>> a young mother is missing and a case gone cold. >> it was so important to me to know the truth behind that evening. >> then, detectives had an aha moment to solve the case, they return to something you probably use every day. facebook. >> why don't you establish a facebook account? i thought that could accomplish a great deal. >> and that's when everything started to change. >> something happened to her. >> in court, you'll see it all come pouring out. a hidden crime and a son's heart pounding moment. >> this is a horrible crime. >> i'm glad we know the truth. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> carol lubahn was a restless young mom with two kids when she vanished from her southern california home. heartbroken, her loved ones assumed she had left at to start a new life. but as the years past, with no word from carol, a nagging suspicion took hold. was her disappearance the result of something more sinister? before investigators could solve the mystery, her son would have to face a dark family secret. but would it lead them to carol? here's keith morrison with "secrets in the mist". >> january, 2013. point vicente, a california. the wet, gray, morning cold. at noon, a police boat sets off in the fog. a hail mary pass apparently. a slim chance to find the truth at last. but hawaii out there? why after all those lost 30 years? maybe some cases are destined to stay cold. easier that way. for came along, with their wild ideas about murder and facebook of all things. and now this. they're doomed errand into the fog. her name was me carol jeanne meyer, though she was carol lubahn, when all this happened back in march, 1981. the night of this slamming doors, the harsh words. a car roaring away. it's an old story anyway. pretty girl gets pregnant at 15. mary's the guy pretty soon she's at 20 something with two kids and a hankering to live. really live, for a change. and this particular pretty girl? >> she was fun. she was outgoing. she had a lot of friends. >> she had these two sisters,. terri, was the younger one, gail the older. >> we were very close and made each other laugh all the time. >> but carol lubahn was it laughing at the end of march, 1980. one for one thing, she wanted to be somebody. her own somebody. >> i know that carole wanted to complete school and further her career, and that's what she went back to study architecture. >> sure, her husband was a nice kid. and she loved him once with all the intensity of first love. the handsome high school football player who would hang around on her front porch. there mike. stepped up and married her after the baby was born. >> he was a good father. he just seemed to really enjoy his kids. >> enjoyed carol's family, to. especially her dad, milt. milt brought young mike into the family house painting business. >> just stuck to him immediately. he was always a very likable person. >> friendly, loyal. but not exactly ambitious. he did it seem to mind at all settling down to a modest existence. them and the two kids all cramped up in a two bedroom, one bathroom house in torrance. but carol did mind it. very much. she'd had a secret a fair by then. maybe more than one. she got herself a cute little red car, audi fox. ordered personalized plates, cjsfox. the car is long gone, now. so, we did this one to look just like it. quite often she would get in her little car alone and go roaring off to school or to meat markets like the local red onion was back then. >> i know she was going to the red onion. i never went there with her, so i don't know what she was like. >> and then that night in march, kids off to bed. their son mike junior was just a boy, ten years old. >> i was in bed. i had just got a new stereo for my tenth birthday and i was listening through headphones. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> from his bed, he could see something happening out in the hallway. >> i remember them getting into an argument which was unusual. >> because they just didn't? >> not that i knew of. i remember her marching passed and going out the front door and slamming the door. >> you heard this? >> i heard the slam of the front door. i know that. >> and the next morning -- >> we got up and and she wasn't there. >> mike sr. told's dad that carol had demanded that he signed papers to sell their house. he didn't want to. she got mad. they argued. he went to bed and when he woke up in the morning she was just gone. >> so we just assumed she needed to get away for a few days. but as the days went on, we got extremely worried. >> nearly a week after carol departed, her red audi fox foot showed up in the parking lot of the red onion. dusty, as if it had been there a while. >> i remember being upset about it. she was gone and i didn't know where she went. >> they drove around looking for her. went to bars. carol's picture in hand. the torrance police department opened a file but they couldn't answer any questions. like had she finally just gotten fed up with mike and gone off to start a new life somewhere else? or has should be been in an accident or something worse? more than a week after carol disappeared, there is still absolutely no sign of her. and then something strange happened here at the house, something very strange. could it be that carol, unbeknownst to anyone, sneaks back in here? and nobody when nobody else was around? imagine what it was like back then in that little house? mike, thinking things over. on a hunch he said he placed tape on carol's dresser drawers. a little trap. one day he took the kids to universal studios and sure enough, when they returned, he noticed the tape was broken. and some mail on the counter was moved as well. a few weeks later, a happened again. some of his clothes went missing. along with somebody from a place no burglar would know to look. under the butter dish in the refrigerator. were mike said he and carol kept $100 of emergency cash. and now $60 was missing. just like carol, said her sister gail. >> she would not have taken all of it. that was in carol's personality, to just be very fair. >> made since then? >> yes. >> and then, there was those mysterious phone calls. >> we would get the calls on special days. like her birthday, my birthday, my grandmother, we would get calls. >> and just silence on the other end? >> yes. >> what did you do? >> we would see carol, we love you. we hope you come back. we felt like she was finding a happier life somewhere. >> and understood that to make that successful, she might have to make a complete break? >> yes. >> almost three months after carol vanished, the detective handling her case put it in the inactive file. in his report he wrote, no foul play involved. >> i remember thinking about her all the time. and i used to play records over and over that she liked and just think, where is she? when is she coming back? >> eventually mike started dating a 19-year-old named carrie. brought her into the fold. >> we were happy that mike was going on with life. >> and so they did all go on with life. and many years went by. until the morning in a whole new millennium, when a torrance detective happened on the case of the missing young mother. and somewhere in the back of his brain, a little light turned on. >> i just had a hunch that this just didn't sound right to me. >> as doubts about carol's disappearance grew, detectives turned to a surprising source to help solve the mystery. coming up -- >> why don't you establish a facebook account for carol? >> when "dateline" continues. 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[sneeze] dude you coming? ♪ alka-seltzer plus powermax gels cold & flu relief with more concentrated power because the only thing dripping should be your style. plop plop fizz fizz winter warriors with alka-seltzer plus. new nature's bounty hair growth. clinically shown to help grow thicker, fuller hair with just one capsule a day of advanced hair complex. conquer hair thinning... ...and fall in love with your hair all over again. only from nature's bounty. >> in march of 1981, carol keith morrison (voiceover): with yin march of 1981, again. lubahn, a lovely young mother of two, known to be unhappy in her marriage, suddenly vanished. departed for parts unknown. leaving behind not just her husband mike, that her son, my could junior. then just ten years old. >> i never felt that my mother abandoned me. i was never upset with her, ever. >> really? >> i never thought she did. i don't know why. i just was upset she wasn't there. i thought she would be there. show up at a graduation or something. >> but she didn't. and at family gatherings, as the years went by, thanksgiving, christmas is, that awful question, why would she leave them? remained the unmentionable elephant in the room. >> when it came to my family, i think the didn't talk about it because they figured it would upset me or my sister. >> my family is pretty close to talking about heavy things. so, something like that really talked about. >> it was an ultimate everything? >> yes. >> could you see it in your mother's eyes? or your father's? >> in my father's, for sure. >> what would you see there? >> a lot of emotion. a lot of sadness. i'm going to cry thinking about it. >> in 1987, almost six years after carol vanished, the torrance police department revisited the case. and time seemed to have altered mics memory a little. a few more details had come back to him. remember soon after carol vanish, mike said they argued. he went to sleep alone. woke up in the morning, early. she was gone. but in 1987, he remembered they argued, went to bed together, she got up at 5:30 in the morning to go to the bathroom. he woke up, then drifted back to sleep. and will cup to the sound of a car engine starting and driving a week. odd. but memories do play tricks. anyway, it didn't seem entirely significant, so the case went back into the file and got colder. >> mike took over the house painting business from carol's dad and went on to marry carrie and have two more sons. gail and terri raise their own families and it was having babies that started to change terri's way of looking at her sister's disappearance. >> as unhappy as you might be in your life, you might leave your husband. you would take your kids with you. >> and so, when you began to suspect it she wouldn't leave her children, what did that mean to you? >> that something happened to her. >> in 1996, 15 years since they had heard from carol, the police came around again. this time, they scanned the lubahn's backyard with ground penetrating radar radar. even dug up the ground. didn't find anything. funny thing though, about four months later the local paper, the "the daily breeze" did a story. interviewed mike and this time his memory was slightly >> for eight years, torrance police detective -- away at the carroll lubahn file, drawn by an irresistible hunch that this young mother did not disappear voluntarily. but actual evidence of a crime? just wasn't any. so finally, in 2010, 29 years after carol supposedly walked out on her family never came back, he decided it was a surprise time for a surprise visit to michael lubahn. >> he invited us in, we did catch him unexpectedly, but that was the plan. >> but was mike upset or thrown off? not at all. >> very nice like i anticipated he would be because i've now heard from everyone in the family how mics a good guy. >> so, together, they went over again over the details of that last night back in march 1981. and right away, mike remembered a little more about the night carroll presented him with a real estate contract and the demand that they sell their tiny house. >> she came in and gave you the papers. did she just say, turn around and walk away with? >> she said, you make my skin crawl. >> you make my skin crawl? >> yeah. >> and i thought, i bet you she did say that. >> so i pushed in some more for more details. >> and the details were, once again, a little different. about when and where he last saw her, for example, it wasn't when he went to bed around 10 pm, as he said on one occasion. or 5:30 the next morning, as he also said. no, this time mike said he last saw carol about 10:30 or 11 pm in the bathtub. >> how did you see her in the tub? >> i use the bathroom. >> and then he said, around midnight or 1 to 2, he heard the garage door open and went to the door and actually saw carol's car driving away. >> what you see taillights? >> yeah. >> and you're sure it was her car? >> yeah. >> also, remember that story about putting tape on the dresser drawers after cavill came and later founded broken? he did remember that now. >> so you didn't do the tape thing? >> i don't know -- >> you don't know what that is? >> no. >> but as he said in 2010, he did remember some other traps heat set, even more elaborate. >> i would take like, baby powder and put it on -- right inside the door. so when if somebody stepped in -- >> baby powder? >> i think i did that james bond thing with the paper on the door. >> when you open the door the paper falls. >> okay. >> by, now detective delsigne was working with his weak partner wallace and lewin. what lewin specializes in the most difficult of court cases. >> do you remember seeing the results of that interview what you thought? >> i thought that his memory had grown in areas where it shouldn't and in areas where he should be saying the same story it was different. and that's the hallmark of deception. >> but the mind plays tricks, the mind invents things and insert some into your memory and you believe them a strenuously as if they were memory. >> that's an interesting theory but it's never supported. memories can be lost but they do not increase in details over the years and they do not increase indifferent details. and that is a sign of what we call a lie. his version of what happened from the start made no sense to any of us. >> so what makes the case? >> so why would mike lie? to the cold case team it seemed obvious. >> he killed her on the night that you stop living there. everything going on that's not making sense it's because it's a lie. >> remarkably, mike continue to talk to them. three more times out of his own free will. very friendly without an attorney. he even let a prosecutor take a crack at it. >> if you or me if you are in my position, tell me what you would think. >> probably what you're thinking. >> which is? >> that i did it. >> will make a can tell you. you know, sometimes, you get a -- you know the kind of murder cases we get. we get cases where the husband finds out that his wife is cheating on him and he kills her. so -- >> i had nothing to do with that. >> will you catch when he? said it had nothing to do with that. we lewin did. >> when you look at sentenced rupture and people communicating, it was not about. that was the it? >> you gave it great significant stint you? >> absolutely. >> so they kept at mike. and at one point it seemed to them he was on the verge of confessing. >> listen, why don't you give me a -- few minutes or few days or something to think about all of it. i'll cooperate when i come back. >> but when he came back, he did not give them anything and they were right back where they started. suspicion, sure, but no evidence of a crime. no way to even prove carroll was dead. jim wallace was a detective who finally hit on the idea, to use a tool that did not exist when carroll left her husband on march 1981. >> coming up, a dramatic turning case and fresh heartbreak for carroll's family. >> another night mount up of the first nightmare. >> when dateline continues. the psoriasis treatment she's been looking for. sotyktu is the first-of-its-kind, once-daily pill for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis... for the chance at clear or almost clear skin. it's like the feeling of finding that outfit psoriasis tried to hide from you. or finding your swimsuit is ready for primetime. dad! once-daily sotyktu is proven to get more people clearer skin than the leading pill. don't take if you're allergic to sotyktu; serious reactions can occur. sotyktu can lower your ability to fight infections including tb. serious infections, cancers including lymphoma, muscle problems, and changes in certain labs have occurred. tell your doctor if you have an infection, liver or kidney problems, high triglycerides, or had a vaccine or plan to. sotyktu is a tyk2 inhibitor. tyk2 is part of the jak family. it's not known if sotyktu has the same risks as jak inhibitors. find what plaque psoriasis has been hiding. ask your dermatologist about sotyktu for clearer skin. so clearly you. sotyktu. your best defense against erosion and cavities is strong enamel- nothing beats it. new pronamel active shield actively shields the enamel to defend against erosion and cavities. i think that this product is a gamechanger for my patients- it really works. is it possible my network could take my business gamechanger for my patients- to the next level? it is with comcast business. powering all your devices with gig-speed wifi. and you get fast downloads and uploads. pick it up! pick it up! oh we got this! because it's powered by the next generation 10g network. more speed for your business? it's not just possible. it's happening. get started for $59.99 a month for 12 months. plus, ask how to get an $800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet bundle. i'm richard louis with their comcast business, powering possibilities. hours top stories. the screen actors guild confirms it received what studios call their quote last best and final offer. union leaders say they need more time to review and respond to that offer, should they accept that it would end a 114-day strike in hollywood. india's capital is undergoing the worst air quality of any city in the world. the air quality index hit 500 in new delhi, the highest in measurement can go. that is 100 times a limit at the world health organization says is healthy. now, back to dateline. ateline. >> welcome back to "dateline", welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. detectives believed mike lubahn was on the verge of confessing to the murder of his wife, carol. but then, he refused to talk and the investigation hit a wall. without a body, how could they prove there was a murder at all? the answer would send investigators in an unexpected direction. could facebook help them find out what really happened to carol? here again is keith morrison with "secrets in the mist". >> the deputy da john lewin and the torrance police department believed mike lubahn killed his wife, carol, back in 1981. but they had one big problem, they couldn't prove carol was dead. >> the biggest assumption is got to be she's not just out of the country, or across the country. or changed her identity. >> kind of an important question. with no answer. and then in january, 2011, jim wallace got the flu. lucky break, no, really. >> i was laying in bed and my wife came in and unfortunately we work these cases, all you talk about, because we are a dedicated called key's team. i'm sure she was tired of hearing it. she mentioned to me, why don't you establish a facebook account for carol? i thought, that could actually accomplish a great deal. >> of course, back in 1981, when carol disappeared, facebook creator mark zuckerberg wasn't even born yet. but 30 years later, detective wallace new social media. and its potential to connect millions of people around the globe instantly. and could determine, once and for all, he thought, whether carol was alive or dead. >> all of us know from using facebook that is number one, a place where we see here i am. that is also a place where you can find people. >> surely if carol was still alive, wallace well thought, someone on facebook our twitter know something. of course, wallace also new carol would look vastly different 30 years after her disappearance. so he found an age progression artistic to create an image of what she might look like today. and then he placed that photo and others like it on facebook and other sites. >> it turned out it was a great point of contact for me to contact 350 friends and family of carol's. right away we said, has anybody seen carol? and we discovered immediately that nobody had seen carol since the night she disappeared. >> and if carol merely googled her own name, she would find her self on wallace's website caroljeannemeyer. com. but that never happened. which meant something very significant said the detective. >> she's not looking for herself. she's dead. >> or, a farmer's wife in uruguay who doesn't use the computer much. >> maybe. >> lots of people are not on facebook. >> right. >> i don't check our google things. doesn't mean that she is dead for sure. it just means, there's a fairly good case for. >> in this large, cumulative thing that we're looking at, as yet another piece that points to the same conclusion. >> if carol was dead, if mike killed her, taking the accusation to court would be risky. totally circumstantial, of course. no body. unclear motive. a sympathetic defendant. the prosecutor lewin decided to roll the the dice. 30 years after carol lubahn vanished from her family's life, on april 13th, 2011, mike was arrested for carol's murder. and when you went to the family and said, we're going to charge him, what was their reaction? >> mixed, at best. >> mixed? that's a mild word. how about, upset. horrified. mystified. in fact, most of carol's family members believe the idea that my could have murder carol was just ludicrous. >> he was a member of our family. nobody wanted to see him be arrested, or him be the reason. or any of that. it's like another nightmare on top of the first nightmare. >> this was a case where i think the family would have been more than happy to believe that carol is still out there, somewhere. she's not dead. and their beloved son in law is not a killer. >> but of all mike seniors family members, perhaps no one was as torn as his namesake first born son, mike junior. who loved his father. unreservedly. followed him into the family painting business. worked side by side with him for a decade. and who had confessed to detectives that like his aunt terri, he too had doubts about his father. doubts that had taken root shortly after mike seniors second wife left him. >> he talked about my stepmother constantly, four years. nonstop. >> and why was that so significant to you? >> because he never talked about my mother. >> at all? >> never. >> but mike never confronted his father. >> i just knew in the back of my mind that this could be a possibility. and i really, honestly, at that time, never wanted my father to go to jail. i just wanted to know it. it was so important to me to know your truth behind that evening. >> to get the truth and avoid a trial, prosecutor john lewin was willing to make a deal. >> we had offered him voluntary manslaughter if he gave us carol's body. and >> he turned you down flat? >> he did. repeatedly. >> mike pleaded not guilty. the case was going to trial. and if members of carol's own family didn't believe mike did it, what would a jury think? >> coming up -- the accused on the stand. >> isn't it true, mr. lubahn, that carol lived her last breath in that bathtub when you murdered her? >> when "dateline" continues. secret clinical antiperspirant. it provides 3x stress sweat protection. danielle? 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could be. but deputy da john lewin, went ahead anyway. >> well i'm going to be able to prove beyond any reasonable doubt, ladies and gentlemen, is that despite the fact that mike lubahn is a decent man, he murdered his wife. >> of course, lewin knew that to prove a murder had occurred, he had to show the victim was in fact, no longer a life. for that he turned to detective wallace, who explained to the jury that facebook and social media presents he created for carol. and turned up a whole lot of nothing. >> have you been contacted by anybody? either by phone, email, in writing, who says you know what, i've seen carol lubahn after the day she disappeared? >> no. >> though as lewin and his team also let the jury here, family members like carol's sister gail believed what mike told them. that carol had run off. >> has it been hard for you to accept the possibility that she maybe did? >> oh, yes. >> it is it made even more difficult by the fact that you care deeply for the defendant? >> yes. >> and younger sister, terri? even though she had suspected mike for years -- >> do you still think as of mike lubahn sr. as a part of your family? >> yes. >> but most anguished of all? mike and carol's son, mike jr.. >> is there anything about the way you remember your mom that would make you think or made you feel that she would leave you and never come back and never say goodbye? >> no. >> he loved his dad. but also, secretly, doubted him. something he had never revealed until now. >> i was sweating so profusely during that whole trial. he never knew i had these feelings. so on the stand publicly, i had to basically say, yeah, i'm thinking maybe there are some weird things about your story. and it was the first time that my father really would have known i felt that way. so, i was really, really stressed out about that. >> how hard is it for you to be here today? >> very. >> do you want to believe that your dad is responsible for your mother's disappearance? >> do i want to believe it? no. >> let's assume that your dad, in fact, did kill your mom. would you want to see him punished for it? >> no, not particularly. >> prosecutor lewin knew the ambulance of these family members did not help his case. but -- >> in the end, my job isn't to make sure that the family members get that what they want. my job is to make sure that carol's killer is held responsible. >> but was mike a killer? his attorney, kevin we donahue. >> i think the police are just wrong. >> no forensics. no witnesses. not even a body. the defense might have stopped right there. instead they decided to gamble. michael is a nice guy. the jury should see that. >> do you solemn state -- >> and if the details were a little different each time he was asked to tell the story, here is his chance to straighten it all out for the jury. how odd then that mike, under oath no, amended his story. just a little. again. like when he added the detail that carol was in the bathtub when she said something mean to him. she said, you make my skin crawl. also slightly different, the way he discovered she was gone. >> i opened the front door, went out, and the grudge door was open. and the car was gone. >> in earlier versions, didn't mike say he heard the garage door go up? but then saw tail lights as carol drove away. why had his story changed again? >> what's the deal with that? did you hear the garage door? >> i don't think so. >> why do you think that now? what has dogged your memory? >> because i think over the years, i thought about this night so many times. and i'd seen that car back out of the garage many many times. when she was leaving. so, i think i just thought in my mind that's what happened. i saw the car. i can see it right now. >> he never thought for a moment, he said, it would be the last time he would see his wife. >> i thought maybe she had gone out that night and went dancing. and stay the night with a friend. >> but what did happen to her? mike insisted he simply didn't know. >> did you have anything to do with killing her? >> no. >> did you have anything to do with her disappearance? >> no. >> other than i didn't sign the papers that made her upset. that's it. >> successful testimony? maybe. but now the downside. he'd have to answer questions from john lewin. >> do you lie sometimes? >> no. >> you never lie? >> i wouldn't say never. maybe a white lie. who knows? >> i'm asking, have you ever lied about something serious that was a white lie in your life? >> no. >> in your entire life, you've never lied once about anything that wasn't a white like? >> i'll just see, not that i can remember. >> in fact, mike had a hard time remembering a lot of things prosecutor lewin asked about. >> i don't remember. i don't remember. i can't remember saying that. i don't know. >> but how on earth, asked lewin, could he not remember the last time he saw his wife? >> would you agree that that would be one of the most significant events details of your entire life? >> yes, but it doesn't mean i remember it. >> lewin wasn't buying it. >> isn't it true, mr. lubahn, that the last place that carol lived her last breath was taken in that bathtub when you murdered her? we know. >> why are you looking at the judge? >> because i'm waiting for you to correct him. no, i didn't murder her. sorry. in the bathtub? >> mr. lubahn, if you had murdered her, you would tell us today that you did? >> i would've admitted it. >> you would have admitted admitted on the stand today? >> yes. >> do you think that statement is believable? >> i think so. >> i'm done. >> of course, believability was a question for the jury to decide. and decided they did. though as you'll see, that was in the end of the story. not by a mile. >> coming up -- a final push for the truth. >> please, for your family, for your kids, tell us what happened. >> when "dateline" continues. but i'm protected with arexvy. arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. rsv can be serious for those over 60, including those with asthma, diabetes, copd, and certain other conditions. but i'm protected. arexvy is proven to be over 82% effective in preventing lower respiratory disease from rsv and over 94% effective in those with these health conditions. arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. i chose arexvy. rsv? 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[sfx: video game] emergen-c crystals. >> there are a few things in ok, let's call the jurors out. keith morrison (voiceover): there are few things american life as dramatic as waiting with consequence as the moment a jury verdict and have files into a courtroom. having been persuaded that my killed carol or maybe that was dead? mike's family held their collective breath. so the prosecutor in the police did as well. >> you don't know what to expect. >> and here was mike's fate. >> we the jury both encounter action find the defendant michael clark lubahn senior guilty. >> guilty of second degree murder. mike lubahn was going to prison. and long detective jim well lewin felt surrounded by an unfamiliar reaction. >> i've had cases before where you walk out of the court room where the family throws their arms around. you that was not this case. >> i was very surprised that the jury would convict him on such little evidence. i don't think any of us are happy to see michael go to jail. >> and you still believe mike is a nice guy, believable guy? >> yes. >> what gayle and the rest of the family wanted most was answers. >> it's not so much that i want mike to pay for what he did i want to know what happened to my sister. >> and at the sentencing hearing in 2012, mike's own son echoed those sentiments. >> gilts or innocence aside, i never wanted my father to go to prison. i just want to ask that if he knows anything to please let me know. >> and then mike junior made a heartbreaking plea to the court. >> he's been a good father and a good person. if he is sent to prison to present today was i'm going to be heartbroken. it won't be the same without him. i humbly stand before the court today to meet a request leniency when giving his sentence. >> after that? the strange tale of the much loved convicted killer took a remarkable turn. it happened very day in court. prosecute prosecutor lewin. >> i'm sitting right here mr. we lubahn is going to have a chance. please for your family, for your kids, just let it go. tell us what happened. >> can we just have a moment? >> the judge granted a recess so my could speak to his attorney in private. did he actually have something to confess? >> but they returned a few moments later--. >> we are asking to continue the sentencing. >> the judge pushed back the sentencing by a month. >> my hope was he would tell us what happened, that he would tell us what he did with carole and that it would be honest about both. >> for almost four weeks they waited until january 7th 2013, all eyes were on mike lubahn as he entered the courtroom. and then shifted as one lewin to prosecutor -- that he revealed to him the secret he had been keeping for most 32 years. so lewin did the talking. and mike for once did not say a word. >> all this information about them fighting about the selling of the house, he saying that that was truthful, that occurred. >> then carol stormed out and it might have blown over as arguments to, but she came back, 1:30 am, and said the one thing that would not blow over. not ever. >> she told him that she was going to be taking somebody else, another man, to her sister terry's upcoming wedding. he said he was very upset. >> she tried to comfort him, he said. >> and she was telling him, don't where you'll find somebody else, etc. >> and that was the last thing carole we ever said we. >> well he said that he pushed her, that she hit her head on a heavy end table in the living room. but she didn't lead, he said, but he knew instantly that she was dead. >> detectives hooked lubahn to a one polygraph machine. >> after the polygraph we, he argues and he says what he did pass. now the defendant changed the story. he says ok, i punched her in the head, and i punched her heart. but only one time he said. >> then he told lewin what he did with carole's body. >> after he killed her. he put her in the garage behind some carpet, he took her car the next morning to the red onion parking lot, dumped it there, at some point she was placed in the trunk of mr. lubahn's vehicle. >> and then he said he took her to the ocean, put her on a raft, paddled out to sea and dropped her down the. a cinder block tied to her body. it was a shock, of course, a big shock. for so long the family, most of, it believed mike. and now in this very public way, they finally knew that carole was dead and that he, their sweet mic, killed her. but the whole truth? was it actually out there, somewhere? so on that cold and morning january morning, mike surrounded by cops and lawyers floated out into the midst to find carroll, found whatever was left. >> if they find the cinder block in the ocean, after the search, if they find that that will give me half of the closure i need. >> she didn't get it because after the boat ride, mike admitted that his ocean tell was one more lie. and perhaps it was finally for the sake of his son, the son who never abandoned him that he finally passed a polygraph and lead investigators to the place where mike's mother had actually been. police searched the area but once again were unable to locate carols remains and give the family what they hope for most, the chance to say goodbye. >> but i don't really know why getting her back is the ultimate bookend for me. i want to know that she is properly buried or cremated, or whatever we choose to do. >> why is it so important? >> i think what it's the ultimate answer was, this is it there is no wondering. >> no, none about that. but his mother and prison 15 to life, when we last spoke to mike, it was clear that he had a great deal of wondering left to do about that man and what he took away. >> do you still love him? >> yes i do. i always will, but i have to figure out how to process this these facts. i don't know yet. what i was thought that the perfect perfect punishment to my father would be to write a sentence about my mother every week so he would have to think about her and i can remember her again. as those weeks turn two years, his children never gave up on him. they wrote letters in support of his parole but imprison the state. and then, in september 2021, a surprising twist. the prosecutor, john lewin, on behalf of the district attorney's office filed a motion to have mike seniors conviction reduced for murder to voluntary manslaughter. the winds that he believe the story mike senior told after his conviction, that carole was killed as a result of an argument about her wanting to sell their home and take the man she was having a secret affair with to persist his upcoming wedding, had he been aware of those circumstances said lewin he would not have pursued murder charges. the hearing was held approximately a month later and the motion was granted, in november 2021 his murder conviction was reduced to voluntary manslaughter, he was sentenced to six years in the state prison, the maximum federally for manslaughter the time carole was killed. later that month, he was released from prison having already served more than ten years behind bars. as for carol reuben, her remains have yet to be found. >> that's all for this edition of dateline i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching with. >> i'm craig melvin. >> and this is dateline. >> i'm here. asking for help. >> it was like hearing a ghost

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