See . Phenomenal. They call him the evidence whisperer. Hes about to crack this case before your eyes. The answer was in the details. It was right there. And you wont believe how. You walked out of there thinking i spooked him. It worked. I wasnt sure. The night lindsey disappeared. Thanks for joining us. Im lester holt. It stumped police for years, the case of a Young College student whod gone missing. But theyd finally get their big break from a very small thing. Take a look at this photo. Theres a key clue here, a single detail spotted by an eagle eye detective. And thats what helped him turn this nineyear mystery into a slam dunk case. Watch and see exactly how he did it. Heres josh mankiewicz. Sometimes the clues are as clear as the 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 . Meticulous investigator. Just pores over the volumes of evidence and finds things that other investigators did not find. The evidence whisperer. Correct. That night i went out dancing. Does this man act guilty . Does he know more than hes saying . I didnt know anything was going on. All right . I was just, wheres 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 arrived on july 22, 1980. She was the youngest of three. Maybe that fighting spirit isnt visible if 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. Standing outside, i 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, and i turned around and it was lindsey, and she said i just cant stand watching you shiver and wrapped me up in her sweater. Lindsey would lie about her age so she could give blood. Remarkable itself because lindsey struggled with her own disabilities. Her left arm was paralyzed. Her left leg impaired. Did she ever talk about how she had become disabled . She brought it up to my and said she was in a car accident and was thrown when see was a little girl, but very, very matter of fact, not poor me or not feel sorry for me or anything like that. But growing up, lindsey needed so much care. Her mother nancy was with lindsey like her shadow. Somebody had to be with her 24 hours a day. And that was you. Yes. It was her and i alone. She was my only purpose, in my life, is 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. As she got older that changed. She wanted her own identity, changed the spelling of her name from this, to this. By high school, there were girlfriends, even some boy friends. And 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 to herself, like where she was really headed one night in february 2001. 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. 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. Was he polite, have good manners . Mmhm. But nancy says something felt wrong. I had a feeling about him. What feeling . I dont know. But you put it aside. Mmhm. Of course nancy was used to things feeling wrong. Shed 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 seat belt. And she looks over her shoulder and says back at you, mom, love you. Thats the last thing she said to me. 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 shes supposed to be. Shed taught these little girls for about four months about. And you had no way of reaching her. I had no way. Nancy was frantic. I started calling hospitals, the morgue. Thats how desperate i was to see if there was a jane doe in the morgue. There was no jane doe, and there was no lindsay. Most people who disappear like that, they come back within a couple of days. If not 24 hours, yes. Is that what you thought was going to happen . I think we did. Corrine is a detective. You had no unidentified bodies. We had no unidentified bodies. You checked the er. We checked everything. We checked everybody, everything. There was just no sign. It was just as if shed vanished. When we come back, lindsay had a secret that shed kept from just about everyone. Whens the last time you saw lindsay . A week ago now. I dont think so. When the night lindsay disappeared continues. Curing a yeast infection can take days. Relieving the itch. Can happen instantly. Vagisil max strength antiitch wipes relieve itch and odor instantly as they cleanse. So why wait to feel comfortable . Trust vagisil. The number one wipe for itch. This ones the busiest. R house, so you want it to be the cleanest. Thats why you need lysol. Because when you use bleach, some stains are left behind. As this dye reveals. Lysol toilet bowl cleaner does more. It removes the tough stains that bleach doesnt, and it also disinfects. So why just bleach . With lysol you can do more. Thats healthing. And get max cleaning and freshness with every flush. Try lysol no mess max. Her daughter was missing. Nancy ekelund began handing out fliers and counting the days without lynsie, ticking them off on little postit notes. She also went to talk with corrine of the police department. Nancy wanted corrine to know about her lynsie, 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 its an idyllic family life, that if we dont paint a sympathetic picture were not going to work hard. And i think that was a little bit of nancy. The 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. No. His name was matthew ramirez. He was at college with lynsie. Theyd been off and on a little bit. But then. She was like, i want to break up. 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. Maybe ill go to san diego. I told her, have fun, be careful, okay . She goes, okay. Then, in came the last person known 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 andree kras 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 goes, dont tell my mom that were going to san diego, because my mom wont let us go or wont let me go or something hike that. And definitely dont tell her that were clubbing. Chris told police that when their night of clubbing went bust they went home earlier than expected. He dropped off the other girls and headed to lynsies house. Chris said it was after 4 00 in the morning when he finally got to lynsies neighborhood. Lynsie was worried that her mom might hear his truck pull up at that hour, so chris says lynsie asked to be dropped off here at the corner. That sounded strange to police, until they heard from friends that she had asked to be dropped off here. Chris said i drove home and police even found a photo from a bank atm of what looked hike chriss truck heading north on the right street at the right time. To the cops, chris story added up. And that was when police learned matthew and chris were not the only men in lynsies life. There was someone else, whom both 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 about him, 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 lindsey van ishs you get a phone call. Yes. Youre pretty much at your wits end. Yes. And the phone rings and its a guy named marty. Did you know a guy named marty . No. As far as you know, did lindsey know a guy named marty . No. He said he had money of lynsies that she needed for tuition. None of that made sense to nancy. After lynsie goes missing, nancy gets a phone call from a guy named marty. Marty rossler. And what does he say to her . Marty says that hes befriended lynsie, is concerned because he hadnt heard from her. What did you hearne about marty rossler . Marty rossler was not marty rossler. Marty rossler was really marty preginser. He hadnt told his wife about the relationship. He toil police ed aoften pick lynsie up and give her rides, and that was about it. Marty was 58. And she was 20. And they were boyfriend girlfriend . Dont think so. So Police Brought in marty. Over two days they recorded those interviews. At times on video and sometimes on audiotape. Whens the last time you saw lynsie . A week ago now. No. 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 theyd 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 y day lynsie went missing. I flat wasnt there. I have been in that store. Im easily identified, okay, probably every place ive been someone 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 lynsie was. Youre a parent . Yes. How many kids do you have . Two. If you had a kid vaporized, vanished 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 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 that he couldnt, that he didnt know what had happened to lynsie. Detectives werent buying. Either by accident . Accidents happened . Never touched her. No. Never touched her. This girl is have you put her somewhere 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. Coming up. I was shocked that they even suspected me. Lynsies own mother. Were investigators ruling her out or roping her in . I dont know what 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. Mmhm. 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. We had to. So i made my cookies and all my silly stuff that i always do. Some coffee. Yeah. But the cops werent coming for coffee. They arrived with a search warrant, shovels and cadaver dogs. I didnt know what 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 and grab a seat at the end. 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 somethings happened to her. Like what . Id really rather think that shes with friends or Something Like that. Police turned up the heat. What type of, in my pollyanna mind, in a perfect world, she could be someplace. Its a possibility shes dead. Right. Police thought chris seemed oddly calm, talking about a friend who may have been murdered. Now, 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 . 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 that he ought to go to hell or id personally elect electrocute him. She was my friend, 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 was 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 onto every word they said. Her friend kim remembers how hard it was on nancy, thinking lynsie had just left her. She went through the period of being angry at her and thought maybe she is. Maybe she did leave me. And she threw some of her pictures out and clothes out. She threw lynsies stuff away . She did because she was so angry and thought how could she do that . How could she leave me . How could she leave me. 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. Like, youre not telling her anything. Maybe youre not actually working on it. Right. Whatever you are doing, youre certainly not sharing it with her. Nancy was pretty angry. We worked this case diligently for a long time. At some point you hit the wall. There are nine detectives here working everything, drugs, gangs, rapes, murder and cold cases. By 2008, it was clear the 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. The evidence whisperer was about to listen to what the facts of this case were really saying. When we come back, was there something that police had missed . You bet. That picture of the truck spotted on the night of the crime . Something about it just doesnt seem right. And the evidence whisperer is all over it. When the night lynsie disappeared continues. Ty. Bathroom is trashed and adrien is stuck cleaning again. Uhoh, dudes. Come in lets get this party started. Lets bubble we dont just kill 99. 9 of germs. Were also approved for tougher cleaning jobs. 99. 9 of germs and approved for tougher cleaning. Thats a reason to celebrate. You really think they need one . 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[ kevin ] really . By 2008, Lynsie Ekelund had been missing for seven years. The case had gone from cold to frozen in time. So placentia pd decided to outsource the investigation to a guy named Larry Montgomery. With more than 30 years working homicide, larrys put away his share of bad guys. Not usually by knocking on doors. Instead, larry works by looking i have closely at the evidence. He couldnt work fast. In fact, larry is meticulously slow. And that was just what this cold case needed. Was there anything in the original investigation that struck you as something that you needed to reexamine . Everything. Everything that had led Placentia Police into that wall, trying to decide between two suspects. Im concerned about this girl. Okay. You know, and shes missing. Marty, lynsies older friend who kept their relationship a secret and lied about his name. And chris in my heart, it seems like she still might be alive. The last person known to have seen lynsie. Any more on your part as to who was the more ilikely suspec . I dont know until i get into it. You are a guy who brieelieve guilt is in th