End . Enter this guy. He sees things other cops dont see . Phenomenal. They call him the evidence whisperer. Hes about to crack this case open before your eyes. The answer was in the details . It was right there. And you wont believe how. You walk out of there thinking, i spooked him, it worked . I hoped. I wasnt quite sure. Hello. Welcome to dateline. 20yearold lindsey eckland and her mother nancy told each other everything, or so her mother believed. When the college vanished after a night out clubbing nancy thought she was at a sleepover with friends, and it wasnt the only secret lindsey was hiding. It would take years for detectives to uncover the truth buried in a pile of lies, but could they find lindsey . Here is josh mankowicz with the night lindsey disappeared. Sometimes the facts are as clear as the Southern California sky, but other times you have to know where to look to see the truth. This man has made a career of noticing what others do not. Whats his reputation . A meticulous investigator. Just pours over the volumes of evidence and finds things that other investigators did not find. The evidence whisperer . Correct. So that night i went out dancing. Does this man act guilty . Does he know more than hes saying. I mean i didnt know anything was going on, all right. I was just, where is lindsey, okay. What about this man . Can you believe the story hes telling . I was supposed to pick her up twice and she was so out of character, she didnt show up on either day. The evidence whisperer wasnt present at either of those interviews, but watching them helped him solve the mystery of what happened to a vivacious young woman and bring answers to the mother who loved her. I was always proud of her. She was a real fighter. Lindsey eckland arrived on july 22nd, 1980. She was the youngest of three. Maybe that fighting spirit isnt visible in her photos, but her mother, nancy, says it was always there. Lindsey had a passion for animals. She helped out in her spare time at a local shelter. Kim davidson, who worked at lindseys middle school, remembers Young Lindsey also had a sense of compassion. It was freezing cold and i didnt bring a jacket that day and i felt these little hands up on my shoulder, and a sweater come up around me. I turned around and it was lindsey and she said, i just cant stand sitting here watching your shiver. And lindsey gave back in other ways. Her mother said lindsey would lie about her age so she could give blood. Remarkable in itself because lindsey struggled with her own disabilities. Her left arm was paralysed, her left leg impaired. Did she ever talk about how she became disabled . She brought it up to me and said she was in a car accident and she was thrown when she was a little girl, but very, very, just like matter of fact. But growing up lindsey needed so much care. Her mother nancy was with lindsey like her shadow. She was my only purpose, in my life was to make her as normal as she could be. By the time kim met lindsey, lindseys dad and brothers had moved away. Kim remembers a very tight family unit of just two. How close were lindsey and nancy . Unbelievably, extremely. But as lindsey reached adolescence that started changing. Like a lot of teens, she wanted her own identity. She changed the spelling of her name from this to this. By high school there were girlfriends, even some boyfriends. By the time she was 20, after so many years of mom and daughter being each others best friends and confidantes, lindsay began to keep some things in her life to herself, like where she was really headed one night in february 2001. Does it make any sense she would like to you about what she was going to do that night . I have never known her to lie to me, but you dont know what you dont know. Narrator it was a friday night. Lindsay was in college part time and working but still living at home. She told her mom that instead of their usual friday night dinner she was staying the night with a girlfriend named andrea, someone nancy had never met. And then a young man named chris came to the door to pick lindsay up. She introduces you to this guy, chris . Did chris say hello to you . Uhhuh. Narrator was he polite, have good manners . Uhhuh. Narrator but nancy said something felt wrong. I had a feeling about him. What feeling . I dont know. But you put it aside . Uhhuh. Narrator of course, nancy was used to things feeling wrong. She spent so many years worrying about lindsay, it was a struggle to let go, but she did. The last thing i said to her was, remember your seatbelt. She looks over her seatbelt and says, back at you, mom, love you. Thats the last thing she said to me. Narrator nancy locked up the house and went to bed. The next day lindsay was supposed to call after she was done tutoring two girls from the neighborhood. But when the call never came, nancy drove over and found out lindsay never showed up at her job. All of a sudden my daughter is not where she is supposed to be. She taught these little girls like for four months about. And you have no way of reaching her . I had no way. Narrator nancy eckland was frantic. I started calling hospitals. I called the morgue, thats how desperate i was, to see if there was a jane doe in the morgue. Narrator there was no jane doe and no nancy eckland. Most people that disappear, they come back within a couple of days. If not 24 hours, yes. Is that what you thought would happen. I think we did. She was a detective with the police department. We had no unidentified bodies. You checked the er . We checked everything. We checked everybody, everything. There was no sign. It was as if she vanished. Come ing up whens the last time you saw lindsay . A week ago. When dateline continues. When dateline continues and get up to 20 better coverage day or night because better coverage means better protection always. And i start to pray till the tears run down from my eyes lord somebody, ooh somebody can anybody find me somebody to love . Alexa, play queen on amazon music. [music playing] before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, marie could only imagine enjoying freshly squeezed orange juice. Now no fruit is forbidden. Nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for allday, allnight protection. Can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn . But its not really something yoyou want to buy. N. Its not sexy. Oh delicious. Or delicious. Or fun. But since you need both car and home insurance, why not bundle them with esurance and save up to 10 . Which you can spend on things you really want to buy, like ah well i dont know what youd wanna buy cause im just a guy on your tv. Esurance. Its surprisingly painless. Here, hello starts with hi mple. How can i help . A data plan for everyone. Everyone . Everyone. Lets send to everyone [ camera clicking ] wifi up there . Ahhh. Sure, why not . Howd he get out . a camera might figure it out. That was easy glad i could help. At xfinity, were here to make life simple. Easy. Awesome. So come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. Narrator her daughter was missing. Nancy ekelund began handing out flyers and counting the days without lindsay, ticking them off on little postit notes. She went to talk with the detective of the plascencia police department. Nancy wanted carinne to know about her lindsay, how nancy always knew where she was, how they were best friends. It was a speech she had heard before. It is typical with a lot of parents or family members when they report a missing person, sometimes they give you the idea that it is an idyllic family life because i think theres a fear if they dont paint a rosie picture of the person we wont be sympathetic and look for them. Youre not going to work hard . Were not going to work hard and i think it was a bit of that with nancy. Narrator they were working the case. They brought in the usual suspects like the boyfriend. When you guys were dating, she wasnt dating anyone else to your knowledge . No. Narrator his name was matthew ramirez. They were on and off for a bit. When i went to her house thursday, she was like i want to break off. What was off was soon back on. Lindsay and matt were back together in time for the weekend, but not in time to make plans for that friday night. Im going to san diego with chris and everybody. You know, im like, have fun, be careful. She is like, okay. Narrator then in came the last person known to have seen her, chris mcamos, 21 years old, out of school. He told the cops he was unemployed. Lindsay had met him through friends about four months prior, and it turned out he never drove lindsay to andreas house for a sleepover. Chris said it was a lie lindsay made up for her mother. The real plan was to go clubbing all night in san diego. She said, dont tell my mom were going to san diego because my mom wont let me go and definitely dont tell her were going clubbing. Narrator chris told police when the clubbing went bust, they headed home earlier than expected. Chris said it was after 4 00 a. M. When he finally got back here to lindsays neighborhood and he said lindsay was worried her mom might hear his truck pull up at that hour. So chris said lindsay asked to be dropped off not at her house but here at the corner 50 yards away. That sounded strange from police until they heard from lindsays friends that at other times she asked to be dropped off right here. Chris said he then drove home and police even found a photo from a bank atm of what looked like chriss truck heading north on the right street at the right time. To the cops chriss story added up. And that was when police learned matthew and chris were not the only men in lindsays life. There was someone else whom both matthew and chris had mentioned to investigators, an older man who drove lindsay around. No one knew his name. They had heard lindsay refer to him as her friend. All anybody knows about him, knows him by. As her friend . Yeah. Nancy had no idea lindsay was friends with any older man. She was about to find out. Two days after lindsay vanishes you get a phone call . Yes. Youre pretty much at your wits end at this point . Yes. The phone rings and it is a guy named matty. Did you know a marty . No. He said he had gone to pick up lindsay at school and she wasnt there. He said he had money of lindsays she needed for tuition. None of that made sense to nancy. After lindsay goes missing, her mother gets a phone call from marty. Marty rossler. What does he say to her . He says he has befriend lindsays, hes a friend of lindsays and hes concerned because he hadnt heard from her. What had you heard about marty rossler . S watt not marty rossler. He had a relationship with lindsay he didnt tell his wife about. He told police he would pick lindsay up and give her rides but that was about it. Marty was 58. And she was 20 . And she was 20. And they were boyfriend and girlfriend . Dont think so. So Police Brought in marty. Over two days they recorded those interviews, at times on video and sometimes just on audio tape. Whens the last time you saw lindsay . A week ago. No. No, i dont think so. Absolutely. No, absolutely not. Marty said that he had last seen lindsay the day that she went to san diego on that friday. Did you believe him . We really didnt believe him. They didnt believe him because of a tip they had received. A clerk at a local Clothing Store had called to say she had seen lindsay and a much older man who matched martys description together at her store after the day lindsay went missing. I flat wasnt there on that day, okay. I have been in that store, all right, and i said im im like you. Im easily, you know, identified. Okay. I mean probably every place i been with her would know that i was in there with her, okay. It was a very long, very long interview. Friendly . No, no. I remember drilling down on him because i really thought that he might know where lindsay was. Youre a parent . Yes. Okay. How many kids do you have . Two. If you had a child gone for eight days, okay, vanished, vaporized in thin air, would your heart not be broken . Oh, absolutely. Do you not feel some compassion for nancy . Unbelievable. I think this is a nice girl and, you know, this family has had their share of hardships, and this is just you know, i mean i feel so, you know, helpless. I dont think you are helpless. I think you can help us. Marty insisted he couldnt, that he didnt know what had happened to lindsay. Detectives werent buying. Have you no, no. Never did either by accident . Accidents happen. I never touched her. No, never touched her. Okay. This girl is have you put her someplace where shes left . No, no. Police searched martys home and found nothing. No proof that marty had anything to do with lindsays dis disappearance. So they moved on to a suspect, someone closer to lindsay than anyone else on earth. Dateline returns after the break. Dateline returns aftee break. Enterprise car sales and youll take any tradein . Rom thats right great here you go. Well, it does need to be a vehicle. But i need this out of my house. vo with fair, Transparent Value for every tradein. Enterprise makes it easy. At verizon, were building the most powerful 5g experience for america. Thats why the nfl chose verizon. Because they need the massive capacity of 5g with ultra wideband, so more screaming, streaming, posting fans. Can experience 5g all at once. This is happening in 13 stadiums all across the country. Now if verizon 5g can do this for the nfl. Imagine what it can do for you. Narrator nancy and lynsie had been together all lynsies life. Now alone, nancy waited, ticking off the days, in the dark about where her daughter was and about the pace of the investigation. Police were not keeping her in the loop. So nancy was delighted when they called to say they were coming to visit. You look at the boyfriend, matthew. Uhhuh. You look at marty, the older guy, the relationship nobody knew about. He denies it. Right. You look at chris, he says, i dropped her off, i never saw her again. Right. And you look at lynsies mother. We did look at lynsies mother. You have to. So i made my cookies and all of in kind of silly stuff that i always do. And some coffee, right . Yeah. The cops werent coming for coffee. They arrived with a search warrant, shovels and cadaver dogs. I was shocked that they even suspected me. I didnt know what even a search warrant was. The house nancy and lynsie had once shared was torn apart. How much of a suspect was nancy . I dont know that nancy was on the radar for a long time. She was on the radar long enough to be able to set her aside. Narrator after that search they did just that. They believed this anguished mother had nothing to do with the diss appearanappearance of daughter, so they took nancy off the list. They also took off the boyfriend, matthew. He had an alibi that held up, putting him somewhere else at the time that lynsie went missing. So that left just two. I havent seen her since that day. Marty, whom police didnt trust because of his secret relationship with lynsie and because he had lied about his identity, and the man who dropped lynsie off at that corner, the last person to see her before she vanished, chris mcamis. Going in here, grab a seat there at the end. Do you remember yes. April 2002, more than a year after lynsie went missing, detectives decided to start over. They brought chris mcamis back to see if his story still held up. I really would like to think that lynsie has been, like, either abducted or something has happened to her. Like what . I would really rather i would really rather think she is with friends or Something Like that. Police turned up the heat. Lets cut the bull about the impossible. Lets get down to the nittygritty and strip away the unlikely things and in my pollyanna mind that happens in a perfect world, but she would be someplace. It is a possibility shes dead. Right. Police thought chris seemed oddly calm talking about a friend who may have been murdered. If it turns out somebody killed her, what do you think should happen . Find them. Find them. Then what . They go to jail. How long should they go to jail. Long it takes. Like what . I dont know. Go to jail for a while. Thats as strong as you could get out of him . Thats as strong as we could get out of him. Not he ought to go to hell or i would personally electro cute him. I would personally electrocute him, she was my friend, she didnt deserve that, she wouldnt hurt a fly. There was nothing. Narrator his lack of emotion was suggestive that perhaps chris should move to the top of the list, but it was not evidence. After the interview chris mcamis was free to leave and detectives werent any closer to learning what happened to Lynsie Ekelund, and neither was nancy, who remained convinced her daughter would one day just come home. You thought one day she would walk back through the door . Yes. Narrator she believed it because she wanted to, and because over the years several people had told her they had seen lynsie. They never saw the front of her face. They always saw the back of her, and i held on to every word they said. Narrator it was torture for nancy, no matter what version of veen version of events you believed and police still werent telling her anything. Nancy during all of this time feels like she has been sort of cut out of the loop . Yes. Nancy was pretty angry. We worked this case diligently for a long time. At some point you hit the wall. Narrator at the time there were nine detectives in plascencia working everything, drugs, gangs, rapes, murder and cold cases. By 2008 it was clear plascencia pd had hit that wall. They would need help on this one, and who they needed was a guy named larry. Tell me about larry. Larry is larry is phenomenal. Phenomenal because what, he sees things other cops dont see . Phenomenal because he sees things cops dont see. I dont know anybody who could have done a better job than larry. Narrator the evidence whisperer was about to listen to what the facts of this case were really saying. Was there something that police had missed . You bet. Coming up that picture of the truck spotted on the night of the crime, something about it just doesnt seem right, but the evidence whisperer is all over it when dateline continues. It when dateline continues mm, uh, what do you do for fun . Not this. Oh, what am i into . Mostly progressives name your price tool. Helps people find Coverage Options based on their budget. Flo has it, i want it, its a whole thing, and shes right there. Yeah, shes my ride. This dates lame. He has pics of you on his phone. Theyre very tasteful. Hdowdownthere [gasp]ottonelle. Cause you booked a sitter to get a wax before your Beach Vacation with your husband, [yay ] so you use cottonelle cleaningripples™ that remove more at once for a superior clean, which feels ahhhmazingcare. 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