reporter: no idea, even in october 2013, when kianna called to say she was on the bus towards santa ana. did she tell you why? visiting friends is what she told me. reporter: but then the girl who called her mother almost daily stopped calling. anything over a day or two, i would start going, wait a second. this isn t right. something s not right. i would text her, and she would text right back. but this time nothing, nothing. reporter: gone. not a peep to her mom, to her friends, to her boyfriend. kathy went to the police. when i called to file a missing persons report, they said, she s an adult and there s nothing we can do for you. but you into there was a problem? yeah. reporter: so kathy started doing her own digging, tracked her daughter down to a motel in orange county, where the trail ended. her clothes were there, but she wasn t. again, she called the police. and they said, well, that happens. sometimes prostitutes just work
she called detective trapp. there s only one person. she says, i know him. i said who? and she s all, his name is frank kano. he s a registered sex offender. in 2007, frank kano pleaded guilty to committing a lewd act on a minor. he was now on parole, wearing a gps monitor. but now, next question, did frank kano 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, frank kano came up. wow. for every single intersection, it was i was shocked. reporter: but something about that man, frank kano. he had a buddy, and lomeli had
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 the that date and time that they gave me, franc cano came up. wow. for every single intersection. it was it was i was shocked. reporter: but something about that man, franc cano. he had a buddy. and lomeli had run into them both. i mentioned, you know, i do know that he has a friend
prostitute? at first i was like, no okay, no. that can t be. reporter: but then the truth came crashing down, undeniable. kianna had missed a scheduled court date in santa ana for a prostitution charge. but wait a minute, you talked to her every day. that texted with her all the time. exactly. and she ask you knew nothing of this secret life of hers? nope. nothing. what does it feel like as a mother, to hear that has been going on all that time and you didn t know? heartbreaking. reporter: when she heard kathy s story, detective trapp began to think she was on to something. and then she discovered that just two and a half weeks after kianna disappeared, there was another one josephine monique vargas. she had a beautiful personality. they used to call her giggles cause she always made people laugh. reporter: josephine s mother priscilla had been on the local news, searching for answers for months, ever since her daughter left a family barbecue, tellin
that s steven gordon. reporter: steven gordon. he d done time for molesting a minor and later for kidnapping. he and cano were inseparable, apparently. once again, detective lomeli pulled up the gps coordinates. she checked the place martha was last seen in santa ana, and? no gordon. not there. but when she checked locations for kianna and josephine, sure enough, there he was. so why not at that first location? she checked the record and discovered that at that particular moment, gordon wasn t on a gps monitor, but he was wearing one at the other three places, and so was cano. the electronics made it absolutely obvious, here they were, cano and gordon driving together up and down beach boulevard and all around santa ana and anaheim. i mean, even when they re on the freeway they were in the same car? they were in the same