>> drugs? the agents never found any. and back onshore no one could find a missing young mother either. was there a connection? >> i was afraid for her. >> lynne was just months away from her wedding when she vanished, leaving behind a young son and a mystery. >> any sign that someone had broken in and abducted her? >> no. >> the search continued on land and at sea. no bag, no body, no case? >> i didn't have anything that would show she was actually dead. >> decades go by and the mystery is almost forgotten, but not by everyone. >> they knew he was the bad guy. they just couldn't put him in jail. >> all they needed was a miracle or a witness. >> it wasn't april fool's. it was a body. hello and welcome to "dateline." a devoted mother with wedding plans seemingly vanished into thin air. florida police suspected foul play. but with no body, no witnesses, no crime scene, this investigation went cold. then a new prosecutor was determined to find out was this the story of a runaway bride or a woman who ran into trouble? here's dennis murphy with "what lies beneath." you don't need a moon over miami for it to be beautiful by night. the skyline reflected in biscayne bay will do just fine, but it's not for everyone. >> i am so, so worried about you. >> some people are scared by the dark water, afraid of the creatures that lurk down below, afraid of the creatures above, who scuttle through the night on secret errands. >> i have no idea where you are. >> you just may share those fears after you hear the story of a woman named lynne friend. >> none of this makes sense to anyone who knows lynne friend. >> local newscasts told the story of this good neighbor. >> she really was that all-american girl, you know, blue eyes, beautiful smile from here to california. >> the good mom. >> she adored her son. they were inseparable. >> little did anyone suspect that for the next 20 years the story of lynne friend would haunt a young boy's life. and a secret would remain locked away for decades that would explain everything. what happened to lynne friend that put her in the cross hairs of miami tv news was that she was missing. just flat out gone. no one could imagine lynne friend, a responsible hospital administrative aid, just snapping and walking out on her life, especially her 5-year-old son, christian. jennifer snell, then a miami reporter, covered the disappearance. >> for her to disappear without leaving word for her son, was just something everyone knew would never happen. >> esther sanchez met lynne when she came to work at parkway hospital in fort lauderdale. at the time lynne was still living with her fiance, a business owner named clifford friend. when the two married in 1989, esther was maid of honor. >> she wanted what every girl dreams of getting married and having a beautiful wedding and looking forward to having, the goal of the white picket fence. >> when baby christian came along, lynne, the proud mom, made her boy one of the most photographed children in south florida. over the moon with being a mom, less so at being mrs. clifford friend. >> i thought they were a poor match. >> within a year of christian's birth, the marriage was floundering. lynne and her husband parted ways and later divorced. >> she was upset that her dreams had fallen apart, but she was very happy with the fact that she was a mom. >> so disappointed abounded but baby christian was not part of it. >> he was her number one priority in life. she lived for him. >> consumed with being a mom meant men were out of the picture for the foreseeable future. but then along came ed o'dell. he was a consultant from nashville working on a construction project at her hospital. >> he set eyes on her right away. he was a southern gentleman, and he would walk in and he would say hi and then he'd leave. and that went on, i think, for a year. and then one day she said i think i'm going to go out on a date with ed. >> and that one date -- we're tracking some breaking news. i'm richard lui at msnbc news headquarters, a storm system hitting several states with violent tornadoes. kentucky's governor saying at least 50 people are likely dead in his state and that number could rise. let me show you some of the view we've been able to get in. >> 54 kentuckians are without power. i've been personally over at the emergency operations center since about 1:00 a.m. overseeing our response and hearing and absorbing the difficult news in real time. i've been in personal contact with local leaders such as the mayor of mayfield, county judges in graves and marshall counties and talking to emergency management in most of the hardest hit areas. before midnight i declared a state of emergency. i have activated the national guard. we are deploying 181 guardsmen including search and extraction and debris clearance folks. they will be arriving in communities this morning. the transportation cabinet has mobilized its heavy equipment to help clear debris. they will be assisted by the guard and the division of forestry. state police have been working all night to save lives. ems, fire and other professionals are on the way. i've also requested an immediate federal emergency declaration. we have two tractor-trailers filled with water headed towards western kentucky. i want to thank every local ems employee, police officer, firefighter, and first responder. this has been one of the toughest nights in kentucky history and some areas have been hit in ways that are hard to put into words. to all of our kentucky families that are impacted by this, we want you to know that we are here for you. we love you and we are praying for you. counties with likely damage and debris as of 4:00 include fulton, hickman, graves, marshall, caldwell, hopkins, ohio, breckenridge, bullet, spencer, shelby, christian, logan, warren, taylor and marion. and as we're sitting here today, and this is before day break, we believe our death toll from this event will exceed 50 kentuckians, probably end up closer to 70 to 100 lost lives. each of these are children of god, irreplaceable to their families and to their communities. we will make it through this. we will rebuild. we are a strong, resilient people, and we're going to be there every step of the way. i'm going to be in western kentucky later today as soon as it is safe to travel. make sure they are not alone, this is one state standing strong with those that have been impacted. i will turn it over to emergency management. at the moment we will have to take questions by email. those instructions have gone out because of a technical difficulty. >> thank you, governor, and i can only echo the governor's comments. this tornado event may surpass the 1974 super outbreak as one of the most deadly in kentucky's history. our hearts go out to all of the families that are in peril and all of our kentuckians who have lost their lives. i can tell you that rescues and search efforts are ongoing even before the winds stopped blowing, as thunderstorms were going through, we had teams out there. so thank you for your efforts in all of the impacted counties. the track for this tornado event is over 200 miles just in kentucky and it may eclipse the 1925 record tri-state track for the longest tornado. it appears this is going to be a quad state event, all ought of the same system, originating in arkansas through missouri, tennessee, and into kentucky. it is a significant, massive disaster event. as the governor indicated all state resources are being brought to bear. we opened the eoc at 8:00 p.m. eastern time and began receiving reports very quickly. some of the most serious hit are actually out of communication in some parts. we've had a lot of people step up to the plate. one in particular local metro emergency management services are currently on the highway en route to mayfield, and they will be there by day break. they're going to assist us with an imt, an incident management team, who will be our forward observation point. as the governor indicated he has requested from the president an emergency declaration, and that would include our assessment teams that will go out in the fields in all the damaged counties and also what is called an imct, incident management control team, we will use for this protracted event and will be able to track issues, damages and resource requests from all counties simultaneously. again, we ask for your cooperation and your prayers for everyone that's impacted. we're doing damage assessments as they occur, reported through our em directors. it will be day break before we even realize the full magnitude of this event. thank you, governor. >> good morning, everybody. i wanted to give you a situational awareness of the status of your kentucky national guard as the governor indicated a short while ago, we've already mobilized a number of our guardsmen. this mobilization began shortly after midnight. soldiers have been assembling for a few hours at this junction. while the governor specified we have 181 soldiers and airmen who are already mobilizing in response to this incident, it does not stop with that number of service members. as everybody is tracking at this junction, this is an evolving situation. we still have the storm front passing through the state and so as the situation continues to develop we will call upon further members of the national guard, your national guard, to respond as necessary. in the near term graves county is our immediate focus, as the governor indicated because of the severity of the tornadoes that passed through there, but we are literally watching the entire state at this junction. and so as your neighbors and friends in the guard, you may see some of them in uniform this morning. you may see some of our folks in the national guard deploying down the road in response to some of these affected areas. know what their focus is. they are here to serve you and the rest of our members in the commonwealth. thank you, sir. >> as we mentioned a number of counties hit hard, and we will have casualties in multiple counties. place that my dad is from, dawson springs, hit really hard, too. and i know that there is loss there as well and we will be there to help. we've been able to get a couple of the slides that show a little bit of what we have seen booted up. this is from joe sullivan, the meteorologist for emergency management. i will try to walk through them this is the front itself. that we saw. this is -- you can see how far and wide it went. right as it comes up from the south. let's go to the next one. this shows you that we believe there were four likely tornadoes, not just one, but four that hit in multiple places across kentucky. this is why there are so many counties that ultimately have had significant damage. the next one? this shows you what we believe will be the longest tornado touchdown in terms of distance in our history. you go down to the bottom of the screen, and that's where it first touched down and then it stayed on the ground, that entire line, causing significant devastation. this is incredibly rare to see and is one of the reasons this was so devastating here in kentucky. i think we have one more. we have a couple more. this shows you the different warnings as it came through, different areas that were hit and hit hard shows you just how severe this event was and how widespread, how many different communities it hit. and let's go -- and this is the power outage map as of 2:00 a.m. obviously that's evolved. 56,000. we gave the number before, kentuckians without power. you can see western kentucky, hopkins county, surrounding area hit very, very hard. and then as we move north a lot of power outages even throughout lexington, louisville, and certainly western kentucky. do we have one more? why don't you, james, just show the one with the dots, the county map with the dots, that shows you just one other way of showing where we've had damage. the reports have come in for a tornado to cause damage in this many counties, again, i think shows that it will be the single most severe, certainly, tornado event in our history. and i believe the most deadly. did i miss anything, michael? >> we just received an update. >> so the last bit of information to come in is the power outages are climbing. they are climbing significantly, and day break will bring more tough news. we're going to learn about more loss of life in day break, more loss of structure, and we'll be getting more reports that will include more power outages. now we do believe that the system is going to break up in severity at least by day break. we should be out of the woods by 10:00 a.m., the entire system will be out of kentucky. so were we able to get questions sent in? i know this is imperfect, but it's the best that we can do in an emergency situation. okay. so first, trying to confirm this figure of more than 50 feared dead in kentucky according to the governor. yes, i fear there are more than 50 dead in kentucky. confirmation on each individual is coming in, but we are going to lose over 50 people, probably closer to somewhere between 70 and 100. it's devastating. let's see. the next one -- i had that one. natasha, will you -- great. from "the herald leader" can you describe how many separate tornadoes we have had and the general trajectories of each? james, can you put that slide back up. there were four tornadoes, one of which was the 200-mile tornado -- keep going. it's one of the two weather pictures. there you go. so those show you the four tornadoes, obviously the longest one was the 227-mile tornado, meaning it touched down and stayed down for that period of time. and then you had two to the south of it but very close together and one to the north, so those are the four. now we had other severe weather in many parts of kentucky, and we will see damage from wind and other results of it. okay. next. what do you know about injuries and casualties in mayfield at the manufacturing plant? it is tragic. this is a candle factory. there were about 110 people in it at the time that the tornado hit it. we believe we'll lose at least dozens of those individuals. it's very hard, really tough, and we're praying for each and every one of those families. let's see, kentucky's most recent covid report showed hospital ic capacity strained in far western kentucky. how are hospitals handling injuries? the hospitals are in good shape. they are responding well. one, we were concerned about power and our issues so they were transferring patients, but we are not concerned at the moment of hospital capacity and certainly we have other professionals coming to help. okay. we're good on live questions. now you want me to go through the list? all right. first, i think we have -- if i've answered your question already, kfvs-12, roger? >> governor, what can you tell us about the time line of mayfield and the area in western kentucky? >> can you ask it again? my audio was bad on the first part. >> sure. what is your time line for getting help and aid to the people in mayfield and fulton county in western kentucky? >> help is on the way right now. now this morning they are going to see the national guard, the transportation cabinet, the division of forestry. they're going to see those trucks filled with water pull in. later today they'll see teams of other first responders coming especially from louisville. they're going to see immediate action and help. now we always think about that next day. let's remember that folks will need help for months to come. i'll be in western kentucky later this morning as soon as it is safe to travel. but we are going to be right there with all of those officials we have been talking to to see the damage firsthand and to make sure people know that we care and that we're going to be there for them. karla ward, "herald leader." okay. let's try liam with wkms public radio. >> governor, do you know where -- governor, can you hear me? >> i can. >> do you know where specifically reports of injuries and fatalities are coming from across the state, specifically communities and counties, by chance? >> certainly graves. i think we'll see them in hopkins, warren, and then i think we will see several other counties. i will be surprised if we don't lose people in at least five or more counties. marshall, also, some fatalities reported to us. again, this is a widespread weather event and i think that we're especially at day break going to see that number of counties and the number of people grow. allen watts, wkdz radio? all right. we'll move on to wdrb. okay. how about ryan reynolds? all right, jack bremer? >> yes, governor, what's the situation on emergency shelters and flooding, and do you feel like there was enough advanced warning with such a catastrophic storm? >> i do believe that there was advanced warning, but this is a storm the likes of which we have never seen in terms of what this tornado did. there are emergency shelters set up in multiple counties. the high school is being used as a primary shelter as well as an additional place where you can get medical help in graves county, and i know that shelters are being set up in other counties. of course we have really good people here in kentucky. most judges, county judges, that i've talked to said kin folk have brought in most of those people. we have fulton county hit really hard. most everybody who has been displaced through the night is already staying with family. okay, wdrb? all right, we'll make sure we get that question answered if they send it to us. a really tough night. i'm on about two hours of sleep, admittedly can't get through family that i have in the area. i know there are a lot of other people going through the same thing. it's going to be all right. it's going to be hard, and there is a lot of loss, but just like everything else we've been up against, we'll make it through this, too. thank you all very much. >> governor andy beshear, a very difficult early morning/overnight from friday to saturday as he was reflecting on the damage that his state has sustained caused by what they believe to be four tornadoes. and of course, they have to wait until the data comes in, sun rises, and they can survey the damage. and some of the video we were showing a little bit earlier certainly does get a sense -- gives you a sense of the sort of damage. the big number that came out of that press conference, looking at the notes here, he reflected in one of those slides that a tornado tracked for some 200 miles. that is half the width of the entire state of kentucky, 200 miles, the entire width is about 400 miles. if it kept on going, it would have hit the capital from exactly the place the governor was giving us the update for about 25 minutes. the average, if you were to look at the national weather service for a tracking of any tornado is roughly one or two miles. that just gives you a sense. this thing could, if the data -- and once they are able to look at what happened, once sunrise does happen there in about two and a half hours around 7:50 a.m. in kentucky, that is about 100 to 200 times longer than the average tornado. we don't even know how wide this one tornado that they were talking about. again, they believe there were four and they were just giving us information on one. that would be massive in terms of the amount of damage this tornado could have caused. now they were alluding to the comparison here of this damage that they have sustained overnight to 1925. 1925 saw a tornado in kentucky according to the national weather service that was a mile wide. and, again, the average, according to the national weather service, of a tornado is about 50 yards. so when they were reflecting here that it affected four states, that 50 people at least lost their lives in the dark of night because of these tornadoes and on top of that that they believe up to 70 to 100 individuals were involved in the count here potentially of losing their lives, you get a sense of how severe this is. and they were looking at the historic comparisons here. now they're bringing in trucks of water. we heard that from the national guard, emergency management giving us also a sense of severity. 7:50 a.m. is when the sun rises, about two and a half hours. they'll be able to look at the damage and just this video coming in overnight gives us a sense of what governor andy beshear, out of kentucky, gave us an update on. we'll continue to follow this breaking news story coming out of kentucky and also four other states, four states total, affecting up to 16 million individuals in that area. again, we're seeing a lot of information coming in. this is incredibly rare, and that's what we're hearing so far. stay with msnbc. we'll have more updates for you at the top of the hour. months passed and with no success in finding lynne's body, police appealed to the public for help. they put together a crimestoppers re-enactment video that aired on local tv showing two men dumping a bag in the ocean, then trying to evade customs agents. a reward was offered, but the tip line stayed mostly silent. neither clifford friend nor alan gold would tell police directly what they were doing on the boat that night. but customs agent tim stelhorn thought he knew when he ran a background check and found prayers. >> through investigative findings we learned clifford friend did have a criminal history and part of that criminal history was in drug smuggling. >> and while the other man with him, alan gold, had no history of drug arrests, was clifford friend, a known smuggler, dumping drugs into the ocean that night. his attorney said clifford friend was committing a crime that night, but it wasn't murder. >> they were running drug deals together. >> attorney peter heller said that was what was in the bag he dumped, drugs. clifford also owned a pawnshop in the miami area. according to his lawyer, clifford's drug running career ended when lynne disappeared. he wanted to turn his life around. he had a little boy to take care of. >> i pronounce you husband and wife. >> and he would take care of christian with his new bride. a year and a half after lynne disappeared, clifford and janet married. alan gold with a waist length braid was there, too. the investigators never really go away. you're putting together your new life with this man, and yet you have to deal with all that stuff. >> after the first couple of years, the first two years, it really disappeared. >> as the case receded from the public eye, clifford and janet friend focused on raising christian. does he remember his mother? >> i never wanted him to forget who his mother was, so i always made sure he had pictures of his mother in his room and he was allowed to ask any question that he ever wanted. >> you'd become the only mom he remembers in his life. >> i am mom and he calls me mom. he understands i am not his biological mother. >> what kind of dad was cliff to christian? >> he was a great dad. they went and played ball together. they went fishing together. they went on travels together. cliff is a phenomenal father. >> meanwhile, up in tennessee, lynne's one-time fiance ed o'dell, had moved on with his life, too. married now with children. the dwindling friends of lynne thought they would never see a resolution to the case of the missing woman. but there was one person in particular who didn't like to see the dusty jacket of unsolved cases in his files. in 2010 one of miami's most experienced prosecutors, michael von zamft, took over the case along with assistant state attorney mari mato. what did you think the biggest problem with the case was? >> i had no body, i had no witnesses, and i didn't have anything that would show she was actually dead. >> well, i think that, especially now, juries have high expectations. >> the csi speech that so many prosecutors give -- >> absolutely. >> -- in jury selection. >> they expect physical evidence. they want to see a body. >> the two re-examined the 16-year-old file and took a fresh look at a lead from back then that had never panned out. an acquaintance of clifford, someone named robert missy, told police about a disturbing conversation he had with the ex-husband not long before lynne went missing. he said it happened over breakfast at this ihop. >> clifford told them, well, she's never leaving the state with my child. she's going for a boat ride, and she's never coming back. >> this is dynamite for an investigator. >> it was great. we managed to convince missy that he should become our ally. >> in other words, a snitch. missy, a convicted felon on probation at the time, agreed to wear a wire. met clifford again a few weeks later. there was something that was worrying the pawnbroker about their earlier breakfast meeting. >> my biggest concern is the conversation that we had at ihop. i just want to make sure you didn't talk to anybody. >> oh, no. i had no conversations. ever. >> okay. >> and that, to us, gave us confirmation there had been an actual conversation at the ihop, and there was probably a discussion about the disposing of lynne friend. >> missy turned out to be a hapless technically challenged informant. missey wanted to make sure he didn't discover his concealed wire and used his own baby as cover. >> when we asked him what was wrong with the baby, the baby was screaming? oh, i took the recording device and dropped it in her diaper. >> you're kidding? >> the reason she was screaming, those things get kind of hot, and we were just all appalled that he had done that. >> investigators did believe the initial ihop story. but after missey was caught out in a lie on something else, he was quietly retired from the investigation. now 18 years after lynne friend went missing prosecutor von zamft decided to tell missey's ihop story to the jury, absent missey himself. marginal evidence, maybe, but nonetheless a good prosecutorial strategy. the grand jury indicted. >> are you clifford friend? >> yes, ma'am. >> in 2012 prosecutors charged clifford friend with first-degree murder. his attorney was flabbergasted that prosecutors would dare to build a circumstantial case with no body, mind you, on the expected star witness testimony of a very shaky informant. >> our investigators had done a tremendous amount of work on robert missey. we had boxes of files of irt on robert missey. >> what they didn't know prosecutors were putting up a straw man. missey wouldn't be their star witness at all. >> we were never going to use him at trial. our whole intent was to use him and have the defense running around looking for him and everything they could find on him. >> and while the defense did just that, spinning its wheels, prosecutors were quietly working on reeling in another prize, another better witness. one clifford friend could only hope he'd never see again. coming up, the other person on the boat that night breaks a promise and 20 years of silence. >> he said we have to dump the bag. >> when "what lies beneath" continues. nyquil severe gives you powerful relief for your worst cold and flu symptoms, on sunday night and every night. nyquil severe. the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, best sleep with a cold, medicine. hey hun hey, get your own vapors relax with vicks vapobath or with vicks vaposhower. take a soothing vicks vapo moment wherever you chose. ♪ this is how we do it.. ♪ turns out, montell jordan knows how to do almost everything. and it turns out the general is a quality insurance company that's been saving people money for nearly 60 years. for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years of quality coverage, go with the general. ♪ ♪ what the- henry? thanks. if it's “out decorating the neighbors” season, it's walgreens season. ♪ ♪ what a pain in the- alice? if it's “lets wrap this up?” season, it's walgreens season. why give your family just ordinary eggs when they can enjoy the best? eggland's best. the only eggs with more fresh and delicious taste. plus, superior nutrition. which is now more important than ever. ♪♪ hey hun hey, get your own vapors important than ever. relax with vicks vapobath or with vicks vaposhower. take a soothing vicks vapo moment wherever you chose. i have dreamt at performing in redshore city since i was a little kid. here she is the star of our show. [ gasps ] there's nothing rosita can't do. i can't do this. she's afraid. can i try? no, no, no, porsha wait! ♪ this girl is on fire ♪ this is probably for the best. but i wrote this part for you. time to show the world what you're really made of. ♪ she's walking on fire ♪ 20 years after lynne friend's disappearance, clifford friend, looking more jolly banker than killer, was on trial for his ex-wife's murder. the motive prosecutors say was sitting directly behind him, the son christian now 25. clifford, the prosecutors theorized, killed lynne to stop her from taking the boy out of state to nashville where she was to remarry. for the last 20 years christian had always been in that place right behind his father, never questioning his innocence. in court it showed the jury his continuing support of his father even as he was about to hear, until now, untold family stories. among the first witnesses was ed o'dell, lynne's one-time fiance. o'dell described his last call with lynne. her call waiting beeped as she put him on hole. she said it was her ex-husband, clifford, on the other line asking her to come over to his house and pick up some money he owed. >> so when you hung up with her, that was the last time you ever spoke to her? >> that is correct. >> what did you do when you didn't hear from her? >> i tried to call her and did not get through. >> did you call her -- >> excuse me a minute. >> mr. o'dell, would you like to take a break? >> no, i would like to get finished. >> all right, sir. >> to prove clifford killed lynne to stop her from taking their son away, prosecutors called her divorce attorney. he testified that one week before her disappearance clifford went ballistic in a family law court when a judge approved the boy's move to nashville. >> he was angrily yelling at his lawyer that nobody, nobody will take christian away from me. >> but these outbursts were at best circumstantial evidence. the prosecution would need a lot more than that. remember, lynne's body had never been found. however, the night his ex disappeared, clifford and his pal alan gold were spotted in a speedboat dumping a bag overboard. the state believed lynne's remains were in that bag. but alan gold had kept his mouth shut all these years. >> the key was finding a way to force alan gold to cooperate. >> prosecutor michael von zamft made the other man in the boat an offer he couldn't refuse. he was subpoenaed to testify and given a grant of immunity with it. if he didn't testify, the hammer would come down hard. >> and then i'll have the judge order you to testify and then i'll let you sit in jail until the trial is over. >> at age 68 gold didn't like the prospect of years in jail. he chose the door marked cooperation. stetson in hand alan gold limped into court with a certain bravado. he passed by his former friend clifford moments away from telling his version of the fateful night 20 years before. he testified that when he went to clifford's house, the son, christian, who was supposed to be spending the weekend with his father, wasn't there. it turned out clifford had dropped the boy off at a babysitter's. and then gold said he right away noticed a large canvas bag on the floor. >> and when he pointed to the bag or told you about the bag, who did he tell you was in the bag? >> lynne. >> gold says clifford told him he and lynne had argued and then things got out of control. >> the next thing he knew, it was over. he had lost it. he knocked her down and choked her out. >> what did you take that to mean? >> it means that she was in the bag. she wasn't coming back, and that was the end of lynne. >> clifford said he would need the 30-foot go fast boat they owned together. it was docked behind gold's condo on miami beach. >> he wanted to use the boat, take her out in deep water and dump her. >> and when he told you that, did you immediately turn and run out the door? >> no. >> gold said, go figure, he decided to help his buddy out of a jam because of his son, christian. >> i basically didn't want to see the kid fatherless, and i figured it was the lesser of the evil. i figured it was just a tragic accident that happened and why make it worse? >> first, gold said, they got rid of lynne's car. back at the house the two picked up the bag with lynne's body. >> did you, as you tried to lift this bag, say anything to clifford about why did it weigh so much? >> i did. >> and what did he tell you? >> it's weighted. >> once on the boat, gold says clifford weighted it down even more. >> he disengaged the anchor from the anchor line and stuffed that in as well. >> customs agents who stopped them confirmed the boat anchor was missing. they also found development blocks and rope. gold recalled the moment out at sea when he gave clifford a heads-up that customs was following. >> he said, we have to dump the bag. he jumped in the back, grabbed hold of the side of the bag, i grabbed the other, and it went over the side. >> after a short chase with armed federal agents gold said they had no choice but to surrender. >> i peed my pants, but other than that he basically wanted to know what went overboard. i told him that a towel blew over. >> so basically you lied? >> oh, yeah. i don't really want to tell anybody i just got done dumping a body in the atlantic. >> gold was asked why now, 20 years later, did he finally stop covering for his pal clifford? >> he had basically told me if i refused to answer, that you would put me in jail. >> you are not here out of the goodness of your heart? >> no. >> were there any other considerations that kept you from coming forward? >> i made a commitment to the guy 20 years ago. i didn't see any reason to break it. >> you broke it. >> only because you put me in a box, and i don't have any choice. >> a compelling witness for sure, but was he credible? >> he's a character. he is despicable. but he's believable. >> prosecutors had one more witness to go, a jailhouse snitch named andres garcia flores. flores testified that one night in jail he and clifford were watching the spanish tv soap opera. ironically the plot was about a drug dealer who killed his wife by throwing her off the boat. >> do you remember, in english, what he said to you? >> wow, remind me of what i did. it's like deja vu. >> more damning testimony, or was it? >> you are absolutely certain you and mr. friend were watching that show? >> the defense had done its homework and was ready to pounce. coming up -- a son defends the man accused of killing his mother. >> i know that he loves me too much to hurt me by taking my mother from me. >> when "what lies beneath" continues. ♪ i'm gonna keep on lovin' you ♪ turns out everyone does sound better in the shower. and it turns out the general is a quality insurance company that's been saving people money for nearly 60 years. for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years of quality coverage, go with the general. my hygienist cleans and nearly 60 years of quality coverage, with a round head. so does my oral-b my hygienist personalizes my cleaning. so does my oral-b oral-b delivers the wow of a professional clean feel every day. every day in business brings something new. so get the flexibility of the new mobile service designed for your small business. introducing comcast business mobile. you get the most reliable network with nationwide 5g included. and you can get unlimited data for just $30 per line per month when you get four lines or mix and match data options. available now for comcast business internet customers with no line-activation fees or term contract required. see if you can save by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities. welcome back to "dateline." i'm natalie morales. 20 years after lynne friend went missing, her ex-husband stood trial in her murder. with no physical evidence, the prosecution managed to present two strong witnesses. next it was the defense's turn, and they were about to throw everything the jury heard into question. here with the final chapter of "what lies beneath" is dennis murphy. >> the defense was behind on points after alan gold was state's star witness spun a hypnotic story about helping a buddy clifford friend dump his ex-wife's body in the ocean. one person who wasn't convinced was christian friend, the son. >> every night he came home feeling more and more confident his father was innocent. >> innocent. going the other way. he wasn't shaky. >> no, he budget shaky at all. >> while his son and wife still believed in him, how would the defense get the jury to buy his case? an excellent place to start was the jailhouse snitch. he told that damaging story about him and clifford watching the spanish tv soap sop rah "el kaapo." clifford allegedly blurted out something like, that's what i did. the prosecutor said, pete e, you can't make this up. it turns out he did. >> reporter: during cross-examination attorney peter heller caught him in a law that sent the whole trial reeling. they uncovered evidence the state didn't know about. it turns out clifford never watched that spanish tv program with the snitch. >> the problem with the story was i immediately went and pulled the phone records, and cliff and i were on the telephone when this snow was aired. >> the snitch's story unraveled. after that whoops, the judge ripped into the state. >> seriously you put on a jailhouse snitch and didn't check any further? i don't want an answer to that. >> i made a mistake. sometimes i turned to marie and said, you know, sometimes when it's too good to be true, it probably is. >> the judge called in puzzled jurors and told them to disregard the testimony. and here was the big point of the defense's newly energized argument. jurors, if they would put on a liar like the jailhouse snitch, what would that say about alan gold, their key witness? the defense would do everything they could to prove that like the snitch, gold was a liar also and that the reason he decided to tell prosecutors what they wanted to hear was that he was afraid of being charged with murder too. >> i didn't whack the broad, so i didn't care. >> is that what this is? whack the broad? is that what she is? >> i watch "the sopranos" a lot. >> it didn't take much for the prosecution to see that alan gold didn't take the process seriously. >> is that how you feel? >> absolutely. it took 20 minutes to get here. >> there was the suggestion that it was drugs, not lynne's body in the bag clifford dumped. still defense was able to shoehorn in the thought that gold and clifford were on a drug run that night. >> isn't it true, sir, you needed him that night to go run some drugs? isn't that true? [ bleep ]. >> with no body ever found, no dna and no physical evidence in clifford's house to prove lynne was murdered there, gold admitted he couldn't with absolute certainty say lynne's body was in that bag. >> could you tell from your own senses that there was a body in there? >> it wasn't april's fools. it was a body. >> you didn't look in there. >> no. >> with the defense resting their cases, cloing argument boiled down to one thichlkt would the jurors believe alan gold? >> alan gold is about as unrepentant a sinner as you're ever going to see. >> you cannot believe what gold says. he has an agenda. he fabricated an agenda to save himself. >> the 20-year-old case was now in p the hands of jury. they deliberate all evening. around 9:30 they announced a verdict. >> christian and i were together, holding hands. i told him no matter what happened, we would hold our hands high. >> we the jury find clifford brent friend guilty of second-degree murder. >> second-degree murder. the jury apparently believed gold's story but not that the crime was premeditated. at sentencing a few weeks later, lynne's long ago fiance ed o'dell spoke directly to christian, reminding him of what he missed in life. >> you no l not be able to understand lynne's love for you until you have your own child, when you will know a love that you never knew possible before. >> christian, who had sad silently throughout the trial finally spoke, and he was still foursquare behind his father. >> i'm not going to go into the frustration i feel in hearing that i missed out on growing up with my mother. i'm not going to go into how frustrating it is to hear how i've become a good person in spite of my father because he's the best person i know. i've been asked why i never questioned my dad about any of this many times by many people, and i never felt the need to. he raised me and taught me right from wrong. you've heard it said many times that my dad loved me too much to let me go. but i know that he loves me too much to hurt me by taking my mother from me. >> in court judge teresa pooler had the final word. >> you treated lynne friend with unspeakable -- sir, look at me -- with unspeakable cruelty. your acts left your 5-year-old child to grow up without knowing his mother. the manner in which you disposed of her body was despicable by so cavalierly dumping her in the ocean. clifford brent friend, for these reasons, i'm sentencing you to life in prison. >> more than 20 years ago state attorney katherine fernandez rundle vowed lynne's story would not end up in some cold case trial enthusiasm she says there is some justice fehr the mother and her young son even though she disagrees with the outcome of the case. >> ultimately it's about a boy, a tug-of-war between two parents. >> that's right. although i beg to say i don't think a father who would deprive a father of the love of a mother really loves the boy. he loved himself more it seems to me. >> markers. out west there's the great open sky. in south florida, the ocean. always the ocean. the vast churning tropical waters. for the aging friends still remembering, it is lynne's marker too. after a violent death, the place where they prayed she might finally rest in peace. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thanks for watching. good morning, everybody. we've got breaking news that we are following across the central part of the u.s. today where overnight storms and tornadoes have left dozens of people dead. for the time being, it sounds like kentucky may have been hit the hardest. look at this video here just coming in overnight. you can see how this tornado sent vehicles flying, mangling them into twisted hufrpgs of metal. this is just a view you're getting overnight. daybreak won't be for a come of hours. that's when the true sense of the damage will be felt. just hours

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