instantly, something must be wrong. her husband gavin was a dedicated father nothing that would keep him from picking up his kid ever reporter: because gavin was so good at these things, said his sister tara addeo. he was so impressive so tall. you both got the tall gene, right? we did. whole family. whole family. reporter: gavin was the tallest, 6 6. he walked in a room, you noticed him. you wanted to gravitate to him he was a magnet. reporter: he played basketball for legendary coach john wooden. ucla, 1975 he was a forward it was wooden s final championship team. just to be on that team was pretty fantastic, it was a once in a lifetime. reporter: and then he drifted a bit. worked as a golf caddie and this being los angeles, and he a good looking towering athlete people noticed him, movie people they gave him a couple of roles.
prosecutor, creech called a friend from the powerhouse gym, stan mcquay. he asked if he can come over and if he can park his car in my garage was the body still in it at that point yes reporter: mcquay allows creech to keep the body and the car at his house for five to six days really? yes reporter: and that s when creech turned to reina lim, the nurse who lived with them and took care of chandy s grandmother. creech got reina to rent a van and then he uses the van to drive up to the angeles national forest and he finds a secluded area to bury gavin smith s body. reporter: where buddy the dog later found it but the mercedes benz was still in stan s garage and did that upset you? very much so. reporter: so weeks later, two men arrived with a trailer and did you watch them take the mercedes out of your garage? yes, i did. reporter: that, said
detectives ty labbe and his partner john o brien his phone was missing. there was no use of it we checked his bank accounts from the time that he was missing. we checked his medical insurance to see if he had checked himself into a hospital. that never showed any activity he was completely dropped off the face of the earth. reporter: but then, out of nowhere, a sighting. hundreds of miles north of los angeles, a businessman visiting california s central coast, said he saw gavin smith and a beautiful woman at a cash-only taco restaurant in morro bay i happened to click on the link, saw the photo, and i said oh boy reporter: the waitress corroborated the story he was sitting here, she was sitting right here reporter: gavin s sister tara raced up the coast to the restaurant and i said, here s my brother s picture. did you see him? and no. that was truly heart-breaking to me reporter: it was all a big mistake.
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 that 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
dateline as the months turned into years the mysterious disappearance would force lisa to reveal and uncover painful secrets about her husband and their marriage here s keith morrison with dark valley. reporter: there is a kind of peace here, here in her own chosen exile the vast pacific for company how else to live with what s impossible to understand or forget. what began that sunny afternoon, far away in southern california s san fernando valley, early may 2012 something was really wrong, but a lot more wrong than i could imagine.