hi, mom. this woman had gone out to get the mail and disappeared in her pyjamas the case was never closed. it was consuming all of us. the individual was wearing a baseball cap, hoodie with the hood pulled up and large mirrored sunglasses. oh, my gosh, did this really happen? i m like, no, dude, i can t do this. there was a scream. a drop of blood came from her nose. it was like a game. he was a part of this game. we re done with the games. it needs to stop. it needed to stop. michigan snow blankets field and woodland with silent beauty, sometimes encasing ugly secrets hidden beneath, never meant to be disturbed until finally they re revealed and all is made clear. i know a lot of people say, you wanted to find her. yeah, i wanted to find her, but then it was going to become so real to me that maybe you don t want to find yeah, yeah. start with the mother of two who vanished as she stepped outside her door to pick up mail. she wasn t there, and
i m so nervous. he s over there. what is he wearing? a white vest. i remember his eyes more than anything else. you could tell that she was just terrified of this guy. my god. you know, i sold this guy these things that helped him kill his wife. reporter: and there was something else that tripped doug up, a credit card blunder. before he went to michigan, doug bought a throwaway cell phone called a trac phone that normally assures except, as you can see doug swiping here, he s just bought it with a credit card that created an electronic receipt revealing the phone s unique i.d. that made the phone, and doug s movements, easily traceable. he didn t think we would find these trac phones that he had. reporter: master criminals don t save receipts and buy on credit cards. absolutely not. reporter: criger could then follow the path of that particular trac phone through
26th. of april? no. i was only there on spring break. he was reluctant to admit the truth. reporter: but he was starting to distance himself from doug, bit by bit. i googled his name again. and i saw some weird [ bleep ]. they found a receipt or somethin from a different state close to michigan? and i was like, what the [bleep]? at that point, i was like, i m not talking to this guy. that s weird. reporter: so detective criger put on his good cop hat, soothing, supporting, sympathetic. you re probably thinking, what am i gonna get in trouble for? this what am i gonna do? i did know any of this was gonna happen. do you know what i m saying? that s some [bleep] it is. i know. and i don t think you re involved with the planning of that. i think it was more him. and you just kinda got caught up in something you realized after the fact. whoa, this is way over my head. i don t want any part of doing this anymore. you got a couple sisters, right? what.
for investigators, centering around doug stewart and some mystery man in virginia. these points all represent cellphone towers. reporter: back in michigan, detective criger was checking doug s cell phone records, hoping to come up with some answers. reporter: what jumped out at you? anything obvious? the biggest part was three or four days just prior to venus disappearance, there were numerous calls, between 7 and 15 calls per day to and from doug, from one particular number. reporter: a constant phone-mate but the detectives also noticed a gap. the day before venus went missing, the cell phone was turned off. it didn t go back on until the next night. and then, all of a sudden, the calls start coming back to and from this same number. reporter: so the question becomes, who s at the other end of this phone call, huh? right. reporter: it was quick work finding out who the phone pal was. the calls were traced to the small town of bear, delaware to a young man named ric
it with a credit card that created an electronic receipt revealing the phone s unique i.d. that made the phone, and doug s movements, easily traceable. he didn t think we would find these trac phones that he had. reporter: master criminals don t save receipts and buy on credit cards. absolutely not. reporter: criger could then follow the path of that particular trac phone through gps technology, just as if it were a personal cell phone. using the phones, how close can you get him to his wife s driveway? pretty close. within five to seven miles. reporter: but, by now, something else put him even closer, old-fashioned forensics. remember, the smudge on the plastic tarp wrapper found outside venus parents house? it was a fingerprint, turned out, doug stewart s fingerprint, placing him at the scene of venus disappearance. prosecutors believed it was damning evidence. yeah, i swear. reporter: but to close the deal, they d have to put on the stand the college-kid imposto