was scott, the young man the police had questioned a week earlier. giselle esteban s old boyfriend, remember, and father of her child. two days later, monday june 6th, the family was called back to the police station for an important meeting. the police finally had a chance to search michelle s car and the status of her case had been changed, from missing person to homicide. and the family felt blindsided. and they said, you know, i think you have to get comfortable with - - with the fact that your sister is probably dead. we were horrified. reporter: and just like that, the information door closed. the hayward police told the family it was a murder investigation now. so department policy they could reveal nothing more. and therefore couldn t or wouldn t tell the family why they thought michelle was dead. but without hearing an explanation or seeing any evidence, how could the family
michelle s car. would have revealed everything. but that night the camera wasn t working. what happened in those missing minutes? the police, remember, weren t talking to the family. so the family pursued its own line of investigation. we were looking to human trafficking patterns and human trafficking patterns? yeah. you thought that was a possibility? we did, yeah. reporter: but it was a dead end. then june 30th, 34 days into michelle s disappearance, the le family contacted us to say they had begun working with a private investigator. a man named michael frame. and in the midst of his investigation, frame sat down with us to tell us what he had learned.
but not just michelle s friend. a friend of the family. gisele was a fixture around the house, spent hours with all of those cousins. then after high school in 2002 the two friends both moved to san francisco to attend college. and that s where gisele fell in love and got pregnant, moved in with her boyfriend scott, and then broke up with him three years later. the trouble came when michelle stayed friends with scott, with that boyfriend, after the break-up, and that just didn t sit well with gisele. though really it wasn t such a big deal. still, just to cover all the bases, late saturday night ritchie dropped in on gisele to ask what she knew. we re here about michelle le. who? michelle. oh, god. what about her? she went missing last night from her work. okay. in talking to her friends and such, we understand you guys had
in high school down in san diego. but not just michelle s friend, friend of the family. giselle was a fixture around the house, spend hours with all of those cousins. and then after high school in 2002, the two friends both moved to san francisco to attend college. and that s where giselle fell in love and got pregnant, moved in with her boyfriend scott, and then broke up with him three years later. the trouble came when michelle stayed friends with scott, with that boyfriend after the breakup. and that just didn t sit well with giselle. though really, it wasn t such a big deal. still, just to cover all the bases, late saturday night, ritchie dropped in on giselle to ask what she knew.
remember, the father of her child. two days later, the family was called back to the police station for an important meeting. the police finally had a chance to search michelle s car. and the status of her case had been changed from missing person to homicide. and the family felt blindsided. and they said, you know, i think you have to get comfortable with the fact that your sister is probably dead. we were horrified. keith morrison: and just like that, the information door closed. the hayward police told the family it was a murder investigation now. so department policy, they could reveal nothing more. and therefore couldn t or wouldn t tell the family why they thought michelle was dead. but without hearing an explanation or seeing any evidence, how could the family believe the police? no, they simply wouldn t accept what the cops had to say. it was horrible. we were really angry.