>> that's it for me. thanks for watching. tune in tomorrow where i am speaking with congressman jerry connelly. plus, senior adviser and spoke's person for president biden's campaign, adrienne elrod joins us to talk importance of border security to voters ahead of november's election tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. follow us on social media using the handle, at weekend capehart. listened every episode of our show as a podcast for free. scan the qr code on your screen to follow. but, keep it right here. a frightening film about a serial killer. robert barnsley: ...he'd say, when you're turning the blade, grit your teeth and really--really show that you're enjoying it. we had talked about how would you kill somebody and get away with it. i had dark thoughts and shared them with the serial killer. >> it was supposed to be a movie, a frightening film about a serial killer. >> you grit your teeth and really show that you on bare enjoying it. >> but, was it really just pretend? >> eels get down on the ground and took out duct tape. >> i have never in my life felt fear like that. >> a rising young film director filming a murder, or actually committing one? >> he told me well, you liked dexter. >> when you take a step back you realize this is a real man who has been murdered. >> the script was darker than anyone knew. >> like holy mackerel. >> who are you, really? >> everyone was on the edge of their seat. >> and underground parking garage, you are watching a violent attack caught on tape. who was this? what is happening? or, did it happen at all? movies, like that one, are by design, deceptive. make-believe worlds, but have you noticed maybe it is all the technical doodads and digital cameras. some stories that claim to be true or not. anybody can manipulate reality, sometimes what they say is true is it. sometimes, fiction turns out to be fact, and then there are stories, just a few, and which fact and fiction fuse and that is where we are going tonight, a twilight zone world of illusion and deception and deceit. follow the howling wind north across a vast prairie through brief, brilliant summers and winters as frigid as any on earth to a metropolis canadians call the gateway to the north, the city whose police department stays very busy. this is detective bill clark. the city is edmonton, canada. >> today i got a call from a family whose son was killed in december. >> nothing in a career so strange as the case of a man who went missing and bill clark found himself in another world between fantasy and illusion. >> have you ever seen a case like this before? >> never in my life. >> when it started out, it seemed perfectly simple, a missing man, some guy just dropped out of sight, the kind of thing that tends to sort itself out once the so-called victim sobers up. >> i'm not thinking much is going to come of this. >> after clark's decades of service in the city with the highest murder rate in canada, you can hardly blame them for getting a little picky. >> we don't usually go to missing person. unfortunately, for us to come out you've got to be dead and it had better be criminal. if the patrolman doesn't know it's criminal, don't bother calling us. >> yeah, you got enough to do. which explains perhaps why some of the locals have taken to calling their city, deadmonton. >> our concern is, do we have a foul play. >> the missing person in this case is a man by the name of john altinger. 39, single, worked in the oil industry, liked to ride motorcycles. unlucky with women, yet, a wide circle of friends who are now telling the police altinger seem to have dropped off the face of the earth except the strange emails he was sending. >> i've left with a woman, i'm going to costa rica. >> one of the recipients of those old emails, his old friend, debra taichrob. >> i received several of them. i received six altogether, but in runs of three. >> the exact same message? >> hi there, i've met a wonderful girl named jen. i'm going to costa rica and i will keep in touch and call you when i get back after the holidays. johnny. >> almost formal, and away, suddenly like somebody you didn't really know was sending you an email. >> absolutely, and i was like that's really odd, it doesn't sound like john. >> it was odd, and even more so when another friend of altinger's received exactly the same message word for word and altinger's facebook status change from single to in a relationship. >> i think it was the following day, i was on msn messenger and johnny popped on mine, so i thought oh, he must not have left on his vacation yet, and it said johnny, his name, and then in quotations beside his name, who says i've got a one- way ticket to heaven and i'm never coming back. >> later that same day, debra got a call from the same friend who told her john altinger seems to be missing. >> it's surreal, you know. you don't expect your friends to go missing. >> soon, altinger's friends got together, unsure of what to do, really but before going to police, they decided to try to get into his condo, to see if they could find a clue what happened to get the guy in the break-in, actually. everything looked fine. nothing out of place, no sign of any struggle. the only things missing were his wallet, his keys and his red mazda coop, so it was as if he had gone out for a drive and could be back any minute. >> there were no answers to anything, like he just vanished out of thin air. >> except for those strange emails he had supposedly sent about falling in love and coaster rica, which to the cops, said clark, seemed perfectly reasonable. not hard to imagine that a lovestruck man might want to leave the snow and ice of edmonton behind and skip off to the tropics. >> the sky send these emails to his friends and we are going well, that strange, but maybe he did go to costa rica. stranger things have happened. you never know. >> that is how clark felt before he stepped through the looking glass. coming up, detective clark is about to follow john altinger's trail into a strange place of make-believe , and up-and- coming directors makeshift movie studio. >> it's a suspense thriller, actually. it's a short film. as soon as they called me on the phone, i got this weird chill. >> when dateline continues. >> ♪ ♪ with wegovy®, i lost 35 pounds. and some lost over 46 pounds. ♪ ♪ and i'm keeping the weight off. wegovy® helps you lose weight and keep it off. i'm reducing my risk. wegovy® is the only fda-approved weight-management medicine that's proven to reduce risk of major cardiovascular events in adults with known heart disease and with either obesity or overweight. wegovy® shouldn't be used with semaglutide or glp-1 medicines. don't take wegovy® if you or your family had medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop wegovy® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may happen, including pancreatitis and gallbladder problems. wegovy® may cause low blood sugar in people with diabetes, especially if you take medicines to treat diabetes. tell your provider about vision problems or changes, or if you feel your heart racing while at rest. depression or thoughts of suicide may occur. call your provider right away if you have any mental changes. common side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. with wegovy®, i'm losing weight, i'm keeping it off. and i'm lowering my cv risk. that's the power of we. ♪ ♪ check your cost and coverage before talking to your health care professional about wegovy®. ♪ you're the one that i want ♪ nexgard® combo is the only monthly topical that protects against fleas, ticks, tapeworms, and more. use with caution in cats with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. nexgard combo,... ♪ you're the one that i want ♪ ...the monthly one-and-done you want. introducing new advil targeted relief. the only topical pain reliever with 4 powerful pain-fighting ingredients that start working on contact to target tough pain at the source. for up to 8 hours of powerful relief. new advil targeted relief. [coughing] copd isn't pretty. i'm out of breath, and often out of the picture. but this is my story. ( ♪♪ ) and with once-daily trelegy, it can still be beautiful. because with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open for a full 24 hours and prevents future flare-ups. trelegy also improves lung function, so i can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ [laughing] ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy for copd because breathing should be beautiful, all day and night. condominium, as you can see, looked like anything because breathing should be beautiful, but a crime scene. there were no signs of a struggle, no blood. it was like he just stepped out for a few minutes, could be back anytime. where was he? johnny's friends were convinced something awful had happened to him. so, day after day, they prodded the police; john altinger's condominium looked like anything but a crime scene. there were no signs of a struggle, no blood. it was like he just stepped out for a few minutes and could be back anytime. where was he? and johnny's friends were convinced something awful had happened to him, so day after day, they prodded the police and finally, seven days after johnny went missing, the cops agreed to open an investigation. >> we just started with the basics. i said with got to start out by finding out if we can find him first so let's find the car. >> since john altinger's email said he had taken off for costa rica, officers went to the airport to look for that red mazda. they searched every parking lot. it wasn't here. they come through airline passenger lists. he was not on any of them. johnny's friends, meanwhile, went back to the apartment for another look and found, stashed away among his important papers, his passport. they're going oh, not getting out of the country without your passport. >> seemed like he had to be within driving distance but what direction where? just as the police were contemplating that puzzle, one of altinger's friends came up with another email. this one, johnny had received from a woman he met online. janet was her name, the same woman with whom he had supposedly scampered off to costa rica. they had a date and were going out on the town the night he disappeared and because he had never been to her place, she sent him an email with directions on how to pick her up and out of an abundance of caution, he sent a copy of that email to a friend of his, just in case. >> i can't remember the last word of the email but he says if anything happens to me, you know where i'm at, and you know, laugh out loud. >> it wasn't a phone number or an address, but there were detailed directions to her place, so the cops drove the root, and the directions led them to this neighborhood down this alley, and to this garage rented by -- >> a guy named mark twitchell. >> he happened to be, in the local arts community, local celebrity. he was making a name for himself in edmonton. he had recently made a low- budget sci-fi movie so they called him up, of course, and he readily agreed to come down and open the place up. when he got here, big surprise, someone had changed the lock. he could not get in, so with permission, officers broken, had a quick look around, and found nothing. just the same, with the changed walk in the weird coincidence of the email, there were things to figure out and mark twitchell was only too happy to tag along to the police station to help out however he could. >> the first thing i noticed is the padlock did not look familiar to me. twitchell explained he'd been using the rented garage is a soundstage most recently for what they call a teaser, a short film designed to drum up publicity , buzz, with any luck, attract enough investor money to allow him to produce a full length feature movie. >> it's a suspense thriller, actually. a short film. >> okay, so yeah, suspense thriller? >> of course, he had a crew in and out of the place during filming, said mark. maybe one of them was up to something but it seemed unlikely, and none of them had ever asked to borrow the set for anything. >> so, if there was anything like that, if somebody needed to borrow the place or whatever, then they would let me know. >> they'd let you know. >> they would ask, or something like that, so no, i don't know anything about that. >> anyway, he said, he had moved on for now to another project. >> i'm working on a comedy right now which is actually a full feature, with a decent budget in the neighborhood of about 3 1/2 million. >> in the meantime, the garage comes studio was empty, so why would someone break into the place and then change the lock, he wondered. didn't make sense. >> i had a padlock previously but it wasn't the same one. it was silver on the outside with a black plastic dial in the center and this one was just all metal, so. >> so, you notice the different padlock on the door. >> mystifying, said mark. he had a bad feeling about this. a man disappears after telling police he was going to the very place his movie had been shooting. >> as soon as they called me on the phone, i get this weird chill. >> what about that woman john altinger had been flirting with online, the one who gave him directions to the garage, told him she would meet him there. the woman who signed her emails jen . >> does the name, jen, mean anything to you? >> no. we don't have a jen or anything like that. >> so, the name jen doesn't mean anything to you? you don't know an actress named jen? >> so, who was this mystery woman, jen? why in the world which she arranged to meet john altinger here in the very back yard garage and independent edmonton film crew was renting for use as a studio. how odd. especially since the movies producer director, mark twitchell, expressed exactly the same confusion as the police. he didn't get it, either. the dots did not connect. mark twitchell did not know johnny from adam and besides, there was no indication johnny ever made it to the garage at all. >> the close friends are the ones who have come to the police and they have nothing other than his emails. >> there was one thing, though, and it came from mark twitchell. he wondered if maybe somebody was being set up. >> it just doesn't sit right, so the first thing i started asking myself is, who all knows about what we do there and what our schedule looks like and stuff like that. >> is the disappearance staged somehow? if someone was being fooled, who was it, and why? was all this just some big stunt even a publicity stunt? detective bill clark was thoroughly engaged by now. he had spent a career listening to criminal spender stories. maybe you could figure out if this twitchell guy was trying to play the cops somehow. he pulled the recording of the interview. >> and i watch an interview, i listen to what the guy says but i'm looking at body language, i'm looking for signs of deceit. i remember coming out of their going you know, this mark twitchell guy interviewed really well. there were no signs of deception. he is free-flowing with the information. he has answered the questions logically. i don't see any looking away, nervousness, nothing. i see nothing. >> and then, when police looked into twitchell's production company, they encountered a perfectly legitimate company. more than that, actually. this was a promising effort to help edmonton get some national attention as a potential center of moviemaking. mark twitchell was very good at coming up attention and money from local investors. >> he was a very sharp, bright, young, articulate entrepreneur. exactly the kind of individual most of us are looking for. >> so, he checked out. hard-working local boy in the city of hard-working people. good parents, nice young wife, sweet little daughter, on his way to becoming a celebrity here in edmonton. detectives even got a look at the teaser film for twitchell's next projects, three and half million dollar buddy comedy. that is mark in the background playing the role of director even as he was the director, sort of a hall of mirrors type story, a movie about a movie about making a movie or something. fantasy and reality all mixed up somehow. just to cover the bases, police interviewed mark twitchell's crew members and they vouched for him completely. mark twitchell came off squeaky clean. his film company was respected, as was he, and bill clark and the edmonton police back at square one by the look of things. coming up, soon, this tough cop would catch a big break. >> we got a phone call from a detective. the detective says you won't believe it but this guy just told me he found a red mazda out there. >> the missing man's car turns up when dateline continues. urns up when dateline continues. -cologuard®? 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keith morrison: (voiceover) in fact, bill clark is an old-school detective, the sort that seems to exist more on the big screen than the mean streets. in fact, clark is such a throwback, the younger guys on the fourth kid him. they call him simple it's after the old hard-nosed detective on the top show, nypd blue. >> i still like coming to work every day. it's just part of my life. i still have the drive. i'm still excited about it. >> in his decades on the edmonton police force, clark and scene murder take many forms, had seen the shattering effect it has on the family. >> you are the one the family depends on and i take that seriously. ultimately, that is in the back of your mind, that if you don't speak for the family or the dead guy, who is going to? >> for clark, there is no greater satisfaction than bringing in a killer. >> i consider myself a pitbull. you get a case and you get your teeth into it. we want to get the guy, we want to get this guy and put them away. >> as for the john altinger case, this wasn't even a murder, at least, not as far as anyone new yet, so clark kept himself on a tight leash . he had yet to smell blood. he must've come to some point where you thought oh, there is definitely foul play here. >> no, not at all. >> all that they had, after all, was a missing man, johnny, who might just have driven off somewhere with her without some mystery woman named jen. certainly that would account for the fact that his red mazda coop was gone, too, but really aside from a few curious emails that might or might not make any sense, there was not much to go on, so being cops, clark and his colleagues employed standard procedure. they double back for a second look at things, like the garage johnny was apparently headed for when he vanished. >> we are thinking our next step logically as the garage. >> so, they applied for a search warrant and it was rejected. >> it gets turned down because we are told we have not proven there was a crime committed. >> so, the next step seemed simple enough. clark went to mark twitchell directly to see if he would give permission to search the garage. >> he goes yeah. i says i'll need you to sign a consent form. he goes no problem. >> they requisitioned the form, one of the detectives drove it over to mark's place to get a signature and then, the weirdest thing. >> i get a phone call from the detective. the detective says to me he says you won't believe it, but the guy just told me he bought a red mazda. >> a red mazda and didn't john altinger drive a red mazda and was in it missing? mark twitchell had not said anything about a red mazda when he came down to the police station and spoke to the detective the night before. he said he forgot. really? why would he forget i like that ? >> you don't want to get tunnel vision. i for homicide investigation, don't get tunnel vision so keep an open mind so i pull myself back. there is something fishy going on. >> clark invited twitchell to come back down to the station for a meeting at 10:30 on sunday night, and twitchell agreed. >> everything you do now, we are analyzing. we caught the up arrow down our scenario. the burial -- and up arrow for marcuse cooperative. the missing car, big down arrow. >> but, that's about all clark had to work with. >> we are just here trying to find this john fellow, john altinger. >> i don't know what's happened to johnny. >> because, once again, as the interview proceeds, the young filmmaker is the very picture of cooperation. he volunteers information, answers questions without hesitation or guile. his demeanor is expensive. even an untrained eye can see twitchell's body language is open, comfortable, and control. so, they get to the story about the red monster. he was approached, he said, a few blocks from his rented garage by an agitated man. it was the night johnny disappeared. the man seemed desperate to get rid of his car, said mark. he offered to sell it for practically nothing. >> he goes well, i shacked up with this really rich lady, you know, it's like a sugar mama kind of situation and she's going to take care of me and she's going to buy me a new car will we get back from a vacation regular take. and i and okay, is there like cocaine in the truck? i'm trying to figure out what the catch is here. >> apparently, said mark, there was no catch, and nothing wrong with the car except that it had a standard transmission, which he didn't know how to drive, so he left it parked in a friend's driveway. >> does he live close by? >> yes, a couple of blocks away. >> is it finally a break? the detective monitoring the interview sent a patrol car to check it out and sure enough, there it was, empty, by the look of it. >> nothing untoward about the car. johnny is not in the car. >> meanwhile, bill clark left the interview room partly to regroup, but also to see how mark would act when they left him alone, and if he was rattled, he certainly didn't show it. here, he calmly placed a call to his wife. >> well, i tried to answer some more questions and fill them in and everything like that and it turns out that the car is, in fact, belonging to this missing guy and that it's a huge deal. that's what this whole thing is about. >> what in heavens name was going on? bill clark still did not have a clue. but he might in a minute, because bill clark good cop was about to become bill clark bad cop. coming up -- >> there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that you are involved in the disappearance of john altinger. >> you might be involved, but what was fact and what was fantasy? when dateline continues. when dateline continues. nexium 24hr prevents heartburn acid for twice as long as pepcid. get all-day and all-night heartburn acid prevention with just one pill a day. choose acid prevention. choose nexium. nexgard® plus helps you protect your dog from fleas, ticks, heartworm disease, and more... all in one delicious, monthly, soft chew. use with caution in dogs with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. nexgard® plus: the one you want for one-and-done protection. nexium 24hr prevents heartburn acid before it begins. get all-day and all-night heartburn acid prevention with just one pill a day. choose acid prevention. choose nexium. israel is saying they rescued four hostages during a raid in gaza. the hostages were kidnapped during the nova music festival october 7th last year. officials meanwhile say more than 200 palestinians were killed in strikes by israel nearby, marking one of the bloodiest single days seen in eight months of war. pro-palestinian protesters descended on the white house to voice their frustration with the president's handling of the israel hamas war so far. for now, back to dateline. almost 4:00 a.m. now, downtown edmonton. filmmaker mark twitchell was sitting in an interview room at the playstation tasking -- talking to his wife on the phone, fading a little. outside the room, detective bill clark watch twitchell, went over a few notes, prepared to switch tactics. >> it's already started. the game is on. it's me against him. i know it. >> he also knew, he was quite sure of it, that all evening, mark twitchell had been handing him a whole load of nonsense and expecting him to believe it but also, all evening, as detective clark listened carefully and contemplated his up arrows and down arrows -- >> i agreed with everything he said. this is not the time of the interview to start pushing. it was not the time to start confronting him. that would come later on. >> because, one of those down arrows led to a particular conclusion. mark twitchell thought clark was a dumb cop. twitchell was trying to play him. while you are reading him during that interview, he had been reading you. >> no doubt. >> he probably had made some judgments about your ability as an interviewer. what did he think of you, do you think? >> i think he didn't think i was that smart. i think he thought he was smarter than me and i believe that he felt that anything he told us, he could concoct to make us believe him. >> and of course, there is only one proper response to that. >> i just let him go then taken back through it. question-and-answer, standard procedure, just nail down the details now. now i'm starting to see he's not remembering specific details. >> let's go back to your lunch. you are at lunch. would you go for lunch? >> don't remember. >> don't know where you want for lunch? >> no. >> so now, it was early morning. they had been at it for hours. they had taken a break and let mark twitchell sit by himself and perhaps stew a bit and now had time for clark to play a different role. >> we done the good cop routine. now my forte, the bad cop is coming in. this is what i like. this is what i relish. there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that you are involved in the disappearance of john altinger. no doubt in my mind at all. >> i? >> now i'm going to start hammering him with what i know. the problem is, i know very little. >> but, now that was perfectly clear to mark twitchell that he was a suspect in the disappearance and maybe a murder, his easy camaraderie seemed to shrivel. his eyes glazed with something that looked like fear . was he truly innocent? or, was something else going on, something more in keeping with his role as a storyteller? >> why can't you give me the version of events that night? >> has i'm scared. >> as the night dragged on, twitchell doubled something about reality seeming more like some sort of fantasy. but, in the face of all of detectives clark's accusations, mark twitchell never wavered. for nearly four hours, he answered clark's questions always polite, apparently helpful, did not as much as ask for a lawyer. >> a by the end of the night? >> i got nothing. my gut instinct at that time is that the sky is involved up to his neck in this but what exactly he's done, i don't know yet, but i'm going to find out. >> finally, at daybreak, mark twitchell let clark know he'd had enough. >> in my being charged? >> not yet. >> am i free to go? >> yes. >> and i will. >> okay. >> and then, as bill clark escorted mark twitchell out of the building and into the early morning dark, he ups the ante a little, told twitchell he was seizing his car . >> then he goes -- he almost stopped and pulled back and he goes well, i need to get something out of it and i says you're getting nothing. i'm taking that car. >> and, it was then, as clark approached twitchell's car to take it to the impound yard, that he noticed mark's unusual license plate personalized dark jedi. coming up. >> i have never in my life felt fear like that. >> police find witnesses who saw something that seemed like a horror movie. >> it's like every nightmare you had as a child after watching a scary movie, every nightmare you've ever had. all of a sudden it's right here. >> when dateline continues. here. >> when dateline continues. is no exception. it's time you had a proven choice to help restore what's yours. opzelura is the first and only fda-approved prescription treatment for nonsegmental vitiligo. proven to help repigment skin over time. restoring what's yours. it's possible with a steroid-free cream that you can apply yourself. opzelura can lower your ability to fight infections including tb or hepatitis b or c. serious lung infections, skin cancer, blood clots, and low blood cell counts occurred with opzelura. in people taking jak inhibitors, serious infections, increased risk of death, lymphoma, other cancers, and major cardiovascular events have occurred. the most common side effects were acne and itching where applied. repigmentation is possible. ask your dermatologist today about starting or refilling opzelura. pursue it. ♪ you're the one that i want ♪ nexgard® combo is the only monthly topical that protects against fleas, ticks, tapeworms, and more. use with caution in cats with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. nexgard combo,... ♪ you're the one that i want ♪ ...the monthly one-and-done you want. everybody wants super straight, super white teeth. they want that hollywood white smile. new sensodyne clinical white provides 2 shades whiter teeth and 24/7 sensitivity protection. i think it's a great product. it's going to help a lot of patients. diabetes can serve up a lot of questions. like what is your glucose and can you have more carbs? before you decide with the freestyle libre 3 system know your glucose and where it's heading no fingersticks needed. now the world's smallest and thinnest sensor sends your glucose levels directly to your smartphone. manage your diabetes with more confidence and lower your a1c. the #1 cgm prescribed in the u.s. try it for free at freestylelibre.us ♪♪ stay ahead of your moderate-to-severe eczema. and show off clearer skin and less itch with dupixent, the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, that helps heal your skin from within. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. ask your eczema specialist about dupixent. keith morrison: edmonton homicide detective bill clark, ask your eczema specialist along with other members of the edmonton police service, felt a little like alice in the rabbit hole. their missing man, johnny altinger, had vanished without a trace. and there were whispers his disappearance could be part of some publicity stunt. their only suspect was an aspiring movie producer, a storyteller, who stood up to a bill clark grilling with his manners intact, even though, by this time, clark couldn't edmonton homicide detective bill clark along with other members of the edmonton police service felt a little like alice in the rabbit hole. they're missing man, john altinger, had vanished without a trace and there were whispers his disappearance could be part of some publicity stunt. their only suspect was an aspiring movie producer storyteller who stood up to a bill clark grilling with his man is intact even though by this time, clark could not shake the gut feeling that this movie director was one very bad day. >> i was thinking he had filmed whatever he did done to johnny. i was thinking he had killed him and filmed the murder. >> so, as police looked through twitchell's car and home, they had the idea they might find videotape of her murder. instead, what they discovered was an affair. twitchell had a girlfriend and when his wife found out about that, she kicked him out. but, twitchell seemed, at least to the outside world, unperturbed and instead of falling apart, he simply retreated to his childhood home and moved in with his parents and so, clark paid twitchell's dad and mom a visit. >> they just struck me as a parent for her son does nothing wrong where's the father wanted to hear what i had to say, and he listened but he got over it. >> they set up a surveillance team, 24 hour watch to keep an eye on the house and twitchell, but his behavior was anything but suspicious. he went on about his business, took meetings with investors about his movie project, even picked up a $35,000 check from his financial backer. >> the mark twitchell i was dealing with was articulate, in control, running his project the way you would expect any entrepreneur to be running his project. >> in detective clark's world of up arrows and down arrows there was one more huge up arrow in twitchell's favor. motive, or that is to say the lack of one. there was no earthly reason for twitchell to kill altinger. there was no love triangle, no rivalry, there was no robbery and to put it more simply, twitchell was not a criminal. did not have a record, had never even been arrested. why would a young, married father killed a perfect stranger? so, besides twitchell, police also focus their attention on this quiet suburban neighborhood around twitchell's rented garage studio where john altinger may have gone to see a woman he met online. they went door-to-door , had anyone seen john altinger or his car or anything suspicious? they found this couple who told a story that seemed almost lifted from a horror movie. >> i have never in my life felt fear like that. >> these two, their names are marissa and trevor, were out for an evening stroll when they stepped through the looking glass. it happened when a young man came stumbling out of this alley and collapsed in front of them. >> he was on the ground and it was just an instant bad feeling. >> he looked up and said i'm being robbed. can you help me? >> then, as if on cue, another man. in pursuit. >> as i looked up the attacker almost ran into me. >> the attacker was wearing a dark, hooded sweatshirt and a hockey mask. >> it's like every nightmare you have as a child after watching a scary movie. every nightmare you've ever had. all of a sudden, it's right here. >> this was no bewitching hour. it was 7:30, and early autumn sun had just begun to take on the glow of a long, northern evening. neighborhood kids were still struggling home from soccer practice. >> is it believable to you? >> yes and no, because the way that he fell, to me, looked staged. >> to get us to stop so they could grab us. >> yeah, we thought it was a set up for us. >> so, you did not know whether he was going to assault you or whether he was running from that guy for real. >> exactly. >> then, so trevor and marissa, the masked man retreated into the alley to this garage. >> that is where he stood. he stood there like he was protecting something. >> i was like, i'm getting out of here right now. >> trevor and marissa left the man on the ground pleading for help like some seasoned method actor and left. when i got home, they called the police, so squad cars prowled the streets as the autumn wind -- light angled toward the horizon but in that quiet, nothing seemed out of place. nothing amiss. that was that until weeks later when police came back here looking for john altinger . was the guy in the alley actually johnny, not an actor, was he a real victim? one of the detectives went downtown to check on the report taken from trevor and marissa, and it didn't fit. that call was taken a week before johnny disappeared. besides, no victim ever came forward. no one claimed to have been attacked by a masked man. the whole thing sounded almost like , well, like a scene from the movie. coming up, or just maybe, a tv show about a serial killer. >> what attracted you to director? >> what i loved about the show in the books is how he was able to explore that darkside, rationalize that it's okay to kill somebody because this person deserves it in a way. >> and dateline continues. y. >> and dateline continues. but this is my story. 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(mom) my turn. i'm sensing an underlying issue. it's t-mobile. it started when we tried to get him under a new plan. but they they unexpectedly unraveled their “price lock” guarantee. which has made him, a bit... unruly. you called yourself the “un-carrier”. you sing about “price lock” on those commercials. “the price lock, the price lock...” so, if you could change the price, change the name! it's not a lock, i know a lock. so how can we undo the damage? we could all unsubscribe and switch to xfinity. their connection is unreal. and we could all un-experience this whole session. okay, that's uncalled for. to light under the northern sun, especially with the aid of a search warrant. as bill clark and his colleagues closed in on movie maker mark strange things come to light under the northern son, especially with the head of a search warrant. as bill clark and his colleagues closed in on moviemaker mark twitchell, they seized his office computer, found in his house, and on the computer's hard drive, they found this video that looked almost like a movie. a horror movie. no, it was not a snuff film, was not john altinger's murder caught on tape. it was raw footage of one of twitchell's tease films, the one he had told the detective about the first time he'd talked to him. >> it's a suspense thriller, actually. it's a short film. >> "house of cards" is what twitchell was calling it. get enough people talking about this and he might persuade some investor to ante up the money for a feature-length film. in house of cards, killer poses online as a flirtatious woman to entrap her victim. in this scene, it is a philandering husband who tells his wife he's heading off to the gym. but, once he arrives at the rendezvous site, the victim is dropped with a stun baton. murdered, then cut up into little bits. imagine a cross between friday the 13th and dexter. the victim in this teaser version was played by edmonton comedian, chris hayward. so, police decided to have a little chat with mr. hayward, but when they showed up at his door, hayward, no slouch when it came to the entertainment business, thought it was a prank of some sort. >> i worked on reality television. it was one of the first things i got into television on. they throw you curveballs and they have writers and i didn't know. i thought somebody's making this up. this can't be true. this is not a real story. >> police also tracked down toronto actor robert barnsley who played the starring role of the deranged mass murderer. >> i was thinking great sure and fill out the short film. i like the idea of this. of course i want to try to be the killer. he seemed like a very normal guy trying to do a film. very nice, very pleasant. >> playing a serial killer was almost too much fun, said barnsley. >> it got kind of scary for i enjoyed it too much. >> you got to be a sadist big- time. >> absolutely. very fun for me to play. i rather enjoyed doing it. i was thinking my to myself, that i just think i could do this and make it believable? >> which, said barnsley, was exactly what director twitchell seemed to want. >> there's a point where i had to stab the dummy through the chest with a samurai sword and he was sitting behind the chair he'd be leaning in and say okay listen, when you're turning the blade, grit your teeth and really show that you're enjoying it. >> wait a minute, was this all about enjoying some fantasy game, pretending to be evil? detectives surfed around twitchell's computer account and discovered a facebook relationship that was all about pretending. at about the time he started filming house of cards, twitchell befriended an animal trainer and aspiring filmmaker, a woman named renee wary. and edmonton detective flew all the way to cleveland to question her, where she, right up front about it, told him about clicking on an intriguing facebook profile, dexter morgan. >> there was a picture of michael c hall, the actor who portrays dexter morgan on showtime. >> did you think you are friending the actor himself? >> sure, you know. >> what attracted you to dexter? >> what i love about the show in the books is how he was able to explore that darkside and rationalize that it's okay to kill somebody because this person deserved it, in a way. we flirted back and forth and i kept asking him who are you really, tell me who you are because i want to see the man behind the mask. >> finally, rene's facebook friend relented. no, he was not actor michael c hall, he admitted. his name was mark twitchell. >> once he told me who he was, i checked them out, you know. i did a lot of research online and found out that he was legitimate and he was up-and- coming. >> for rene, the would-be filmmaker, this seemed like her big break. >> he expressed interest in me and my writing styles and my ideas. >> what did he like about your writing style? >> you never said specifically. he just said i think we have, you know, like chemistry together and how we would be able to work very well together , and that we thought a lot alike. >> this had to be pretty exciting. >> yes. >> soon, she was intoxicated by this online collaboration and then wonder of wonders, he offered her work on his next project, the feature-length version of his short film, a film, he told her, about a serial killer. >> we had talked about our hypotheticals about how to kill somebody and get away with it. he told me well, you do it like dexter because dexter shows you how to do it all the time. >> dark? yes, but all in fun, of course, like twitchell's playful advice on eliminating, and dexter -like fashion, one of rene's rival in romance. >> with both her hands wrapped in duct tape, free one arm and slit the wrist. a hunters game processing kit comes with everything you need to cut the body into nice, manageable pieces. >> disturbing? yes but remember, all pretense. but then, a couple of weeks later, and this is what she told the police, something happened, strange and unsettling. there was a weekend-long pause in their play talk about dexter the darkside. not a single email from her friend, mark twitchell. then, when they came in with it, an apology that also had something else keeping me busy, he wrote. i'm really concerned about telling anyone because of the implications. suffice it to say i crossed the line on friday. and, i liked it. crossed the line? what did that mean? coming up. was this all part of an elaborate hoax? a staged fantasy were something truly terrifying, when dateline continues. truly terrifying, when dateline continues. 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(vo) new and existing customers get iphone 15 on us when they trade in any iphone. verizon what causes a curve down there? who can treat this? stop typing, and start talking. it could be a medical condition called peyronie's disease, or pd. you're not alone, there is hope. find a specialized urologist who can diagnose and treat pd. visit makeapdplan.com today. nexium 24hr prevents heartburn acid for twice as long as pepcid. get all-day and all-night heartburn acid prevention with just one pill a day. choose acid prevention. choose nexium. keith morrison: (voiceover) it was choose acid prevention. halloween in edmonton, canada. halloween, a highlight in most any child's fantasy calendar, the night to be the terrible creature she it was halloween and edmonton, canada. i highlight almost any child's fennessey calendar, the night the terrible creature could never really be. mark twitchell loved halloween. spent weeks, months actually, stitching together getups, outlandish costumes. in 2008, weeks after his wife kicked him out and cops began tailing him everywhere, he decided to be ironman. built the costume in his parents garage. but, on the very witchy afternoon, hours from his planned grand entrance to a gala halloween party, as he was walking to a local coffee house to meet with potential movie investors, he was thrown to the ground by men wearing their own unique costumes. members of the s.w.a.t. team. mark twitchell was handcuffed and charged with the murder of johnny altinger. that made big headlines. police even held a press conference to announce the arrest. the reporters who had gathered were left with one juicy tidbit. >> we have a lot of information that he idolizes dexter. >> we went to his facebook page. >> steve was a crime reporter for the edmonton journal. >> he had a post that said mark twitchell is too much in common with dexter morgan and the idea that there's a man out there who is attacking strangers, innocent victims, it's almost myth. something built up by hollywood. it didn't seem like it could be real. >> in edmonton, the question began to circulate. had the cops been played by a clever promoter? >> mark twitchell is known as a prankster. people thought it was a hoax. >> you almost wonder whether or not he was doing it as a publicity stunt. >> exactly. so maybe, bill clark and the rest of the police force would wind up with red faces and not just from the cold. except, there was one little bit of news police did not announce. when they searched twitchell's car, they found a laptop and on the hard drive at that laptop, very smart detective found a deleted temporary file. a document about 40 pages long. could be described as a diary, maybe a far-fetched novel right treatment for a dexter episode. it was called sk confessions. it was a first person account written from the perspective and aspiring serial killer. >> i remember reading this the first day when they brought it down and i said holy mackerel, this tells us everything. >> except he's a professional storyteller who tells, you know, movies. they are not real. weren't you afraid you might be about to be drawn into a rabbit hole? something that might be true or not be true, it might be f&s e- >> absolutely. we had huge discussions about this. >> it read more like a work of fiction. like a story that could not possibly be true. it seems like a hoax right from the opening paragraph. >> this is the story of my progression into becoming a serial killer. i don't remember the exact place and time it was i decided to be a serial killer, but i remember the sensation that hit me. it was a rush of pure euphoria. there was something about exploring my dark side the greatly appealed to me. >> the author seemed inspired by the tv show dexter. >> i'm a huge fan of the showtime series dexter, as you may have guessed, if you're at all familiar with the show. >> and a particular scene played an important role. >> i watched an episode of dexter where the flashback showed his father showing dexter a scan of the human brain. he identify the difference between a serial killer sprain in a normal person's brain. i was convinced that what i was was my own decision, my own path, but now i truly wondered if i had little choice at all. of genetics play a bigger role than i thought. i knew i was a psychopath further than he sociopaths because i had the perfect upbringing and no history of abuse, violence, or trauma. >> in sk professions, it's graphic. how the killer dispatches victims with a mental -- mental pipe. >> i thrusted in his gut. his reaction was pure hollywood. the lurch forward with the grant was dead on tv movie of the week. >> the little i knew at the time and the things i found, thought it was true. >> cops can have hunches and think what they want, but this hunches really hold up in court. sk confessions could be a make- believe story, might not be written by twitchell. it could've been downloaded from the internet . investigators started going through sk confessions line by line, to see if they could sort out fact from fiction. and, indeed, police found details that lined up with reality. the writer in his first person account tells the reader how he used a processing kit to dismember the victim's body and police found a processing kit in twitchell's garage. the killers said he tried to burn the victim's body in an oil drum and his parents backyard. at twitchell's parents backyard, they found a burned ring on the back lawn. there was a detail about the killer getting a speeding ticket and so did twitchell about the time that johnny altinger disappeared. >> he joked about it about how this dumb cop didn't realize he had just killed a guy. he was now going out to celebrate and have sex with his girlfriend. >> -- >> the cop remembered up. it came back and we know the conversation. it was basically word for word that story told us. exactly what the sheriff told us. >> there was a key part of the story that could not be verified. a passage that goes on for pages about an earlier attack, but that victim got away. that part of the story read like that directly from the house of cards grip where the victim is tasered by man wearing a hockey mask and hood. >> it's a big part to prove it's true or not. it was a huge part. >> if someone had been attacked that way, you would've heard of it. >> exactly. we got nothing. no call. nothing that even matches the similarity. >> is seem to be one part of the story that -- >> didn't make sense. >> they went public and released a photo of the hockey mask. >> that what week somebody's memory that that was me. >> it was a longshot, really. maybe that person did not exist. they put it out there. they waited. not for long. because, that very evening, a lonely casino security officer named gilles tetreault was puttering on his computer and saw the newspaper article online. the police appeal. they felt the blood drain from his face. that person was him. >> i am like, oh my god. it's the same hockey mask as i saw, that the guy was wearing. i started reading the story. oh, my god, someone got killed. >> that terrifying evening came crashing back into his head. it was he, gilles tetreault, who so frightened that couple out for a stroll. he picked up the phone and before long found himself in a little room with detective bill clark. >> in my career, it was probably the most spellbinding interview i've ever had with a witness. >> now, you are about to hear that story firsthand. >> coming up. >> all of a sudden i see this man wearing this black and gold hockey mask. this guy was bigger than me. >> the horror story really happened. >> life flash before my eyes. oh, my god. my family will never see me again. again. govy®. ♪ ♪ with wegovy®, i lost 35 pounds. and some lost over 46 pounds. ♪ ♪ and i'm keeping the weight off. wegovy® helps you lose weight and keep it off. i'm reducing my risk. wegovy® is the only fda-approved weight-management 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[coughing] copd isn't pretty. i'm out of breath, and often out of the picture. but this is my story. ( ♪♪ ) and with once-daily trelegy, it can still be beautiful. because with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open for a full 24 hours and prevents future flare-ups. trelegy also improves lung function, so i can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ [laughing] ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy for copd because breathing should be beautiful, all day and night. ceover) when gilles tetreault joined because breathing should be beautiful, the strange developing horror movie plot up in edmonton, gilles tetreault joined the developing horror movie plot in edmonton, canada. a man with a broken heart. lonely in a new city without the wife who had left him for another life. >> she just wanted to move on? >> she fell out of love with me, i guess. >> that's not easy. when he came across that lovely, intelligent woman on an online dating site and she seemed to like him? well, who could resist. >> she looked beautiful in her profile. i believe i made the first contact. >> what did she say about herself? >> she said she was new in town and looking to meet people. i found it a coincidence. so was i kind of thing. >> with a view alone and looking to meet someone. >> i thought this is perfect. >> sheena was her name. >> she said how about dinner and a movie. she started making excuses that i couldn't pick her up at her front door. >> so has stayed asked him to park in an alley and comes right back entrance, through a detached garage. >> she would leave the garage door open and i would go through the garage to the other side, get into the yard and knock on the back door to pick her up. i didn't have to crawl under it. i just had to squat. >> hopeful, unsuspecting, he walked through the garage door, the store, that leads to the back patio. >> i touched the not and all of a sudden somebody attacked me from behind. i turned back to look to see what's going on. that is when, all of a sudden, i see this man wearing this black and gold hockey mask. this guy was much bigger than me. prodding me with a stun gun. >> at first gilles couldn't tell what it was this stinging at the back of his neck. but listen to this from sk confessions? >> pressing the baton across the back of his neck, pulled the trigger. shocked and jump but did little more than merely alert him to what was going on. >> i tried to make a run for it. that's when he pulled out a gun. >> what is that like when somebody pulls a gun on you? >> terrified. i didn't know what to do. oh, my god, i think i'm going to die and i cannot get away. there is no way i can escape a bullet. i felt a sick feeling. >> i pointed it at him and all of a sudden he took me seriously. his eyes wide. >> then he yells, get down on the ground. put your face down and close your eyes and put your hands in the back. he took out duct tape. he ripped off a piece. that's when he covered my eyes with them. >> just about then, gilles tetreault decided hits come to the moment of his death. >> i started tearing up. it was like life flashed before my eyes. it was quite emotional. oh, my god. my family is never going to see me again. i never told anyone where i was going that day. all of a sudden, by my legs, i hear his belt jiggling. >> what gilles heard was the sound of handcuffs as they neared his wrists. he said he felt the attacker was undoing his belt. >> i thought, he is going to rape may. i better fight for my life. i would rather die my way than his way. i knew he's going to pull the gun out again. you know what? if it kills me, it kills me. >> gilles makes his move. >> i darted for the gun. grabbed the end and pushed it away from my body. >> but this fight is far from over. >> he comes after me and grabs my legs. he starts dragging me back. me e of your health. centrum gives every body a healthy foundation. supporting your - oops - energy, immunity and metabolism. and yours too! you did it! plus try centrum silver, now clinically proven to support memory in older adults. hi, i'm janice and i lost 172 pounds on golo. now clinically proven a friend told me that i was the only one holding me back from being as beautiful on the outside as i am on the inside. once i saw golo was working i felt this rush. golo really works. norman, bad news... i never graduated from med school. what? -but the good news is... xfinity mobile just got even better! now, you can automatically connect to wifi speeds up to a gig on the go. plus, buy one unlimited line and get one free for a year. i gotta get this deal... i know... faster wifi and savings? ...i don't want to miss that. that's amazing doc. mobile savings are calling. visit xfinitymobile.com to learn more. doc? he'd been lured into a garage then assaulted by a masked man gilles tetreault was in a battle for his life. had been lured into a garage and assaulted by masked man with the gun. now he is determined to turn the tables. >> get up and rip off the duct tape and i yell at them. i said, i can't do this. i'm not going down like this. he started yelling at me. it back down on the ground. back down on the ground. i darted for the gun. grabbed the end and pushed it away from my body. >> he got back to his feet, having removed the duct tape. when i pointed the gun at him again, he grabbed a. >> it was the best feeling i felt in my life because i felt plastic when i grabbed it. >> immediately. who suddenly realized? >> it was a fake gun. >> i think i might've seen a gleam that indicated he felt the gun construction a realized it was not real. >> i grabbed him by the arms and we're struggling all over the garage. >> according to sk confessions, by fighting back, had taken the story off script. >> overestimating the stun baton is a mistake i would not repeat. i should've just pounded him on the back of the head while he was down until he lay unconscious on the floor. >> i tried to kick him. he saw me going to do that, so he actually went and swiped my leg and i almost fell down. i almost lost my shoe. i am thinking, i can't get down. if i get down on the ground, -- >> you are cooked. >> exactly. >>'s adrenaline had been pumping and he was unaware how the shock from the stun baton had sapped his strength. >> my muscles could not move. i was so weak. he goes forward and tries to headbutt meet -- me. that's when he says, because you did not cooperate, this is the way it has to be. he starts punching me in the head. >> he stumbled back with every blow, closer and closer to the open garage door. >> i am letting him punch me. he punches me again. he grabs my jacket so i slipped out of my jacket and ruled under the garage door. i made it out of the garage. i start to try to run. all of a sudden, it's like my legs were paralyzed. i could not move. i fell on my face. >> a nightmare where you can get away from that monster. >> i start crawling away on this unpaved driveway. sure enough, he comes underneath the garage after me. grabs my legs and he starts dragging me back. i'm thinking, oh, my god, i don't know how i will get away again. i have nothing left. there's nothing else i can do. underneath the door. >>au he drags me back and throw me back into the garage underneath the door. i'm thinking, he does not have a hold of me anymore. this is my chance. i can maybe get away again and i roll underneath the garage door. i got back up, and in my head, i was like, there is no way i am not running this time. >> terrified. exhausted, gilles tetreault ran 30 or 40 feet to this pedestrian path and that's when he collapsed in front of trevor and marissa. >> i look up and i see a couple walking their dog. i couldn't really talk. all i could say is there's a man after me. he is trying to mug me, please, help me. >> they looked stunned. they didn't know what was going on. to me, felt like it was taking the masked man forever to come after me. but he came running after me. he comes close to me and i tell him them, that's the man. >> as i looked up, the attacker almost ran into me. >> once he saw the couple, he said, come on, frank. >> the guy was pretending they were friends. >> he was pretending he was going to live the mask like we were playing. then he does. he turns around and starts walking back to the garage. >> i stared back at them through my mask and then headed back for the cover of my layer. >> it was only once he arrived safe at home that gilles tried to put it together. how? what in the world just happened? who was the man behind the mask? and why had he been attacked? >> i decided i need to go back onto that online dating website. i want to get as much information as i can so i can give it to police. i go back on and all of a sudden, everything was gone. her profile was gone. although sent and received messages i got from the person were all gone. >> what is it like to be sitting alone in front of your computer with that realization in your head? >> it felt almost ashamed. i can't believe i got duped by this woman. i just want to put this behind me. i want to move on. >> and did not call the police. >> no, did not. i had no idea. >> for weeks, i had nightmares. i kept githinking, maybe this g is following me. maybe he's going to attack me again. i was terrified. >> i was facing him there with a gun. >> a month after his journey into the twilight zone, gilles tetreault was giving bill clark a videotape blow-by-blow of the assault. >> there's no doubt he is being truthful. >> the cops had real evidence that sk confessions was all true. except, it was not quite complete. it was a story without an end. >> the part we never had, we never had johnny. >> johnny altinger. the victim who it seemed did not escape from this suburban garage, still no sign of him. unless, just about then the detectives uncovered some of the, updated version of sk confessions. there was one more chapter. in which the killer leaves a clue. impossible to resist. >> the police take mark twitchell on a journey to the place where something evil had happened. >> here we are back at the killing garage. killing garage. nexium 24hr prevents heartburn acid for twice as long as pepcid. get all-day and all-night heartburn acid prevention with just one pill a day. choose acid prevention. choose nexium. nexgard® plus helps you protect your dog from fleas, ticks, heartworm disease, and more... all in one delicious, monthly, soft chew. use with caution in dogs with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. nexgard® plus: the one you want for one-and-done protection. i still love to surf, snowboard, or neurologic disorders. and, of course, skate. so, i take qunol magnesium to support my muscle and bone health. qunol's extra strength, high absorption magnesium helps me get the full benefits of magnesium. qunol, the brand i trust. i'm richard lui. is real saying it rescued four hostages during a raid in gaza who had been kidnapped by hamas during the music festival october 7. officials say more than 200 palestinians were killed by airstrikes nearby. marks one of the bloodiest single days and eight months of war so far. a 3-year-old horse took the victory in the 156 running of the belmont stakes. there was no triple crown champion is over two different winners in the kentucky derby and preakness stakes. loved the tv show "dexter," was so taken with the whole idea the would be movie direction or dashed director loved the tv show dexter. so taken with the whole idea that he posted this online ad, attempt to sell the script for his house of cards short film as if it were an original dexter episode. in fact, the story of his computer, the one called sk confessions is a lot like an episode of the tv show. now, here in his rented garage, police found what looked like a kill room. there was plastic sheeting. autopsy table. all matching the careful descriptions in sk confessions. what the killer could not learn from dexter's how to dispose of the body. the tv dexter lives in miami, dumps his victims in the atlantic. but, edmonton in the middle of thousands of square miles of farmland and oilfields has hundreds of miles from the ocean and that fact seem to have stymied the sk controller who up had no idea how to get rid of the remains. perhaps it never occurred to him to put the body in the trunk of a car and drive it past city limits and bury it behind some old abandoned barn. so, according to sk confessions, tried burning them. that did not work. he thought about throwing them in the saskatchewan river there one town but was afraid someone would see him. he finally decided to toss them down one of the thousands of storm drains. >> the diary had got to a point where he talked about dumping the body in a sewer and then it ended. >> by this time, clark believed that the diary was true. all of it. without a body in a case as bizarre as this one, how could any jury be sure any important parts of this sk confessions wants some fantasy from the dark side? clark confronted twitchell with the evidence hoping he would confess. >> this reminds me of dexter. kill room. clean sweep. you were referring to your garages a kill room. your garage was a kill room. the table is the killed table. it's where you carved him up. i will show you that later but all the blood seeps underneath. the dude dna matching. when i say the show dexter, and you've seen the show. it's all modeled after dexter. you know that. you kind of look like the guy. i look at that picture, i saw the one on your website, you even look the same. he kills people who needs killing. these guys who get off in court. the guys get off on technicality. he kills people who needs killing. the difference here is you killed a guy who really was no harm to society. >> there was no response at all. the next day clark and another detective took twitchell and drove him around edmonton hoping he would give up information. what was his demeanor like? >> defiant. assiduous show is where the body is. will show us where johnny is and drove right here. parked in front of his parents house. >> after that? mark twitchell was taken to a place that was the center of his life. >> here we are the killing garage. the dexter garage. look familiar? we parked on top of the sewer where you'd dumped the body? jog your memory. >> clark even took twitchell to the back of the garage, the suspect a crime scene, hoping it would trigger some level of remorse. >> bring back any memories? want to tell us where the body is? get this over with? okay. >> back in the car, another detective heard of camera starts working on twitchell. >> you humiliate your victim. knocked him over the head. carve him up. chop him up. this pales in comparison. >> twitchell said nothing, at least not in person. he had said plenty in sk confessions, if he was the author. the document was incomplete, ending in a jumble of unrecoverable computer code. >> com hon, we are to the point where he dumped the body and we don't know the location. >> a detective did a slow, methodical search through the desktop computer found in twitchell's home, and it paid up. on the computer, once deleted but now found was yet another version of sk confessions with a view tantalizing paragraphs describing the location of the victim's remains. >> he talks about a specific sewer. how it's off an alley in a grassy area, and an old neighborhood. he talks about telephone poles in the alley. only certain neighborhoods here have telephone poles. the older ones. >> that's about the time bill clark became a man obsessed. >> we were pulling manhole covers up. i'd be with a flashlight and looking down. we would call the city crews in. >> nothing. enough to make a person doubt his sanity. >> coming up. police were about to get some help. a man that open the case. >> they stopped right here. >> a year and a half later, where did you find the body? 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after 1.5 years, call from the city jail, and meet wanted to talk to detectives. his name, mark twitchell. he handed over a print out of this google map. at the bottom of the page there was a handwritten note. location of johnny altinger's remains. >> it was one block south of his parents house and that alley. >> this is the alley behind the home. it matched perfectly with the description from sk confessions, and in fact, this area had been searched by police a year and a half earlier. >> they pulled all these sewers -- >> all the covers? >> all the covers. they searched each one and they found nothing. this block, this area, and they sent cameras down the lines where they go down the lines and sneak them down and found nothing. >> where do they stop? >> about where you and i are standing. >> a year and a half later, where did you find the body? >> right down there. five telephone poles down half a block from where we stopped the search. >> this was johnny altinger's tomb. >> there is a piece of trash >> he probably thought it would get washed away. >> deteriorate to a point where it would be unidentifiable or no one would look. no one would ever look. >> why weeks before his murder trial was set to begin did mark twitchell give up johnny altinger's body? there must've been a reason. because of all the publicity the case generated, the judge slapped a gag order on the press, the police, everybody. which is one the first day of the trial, the disclosure that altinger's body had been uncovered -- >> catches everyone by surprise. >> the reporter is written a book about the case. >> it doesn't get more explosive than that. it was new information no one had heard before. >> the trial only got more bizarre is the prosecution unveiled for the first time sk confessions. sitting in the courtroom became a journey deep into the wilderness of a mind of darkness. >> horde details were written down. no detail was not told within this document. it sounds just like it is fiction, like a script, but when you step back you realize it's a real person. it is a real man who has been murdered. >> was johnny altinger murder? twitchell admitted he dumped the remains down the storm drain, he never said he murdered him. never admitted he was the author of sk confessions. detectives knew they would need more than this document to get a conviction. the quietly build a case on csi basics. take the garage. this is what it looked like during the normal light of day. and this is a photo taken from the same angle minutes later once the floor was sprayed with luminal, the chemical that makes blood glow. >> huge spots in the garage would indicate pooling of blood. we found a piece of a human tooth in the garage. we found blood spatter along the walls and the garage door. hundreds of spots where repeating had taken place. >> also? csi investigators found this gang processing kit. >> hunters would take it to cut up a moose or whatever they have killed. this is what he used and every single tool in the kit had our victim's dna on it. >> in his car, police found other hard evidence. >> we find a knife and there. a knife with blood. >> visible blood? >> visible blood and it matches johnny altinger. >> he left it in the car? >> and the car is a gold mine . it absolutely blows the case wide open. there are yellow sticky notes on the console. one has a map drawn from the garage to johnny altinger's apartment. he kept everything. wrote everything down. >> after the presentation of the hard evidence, his coworkers were called to testify. one of the first was the actor who played the victim in house of cards. on his way to court that morning, he worried. what would happen if twitchell is acquitted? >> i feel he would probably kill me. >> chris was not alone. rene was unsettled too the day she testified but for another reason altogether. >> i didn't want to feel judge. >> because? >> i have dark thoughts and i shared them with a serial killer. >> johnny altinger's friend testified. >> there was nervousness, for sure. and a lot of sadness that day for me. all i can do is speak for john and the person he was. >> a nice man. >> definitely. if things had not turned out the way it did, he would've found what he was looking for in life. >> it was the first time she had gotten a clear look at mark twitchell . >> he seemed like a normal, average person off the street. that is what disturbed me. >> twitchell remained stonefaced even when his wife took the stand. >> she is crying through all of this. mark twitchell's reaction was nearly blank. >> when this video was shown a chord during bill clark's testimony, twitchell became unraveled. >> he starts to cry and tears are streaming down his face. he is getting hysterical. >> the judge recognized and they took a break. >> when it comes back after the break, mark twitchell is no better. still very upset and he is crying. he actually faces detective clark and he starts talking to him. >> he said i am sorry for lying to you. >> this is extraordinary. you never have the accused talking to one of the primary investigators in the middle of their murder trial. >> this was far from the strangest moment of the trial. that came in the case for the defense when the attorney called it one witness. mark twitchell. >> the room was packed. i think everyone was on the edge of their seat wondering what does this guy going to say? >> twitchell finally had an audience. when he had been waiting 2.5 years to tell. >> what a story it was. >> he said you could blend fiction and reality so closely together that everyone would be fooled. fooled. 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multi-angle psychosis/psychosis label entertainment. >> sitting on the beach and there's a palm tree and a beach in front of you but when you pull back, it's not a beach but a picture of a beach. >> the attack on geo tetra was just a stunt. he allowed his parade to escape. and johnny altinger? that was week too just like the first one. but johnny didn't get the joke and furious there was no woman to greet him, tap twitchell with a pipe. >> he's got this knife on his belt and he tells the jury in his testimony that he puts his hand on the handle of the knife and just as johnny is about to come at him, his lifting the pipe over his head and mark twitchell sticks his hands out in front of him and the next thing he sees is the knife in johnny's stomach and blood is on his hands and he collapses on the floor and dies. >> the only inaccuracy is the initial attacker was johnny altinger and he , mark twitchell, disposed of the body and the sewer. police have their answer as to why twitchell gave up the body. it was the prologue of his elaborate tail. >> his defense is a brilliant idea on the surface. he actually found a way to describe an entire police investigation that incriminated him to get him off scott free. >> in ohio, rene was following all of this online. >> i watched the live blog they had, and i was screaming my head off at home. you liar. >> were you afraid the jury would believe him? >> oh, yeah. >> you are looking at for the one person that has that doubt. take the doubt back to the deliberation room. >> gilles tetreault was in course dash cart the day it was completed. >> i got to sit in the second row. she looked back, my mom, and saw me. i didn't know how she would feel. she turned around and looked at me. she smiled. she grabbed my hand. she said i'm so happy you are still with us. that meant so much to me. >> what was that like? >> i didn't know how she would feel toward me. when she did that, it was almost another closing moment for me. >> not for others in the courtroom. apparently not for the jury's deliberations dragged on. >> the time rolled on. people are thinking maybe there is someone out there who actually does believe mark twitchell. >> mark twitchell was a masterful liar, maybe this ultimate fantasy would beguile the jury. then that final audience trooped back into the courtroom and gave him his last review. they found him guilty of the premeditated first-degree murder of johnny altinger . he was sentenced to life in prison. >> i have never been involved in an investigation in my whole career. you theorizes someone has died. there is no doubt we don't always get it right. here we knew exactly what happened to johnny. >> because he told you. >> he told us. ultimately, johnny lettuce to a . and twitchell kept writing about it. he would've kept writing dash cart killing. >> i did mark twitchell murder johnny altinger? was it a thrill killing? or something even darker? >> i think he wanted to experience the feeling of killing and dismembering a body. i think down the road, he was going to produce a film about it . he would be a producer who would tell his cast and crew and actors how to do it and only to himself he would know he has lived it. i think that is what he wanted to do. >> an ohio, rene, twitchell's friend, arrived at the same disturbing theory. >> i think he did it for artistic reasons. >> artistic reasons? >> i think he wanted to see how someone died so he could make a better story. film it better. write about a better. >> in fact, mark twitchell himself offered an answer to all the people who wondered why. he was different, he wrote in his sk confessions. he simply could not feel anyone. and so, intentionally or not, he offered a dismal reason for murdering a perfect stranger. it was a single line at the end of that horror movie of his house of cards when the killer tells his wife >> the best way to succeed is to write what you know. this is" this is" someone at a park at 3:00 am. i am andrea kncanning and this is dateline. >> i can't believe she would meet someone at a park at 3:00 a.m. i think she knew the second she got in his car that something was wrong. >> a college student disappears. >> i'd liketo