I think it was over seven figures. Or was it Something Else . That threw him for a loop when he found out my mom met somebody else. Police had a suspect in a case that was about to take an unbelievable turn. One of the most shocking things ive ever seen in a courtroom. Betrayal of trust. Hello, and welcome to dateline extra. Im craig melvin. Dee dee keller seemed to have it all. She was a successful realtor who had a family and a new man in her life. Then, suddenly she disappeared. To dee dees loved ones it was unthinkable that someone might want to harm her and police were left wondering, what could have happened to a woman who seem ed so adore . Southern californias south bay. A singularly stunning strand of shoreline with familiar names like hermosa, redondo and manhattan. We call it the sandbox. No one thinks that part of los angeles exists but it does. This Seaside Playground has Properties Worth millions and in these beach towns is an oasis called el segun doe. Its a great place the raise kids. In 2003, one of the rainmakers selling the Beautiful Homes was a woman named julia keller, known as dee dee. She really just embraced everyone that came into her path. Dee dees best friends, mortgage executive cindy earthman and linda dondero. I loved working with dee dee. She was so easy to like and always wanted to best of everything and her clients wither very loyal over the years. Dee dee was loyal, too, not only to her clients but as a divorced mom, to her children mike and julie. I remember my mom exxoning to me when i was about ten years old that as you get older, were probably not going to be as close or you wont like me quite as much, and it never happened. If anything, we just got closer. But dee dee keller had a heart problem. Not literally. It may have been a little too big. She loved without limits and simply hated to disappoint or let anyone down. She loved dogs so much she literally couldnt say no to another one. She was surrounded by them at home. I always joked that when i graduated college thats when she replaced us with dogs. She never stopped being a mom. And she never stopped loving everybody, i guess. Never did. She was ready to be embraced and to embrace you whenever you wanted it. But there was one area of her life in which dee dee kellers honesty and embrace hadnt caught hold. Your mom was so lucky and life was so easy in many ways, yet she wouldnt quite make the man many her life thing come out. She had a wonderful life, but no, i guess she hadnt found that person. She did have a longterm relationship, but that ended sadly in 1997. Soon after, she met someone new. He was a real estate clientd na named erwin howard. He was a pilot. I remember dee dee telling me she wasnt going to be with anyone unless she felt loved treasured and adored. She felt that with ewwin. Dee dee said yes. At her bridle shower, erwin dutifully delivered her. The smiles didnt last when the marriage began. It wasnt six months after they were married she blurted out that she married him on the rebound. And was having second thoughts . Apparently so. It was hard for her to think about ening it because of what it would do to him because he loved her. So much in fact that the marriage lasted another four years after that conversation. Ultimately their divorce was amicable, and a year after the split in the summer of 2004, dee dee seemed to be finding her footing once again. She had begun baiting a well known south bay car salesman named bobby low. That was going so well that on the evening he took dee dee out to this restaurant to meet his father. I talked to her before the date. Any sign she was nervous about anything . She was in a happy state when i talked to her and we made plans to hopefully get together the following night so i could get the update on the date. But that conversation never took place. I called her on friday, and she didnt call me back, which was not unusual for dee dee. I called her on saturday, and she didnt call me back. This was pretty typical, but by sunday i started getting concerned. Concerned, too, was daughter julie. She talked of meeting her mom that same friday during a layover at l. A. X. As julie headed to mexico. She was like, i might have an appointment, but if i dont, ill text you. Well have coffee. We stayed over in los angeles. I didnt get a text, which was odd, but didnt think much of it. Dee dees son mike was beginning to worry after he returned from a trip to the San Francisco trip. When i called her cell phone her voicemail was full. That never happened with my mom. She prided herself on being responsive. So you go over to your moms house. I went in the back gate, and then instantly it was clear that she had not been there for a while. What made that clear . The dogs water dish was bone dry. My mom would die of thirst before her dogs went without water. Mikes first call was to cin cindy. And he said, cindy, wheres my mom . And i just i instantly knew in that moment that something had happened. I just knew. I said, michael, call the police, im on my way. Where was dee dee keller . Not only was there no water left outside for dee dees beloved dogs, but detectives noticed lots of other things wrong inside the house. Her purse was there, but her wallet was missing and, this was a woman with money, a lot of it. Was dee dees hefty bank account a factor in her disappearance . Investigators follow the money trail. Coming up who got that money in the event of her death . The den ben feficiaries were her two children. Detectives wondered where were they . Re were they . Im a performer. Always have been. And always will be. Never letting anything get in my way. Not the doubts, distractions, or voice in my head. And certainly not arthritis. 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Welcome back. What happened to deedee keller . She toll her friend cindy she was going out with her new boyfriend and no one had heard from her since. Her children were worried and an investigation was about to be launched. Here again is josh mank wits. On a sun splashed sunday on l. A. s south bay, clouds were rolling in over one household. It was july 2004. El segundo Real Estate Agent known to the world as deedee keller was missing. Her son mike had gone to her home when she was missing for three days. The biggest red flag, her dog left without food or water. What did you think happened . I didnt know at that point. I just knew something was very, very wrong. Mike called his moms best friends. Cindy who had last spoke ton deedee three days before as she prepared for a date rushed to the house. You could tell the dogs had been running around for days, but the way the tv was on and the way the shades were, i felt like thursday night had never ended. I felt like friday morning never came. Cindy immediately called her new boyfriend, bobby low. He reported they had dinner thursday and returned to her house for a night cap. He said she had too much wine, laid down on the couch and started to fall asleep, so he said good night and let himself out. Anything bobby low said sound suspicious to you . Not at all. The next call, to el segundo police, and soon on the scene, sergeant what detectives found in their initial search of deedees home deepened the mystery. In her kitchen, deedees purse, her cell phone still inside, but no wallet. A vodka Battle Police learned was usually kept in the freezer was on the counter. And in the living room, the tv was on cnn. We discovered whenever she left the house, he always put the tv on to a Classical Music station so it would relax the dogs, but it was on cnn when we came into the house. So deedee was watching cnn, had the dogs there, was having a drink, and then left for some reason. Suggesting that, kind of, what, whatever happened happened in a big hurry . She didnt have time to do her routine she usually does before she leaves. And it appears deedee left in her car. The garage was empty. Her silver 1999 mercedes gone bum strangely, police found the car keys sitting on deedees patio. We decided to call the l. A. County Sheriffs DepartmentHomicide Bureau to come assist us. Jimmy gates was the detective who answered that call. There was no forced entry whatsoever, and when we started walking through the house, i noticed several articles that were very valuable. So she let in whoever it was and it wasnt robbery. Absolutely correct. If she didnt let him in, that person let themselves in and they may have had a key. Gates wonders, had dee dee left in her car with someone she knew . And how did her car get taken without its key. If you dont have a key is it as easy to steal a car as movies depict . Certainly not a 1999 mercedes. Its hard to hot wire. Hard to steal it. You almost need a key to ax it. If your car doesnt have a key, the next stop is the car dealership to have one made. But first, gates and crew scoured the house looking for the spare key, without luck. Gates thought one thing. You thought finding deedees car was going to be the key to this. That was extremely important. Deedees friends and family printed up posters. An army of people banded together to help find her. He broke up into teams and mapped everything out to start to search every parking lot looking for her car. We would ask people, have you seen this woman . Have you seen this car . It was frantic. It was heartbreaking. And it was leading nowhere. At the same time, detective gates wonders who might have had a motive to abduct deedee from her home, the most common, love, jealousy, are the ones police hug first like old friends. Deedee made a lot of money as a realtor. She was successful. How much money did she have in the bank . I think it was over seven figures. A lot of murders committed for less than that. Yes, sir. Who got that money . The beneficiaries were her children. And detectives notice something about the whereabouts of her two children at the time of dee dees disappearance. They were both out of town at the time of their mothers disappearance. Why was that significant . Wont the reverse be true . I just thought, mike is in l. A. And julies in a resort, and People Stress some people leave the area just to dissipate stress. There was, strangely, one more person who just happened to be traveling near the time of deedees disappearance, her ex husband erwin howard had just flown to his home country of bolivia, and erwin was a mechanic who worked for American Airlines in l. A. The Common Thread in all these trips . Nearby l. A. X. Airport. And so the detective thought, what better place to dump a car . L. A. X. Is a big place. Very big place. A lot of parking lots. A lot of parking lots and it took a few days. You looked through them all. Every one of them. No mercedes, and no shortage of persons of interest. A lot of people close to deedee keller were about to be hugged like old friends. Coming up dee dees daughter, julie rushes back from vacation to help find her missing mother. It was the most surreal experience. When betrayal of trust continues. When betrayal of tru continues. Ng, aetna never did. Deed deedee. This selenite grey is so pretty isnt it . Wow. Jim could you pop the hood for us . There she is. Turbocharged, right . Yes it is. Jim, could you uh kick the tires . Oh yes. Can you change the color inside the car . Oh sure. How about blue . Thats more cyan but. Jump in the back seat, jim. Act like my kids. How much longer . Exactly how they sound. Its got massaging seats too, right . Oh yeahhhhh. Oh yeahhhhh. Visit the mercedesbenz summer event or shop online at participating dealers. Get 0 apr financing up to 36 months on select new and certified preowned models. 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Searching high and low for a motive, detective gates could think of a million reasons, all sitting in her bank account. It was time to turn up the heat on deedes beneficiaries, her children. Once again, heres josh. In the days of the disappearance of deede keller all of el segundo seemed to be looking for her, leading the search, her best friends cindy and linda. A lot of times people disappearing you get the immediate family working on it and everybody else is like, well not in this town. She had an army. Deedes daughter julie rushed back to l. A. From a trip to mexico. It was the most surreal experience. Only to be greeted by suspicious. L. A. Sheriffs detective jimmy gates discovered in the event of their mothers death, julie and her brother mike stood to inherit more than 1 million. He confronted deedes kids using one of the oldest tricks in the investigators handbook. Do you remember an interview you did with jimmy gates in which he asked you basic questions like, whats your name . Where do you live . Pretty ordinary stuff, and then he says, do you have anything to do with your moms disappearance . I think it was more, did you kill your mother . And youre what, startled or angry . It was a horrible question, but i can understand why it needs to be ask. Detectives asked similar questions of julie. Next, in attempting to rule out as suspects those closest to deede, detectives turned their attention to her ex husband erwin howard. It turned out although they had been divorced for more than a year, friends told police she had invited him back into her life. Deede had been in a car accident and needed help for her dogs. Deede also felt bad about the pain their divorce caused erwin. She called erwin to help her, because thats what he did best. He helped nurse her back to health and help take care of the dogs and the house and her. In taking a hard look at erwin howard, the detective found he had a rock solid alibi. On the night of deedes disappearance, july 8th, erwin clocked in for his job at the American Airlines hangar at 8 30 p. M. He said he worked all night, but it wasnt just erwins word. He had to use an electronic key card to get into the hangar. That left the last person to admit to seeing deede alive, her new boyfriend, car salesman, bobby low. Low said he left deedes house midnight and then had gone to the gym the next morning. What possible motive would bobby low have to want deede out of the picture . There was no motive i could determine whatsoever. Low provided investigators with two important clues. First he said while he was at deedes that night, her dogs had all started barking at something outside, as if someone were lurking and the next morning he discovered someone keyed the side of his ford explorer, leaving a long scratch. Which suggests what, someones following them on that date . Absolutely. Thats what it meant to me. But who was following deede and bobby . Who was that angry. That act of vandalism pointed away from bobby low. I was an investigator for several years. Ive never known anybody to vandalize their own car. That kind of thinking is what would make it a perfect alibi. Sure, sure. If hes sophisticated enough, but his background indicated that he was a well liked guy, kind of successful himself, and didnt have a lot of enemies. And then, even as investigators looked at suspects, came the news that all who knew deede had at once hoped for and feared. Deedes car had been found. Not at l. A. X. , not in l. A. , but two and a half hours down interstate five in san diego. That silver mercedes had been parked on this street for days, earning it several parking tickets. When they ran the plate it came up linked to a missing person, and when the trunk was finally open there was a body wrap in the sheets covered by a blanket, which itself was decorate with dog paws. Deede keller with us as no long missing. Police asked to meet with deedes family. There was a wide range of emotions. There was some type of relief that they found her, because we were starting to think at that point, how long could this go on . Worst days of my life. And all of her friends and family. Deede keller was dead at age she had been asphyxiated and the clues that were and were not left in her car were about to take this case back in a familiar direction. Coming up just days before she was murdered, dee dae had a visit from a stalker. She said she was in the shower, he kind of pulled her out of the shower and theyd this huge altercation. He was calling her every name under the sun. When betrayal of trust continues. Mly and it continuously eliminates odors in the