>> reporter: july 2nd, 2008, about 11:00 p.m. steve democker, his daughter charlotte, and charlotte's boyfriend jake were eating a very late dinner. >> he had taken a few more bites of his dinner and then by that point charlotte and i were pretty close to being finished. >> reporter: that's when steve told them about a strange phone call he received from carol's brother. who told him that apparently carol's home phone suddenly cut out when she was talking to her mother ruth, and nobody could reach her. >> how did charlotte react to that? >> she was worried. >> reporter: charlotte said she texted her mom earlier that evening. everything seemed fine, then. but now? she called her mother. voice-mail. >> hey mom. its char. i heard from grandmother that something happened while you guys were on the phone and she was kind of worried about you. so, i wanted to text you to see if everything was okay. now i'm kind of getting worried about you.