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After all, he'd promised the family he'd bring cindy home. >> well, from the time i got this case, i had a daughter that was 13. the same aged daughter that cindy was when she disappeared. >> now it was up to prosecutor smith. >> it was a lot of heated discussions about this. >> and you've got this delicate situation of trying to broker the people's interests versus the family's passionate desire. >> and you can't say no. they've lived this for more than 20 years. so with myself and the father and the family came to sort of a middle ground, and i agreed to reduce it from first-degree murder to...

If she had come back from the dairy queen and lived, cindy zarzycki would have been 35 years old. but she didn't. and now art ream the father of her long-ago teenaged boyfriend was about to stand trial. cindy's sister connie was prepared to testify. >> it's very stressful on our family. we already wondered what happened for 22 years. we know he did it. we just need the jury. to know he did it too. cindy's da was till still holding out for a miracle. >> i was still hoping. >> still hoping. >> yes. this family. >> the police on this case had gotten some extra investigative help from the county p...

>> it really puts a fire under you to realize, you know, what we can do as investigators. you know, it lets other perpetrators know if you think you committed a perfect crime, you didn't leave dna or fibers or habs behind, they're still going to get you. >> and yet mac hasn't entirely closed out the case file. he believes art ream may have buried more bodies by that riverbank. he's opened two investigations. >> pandora's box still has a few things in it, so. >> whatever happens in the future, mac says getting justice for cindy was not just the case of a lifetime, it was a lifetime's satisfacti...

Nice rest of your life in prison. >> this is a whole new strategy. >> yeah. >> it went against mac's gut to play nonchalant about what he cared for most, finding cindy's body, but he went with his boss' suggestion to find a new tactic. be brusque and dismissive. he hoped ream would get flustered and produce a new map. and that would lead to cindy. a few weeks after the trial and conviction, mac had a jailhouse meeting with ream in a visitor's room by himself. the detective recorded the interview with a camera concealed inside a plastic bottle. right away, mac laid down the new law. >> the case...

Courtroom top secret. >> they cleared out the courtroom, told us all to leave and i just happened to notice that the judge said to one of the bailiffs, you need to make sure that the entire back room is cleared out, nobody can be in my chambers, nobody can overhear this. and then i put two and two together. >> amber hunt figured it out and would later be the first to report that an 11th hour plea deal had been in the works. lawyers from both sides and the zarzycki family were summoned to judge's chambers. >> we want to talk to you. he wants to make an agreement. >> ream told his lawyer he didn...