Closed doors . She laughed and said, no, theres no affair. Someone was keeping secrets, and even police couldnt wrap their heads around this one until they found it, a trail of texts. We were like, holy smokes, its right there. It sure was. Every stunning detail. Snapple iced tea seemed the perfect tool to put the poison inside. Was this a loving spouse or a lethal one . Police were in for a killer surprise. I feel like the gates of hell are opening. I dont know what they were thinking. Hello. And welcome to dateline. Kevin and Morgan Mengel had their share of ups and downs, but through it all they seemed to make it work. Then one of them disappeared. It would take a familys relentless pursuit of the truth to jump start the investigation, but soon a stunning confrontation in a parking lot would put police on the trail of a killer and reveal a diabolical recipe for murder. Heres hoda kotb with toxic. How much do we reveal to the ones we love . Do we keep our betrayals hidden behind closed doors or do we hide in plain sight, masking our deeds with words . The text message says, im fine, just clearing my head. That was kevin mengel for a time, clearing his head he told his family and friends. Facebook status, wants to be left alone. Maybe he just had enough and needed a vacation for himself. But there was a trail of electronic messages that seemed to tell another story, a far more sinister one. We were floored. It was all there for us to read. You cant make this stuff up. Which was fact and which was fiction . These Text Messages dont even seem real. Like they dont, they just dont seem real. Long before kevin mengel had a cellphone or a Facebook Page he was a High School Guy in suburban philadelphia with a cute little sister to worry about. Kevin was the stereotypical older brother. He would follow me around and tell all of his friend they werent allowed to talk to me and things like that. Reporter was he being protective . Very protective. Reporter for as long as michelle can remember, kevin mengel was a family man, a big brother who felt he needed to look after his younger siblings after their parents divorced. Kevin had a terrible time with it. Right. And just always told us that he would never get a divorce, he would never get a divorce. Reporter instead, kevin grew up in search of perfect romance. Kevin always had girlfriends. But he was always sort of a monogamous guy, when he was with one girlfriend he was with a girl. Yes. And kevin was very committed to making sure that he stayed in a relationship and he gave it his all. Reporter kevin was 20 when he met the one, his forever girl, morgan from a few towns away where she graduated from an exclusive catholic girls school. Morgan was very, very charming. I mean she was very sweet and very attentive to me. Always came over to the house just to hang out with me. Reporter outgoing and charismatic, morgan made an effort to win over kevins friend as well, like mike and noelle. Very nice. Very upbeat. Very friendly. Always smiling. Reporter and kevin . Well, he fell hard for morgans charm. He just he loved her. He was head over heels for her. Reporter so kevin was about to get what he had always wanted a wife and kids, but just not in that order. Morgan gave birth to their first child a few months before they got married. Still, theirs was no shotgun wedding. The young couple celebrated in traditional style. Kevin was on top of the world. It was the perfect picture, wasnt it . It was the perfect picture. Reporter kevin loved being a dad and he and morgan had two more children, but his relationship with his own father was rocky, had been since his parents divorce. Were both stubborn and were both pigheaded. Sew didnt call me and i didnt call him and it got into a little bit of a battle. Years went by . Years went by. By june 2010 kevin and his dad had patched things up, grown closer than ever. They made plans for the whole family to celebrate fathers day together. He was so excited. He said to me, dad, i cant wait to come out for fathers day, and i said, i cant wait to have you. I said, i love you and this is so wonderful. He just seemed to be at peace that i had never seen him at. Then it was the morning of the fathers day party when it happened. Sister michelle called their mom to check in. She didnt sound right. I said, are you okay . She said, kevin left and she just started crying hysterically. Kevin left, kevin left. I said, mom, somethings not right here. He left the three kids, he left morgan, i dont know where he went, he wont pick up his phone, he just sent me a text message. Kevin, the tilldouspart romantic, leave his wife and kids . Perhaps morgan put it best when she typed out their fathers day regrets to kevin sr. We received a text message from morgan saying, due to unforeseen circumstances we will not be able to be there today. Happy fathers day. Unforeseen circumstances . What exactly did that mean . We all knew how excited he was before fathers day. It would be the one day kevin would not miss ever, no matter what happened. No matter what happened. Where had kevin mengel gone . Coming up, maybe there was a reason for kevin to hit the road. I thought morgan was having another affair. When dateline continues. Po because psoriasis isnt just a skin condition. Those itchy, flakey red patches you see on the outside, could be a sign of inflammation on the inside. Talk to your dermatologist about the impact of untreated psoriasis. And how they can see you safely to help get your symptoms under control. Schedule an appointment with your dermatologist today. Werethat are very acidic. Foods and beverages it can soften the enamel. 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When kevin mengel was a noshow for the family barbecue on fathers day, his sister michelle was disappointed and more than a little confused. He had called my husband to say how excited he was to spend fathers day that sunday with all of us. So it was supposed to be a big fathers Day Celebration . Big fathers day, and he couldnt have been more excited. Kevins younger brother chris also knew how much he was looking forward to being with his family. After all, kevin had just reconciled with their dad after many rocky years. I thought, man, this is odd. Why would he do this now . It doesnt make any sense. The story morgan, the wife, told was that kevin had taken off, told her that the marriage was over. In fact, by fathers day he had already been gone for two days. Kevins fine, hes clearing his head. What do you mean, kevins fine . He just had to leave, hes get away and clear his head. He needed space . He needed space. I can see him saying i just need to get away, so that part of me said okay, he just did that, hes going to come back in today or tomorrow, whatever. We just have to be patient and wait . We just have to be patient. Patient, because those close to kevin and morgan had seen the couples ups and downs before. Their breakups, in fact, were almost an annual event. It was like clockwork. Every august around their anniversary we would expect the phone call that morgan picked up and left, and kevin would call us crying hysterically. He would just be completely distraught. He said, i love her. I cant help it, i love her. And soon morgan would return, kevins world would right itself and they would be as good as newlyweds for a while. She could act like nothing ever happened, and acting all loveydovey, sitting down on his lap. But now what was weird about this separation was that kevin had taken off, not the other way around. She always took the kids and she always left. Kevin never once walked out on her. His family worried this must have been the fight to and all fights, and it wasnt like kevin not to call his family for support. The only person he reached out to was his mom. A few days after he disappeared he sent her a cryptic text message that seemed to alarm her more than put her at ease. And so kevins mom did something that seemed a little drastic. She called the west Goshen Police to report him missing. We thought maybe she was overreacting to kevin leaving. David maurer was a detective on the case. There was no reason to believe that anything had happened to kevin. She was receiving Text Messages from kevins phone. Their feelings were that if somebody is communicating with him, then hes not missing. Kevins dad agreed. I was a little concerned that she may end up with a little bit of egg on her face because he was going to show up and right, she had called the cops. Yeah. Okay. And not long after the initial missing person report was filed with the police department, an officer called the family back to say kevin had been spotted not far from his home. One of the officers stopped at a Check Cashing place right up the street from where morgan and kevin live, and the owner of the Check Cashing place was very familiar with kevin and he saw him across the street, so that leant some credibility that kevin was in the area. He was close to home, sending texts to his wife and mother, just refusing to see or speak to his family, and he did finally respond via text to his father. What did you get back . Doing okay, just need time away. And kevins sister received this message. He says, im fine, worry about morgan, shes the one you should be worried about. But morgan it appeared was doing just fine. The couple owned a landscaping business and monday morning morgan showed up to meet the crews and told them she was now in charge. Employee al recalls she had the garage looking spotless. Theres always oil drips on the ground. This day you could have ate off this floor. But this was new too as al went about his monday landscaping jobs. He noticed morgan, the bosss wife, flirting with a 21yearold employee named Steve Shappell. Morgan looks at me and says, steve knows what color underwear i have on. And steves like, yeah, pink with black stripes. Right off the bat. And when al had a question about an assignment i would call morgan and steve is there. Steve is answering her phone. Why was this kid who mowed lawns and was barely old enough to buy a beer suddenly acting like the new man in charge . Kevins sister, michelle, remembered him as a quiet, unassuming young guy who had done some work on her yard weeks earlier. This kid steve could not have been more polite to us. So what would kevin think now of his employee spending the workday at the pool with his wife and kids as michelle observed when she took a drive by . I drove by her development and she was sitting out at the pool with steve and the kids. Okay. You see steve sitting with her and youre thinking what . I thought morgan was having another affair. It was no secret among those who knew the couple that morgan had strayed before. Could kevin have suspected morgan was at it again and was that the final straw that drove him out . No way to know. He still was not taking calls. And then five days after he disappeared kevin finally had something to say to everyone who knew him in the most public way possible. He posted an update on facebook. Status, wants to be left alone. He wants to be left alone. Some of his friends backed off then. You know, his friends also were looking for kevin. After the facebook thing came up they were like, it must be another morgan and kevin fight. Maybe he had a nervous breakdown or maybe he just had enough and needed a vacation for himself. But to kevins immediate family this facebook update was far from reassuring. To them it was an ominous red flag. Every other update that kevin had put on there had come from his cell phone because it shows the little cell phone, and this one came from a computer. Which seems so odd. The family knew kevin did everything on his cell. Whats more, the wording in his Text Messages hed been sending just didnt sound like kevin. For example, michelle wondered when did he start calling her sis . In the pit of my stomach i just felt something bad had happened to kevin. And if the cops would not investigate, the family decided it was time to do some detective work themselves. Im afraid his wife and the new boyfriend are making a move right now to leave. Theyre leaving. Coming up what would it take to alert the police . Things just arent adding up. I said, would you mind coming back to the Police Station . I do have a couple more questions for you. When dateline continues. Start with all the moms in the world. Narrow it down to all the. Karate moms. With a sudden, desperate need for brown sugar. Meaning, you. Youre the one we made mywalgreens for. With pickup in as little as 30 minutes. To make saving, shopping. And holiday chaos a little easier. Wait are those ninjabread men . Hiya introducing mywalgreens. Join for 30minute pickup at walgreens. Com robinwithout the commission fees. So, you can start investing today wherever you are even hanging with your dog. So, what are you waiting for . Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. It was a thursday afternoon, summer 2010, and a violent summer rainstorm had barrelled through the towns ringing the outskirts of philadelphia bringing down trees and power lines. Almost a week had gone by since kevin mengel left his wife and kids. People gathered at my moms house. Everybody just sat there waiting. Kevins parents and siblings had not spoken with him, heard his voice, that is. The only communication he was making was on facebook and through Text Messages. I think i may have said in there, call me or one of the family members, and he said, i am speaking to a family member. Im speaking to my wife and that should be enough for everybody. But it was not enough because now a bizarre and horrifying thought had begun to take root and grow. The mengel family suspected that all of those messages were not coming from kevin at all. I left another message for him saying, can you just tell me the name of the street that we grew up on . Just tell me that and ill leave you alone. The police initially didnt even consider kevin a missing person, but now the family begged them to take another look. We went back to the police again and pleaded. We tried to think of anything. The kids are home alone, shes not there, you know, anything we could do to get them to go over there. Detective maurer agreed to stop by the apartment and talk to morgan. And she seemed genuine, like she wanted to help me. Morgan invited the detective in and told him the same story, kevin had walked out on her and the kids and she had proof, Text Messages in her own phone from kevin breaking it off. Shed received a message from kevin that he was leaving and she showed me these text message exchanges. Something to the effect of, are you kidding me . And he said, no, im done, i cant do this anymore. The detective also spoke with Steve Shappell, kevins Young Employee who had been hanging around the apartment complex with morgan and the kids. He just seemed like a kid, a young kid. He was 21 years old. And morgan scoffed at the idea that they were anything more than friends. She laughed and said, no, im a married mother of three, im 34 and hes 21. Thats absurd. Theres no affair. Absurd is precisely what friends mike and noelle would have said had they heard that. They knew firsthand that morgan had a long history of cheating, sometimes even with kevins closest friends. She would tell me how they would have sex in her and kevins bed when he would go out, how they would have sex in the cars, you know, the business cars. I said to myself, you know, shes not right. Theres something wrong with her. And kevins family . By now they were sure morgan and the young landscaper were up to something. Michelle confronted morgan directly. I said, im not okay with this, like he just disappeared. Like i dont believe you, like i dont. Adding to their worry, they say morgan had not let them see the three kids since kevin disappeared and they worried she might leave town. They asked the detective if he would do surveillance on the apartment, but he said no. I said based on the fact that we had a witness that saw him, the fact that i now know that morgan and kevin have a troubled relationship, i thought that maybe kevin really was just fed up and had enough of morgan and left. So the mengel family took the investigation into their own hands. Brother chris decided to stake out the apartment overnight. He brought a video camera with him. Okay. Whats that . Early friday morning he filmed Steve Shappell coming and going as if he now lived there, taking kevins place. And what was strange, it looked as though steve was packing up morgans truck. Theyre coming back. Okay, yeah. Theyre getting in the truck. To chris it sure looked like morgan and steve were getting ready for something. He has a bunch of crap with him. Morgan has a bunch of stuff too. He frantically called police, looking for detective maurer. Im afraid his wife and the new boyfriend are making a move now to leave. Theyre leaving. Theyre leaving. O