another prescription bottle too. and then they also showed us a bottle that was empty, you know, that maybe alluding to the fact that she had taken medication and was going to use it to hurt herself. reporter: the day she left? james told the detectives he was so worried about her state of mind, he stayed home from work to keep an eye on her. james says that she was acting up. and he didn t want to let marie take the baby. reporter: he was afraid the baby might be harmed or something. right. reporter: then, late that afternoon, said pastor james, marie said she was tired, went to lie down, tanya took the baby out shopping so marie could rest. the pastor said he waited around for a bit, talked to her briefly when she woke up, and then went out for a run. and when he returned marie and her white mazda pickup truck were gone. strangely, the flanders said, marie had packed her bags, but didn t take them. why would she take off and not take her bags with her? reporter: any
reporter: what was that like? i didn t believe it. she was going to call us eventually. reporter: that text message, something off, said her family. this doesn t sound like marie. reporter: when you got that one, the antenna must have gone up? the antennas did go up. reporter: the detective didn t hear about the case then because i was on maternity leave. reporter: on maternity leave. correct. and i came back two weeks after she was initially reported missing. reporter: and that s when nesli heard from other detectives about the case keith was working on. poor keith had no idea that i was going to come bully my way into that investigation. reporter: and why did you want to bully your way into the investigation? i think the connection of just having a child i just knew that she didn t leave on her own. reporter: so here they were. partners. the young detective who happened to be a brand-new mother and the veteran who d seen just about everything. and wh
reporter: a trial balloon? if it was, it quickly imploded. and the very practical polygamy in the home of the pastor stayed carefully under wraps. so if the news got out of the to the rest of the church, did tanya worry about what might happen there? that s what she was covering up. she had to protect james and protect their that was their world. reporter: did she do something to marie, to protect james? two months after marie disappeared the detectives got permission to look at the cell phone records of all three of them. would they prove tanya was with marie when she vanished and thus maybe did something to her? the cell phone tower information put her away from the area. reporter: no. nowhere near marie. so then they checked the cell towers for james phone, and what do you know. when marie sent that mass text message saying she was leaving town, both her phone and the
person who s just vanished off this earth. reporter: a week and a half after marie vanished, or drove away, or whatever she did, the detectives went calling on the flanders. who said they fully expected marie would return soon. this wasn t the first time she took spur of the moment trips, they said. never to the point where she had to be reported to law enforcement missing, though. she came back. reporter: although the flanders told the detectives they were quite worried about marie s state of mind. they noticed a downward spiral. reporter: that she was going into a depression or something? she might be going into a depression state, yes. reporter: thing was, said the pastor and his wife, marie could have wild mood swings, and they knew she had a diagnosed mood disorder. did they tell you that she was bipolar? yes, told me she was bipolar. she had been taking medication, and was off of her medication, probably because of her giving birth to the child. reporter: but th
maybe marie wanted it all, the baby and james, all for herself. that s what this member of the inner circle believed. but i did i hear that from marie, that marie wanted james? reporter: did tanya strike back somehow? fight for her marriage by getting rid of marie? listen to how church members quoted tanya s words. she basically was like, james would never be able to do that, but i could. and that was shocker? yeah. i told him, you re not capable of killing her. but tanya leans over and goes, well he couldn t, but i could. reporter: so wouldn t that lead you to, like a bloodhound, direct to tanya? she certainly would have a motive. she would. reporter: tanya now the only mother figure in grace s life. did she know more than she was saying? did she do something? coming up a confrontation with the