forced them to raise your gas prices, but that's only partly true. why we in the bay area are paying way higher prices. and face to face with killers. >> i wanted to get in there and just literally choke somebody. >> way area women who have lost a son, a husband. >> i feel so cheated. >> confronting murderers inside san quentin. >> it literally broke my heart. >> i'm dana king. >> i'm ken bastida. >> an elderly man hasn't been seen for months now and when police asked his wife about him she called a lawyer. >> crews have spent the night digging in the back yard of the couple's home in novato and that's where joe vasquez is right now. >> reporter: there is a great deal of confusion around the case of the man who lived here on rebecca way. in fact, i just got off the phone of the boyfriend of his daughter, who tells me that family members were told he died last november in tennessee, but, tonight, the police found a body here in the back yard. novato police have spent two weeks working on the missing person's case of 74-year-old dale smith. for the past two days that search turned into a excavation of a back yard. today police called in for some help from f.b.i. evidence specialists seen here wearing their white bio hazard suits. they spent the day digging, it's impossible to capture on the camera but the stench over the back yard fence is overpowering. he was reported missing by the neighbor. she said something odd happened, i was talking to evelyn and she was talking about dale in the past tense. that peaked her interest and she called the police. >> reporter: nobody has seen him lately, not evelyn smith or her attorneys will say what happened to him. >> our client went down and consented to an excavation and a search of her premises, the novato police crime scene investigation unit was there, and their kay nine unit was there. >> reporter: tonight at about 8:20, technicians who had been hard at work shoveling pile after pile of dirt suddenly stopped and took off their gloves. they had found a body. >> at this point we don't know who it is, so that would be the next part of the investigation, obviously, to remove the remains, have the coroner's office do the autopsy to determine the identity of the person, and hopefully if, you know, determine the cause of death. >> reporter: mrs. smith's attorneys says she cooperated with police, in fact she signed off on the excavation today, but they are not elaborating on the cause of death. or in fact they are not even telling anybody publicly what exactly happened to mr. smith. that's the key though, dana, is the cause of death. right now we're not sure how he died or even if that's his body. but even say he died of natural causes and she buried him that's against the law but not as serious as if she had something to do with his murder perhaps. >> a lot of questions on this one. joe vasquez in novato, thank you. we have new information just in from new zealand, the government is now reporting 98 people confirmed dead in the quake that hit the city of christchurch. 228 mara missing. the last person to be found alive was more than 24 hours ago. cruise have shifted to recovering bodies from the remains of a tv station. officers say up to 120 may be trapped upped that collapsed building. with the widespread destruction that we have seen it makes you wonder about the city's approach to building safety. well new buildings in new zealand are built to california building codes. grace lee on what that means for us. >> reporter: survivors are still being pulled from the rubble in christchurch two days after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake. there is so much damage in the city, what's scary is that christchurch has the same type of building codes for seismic safety as the pay area. >> we could see the same type of damage for the same type of building classes. >> reporter: heidi pazan works for the earthquake center at uc berkeley. she says the older buildings were the ones that collapsed trapping people. >> they have brittle failures, sudden dramatic failures that lead to collapse. >> reporter: most of the older buildings have been retrofitted. barkley hall has two columns of concrete to keep them up. and they have x's to keep the walls up. mark sinclair is a structurallening from new zoo land. he was in christchurch after the 7.1 shook the city in september. while you would think there wouldn't be damage for the modern building up to standard, he says not true. >> you have to keep in mind that the building code, even the codes here, are not intended to preserve or to stop damage to buildings, they are only intended to preserve life safety we call it. >> reporter: it would be the same for buildings in the bay area, widespread damage to the newer buildings and for older structures like this, complete collapse. while we're seeing the obvious damage he says there is a lot more than we cannot see in the buildings left standing but he says that is nothing compared to the human suffering. >> but new zealand is a very, very small country, only 4 million people, so when they talk about the whole 6 degrees of separation thing in new zealand it's only 1 degree. >> reporter: he is heading back to new zealand in the next few weeks, and he says even if they look okay it does not mean they are structurally sound. it could take months to find out how much damage there is and it could be years before christchurch recovers completely. he. >> he is heading back to see if the buildings are sound, which are not, you can't see the damage. grace, thank you. tonight, libya is a mess. the main airport is total chaos and americans and other foreigners are scrambling to get out. a few hours ago opponents to strong man moammar kadafi say they have taken control of libya's third-largest city. cbs news reporter mandy clark got into libya despite kadafi's ban on foreign correspondents. >> this was the scene in the coastal city of tobruk when we arrived at the main square tonight. residents shouted welcome to free libya and shouted "down with kadafi." inside tents young and old men fought for our attention. >> why are you here in a tent? >> we're out here for the freedom. we need the freedom. >> reporter: like protestors across the arab world they captured the regime's brutality on cell phones. >> reporter: what am i looking at here? >> kadafi refused to kill people. they refused to kill our libyan brothers and sisters. [ chanting ] >> reporter: in kadafi's strong hold in tripoli, it is a very different scene, his supporters took to the streets in a noisy display of loyalty after his televised speech. but even as they did, there were reports of gunfire, and street battles in other parts of the city. gadhafi has vowed to defend his 42 year grip on the country to the death if necessary. but that grip continues to slip away. antigovernment protestors in the city of nasrava st. tore down a symbol of his green book, his symbol of rule. it's the first major city in the west half to fall to antigovernment forces bringing the insurgeon again see increasingly closer to the center of history game. he called on his supporters to hunt down the protestors house by house. george b ek savi is on the outskirts, the second largest city, which has been the scene of gun bat. >> people are very, very terrified because gadhafi is giving them an undertake may tim, he will bomb the whole city in 24 hours unless they surrender. >> reporter: in the capital yesterday they were burying their dead. with no end in sight to this uprising the fear is there will be many more casualties in the coming days. crossing into libya today, the contrast between the two countries was stunning. egyptian border forces had three layers of security but when we entered into libya there was only a rag tag people's militia there to greet us and when we said they were journalists they waved us through with big smiles. well gasoline prices keep going up blamed in part on the situation in libya but many viewers have e-mailed us asking why are bay area gasoline prices going up even though california refineries don't use any of that middle eastern oil? robert liles says there is a two-word answer. robert? >> reporter: ken, here is the deal. we all understand the concept of paying a premium but the premium behind me, that deserves a double-take. $4.09 a gallon for a premium gallon of gasoline? well we weren't look went looking for answers as to why the bay area is seeing such a spike. and it's because you are paying the fear premium. it's $4 a gallon, man, come on. >> it says $3.97 for gas, that's ridiculous. >> reporter: it was just two days ago bay area gas prices jumped nearly a dime in just a week. we're at it again because prices at the pump have popped yet again. they are now driving two wheels instead of his four-wheel suv. >> i took a picture, cost me $99 a chevron, but regular unleaded $99, i had to facebook it. >> reporter: but the hike is not because you're using more gas. >> the price increase has very little to do with our demand in the united states. the world demand for oil is quite strong. >> reporter: instead, it's because of revolts in libya, world oil traders are running scared that oil supplies will stop. so scared, investtors have coined a phrase, "fear premium." >> i don't believe it. i don't believe it. >> reporter: believe it. that's when prices rise on the fear an event will happen. >> it's just an excuse. >> reporter: perhaps when you consider that libya produces just 2% of the world's oil supply and the u.s. buys very little of that. >> they went up that much in a week? crazy. >> reporter: what's really going on? oil companies and traders are insulating their pockets against fears that revolts in libya will spread to other opec countries that the u.s. relies on, so that means you'll continue to pay the fear premium. >> i'm cheap on this motorcycle. >> reporter: well all smiles aside, analysts fear that this fear premium will hurt consumer spending and that is not good news here in the bay area considering we still have a struggling economy and, ken, alarming unemployment. >> yeah, robert, i bring up a good point. those pumps don't say libya gasoline, it says shell and chevron. >> reporter: not at all. >> those are u.s. companies. >> absolutely. they are still making tens of billions of dollars. >> dollars. >> i was going to say we'll see what the profits are in the next quarter if all this makes sense. robs liles, thank you. here is something we don't see in the bay area. a snowplow getting ready for what promises to be a cold, wet, and possibly snowy next few days. caltrans has a few of those on standby, this one in marin county. roberta, everyone is talking about snow at sea level. i love that, that snowplow looks so lonely there. let me break it down for you. first of all the rain by the lunch area, snow will drop to 1,000 feet, friday that drops down to 1,000 feet everywhere and if we see any snowflakes at all at sea level it would be a few flakes at best. winter weather advisory goes into effect for the north bay mountains tomorrow, meanwhile a winter storm watch for the east bay and the santa cruz mountains as well. we could see up to 9" of snow atop mount diablo by friday night. we'll talk more about the snow and accumulation and the record cold heading this way next time around. >> all right roberta, thank you. california is broke so wait until you hear what kind of classes taxpayers are subsidizing at community colleges that have nothing to do with the three r's. would you want to come face to face with a convicted kill her? these bay area woman did. >> you guys killed my child. >> the admission that brought this san quentin inmate to tears. coming up next. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, some sports classes in california could be cut and it's all up to the voters. california has been spending $55 million a year on those classes at community colleges. they include beginning theory of offensive football and defencive baseball skills 2 and advanced strategies of soccer. the money for the classes comes from the state. the sports classes could be cut if voters don't approve tax extensions that governor brown is asking for. an unexpected twist in the infamous ciao chill a kidnapping case. some of the men responsible for putting the three kidnappers behind bars say they should now be released. in 1976 fred woods and brothers richard and jim schoenfeld hijacked a madeira county school bus with 26 children aboard and hid it in a moving van they buried near livermore. the men were trying to get a ransom but they escaped and the police caught up to the kidnappers. they have been in jail for 35 years, but today some of the prosecutors who put them there say they deserve parole. >> what's right is right. it's how much time you want out of these guys? 35 years is an ample time. >> i still stay awake at night because i'm watching the shadows in my room waiting for something to come out of the shadows. these things don't go away. why should the kidnappers stop paying for a crime that is continuing to affect me even today? >> none of the kidnapped children or bus driver were ever hurt. the parole board has denied all earlier parole requests. we see it far too often on the news, a mother distraught after losing a child to violence. long after most of us have forgotten about that murder the family's grief remains. tonight we're going to show you some bay area women who decided it is time to confront a kill her. linda yee takes us into san quentin for a first look at a very unusual therapy program: >> reporter: a mother's pain. >> i feel so cheated and robbed. my sons are cheated and robbed. >> reporter: a widow's loneliness and her children's heart break. they are the families who try to move past their loss and sadness:the healing circle support group supports them and they go to san quentin to find answers. it's not easy. >> when i went there the first time i was so angry, i wanted to get in there and just literally choke somebody. i wanted to say "you guys murdered my child." >> ball let brown's son was gunned down trying to save someone else. >> things are not the seam and they never will be. >> reporter: she wants these convicted murderers to remember they hurt somebody's family. >> i feel like every time i talk about my child and think about him, i feel that in my stomach, and stress kills. i might look okay on the outside but stress kills. and i feel like i'm dying every day because i have an empty heart. i miss my baby. >> i'm sorry. and the rest of my life will be spent making it up to whoever? >> how do we move forward for this? >> lonnie morris is serving a life sentence for killing hasan pablo police officer. he organized the inmate's side of it called no more tears. >> it literally killed my heart because i knew i was the person that caused them that much pain. >> when it first happened oh lord please forgive me. >> twice a month they hash it out in two-hour sessions. prisoners talk about what led them to rob or kill. >> five shots were shot, one went through the window and they listen to the families who, at first, have nothing but contempt. garcia rain a torres lost two sons in five years to gun violence. >> what made you go? >> what made me go? i wanted to confront them. i wanted answers. >> so at what point did evil necessary come in? did you feel that you guys were evil. if you did feel that at what point did you get out of that? >> reporter: do you feel anger, hostility? >> oh yes. >> reporter: rage? >> no. just the anger and frustration. >> reporter: interacting with these inmates is tough and, for some, their heart break still too raw:do you think you can find peace by doing this? >> maybe a a little but not completely because they still get to talk to their loved ones and their kids and we don't. >> reporter: christina medinah was conflicted about going to san quentin. it would have been her first time. for family reasons, she stayed home. every month alcea casilla brings sketches of her son's killers hoping one inmate may recognize them? do you think you'll be able to forgive? >> no, i won't be able to forgive. >> reporter: anguished families work to go ease their pain. >> i kind of feel like it's my fault because i've been banded the longest. >> reporter: and killers looking for redemption. linda yee, cbs5. so how well does this program work? one of the could founders of the healing circle says a few of the inmates who served their time and were released have continued to work with the families of murdered children in their support group. we'll be right back. ,,,,,,,,,, ,, ,,,,,,,, "eyewitness news" is brought to you by your local volkswagen dealers. the weather center in san francisco, under storm watch, where today chopper 5 high in the sky looking out over san francisco. 53 degrees, advertised 62, warmer location, 62 trees in concord. tomorrow looks like about 50 degrees as a high temperature. we're going to go ahead and try to walk you through the extended forecast. as you can see we'll have tomorrow developing the showers by the lunch hour, spreading over the entire bay area, and then it looks like the snow level will gradually fall down to about 1,000 feet in the north bay, thursday night. friday we have the snow at 1,000 feet everywhere, we could see a couple of snowflakes down at sea level, otherwise a random shower on saturday but record cold over the weekend as far as maximum temperatures are concerned. also, the minimum. now meanwhile we have been asking people to send us in their pictures. this was sent to us by richard in san jose, thank you and keep those epic pictures coming to mypix@cbs5.com. there you have your pinpoint forecast, you see everybody tomorrow evening commute will be wet, then we see the rain showers spreading across the entire area, a very stormy morning commute on friday and then as we add vassilis spanoulis ahead towards 9:00 p.m. if we see any kind of snowflakes down to sea level it will be around 9:00 in the evening, we'll get that cold shot of air in. the problem is as you notice not a lot of precipitation there. but where you see those areas in the pink, that's where we could see the snowfall. meanwhile looks like tonight overnight, the temperatures will tumble into the 30s and into the 40s, we'll remain on storm watch right here at cbs5. we'll be right back after this. ,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, shouldn't be hard work or cost more money. now there's simple nutrition, only at safeway. green tags throughout the store call out what matters most to you. ♪ there are 22 different nutritional benefits highlighted. ♪ and with our low prices, now safeway makes bringing home the right choices easier than ever. that's simple nutrition. ♪ that's ingredients for life. safeway. last night's win how do you start building momentum for run at a cup? win tough games on the road. following last night's win in detroit it was on to pittsburgh. either cut down on the coke or become a jockey already. they led 2-1 with 50 seconds left. then tyler kennedy scores his second goal of the game. we have 10 seconds in overtime. here is how it ended. vlasic pulls up into the crowd, they score. patrick marleau wins the game with 4 seconds left in overtime. ad ver and his san jose state often overlooked in >> his second of the game. they win the fifth in a row. adrian arsenault often overlooked in the bay area, overtime against mexico state, spin move, jump shot. he put the team on his back with a game-high 36. the spartans win, 14-12 over all, score 9 in the wc. tiger woods hoping to find an answer in his score book. wasn't there. 19th hole against thomas bjorn, his shot wept into the cac tie, he was eliminated in three tournaments, woods has failed to crack the top 20. we'll be right back. ,, this is your captain speaking, we are fourteenth in line for take off. beep, beep, beep. looks like its bumper to bumper on the interstate. i gotta get to cleveland! should have skipped that second soda. remove your belt, your watch, your shoes. i wonder what gas costs today. seven dollars for a pillow! an extra bag costs what? i hate traffic! (train child) the train is now arriving. (announcer) the train has arrived indeed. amtrack. enjoy the journey. breakfast for lunch. breakfast for dinner. with three new breakfast lovers dishes, who needs a break from breakfast? denny's. america's diner is always open. we have bonus coverage. >> bonus coverage exclusively. deron williams has been traded from utah to the new jersey nets for two players and two number 1 picks. this, again, is bonus coverage tonight on cbs5. this is really changing the balance of the east, ken. >> yes. >> because he goes, carmelo