and this is dateline now she s a married mothe of two she was a kindergarten teacher there s nothing about her life that would raise any red flags she amazed them all her whole group of girlfriends at the gym she was totally dedicated say how, they re turnaround you ve gotten smaller. a stunning 200 pound weight loss, and a whole new life cam without. you can see tha transformation you can see the confidence i her. then, she was gone. missing at school. i caught all the girlfriend will find you one where the other. the clues, an email to he husband, and a secret she wa reluctant to share kind of a bombshell how there was possibly seein another man. what was really behind he sudden disappearance that would be the most mind-blowing twist of all. do you think that heather would still be alive if sh hadn t gone through this transformation the welcome to dateline. heather jones, a motivationa teacher, had shed pounds and her past she was starting to
After shedding hundreds of pounds, a popular kindergarten teacher goes missing; investigators find a link between her weight loss and her disappearance.
detectives wondered, had h made the trip once already tha week to take how they re away, and most importantly, could he tell them where she was now? just because you ve got somebody living fun 100 mile away, does not mean that the didn t have anything to do wit this disappearance police recorded at roller since interview. during questioning, and made u a potentially importan mission. i love death, i would d anything for her, when the detectives asked me, who would she call if you want t disappear, and she d be me i d be here in however man hours it took me to get here today. but, he insisted, heather never made that call and there was more edge will detectives he wa surprised by the first questio he was asked what initiall contacted by the police. detective cam, and he said, is there as we go from there and i said yes, she s the backyard he said, good, okay, so heather is okay?
but they didn t 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? that s what we re asking, chris. reporter: chris was sticking to his story, but the biggest break in the case was about to happen. what chris didn t 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 they re all over it. reporter: they found the scent of human remains. i don t know why cadaver dogs hit on my car. i do. they don t just hit. they don t just pick cars out of the blue. what is it they re trained to detect? i mean
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 tennessee and agreed to make the eight-hour 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 you ve got somebody living 500 miles away does not mean that they didn t have anything to do with this disappearance. reporter: police recorded ed raulerson s 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. i d 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 the first questio