so the search and the mystery wore on for days and then for weeks. and by the middle of august, it all looked to be losing steam. on a typical san francisco summer afternoon as the fog rolled in, christine and michael brought us up to date on their efforts to find michelle. how long has it been now? it s been over two months. it s been about 72 days. how are you doing, the two of you, with all this? i mean, how are you holding up? it s just we re just trying to stay active and just trying to keep the word out and trying to stay positive. right. it s just really trying to stay positive is the hardest part. christine: the hardest times for me are at night. getting in bed and thinking, gosh, i wish michelle s in the i hope michelle s in the bed. yeah. i mean, you clearly have decided she s still alive. mm-hm. it s not over and it s not going to be over until we get her home. keith morrison: (voiceover) and so that very evening, they hosted a fundraising
lies. it s your last and final warning. what s happened to michelle? this case is not going to be over until we get her home. i m lester holt, and this is dateline. they are watching us. they know where we are. how we shop, how we play, what we do, who we love. electronic eyes, the sticky picks of fingers that follow us almost everywhere. and the weird fractured personal diary they write. remains forever. of course, it s meaningless, most of it. meaningless, that is until it s
no sign of remorse, there wa nothing. she was just like, okay. and when the news was announced, michele s family knew giselle, knew her as one of michelle the closest friends. and they were stunned. i never suspected her o thought the worst until we kne for sure i didn t think it was her when giselle had problems, michel would go to canceling sessions with her. that was her last text to jail no matter what, you will alway be my friend reporter: and now wit giselle esteban s arrest, th family found themselves in a paradox, that someone woul finally be held accountable fo michel s appearance, yet refusing to accept that she wa dead to them, the fact that nobod had been found meant that ther was still hope, however slim that they could find her alive i was still hoping, without finding my sisters remains, was still holding out hope until it was definitive, w were going to fight for her. reporter: and so, 113 day after michelle disappeared, te days after the arrest, the
stayed friends with scott, with that boyfriend after the break up and that just didn t sit well with gisele. though, really, it wasn t such a big deal. still, just to cover all the bases, late saturday night, richie dropped in on gisele to ask which he knew. we re here about michelle le. who? oh god, what about her? she went missing last night from her work. okay. been talking, to, her friends we understand that you guys had a ton to this relationship. she was my best friend who slept with my, then fiancée i started talking to her and started asking her about her relationship with michelle. if she could provide any information where she would gisele said she had no idea and besides, they weren t seeing each other these days. so, she wouldn t know. then, just due diligence that
okay keep your blood pressure down. otherwise you re gonna los this baby. strong feelings but, gisele esteban was not so strong herself tiny, pregnant hardly not capable o overpowering michelle le let alone finding a way of disposing of her body. so the center home and later the afternoon, finally got a look inside of michelle s car as we did, much later, when th detective showed it to us. nothing had changed. nothing was touched. here, the morbid sense we were somehow violating a set an very personal space. this is what richie found, a crime scene. once we got the car open, you can see that there is bloo wiped across here and th plastic, a little bit on the floor mats and then, as you can see there is more droplets blood dropping down in a downward pattern police also saw some bloo smeared were mitchell s car ha been parked. were you able to make