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
i said, oh, no. he better not have done anything to her. reporter: who was he? my ex-husband. because we had just gotten divorced. and he knew my sister. he got served by her firm. reporter: so you thought he if she s gone missing, he might have something to do with it. yup. she said that he had come to her house. just it kind of scared her. reporter: detectives found out he had a record, so they checked out the sister s ex. he was a subject of interest early on in the investigation. he came in. he consented to any type of questions we asked of him. he voluntarily answered them. he had been released from prison in the past. reporter: so you haven t ruled him out yet? not yet. reporter: with the list of possible suspects shrinking, detectives shifted their focus to something that might provide their first break in the case. with melissa s iphone missing, detectives put in an emergency request to the phone company to see if it could help track her cell.
type of questions we asked of him. he voluntarily entered them. he had been released from prison in the past. so you have a ruled him out? yet not yet. with a list of possible suspects shrinking, detective shifted their focus is something that might have provided them a first break in the. case with melissa s iphone missing detectives put an emergency request to the phone company. to see if it could help track herself. one thing i got the report. detective candle couldn t believe what he. saw ulises iphone had been active after the murder. and somebody had actually gone into her voice mail, and play back messages. red tex. it kind of makes sense, as to why he would want to do something like. this police were dumbfounded that somebody wouldn t know that a smartphone was a detective s best friend. and police could track them using cell towers. it was either bold or stupid or both. people know this concept of pinging off towers. the cell phone is telling the
ruled him out yet? not yet. reporter: with the list of possible suspects shrinking, detectives shifted their focus to something that might provide their first break in the case. with melissa s iphone missing, detectives put in an emergency request to the phone company to see if it could help track her cell. when he got the report, detective kendall couldn t believe what he saw. melissa s iphone had been active after the murder and someone had actually gone into her voicemail and played back messages, read texts. we try to make sense as to why he would want to do something like this. reporter: police were dumbfounded that someone wouldn t know that a smartphone was a detective s best friend and police could track them using cell towers. it was either bold or stupid or both. people know this concept of pinging off towers. it s the cell phone is telling the towers, here i am ? yeah. so it s giving us a general vicinity and of an area, where that cell phone
he had been released from prison in the past. reporter: so you haven t ruled him out yet? not yet. reporter: with the list of possible suspects shrinking, detectives shifted their focus to something that might provide their first break in the case. with melissa s iphone missing, detectives put in an emergency request to the phone company to see if it could help track her cell. when he got the report, detective kendall couldn t believe what he saw. melissa s iphone had been active after the murder and someone had actually gone into her voicemail and played back messages, read texts. we try to make sense as to why he would want to do something like this. reporter: police were dumbfounded that someone wouldn t know that a smartphone was a detective s best friend and police could track them using cell towers. it was either bold or stupid or both. people know this concept of pinging off towers. it s the cell phone is telling the towers, here i am ? yeah.