miami family is flying up to that, it was surreal. feeling dazed and desperate. >> and we were like what's going on? >> with a was going on? a question that would consume law enforcement and the melendi family for over a decade. >> and what had happened to shannon? >> she would never run away. she never ran away from anything. >> and then some of her acquaintances u draw the interest of investigators. >> i did when dateline continues. at the source of. so for faster pain relief, advil the pain away. 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[♪♪] your skin is ever-changing, take care of it with gold bond's age renew formulations of 7 moisturizers and 3 vitamins. for all your skins, gold bond. introducing new advil targeted relief. the only topical pain reliever with 4 powerful pain-fighting ingredients that start working on contact to target tough pain at the source. for up to 8 hours of powerful relief. new advil targeted relief. dennis murphy: everywhere the melendis looked, there was shannon's face. their daughter's missing posters blanketed her college campus. everywhere they looked, there was shannon's face. their daughter's missing poster blanketed the college campus. >> that's all i could think of is where is she and is she okay? >> reporter: as the investigation started, police told reporters they were looking at two possibilities. >> either she left on her own our somebody grabbed her. >> whether shannon left on her home, they told investigators they were wasting time. she would never ever run away. she didn't run away from anything. >> reporter: they used the media to spread that message, hoping attention focused on the case would yield answers. >> i'm somebody who loves my daughter, and i want to do whatever i have to do to get this thing happening. >> so you think to get anything going, it needed your intervention and your passion and your concern? >> well, i'm a pain. i do what i need to do, and i don't care whose toes i step on. >> reporter: the only thing that made sense was she had been abducted. gene moss says police were investigating every option. >> the first thing you do in a missing persons case of this magnitude is try to interview all the acquaintances and friends and get as much out of the ocean as you can. >> reporter: the melendi's were eager to share because the shannon they knew would never put this family in this kind of pain. there, shannon was the one to put everyone else at ease. >> she had a smile that just warmed a room. and she would walk in and people would be like shannon is here. >> reporter: she commanded her parent's attention. >> she has her father under her thumb. she just looked at it and go, but daddy, please. >> she was very good of convincing me whatever she was trying to do. >> people like being around her. she was witty, she was smart, she was funny. >> reporter: and when shannon became fast friends in seventh grade. >> we just had a lot in common. her father came from cuba, my parents are immigrants from cuba. we were, i guess what you would describe go getters. >> reporter: for shannon, the getting was good. she was a top student at her high school, captain of the debate team, and class president two years in a row. >> she had the confidence to speak, you know, in front of a class or a group of people. she just wasn't afraid. >> we cannot always say it's been for the better. >> reporter: this is video of shannon and her pal, al. >> and different el people will be both unethical and unmoral, while others believe it is okay. >> if you asked for 15, what will you do? she would have told you what? >> that she wanted to be the supreme court justice. >> reporter: but before the supreme court was emory university, 1,700 miles away from home. >> i wasn't a happy camper. >> down the street would be too far away, you know? >> reporter: but shannon thrived at emory. >> she loved everything about it, the culture, the night life, she loved emory. >> reporter: she studied political science and scored an internship at the carter center. and now her determined family leveraged every political connection from their local congresswoman to the former president and got the case on the fbi's radar. the feds were joining the search for the missing college student. >> we interviewed room pates and boyfriends and you would imagine that everybody is a suspect. >> reporter: the special agent as investigators would look into every aspect of her young life including a spring break trip she took in the weeks before her disappearance. >> who did she meet with? what hotel did she stay at? who did she travel with? >> one of the questions at the top of the list, did she go off the list with someone she met on spring break? >> we spoke to a lot of people, all those people that she went with. >> reporter: including chris goslip. they went to high school together as he was on the group, spring break trip to panama city beach, florida. >> we would be out on the beach during the day. we would be out in the night life at night and the clubs there. >> were you wild and crazy or not so much? >> i think it was a little bit wild. we were not out of hand at all. it was very controlled. >> knowing what's going to happen, is there anything you looked back on and wonder what's going on? >> no, i didn't see anything. we were just young, having a good time. >> chris told the fbi just that when they showed up at his apartment for an interview. investigators had a lot of questions including ask chris to account for his own whereabouts after shannon disappeared. >> i did feel under the pressure at points. >> how so? >> because they showed up a couple of times. they would call me at work or early in the morning. >> chris wasn't the only ones being grilled by authorities. he was good friends with one of her ex-boyfriends. >> he had gone on a few dates with shannon, but it wasn't anything long term or serious. >> reporter: authorities polygraphed the ex. they were still interviewing all of her friends when a mysterious phone call came in. the caller was about to give police a clue that would kick start the engine of this investigation. coming up, a game and some attention. >> yes, he was more interested in watching shannon than he was in calling the softball game. >> when dateline continues. o. i see myself more and i definitely see those deeper lines. i'm still kim and i got botox® cosmetic. i wanted to keep the expressions that i would normally have, you know, you're on camera and the only person they can look at is you. i was really happy with the results. i look like me just with fewer lines. botox® cosmetic is fda approved to temporarily make frown lines, crow's feet, and forehead lines look better. the effects of botox® cosmetic may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness may be a sign of a life-threatening condition. do not receive botox® cosmetic if you have a skin infection. side effects may include allergic reactions, injection site pain, headache, eyebrow, eyelid drooping and eyelid swelling. tell your doctor about your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. see for yourself at botoxcosmetic.com. a slow network is no network for business. as thes that's why morehe risk choose comcast business. and now, we're introducing ultimate speed for business —our fastest plans yet. we're up to 12 times faster than verizon, at&t, and t-mobile. and existing customers could even get up to triple the speeds... at no additional cost. it's ultimate speed for ultimate business. don't miss out on our fastest speed plans yet! switch to comcast business and get started for $49.99 a month. plus, ask how to get up to an $800 prepaid card. call today! dennis murphy: college student shannon melendi had vanished in broad daylight. investigators had been looking at a spring break trip she'd taken recently. when we were done doing our interviews regarding college student ctivshannon melendi vanished in broad daylight. investigators had looked at a spring break trip she took recently. >> we were confident it happened during the spring break activity. >> also ruled out, shannon's ex- boyfriend who ended up passing that polygraph. does it take you back to the softball field? >> it does. >> the softball field where shannon was working part time as a scorekeeper. it was the last place she had been seen alive, so police tracked down everyone who had been around shannon on the saturday cheesed appearance. >> they were having a tournament with 25 teams. so you're talking about a lot of people. every single person there was questioned. that took us to four to five interviews. >> reporter: investigators were told a curious story about one person in particular, an umpire. >> a lot of the players in the game were concerned that his he didn't pay attention to a lot of balls being thrown. his object was shannon who was behind home plate where he was calling the game and she was keeping score that day. >> so he's checking out shannon? >> yes, he was more interested if calling the game. >> his name was butch hinton. >> he's a member of the church where his dad was a pastor. >> he was married and had a job as an airline maintenance worker when he wasn't umpiring at the softball field. you don't take these stories at face value. you go to the guy, butch, and say what was your story? >> we did talk to him on april 4. >> reporter: hinton was aware shannon was missing, and he said nothing unusual happened during the game. >> he told different stories about where he was in the hours after shannon vanished, but he did say he went home soon after the game. sure enough phone records showed he made a phone call from his house. so if this man did something to shannon, he would have had a tight window to commit his crime. but hinton was the only possible suspect they had. then a phone call came in. >> there was a moment when you think oh my gosh, she's alive. she's okay. >> this is a week after shannon has gone missing, is that right? >> correct. >> who is on the other end of the line? >> it came into the emory counseling center and he appeared nervous to the woman working the switchboard. he asked if she is familiar with the shannon melendi case. >> a man had shannon and said she was fine and healthy. before the caller hung up, he told the operator his plans. >> when i'm done with her, i'll release her. what you'll find is an article that belongs to her, so he hung up and the fbi immediately traced the call, we traced it back to a phone booth. >> a phone booth outside the city. just as the caller promised, there was something there. >> underneath the phone booth that had fallen to the ground was a cloth bag. inside the cloth bag was a ring. >> reporter: a ring yvonne recognized it right away and it had a stone. >> what's the story with that particular ring? >> her god mother had given that to her. >> reporter: shannon's police said she received the ring in high school. from the day she got it, that ring was always on shannon's finger. she even wore it in this family portrait. so they knew whoever made that phone call had their daughter. a dreadful shock, they had to accept that she was definitely kidnapped. you can no longer say flight because we established that she was, in fact, kidnapped. >> reporter: they waited for the callers next move. >> waiting, but not idle. the distraught parents are about to turn up the heat on their daughter's abductor as the search for shannon continues. coming up. an ingenious idea to ensure whoever has shannon cannot take off. >> and we put 77 billboards all around the city. >> i felt if people see her face, they can't come to the home, but they said butch hinton's house son fire, when dateline continues. billy: one second, grandma. this guy is going to buy my car. okay? grandma: you need carvana... entering plate number... grandma: no accidents, right? 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(vo) new and existing customers get iphone 15 on us when they trade in any iphone. verizon i'm jessica layton with the hour's top stories. israel's military says they will pause fighting during the daytime hours along a route in southern gaza to free up a backlog of humanitarian aid deliveries. the pause applies to about 7.a miles of road in the rafah area. and nine people including two children were injured in an apparent random mass shooting saturday at a park splash pad in michigan. police say a 42-year-old suspect then took his own life after the incident. and now back to dateline. e investigators learned umpire butch welcome back to dateline, i'm craig melvin. shannon melendi was last seen at a baseball game, where the umpire was acting strangely. word had it he kept his eye on shannon more than the ball. police were quick to question him to then came that discovery. police had recovered her ring, but could it lead them to shannon? and back to dennis murphy with shannon's story. >> after more than a week of theories of speculation, investigators now had a promising lead in shannon melendi's disappearance. an anonymous caller left a clothed bag like this one carrying shannon's ring at phone booth. could that be proof of life? >> is there a glimmer of hope here that you will be in a period of ransom negotiations with whoever this anonymous caller was? >> that moment, tha