Page 5 - Loved Andre News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

. septembe 19th, 2007 donned in chicago like any other late summer day. hot, humid, windy. the usual. except for one thing -- nailah franklin, ambitious, dependable and always on her phone was suddenly radio silent. even with her new love, andre. >> i called her that morning, e-mailed her, called her again early afternoon. >> that's when he sent her that all caps e-mail, are you alive. >> you probably didn't mean it the way it really was. >> no, it's like to say, are you there. >> big sister did get a call not from nailah but nailah's boss. >> she missed a meeting. immediately my spidey sens...

People saying they saw her at this location. >> but not a single one led to nailah. by now, the detectives believed they were dealing with a serious crime. and yet -- >> she's missing. technically there hasn't been a crime committed. >> that makes it somewhat awkward when you're looking into it. >> anyone we knew who had contact with. the boyfriend she was in wisconsin with the weekend before she went missing, they were all interviewed. >> that boyfriend from wisconsin, andre, had come to chicago, was helping with the search and soon was, perhaps, a subject of it. >> they came to you? >> they ...

>> she was dating a plastic surgeon guy and this guy and that guy. >> she took up briefly with a dashing investor who drove a white bentley. and then in july, 2007, nailah attended an art gallery opening, and he came. this lawyer from milwaukee, andre wright. >> she had big beautiful smile. she was a very pretty woman. very warm personality, and we just kind of walked around the space looking at different pieces, talking about my interests. what i was looking for in a piece of art. obviously, i tried to engage her. >> suddenly this is a different search than it was before. >> i mean, the artwo...

Delay the process. >> nbc chicago's reporter watched in something like amazement as reginald turned speedy justice into something else all together. >> he hired lawyers, fired lawyers, tried to act as his own attorney. at each step of the process, the trial had to be reset. >> one, two, three years passed that way. in the fourth year after the murder, illinois abolished capital punishment so that was off the table. and still, reginald's actions forced delays. >> this is one of the most bizarre cases we've seen in chicago. >> just as nailah's family had reached out to the media, reginald potts ...

Would buy reginald's story or the prosecutor's. and here it was. >> you are a cold, calculating, conniving, coward of a con man who must be punished. >> and indeed he was. life without parole. >> take him away. >> so that was justice. the most nailah's family could hope for. terribly important. and strangely empty. >> it's still not done. she's still not back. you still can't talk with her. >> no. they tried to remember nailah not as a murder victim but as a beautiful young woman she was. the vibrant center of her family. but grief, real and painful, comes to visit every day. >> you know, peop...