born to rock but nonetheless basically a quiet and unassuming guy. at 21, the youngest of five children and still living at home in chesterfield, michigan, ith his parents, dorene and bob. creating music is what he was happiest with. we were going to go to the detroit symphony,and it surprised me he wanted to go. the drummer with the heavy metal band, right? the drummer with the heavy metal band wanted to go to the detroit symphony with me. reporter: but this story isn t about the making of the music. matt landry from basement drummer to arena superstar. this is about an unusual crime spree in the detroit suburbs and how that connected to a nightmarish week in august of 2009 when matt landry disappeared. saturday afternoon, like most, matt had been behind the drum kit in a practice session with the guys. and we were playing in my basement, where we always practiced. reporter: they had to date only one paying gig in their career, a neighborhood block party.
and i found him in a basement tied up to one of those old-time heaters. reporter: five days in, a joint police task force had been formed to search those basements and burned-out homes on detroit s northeast side near where the car had been found. the same suburban police departments who initially couldn t agree on whose case it was now came together for one purpose, to find matt landry. from chesterfield, where matt lived, roseville, where he was last seen with francesca and where the walmart carjacking went down, and east point, where matt had been abducted at the quiznos. they re working with the gangs unit in detroit p.d. yes. reporter: and they had been going frustrating, block by block, finding not much of anything. right. reporter: and then there is thursday. yeah. then there s thursday. reporter: thursday, the task force was out in strength, 15 officers banging on doors,
every minute counts. reporter: lieutenant blarek didn t need the prodding. he and a partner were itching to question the suspect after they had returned from detroit, where they had spent a long night searching for matt with no results. we re just checking abandoned houses, checking alleys, checking burned up garages. and you re seeing nothing? no evidence of matt landry at all, sir. reporter: at 3:45 in the morning, a bone-tired blarek and his partner devised an interview strategy, hoping ihop would cough something up. i was just going to sit there in the chair, and i wasn t going to say anything to him. reporter: in the interrogation room, the other officer peppered the suspect with questions, but ihop was dodging him. so blarek pulled an investigator s trick to rattle him. i had a picture of matt landry inside of my notebook. so at the point where it wasn t going anywhere, i took out that picture and i held it up and i said, we found him. reporter: reaction from hi
atm card, i knew it wasn t good. reporter: and the suspected bank robber, street name ihop, was also carrying a gun when he attempted a carjacking at the walmart, according to the police. ihop was now in a holding cell at the roseville pd. and the landrys, getting desperate, time not on their side, began pressuring the police there to get immediate answers from him as to matt s whereabouts. even though matt s disappearance wasn t officially their case. give me back my brother. just bring him back! reporter: sister gina turned up the heat on the internet. i actually put on facebook anyone who can go up to the roseville police station and all these people showed up at the roseville police station at like midnight just to kind of show power in numbers to get them to question him. reporter: bob and doreen went over to roseville to talk to the detectives in person. you need to get somebody in there right now. don t you understand?
i m doing this right now, searching through dumpsters for my boyfriend. i didn t know what to do. reporter: as francesca moved south into detroit proper, she saw a crush of police cars flashing lights. she elbowed her way through the gawkers to see what everyone was looking at. it was matt s abandoned car. and i was like, yeah, that s his car. reporter: big development. yeah, huge development. reporter: francesca managed to put one of the police officers on her cell with doreen, matt s mom. did they tell you about anything they had found in the car at that point? he mentioned some maps. but matt delivered pizzas, so matt keeps maps in his car. reporter: by tuesday, august 11th, 2009, 21-year-old matt landry s disappearance had become a tv news story. family members have been busy during the last few days, handing out these flyers, hoping someone will help them find matt. reporter: in that same newscast, viewers were getting an update on that brazen bank stick-up the d