but right then the detective had no more for clay starbuck. i said we ll talk to you again later. why don t you go talk to your kid. reporter: even as he left the station, the detectives recalled, clay starbuck seemed eager to help. he told jim dressback look at her phone and her computer. it will tell you what you need to know. reporter: no detective worth his salt needed to be told that. chanin starbuck s cell phone was right there in the bedroom. couldn t miss it, said detective lyle johnston. the phone was sitting on a table right next to her bed just a couple of feet from her body. reporter: like she d just been using it or something. correct. i wanted to look at the cell phone right away because it would tell us who she may have been in contact with last. reporter: there was a text message from clay from thursday morning telling chanin he had car trouble, asking her to take the kids to school. then later some exchanges about who would pick them up. not terribly
reporter: the investigation began the very day chanin s body was found. as luck would have it, among those just beyond the yellow police tape that night was a man that police surely would have looked up sooner or later, didn t have to. chanin s ex-husband clay was clearly looking for them. what was going on, he wanted to know. his ex-wife was missing. was she okay. he was asking to talk to the lead detective, he wanted some answers. reporter: first responders at the scene wouldn t tell them anything about what was found inside the house, not even that chanin was dead. an ex-husband after all is no longer next of kin. so clay went down to the sheriff s station where he met detective jim dressback. come in, we need to have a chat. his response was, well, your jacket says major crimes. what s going on? nobody will tell me anything. reporter: the detective broke the news, chanin was gone. waited for clay to collect himself. and then i start by asking him very simple things.
cruel? well, of course, it s the homicide detective s job to figure that out. it could mean many things, it could mean somebody very close to her that was very upset and angry with her, or it could mean somebody else. reporter: the investigation began the very day chanin s body was found. as luck would have it, among those just beyond the yellow police tape that night was a man that police surely would have looked up sooner or later, didn t have to. chanin s ex-husband clay was clearly looking for them. what was going on, he wanted to know. his ex-wife was missing. was she okay. he was asking to talk to the lead detective, he wanted some answers. reporter: first responders at the scene wouldn t tell them anything about what was found inside the house, not even that chanin was dead. an ex-husband after all is no longer next of kin. so clay went down to the sheriff s station where he met detective jim dressback.
somebody else. reporter: they would talk to plenty of others. that was just day one in the investigation. as a logical step in a case like this, the ex himself would have to be checked out thoroughly. but right then the detective had no more for clay starbuck. i said we ll talk to you again later. why don t you go talk to your kid. reporter: even as he left the station, the detectives recalled, clay starbuck seemed eager to help. he told jim dressback look at her phone and her computer. it will tell you what you need to know. reporter: no detective worth his salt needed to be told that. chanin starbuck s cell phone was right there in the bedroom. couldn t miss it, said detective lyle johnston. the phone was sitting on a table right next to her bed just a couple of feet from her body. reporter: like she d just been using it or something. correct. i wanted to look at the cell phone right away because it would tell us who she may have been in contact with last.