i m craig melvin. and i m natalie morales. and this is dateline. i just collapsed. she s dead because she was my friend. first melissa disappeared. where s melissa? that s the million dollar question. i knew right then she absolutely never made it into her house. left behind in her garage signs of a struggle and a strange orange mist, then her boss went missing too. who is he afraid of am. he might have been afraid he s next. he left behind a bigger mess. we three kings be stealing the gold. a missing fortune. ballpark a billion, billion and a half dollars. a missing woman. we have know clue, no leads. some wonder was there a link? this had a twist to it. two crimes, one for money, one supposedly for love, and behind both, a lingering mystery. it s just so ugly and so wrong, and i can t fix it. welcome to dateline. hotshot florida attorney melissa lewis was living large in fort lauderdale dale, but then her seemingly charged life ended
We were like sisters. We had shared so much. I told me they had found her body, and i just collapsed. She is dead, because she was my friend. First, melissa disappeared. Thats the milliondollar question. I knew then that she had never made it into her house. Signs of a struggle, and a strange orange missed. They didnt know what it was. Then, her boss went missing, to. Who was he afraid of . Mightve been afraid that he was next. He left behind a bigger mess. We three kings be stealing the gold. A missing fortune. Ballpark, 1 1 2 million dollars. We have no clues, no leads. Some wondered, was there a link . Two crimes, one for money, one, supposedly for love, and behind both, a lingering mystery. It is just so ugly, and so wrong, and i cannot fix it. Welcome to dateline. Hotshot florida attorney, Melissa Lewis was living large in ft. Lauderdale. But then, her seemingly charmed life ended in tragedy when a body was discovered in a drainage canal. She had been murdered. But who would want
when he got the report, detective kendall couldn t believe what he saw. melissa s iphone had been active ( after the murder and someone had actually gone into her voicemail and played back messages, read texts. we try to make sense as to why he would want to do something like this. reporter: police were dumbfounded that someone wouldn t know that a smartphone was a detective s best friend and police could track them using cell towers. it was either bold or stupid or both. people know this concept of pinging off towers. it s the cell phone is telling the towers, here i am ? yeah. so it s giving us a general vicinity and of an area, where that cell phone communicated. reporter: and the phone records showed that person had been on the move from the believed time of the murder into the next day. how important is the story told by the cell phone? very important. cell phone s almost like someone dropping pieces of popcorn, leaving a trail. reporter: but the trail was a
in. was there something in the background of my victim here that accounts for what s happened to them? we don t think so. she doesn t live a high-risk lifestyle. she s a prominent attorney. she s safety conscious, you know, she carries her pepper spray. reporter: melissa specialized in people with gripes, employment lawsuits detectives couldn t find any history of bad blood between melissa and her clients or people she had sued. detectives talked to the ex-husband, but his alibi was solid. and then they looked at the current men in her life. what about boyfriends? she was a single woman who had been dating some guys. we assigned detectives to go out there, talk to them, and they were alibied out pretty quickly. reporter: of course, they also wanted to talk to melissa s co-worker and best friend, debra. who better to talk to than someone s best friend to find out what their habits are, what they like to do? did she have strange men come to her home? reporter: far from it,