reporter: but they didn t meet chandy in there. they met her husband. his name was john, john creech. not pleasant. when they came out, they were both crying. reporter: they told their mom creech threatened to kill gavin if he didn t stay away from chandy. so 17 months later, he vanishes after calling chandy? lisa had a very bad feeling. everything changed right then for me. reporter: detectives were suspicious too. remember, chandy told them she didn t see gavin that night. but there was evidence to the contrary. cell phone records showed gavin s phone and chandy s were in the same place that night. a little triangulation narrowed down just where. we came upon this street here, and we thought this was a good spot. this was a likely spot. yeah. reporter: a likely spot for a tryst, that is. parking lot though would be empty at night? yes. yes. and so this is a pretty lonely spot. it is.
chandy s dad started telling a tale about something his daughter may have seen, and he was distraught and wanted to talk about it. and he said, well, you know reina? i go, yeah, i know the name. reporter: reina lim? she lived with chandy. she took care of chandy s grandmother. chandy s dad said reina knew something, something important. and he goes, i think she knows where the car is. reporter: the elusive mercedes. detective labbe and his partner john o brien drove out to see reina. we just waited till she showed up, and we kind of surprised her. that s what you guys do, right? you know sometimes it works better that way, yeah. she was very nervous and startled and wasn t quite sure what to do. but ultimately she provided us with the paperwork for the storage locker. reporter: reina s storage locker. it was a big one, ten feet by 20. we rolled the door up and the only thing in it was a black mercedes benz with no license plates on it. wow.
reporter: but, they wondered, did she help cover it up? it s a serious business, covering for a crime that awful. but chandy had a card to play. she agreed to testify. members and alternate members of the jury reporter: and in june 2017, john creech went on trial. on the face of it, it looked like a solid case. the phone evidence, the coverup, the truly appalling crime scene in gavin s car. but did it add up to first degree murder? gavin smith had been dead five years. he was killed in his mercedes-benz in an act of almost stunning brutality by the defendant john creech who s sitting here in the courtroom. this became gavin smith s tomb. reporter: but what happened wasn t merely an outburst of rage, said prosecutor bobby grace. no, he said, creech had been plotting for two years ever since he found out about chandy
and gavin. after that day back in december 2010, when at their mother s request, gavin s sons met with john creech at his house. we just wanted to make sure that my dad was not in harm s way. were you sobbing and crying? yes. and what were you saying to the defendant? i was just begging him not to harm my family. reporter: but they testified creech told them that they did the right thing. he ended up saying that we saved his life by coming that day. reporter: but there were rules. that s what chandrika, now divorced from john creech, said when she finally took the witness stand. as long as their father stayed away from me and had no communication whatsoever, their father would be fine. did he say what would happen if he did? that he would kill gavin smith. reporter: the affair ended. but, chandy said, the threat remained. he did not want me to see
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