tiny drop of melissa s blood in her car and on a tile in her house. but there were no fingerprints other than melissa s in either place. dna testing would take longer. now the question is, where s melissa? that s the million dollar question at this point. reporter: two days after she went missing, a worker made a gruesome discovery as he was clearing debris from a water pump at a nearby canal. poking around with his rake, huh? guess the first thing that comes to his mind is, ah, it s just a mannequin. then he realizes it s actually a body. reporter: it was 38-year-old melissa lewis. the missing persons case was now a murder investigation. still a whodunit. we have no idea. workers discover lewis body floating in this reporter: the news media quickly picked up on the story. my husband told me. he saw it on the news. reporter: how did how did he tell you? what was the he came to my work and told me. and i just broke down. i couldn t believe it. reporter: po
on the first day of work. she was smart, capable. she was everything you would want in an associate attorney. she was also one of the nicest people debra say she ever met. the two became fast friends. we were like sisters. she knew all my faults and flaws, and she loved me anyways. deborah and melissa saw the first grow ten-fold ipjust a few years. their gregarious boss scott was the front man. he hob knobbed where the who s who of big deal names in sports, politics, and business. fund raisers, scott was the your man. once your name gets out there you truly cannot imagine how many people knock on your door. and the door scott knocked on was melissa s. melissa was the one he knew she could handle it, she
making her a partner. now, he was helping her family with funeral arrangements. melissa s aunt, lynn haberl, spoke at the church memorial. i could look out from the podium and see a sea of lawyers out there. reporter: including scott rothstein? including scott rothstein. reporter: who actually paid for the funeral. he actually paid. he came to the funeral home and paid for everything. reporter: three days after the funeral, detectives arrested tony villegas. he was charged with first-degree murder. he denied involvement in this. reporter: tony s attorney is bruce fleisher. they sought the death penalty. reporter: police and prosecutors were confident they had a solid case against tony villegas, but something happened that threw the whole investigation into freefall. that s because new crimes were about to be revealed. and new questions were about to be raised about who really killed melissa. and in the midst of it all, scott rothstein, like melissa, would disappear.
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 in tragedy. her body was discovered in a drainage canal. she d been murdered. but who would want her dead? with few clues, few suspect and a scandal involving her law firm, investigators had their work cut out for them to unravel the mystery of what had happen today melissa. here s dennis murphy with betrayed. if you ask someone in town where the buzziest part of fort lauderdale dale lies they ll probably steer you here. and way up there is penthouse off the street that once upon a
charged with killing her. people thought, debra s psycho ex-husband has murdered melissa. you know, i was just overwhelmed with guilt and shame. reporter: melissa s murder weighed heavily on debra s mind, as well as the mind of her boss scott rothstein. but scott seemed to be rattled by something more than just melissa s murder. for some reason after tony s arrest, rothstein beefed up his own security. who was he afraid of? obviously that he was next. reporter: but if melissa s murder had been solved, why was scott still worried? debra knew because she was privy to a secret that threatened to send even more people to prison, and to destroy scott rothstein s reputation as a high-profile mover and shaker. he could pick up the phone and call and make things happen. reporter: a walk through his office left no doubt. his hero wall was plastered with pictures of him with politicians, business moguls, and movie stars. the governor was on speed dial.