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
wouldn t let anything fall through the cracks. she volunteered her time with battered women and victims rights and also worked on building a memorial garden for crime victims. she was always a champion for the underdog. melissa eventually met a lawyer from a different firm and married. deborah was a brides maid. but after five years her best friend s marriage had come undone and ended in a messy divorce. that divorce just devastated her. after lewis divorce she tock toon on a second full time job, best aunt ever. missy didn t have children herself. no, she didn t want to have children. she wanted her career. and when her best friend s own marriage was having trouble and hitting the rocks during separation melissa was there for her, too. the two became inseparable at work and outside the office. she s cooking for me and the
paying to do it. instead, he found investors willing to fund the lawsuits. they were promised a fantastic return for their investments, once the cases were settled. attorney sam rabin represented a banker who did business with scott. the investor would give the $5 million to rothstein. he in turn would tell the investor, i m gonna give you $6 million in six months. reporter: but behind the scenes there were big problems as debra learned about a week before melissa was murdered. he told me he was in trouble. he had gotten in over his head with some not-so-nice people. and he said, if i don t get this taken care of, these people are gonna put a bullet in my head. reporter: scott then asked her to cross the line and forge signatures on documents. i knew this is something that shouldn t be going on, but you know what? it was gonna be a one-time thing. reporter: it wasn t. scott asked debra, his chief operating officer, to do it again and again. the reason, the cases were ma
glass with senior partners, her sad end wasn t far off, and her unexpected death would get caught up in a chain of events right ow of a john grisham novel, murder, betrayal, and millions of dollars in fraud. molesa lewis at the start of everything off the phone. it ended up being the beginning of the end. missy, as her family called her had come so far. penthouse lawyer wasn t likely for a high school dropout. her mother. here s a kid who finished high school, she got the ged ticket. she didn t plan to be a high school dropout. she was on a hurry to get on with life. and focused enough tinefully oo finish college and in her late 20s go for a law degree. she caught the eye of one of her professors who took her on as an intern. office manager debra brought her
full-time job. best and ever. carrie humbert is your sister. missy didn t have children herself? no she did want to have children. she wanted her career. i want her best friend debra zone marriage was in trouble and hitting the rock, separation, melissa was there for her to. playing the same great at row for deborah s for kids. the two became inseparable at work, and outside the office. she s cooking for me and the kids, and we have movie that s on saturday. after her divorce still shaking melissa started dating a little. but work not relationships would occupy her front and center. eventually her diligence paid off. in 2008 after seven years at the, from the former interned was made the first female partner. she shared with me early on, that she hoped to be a judge. monday and deborah had done wolf herself to. after all those years working as a paralegal, and keeper of the supply cabinet, her boss