Been for her to just get up and leave. Reporter a trail dotted with chilling discoveries. Come take a look at this i reached down and i noticed some rope sticking out of the ground. Theres blood wiped across here. Reporter and a threat you had to hear to believe. You deserve to die for your lies. Its your last and final warning. Reporter this is a very disturbed individual. Yes. Reporter who was on that tape . And where was michelle . This case is not over and its not going to be over until we get her home. Reporter theyre watching us. They know where we are. How we shop. How we play. What we do. Who we love. Electronic eyes, the stickypixeled fingerprints follow us almost everywhere. And the weird, fractured personal diary they write remains forever. Of course its meaningless, most of it. Meaningless, that is, until its not. Until its terrifying. The San Francisco bay. May 27, 2011. 6 55 p. M. A young Nursing Student named michelle le walks across a footbridge from her training hospital to the parking lot. She is not supposed to be here. For reasons unknown, and without permission, she has left her post at the hospital. Here she walks to her white honda crv, just out of camera range. Then, 7 17 p. M. , here is michelles honda leaving the garage. But why . Why then . Just an hour or two before the end of her shift. Good questions. Questions about to engulf a whole family. Why that day . Couldnt she have stepped out and gone to another campus that day and avoided this whole thing . Why did it have to happen to our family . Why did it have to happen to michelle . Reporter but it did. Much of it recorded, as you will see, by those electronic beeps and bytes and pixels. Just enough to make it a truly puzzling mystery. 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. Reporter especially this. Same night. 89 56 p. M. Michelles nursing instructor, annoyed, baffled, worried by her absence, takes a Security Guard to the parking lot to look for her car. 9 05 p. M. Michelles car reenters the garage two floors below. 9 06 p. M. It arrives on the third floor. Off camera the nursing instructor sees it, waves frantically. And the scar suddenly stops, backs up, races down the ramp, 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 krystine was awakened by a text from michelles former boyfriend. And 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. And so i looked at his message and i was like, oh, my gosh. What did michelle do this time . You know, shes usually out, yeah, having fun. Reporter shes a funloving person, right . Yeah. And shes always out with her friends and getting lost sometimes. So we thought i honestly didnt think much of it at the time. I read the message. And i, like, rolled over back in bed. Reporter michelle, after all, could look after herself. Had been looking out for krystine 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. The strong, Loving Center of the family. A mother figure to her younger brother, michael. Michael, who was the next person to get the call from the exboyfriend. Where was michelle . And so i go, yeah, yeah, you know. Exboyfriend just trying to get a hold of michelle. So i didnt pay it any mind. But just in case, im going to see if she was okay. So i checked on her facebook recently. And she had plans to go to tahoe with some friends. And so, right before going to work, i just sent those friends Facebook Messages just to make sure she was okay. Reporter michael went to work. Didnt think much more about it. But then he got another call, this time it was that nursing instructor. And she was trying to be composed. And she she told me the story of how she had went out to the garage, looking for michelle. She she said she saw what matched the cars description just taking off. And suddenly it wasnt a game anymore. It wasnt something you could excuse. Reporter by then, krystine was calling michelles cell phone. She didnt pick up. And thats when i had this feeling where something might have been wrong, after she didnt pick up a few times. Reporter at 9 30 a. M. , 12 hours after michelle was reported missing, police found her car. It was parked outside this apartment building, just a few blocks from the hospital where michelle was last seen. Odd. Hayward Police InspectorFraser Ritchie was called in to have a look. The car was locked, it was secured. So thats why we believed that michelle was possibly somewhere around here. But we had no clue where to start looking. Reporter what they could see through the tinted windows looked fine. As if michelle had probably 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 just chaotic. But we werent thinking the worst at the time. Reporter still in san diego, krystine, along with her aunts, uncles and cousins, began packing for the 8 hour drive north to San Franciscos east bay. Brother michael was attending college at uc berkeley and he rushed over to nearby hayward to join michelles friends and fellow students who were already handing out missing posters outside the hospital parking garage. Had anybody seen her . We all just wanted to find her. We didnt think that anything bad had happened to her. Reporter where was she . They hammered her iphone with more than 100 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 she wrote. Just taking it easy. So that exboyfriend texted her back. His phone number she knew almost as well as her own. The response from michelle . Who is this . Uhoh. Did michelle really send that text . Could she have been kidnapped . Maybe she just left. I had asked is it possible she could just be out there, all stressed out . They said yes, its possible. Soon Police Questions about michelles friends would leave them closer than they knew to the key to the case. Eryone wins. How do i win . Because were streaming the movie that you love. Well, how do i win . 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Comcast and time warner cable. Together is better for more people. 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 are 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 th 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, dress stressed out and ju 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 . Police look into the possible connection between those student nurses and a meeting with michelles family. We were horrified. Reporter not what anyone expected. O entrees on one plate. Like the new seasonal favorite grilled vidalia onion sirloin or the new light and zesty shrimp scampi linguine. 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You may know us, we were the roller derby moms. And our families are super competitive. So when we heard walmarts clothes were better than ever, we had to put em to the test. I love that the clothes can stand up to the kids and this avia line is awesome. Were pretty tough, and these clothes are really keeping up with us. Fit, style, performance. Discover the look of quality backed by our satisfaction guarantee. Available at walmart and walmart. Com. Save money, live better. Walmart. It was april 30th, 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 ethnicity, even the same last name, vanished from this Shopping Mall parking lot. 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 jus