>> it was a puzzle for police. why would a father drop off his daughter and disappear? >> i knew something was not right. >> then they found it. the diary that he recorded in secret. >> this whole thing is just getting absurd. >> and the clues came pouring out. blind, in the bushes. >> this was the hot spot? this was the crime scene? >> a stunner of a surveillance team. >> charles, rob. >> anything you might need for a murder! >> exactly. >> and what may just be. the most sinister mother daughter conversation that you have ever overheard. >> it's already in motion, you need to do your part. >> these are not the same people that the public thinks they are. >> you will realize how cold this family is. >> it's pretty twisted. >> very twisted. ♪ ♪ ♪ hello, and welcome to dateline. stephen moore was a champion speedskater who was fast on the track was slow to find direction in life. that is, until he fell for kindergarten teacher, kathryn dorset. soon came a marriage, a career, and a baby. but would stephen disappeared, detectives wondered if there was a drop in his seemingly normal life. but even they could not have imagined the sinister scheme at the heart of this case. here is andrea canning with shattered bonds. >> 9-1-1 wears the emergency? >> there's a fire burning. >> it might be a car. >> you think it might be a car? >> as a hot, office nights turned in today. the car burst into flames. the sound woke up to neighbors in a quiet street on the jersey shore. no one knew how it happened, or why. when those questions were finally answered, a bigger mystery unraveled. ♪ ♪ ♪ only four miles from their, but a world away was a closely cul-de-sac. where this family lived. everyone near the door sets, there was thomas busy with his wrist fridge ration business but not too busy to lend a hand. the wife leslie, a school board member. and the daughter, kathleen, a kindergarten teacher. kathleen loved her work, left her parents, and seemed happy nestled into the neighborhood where she grew up. but she longed for a family of her own. and then, she met stephen moore. ♪ ♪ ♪ could she have found someone more different? stephen grew up in southern california, killing at the beach. taking things easy. according to his friend, can graham. >> he never really held a job, but he was always working. always finding something to do. >> steven's mom l.a. fill-in says her son was not lazy, just laid back. >> he got by, but he wasn't truly motivated. >> but if stephen was serious about anything, it was skating. >> we would go skating on the beach. >> his friend, missy, skated to. but it's not like stephen. he took the bronze at the national speedskating competition. >> he would encourage me to skate fast. he would be way ahead of me. >> when he was not skating, he was happy to go wherever, whenever. like when his mother, evelyn, a travel agent, invited him to see the world. he was 30 something, free, and loved his mom. so why not? >> he was adventurous. >> here i am, on the right. >> what countries did you take him to? >> we did most of the asia. most of europe. south america. we have had a lot of interesting experiences, and have a lot of fun. >> eventually, evelyn decided to retire to the jersey shore. and she wanted steven to come to. she needed his help. so is loyal son grab the skates and the rest of the stuff and jumped into his car. >> it was packed. everything that he owned was in that car. it was funny. >> he knocked around for a few years and then one day in 2006, he met kathleen door set. >> i know she was a schoolteacher, and that she lived in jersey and that he was in love with her. it seemed like he had found the one. >> and of opposites attract, this set could not miss. kathleen gorsuch seemed as grounded as it gets, she had a house across the street from her folks. and she was great with children. as friends noticed when stephen brought her out to california. >> they came down, and stayed awake with us. they took my kids out, took them shopping, bought some games for them and stuff like that. >> steven started taking life a little more seriously, he got a job at the local honda dealership and did really well according to his coworker and friend lloyd mccracken. >> absolutely, it's more like he was a team player. if you needed something you could always vent to him. >> kathleen was eager to start a family of her own, so about a year after they met, she and stephen got married. >> he could not believe that this was happening. he was so happy. >> so, there he was. stephen moore, solids tillerson with a steady job. the wife, and the nice in-laws across the street. >> finally settling down. got a family. besides taking care of his mother, he had someone else he could actually take care of. >> and kids could not come fast enough. elizabeth was born a year and a half after the wedding. >> do you remember the day that she was born? >> oh my god, yeah. and i can remember standing at the nursery. and he stood there with his arms around me, crying. both of us looking at her. >> kathleen seaborne to be a mother. and stephen? >> all of a sudden it all came together for him. and his daughter made a man out of him. >> that should have been the beginning of a happy ending for stephen, and his wife kathleen. but in 2010, on a monday morning in office, steven did not show up for work. the guys at the honda called claflin, she had not seen him since early morning. >> i didn't see him, and he's usually there before me. he did not show up, i kept calling the phone. it kept going to voice mail. >> his wife, evelyn, had been taking a vacation in maine. maybe he had blown off work to go with her. he doubted it. >> when i found, i just said to you know where her your son's? and she was like. no >> -- the honda folks waited a couple of hours and then called the police. the detectives had a missing persons investigation. >> noon on the 16th, we received a call from the employer expressing that he did not show up for work. >> police learned steven had loaned evelyn his own card to make the drive to maine because it was nowhere, and safer. he was driving his mom's car until she got back. >> maybe he drove somewhere and it is a bad car crash, and they do not know where he is. >> where was stephen moore? as police follow his trail, they got a glimpse of where he had been. but the question remained, where did he go? >> detectives pieced together the timeline of stephen sudden disappearance. and they uncover the first clues. coming up! a text from kathleen. >> where are you? everybody is looking for you. >> a stop at the store. >> there was a transaction, a local quick check. >> where would he be? even investigators could not have imagined that. >> i've never had a case with so many twists and turns. >> when dateline continues! line continues i've never been healthier. shingles doesn't care. but shingrix protects. proven over 90% effective, shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingrix today. kiddo: mom, can i go to the movies? mommy: not now, sweetie. how are we ever going to find a car to fit our budget? daddy: and that fits all of us? kiddo: carvana! mommy: i don't want to spend more than 30k. kiddo: budget... daddy: i want something we can go camping in. kiddo: style. mommy: we like heated seats. daddy: and you like singing at stoplights kiddo: premium sound.. mommy & daddy: and we both need parking assist. kiddo: here. i'll meet you outside. bring your purse. daddy: carvana. our kid's a genius. mommy: how do we get it? kiddo: they deliver! daddy: all right, let's go. announcer: buy your car the easy way with carvana. this is how it feels to du more with less asthma... ...thanks to dupixent. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. it's an add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma. and can help improve lung function for better breathing in as little as two weeks. dupixent helps prevent asthma attacks... and can even reduce or eliminate oral steroids. imagine that. dupixent can cause allergic reactions that can be severe. get help right away if you have rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor about new or worsening joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. who knows what you can do when you du more with less asthma. ask your doctor about dupixent. the most prescribed biologic for asthma. after advil. feeling better? on top of the worlddddd!!! before advil. advil targets pain at the source of inflammation. when pain comes for you, come back fast with advil liqui-gels. 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. andrea canning: as the day wore on, steven's work friends grew more worried. a no-show at the dealership, he ♪ ♪ ♪ wasn't answering his phone. >> as the day wore on, stephens where friends grew more worried. a no-show at the dealership, he wasn't answering his phone. detectives looking for him made that crash course in steven's life. they started with the family that he had married into. there was kathleen of course, dedicated teacher. attentive mother. the kind who made her own baby food and fretted over every detail of her daughters care. >> did you check into their standing in the community? >> i know what and who they were. so the fact that she was a teacher, and where they reside it. >> detective learned that thomas adored his granddaughter, and he got along with the neighbors to. >> we heard stories of thomas shoveling sidewalks, and driveways, and if there was a mechanical failure on an air conditioner something like that, simple phone call and thomas would be there. >> and steven's mother in law leslie? nearly everyone saw her campaign ads when she ran for the school board. >> today i wanted to introduce myself and tell you who i am and why am qualified to serve. >> detectives also learned that the door sets, who often hosted barbecues on the block, often where visited. >> my parents lived on the corner right there, so right across the street. >> but when investigators talk to kathleen and her parents about where stephen might be, they were not much help. because, as it turns out, steven did not live there anymore. for steven and kathleen, wedded bliss did not last very long. detectives learned the marriage went downhill after the baby was born. kathleen, often driven, was a super mom. and made stephen feel like he could not do anything right. >> he wasn't holding the baby right. he wasn't changing the diapers right. he was not putting her down for a naps at the right time. >> just very protective of the child which is sometimes mothers are like that at the beginning. >> so in love with her baby friends told police how kathleen hovered over her care. >> they say it's the hormones, and everything going on with her, and just relax and go with it a little bit and see what happens. >> but steven complained, and it did not get better. >> she wasn't showing him and they love anymore, and no intimacy, everything was gone. >> and there was another problem for stephen, that cozy life across the street from the in-laws had gotten to cozy. police learned that the doting grandparents could not stay away. >> they were just pop in, and announced, not even not just walk in the house at anytime. he felt that was kind of weird. >> investigators learned that stephen felt so smothered, that went was ten months old, he walked out on his wife and in laws, and move back in with his mom. the divorce became final a few months before stephen disappeared. they had to wonder, maybe stephen just had to get away? >> it crosses my mind. sometimes you just want to disappear for a little bit and not talk to anybody, get your thoughts together and find out exactly what is going on. >> but that is not the vibe that investigators were getting. his mother said stephen did not sound that he wanted to get away. in fact, he sounded pretty happy the night before he disappeared. he was enjoying an overnight visit with 21 month old elizabeth. >> he said we are in our jammies, and we're watching cartoons. and i said sleep tight, i will talk to you tomorrow. >> the next morning he left the baby with kathleen. >> stephen showed up to her house at 7:45 am with their daughter. he drops them off. >> kathleen told investigators that she had not heard from him since. even when she sent him a text. >> what was the tech she sent him? >> she showed me a photo that says where are you, everyone is looking for you. >> investigators ran through all the possibilities. >> did he have a girlfriend? >> not that where aware of. >> was he into anything bad? into drugs? anything that would get him into trouble? >> no, not that we are aware of. >> financial issues? >> no. >> but when police looked at his checking account, it showed something. two debit charges posted on monday afternoon. >> as out of that there was a transaction, at a local quick check on that day for $9. and then there was another transaction later on that day, at a chipotle in eatontown, which is the same town that he works in. >> this is after he dropped out daughter? >> correct. >> so what happened to stephen could have well happened later on monday. another day went by and know stephen. then, in the early morning hours of wednesday, august 18th, a 9-1-1 call came into dispatch. >> 9-1-1 what is your emergency? >> i'm finding the right words to say [inaudible] >> a car fire had erupted in a section of long branch, new jersey. not far from the dorsetts, tidy, peaceful straight. the question, where was stephen moore was about to be answered! >> coming up! >> i was like, here we go. i had that intuition that it was going to be bad. and it was. >> a whole new mystery begins as police uncover a secret -- >> it's one of those homicide cases when you really want to get into that victims had and know exactly what is going on? stephen left it for us. >> a recording by steven himself. >> this whole thing is just getting absurd. >> when dateline continues! es why are we the only birds heading this way? [ screams ] we're trying to get to jamaica. stay close and... everything will be all right. i'm ok. i'm ok. andrea canning: the call went out just after 4:00 in the morning. a car had erupted in flames in long branch, new jersey. by the time detective al vega arrived on the scene, >> the call went out just after four in the morning. a car had erupted in flames in long, bridge keep new jersey. by the time detective al vega arrived on the scene, he had already gotten word that the car was at the lead more, the same one that stephen was driving when he disappeared. detective al vega had a bad feeling. >> i was like, here we go. i had that intuition, it's gonna be bad. and it was, during fire suppression efforts they found an identifiable human remains in the trunk. >> reporter: it was the body of a man burned beyond recognition. but investigators could make out a tattoo identical to stevens. the missing persons case had just taken a tragic turn. stephen moore, devoted father and loving son. was that. detective jeff wilbert with the prosecutors office took charge. >> the vehicle was parked, and that's when we took on the homicide investigation. >> and it took a whole new direction? >> it did. >> did you have any theories of what might have happened? >> no, at that time we did not. >> one thing was clear, whoever had torch the car had started with the trunk, where the victim was. >> the rear bumper just completely melted off the vehicle. >> could you tell how the fire was started? >> one to open the truck, and once the body was removed there was definitely an obvious order of gasoline. >> now that he had gone from missing person to murder victim, investigators had to look at everything in steven's life. >> we spent some time looking into steven's background. we learned that he was a competitive skit skater. >> but life is a skater turned up nothing. >> how was he doing at work? we learned that he was doing very well at work. >> so investigators took a another look at the brief marriage to kathleen. and learned how bad it really got. friends like missy thought kathleen had gone mad with motherhood, like the time steven tried to feed elisabeth the smidgen of sauerkraut. >> she screamed of him. you don't fade a baby sauerkraut! that's not baby food! >> stevens divorce attorney, veronica davis, said she had never seen anything like it. >> she gave him a schedule, a written schedule. an outline. and she wanted him to fill in the banks. when did she a today, when did she nab, when did she go to the bathroom, how long did she sleep, and she would call even if he only had her for three hours. what are you doing? it was very disconcerting. it was disk functional. >> that dysfunction was seeping into steven's life at work. when mccracken was told that kathleen would bring the baby over just to humiliate him in front of his coworkers. >> i think out of spite she would bring the baby in. and he would try to pick up and hold the baby, and she would just take the baby out of his arms. and it became into a yelling match. and then she would storm out. >> i just felt like all she wanted out of me, it was the baby. basically a sperm donor, that's how he felt. >> investigators felt that even though the divorce was final, the custody battle was never enduring. steven fought for more time with his daughter. but is mom it look like an uphill battle, he could not afford the endless litigation. >> her parents had more money than i did to help him. so he did not stand a chance. >> but his divorce attorney saw him toughen up. deciding when enough was enough. >> she was issuing all these effects. and that's when he came to me, panicked. and we did go into court immediately. >> so steven was pushing back, and investigators looking at the case took note. his friends and family believe that kathleen thought she had married a passive, go a long guy. but ended up with a man who would not roll over. >> he had overnight vinis, and stuff like that. she did not like that at all. because she could not control what was happening. >> detective wilburt, heard plenty of the custody battle from friends and family. but then discovered evidence both powerful and unique. stephen had kept an audio diary. >> he was documenting all the issues going on between he and kathleen. >> stephen made this recording about three weeks before his murder. >> i am getting very tired of katy calling me at that questioning every move that i make. i am able to take care of our child, just as well as he can. >> one of those few homicide cases, when you really want to get into that victims had and know exactly what is going on? stephen left it for us. >> and it is always bs. and it is her way or no way. i just want to be able to spend time with my daughter with no bulk. >> investigators also heard stephen standing up for his rights. he recorded one exchange with kathleen, as he was picking up the baby for a short visit. kathleen was planning to take elisabeth for a weekend trip out of state, against his wishes. >> are you still planning on going to florida? >> yeah. >> okay, i would like an itinerary. i would like to know who, where are you