russia s military says moscow is suspending its participation in an agreement to export grain and other agricultural products from ukrainian ports in crimea. this comes hours after russia accused ukraine of attacking ships in crimea, that it said were part of the grain initiative. the general motors is suspending its advertising on twitter following elon musk s takeover on the platform. the arrival of tesla is pausing on through paid advertising but will continue to use twitter to interact with customers. now, back to dateline. with stcuomers. now, back to dateline. welcome back to dateline. i m natalie morales. brandon biel believed he was gonna be charged with the murder of game store manager amber belken. but detectives verified his
know amber hadn t taken the cash to the bank yet. then mariano told a detective about encountering brandon. and that he couldn t underside why brandon didn t look for amber until he, mariano, arrived. his first thought should have been there might have been a robbery. let me make sure first of all, that the robbers are not still in here and could hurt me. but also, let me see where amber is. here s what the detective was thinking. he talked to amber s coworkers. they said she had issues with brandon. they had never learn to work together yet. when you have a guy like that who is not really the same type of attitude or mentality that the rest of us were, it causes some problems. does she trust him? you know, i don t know. i think it in some instances, no. even embers per said they knew she was dissatisfied with brandon. because she had written him up. she had prepared a negative work review. she was going to turn it in that. it s just his last chance,
she had to be so frightened. and when she tried to pick up the phone, i know it was to call us. and he yanked the phone out of the wall. was it brandon biel? by the day of the funeral, they were sure. we definitely thought brandon did it. everything pointed to him. and then, as mourners filed by to pay their respects suddenly, where he was at the funeral. in front of them. brandon biel. did you think, my god her killer has come to the funeral? oh, he came in and shook my hand. i got up and my knees just felt weak and i fell. then said amber s mother, she was sure she saw brandon walk right up to the casket and put something into it. he put one of the gamestop tag holders that had their i. d. on it. he put one of those in her casket and i got that thing out
there. they did not. but there has to be something. for weeks the detective looked for evidence on brandon biel. randy and the mom called me 24/7, every day, two or three times a day. brandon, brandon, brandon. detectives questioned his fiancée. her parents. they scoured his phone records. we did everything we could to try to get some kind of evidence on brandon. and there was none there. yeah. there was none there because he didn t do it. that alibi about helping his fiancée s parents checked out. and his phone records revealed he was miles away from the store when amber was murdered. finally, brandon biel was cleared. did you at some point think, i m going to be charged with murder? yes, i did. the memory still fresh. had nightmares of going to jail. you know, it was hard for me to
i knock on the door and he lets me in. i said, brandon, have you seen our? he s like, no. but he goes something a strange. there s money on the floor. it looks like there was some kind of struggle or something happen. some things got knocked over. my first thought was, worse amber? so he said he didn t know. of course, right away i m thinking, what is going on with this guy? he clearly sees something wrong. he must not recognize her car thinking, that s your car outside. you see it. you see there is things on the floor. why haven t you reacted right away? are you going to call someone are check the rest of the story? but he hadn t. so, mariano ran to the back office. the only other room in the store. not a moment he will ever forget. not for the rest of his life. and i went around to the back i find amber on the floor, face down, and she has a plastic bag wrapped around her head. instantly i knew what happened. one mystery solved. amber was no longer missing. but a much bigger