a missing woman. >> cindy, where's my mom? i instantly knew and i said call the police i'm on my way. >> a loving mother. >> always there for me. >> a beloved friend. >> she was easy to like. >> something was very wrong. >> was she murdered? was a for her money? >> how much did she have in the bank? >> i think it was seven figures. >> it through him for a loop when he found out that my mom had met somebody else. >> police had a suspect in the case■ç is about to take an unbelievable turn. >> one of the most shocking things i've ever seen in a courtroom. ia, hello, and hello, and welcome to dateline. deede keller made a comfortable life for herself, a successful realtor in southern california. she lived in a neighborhood where she was surrounded by family and friends then suddenly, she disappeared. as her loved ones launched a frantic church, investigators would follow the trail of clues to a suspect with a dark obsession. the final twist in the case would leave the courtroom stunned. here is josh mankiewicz with the trail of trust. >> snethern california's south bay. a singularly stunning strand of shoreline with familiar names. josh mankiewicz: this seaside playground we call it we call it the sandbox. >> people don't think the success but it does. >> this playground is lined with beachfront properties worth millions. nestled among the small beach towns is an oasis called el segundo. >> it is main street usa. >> a great place to raise kids. >> in 2003, one of the rainmakers in the real estate business selling this beautiful homes in ■çel segundo and the south bay was a woman named julia, known as deede. >> she embraced everyone that came into her path. >> her best friends, mortgage executive and a real estate sales partner linda. she was good at her job. >> i loved working with deede. >> she was easy to like and always wanted the best for everybody. her clients were loyal over the years. >> deede was loyal not only to her clients but as a divorced mom to her children, mike and julie. >> i remember my mom explaining to me that as you get older, probably not going to be as close or you won't like me as much. it never if anything we got closer. >> deede keller had a heart problem, not literally. it may have been a little too big. she loved without limits and she simply hated to disappoint or let anyone down. she loved dog so much she literally could not say no to another one. she was surrounded by them at home. >> i joke that when i graduated college that's when she started replacing us with dogs. should never stop being a mom. >> and she never stopped loving everybody? >> she never did. she was ready to be embraced into embrace you whenever you wanted it. >> there was one area of her life in which deede keller's honesty and embrace had not caught hold. your mom was so lucky and ■çlif was so easy in so many ways. she couldn't quite make the man in her life thing, right. >> she had a wonderful life but she hadn't found that person. >> she did have a long-term relationship but that ended sadly in 1997. soon after, she met someone new. he was a real estate client named erwin howard. a pilot, airline mechanic. originally from bolivia. >> i remember deede saying she wouldn't date anyone else unless the treasured and adored her. and she did feel loved and adored by irwin. >> when irwin popped the question, deede said yes. at her bridal shower in march 1998, he delivered ■çhis fiance to the surprise party. the smiles did not last after the engagement was over. the marriage began. >> it wasn't within six months after they were married, she blurted out that she had married him on the rebound. >> and was having second thoughts? >> apparently so. >> it was hard for her because she knew he loved her. >> so much that the marriage lasted another four years after that conversation. ultimately, their divorce was amicable and a year after the split in the summer of 2004, deede seemed to find her footing once again. she had begun dating a south bay car sales man named bobby. that■ç new relationship was goi so well that on the evening of thursday, july 8, he took deede out to dinner to meet his father. >> i talked to her before her date. >> any sign she was nervous about anything? >> she was in a happy state when i talked to her and we made plans to get together the following night. so i could get the update on the date. >> that conversation never took place. >> i called her on friday and she didn't call me back which was not unusual. i called her saturday and she didn't call me back. that was pretty typical. by sunday, i started getting concerned. >> concerned was daughter julie. she talked of meeting her ■çmom that same friday during a layover at lax as julie headed to mexico. >> she said i might have an appointment that morning but if i don't i will come by. we will have coffee. we laid over in los angeles. i didn't get a text. it was a little odd but didn't think much of it. >> deede's son did begin to worry after he returned from a business trip. >> when i called her cell phone, the voicemail was full. that had never happened with my mom. she prided herself on being responsive. >> you go to your mom's has. >> i went in the back gate and it was clear she had not been there for a while. >> what made that clear? >> the water dish for the dogs was bone dry.■ç my mom would die of thirst without her dogs. >> his first call was to cindy. >> he said where is my mom? i just -- i instantly knew in that moment that something had happened. i knew and i said call the police, i am on my way. >> where was deede keller? not only was there no water left outside for deede's beloved dogs but detective noticed other things wrong inside the house. her purse was there but her wallet was missing. this was a woman with money, a lot of it. >> was her hefty bank account a factor in her disappearance? investigators follow the money trail. coming up. >> who got that money? >>■ç the beneficiaries were her two children. >> where were her son and daughter when she vanished? >> both out of town at the time the mother went missing. some things should stand the test of time. long lasting eylea hd could significantly improve your vision and can help you go up to 4 months between treatments. if you have an eye infection, eye pain or redness, or allergies to eylea hd, don't use. eye injections like eyla hd may cause eye infection, separation of the retina, or rare but severe swelling of blood vessels in the eye. an increase in eye pressure has been seen. there's an uncommon risk of heart attack or stroke associated with blood clots. the most common side effects were blurred vision, cataract, corneal injury, and eye floaters. and there's still so much to see. if you are on eylea or a similar type of treatment, ask your retina specialist about eylea hd today, for the potential for fewer injections. billy: one second, grandma. this guy is going to buy my car. okay? 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shingles doesn't care. but shingrix protects. only shingrix is proven over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. shingles doesn't care. but shingrix protects. ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingrix today. hi, i'm michael, i've lost 62 pounds on golo and i have kept it off. but shingrix protects. most of the weight that i gained was strictly in my belly which is a sign of insulin resistance. but since golo, that weight has completely gone away, as you can tell. thanks to golo and release, i've got my life and my health back. josh mankiewicz: on a sun-splashed sunday in la's south bay, clouds were rolling in over one household. only son splash sunday and the south bay, clouds were rolling in over one household. it was july 2004. el segundo real estate agent known as deede was missing. ■ç her son mike had gone to her home when he had not heard from her for three days. the biggest red flag? her beloved dogs left without food or water. what did you think had happened? >> i didn't know at that point. i knew something was very wrong. >> he called her best friends. cindy, who last had spoken to deede three days before as she prepared for a date , rushed to the house. >> you could tell the dogs had been running around for days. the way the tv was on and the way the shades were, i felt like thursday night had never ended. i felt like friday morning never came. >> cindy phoned deede's new boyfriend■ç bobby lowe and he reported they had dinner on thursday at a local restaurant, then they return to deede's house for a night cap. >> he said she had a little too much wine and was starting to fall to sleep. he said good night and let himself out. >> anything about what bobby lowe said sounded suspicious to you? >> not at all. >> the next call? el segundo police and on the scene, then the detective sergeant mendoza. >> this doesn't happen to people known as well as deede is. >> what detectives found in their on soul search of the home only deepened the mystery. in the kitchen, her purse, her ç cell phone still inside but no wallet. a vodka bottle the police learned was usually kept in the freezer was out on the counter. in the living room, the tv was on cnn. >> we discovered when she left the house she would put the tv on to classical music station so it would relax the dogs. it was on cnn when we came in. >> so deede was watching cnn and had the dogs there and having a drink and left for some reason? suggesting, whatever happened happened in a big hurry? >> she didn't have time to do her routine she usually does before she leaves. >> it appeared deede left in her car, the garage was empty. her silver mercedes gone.■ç strangely, police found the car keys sitting on her patio. >> we decided to call the sheriffs department homicide bureau to assist us. >> jimmy gates was the detective who answered that call. >> there was no forced entry whatsoever. we started walking through the house i noticed several articles that were very valuable. >> so she let in whoever it was and it was not robbery. >> absolutely correct. if she didn't let them in, the person let themselves in and they may have had a key. >> gates wonder has she left in her car was someone she knew? how did her car get taken without its key? you don't have a key, is it ely -- easy to steal a car? >>■ç not day 1999 mercedes. it is hard to steal. you almost need a key to get access. >> if your car does not have a key, the next up is a car dealership to have a new one made. first, gates and his crew search the house, looking for deede's spare mercedes key without success. gates quickly became convinced of one thing. you thought finding deede's car would be the key to this? >> it would be extremely important. >> her friends and family printed up posters and launched a massive search. >> an army of people trying to help find her and we broke up into teams and map everything out and one-mile increments to search every parking lot■ç looking for her car. >> we would as people, have you seen this woman? have you seen this car? it was frantic. it was heartbreaking. >> it was leading nowhere and at the same time the detective wondered who would have a motive to have abducted deede from her home? the most common, love, money, jealousy are always the one police hug first like old friends. deede made a lot of money. >> she was successful. >> how much money did she make? >> i think it was over seven figures. >> a lot of murders committed for less than that. who got that money? >> the beneficiaries were her two children. >> the detective noticed something about the whereabouts of her two children. mike and julie. ■ç at the time of deede's disappearance. >> they were both out of town the time the mother went missing. >> why is that significant? >> i thought the mother goes missing and it just so happens that mike has gone to san jose and julie is at a resort. it's been my experience that sometimes people exhibit stress after a crime. some people leave the area to dissipate stress. >> there was one more person who just happened to have been traveling near the time of deede's disappearance. her ex-husband, erwin howard, had just flown to his home country of bolivia. erwin was a mechanic and worked for american airlines in l.a. a common thread in all these trips?■ç nearby lax airport, and so the detective thought, what better place to dump a car? lax is a big place. >> a lot of parking lots and it took a few days. >> you look through them all? >> everyone. >> ♪ mercedes and no shortage a person of interest. a lot of people close to deede keller were about to be hugged like old friends. >> detectives were about to get blunt with julie and her brother. >> he says, did you do anything with your mom's disappearance? >> it was more, did you kill your mother? 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[ gasps ] [ chuckling ] good job, junior. way to go. [ chuckling ] [ speaking minionese ] josh mankiewicz: in the days after the disappearance of el segundo realtor deede keller, all of la south bay in the in the days after the disappearance of a secunda realtor deede keller, the south bay seem to be looking for her. and for her missing mercedes. leading the search, her best friend cindy and linda. a lot of people disappear intricate the family working on it. everybody else is like -- >> not and this town. >> she had an army. >> julie rest back from a trip to mexico. >> it was the most surreal experience. >> only to be greeted■ç by suspicion. delicious detective gates discovered that in the event of their mother's death, julie and her brother mike stood to inherit more than $1 million. he confronted deede's kids using one of the oldest tricks in the investigator handbook. do you remember an interview you did with jimmy gates? in which he asked some basic questions like, what your name? where do you live? ordinary stuff then all of a sudden he says, did you have anything to do with your mom's disappearance? >> i think it was more, did you kill your mother? >> and you are startled or angry? >> it was horrible but i understand why. >> detectives asked similar questions of julie. next,■ç in attempting to rule o suspects, those closest to deede, detectives turned to her ex-husband, erwin howard. it turned out that although they had been divorced for more than a year at the time of her disappearance, friends told police she had recently invited him back into her life. six months earlier, deede had been in a car accident and issue recovered she needed help with her dogs. she appeared they felt bad about the pain their divorce had caused erwin. >> she calderwood to help her because that's what he did best was help her. he helped nurse her back to health and take care of the house and the dogs and her. >> in taking a look at erwin howard, the detective found she had -- he had a rock solid alibi.■ç on the night of her disappearance, july 8, when clocked into work for his job at the american airlines hangar at lax at 8:30 p.m. he said he worked all night but it wasn't just his word. he had to use an electronic key card to get into the hangar. that's a pretty good alibi. that's not something the employee can influence. >> that is correct. >> that left the last person to admit seeking deede alive, her new boyfriend, car salesman bobby low. he said he had left the house between 11 and midnight that night then had gone to the gym the next morning. what possible motive could bobby lowe have to want deede dead or out of the picture ? >>■ç there was no motive that i could determine whatsoever. >> and bobby lowe provided them with two important clues. first, he said, while he was at deede's that night, the dogs had started barking at something outside as if someone were lurking. the next morning he discovered someone had keyed the side of his ford explorer, leaving a long scratch. is suggest what? someone is following him? >> that is what it meant to me. >> who was following deede and bobby? who was at angry? that act of vandalism pointed away from bobby lowe. >> i was an investigator for several years and have never known anyone to vandalize their own car. >> that would make it a perfect alibi. "p enough but his background indicated he was a well-liked guy. kind of successful himself and didn't have a lot of enemies. >> even as investigators looked at suspects came the news that all who knew deede had hoped for and feared. deede's car had been found, not at lax or in l.a., but 2.5 hours down interstate 5 mac in san diego. the silver mercedes had been parked on the street in downtown san diego earning several parking tickets. when the local pd ran the play, it came up as belonging to a missing person and when the trunk was finally opened? there was a body wrapped in sheets covered by a blanket which was itself decorated withç dog paws. deede keller was no longer missing. police asked to meet with deede's family. >> was a wide range of emotions. almost some type of relief they found her because we were starting to think how long could this go on? >> hardest day of my life. one of the hardest days for my children and all her friends and her family. >> deede keller was dead at age 54, autopsy showed she had been asphyxiated and the clues that were and were not left in her car were about to take the case back in a familiar direction. >> coming up. just days before she was murder, deede ■ç had a visit fr a stalker. >> she said she was in the shower. they had a huge altercation. he was calling her every name. , heartworm disease, and more... all in one delicious, monthly, soft chew. use with caution in dogs with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. nexgard® plus: the one you want for one-and-done protection. everybody wants super straight, super white teeth. they want that hollywood white smile. new sensody