Man in her life, but it wouldnt be so simple. She came out, and grabbed me by the arms, and then she called the police. Then there was this secret boyfriend that wasnt telling police all he knew. He wasnt up front in the beginning. Then there was third man. The former colleague with a crush. He shared with friends that he had found the love of his life. So you have three potential suspects. Yeah. Its a tangle. Court investigators unravel it. Were asking ourselves, what does this mean. Would her family ever find justice. This is 17 years of builtup emotions, you know. Im lester holt, and this is dateline. Heres andrea canning. Its a celebration no mother would ever want to miss, a childs fifth birthday, but suddenly, she was gone, out of his life. Theres nothing that anybody could really do to fix, repair that missing part. His mother, Sandy Johnson, was outgoing, energetic and an awesome mom. Those kids were everything to her. So why wasnt she there to sing happy birthday to her son . She disappeared into thin air. She should have seen you get married, go into the military and become a Police Officer one day. Its the toughest thing ive ever had to deal with, you know. It was heartbreaking and baffling. It was a true mystery as to what happened to sandy. That true mystery, what happened to the vibrant young mom who vanished from a Seattle Suburb endured for years. Those who loved Sandy Johnson, those who longed for her return waited almost two decades for answers and a slice of justice. The story starts in april 1996, april 26, to be precise. A friday. In the seattle area, the weather was doing what it does in this part of the world clouding up and spritzing rain. That day, Sandy Johnson, a 28 year old wife and mother had a todo list as long as her arm. She was going to run and do all her errands that day to get ready for her sons Birthday Party the next day. Vickie was a good friend of sandys. They bonded in the hospital ach their sons, both premature were born on the same day. Sandy was a little younger than vickie, a tiny woman with a huge zest for life. I loved being around sandy. Seemed like she really cared about people. No one knew that better than sandys cousins. They all grew up together. Sandy is action, action, do, do, talkative, laugh, shes a mile a minute and gorgeous. Tiny little thing. Tine eye. She wore like a double 0. She modeled . She did some modeling. I remember she did some kind of a bridal thing at one time. That friday, sandy took her day off from her job at a car dealership. Her husband says she was always a mom first. Everything was about the kids, you know, everything revolved around the kids. How excited was she to be a mom . I think she was really excited. I think thats what she wanted. She liked it. Sandy had a plan. The kids would spend time with vickie while she zipped around town. That morning she left vickie a message on her phone. Ill be down right after that. Ill probably see you around 4 00. Okay. Talk to you later, byebye. But 4 00 came and went and no sandy. Vickies hands were full with her kids and sandys. At first she wasnt concerned. I started calling her. Youre not here yet, sandy, and it wasnt like her, and i was feeling frustrated. The hours went by and still no sandy. Vickies frustration turned to anger. But then she started to worry. Around 7 00 that night she began working the phones. We started calling greg and hospitals, the police. We were just on the phones. We were worried. Vickie and her husband kept sandys kids at her home that night. Did you sleep at all that night . Probably not much. Its a fog. Its unreal. Where is she . What could have happened to her . So the next morning still no sandy . Had to get ready to go to the Birthday Party. Just told sean, its okay. Your mom will be there. There was nothing to indicate sandy had left in a hurry and not told anyone. All her stuff is there. Called the police. Called family, my sister. I think i probably called her father. Were you in a panic at this point . Or are you still like, okay, maybe she ended up going out with some friends or no. I was pretty worried, just the circumstances that were at the house. Theres trouble. Something was not right. The Birthday Party for sean went ahead on saturday. There was a cake and some presents, but no sandy. The adults huddled and whispered. The whole time were all trying to talk without kids hearing us about where is she . What happened . I think we made second call to the Police Department in the afternoon. Did you think, okay. Weve got this party. Sandy will show up for the party. That was our hope. We all tried to proceed as normal. Craig was crying like crazy. He had glasses on. He was trying to hide it, but there were tears. Do you remember anything about that day . Your fifth birthday . Unfortunately, i dont, you know. But sean johnson, now 23, knows that was the day his life changed forever. The day the awful questions started. Why isnt my mom around . Why would this have happened . You know. Those were the very questions the police would start asking too. Because that same night they were called to a seattle supermarket. Store employees had noticed an abandoned vehicle in the parking lot. Had was Sandy Johnsons car. Her keys were in it, so was her cell phone, but there was no sign of sandy. Detectives begin the search for sandy, an investigation that would turn into an odyssey. When we return, that first break, finding sandys car, gives police hope, but a second clue will throw them for a loop. Were asking ourselves how does this come together . What does this mean . And if i tap my geico app here i can pay my bill. Tap it here, Digital Insurance id card. And tap it here, boom, roadside assistance. Ontday ooklay, its axwellmay. The igpay . Otallytay. Take an icturepay onephay, onephay really, pig latin . [ male announcer ] geico. Anywhere, anytime. Just an aptay away on the geico appay. [ male announcer ] people shave you, anytime. Pour hot wax on you. They dont treat you like skin. Presenting dove advanced care. Clinically proven to reduce irritation. So you can be a softer, smoother, more beautiful little armpit. Wheeee air wicks snuggle fresh linen you love, anytime you want it. Again, hes sitting in my chair. Uhhuh part of the air wick familiar favorites collection. Air wick. The craft of fragrance. Hours after Sandy Johnson was reported missing, the police made a disturbing discovery. Sandys car, a ford escort skags wagon like this one, was found in the parking lot of a seattle Grocery Store. The doors were unlocked. The keys were in the ignition. Sandys cell phone was lying on the seat, but sandy herself was nowhere to be found. Cousins gina and nancy. When they found sandys cash, did you go from thinking, okay, shes missing. Maybe well find her to shes gone. Shes gone. Oh, i figured if someone had her, thats it. Captain scott strathy, a detective for the King County Sheriffs Department back in 1996 was assigned to the case. It must have been extremely alarming from the perspective of Law Enforcement when you find sandys car abandoned, with the keys and her cell phone inside. At least it gave us an area to focus upon. The vehicle was located in southwestern king county. The cops noted an unusual detail. The drivers seat was pushed back. Sandy, who was tiny, drove with the seat in the forward position, as close to the Steering Wheel as possible. Then, just as they were processing the car, the cops got another break. Sandys wallet was located lying in the parking lot of a hardware store. Oddly enough, it was miles from her car. They were puzzled. Were asking ourselves how does this come together . What does this mean . What does it tell you when you find a car and wallet and no sandy. Sandy had clearly been taken away from her vehicle in some manner. And at that point we were very focused on why was this vehicle located here. Why was her wallet found across town. To detectives, it all added up to foul play. It was a very strange and compelling case. A mother of two small children, essentially just dropped off the radar screen. Was it baffling to the whole Police Department what happened to sandy . Yeah. Her disappearance became a priority with the Sheriffs Office right away. Sandys friends and family put up fliers and joined search parties in the greater seattle area. But there was one notable exception. Were you participating in the search . Not too much. Why not . You know, i just couldnt do that. I just pretty much stayed around the house with the kids and family. Did anyone question that, why isnt he out looking for her . Never questioned me. Maybe amongst themselves. I dont know. But dents were already taking a good, long look at Sandy Johnsons husband, digging for details about the state of the couples marriage. The first thing youre doing is looking at those people closest to the person that is missing. You have to. So it made perfect sense to focus on the husband early on. It always seems like the spouse. In this particular case, we really didnt know the dynamics of what had happened in their marriage. I mean, its up to us to find out what are the details. Detectives learned that sandy met greg at a hockey game in 1990. She pursued him, and he fell fast. She had a lot of energy. A lot of spunk. You seem like you might be a little more lowkey . I am. Was she a good complement to you . A good fit . I think so. In late 1990, sandy got pregnant and the couple married. Sean was born in 1991 and daughter katie followed. In early 1996, four months before sandy disappeared, the marriage hit a rough patch. Greg moved out of the house. Friends told the police there were money pressures, among other things. What went wrong with the relationship . I think she said she couldnt talk to me or communicate with me. And, you know, wed seen a marriage counselor and we were working on some stuff. And i think it was getting, you know, better. You wanted to get back together. Yeah, i wasnt against that at all. But Law Enforcement developed a very different portrait of the marriage and the chances for reconciliation. These are prosecutors with the king County District attorney. They were talking about divorce. They had gotten to the point, and it was assumed that they would be divorced. So that was pretty recent before this happened, within the month before that that decision had been made. And then investigators discovered Something Else that troubled them. Law enforcement learned that they had argued only the day before shed gone missing. There had been sort of a big argument around her people at her place of work. So that, too, focused attention on her estranged husband. The argument was over money, which was a frequent point of dispute with them. He had trouble. She had trouble meeting their bills. Investigators questions were mounting. They had a couple with money problems, a troubled marriage. A husband who didnt search for his wife and fought with her the day before she disappeared. It was time to sit down with greg johnson. How did they treat you in that First Encounter . The police . Yeah, they were like, you know, you did it, you know. Accusing me of, you know, killing my wife. Told my sister that, you know, greg has, you know, did it. The usual suspect was starting to look like the right guy. Coming up. Greg and sandys marriage turns out, it was more trouble than most people knew. She called me one time and just said, its getting really bad. Its to a point, and im just afraid. And then a new very many rocks the case. Must have been a big red flag for police. Yes, Sandy Johnson was missing. Police believed shed been killed, and they were zeroing in on her estranged husband greg. His world had turned upside down. Life changed fast. I mean, i could tell you stories. You know, come home from work, and theres three or four tv stations in front of your house ready to do the 5 00 news. The more investigators talked to sandys family and friends about the couples on the rocks marriage the more suspicious they became of greg. Sandy had confided in her cousin gina boon that living with her husband gotten very difficult. She called me one time and said its really bad. Its to a point, and im just afraid. And i tried to get more information out of her, and she just said i cant talk about it. I just, i said you got to do what you got to do. The evidence wasnt just anecdotal, a loud argument between the couple more than a year before she went missing ended with greg spending a night in jail. I grabbed herbie the arms and sat her down. I didnt hit her or nothing. And then she called the police. And, cause she had, there was marks on her arms. Anytime theres a domestic dispute, cops are called, somebody goes to jail. So im the one who went investigators found the Domestic Violence incident troubling. And when they looked for a possible motive, they found one of the classics money. Were you able to collect a Life Insurance policy . I did. Yes. How much, whats that . It wasnt much, but. Do you have a number . I now what it was. Im not going to say, but it was a substantial amount of money, yeah. Investigators were more and more convinced they had their man. The polygraph they gave greg just days after sandy vanished was key. They asked if id be willing to take a polygraph just to clear my name or whatever. I said sure. I had nothing to hide. What i know is that the polygraph was inconclusive. So i guess at that point they thought it was me. They probably thought it was me before the polygraph. The Police Actually say you failed the polygraph test. Yeah. Im sure they did. So youre disputing that . I am. It was, you know, it was an inconclusive results on the polygraph. Cops felt he failed it, and the results made them even more certain they were on the right track. King county prosecuting attorneys kristin and carla. Craig had not done well on a polygraph test. So they asked if he would take another test. He called a lawyer. The lawyer said you need to stop talking to police right now, and so he did. Nus have been a big red flag for police. Yes, i think it was. Whenever someone flunks a polygraph test police get more suspicious. Greg may have lawyered up, but the police used those poll owe graph tests to ramp up the pressure. They tried to turn my sister against me. Lots of people in town were turning in that direction. In those first dark weeks after sandy went missing, her dear friend vickie full kerrson started to think greg was somehow involved. The police said certain things that would lead you to believe he did it. What did they say . That he didnt pass the test. That there was people at work that heard them fighting. Just enough that it was like, could he have done it . Cops were starting to think so, especially when they considered the domestic incident that put greg in jail, the argument at the dealership the night before she disappeared and the possible money motive. Given the history with greg, was the family immediately looking to greg as a possible . Mmhm. Yes. Suspect in this. Yeah. Were there some family members convinced greg must have done this . I think a few were pretty, you know, you got to put the blame on someone. 100 . How was sandys family looking ought . There was a bunch that, you know, thought that i was the person. And youre telling eaveryone i didnt do this. Right. And there are people who are just not believing you. Yeah. And i get the fact that its, 90 of the time its the husband or the boyfriend. I get that. But it wasnt this time. Did you feel in this case that you were target number one . Oh, yeah. I was the only target. But greg johnson was wrong about that. Clue by clue, investigators were uncovering secrets of sandys. Things her estranged husband didnt know, that would provide them intriguing new suspects. Coming up. Detectives discover what sandys been hiding. A man named jeff. Did he also have a secret . That was suspicious to police, that he wasnt up front about that from the beginning. And then a former colleague of sandys. Was he hiding something too . Cliff looked to be doing everything he could to present himself as a caring and concerned friend. We found out that that was not the real cliff reid. 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Its a flower. Could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Mmmhmmm. Everybody knows that. Well, did you know that old macdonald was a really bad speller . Your word is. Cow. Cow. Cow. C. O. W. E. I. E. I. O. [buzzer] dangnabbit. Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you. Well, you know. The search for the person responsible for the disappearance of Sandy Johnson from a Seattle Suburb was widening. Cops had her husband greg in their cross hairs from the start, but as they dug deeper into sandys last days, they found other people they needed to check out. We had to look at everyone close to sandy at that point in time. Investigators discovered that the recently separated sandy had a friend named jeff cane she kept secret from her estranged husband. She was supposed to meet cane for lunch the day after she disappeared. Cops soon learned there had been more than lunch and the menu. After lunch on that friday she stopped by his house to touch up her tan. She had used the tanning bed and they were going to contact each other by phone the following morning. That revelation made cane the last person known to have seen sandy alive. Cops brought him in for questioning. According to prosecutors, he was alarmed after he learned sandy was missing. He was worried about that. And he tried to get ahold of her and couldnt get ahold of her. Tried to find her. So he finally went over to her house and left a note on her door because he was worried because she had not shown up for lunch. He was one of the last people known to have spoken to him on that friday. Shed spoken to him more recently than snehed spoken to her husband. They grew more suspicious. It turned out cane hadnt been totally candid about the relationship with sandy. He held back about the fact that theyd had a romantic or sexual relationship. Why did he hold back on that . I dont know. Perhaps he was concerned about just in general she was a married woman. He didnt want that to get out. As they had on husband greg, cops put cane on a polygraph ma teen. He passed the test. Cops told him he could go home for now. When they laid out their timeline for sandys last days, it turned out cane wasnt the only man she was supposed to meet. There was a coworker who had befriended sandy. Cliff reid says she never turned up. Husband greg knew reid from when he had visited the house. He was going to fix my car for me. And then he stayed for dinner. What did you think of him . He seemed like a nice guy. On the face of his, his appraisal of sandys coworker seemed right. They were drawn together by mutual need. Did sandy see cliff as someone she could lean on for help, being a single mom at the time . I think sandy was going through a traumatic time in her life. She was separated from her husband, had some financial challenges. And cliff reid was someone at work that would listen to what she had to say, would offer support. And he actually helped her financially. So he was there for her. Cliff was, was there. Hed given a loan to sandy of about 1800 at some point prior to her disappearance. Despite his apparent generosity, there was something about cliff the coworker, the cops werent buying. Cliff looked to be doing everything he could to present himself to sandy as a normal and caring and concerned friend. We clearly found out, as we looked closer into cliff reid, that that was not the real cliff reid. In fact, reid had a troubling history with women. Cliff didnt like women at all. He was a massagist in. And he had very bad names for women that he felt had done him wrong. And basically, from what we could tell, just had a generalized hatred for the female person. Apart from being sort of selfcentered and narcissistic, he constantly thought that women were doing him wrong. But none of that was against the law. Cops had no reason to hold him. Weeks went by without an arrest, and all detectives had was a trio of suspects. As the investigation dragged on, greg, now a single parent, was trying to get on with his life, working at boeing and raising his two kids. Did you think sandy was dead, in your heart . Yeah. You accepted that . Yeah. How hard was that . It was hard. As months and then years passed, sandys friends and family struggled to keep her this the publics memory. Her good friend shawna took the lead. We tried to keep the story alive. Every year, the news media would come on the anverse rivniversar disappearance. And id try to talk and keep the story in the news media. Five years after his mother vanished, greg moved the family to las vegas. Hed had enough of the seattle area and wanted a fresh start without the cloud of suspicion hanging over him. As he grew up, sean and his father had a lot of questions. Why isnt my mom around . Who did it . Why would this happen . And detectives back in Washington State had no answers for him. With no body, no new leads and no new suspects, the investigation was dead in the water. The case must have been growing colder by the day. It was. Im sure you must have felt that way. Absolutely. Did you at some point feel like weve kind of got to give up on this until something comes our way . Yeah. On the other hand, we knew somewhere some day sandy would be found, and the hope was that when that happened there would be some type of evidence that would assist us in putting this case together. They were about to get their wish. Coming up. All the men in sandys life claimed they didnt see her the day she disappeared. Which one of them is lying . The neighbor saw her car, recognized her car parked outside his house. When dateline continues. Wheeeeee the comforting scent of air wicks snuggle fresh linen you love, again, hes sitting in my chair. Uhhuh anytime you want it. Part of the air wick familiar favorites collection. Also available in cinnabon classic cinnamon roll and baby magic clean baby. Is it a bus . A bicycle . Two chinchillas . A skateboard . Fuzzy coconuts . Its a flower. Fluffy, fluffy, fluffiness. [ male announcer ] theres a simpler way to fluffier eggs. I cant believe its not butter the simpler way to delicious fluffy eggs. Believe. The simpler way to delicious fluffy eggs. Bandaid brand comfort these ksheer bandages. Out new our most stretchable sheer bandage ever. Watch this 50 more stretchable than an ordinary sheer bandage. So they fit snug and stretch to protect even tough spots like elbows, knees, and knuckles, from dirt and germs. They bend and stretch as much as kids do. I am stuck on bandaid brand, cause bandaid stretches with me new bandaid brand comfort sheer bandages. Use with neosporin antibiotic. Geicmoney for over 75 years. Save theyve really stood the test of time. Much like these majestic rocky mountains. Which must be named after the. That would be rocky the flying squirrel, mr. Gecko sir. Obviously ahh come on bullwinkle, theyre named after. First president george rockington that doesnt even make any sense. Mr. Uhh. Winkle. Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Woolite detergents clean your save jeans and wont torture your tanks. So clothes look like new even after 20 washes. The arteries of your dishwasher arwith grease and lime scale. Use finish dishwasher cleaner every month to keep your machine in sparkling health. For shining results. Finish dishwasher cleaner. Finish dishwasher cleaner. Its hard to let go of hope. Sean johnson could barely remember his mother, yet he never stopped imagining her coming back into his life. I just remember being there, thinking like, like shes got to, shes going to return sooner or later, you know. She has to, you know, walk through the door. But it was not to be. One august day in 2004, a highway worker in washington noticed something strange just off the road. It was a shallow grave. Investigators recovered skeletal remains. Dental records revealed it was sandy. I was in seventh grade. I just remember coming home from school and asking my dad, why are there reporters trying to talk to us or whatever. My dad explained they had found her remains. Finally, sandys family cold comfort of a funeral. Greg brought his children back for the service. It was a difficult day for everyone, especially greg. There were some at that funeral who still wondered if he had a role in sandis death. How were you received . I think there were people there that still didnt like me. Family members that didnt like my. The people that were behind me in the beginning, those are the ones that ive stayed with, you know, and hung out with. I dont have time for those people that were against me. Among the mourners at sandis service were dents from the cold case squad. The discovery of her bones had jump started their investigation and cops were now taking a cold, hard look at everything and earear everyone all over again. The coroner did an ah top sichlt investigators hoped theyd find something that would point them in the direction of sandis killer or at least tell them how she died. But no luck. There was so much decompositi decomposition and so little left, that there was nothing to tell us how she died. Where she was recovered added another piece to the investigative puzzle. It fit the m. O. Of the notorious green river killer, gary ridgway. He murdered scores of women in washington and disposed of some of them in the area where sandis remains were found. His victims were almost all believed to be prostitutes. Now king county cop also to make sure there was something they didnt miss about sandi. Did she ever engage in prostitution . A hard question. I believe someone, a detective asked her mom that, and it was not well received as you can imagine. Sandi was not a prostitute. And that would be heart ripping to hear a question like that, even though it had to be asked. Police then ruled out the green river killer. Detectives circled back to the secret boyfriend, jeff cane. They came away convinced he had nothing to do with sandis death. Jeff cane was cleared. As for husband greg, who had done so many things that raised suspicion early on, ultimately he had an alibi that checked out. He clocked in and out of his job at boeing the day she went missing. He was with friends who vouched for him. Finally i was off the list. How well do you remember that moment where the police came to see you and said youre not a suspect anymore . I remember it very well. It was a relief. It was a good day for me. It really was. That left sandis friend from work. Cliff reid. Cold case detective jim allen decided to see if he could find some evidence tying cliff reid to the death of Sandi Johnson. Forensics had changed over the years. So there was a potential of testing a lot of things that wouldnt have been able to be tested back then for dna specifically. They went back to where cliff reid lived in 1996, all these years later and tore the place apart. They found what looked to them to be a bloodstain on the carpet. Could it be something . We took all the carpet from his room. They still had sandis teal green ford wagon. They ripped that apart too. We purchased her car and collected some more evidence and had that tested to see if we could find anything. This sort of analysis churned slowly. In 2006, cold case detectives started working with prosecutors krista and carla. Investigators dug deeper into cliff reids story. They were learning more and more and more about cliffs lies and sort of his relationship with sandi and some specifics about that day that didnt add up. For instance, sandi had taken that friday, april 26, off work to get ready for seans birthday. Among her errands, she told friends she was picking up a birthday present for sean from cliff reid. Cliff reid never acknowledged that sandi was coming to his house that day. He said hed last seen her two weeks before. Whats more, cliff rydes neighbor says sandi must have been there that day. The neighbor recognized her car parked outside his house. That was twrubling to police. But more incriminating was this. That same neighbor said he saw cliff reid driving sandis car away from the apartment that day, and that Grocery Store lot where sandis car was found was within walking distance of cliffs apartment. Cliffs neighbors remember him walking home from the store. Cliff told detectives hed gone out for some air. This was very much out of character in speaking with the people that knew cliff reid best. He was not the kind of person that would willie nil eye go y walk. Cliff, who was notoriously messy chose the day after her disappearance to clean his housetop to bottom. He rented a carpet cleaner. Got rid of the vacuum bag. It turns out that cliff reid had a bitter history with two exwives and police had learned about allegations of a violent episode cliff reid had with an escort hed hired two months before sandi went macing. He was on top of her, groping her, threatening to shoot her. That case never went anywhere, but it raised red flags for the cops, looking into Sandi Johnsons death. At that point we realized, my goodness, could this similar scenario have played out at cliffs residence with Sandi Johnson being the victim . And the motive . Cliff ryde was obsessed with Sandi Johnson. Cliff shared with friends that he had found the love of his life. Reids friends used words like enthralled, head over heels to describe his feelings about sand sandi. He said he was going to marry her and even bought a bigger car to haul her kids around in. Problem was the feelings werent mutual. Her frustration was growing. That he wanted more than she wanted and there was never going to be that. It was just day before she went missing that sandi had told someone that she needed to make him understand. Had she paid for it with her life. I think sandi was the first attractive female that had ever been nice to him and thats what did her in. He created this fantasy world around her because she was nice to him. And when she finally wised up and called it off and said nothings going to happen, he killed her. Even as they waited for the forensic results to come back, her friends and family kept faith that eventually there would be justice for sandi. Did you start to feel again that maybe this isnt going to happen . I was hopeful. All i can say is i was hopeful. Coming up. Just as this case finally gets going, a major speed bump. How frustrating was that . Very. And then for this family thats been through so much, a heartstopping moment. I feel thrush of just, you know, hot blood. Investigators had been building their case against cliff reid. And now it was decision time for prosecutors krista and carla. In 2012, 16 years after Sandi Johnson vanished, police had plenty of circumstantial evidence. It came back zero. How frustrating was that . Very. It would have been nice to have some dna. That would have been nice. But we had tried everything that we could. The prosecutors faced a tough choice. Charge cliff reid with murder and risk losing a potentially unwinnable case or leave sandis case unresolved, which, as it turns out had happened before. Back in the late 90s, cliff reid had briefly been charged with Sandi Johnsons murder, but prosecutors back then thought the case was too thin to go forward. The question is, is there any chance the case will improve if we wait. In this case, there was absolutely nothing left to be done. It was now or never. They chose now. We try hard cases and are successful at it. After all, they did have reids lies, a neighbor who saw him driving her car, a witness who saw him cleaning his house the day after sandi disappeared, and most importantly, his obsession with her. Cliff reid was arrested in montana. He was extradited to Washington State and charged with Second Degree murder. Sean, who had last seen his mother when he was just five was now grown up, a medic in the army when he heard the news from one of his moms friends. I got a call from her, just blew me away, you know. Just have just flared things up again for you. Yeah, like reopening, like a cut and rubbing salt in it, you know. Going to trial was a roll of the dice for both sides. Prosecutors would have to win a difficult case with no forensic evidence. The biggest problem we had is that cliff managed to succeed in one crucial point, and that is that he hid sandis body. And we had no way to prove how she died. Without that proof of how she died, it would be hard to say cliff reid had intended to kill sandi. For the defendant there was also a risk that a jury would find the prosecutors circumstantial case convincing. Cliff reid and his attorney knew that he was facing a real chance of being convicted of murder in the Second Degree which can carry up to 20 years. So in early 2014, prosecutors put a plea bargain on the table and the 60 year old reid made his choice. How do you wish to plead . Guilty. They made a deal. Cliff reid pleaded guilty not to murder but to manslaughter. The good thing about a plea is it avoids not only the risk of losing a trial or a hung jury but the appeal and everything that drags on forever. And this family had to deal with this loss three times. First, when sandi disappeared. Second, when her remains were found. And third, when charges were filed. The case was stirred up all again. Please rise. Court is now in session. In april 2014 sandis family was in court to see cliff reid sentenced. What was it like for you seeing him in that courtroom . All i feel is this rush of just hot blood, you know. It was tough. It was tough. Cliff reid got less than four years in prison as mandated by washington law. How do you feel about that . The fact that hes doing time, but not a lot . Its not a whole lot. The guy killed my mom, you know. Everybody knows it. Cliff reids plea wasnt just any plea. It was an alford plea, meaning he would not be required to admit to killing sandi. In fact, when he had the chance to speak, cliff reid said something that outraged the family. Sandi was a very good friend to me. She was one of the nicest people i have ever known, and i certainly did not kill sandi. Do you feel like cliff reid got away with murder . Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. But sandis family doesnt blame the prosecutors. I think they took on a big undertaking. Im thankful. I think they did more than their job, those two. The good news for sandi is the world knows cliff reid killed her. She did not abandon her children. She did not go missing. He killed her and put her in the woods, and that is worth something to know that and say that. Two decades ago, Sandi Johnson missed her sons fifth birthday. As a boy, he wondered what happened to his mom. Now he knows. Hes grown up and married. He got some of her looks but he also has her heart. He wants to be a detective to help other families like his own. It took so many years to get cliff reid. Is that going to motivate you to be a great cop . It is. I wouldnt want anything to, you know, happen to cause so much pain to anybody else. While justice for sandi may not look quite like anyone imagined, her family is taking solace in the beautiful person sandi was and the reflection they see of her in her children. Your dad says he sees your mom in you and in your sister. Thats just 17 years of builtup emotion, you know. I know. Do you think she would be proud of you, what youve accomplished . I think she would. Thats all for now. Im lester holt. Thanks for joining us. Next on meet the press, president obamas war on terror in the middle east. Will anything short of American Military action prevent the creation of an Al Qaedalinked terror state stretching from iraq to syria . Ill be joined exclusively by benjamin netanyahu. Plus my interview with rand paul of kentucky thats making big news. His surprising assessment of president obamas handling of iraq and a warning that benghazi could haunt a Hillary Clinton president ial run. And political mud slinging, the inside story on this weeks big gop senate race thats made National Headlines with the secret video shot in a nursing home and even sarah palin and bret favre are taking sides