driving home from his shop -- >> i'm coming through the parking lot and i notice the truck there, because it still had all the snow on it. and when i got up close i'm like, "oh, it's an explorer. oh, it's the right color. hmm." so i called the sheriff and said, "i'm pretty sure i found her truck." >> reporter: he was right. it was cari's suv, still half buried in the snow. >> they impounded it. we had a crime scene tech process it. and it was really clean. >> they did a thorough investigation. >> yeah, they -- they dusted it for prints. and they found a fingerprint inside. and recovered that. >> reporter: the fingerprint was found on a mint container in the cup holder of the suv. they ran the print through the national database. no hits. but if cari wasn't using her suv, at least certainly not daily, her presence was as unavoidable as ever. what with the texts and emails, graffiti, threatening photos sent to both dave kroupa and liz