in both locations. she called detective trapp. there s only one person. she s like, i know him. i said, who? and she s all, his name s franc cano, he s a registered sex offender. reporter: in 2007 franc cano pleaded guilty to committing a lewd act on a minor. he was now on parole wearing a gps monitor. but now next question, did franc cano s monitor put him near the places those other three women, according to phone records, made their last calls, kianna, josephine, and martha? one by one, the detective entered the coordinates. and every intersection for that date and time that they gave me, franc cano came up. reporter: wow. for every single intersection. it was it was i was shocked. reporter: but something about that man, franc cano. he had a buddy.
reporter: in an attempt to make sense of it all, kathy asked detective trapp and her partner bruce linn to drive her to the place where the killers had picked up kianna. you wanted to go this last spot. why? may i ask why? kind of because it was, like, the last known spot that she was at, that i was told she was alive at that spot. so kind of a closure, you know, just to see where she was at when before they took her. reporter: about broke her heart to do it. take this tour of her daughter s last hours. i think this is the dead-end street that gordon and cano entered and turned around and somewhere in in here was where she was at. this little intersection right here is where she was at. reporter: just an ordinary place, but so painful.
well, we started reading the text messages and started seeing how prolific they were at hunting. reporter: hunting? hunting, on almost a daily basis and how nonchalant they were about it. it was almost like ordering takeout. when you start reading, what do you feel like today, asian or mexican? reporter: oh, boy. what would they call these girls? that was the other thing. cats. reporter: cats? cats. be careful, when the cat knows it isn t getting away, it s going to fight. reporter: the next victim couldn t be far away. because gordon texted cano, kitty cat later yes. to which cano responded, ok. and then a sudden change. had they spotted the surveillance? reporter: as trapp listened to the wiretap, she heard gordon talk to cano about skipping town. i could hear the desperation in franc cano s voice. that desperation just kind of sent a hair on the back of my neck and i said, no, i m not
i m dara brown with the hour s top stories. officials are investigating the deadly shooting at a pensacola naval station as an act of terrorism. sources tell nbc the shooter showed three classmates videos of mass shootings in the week before the incident. former vice president joe biden talked to 20/20 in an axios interview. he criticized mayor pete buttigieg for lacking support among black voters in his own city. when asked about his picks for vp, biden said it would be presumptuous to choose a running mate at this point. now back to dateline. welcome back to dateline extra. i m craig melvin. registered sex offenders franc cano and steven gordon were in
so her, her, her, right? reporter: each murder went the same way, he said. he and cano picked them up in his suv, drove them back to the auto body shop where gordon worked. they took turns having their way. and then, just as each woman prepared to leave i strangled her with my hands. you strangled her? reporter: some of the details in that 13-hour interview were almost more than even a seasoned detective could stand to hear. as he was hurting martha, she told him, i didn t believe in god, but i do now. there is a part of me that s grateful that she found god at the end. it s disturbing to me that in response he said, you picked a hell of a time to start believing in god. i ll never forget that.