Enter this guy. He sees things other cops dont see . Phenomenal. They call him the evidence nc 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, and welcome to dateline. 20yearold lynsie ecland and her mother nancy told each other everything. Or so her mother believed. When the College Student vanished after a night out clubbing, nancy thought she was at a sleepover with friends. And that wasnt the only secret lynsie was hiding. It would take years for detectives to uncover the truth buried in a pile of lies. But could they find lynsie . Heres josh mankowicz with the night lynsie 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. U this man has made a career of noticing what others do not. Whats his reputation . Meticulous investigator. Just pores over the volumes of evidence and finds things that other investigators did not find. Fi the evidence whisperer . Correct. That night i went out does this man act guilty . Does he know more than hes saying . M well, i didnt know anything was going on, all right . I was just like, wheres lynsie . 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 it 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. Mo i was always proud of her. She was a real fighter. Lynsie ekelund arrived on july 22nd, 1980. She was the youngest of three. Maybe that fighting spirit isnt visible in her photos, but her mother nancy said it was always there. Lynsie had a passion for animals. She helped out in her spare times at a local shelter. Kim davidson, who worked at lynsies middle school, remembers young lynsie also had a sense of compassion. I was freezing cold and i didnt bring a jacket that day. B i felt these little hands up on my shoulder and a sweater come up around me and i turned around and it was lynsie and she said i just cant stand sitting here seeing you shiver. G lynsie gave back in other ways. U her mother said lynsie would lie about w her age so she could giu blood. Remarkable because lynsie struggled with her own disabilities. Her left lung was paralyzed. Le b her left leg impaired. Mp did she ever talk about how she had become disabled . She had brought it up to me. She said she was in a car accident and thrown when she was a little girl but very, very t just like matter of fact. But growing up lynsie needed so much care, her mother nancy was with lynsie like her shadowi she was my only purpose in my life is to make her as normal as she could be. By the time kim met lynsie, lynsies dad and brothers had moved away. Kim remembers a very tight family unit of just two. How close were lynsie and e nancy . Unbelievably. Extremely. But as lynsie reached adolescence, that started changing. Like a lot of teens she wanted her own identity. Ce she changed the spelling of her name from this to this. By high school there were girlfriends, even some boyfriends, and by the time she was 20 after so many years of mom and daughter being each others best friends and confidantes, lynsie began to keep some things in her life to herself. Like where she was really headed one night in february 2001. He does it make any sense that she would lie to you about what she was going to do that night . Ive never known her to lie to me but you dont know what you dont know. It was a friday night. Lynsie was in college parttime 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. Nd and then a young man named chris came to the door to pick lynsie up. She introduces you to this guy chris. Did chris say hello to you . Uhhuh. Was he polite . Did he have good manners . Uhhuh. But nancy says something felt wrong. I had a feeling about him. What feeling . I dont know. But you put it aside . Uhhuh. Of course, nancy was used to things feeling wrong. She had spent so many years worrying about lynsie. It was a struggle to let go, but she did. The last thing i said to her was remember your seat belt, and she looks over her shoulder and she says, back at you, mom. Love you. Thats the last thing she said to me. Nancy locked up the house ans went to bed. The next day lynsie was supposed to call after she was done tutoring two girls from the tee neighborhood, but when the call never came, nancy drove over and found out lynsie never showed ur at her job. All of a sudden my daughter is not where shes supposed to be. She had taught these little girls like for four months about. And you have no way of htgi reaching her . I had no way. Nancy ekelund was frantic. I started calling hospitals. I called the morgue. Thats how desperate i was. See if there was a jane doe in the morgue. There was no jane doe. And there was no Lynsie Ekelund. Most people who disappear like that, they come back in a couple of days. If not 24 hours, yes. Is that what you thought was going to happen . I think we did. F Corrine Loomis was a detective with the police department. We had no unidentified bodies . You checked the e. R. . We checked everybody, we checked everybody, we checked everything. There was no sign. Bo it was as if she vanished. Coming up when was the last time you saw lynsie . A week ago now. When dateline continues. There are thoughts that are hard to control youre not good enough but i am enough music and i know what im made of put your skin in the game with a razor that puts your skin first venus my skin. My way. Did you know you can shorten your cold [ ] with coldeeze® lozenges. Coldeeze® can shorten your cold by 42 . It releases zinc ions that some scientists believe inhibit cold viruses from replicating. Try coldeeze® the number one bestselling zinc lozenge. People are surprising themselves the moment realize they can du more with less asthma. Thanks to dupixent, the addon treatment for specific types of moderatetosevere asthma. Dupixent isnt for sudden breathing problems. It can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as 2 weeks and help prevent severe asthma attacks. Its not a steroid but can help reduce or eliminate oral steroids. Dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions including anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection and dont change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. Du more with less asthma. Talk to your doctor today about dupixent. If your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help. If your financial situation has changed, her daughter was missing. Nancy ekelund began handing out flyers and counting the days without lynsie, ticking them off on little postit notes. She also went to talk with Corrine Loomis of the plasencia police department. Nancy wanted corrine to know about her lynsie, about how nancy always knew where she was, they were best friends. It was a speech Corrine Loomis had heard before. Its typical with family members when they report a missing person, sometimes they give you the idea that this is an idyllic family life because i think theres a fear that if they dont paint a very rosy picture of this person were not going to be sympathetic and look for them. That youre not going to work hard . That were not going to work hard. And i think there was a little bit of that with nancy. Plasencia pd was working the case. They brought in the usual suspects, like the boyfriend. When you guys were dating, she hasnt been dating anyone else to your knowledge . No. His name is matthew ramirez. He was at college with lynsie. They had been off and on a bit but then when i went to her house thursday she was like, i want to break up. As can happen with young romance, what was off was soon back on. Lynsie 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. I told her have fun, be careful. Okay . Shez like, okay. Then in came the last person nobody to have seen her, chris mcamis, 21 years old, out of school. He told the cops he was unemployed. Lynsie had met him through friends about four months prior and it turned out he never drove lynsie to andreas house for a sleepover. Chris said that was a lie lynsie made up for her mother. The real plan was to go clubbing all night in san diego. She says dont tell my mom were going to san diego because my mom wont let me go or Something Like that. And definitely dont tell her that were clubbing. Chris told police that when their night of clubbing went bust they headed home earlier than expected. He dropped off the other girls, he said, and then headed to lynsies house. Chris said it was after 4 00 a. M. When he finally got back here to lynsies neighborhood. And he said that lynsie was worried that her mom might hear his truck pull up at that hour. So chris said lynsie asked to be dropped off not at her house but here at the corner, about 50 yards away. That sounded strange to police until they heard from lynsies friends that at other times she had 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 lynsies life. There was someone else both whom matthew and chris had mentioned to investigators, an older man who drove lynsie around. No one knew his name. They had heard lynsie refer to him as her friend. All anybody knows him by. As her friend . Yeah. Nancy had no idea lynsie was friends with any older man. She was about to find out. Two days after lynsie vistey vanishes you get a phone call . Yes. Youre pretty much at your wits end . Yes. The phone rings and its marty. Yes. Did you know a marty . No. As far as you know did lynsie know a marty . No. Marty says he went to pick lynsie up from school and she wasnt there. He said he had money for lynsie that she needed for tuition. None of that made any sense to nancy. Nancy, the mother gets a phone call from a guy named marty. Marty rossler. And what does marty rossler say to her . Marty says hes befriended lynsie. Hes a friend of lynsies and hes concerned because he hadnt heard from her. What did you learn about marty rosler . Marty rosler was not marty rosler. Marty rossler was really marty preginzer. He did not have a criminal record. What he did have was a relationship with lynsie that he hadnt told his wife about. He told police he would pick lynsie up and give her rides but that was about it. Marty was 58. And she was 20 . She was 20. 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 audiotape. Whens the last time you saw lynsie . A week ago now. I dont think so. Absolutely. No. Absolutely not. Marty said that he had last seen lynsie 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 shed seen lynsie and a much older man who matched martys description together at her store after the day lynsie went missing. I flat wasnt there on that day. Okay . I have been in that store, all right . And i said im like you. Im easily, you know, identified. Okay . I mean, probably every place id been with her would know that i was in there with her. Okay . It was a very long interview. Friendly . No. No. I remember drilling down on him because i really thought that he might know where lynsie was. Youre a parent . Yes. Okay. How many kids do you have . Two. If you had a child gone for eight days, 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 familys had their share of hard you know, hardships. And this is just 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 lynsie. Detectives werent buying it. Did you harm lynsie . No. No. Never. Even by accident . Accidents happen. I never touched her. Okay . You know, 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 lynsies disappearance. So they moved on to a new suspect, someone closer to lynsie than anyone else on earth. Dateline returns after the break. 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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 this kind of silly stuff. 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. After that search they did just that. They believed this anguished mother had nothing to do with the disappearance of her 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 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. Go on in here. Have a seat there at the end. Do you remember Corrine Loomis . 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 happened to her. Id really rather id really rather think that shes with friends or Something Like that. Police turned up the heat. Cut the bull and get down to the nittygritty. And strip away the id like to think in my polyana mind if i lived any Perfect World shed be someplace. Okay . Its 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. When i find them, then what . Go to jail. How long do you think they should go to jail . As long as it takes. Like what . 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 id personally electrocute him . Id personally electrocute him. He should get the gas chamber. She was my friend. She wouldnt deserve that. She wouldnt hurt a fly. There was nothing. 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 that one day she would walk back through the door . Yes. She believed it because she wanted to and because over the years several people had told her theyd 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. It was torture for nancy no matter what version of events you believed, and police still werent telling her anything. Nancy, during all this time, feels like shes 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. At the time there were nine detectives in placentia working everything. Drugs, gangs, rape, murder and cold cases. By 2008 it was clear placentia 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 phenomenal. Ph