and she said, "you're gonna get hurt in here because you look weak when you walk." >> you need to become scarface, huh? >> yeah, yeah, yeah. >> reporter: of course, to the outside world, she already was scarface. kate briquelet of "the daily beast" reported on the case. >> these were incredibly serious charges that michelle was facing, felony charges that included attempted forcible rape. >> reporter: meanwhile, michelle's parents were in crisis mode looking for an attorney. >> you don't have criminal defense attorneys on your speed dial, i'm guessing. >> correct, we do not. >> reporter: mike and suzanne wanted the right lawyer to deal with a cyber crime. they also wanted to start working on michelle's defense right away. their daughter was in trouble, so they started their own investigation. >> was it clear to you, mike, that if you're gonna claw your way out of this thing, you've gotta understand the story told by the computers? >> correct. >> the forensics of this case. >> absolutely. >> so you've gotta learn a whole bunch of jargon here. >> i know ip addresses and all the other stuff. >> reporter: an ip address is a numeric code that identifies a computer network or an individual device.