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Dateline

>> reporter: caroline knew derek too and thought he was a decent kid, misunderstood. >> i guess everyone thought that he was that type of person because he's -- he was the kid that skipped school and that didn't -- got in trouble with teachers, or spoke back, or something like that. >> school bad boy, huh? >> yeah. >> really he was just a really soft-hearted guy. he would always be there for anybody who needed him. >> reporter: in the end police couldn't find any electronic trail linking derek to danielle. detectives' latest lead had fizzled out, and with no explanation for that word, help that chena found scrawled at the creek, they were down to their two main clues. >> so you got the sock on the trail, and you got a phone out at 95, more questions than answers. >> danielle's last cell phone ping was miles away from her neighborhood. >> we can see that she's moving in a fairly quick fashion, faster than a person could walk. >> the story told by the phone is, i'm in a car. >> yeah. >> reporter: had she been abducted, grabbed by a person or persons unknown? the stranger-danger abduction theory was gaining traction with both the police and danielle's peers. >> well a lot of girls at the high school were scared of like walking around you know in their neighborhoods and stuff at night now. >> reporter: and parents were

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Dateline

happened i'm pulling into the driveway and the sun's almost down, and she is running across the driveway, and she's kind of out of breath and laughing. and i'm, like, where are, what time, huh uh, where are you coming from? and she's like, oh, oh, there's this creek. there's this creek in back of the neighborhood. some kids have been trying to get me to hang out. don't worry, i won't going back there, it's a mess back there. and i'm like, yeah, i know, you will not be going back there, right? >> the creek, sheena said now with her niece missing she had to go find it. >> we go to the back of the neighborhood and i see a kid on the dirt bike and i said is there a creek around here? he said yeah, i'll show you. >> you follow the kid to the creek. >> the neighborhood creek led she that into a wooded area. >> we're walking here, he's

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Dateline

one look at the clothes told him danielle locklear had been found. you had a clothing match, huh? >> clothing match. >> reporter: you had a photo of what she was wearing that day at the creek? >> correct. >> reporter: and there was the same shirt on your -- >> it was the same shirt. >> reporter: body recovered. >> there was the same shirt. >> reporter: police would need positive id from the medical examiner before they could officially notify the family. but danielle's relatives were already hearing about the discovery of a body from the local news. >> a potential break in the case of a missing cumberland county teenager. >> the moment that they put it on the news, everyone was already con -- sending their condolences. and i'm like, "no, it doesn't mean -- it doesn't mean that that's her. >> reporter: great aunt chena had to see it for herself. she rushed to the river. >> i went running towards the emergency vehicles to go in, but they had a road block. and i says, "no. let me see. let me see." and they're -- "ma'am, i'm sorry. we can't let you through." >> reporter: danielle's mom rowna had taken refuge in a hotel for the night. after midnight, a team of police showed up at her door. a female sergeant broke the news. >> she's like, "we found a body." i said, "oh." i looked at her. and i said, "i understand you

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Dateline

eastern, right here on msnbc. and on that note i, wish you a very good night from, all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thank you for staying up late. and have a great weekend. ♪ ♪ ♪ thank you for staying up late, and have a great weekend. he says, danielle didn't come home last night, and i'm like, what? >> he had a beautiful 15-year-old girl just vanish. >> danielle was talking about this creek. he was trying to get her to go hang out >> somebody said they saw her get into the trunk. there was another story that she was with her mom. >> stories didn't stop, did they? >> no. >> we were getting information that they were cuddling. we have to figure out, does he have any motive to want to harm her? >> i see her sock right at the exit of the trail.

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Dateline

hamilton had seen one just like it before. it was a match to a sock that aunt chena had discovered on the trail? >> yeah, i was going to say aunt chena actually found that sock. >> reporter: so this was the pair. >> it was definitely the match. >> reporter: remember, the sock at the creek had been covered in debris. detectives theorized that whatever happened to danielle started there creekside. a possibly violent altercation. if that was the case, how had danielle's body ended up here? the river was about thirty minutes away from the creek in a remote part of the county. and the river and the creek aren't even connected. the body was disposed of there. >> body was disposed of. >> reporter: the spot had been chosen to conceal danielle's body but by whom? all detectives had to do was look around. maybe the answer was very near by. >> it was so close that -- i mean, if you dropped a pin on where his house was, the river's right there. >> reporter: coming up -- police are about to circle back to one of the young men they've looked at. and they're prepared for anything. did you have your vests on, firearms out? >> we did. we had everything with us.

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Dateline

>> how did she seem to you, caroline? >> she was just texting me, hurry up get down here, everyone's having fun. when i got down there, she was hanging out with everybody, having a blast, laughing. >> kids were celebrating what seemed like the first day of spring. >> we were doing like chicken fights in the water, just making jokes and stuff. it was a good day. >> after a day of laughs, danielle headed home. >> she has dinner with her grandfather. she's accounted for. >> mm-hm. her grandfather said he had seen her that evening. so now why is this sock over here at the entrance to this creek? >> police theorized that after dinner danielle had gone from her home back to the creek. why else would they have recovered that sock that she only wore at night? they wondered if she had met up with someone there, and other information was rolling in. the high school grapevine was abuzz with rumors about the boys danielle spent the day with at the creek. you identified a boy maimed

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Dateline

talk to you. like wow, really is this i guess it was going around that i was the crazy aunt. >> the kids had good reason not to talk to grownups about their days at the creek. >> they were all scared. they skipped. they didn't want their parents to know. >> the kids weren't talking much to sheena but amongst themselves. brianna was a junior at danielle's school. >> you go to one class, it's like what do you guys know, this is what i've heard. >> some kids were convinced she'd run away. alexis didn't buy it. >> she does not like to leave home. and if she does, she definitely would have taken makeup. she doesn't even check the mail without putting on makeup. >> sorting it out wasn't easy for law enforcement either. >> we're dealing with 15, 16, 17-year-old kids in high school,

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Dateline

>> standoffish? >> she seemed like a goody-goody. and i don't hang out with the goody-goodies. goody-goodies have a bad habit of snitching. i ain't going to lie. i do illegal things, and i know i do. >> so derrick thought danielle was a goody-goody and a snitch and he did less than legal things. interesting. he also seemed to know about the creek. >> that was my chill spot. i was one of the founders of that area. >> the founders? >> yeah, i would skip so much, i found that area. nobody else would go back there. >> but he said he hadn't gone there the night danielle disappeared. derrick said he spent that night at home. >> went home about 8:30. my dad left to go to a pool tournament. again, i stayed on the computer job searching. between facebook, job searching and tv, that's what i was doing

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Dateline

walking his dirt bike down and leading to me where the stream s. >> yeah. >> then the kid pointed to the ground. he saw something. there, carved in the dirt with some care, a single word. >> the word "help" was scratched in the ground. >> as though somebody had picked up a stick. >> like someone had scraped "help" in the ground with a stick. >> the creek, "help ", frightening. >> just made my hair stand up, and i started getting really nervous. >> she fla didn't know what was going on, but it couldn't be good, that s.o.s. in the sand. did it mean anything to you? it's alarming. >> it was extremely i alarming. i didn't know if it was a call for help. i didn't know if this was something danielle left for me. >> sheena kept walking upon the long path and then came upon it, the creek down a steep lot.

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Dateline

police wanted to talk to. so they stopped by his house. >> he was saying, i don't know who you're talking about. i don't flow what you're talking about. >> angel denied being at the creek, something police knew wasn't true investigators don't like to be lied to even if it's a kid. >> that's right. >> you want them to straight shoot and you weren't getting it. >> that's right. >> so angel was lying, but did he have something to hide? coming up. >> investigators are also about to look at those closer to home. the family doesn't get a pass, does it, detective? >> absolutely not. >> it was painful, because never in a million years would we have done anything. she was very precious to us. >> which family member prompted this reaction? >> the first and only time in my career that i contacted my supervisor and said there's something wrong here. >> when "dateline" continues. g e g e >>

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