yes. keith morrison: the eavesdropping electronics was closing in. here was surveillance video showing giselle trying to access the nursing school s computers the night before michelle s disappearance. and here, the scene of the apple store the day after michelle vanished. esteban, getting michelle s iphone unlocked. and later, using it have the chuck e. cheese. but still, it wasn t enough until the lab results finally came back, from evidence seized that very first night in giselle esteban s apartment. specifically, from her shoes. those tests uncovered a trace amount of blood. blood that belonged to michelle only one explanation for that. and so, on september 7, 2011, 104 days after michelle le s disappearance, inspector fraser richie to giselle esteban s house for a final visit. fraser ritchie: we showed up on that september morning, waited for her to come out of her house. i pulled up in front with two other investigators,
hardly the sort of place a detective would expect to get a hot tip in a murder case. but that s exactly what happened. it was the priest who called the police. wound up talking to the inspector at the time, fraser ritchie, and told him a story about an odd encounter with a young woman who came to him seeking solace of some kind. it was actually outside of an office, in a patio area. then he asked her, several times, do you want to go into the confessional. she said, no so that s why he was able to talk to us about it. and he said that she was wearing a medical-type scrubs same physical build, characteristics of giselle. and she was asking for forgiveness for something that she had not yet done. wait a minute. she asked for forgiveness for a sin that s what the she hadn t committed? that s the interpretation the priest had got. that was roughly at 3 o clock in the afternoon the day that michelle went missing. keith morrison: ritchie was convinced giselle esteban killed michelle le
woman, a police murder investigation had been very active indeed. and now, in the last days of august, the hayward county inspector at the time, fraser ritchie, was in fact closing in on a very hot target. but to understand how he got there, we need to go back almost to the beginning. it was minutes before midnight, may 28, 2011 29 hours after michelle le disappeared. ritchie had gone to pay a midnight visit to michelle s old high school friend, giselle esteban. keith morrison: so clearly there was some animosity between giselle esteban and michelle le. and so, ritchie and his partner brought giselle downtown to the police station
to them, it seemed obvious they were communicating with someone who had abducted michelle. and so their mission was now clear, michelle didn t just need to be found, michelle needed to be rescued. it s a time critical situation. every second that you waste is a second that she s hurting. we had to find her. keith morrison: saturday afternoon, 18 hours after michele vanished, michael and a group of michelle s friends met with an inspector for hayward county at the time, fraser ritchie. we had about 10 or 15 family members and classmates and friends at the police department. they were all talking about how responsible she was, how out of character this would have been for her to just get up and leave. did you try to call michelle or anything? yes. get a response? yes. i sent a message out this is inspector ritchie of the hayward police department. you need to get a hold of me right now. yeah? i got the response within several minutes saying that my phone is dying, i need to find a charg
ritchie felt he may have answered that question when he found, on the passenger seat of michelle s car, a little piece that would end up fitting into a very large puzzle. we found a identification card from the samuel merritt nursing school that michelle was attending, but it was not michelle s. there was no reason for that to be there. keith morrison: the name and face were plainly visible on the card, partially wedged into the seat cushion as if somebody had left it there by mistake. so ritchie called the school and was told oh, that s our new instructor that s starting in a week. and then i could hear in the back of the phone, her id card s gone it s missing from my desk. keith morrison: the card had been stolen. but by whom? here s the thing about these identity cards they are actually key cards. this is mine at nbc here. and whenever i m in the headquarters building at 30 rockefeller plaza, i use them to swipe the key card on that little box there it makes an electronic record