shannon who had been angry at ralph for not protecting her mother, read the letter and began to have thoughts that were much more disturbing. i didn t get through more than a page and a half and i threw it, and i said, this is bull [ bleep ]. i said, this is the worst i could barely stomach to finish it. and aaron, shannon s ex-husband, ralph s son? aaron went to a very dark place indeed. oh, you have no idea. you were 11 years old when your mother disappeared. yes. coming up, secrets in the basement. i had been going through some of my dad s stuff in the basement and found a box of stuff that supposedly she had taken with her. when dateline continues. how do i check my credit score? credit karma. don t worry, it s free.
there to meet her along with aaron. how did she take it? about as well as you would expect anybody to get hit by a sledgehammer. first shock and denial. and suddenly i realized that last conversation i had with her was it. no fresh start now. her mother was dead. and then shannon saw ralph. and he lost it. he just turned into a sobbing, shaking maniac. ralph s face was banged up. he had bruises in several places. he was confused like a man coming out of a concussion. exhausted. my head still hurts. as soon as he was able and still in hospital clothes, ralph talked to agents of the cbi. it has been a horrible day.
aaron s name come up on my phone. right. he said you know something has happened. my dad is rushed to the hospital. they can t find your mom. he said i think someone s dead. who was dead? was the killer on the loose in a small town? coming up. crying and telling me to go in the kitchen. when dateline continues. we want you to feel great about your color choice. that s why we have a paint guarantee. if you don t love it, we ll replace it.
you know, maybe she ran away to be with him. a missing persons case was opened, but nothing came of it. aaron and his brother moved in with ralph full-time. but aaron couldn t move on. she had to have left some trail somewhere. barely a teenager, he taught himself every web search engine, looked for years. but found no sign of his mom online. and a terrible suspicion took hold of him, hardened into something like certainty. his mother must be dead. his father must have done it. and after that, it became more of, okay, where would he put her body? he was maybe 13 or 14 when he thought about those old coal mines around walsenburg. you actually went and looked? oh, yeah, i went through a lot of those mines myself. alone? mm-hmm. you re looking for the remains of your own mother. i mean, i can t imagine what that i can t explain it.
it s always been a fire that just drives you to do something. and then one day i had been going through some of my dad s stuff in the basement. i found a box of stuff that she had supposedly taking with her. a denim jacket her mother had given her, passport was there. driver s license and something her mother had given herment her. what was that like. that was kind of the final straw. naturally if she was gone, she would have taken those things with her. that was my final piece of the puzzle. he left it there. left the box in the basement and emerged a changed person. shannon told us, aaron wouldn t talk much about his mother when they were married. but i would find him up at night just, over her stuff, just over papers. i mean, just emotional. going through her papers. just going through her stuff. whatever little bit and pieces he had left of his mother he couldn t even handle. just it wrecked him. and when aaron heard pam was dead