This is dateline. She missed a meeting, the not to hear from her, this isnt right. It would have been impossible to get up every day knowing that she was gone. I had to believe we would find her alive. Texture, she always got right back. Then one day, she didnt. Immediately my spidey senses were hot. Where was natalie . I sent her an email, all caps, are you alive . There was no sign of her in such a confusing trail of clues. Even calls to 911 were silent. No voice, no struggles can be heard. In my heart, i knew shes not coming back. One of the suspects had an alibi, until a camera caught him in a lie. It was a lot of smoke and mirrors. And, the strangest clue of all, there in an empty parking lot six perfectly stacked cardboard boxes. Why were they there . What was in them . Welcome to dateline. When Nailah Franklin vanished, her family was frantic to find her. A trail of clues led detectives to one of chicagos most exclusive neighborhoods, but with those clues lead them to nailah . Here is Kate Morrison with smoke and mirrors. It was hot in late after midnight, september 2007. It was clear, dark, still, and vacant. Here for The Deep Word woods fought back against declining suburban sprawl, then nothing was clear at all. I never cried this violent cry. You are experiencing everything but its not you. Youre just waiting to wake up. It feels like you are in a nightmare. Yes, still does. The name, you will want to remember, is nailah. This is nailahs mother, maria. She lived her name. Quite true as had the rest of them in this big family. This is leah, the firstborn. We might need a graph or chart because it is kind of involved. Full siblings, half siblings, quarter siblings once removed, that sort of thing. Very blended. That what is offensive to me because to me it implies that its something less than ive never felt that way. Ive never used that word. We are just siblings. One big close happy family. So said john, the youngest. Its simple for us because we grew up together from the time we were young so for us, its like we are one big family. Not one but two ashleys. She is ashley with the e. She is ashley with a y. Imagine this. I think this is kind of unusual, kind of rare, but everybody gets along . Yes, everybody gets along. Its a good thing. When we were kids, it was a lot more crazy to other people. In the middle of this big family was nailah. Little moot, they used to call her, because when she decided something, all arguments against were moot. She was sure of herself from really the earliest time. Yes, Nailah Franklin was going somewhere. She was like my hero. I looked up to her. She always just excepted you for what you are. It was like she would glow when she walked into her room. After college, she began a career in chicago. At 28, she owned a condo in the heart of the city. I think everything she wanted to be, she was. Fabulous was the aspiration i think she met that mark. But always she stayed in touch, never failed, call her, she would call back right away. Text her, she would reply instantly, always. She managed to honor all of her relationships. She would spend time with everyone. Friends, family. That is a pretty special skill. You, to manage that in your career. There were men. Of course there were, though she was, shall we say, discerning. The young men she dated were of a caliber that we expected of her. What sort of guys did she like . Successful, nice, respectable men. Respectable men. She took up deep briefly with a dashing investor and then in july 2007, nailah attended an Art Gallery Opening and he came. This lawyer from milwaukee, andre wright. Big beautiful smile, she was a pretty woman, very warm personality, and we just kind of walked around the space looking at different pieces, talking about my interests, what i was looking for in a piece of art. Obviously im trying to engage her. Suddenly this is a different search. Yeah, i mean the artwork became of little interest to me at that point. Just like that it was all over for both of them. You know i dont want to go Hallmark Card on you but this was clearly kind of a transcendental moment or something. Yes, absolutely. Definitely. Nailahs family loved andre. What family wouldnt . She brought him to my childs first birthday party. He brought my baby a gift. Like who does that . Because he is a nice, quality person. She liked you . I think so. You started planning on moving in together, right . On being together, and that was happening pretty fast. It felt good, though. It felt natural. It was longdistance. He in milwaukee, she in chicago. They stayed connected by phone, email, and text all day long. I would call her every morning. No one seemed to notice any dark force, any unseen thing festering in the heat of that hot, late summer. Did not feel the warning, did not know who said what to who. It was september 18th, 2007, a tuesday. That Tuesday Morning i thought i had called her on my way to work but i was interrupted. She called me and said hey, what happened to my call and i said oh, i thought i had, so we spoke for a bit, exchanged emails later, and then just one about the day. Evening came. He, in the flush of love, called again. No answer. I left her a message saying i was heading home, and got a text message back from her phone, saying she was at a dinner, and would reach out later. You had been calling her every day, talking all the time, and she said im at dinner, ill call you later . But, she didnt. Then 9 00 p. M. , one of the ashleys called nailah, nailah who always picked up the phone for a sister. I got a text message that said something along the lines that im at dinner and ill call you in a few. Did that sound like her . No, it was not like hurt not to answer the phone. Ive seen her step out of the shower to answer the phone. I sent her an email, all caps, are you alive . One of those half and just have worried things, you say. Without knowing what a good question it was. Not only was nailah increasingly hard to reach, even worse, she had not shown up for work that day. Coming up you see her eggs and coffee that she had just left there. Just like you know what, this isnt right. When dateline continues. When dateline continues. Ok, someone just did laundry. No, i add downy light so the freshness really lasts. Yeah, most scented stuff gives me a headache, but this is just right. And i dont like anything. But i like this. Get a light scent that lasts with no heavy perfumes or dyes. what can you do with sensitive skin . Cetaphil gentle Skin Cleanser does more than clean. It actually protects skin by keeping it hydrated. So youre always ready for the unexpected. Cetaphil. We do skin. You do you. Will not all Caitlin Clarks are the same. Caitlin clark, city planner. Just like not all Internet Providers are the same, dont settle. Get real deal speed, reliability and power with xfinity. She shoots from here . Thats kinda my thing. Get the real deal with xfinity internet today, and get fast speeds and a reliable connection to all your devices in the home even when everyone is online. Keith morrison september 19th, 2007 dawned in chicago like any other late summer day. Hot, humid, windy the usual. Except for one thing, Nailah Franklin ambitious, dependable, and always on her phone was suddenly radio silent september 19, 2007 donned in late chicago like any other summer day. Hot, humid, windy, the usual, except for one thing, Nailah Franklin. Ambitious, dependable, and always on her phone was suddenly radio silent, even with her new love, andre. I called that morning, emailed her, called her again early afternoon. That is when you sent her that email, are you alive . And you probably didnt mean it the way no. Big sister lehia did get a call not from nailah, but from her boss. He said she had missed a meeting. Immediately my spidey senses were high. So i tried to call her, didnt get her. She called her friends and other siblings. Had anyone heard from nailah . I said no, i havent. Ive actually been really busy and i havent talked to her. She called the chicago pd, filed a Missing Persons report then drove over to nailahs condo, knocked on the door. No answer. She got a key. She went in. You see her eggs and coffee that she just left there, just out. Somethings wrong. Is like you know what, this isnt right. But then, leah got professional. She know how. She is a Public Relations executive, and she called every Media Contact she had. You kind of went wide on this thing. Your pr info kicked in. Experience told her not to hope too much for media help for one very unfortunate reason. Quite rightly, i dont know of a lot of women of color or people of color who get the same attention by the public in general. There is that old saw in the media, there is some truth to it . Yeah, i think its not just a saw. That the goodlooking young blonde goes missing, the whole world wants to go looking for her and stay talking about her for years. No, and there is reality to that. It troubles the mind that when people of color go missing, or if it does not fit the narrative of gun violence or Gang Violence or Something Like that, then somehow it is not it is not real. No, lehia new. She was not to be denied. And maybe this was because of lehias media savvy. The next morning, nailahs picture was all over the news. Flyers with her picture a tape to traffic posted handed out to people passing by. We were in the streets and putting them up anyplace we could. Downtown, suburbs. They phoned and texted and emailed difference, but no one reported seeing nailah, no one. Nailahs sister kept replaying their last conversation. She called me and she said ive got something to tell you and before she could tell me, she got a call on the other line and she clicked over and she said she will call me back. She didnt call you. She didnt call me back. Awful what a persons mind can churn up in the dark. They won became two and then day three. I kept calling her. I just kept thinking shes going to answer. Shes going to answer. There is no handbook for this, so you wake up and think its a bad dream but no. It is still real. The case of the missing Pharmaceutical Representative landed on the desk of sergeant mia and detective Greg Jacobson who right away it scanned nailahs Phone Records and found something alarming. Just after 10 apart 10 00 p. M. , just before she vanished, her cell phone made three calls to 911. Chicago emergency. No voice, no struggles could be heard, no Background Noise with the exception of some light music in the background. I guess he can be kind of eerie to hear that. Yes it is. Is the person physically unable to complete the conversation and just able to dial 911 . Of the investigators said about talking to just about everyone nailah new. The interview was completed after she visited to try to retrace her steps. Anyone that we knew who had a relationship with her. Maybe lehias pr campaign helped because we had some anonymous tips. People say they saw her at this location. But, not a single one of them led to nailah. By now, detectives believe they were dealing with a serious crime and yet, she is missing. Her technically there has not been a crime committed. But anyone we knew who had contact with her, the boyfriend she was with the we can before she went missing, they were all interviewed. The boyfriend from wisconsin, andre, had come to chicago and was helping with the search and soon, was perhaps the subject of it. The perfect boyfriend. Now to police, perfectly obvious person of interest. Coming up, a discovery in an empty parking lot. It was in a pretty secluded area. When dateline continues. [phone vibrator] hey, whats up, mijo . Uh dad, dont freak. But i kinda messed up. My only nice shirt with barbeque wing stains. Just throw it in the wash this bottle says i need to pretreat. Thats your problem. That stuff has way more water. Tide cleans better. Ok, so i dont need to use a full cap for large loads . Nope. A little bit of tide goes a long way, so you can save money too. Nice more money for nights at the. Library. Right. [text message alert] for a better clean with less. Its got to be tide. You dont realize how the world seems so big when for a better clean with less. Youre looking for someone. Keith morrison imagine all of chicago, and nailah could be anywhere you dont realize how the world seems so big when you are looking for someone. Imagine, all of chicago, and nailah could be anywhere, tied up in some basement, in the trunk of a car or worse. Then, middle of the night 20 miles south of town in a place called calumet city, a local cop was on routine patrol checking out a golf course parking lot. His name is Calvin Lucius. So, as i got to this area right here, i noticed right in front of me, six perfectly stacked cardboard boxes, you know, shipping boxes. Sitting right on the curb, so it stood out, so looking like somethings not right here. Inside the boxes, pills. Hundreds of them. I was thinking okay, this might be Something Big as far as some type of narcotics or drug case. Except there were samples, something a Pharmaceutical Rep wouldve been handing out free to doctors. What were they . Just different medicines. I cant even pronounce the names. What were they doing here . On the label, the address to a storage locker, and a name. Nailah. Pretty soon, the fbi Chicago Police, everybody was out here looking. Including detective Greg Jacobson. It was in a pretty secluded area next to a Forest Preserve which was right adjacent to a lagoon. I watch enough dateline to know thats probably not a good sign. Was nailah down there in that murky water . They dredged the lagoon. Back and forth they went, scoured every inch of the pond in the thick woods behind it, and found one weird thing. There was some jewelry in some of the bushes. Pearls and such just hang in there. The cops checked with their friends. Looks like nailahs, they said, except nailah was not here. But remember sister lehias pr campaign . Not far away from there, next town over. A person Saw A Newscast and they were like, that car has been on my block for a couple days and thank god they saw that. Thank god they cared enough to call it in. That call came from here. Hammond, indiana just down the road three days after nailah vanished. A black chevy impala. We rushed out there to see it. It was hers. He opened that trunk. The last thing you want to think is that there is something in that trunk. Unfortunately, there wasnt. You obviously did a workup on the vehicle. Did you find any prints, anything useful . Our Evidence Technicians described it as it was wiped clean. Believing somehow she might find her sister, the younger ashley drove out there. The car was parked in front of an abandoned house and i went and banged on the door, looked through the windows, screamed her name. I didnt want to leave. I had to be taken from the area. Of course, the cops canvassed of the neighbors and what you know . They had seen a male bowling around the vehicle and then enter another vehicle and leave and that was a few days prior. Did they give you a good description . Male africanamerican, thin build. That description might offend a lot of people in nilas life like for example, her new boyfriend, andre wright. Police had questioned him right away, of course, about the relationship and where she was when she disappeared. They asked about when the last time i saw her was, when we spoke . Or, could the man mulling around the car be someone else like the previous of boyfriend, the investor . His name was Reginald Potts, but before the cops could find him, he stepped up and called them. He wanted to know why the Chicago Police wanted to talk to him. He gave us a lot of information. He met her a year earlier, he told them, by pure chance on the street on the ritzy gold coast. She was sophisticated. So is he. They dated briefly, realized it wasnt for life but a girl could do worse, what with his White Bentley and duplex overlooking the lake. He lived in a very large apartment complex, a high rise. Beautiful. In an upscale area of the city. Original told them everything he did, everything he went, very detailed. The days events, early evening shopping with friends at target. Barhopping later that with one but two girlfriends, separately, of course. Then, after that . An intimate plan with a third girlfriend. They made arrangements to meet at reginalds apartment. This guy gets around. If you have a bentley, your options are open, right . I guess so. Investigators headed off to check Reginald Potts out. Down in calumet city, officer Calvin Lucius was again cruising vacant parking lots. This time, a mile or so from where he found those boxes when a partner noticed something. We saw a pair of air beds hanging from the tree. Bright little bubbles, showed up in the dark. What else was in that abandoned place . At the edge of the midnight woods. Coming up. It is now a different type of investigation, and detectives take a closer look at a man from nailahs past. She sensed there was something off about him , and that is probably when she decided to look a little deeper. When dateline continues. 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