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
any discussion between you and scott about having melissa killed? absolutely not. are you aware of any discussion or conspiracy to hire tony for melissa lewis murder? no. before i would have let him kill melissa, i would have let him move back into my house. that s the biggest regret that i have in all of this. reporter: but detectives did learn one new thing about melissa and scott, some dish. she had an inappropriate relationship with scott. melissa had had a very, very brief, like, a three-week, you know, thing reporter: fling with him, with the boss? with scott. oh, god, melissa. it so doesn t matter. reporter: but it had been years before, when melissa was first hired out of law school. detectives discounted it, saying it had nothing to do with melissa s murder and was not relevant. and, of course, rothstein himself was grilled about melissa lewis murder during depositions in civil suits brought by the investors. we asked him directly whether or not he wa
a lot of people thought that because of the rothstein ponzi scheme, that he had something to do with the murder of melissa lewis. reporter: and debra villegas was back in the hot seat herself, being grilled by homicide detectives who bluntly asked her about scott, the ponzi scheme and melissa s murder. she had her lawyer with her this time. was melissa aware of anything that scott was involved with? and i m i m gonna use a term the ponzi scheme. no. reporter: and then the questioning got more direct. any discussion between you and scott about having melissa killed? absolutely not. are you aware of any discussion or conspiracy to hire tony for melissa lewis murder? no. before i would have let him kill melissa, i would have let him move back into my house. that s the biggest regret that i have in all of this. reporter: but detectives did learn one new thing about melissa and scott, some dish. she had an inappropriate relationship with scott. with scott. melis
messy complications, tony s defense attorney, bruce fleisher, thought about two words, reasonable doubt. a lot of people thought that because of the rothstein ponzi scheme, that he had something to do with the murder of melissa lewis. reporter: and debra villegas was back in the hot seat herself, being grilled by homicide detectives who bluntly asked her about scott, the ponzi scheme and melissa s murder. she had her lawyer with her this time. was melissa aware of anything that scott was involved with? and i m i m gonna use a term the ponzi scheme. no. reporter: and then the questioning got more direct. any discussion between you and scott about having melissa killed? absolutely not. are you aware of any discussion or conspiracy to hire tony for melissa lewis murder? no. before i would have let him kill melissa, i would have let him move back into my house. that s the biggest regret that i have in all of this. reporter: but detectives did learn one new thing abou
is this woman, melissa, killed because she knew too much? after we think we had this solid, buttoned-up case, we do have the whole scott rothstein ponzi scheme comes into play? reporter: the fbi combed through the detectives files looking into a melissa-rothstein-ponzi link. they spent a week going through every inch of that case to find out if there was a connection to scott rothstein. reporter: with all these messy complications, tony s defense attorney, bruce fleisher, thought about two words, reasonable doubt. a lot of people thought that because of the rothstein ponzi scheme, that he had something to do with the murder of melissa lewis. was melissa aware of anything that scott was involved with? and i m i m gonna use a term the ponzi scheme. no. reporter: and then the questioning got more direct. any discussion between you and scott about having melissa killed? absolutely not. are you aware of any discussion or conspiracy to hire tony for melissa lewis m