i m craig melvin. . i m craig melvin. and i m natalie morales. and this is dateline. and i m natalie morales. and this is dateline. in the pit of my stomach, i just knew something is not right here. i just felt something bad had happened. he must have been so, so scared. they were so happy at first. kevin just fell in love with her. morgan was very, very charming. but when the marriage went bad, he went missing. he just disappeared. was this a husband who didn t want to be found? was this a wife who had something to hide? you re there gained in the truck. they re leaving. what had happened behind
she didn t sound right. i said, are you okay? she said, kevin left. and she just started crying hysterically. she said kevin left, kevin left. i said mom, something is not right here. he left the three kids, he left morgan, i don t know where he went. he won t pick up his phone. he just sent me a text message. kevin, the death till death do us part romantic, leave his wife and kids? perhaps morgan put it best when she typed out their father s day regrets to kevin. we received a text message from morgan saying due to unforeseen circumstances we will not be able to be there today. happy father s day. unforeseen circumstances? what exactly did that mean? we all knew how excited he was before father s day. it would be the one day kevin would not miss, ever. no matter what happen. no matter what happened. we re had kevin mengel gone? coming up maybe there was a reason for
a big father s day and he could ve been more excited. kevin s younger brother chris was also looking forward to being with his family. after all, kevin had just recognize with their father after many rocky. years i thought, man, this is odd. why would he do this? now it doesn t make any sense? the story morgan, the wife told, is that kevin had taken off. told her that the marriage was over. in fact, by father s day, he had already been gone for two days. kevin s fine, he s clearing his head. what do you mean kevin is fine? he s fine, he had to get away, clears. head so she s trying to tell you he needs. space he needs. space i could see him taking off, blowing off, i m just going to get away. so that part of me said, okay, he just did that, he s going to come back today, tomorrow. we just said to be patient. yes we just have to be patient. patient because those close to kevin and morgan had seen
ha. morgan responds, nice babe. steve does not reply. morgan says, you back in? out there is a gap where nothing happens. then she gives him final taunt, your backing out? when she says that he says, it s done, get here now. those text messages don t even seen real. they don t seem real. as incriminating as those messages sounding, morgan s defense was ready to press her case in court saying that she was no murder mastermind. i still don t think to this day that she had a fully formed belief that steve was going to do this. but the defense never got a chance. a few days into the trial, the police officers said something on the stand. here say that the with the judge sent everyone home. a missed trial at the low triangle murder case. for kevin s family, the delay was torture. more waiting for answers to questions they never wanted to ask.
passenger side and walks by me. i walk over to shappell and he s still sitting in the passenger seat. and he s got a dead stare straight ahead. and there is something inside the truck that the detective thought was peculiar. the backseat was full of false. i could see a laundry basket, bags, backpacks. he says oh, morgan is going to do laundry across the street. i said well morgan has got a washer and dryer in her apartment. i saw yesterday. things are just aren t adding up. i said, would you mind coming back to the police station? i have a couple more questions for. you and in that moment, as a detective turned his back on steve, something unexpected happened. something chris mengel, still filming, caught on video. yo, yo, yo. steve jumped in the driver seat. pulled out of the lot. and sped away. that steve. morgan walked over and sits down on a step, puts her hands on her heads and says, oh my, maybe he did sue do something to kevin.