in there. they met her husband. his name was john, john kreech, not pleasant. when they came out they were both crying. they told their mom kreech threatened to kill gavin if he didn t stay away from chandy. so 17 months later he vanishes after calling chandy. lisa had a very bad feeling. everything changed right then for me. detectives were suspicious too. chand told them she didn t see gavin that night but there was evidence to the contrary. gavin s phone and hers was in the same place that night. we thought this is the likely spot. a likely spot for a trist, that is. this is a pretty lonely spot. it is. so it seemed that on the night he disappeared, gavin
and the prosecutor told the jury kreech wasn t going to any hospital. he was setting out to recruit help for his coverup. so the first person he calls is jorge. he was the first of a series of friends who told an incredible tale. did you ask any of these people that central question, what were you thinking? they all ultimately said they were trying to help johnny. because he s such a nice man. because he was a nice guy. nice? when kreech showed up at jorge s house that night he was driving gavin s black mercedes and jorge saw something in the passenger seat. it was a body and it was stiff. like a long stick. and you said it was wrapped up. yes. that very night kreech called a friend from the power house py
we felt that the vehicle was still out there somewhere. so find the car and maybe find out what happened to gavin. and nine months after gavin vanished, they finally got the break they were looking for. i said, i m here to talk to you about your daughter and he started crying and he said, she saw everything. coming up she was very nervous, startled. a new witness and a game changer of a clue. i kissed my partner on the cheek. it was pretty exciting. it was a big piece of evidence. huge moment. you think you can t be shocked but you can be. when dateline continues. n s [ ding ] [ duck noises ] hey ryan. hey greg. listen umm, it s becoming a little bit of a problem. uhhh that you aren t using your real arms.
he was feeling healthier than he had felt in years. but when detective john o brien learned about gavin s addiction, they had to consider a raft of new possibilities. he disappeared. maybe he overdosed. we didn t exactly have all of those answers. driving all over the valley, we would have moments in the car of where we looked at each other and said, i think this is a suicide and we d interview somebody and something would happen and we d go, i think this is a murder. it s got to be pretty unusual. it was very confusing. confusing for lisa too. because here was another secret. the smiths were underwater on their mortgage, on the verge of losing their home. we were in horrible position financially. lisa discovered that before he disappeared, gavin had been taking money from his retirement
garage. is the body still in it at that point? yes, he allows kreech to keep the body in the car at his house for five or six days. really? yes. and that s when they turned to the nurse who took care of chandy s grandmother. and then he news the van to drive up to the national forest and he finds a secluded area to bury gavin smith s body. where buddy, the dog, later found it. but the mercedes benz was still in stan s garage. and did that upset you? very much so. so weeks later two men arrived with a trailer. and did you watch them take the mercedes out of your garage? yes, i did. that, said prosecutors is when they moved the mercedes