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
for nearly three years, shannon still hurt, rarely spoke to her mom. but then one day pam asked her to lunch. she was so focused on wanting me to know that we had a future together, her and i. wow. so finally she was coming around on her own accord. it felt like it, yeah. you know, when i told her, i said, i can t handle you being my mother and being doing what you did, i said. but i want to be your friend and i want to try this. so this is a break-through lunch. it seemed like it at the time. it was a break-through lunch, yeah. or a beginning at least. and then just a few days later i was at work. and i see aaron s name come up on my phone. right. he s like, you know what? something as a happened in walsenburg. my dad s being returned to the hospital and they can t find your mom. but i think someone s dead. who was dead? and was the killer on the loose
and ralph s marriage, on the other hand, thrived. they moved into a big house on a corner lot in the walsenburg, an owed coal mining town about 50 miles south of pueblo. they opened up an antiques mall in the center of town. then bought a vacation home in oregon. that was the happiest i ever remember seeing her. for nearly three years, shannon still hurt, rarely spoke to her mom. but then one day pam asked her to lunch. she was so focused on wanting me to know that we had a future together, her and i. wow. so finally she was coming around on her own accord. it felt like it, yeah. you know, when i told her, i said, i can t handle you being my mother and being doing what you did, i said. but i want to be your friend and i want to try this. so this is a break-through lunch. it seemed like it at the time. it was a break-through lunch, yeah. or a beginning at least. and then just a few days later
south of pueblo. they opened up an antiques mall in the center of town. then bought a vacation home in oregon. that was the happiest i ever remember seeing her. for nearly three years, shannon still hurt, rarely spoke to her mom. but then one day pam asked her to lunch. she was so focused on wanting me to know that we had a future together, her and i. wow. so finally she was coming around on her own accord. it felt like it, yeah. you know, when i told her, i said, i can t handle you being my mother and being doing what you did, i said, but i want to be your friend and i want to try this. so this is a break-through lunch. it seemed like it at the time. it was a break-through lunch, yeah. or a beginning at least. and then just a few days later i was at work. and i see aaron s name come up on my phone. right. he s like, you know what?