i m freaking out because i still, i don t know if this is a game. reporter: detectives had been analyzing that strange e-mail and asked forensic experts to comb through chris computers seized at his apartment. a theory began to emerge. investigators now believed chris had written the e-mail himself. did you suspect that chris was posing as heather, sending that e-mail? yes, i did, because chris was an expert when it came to computers. reporter: and what s more, they suspected it was chris who sent those sexy texts to ed, not heather. they believed he d stolen her phone and was pretending to be her. that is really weird that you re getting sexting from her husband. yeah, her husband. it s kind of one of them things, okay, i need to put that out of my mind. reporter: chris plan, detectives thought, was to throw them off the trail, to make it look like heather ran off and was having an affair.
did you hide her? i wish. did you drive to see heather that night? no. were you with heather that night? no. did you have anything to do with her disappearance? no. reporter: ed told police he was at home, far away in eastern tennessee and revealed that despite those steamy texts, he and heather hadn t actually seen each other in person in years. we had discussed seeing each other. i guess it would ve been, well, about another month. reporter: ed insisted to police he had no idea where heather was, but he did give them a big clue. he told investigators that, in fact, he spoke to heather on the phone the very night she disappeared, and he heard something on that call that was alarming then, and even more alarming now. i called her. she answered. and immediately i could hear kind of arguing.
detective cook called me and he said, is your girlfriend there? and i said, yes, she s in the backyard. and he said good, okay, so heather s, okay? and i said, heather s not my girlfriend. she s a friend of mine. we ve been friends for 20 years. reporter: so if ed and heather weren t an item, and he was dating someone else, what exactly was going on? the detective wanted to hear from you immediately once they learned a name. oh yeah, once they knew who i was. you were an important piece reporter: detectives learned from ed that his relationship with heather went back decades, long before heather married chris. ed said he and heather met in 1993 when they were both teens living in florida. ed remembers they fell fast for each other. it was young love. they say you don t know what love is, but i do. reporter: ed said they dated for two years before he moved
alarming then, and even more alarming now. i called her. she answered. and immediately i could hear kind of arguing. reporter: ed said he heard a man s voice in the background during that call. but whose voice was it? the pieces of the case are about to fall into place. and all those flirtatious texts, turns out they aren t at all what you think. i need to put that out of my mind. are you thinking this could be our last chance to solve this? this is our shot. when dateline continues. coppertone sport. proven to protect street skaters and freestylers. stops up to 97% uv.
was alive when he went home. and he said she sent that disturbing good-bye email only after he left. i m freaking out because i still, i don t know if this is a game. reporter: detectives had been analyzing that strange e-mail and asked forensic experts to comb through chris computers seized at his apartment. a theory began to emerge. investigators now believed chris had written the e-mail himself. did you suspect that chris was posing as heather, sending that e-mail? yes, i did, because chris was an expert when it came to computers. reporter: and what s more, they suspected it was chris who sent those sexy texts to ed, not heather. they believed he d stolen her phone and was pretending to be her. that is really weird that you re getting sexting from her husband. yeah, her husband. it s kind of one of them things,