thank you for watching. i m craig melvin. and i m natalie morales. and this is dateline! he said he couldn t handle talking about it. i was angry at him. if you re not going to tell me what happened, then you re going to dance around the issue and tell three different stories, what are you hiding? it started as a teen romance. two of my girlfriends are like, there s this guy, and you need to meet him. i was in love, yes. it ended in one of the strangest love stories you ll ever hear. i felt like i got hit by a bus. right before their wedding, her mother and his father got married. they told us, we ran off, we eloped. who does that? two families and a small town left stunned. but it was nothing compared to what happened next. he looks like he s been shot. he said someone broke in last night. a deadly attack in the dark of night. her mother murdered. i realized that last conversation i had with her, that was it. his father bruised and bewildered.
bus. right before their wedding, her mother and his father got married. they told us, we ran off, we eloped. who does that? two families and a small town left stunned. but it was nothing compared to what happened next. he looks like he s been shot. he said someone broke in last night. a deadly attack in the dark of night. her mother murdered. i realized that last conversation i had with her, that was it. his father bruised and bewildered. i don t remember anything else, other than waking up in the morning. was it a robbery? the television s on. was it darker? you re always going to look at the closest people to the victim. or was it something much darker? you were 11 years old when your mother disappeared. a missing woman, a murdered woman, and a lie. i didn t get through more than a page and a half, and i threw it. i could barely stomach to finish it. but the family was rocked by scandal and then murder. aaron s father was found at the cri
was hurt. and he was air lifted to the nearest trauma hospital. walsenburg, as local reporter eric mullens knew, was not equipped to handle an investigation of this magnitude. you have small town departments, five, six, seven people. you don t have murder cops on staff. you don t have forensic professionals on staff. so by the time shannon arrived at the hospital looking for her mother, an agent of the colorado bureau of investigation was there to meet her. along with aaron. how did she take it? about as well as you expect anybody to get hit by a sledgehammer or whatever. first you re just kind of shocked, then a little bit of denial. suddenly i realized that that last conversation i had with her was that was it. no fresh start now. her mother was dead. and then shannon saw ralph. and he lost it. he just turned into a sobbing, shaking maniac. ralph s face was banged up.
about as well as you expect anybody to get hit by a sledgehammer or whatever. first you re just kind of shocked, then a little bit of denial. suddenly i realized that that last conversation i had with her was that was it. no fresh start now. her mother was dead. and then shannon saw ralph. and he lost it. he just turned into a sobbing, shaking maniac. ralph s face was banged up. he had bruises in several places. he was confused. like a man coming out of a concussion. just exhausted. my head still just hurts. and then as soon as he was able, and still in his hospital clothes, ralph talked to agents of the cbi. sorry to hear about your loss. it s been a horrible day. the best he could remember, said ralph, he got up to use
investigation of this magnitude. you have small town departments, five, six, seven people. you don t have murder cops on staff. you don t have forensic professionals on staff. so by the time shannon arrived at the hospital looking for her mother, an agent of the colorado bureau of investigation was there to meet her. along with aaron. how did she take it? about as well as you expect anybody to get hit by a sledgehammer or whatever. first you re just kind of shocked, then a little bit of denial. suddenly i realized that that last conversation i had with her was that was it. no fresh start now. her mother was dead. and then shannon saw ralph. and he lost it. he just turned into a sobbing, shaking maniac.