marriage to work, i did not give up. soon he was gone, vanished without a word or a trace. he left the young daughter behind. he left the house. was this a husband who did not want to be found? or could this be something else. detectives are not an undercover operation. that would lead to a long hard to say ready for that? i know that it has to happen. disappearance in the desert. could it be the perfect crime. i can only imagine what would be like to keep that. welcome to dateline. i m lester holt. for eight years it was a mystery, a husband who had simply vanished. on the surface it didn t make sense. he had a wife, a lucrative job, a daughter he loved. but investigators were told he also had a secret. so was he missing or was he hiding? that question would lead detectives to a dark discovery because someone else had a secret to. here s josh michael it s. there is an old saying, that two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead. we never talked about
executive. but as your career was on the rise. her marriage was on the rocks. sydney i still wanted this marriage to work, i did not give up. soon he was gone, vanished without a word or a trace. he left the young daughter behind. he left the house. was this a husband who did not want to be found? or could this be something else. detectives are not an undercover operation. that would lead to a long hard to say ready for that? i know that it has to happen. disappearance in the desert. could it be the perfect crime. i can t imagine what would be like to keep that. welcome to dateline. i m lester holt. for eight years it was a mystery, a husband who had simply vanished. on the surface it didn t make sense. he had a wife, a lucrative job, a daughter he loved. but investigators were told he also had a secret. so was he missing or was he hiding? that question would lead detectives to a dark discovery because someone else had a secret to. here s josh michael it s.
just a few years before. they had seen michael and ellen digging out behind the garage. digging a hole. when was that? around the time that michael went missing. the neighbor said she remembers seeing them out behind the garage with shovels. that was pretty intriguing to the detective. it sounded like of viable lead. so in late spring, 2006, with the current homeowners permission detective wilson brought to search dogs and their handlers to the snyders old property. a neighbor showed them where a flowering tree had been planted in 2002. a year after mike disappeared. my suspicion was that there was a body under the tree, and they plan to treat that the body. the handles of the dog loose in the property. at first, they showed little interest. that is, and so they went under the flowering tree. incredibly, both dogs independently of one another
in cadaver dogs and i guess you don t call in the medical examiner if you ve just found belongings. no. that s a great point. i was on the evidence response team at the fbi. we call in cadaver dogs, you call cadaver dogs when you have something specific you need them to focus on. you don t turn a cadaver dog loose on a long trail or field. you put them in a specific area where you re expecting to find decomposing remains. let s go back to randi kaye who s there. and tell us more, randi, about the utilization of these dogs. what they can tell beyond just finding remains. potentially. that the investigators can use them for. yeah, it s really fascinating, victor. not only will they tell you if there are human remains here, but if they don t alert, their handlers say they can tell you