i m craig melvin. and i m natalie morales. and this is dateline. i just collapsed. she s dead because she was my friend. first melissa disappeared. where s melissa? that s the million dollar question. i knew right then she absolutely never made it into her house. left behind in her garage signs of a struggle and a strange orange mist, then her boss went missing too. who is he afraid of am. he might have been afraid he s next. he left behind a bigger mess. we three kings be stealing the gold. a missing fortune. ballpark a billion, billion and a half dollars. a missing woman. we have know clue, no leads. some wonder was there a link? this had a twist to it. two crimes, one for money, one supposedly for love, and behind both, a lingering mystery. it s just so ugly and so 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
for twenty years, he d worked for florida east coast railways hauling freight. you know, he basically drove a train for a living. reporter: police checked him out on their computer. has he any priors? none. no priors. reporter: detectives went to talk to tony and recorded the conversation. how well did you do you know this your debra s debra s friend? melissa. i know her from her. i ve seen her a few times. you guys ever have any problems, maybe? something like that? never. never. i don t think i ever spoke to her more than two words. do you know if she s had anything to do with what you re going through right now with debra and the divorce? i don t know. and i really don t don t care. i mean i just that wouldn t bother you if she did? oh no. the thing is that i just want to get away from my wife. i just wanna be at peace. reporter: then they asked him the question. did you have anything to do with with melissa s death? no. reporter: but wh
history of bad blood between melissa and her clients or people she had sued. detectives talked to the ex-husband, but his alibi was solid. and then they looked at the current men in her life. what about boyfriends? she was a single woman who had been dating some guys. we assigned detectives to go out there, talk to them, and they were alibied out pretty quickly. reporter: of course, they also wanted to talk to melissa s co-worker and best friend, debra. who better to talk to than someone s best friend to find out what their habits are, what they like to do? did she have strange men come to her home? reporter: far from it, debra told detectives. most nights, melissa was either at debra s house cooking dinner for her and her kids, or home with her dogs, george and gracie. still, they continued to pick debra s brain. it s just a million you just can t even imagine, like, the questions that they ask you. reporter: detectives also talked to melissa s sister, carrie. when asked
were in a panic. she hadn t responded to phone calls, and didn t show up for work. she s not one to take a mental health day? no. uh-uh, no. reporter: this was going to be a high profile case. melissa s boss, scott rothstein, was a power broker attorney who had a little extra juice with local police. plantation police detective brian kendall. he was our union attorney, they knew him, they were friends of his. reporter: at melissa s house the mysteries piled up. her car was gone, and there was pepper spray all over her garage. melissa also had a dog, and there was pepper spray on the dog s face as well. you re in foul play country with this investigation. our concern is raised greatly at this point that she is in some sort of danger. reporter: detectives wanted to know what melissa had been wearing the previous day at work. debra knew exactly: a new brown pants suit with pink pinstripes. sure enough, there she was captured on security cameras in her office lobby talking wi