You think, oh, my god, is that her . Reporter the why . More twisted and surprising than anyone could fathom. Thats not normal. Its not natural. Its not right. Reporter how could all this darkness fall on a woman so sunny . I loved her. I loved her energy. She was if you could think of a color that is a person, like she would be, like, bright yellow. Reporter friends say heather could always light up a room. Her cousin, diane perry, says drew them together from the time they were young. You two are more like sisters . Definitely. Just very, very close. Reporter a bond that only grew as teenagers when heather moved from florida to tennessee, closer to diane. They became an inacceptable pair and even went to college together in memphis. So it was only fitting diane was there the night heather fell instantly in love with a guy named chris jones. Heather went to a new Years Eve Party on 1999. Down and talked and giggled about this new guy that she had met, chris. Reporter diane recalls that heather found chris fascinating. He dazzled her with his knowledge of wine and just his his knowledge of the world. She liked that . She loved that. She absolutely loved that. Reporter diane was surprised to see how fast the new couple was moving. Within weeks heather and chris were living together. Not long after, diane noticed a change in her cousin. A big one. They got very involved in a things like that. And so they had a very, very sedentary lifestyle. And so thats when she gained, i would say, about 250 pounds. 250 pounds over how much time are we talking about . Maybe a year and a half. I mean, it was a very short amount of time. Thats lifechanging. It was tough. Did she seem depressed about the weight gain . Absolutely, yes. Reporter her cousin recalls chris said he didnt mind what size heather was. A few years into their relationship, he asked heather to marry him. Heathers scale only continued to rise after the birth of their two children. Did he make her feel good . Yes, she felt beautiful, she felt loved, she felt wanted, she felt taken care of. Reporter chris also took on the role of stayathome dad while heather worked and attended college parttime. It took her about ten years to get her degree from college and it was almost to the day that she graduated from college that everything changed. Reporter at one point before graduation, heather topped the scales at 400 pounds. But diane says that hardwon diploma now became a roadmap for heather, pointing her to a brighter and lighter future. She had so much more confidence. She saw a different life for herself. She immediately started working on her weight. Reporter and thats when she found a special group of new highpowered dance exercise class each week to improve their physiques and their lives. Cari cooper was heathers dance instructor. When you leave your job, you leave that stress behind, you come here and its like the happy hour, you know. Reporter everyone in heathers life noticed that happy hour was doing wonders for her. Zoe of. Id say, heather, turn around. Id say, youve gotten smaller. And she was like, yeah. Were the pounds just melting off of her in front of your very eyes . Melting off in short of a total transformation. In 18 short months, she went from this to this. I remember that she brought a picture of a before and then where she was now, and was so proud. And she was like, look what eye done. I remember that. She was so proud of herself. Reporter no one was surprised when heather soon landed her dream job, teaching at an Elementary School in memphis. Fellow teacher jesika moxley was in awe of the amount of energy miss jones poured into her heather loved being a kindergarten teacher, from the moment that they stepped foot into the door, to the moment that they left, they were dancing, they were singing, they were playing. Reporter by april 2013, it was all coming together for Heather Jones. On a saturday night, she hit that rumba room dance floor to try out some moves she learned at the gym and to show what shed become. Become. It was just so much fun. We were probably there for about three hours just dancing. Reporter three days later on Tuesday Morning, teacher jesika moxley headed to school, expecting to see her energetic coworker, heather, already there. Our school day didnt start until 8 00 or 8 30 that year and she was here every morning by 6 30, 6 45. Reporter heather usually couldnt wait for the school day to begin. So jesika was suprised by what she didnt see that morning. I pulled into the parking lot. And i didnt see her car. Reporter thinking maybe she caught a ride to school, jesika made a beeline for heathers classroom. And i remember her door was closed, her lights were off. And i remember thinking, her lights are off. And then, saying again, like, her lights are off. Like, shes shes gone. Reporter gone . What could that mean . As the search began to find the missing teacher, investigators would soon uncover a disturbing connection between heathers dramatic weight loss and her mystus coming up it was terrifying. Something is very much wrong. The very first clues. A disturbing email to heathers husband. I was concerned. And a closely guarded secret. I didnt even know his name. Honey, arent we having friends over . It reeks in here. I know [goat noise] i stole the other teams mascot for good luck. Febreze. For all the things you cant wash, use febreze fabric refresher wow [inhales] it really smells great in here. Dog barks and try pluggable febreze, with up to 4 times the freshness in one refill. Pluggable febreze and fabric refresher [inhale exhale mnemonic], two more ways to breathe happy i really did save hundreds of dollars on my Car Insurance with geico. I should take a closer look at geico. Geico has a long history of great savings and great service. Over seventyfive years. Wait. Seventyfive years . 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Clean will clean your whole house and every room thats in it floors, doors, walls, halls hes so tough, he cleans em all reporter when Heather Jones, the newly svelte, newbie teacher, didnt show up for her kindergarten class in memphis that morning back in april, 2013, alarm bells went off among her fellow teachers and friends. Heather would never miss a day of school, she was totally dedicated. Reporter home sick . It didnt seem likely. Best friend Melissa Smith knew heather wasnt about to be sidelined by a little sniffle. There was no excuse for her not to be there. Reporter School Officials heard she was a noshow, she headed right over to heathers house in germantown, where she saw an encouraging sign. There was relief when i saw the car in the driveway cause i thought she was there. I thought, oh, shes sick. Reporter diane thought heather was probably just sleeping. Knocking, knocking, knocking. Please answer do reporter but no answer. Alarmed, she called heathers mother to bring over a key. Soon Germantown Police arrived, opened the door, and went in first. They say, shes not in there. They say, nothin looks disturbed. Is that a relief in any way . That shes not in there . No, no. It was terrifying. Something is very much wrong. Reporter it was now a missing persons case. Detective tony kemp took the lead and did his own walkthrough of the house. Did you find any signs of no. I did not see any weapons. I did not see any blood or anything in that house. Reporter but heathers car still in the driveway stuck in detective kemps mind. Obviously if she left, she had to be on foot. Or she had made contact with somebody for them to pick her up. Reporter the grapevine was now working overtime. Friends from heathers dance class soon heard that she was missing. One of them was cari cooper, the class instructor. She also went over to the house. Turns out, cari knew as much about crime scenes as she did about dance moves. Thats because caris a cop in nearby memphis. Well, i kinda took on that Police Officer role at that moment. So i took off. And i combed, like, every inch of her property lookin for anything. Did you find anything . I found nothing. And i looked through her storage sheds. And i looked all along the Railroad Tracks that are behind her house. And there was nothing. Reporter as detectives were last movements, chris jones, heathers husband, made an emotional appearance on a local tv station. I want nothing more than for those children to have a mother, and it kills me to think that they may grow up without having both parents. Reporter the afternoon heather disappeared, chris came to the Police Station wanting to help. Youve been up all night. Yeah. Okay. I mean, i cant miss an opp i didnt want to miss a call, i didnt want to miss a chance, i didnt know if miss the knock on the door. Sure. Im worried. Reporter chris told detectives something that could be vital to the investigation. He said heather had written him an email the night before. The subject read, im sorry. In it, she mentions their little girl, ava. It read, come get ava. I cannot face everyone with this. Please forgive me, it is too much. Please raise them to remember me as their loving mommy. How concerned were you when that his wife had sent, that heather had sent . I was concerned. It did not sound good to me. Reporter kemp thought the email was open to all kinds of interpretations. All bad, it seemed. It basically sounded like, im throwin in the towel. Reporter throwing in the towel . Detective kemp asked chris if heather might be suicidal. Has she ever talked about wanting to harm herself or anybody else, since youve known her . Not that i can recall. Reporter friends and Family Police spoke to were adamant. Heather would never take her own life. Not after striving so hard to transform it for the better. But there was another possible explanation for what may have happened to this woman whod built such a promising future. Police were about to uncover a secret shed kept hidden from almost everyone. I didnt even know his name. Headed off into that bright new future, her past came calling. Coming up i told all the girls, you all be prepared. The search heats up and the secret is out. Kind of a bombshell that heather was possibly seeing another man. This was definitely, you know, a person of interest that we needed to speak with. Reporter Heather Jones had been missing for 24 hours. Her loved ones prayed for the best and launched into action. The memphis mother had recently lost 200 pounds with the help of a dance aerobics class. And now her gym friends pasted the after photo she was so proud of all over town. Were you putting up flyers . Oh, we had oh, flyers. And we had flyers. We stopped at restaurants around germantown. Reporter cari, heathers friend and dance instructor, who also happened to be a cop, organized a search party. And we had our backpacks on. And we had good walking shoes. And we had snacks and towels and water. Reporter around lakes, parks, and Railroad Tracks, cari and the other women searched methodically not knowing what they might find. And i told all the girls, yall be prepared, because we your foot hits something hard and you think, oh my god, is it her . But its a branch. You never know with each step. Reporter her best friend melissa struggled with her worst fears. It was just absolutely terrifying because just thinking of her being scared and hurt made you sick. Reporter to put together the puzzle of what had happened to heather and what she meant by that disturbing goodbye email shed sent, detective kemp wanted to know more about heather. Starting with her relationship with chris. I wanted to know more about their marriage, and whats been going on between them the past year. Reporter he knew the major event in their marriage in the past year was heathers dramatic physical change. But friends and family said it dropping pant sizes. As heather lost the weight, she gained a whole new outlook on life. She was kind of quiet and reserved back then, when i very first met her. And to see that contrast from then until where she decided, im going to make some healthy decisions in my life i mean the butterfly description with her is a great description. I think its spot on, yeah. I mean, her just coming out of her shell and becoming who e you know . And you could see that transformation. Reporter in all different aspects of her life . Yes. Reporter her cousin diane explained that once heather the butterfly started spreading her wings, she felt that just like her old clothes, her husband chris wasnt fitting anymore. He was not really part of exactly. Reporter the new life . Exactly. Reporter the future . Exactly. And i think he saw the writing on the wall. She saw that, im young. Im healthier now than ive ever been. Im prettier now than ive ever been. And im feeling good. And im feeling independent. She didnt have just one choice anymore. The world was hers. Reporter then detectives learned that in january, 2013, heather moved out on chris without telling him. She had a name for it . She did. Ninja style. Reporter so it was almost Like Operation ninja style. Yes. Reporter that she was going to move out on her own . It was, it was. Reporter th this rental house with the help of family and friends. She was backed by a lot of awesome girls. So she was ready. She would say, you know, i dont have anything in my house but my crockpot, and my mattress, and my brown boots. But, thats okay because im happy. Reporter in his interview with police, chris said that after nine years of marriage, he and heather began to have some differences. But he said he had no clue she was going to move out on him and was even more shocked when he found out she had filed for divorce. I was totally sideswiped. Did not see it coming. Detective kemp hed been trying to patch things up with heather ever since. I want my wife. I want the family dynamic that we had. I want us to be together. I want to work things out. Reporter kemp questioned what heather had been up to while chris was trying to win her back. Its common a lot of times, when a couples going throh divorce that maybe that somebody was seeing somebody. And i asked him that. Reporter thats when chris confided in the detective that he feared heather had in fact moved on. Is she seeing anybody else . Yeah. Does she have a boyfriend right now . And can you tell me what you know about that . The only thing i know is that they were friends from a younger age and its been going on for some time. Reporter when youre talking bombshell that heather was possibly seeing another man. Yes, he did. He did tell me that he believed that she was seeing somebody. And i tried to get information from him about that person. I really dont know anything about the guy other than theyve been corresponding heavily. Did she talk about him much . She hasnt talked to me about him at all. She doesnt want me or anyone else to know about him. Reporter kemp discovered heather had been talking about this new guy, just not with her husband. They had started texting, i facebooking. And just, hey, how are you . I think slowly, those Text Messages and those Facebook Messages became very flirtatious. I didnt even know his name. All i knew was that she was talking to somebody. Reporter who was making her happy. That was making her happy, and she felt very special and very beautiful. Reporter but police did need a name, fast. Chris was able to provide at least part of that crucial detail. Can you tell me about him . Whats his name . Edwards all i got. Edward . Reporter did you think that this other man could be a gamechanger in this investigation . To me, this was definitely, you know, a person of interest that we needed to speak with. Reporter detectives now launched a hunt for a man named edward. They wanted to know, did heather the butterfly leave behind her old life to build a new one with another man . Coming up, the other man revealed. Person. He has some intriguing information for police. And for us. I would hide her, if thats what she wanted. First kid you ready . By their second kid, every mom is an expert and more likely to choose luvs than first time moms. Protection at a fraction of the cost live, learn, and get luvs. It. Oh no, that looks gross what is that . You gotta try it, its terrible. I dont wanna try it if its terrible. Its like mango chutney and burnt hair. No thank you, i have a very sensitive palate. Just try it guys, i think we should hurry up. If you taste something bad, you want someone else to try it. Its what you do. I cant get the taste out of my mouth if you want to save fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance, you switch to geico. Its what you do. Shhh dog, dog, dog. Many sleepaids have Pain Medicine but zzzquil is different zzzquil a nonhabit forming sleepaid thats not for pain, just for sleep. It only takes a second for an everyday item to become dangerous. E and your child safer. Reporter time, an investigators worst enemy in a missing persons case, was ticking away. Hadnt returned to her rented house. The place where she hoped to start a new life without her husband. It sounds clich . , but she really vanished without a trace. Yes. And thats what was makin this so difficult. Reporter and she still wasnt answering her cell phone. The one police learned she used to exchange flirtatious texts with a mystery man. She is in the process of having an ir reporter chris jones couldnt tell detectives much else about this other man, who he only knew by the name of edward. Ive just seen their correspondence. Sweetie, i love you. How do you know about the correspondence . Were you able to see some of the texting yourself . Yeah. On her phone or yeah. You must have had concerns about this other man . Yes. Yes i did. Because he was one of the first names that we had come up with. Reporter detective kemp knew if heather had split town, as she hadnt driven away in her car. It was still parked in her driveway. You know what kind of car edward drives . I dont know anything about him. I really dont. Does he live here locally, obviously, in germantown . No. Memphis, do you know . Not that i know of. I dont think he lives in memphis. Reporter detectives had to find edward another way, so they accessed heathers facebook account and mined it for clues. And there it was, a profile with a last name attach. And what was that name . Edward raulerson. Reporter police dialed a phone number they found for ed. He told them he lived 500 miles away in eastern tennessese and agreed to make the eighthour drive to germantown to be interviewed. Detectives wondered had he made the trip once already that week, to take heather away . And most importantly, could he tell them where she was now . Just because youve got does not mean that they didnt have anything to do with this disappearance. Reporter police recorded ed raulersons interview. During questioning, ed made a potentially important admission. I love her to death, i would do anything for her. You know, one of the detectives asked me, you know, who would she call if she wanted to disappear. I said, me. Id be here in however many hours it took for me to get here today. Reporter but, he insisted, heather never made that call. And there was more. Ed told detectives he was surprised by tir he was asked when initially contacted by the police. Detective cook called me and he said, is your girlfriend there . And i said, yes, shes in the backyard. And he said good, okay, so heathers, okay . And i said, heathers not my girlfriend. Shes a friend of mine and weve been friends for 20 years. Heather werent an item, and he was dating someone else, what exactly was going on . The detective wanted to hear from you immediately. Once they learned a name. Oh yeah, once they knew who i was. You were an important piece of the puzzle to them. Yeah. Reporter detectives learned from ed that his relationship with heather went back decades, long before heather married chris. Ed said he and heather met in 1993 when they were both teens living in florida. Ed remembers they fell fast for each other. It was young love. They say you dont know what love is, but i do. Reporter ed said they dated for two years before he moved away. But that puppy love was something he never got over, even after heather married. Were you still carrying that torch . Yeah. But i didnt really let it show. I respected heather too much. Reporter around heathers birthday in the spring of 2013, after she had lost all that weight, ed told detectives he reached out to wish her well and got more than a thank you. At that moment in her life, she needed a friend. And that was what i was there for. I was there right when she needed me the most. Reporter but ed said that shoulder to lean on soon turned into something more. Talking. Just, you know, listening to her problems. And then it just, you know, prre oh. You know im a flirtatious person. And i just became flirtatious. Reporter detective kemp scanned the recent texts between the two from heathers cell phone and it appeared that things had heated up even more a few days before she went missing. There was some sexual content that i had noticed. Reporter ed says it was heather who first turned the texting into sexting. It was partly that, you know, she was in a highly flirtatious mood that day. I wasnt really quite sure. Did you bite . I bit. Reporter detectives wanted to know how much and whether ed was truly willing to drop everything to help heather start a new life in secret. No matter it took, i would protect her. Reporter he knew it probably didnt look good to police. I guess me admitting that i would hide her if thats what she wanted, you know, i can understand them saying that, you know, maybe hes hidden her. Did you hide her . I wish. Did you drive to see heather that night . No. Were you with heather that night . No. Did you have anything to do with her disappearance . No. Reporter ed told police he was at home, far away in eastern tennessee. And revealed that despite those steamy texts, he and heather we had discussed seeing each other. I guess it wouldve been, well, about another month. Reporter ed insisted to police he had no idea where heather was, but he did give them a big clue. He told investigators that in fact, he spoke to heather on the phone the very night she disappeared and he heard something on that call that was alarming then, and even more alarming now. I called her. She answered. Kind of arguing. Reporter ed said he heard a mans voice in the background during that call. But whose voice was it . Coming up are you thinking, this could potentially be our last chance to solve this . This was our shot. The pieces of the case are about to fall into place. And all those flirtatious texts, turns out they arent at all mind. When dateline continues. Look at this. A Silicon Valley server farm. The vault to mans greatest wonders. Selfies, cat videos and winking emojis. Speaking of tech wonders, with the geico app you can get roadside assistance, digital id cards. Or even file a claim. Do that. Yeah, yeah that should work. Its not happening. Just try again. Uh, i think i found your problem. Thanks. Awardwinning geico app. Download it today. . 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Traffic is literally crawling, but there is some movement on the eastside overpass. Getting word of another collision. [burke] it happened. December 14th, 2015. And we covered it. Adum, bumbumbumbum . Reporter as one day slid into the next and the next, with still no sign of Heather Jones, her gym friends got back to exercise class with the hope heather would dance with them once again. I kept that back door open to the gym. Hear us, were dancin. Were lookin for ya. Okay . If youre out there, you dance with us. Were gonna find you, one way, the other. Reporter detective tony kemp also vowed to find her. He was convinced heather did not run off with her old boyfriend ed. So he asked her friends what else would cause heather to leave her husband and children . Thats when kemp began to flush out what really happened when it was very scary. And it only continued to deteriorate. Reporter friends and family told him how at first, chris tried to woo her with flowers and chocolates, but those loving gestures soon turned ugly. He would text her and call her. But this time, they were just, like, violent, you know, youre not taking my kids from me. Im not going to let you leave. You wont get away with this. I will come after you. Chris started acting more desperate, and heather started getting really scared. He would show up at her work. He would show up at the gym. He started showing up at the house in the middle of the night. I just remember thinking, like, this is insane. Like, youre, literally, stalking her. I got a lot of information on chris, on what these people thought of him, and it was not good. Reporter detectives decided theyd do more than just keep an eye on chris. They secretly attached a gps device to his car to track his movements. We wanted to know possibly if he could take us to where heather was at. Reporter they also asked chris to come in for a second interview. Detective Bryan Wallace would lead the interrogation. Are you thinking this could potentially be our last chance to to solve this . Certainly. This was our shot. Towards the Police Station, but then it stopped a quartermile away at a nearby mall. Police thought he might be running an errand, but moments later, he popped up at the station. Why had he parked so far away . Chris was escorted in. Hey how are you doing . Yes sir. Thanks for coming out. Hey, my pleasure. Anything i can do. Reporter chris told detectives he went to heathers house the night she disappeared to talk. But before he could say much to her, he said her phone rang. And so shes like, this is a call ive kind of been waiting for. And i said, well, you know, ive really got a pertinent matter to discuss with you if theres any way you could possibly, you know, have him call you back or what was it . The pertinent matter . It was uh, letting her know that id discovered that shed been having an affair this entire time. Is that who was calling her, the person you suspected . I kind of got that feeling that thats who was calling her. Reporter in fact, it was ed raulerson. You know, her and chris kinda arguing. So, shes telling him to get out and hes constantly saying, i need to talk to you. I need to talk to you. I just need two minutes. Reporter and ed said he heard Something Else come out of chris mouth. Hes talking to her. Its a matter of life and death. She asked him, what do you mean, a matter of life and death . reporter in his interview chris admitted he and heather continued arguing when she hung up with ed, but he insisted she was alive when he went home. And he said she sent that disturbing goodbye email only after he left. Im freaking out, because still, i dont know if this is a game. Reporter detectives had been analyzing that strange email and asked Forensic Experts to comb through chriss computers seized at his apartment. A theory began to emerge. Investigators now believed chris had written the email himself. Did you suspect that chris was posing as heather, sending that email . Yes i did, because chris was computers. Reporter and whats more, they suspected it was actually chris who sent those sexy texts to ed, not heather. They believed hed stolen her phone and was pretending to be her. That is really weird that youre getting sexting from her husband. Yeah, her husband. Its kinda one of them things, okay, i need to put that out of reporter chriss plan, detectives thought, was to throw them off the trail, to make it look like heather ran off and was having an affair. But they didnt believe a word of his story or that his concern for heather was genuine. The reason you were freaking out is because she was dead. Your actions after that make no sense. Everything else after that was alibi. Okay. So what did i do with her . Thats what were asking, chris. Reporter chris was sticking break in the case was about to happen. What chris didnt know is that while detectives were turning up the heat inside the interrogation room, outside they sent some cadaver dogs over to the mall to sniff around his car. And now the team at the mall wanted to speak with detectives immediately. They said the dogs just hammered his car. They said theyre all over it. Reporter they found the scent of human remains. I dont know why cadaver dogs hit on my car. I do. They dont just pick cars out of the blue. What is it theyre trained to detect . I mean the odor of decomposition. Reporter wallace had chris against the ropes, and he was finally going to get some answers. Not just about what happened, but why. The startling revelation, heathers radical makeover of her body and life had put her life in imminent danger. Was this all some awful accident . Or could it be murder with a mindblowing motive . Do you think that heather would still be alive if she hadnt gone through this transformation . Gosh. Wasnt buying his story. Your story about what happened the night she disappeared is total bull [ bleep ] reporter wallace pushed him for the truth. How did it happen . But after cadaver dogs found the scent of human remains in chris car, detective Bryan Wallace happened the night she disappeared is total bull [ bleep ] reporter wallace pushed him for the truth. How did it happen . Did she fall . She did. Was she drunk as [ bleep ] . What happened . Thats exactly it. We were struggling over the phone and only this time we were outside on the steps. And she lost her footing and she fell and hit the step, and i heard the crack. He said they were struggling over a cell phone. She slipped, fell backwards and hit her head and died. Reporter did you believe this new story . No, no. No way. Insisted it was only an accident. Still, the most important evidence was missing heathers body. Chris told detectives he dumped her at a gas station. Police went there, found nothing and checked security cameras. Theyve got videos from the last 15 days. They have looked at everything from 10 00 a. M. Till 4 00 a. M. , and your car never even pulls on the lot. Reporter chris then changed his story and said he paid someone to get rid of the body. I jokingly asked, hey, you want to make a couple hundred bucks. Uhhuh. Nope, nope. Stop, stop, stop, chris. Stop, this isnt working. Thats crazier than first one. Reporter four hours into the interview, wallace sensed chris was out of stories and out of options. So the detective gave him one last chance. I said, lets cut it out, chris. Your time is running out. You need to tell us where she is, and you need to tell us now. Pen and paper. Then he drew a map. I said, this is where she is . He said, thats where she is. Reporter detectives raced to the area and followed chriss directions down a path into the woods that led to a clearing. Once we could see an area on the ground where what had looked like a fire had taken place, once we got closer to that, we could tell that there was still a human form there. Reporter seven days after she disappeared, detectives had her body had been badly burned. We were brokenhearted. And we had lost her. And she was a big, smiling, beautiful part of our group. Reporter chris jones was arrested and charged with firstdegree murder. Now, the women whod helped Heather Jones find the courage down chris jones at every court appearance. Theres a monster inside who hurt our friend and that we want justice. Reporter prosecutors rejected chris story that heather had died from an accidental fall. They believed he argued with her at her house that night, strangled her, and then burned her body in the woods. But the question remained why . Heathers friends provided a surprising answer. They were convinced heathers dramatic weight loss got her killed. Do you think that heather would still be alive if she hadnt gone through this transformation and bettered herself . Yes. Reporter heathers friends and family said over the course of their relationship, chris used heathers weight as a tool to control her. At the beginning, he wanted her to be bigger, that he felt like that would be more attractive to him. And then, as she got bigger, then he would say to her that because she was so obese. Reporter and when heather finally achieved her unbelievable transformation, she confided to her friends that chris didnt have the reaction she expected. She told me, chris wants me to gain the weight back. I said, heather, thats a control technique, okay . He wants you to stay at home. He doesnt want you to get out there. He doesnt want anyone else looking at you. Reporter according to her best friend, melissa, heather said chris even brought fatty foods to her, hoping she would pack the pounds back on. He would goto with food, and she would not want any part of it. Reporter with the sole purpose of trying to get her to gain weight . Is what she had told me, yes. Reporter friends said the new and improved heather never took the bait. And after enduring years of increasing unhappiness in her marriage, they said heather found out something that for her was the last straw. She discovered that chris was having an affair with another woman. Reporter thats when she marriage. And she never looked back. You could see just her spirit just lighting up, and her sense of security and what all the future was going to hold for her. Reporter in february of this year, chris jones went on trial. Heathers friends took the stand to help prove the prosecutions theory when chris realized he find that man guilty of firstdegree murder. Reporter prosecutors laid out their case to the jury. It wasnt an accident. Reporter assistant District Attorney danielle mccollum. She didnt fall down. There was a struggle. He did strangle her either with his hands, or however he did it. He was up close and personal to her. And he was there watching that breath go out of her. Reporter but the defense stuck to the story chris told on phone. He never admits to killing her. Reporter the judge asked chris if he wanted to tell his story to the jury. I think that i will choose to not testify. Reporter it was now up to the jury to decide his fate. Friends and family filled the finally after deliberating for a day we, the jury, find the defendant guilty of murder first degree. In count two, it reads, we, the jury, find the defendant guilty of abuse of a corpse. Reporter trs hard to shape her own life, free of chris jones, who will now likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. Heather is at peace. Heather is at peace. He will never hurt anybody again. Reporter even after his conviction, chris jones insisted that he didnt kill heather. He told dateline in a phone call from jail that he never tried to control heather, that he is absolutely innocent of murder of any type, and that his taped statements to police were coerced. The detectives said chris jones could have ended the interview at any time. As for cousin diane, she has obtained legal custody of heather and chris two children. And heathers gym friends, they find comfort in knowing that before her death, heather achieved that remarkable journey, becoming the person she was always meant to be. She got to experience that before she left this earth. She got to experience what it was like to be as beautiful as out. Im glad she did. Reporter that dance class where heather spread her wings still keeps a place for her, a heart with heathers name on it. A reminder of a woman whose transformation continues to inspire all who knew and loved Heather Jones. Is she dancing . Absolutely. Oh yes. We believe that. If you believe in angels, there is one dancing up there, i promise you. And every time we have class thats all for now. Im lester holt. Thanks for joining us. Announcer the following is a paid program for the airfryer, the ultimate kitchen appliance, brought to you by philips, bringing meaningful innovation to your kitchen. Stay tuned for an exciting, exclusive tv offer. Everyone loves the Perfect French fry extra crispy on the outside, piping hot and tender on the inside. The problem with french fries d the oil, the splatter, and all that added fat. But now you can get delicious, crispy french fries without frying in oil. Introducing the philips airfryer. Get the taste you love without the guilt. 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