Why that day . Moment by moment. Take a look at this. Dateline was there at every turn. Was she missing or murdered . Was this the key . I will take your life and hers. A threat. A voice seething with hate and rage. You deserve to die for your lies. Its your last and final warning. What happened to michelle . This case is not going to be over. Im lester holt and this is dateline. Here is Keith Morrison with vanished. Theyre watching us. They know where we are. How we shop, how we play, what we do. Electronic eyes. They follow us almost everywhere. And the weird fractured personal diary they write remains forever. Of course, its meaningless, most of it. Meaningful, that is, until its not. Until its terrifying. The San Francisco bay, may 27th, 2011. 6 55 p. M. A young Nursing Student named michelle le walks across a foot bridge to her parking lot. She is not supposed to be here. For reasons unknown and without permission, she has left her post at the hospital. She walks to her honda crv, just out of camera range. 7 17 p. M. , here is michelles honda leaving the garage. Why then, just an hour or two before the end of her shift . Good questions. Questions about to engulf her whole family. Why couldnt she have stepped out and avoided this whole thing . Why did it have to happen to our family . Why did it have to happen to michelle . But it did. Much of it recorded, as you will see, by those electronic beeps, and pixels, just enough to make it a puzzling history. Enough to not quite know what happened to michelle le. One of the things i was so angry about was that nothing made sense. Nothing made sense. Especially this. Same night. 8 56 p. M. Michelles nursing instructorer, no idea, baffled, looks in the parking lot for her car. 9 05 p. M. Michelles car reenters the garage two floors below. It arrives on the third floor. Off camera, the nursing instructor sees it, waves frantically. The car suddenly stops, backs up, races down the ramp and out of the garage. But why . Alarmed, the nursing instructor calls the police. And the next morning, 400 miles south in san diego, michelles cousin christine was awakened by a text from michelles former boyfriend. He messages me, he goes, hey, just to let you know, we dont know where michelle is, have you heard from her, try calling her. I looked at his message and said, gosh, what did michelle do this time . Shes usually out having fun. Shes fun loving person . Yeah, shes always out with her friends. And getting lost sometimes. I honestly didnt think much of it at the time. I read the message and i like rolled over back in bed. Michelle, after all, could look after herself, had been looking out for christine for years. She was just 26 but seemed somehow older than that. The eldest of a clan of 15 cousins who grew up together with very little except each other. And michelle was smart and studious and attractive. The leader of this very active pack. Strong, Loving Center of the family. A loving figure to her younger brother michael. Michael who was the next person to get the call from the boyfriend. Where was michelle . I go, yeah, yeah, exboyfriend just trying to get ahold of michelle. I didnt pay it any mind. But just in case, i wanted to see if she was okay. I checked on her facebook. She had plans to go to tahoe with some friends. I sent those friends Facebook Messages to make sure she was okay. Michael went to work and didnt think much more about it. Then he got another call. This time it was that nursing call instructor. She told me the story of how she went out to the garage and saw what matched the cars description just taking off. And suddenly it wasnt a game anymore, it wasnt something you could excuse. By then christine was calling michelles cellphone. She didnt pick up. Thats when i had this feeling where something might have been wrong. After she didnt pick up a few times. At 9 30 a. M. , 12 hours after michelle was reported mitigate, police found her car parked outside this apartment building, just a few blocks from the hospital where michelle was last seen. Odd. Hayward Police InspectorFrazier Richie was called in to have a look. The car was locked. It was secured. Thats why we believe michelle was possibly somewhere around here. We had no clue were to start looking. What could be seen through the tinted windows looked fine, as if michelle left the car here herself all morning. A flurry of worried phone calls went back and forth among michelles friends and family. What should they do . It was chaotic. But we werent thinking the worst at the time. Christine and her family began packing for the eighthour drive. Michael rushed over to nearby hayward to join michelles friends and fellow students who were already handing out missing posters near the parking garage. Had anyone seen her . We just wanted to find her. We didnt think anything bad happened to her. Where was she . They hammered her iphone with more than a hundred calls and texts. And heard in response nothing. Then 12 45 p. M. , 15 hours after michelle was last seen, finally a text from her phone. Im not missing, it read. My phone has been acting crazy. It deleted everything. All these texts have killed my battery. Michelle sent a flurry of reassuring texts to friends and family, im fine, take it easy. Her exboyfriend texted her back. Her response from her phone . Who is this . Uhoh. Did michelle really send that text . I asked, is it possible she could be out there, all stressed out . They said, yes, its possible. But soon, questions about michelles friends would lead police closer than they knew to the key to this case. Till its fresh and try febreze small spaces. To continuously eliminate up to two times the odors for 30 days. Febreze small spaces and air effects, two more ways [inhale exhale mnemonic] to breathe happy. Ice in my water, had it would just be so painful and i couldnt even drink it. My dentist recommended that i use sensodyne. Now i can put ice in my water. Sensodyne absolutely works, that sound. Like nails on a chalkboard. But listen to this family talking thats a different kind of sound. The sound of the weekend. Its baking season. Warm up with pillsbury. No. They come from thes come stomach. Heart. Give the gift of quality time with an applebees gift card. And receive a 10 bonus card for yourself. Only at applebees. You might know me as the guy who switched to sprint because all networks are great. But get this, sprint has this crazy deal on their new unlimited plan with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th line free. Yep unlimited data, talk and text for your whole crew. Oh youll need the best unlimited data plan because well you have to get the new iphone 7. Its on the top of almost everyones holiday list. vo find out how to get a free iphone se. Its the best gift this holiday season. Hows that for a happy holiday . For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com reporter cell bones buzzed and chirped all afternoon, that day after michelle le vanished from the watching web. Certainly her iphone hadnt vanished. One creepy text after another popped up in the phones of her friends, her cousin, her brother. I just needed some time without anyone. I had a bad night last night. I dont really want to talk to anyone right now. But then after three hours of that the texts stopped just as suddenly as they had begun. The last one simply said im sick. So strange. So out of character. To michelles family and friends it seemed obvious, someone had michelles phone. Someone who was not michelle. The more that they went out, it felt like it was becoming sinister. Having this person text back as michelle was just extremely, extremely terrifying. What did that feel like to go through that . Its hard to put into words. Living nightmare, i think, is the closest thing. Reporter in a strange way as chilling as these messages were they gave michelles friends and family some hope. To them it seemed obvious they were communicating with someone who had abducted michelle, and so their mission was now clear. Michelle didnt just need to be found. Michelle needed to be rescued. Its a timecritical situation. Every second you that waste is a second that shes hurting. We had to find her. Reporter saturday afternoon, 18 hours after michelle vanished, michael and a group of michelles friends met with inspector fraser richie at the Hayward Police department. We had about 10 or 15 family members and classmates and friends at the police department. They were all talking about how responsible she was, how out of character this would have been for her to just get up and leave. Did you try to call michelle or anything . Yes. Get a response . Yes. I sent a message out. This is inspector ritchie with the Hayward Police department, you need to get a hold of me right now. Yeah. I got the response within several minutes saying that my phone is dying, i need to find a charger, im having car trouble. The same sort of response received by michelles friends and family, who had now decided based on those weird Text Messages that michelle had been kidnapped. But as far as inspector ritchie was concerned, just about anything was possible. I kept an open mind. I didnt know whether michelle voluntarily went missing for whatever personal reasons she had or if this was a stranger abduction or if this was an abduction from somebody that she knew or she just left with a friend. Did anybody say she would have just flipped out and, you know, stressed out and just left . I asked is it possible she could just be out there all stressed out . And they said yes, its possible. Inspector ritchie also asked if michelle had any enemies or problems with exboyfriends, for example. Only problems that she seemed to be having with anybody was coming from gisele esteban. Gisele esteban, one of michelles best friends in high school down in san diego. But not just michelles friend. A friend of the family. Gisele was a fixture around the house, spent hours with all of those cousins. Then after high school in 2002 the two friends both moved to San Francisco to attend college. And thats where gisele fell in love and got pregnant, moved in with her boyfriend scott, and then broke up with him three years later. The trouble came when michelle stayed friends with scott, with that boyfriend, after the breakup, and that just didnt sit well with gisele. Though really it wasnt such a big deal. Still, just to cover all the bases, late saturday night ritchie dropped in on gisele to ask what she knew. Were here about michelle le. Who . Michelle. Oh, god. What about her . She went missing last night from her work. Okay. In talking to her friends and such, we understand you guys had a tumultuous relationship. A tumultuous relationship . She was my best friend who slept with my then fiance. I started talking to her and asking her questions about her relationship with michelle and if she could provide any information where she would be. Gisele said she had no idea. And besides, they werent seeing each other these days, so she wouldnt know. Then just due diligence. That night ritchie sent another team of detectives to speak to giseles exboyfriend, the father of her baby, who they were interested to learn now had sole custody of the child. Listening to him, talking to him, and the relationship with him and his daughter and his family, things like that, he didnt seem to be the person, the type of person that could lie. That would lie. Sunday, 48 hours after michelle appeared in that ghostly video at the parking lot, her large extended family began arriving from san diego and meeting with the police. And thats when detectives began to understand michelle a little. How kind she was and bright and selfreliant. Very much like this young woman. Phuong le. Also vietnamese american. Also a 20something Nursing Student. Also living in the San Francisco area. Who 13 months earlier also disappeared. Theres a lot of similarities obviously in that shes the same age category, same ethnicity, same profession. Reporter even the same last name. Was a pattern developing . Coming, police look into the possible connection between those student nurses and a meeting with michelles family. The meeting goes badly. We were horrified. Heyyyyy its the Little Things that make life rich. Ritz. Better than a manual, and my hygienist says it does. But. Theyre not all the same. Turns out, theyre really. Different. Who knew . I had no idea. So, she said look for. One thats shaped like a dental tool with a round. Brush head. Go pro with oralb. Oralbs rounded brush head surrounds each tooth to. Gently remove more plaque and. Oralb crossaction is clinically proven to. Remove more plaque than sonicare diamondclean. My mouth feels so clean. Ill only use an oralb the 1 brand used by dentists worldwide. Oralb. Brush like a pro. Start the car start the car the ikea winter sale. Wooooooo get up to 50 off select items. Now through january 10th. Ikea anything with a screen is a tv. Stream 130 live channels. Plus 40,000 on demand tv shows and movies, all on the go. You can even download from your x1 dvr and watch it offline. Only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. Download the xfinity tv app today. Start the car start the car the ikea winter sale. Wooooooo get up to 50 off select items. Now through january 10th. Ikea reporter it was april 2010. Just over a year before the disappearance of michelle le. It was close, perhaps 50 miles away. And it was so coincidental. Another young Nursing Student, almost the same age, same 0 ethnicity, even the same last name, vanished from this Shopping Mall parking lot. 00 her name, phuong le. Police lieutenant greg hurlbut caught the case but couldnt find her. Several weeks later, we got a call from a neighboring county, napa county, saying that they had a body out in the woods that somewhat matched the description of our missing person. Reporter it was indeed phuong le. But that was, by no means, the end of the investigation. To this day, were trying to identify who, in fact, killed phuong le. Reporter so during that memorial day weekend in 2011, when detective hurlbut heard about the disappearance of a young woman named michelle le, he wondered was this a break in his case . You have somebody that looks almost exactly the same, almost the same name, the same circumstances. Its a real bizarre coincidence. Reporter michelles family also heard about phuong le, so when they met with detectives for the first time on sunday, may the 29th, 48 hours after michelles disappearance, they asked the dreadful question. Could michelles case be connected to the phuong le murder . The community brought that up and thought that they might be linked. And so we we brought that up with the Hayward Police and they said, you know, we looked into it but we dont think theres any connection. Reporter so then there was a wash of relief. The detectives also told the family theyd found michelles car. That it was locked, appeared undamaged. To the family that was good news. It meant to them that michelle must be alive, held somewhere. Though, during that sunday meeting, the police gave the impression that they still had no idea what had happened to michelle. They asked us a lot of questions about her relationships and her friendships. And they told us they were working on it. Wed keep asking them, probing them for more information. They kind of just kind of threw their hands and said, you know, we cant tell you much, and were sorry. Your level of frustration must have been pretty high . It was sky high. Reporter the le family now had the impression the police werent taking the case seriously at all. Because michelles an adult. So we felt if shes an adult and she shes not a child. Maybe she wasnt being prioritized. So what was it like leaving that meeting . It was chaos is probably the number one feeling. We didnt have a place to stay. We were hotel hopping. We were just waiting around most of the time, staying in the hotel. It was like you were you were blind. You know, you didnt know we had no idea where to go. What to do. Reporter the family couldnt understand why the police seemed to be moving so slowly. In their minds, michelle was being held against her will. A week went by. Saturday june 4th, eight days after michelles disappearance. Her family held this vigil near the place where her car was found. We wanted the fbi to get involved and all this. And we were just making a lot of noise. Reporter quietly attending was scott, the young man the police had questioned a week earlier. Giselle estebans old boyfriend, remember, and father of her child. Two days later, monday june 6th, the family was called back to the Police Station for an important meeting. The police finally had a chance to search michelles car and the status of her case had been changed, from missing person to homicide. And the family felt blindsided. And they said, you know, i think you have to get comfortable with with the fact that your sister is probably dead. We were horrified. Reporter and just like that, the information door closed. The Hayward Police told the family it was a Murder Investigation now. So Department Policy they could reveal nothing more. And therefore couldnt or wouldnt tell the family why they thought michelle was dead. But without hearing an explanation or seeing any evidence, how could the family believe the police . No. They simply wouldnt accept what the cops had to say. It was horrible. We were really angry. Because, okay. You want to make it homicide. Youre not going to tell us why. Reporter ritchie understood the familys anger. But as far as he was concerned, he had a Murder Investigation on his hands and that meant the family had to be kept in the dark. Theres certain procedural things that we have to keep close to us, that we cant put out there. Because we have to maintain evidence, we have to maintain the custody of certain information. And its of evidentiary value to us that if we dont have the suspect in custody, that the only people that know about it is the suspect and us. Reporter so in the absence of official information, the le family, at least its younger members, decided the only option was massive publicity. An appeal to the public for whatever help they could offer. But that was the kids. The cousins. Family elders were deeply reluctant to share their grief with strangers. They didnt want her story out there publicized like we had made it. They didnt why . Well, its its very private. It was such a fine line between how much do you give away about your own familys misfortune to to do good for michelle . In the asian families, when youre younger, youre supposed to be very, very respectful of