is dateline. >> one of the investigators o brought somebody over to me. i was steeling myself for it already because of the massive police presence, they said they believed that he had been murdered. for the dead of seven care deeply about his kids. >> he was a loving man, provider. >> it was puzzling and alarming when he vanished. >> she said craig is not here and i said this is weird. >> i know something is wrong. >> a disturbing discovery in the basement. >> it appeared there was some kind of ambush. for revelations about craig's wife. >> craig did not want to leave and there's a romantic relationship between them. >> in the park the two young man acting strangely. >> the victim's two funds. >> finally, a string of security ladies would lead to the bone chilling truth. >> a diabolical plan. >> i was absolutely stunned. >> this is a family divided like no other. so when parents craig and laura told hello and welcome to dateline. they appeal -- appeared to be a tight knit family so when they told their seven kids they were divorcing, it came as quite a surprise then a police investigation revealed more surprises, a mystery that led police to a horrific discovery in the family's secret, as dark as they come. here's andrea canning with the devil's bathtub. >> this is devil's bathtub. a deep, dark pond formed by great glaciers a millennia ago. it is hidden in secluded but beyond the tangle of the weeds, a secret was about to be discovered. >> we were not ready for this. >> the sirens in my head in the red lights going off in my head. >> the discovery would tell the tale of an all-american family torn apart and the twisted loyalty hard to comprehend. >> like hitting a brick wall. >> this is the ultimate story of betrayal. >> yes. >> pittsburgh, new york, pretty suburb of rochester with big houses and big families in top- ranked schools that make the people that made her want to stick around. >> i grew up in a bubble and the community is a bubble. >> the family lived in the happy bubble. jesse dated the oldest boy, colin. >> one of the first times i went over to his house in high school. he was cooking me dinner and i was like, that's pretty cool. >> very responsible week >> 103 since i fell in love with him. >> three girls and four boys. the household was always bustling, family dinners, holidays, and colin's parents embraced the chaos and this is craig's sister. >> clearly, they like being parents and enjoyed the seven kids. the dad worked as a computer programmer and spent time mentoring kids at his church. >> craig is an outwardly personable person. >> and pj was his best friend. pj was there when craig fell in love with laura. >> laura is compassionate and also really intelligent. she majored in physics. >> is for the kids, they were smart like their parents, hard- working, articulate but while they thrived, family life took a toll on craig and laura's marriage. laura had been on bed rest for some of her pregnancies and money was tight. >> it circles back to financial hardships. >> it's understandable with seven children, bills, these are real-life problems. >> craig and laura separated in 2014 and craig took a hard. >> he said in an email to me it looks like i'm getting divorced because i don't think i can talk about it without crying. >> pj said he wasn't surprised to see the marriage dissolve. >> there were a lot of positives that came out of the relationship but also negatives. >> the oldest son was away at maritime college when his parents split. >> i asked if he would be okay in his thought was i'm going to be okay because i have you but i'm more concerned about him and making sure my siblings are okay. >> he decided to put family first and help out his mother. he moved back to rochester and put aside his goal of becoming a navy seal. >> he put aside his dream to put his siblings first. >> what was going to be in the custody arrangements? >> the older kids would make their own choices. custody got sticky with a two youngest kids. >> the divorce still was not final in the summer of 2016 and robin said there was tension over the shared custody of the six-year-old and 12-year-old. craig told her he was trying to make the best of a difficult situation. >> one of the phrases he used the most recently was that he saw light at the end of the tunnel. but it was stressing him out. >> on top of that, something weird happened to craig that summer. someone broke into the townhouse where he had recently moved. they thought it was no big deal but his sister was worried and she urged him to report it to police. >> i wake up at midnight and i feel a pain in my arm and i jump up and this will sound crazy but a hooded like figure, not a black man was running out of the room and the reason i have to file a police report is my black bear was taken. >> a few days after the break-in -- >> i said i'll call you in the morning. >> the morning came but craig was not returning her calls. >> if he had been in a meeting and felt his funko off, he would've sent a response, in a meeting, call you later. >> concerned, she decided to pay a visit to his townhouse and inside the house was the beginning of a dark family drama that could never be unwritten. >> i know something is wrong. i don't know how wrong. >> what was going on with craig, the discovery in the basement was about to provide a clue. >> we found what appeared to be blood splatter. >> what they found next would change everything. when dateline continues. icy hot. ice works fast. ♪♪ heat makes it last. feel the power of contrast therapy. ♪♪ so you can rise from pain. icy hot. 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[traffic noises] so get allstate, save money on auto insurance and be protected from mayhem. yeah, like me. ♪♪ andrea canning: robbyn drew couldn't imagine yeah, like me. where her brother craig was. it was a warm summer morning, wednesday, july 20th, 2016. robin could not imagine where her brother, craig, was. it was a warm summer morning on wednesday, and july 20, 2016. >> you cannot reach him at work or at home. that break-in was fresh in her mind when she decided to leave work at lunch and head to his townhouse and his soon-to-be ex- wife was there and could not find him either. >> i figured it wouldn't be long before someone came looking for him and i don't know where he is. >> she told robin it had been craig's mind with the two children that the kids texted her to say dad was not there when they woke up and she sent colin over to get them. >> collin was always picking up his siblings and would drive them places. >> robin decided to look around and she went upstairs to the bedroom and the door was locked. >> i thought that todd. make were you worried he might be in the bedroom? >> i was worried. >> she called 911 >> my brother has not been answering text or cell phone calls or emails and i could be making a mountain out of a mole hill. >> deputies arrived at craig's but they stayed outside and told robin they would need a warrant to search the house. after all, her brother was a grown man and this was his private property. dave was one of those investigators and spoke to robin briefly. >> she called the number of times and it made her nervous not being able to get hold of him. >> laura had gone home but came back to the townhouse with a two in kids to see what was going on. >> did she expressed that she had any idea what was going on? >> she did and had no idea where he might be. >> she told the deputies that kids were dropped off and craig was home the night before. >> then the investigator asked the kids some questions. first, the six-year-old daughter. >> was he there when he woke up? the last time you saw your dad was when? >> yesterday. he was playing video games on the computer. he went to the bathroom and then went downstairs and that night he was downstairs and then he disappeared in the morning. >> the 12-year-old son told the same story. >> when was the last time you saw him? >> 11:30 pm last night when he was going to bed. >> what happened this morning? >> he wasn't there and i thought he went to work. >> laura texted pj. >> she said craig is not here. and i said that's weird. >> calling called chelsea. >> i was concerned, nobody wants to hear somebody went missing and i assumed that he had to step outside or on a quick trip. >> late that night investigators finally have their search warrant. what you find? >> on initial walk-through the house is very neat and well put together and it doesn't appear to be any forced entry. >> the investigators unlocked the master bedroom and it was undisturbed. they looked around and found nothing and then they headed to the basement. >> there are boxes on the shelves neatly stacked and everything is in its home and on the other side it is kind of disheveled. >> it was messy but nothing out of the ordinary until they noticed something alarming. >> more closely examine the area and found what appeared to be blood splatter. >> crime scene techs sprayed the basement floor and found even more blood, blood that somebody tried to wipe away and then a discovery inside a garbage bag. >> we find what appears to be two handles with the para cord nodded see can hold onto both handles and use it as a ligature. >> a weapon used for strangulation. the evidence was telling the story and when that would not end well for craig train 20. >> this is a big moment in the case. >> coming up, a bombshell about his soon-to-be ex-wife. >> craig did not want to believe there was a romantic relationship and over time it became painfully obvious that there was. >> and just off a country road, passerby or see something that would transform the case. when dateline continues. a slow network is no network for business. that's why more choose comcast business. and now we're introducing ultimate speed for business, our fastest plans yet. we're up to 12 times faster than verizon, at&t, and t-mobile. and existing customers could even get up to triple the speeds at no additional cost. from the company with 99.9% network reliability and advanced cyber security, it's ultimate speed for ultimate business. and it's all from comcast business. andrea canning: it was late afternoon, july 20th, 2016. craig rideout, father of seven, had been missing since early that morning. it was late afternoon, july 20, 2016 and the father of seven had been missing since early that morning. the investigators had discovered a horrid same in his basement. a scene that told him he wasn't coming home. >> we started fighting more items with blood on them >> craig's sister was waiting outside watching the police action unfolds. >> then one of the investigators brought somebody over to me sane, this is our violent crime advocate. >> did your heart sink? >> it did and they told me they believed he had been murdered. >> murdered in his own home? investigators surmised that happened overnight while his young children slept. who would do such a thing? craig's sister told the investigator about the break in a few days earlier. >> i wake up at midnight and i feel pain in my arm. >> he said he was upstairs sleeping in his bed when in the middle of the night he was woken up with someone pulling hair out of his arm in the mail ran out of the bedroom and out of the house. >> he said he thought it was a prank and did not know what to make of it but nor did robin but she had other investigation information. details about his brother's marriage. >> how long have they been separated? >> two years. >> it had not been a good separation. >> it had not been. >> the reason was laura had a man in his life and it was awkward. her boyfriend was craig's old buddy, pj. >> pj goes from being craig's best friend to being his estranged wife's boyfriend. so that doesn't always work out so well for relationships. >> certainly not between the two of them. >> craig and laura had been many friends with pj and his wife for many years. >> all of the kids really grew up together and would go out together and have parties together. >> but around the same time that laura and craig's marriage was falling apart, pj's wife died and pj leaned on laura for support and laura began confiding in pj. >> they are in a reliant district romantic relationship? >> at first, craig did not want to believe that there was a romantic relationship going on but over time it became painfully obvious that there was. >> i did not know i was going to fall in love with laura but it happened over time. >> does craig know about this? >> yeah, he sent the email. it said i don't know if you found yourself in a damsel in distress situation or you have romantic feelings towards laura come either way, i'm happy. >> that is big of him. >> i thought it was interesting . >> it was certainly interesting to the homicide detective but before the investigator could run down the juicy lead he got some news. two counties over a shovel had been left by the side of the road and 50 feet into the woods, a manns body was discovered. >> there is a body under a tarp. >> is it near your home? >> just down the road. >> could it be craig? the identity was not obvious right away. the killer or killers have used some kind of acid to intentionally disfigure his face. >> that sounds like someone had a major grudge with the person. >> it certainly seemed like they were not interested with him being found. >> even though the victims were not able to be recognized, they were able to id him and the answer was found in his pocket. the victim's phone was ringing when the body was found in the person popping up on the caller id was robin, craig's sister. >> as i was trying to reach him, the cell phone was ringing in his pocket. >> your calling and the phone is ringing. >> it sounds like some really den criminals to leave the cell phone in the pocket when they have gone to these great lengths pouring, possibly acid come on this man. >> it does seem to overlook the obvious thing. >> they had a crime scene my body into marriage with a soap opera ending in the next bit of evidence would lead the story to an even darker place a place called devil's bathtub. >> a million thanks must be going through your mind. >> coming up, a chance fighting in a call to police. >> they saw a couple males in the parking lot with garbage bags being thrown out. of moderate-to-severe asthma that's not for sudden breathing problems. dupixent can cause allergic reactions that can be severe. tell your doctor 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. ask your specialist about dupixent. nexgard® plus helps you protect your dog from fleas, ticks, heartworm disease, and more... all in one delicious, monthly, soft chew. use with caution in dogs with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. nexgard® plus: the one you want for one-and-done protection. 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(coughing) next! stuck at the dmv, and i think i'm late on my car insurance. good thing the general gives you a break with flexible payment options. let's get you a break while you wait. what is this place? this is our dmvip. vending machine charcuterie? is that guy getting a painted license? wait until the driving test. now that's a park job! for a great low rate, go with the general. when we're young, we're told anything is possible... for a great low rate, ...but only a few of us go out and prove it. witness the greatness of anna hall on a connection worthy of gold: xfinity mobile. only xfinity gives you the most powerful mobile wifi network, with speeds up to a gig in millions of locations. and right now, xfinity internet customers can buy one unlimited line and get one free for a year. get the fastest connection to paris with xfinity. a dangerous heat wave bringing sweltering temperatures. more than 100 million across the country are under heat alerts with temperatures reaching triple digits. and in gaza, strikes on tent camps killed at least 25 people and injured another 50. this comes weeks after an idea bomb triggered a deadly fire for displaced palestinians. now back to dateline. welcome back to dateline. detectives were looking into whether craig had been murdered and then a tip called into 911 lead them to his disfigured body and his cell phone was still in his pocket and with it police quickly started connecting dots and were about to get another tip and what that would lead to two unlikely suspects. here again is andrea cannon with devil's bathroom. >> the case of the missing dad was now a murder investigation. the investigator had been up for 36 hours working two critical crime scenes. the basement where he was likely killed in the woods where his body was found and now the investigator was about to be called to another location called devil's bathtub . is secluded pond set deep in a 2500 acre park. >> why are you called to this scene? >> some people in the park saw a couple of mails in the park and the car in the parking lot and they saw what they believe to be garbage bags getting thrown out. >> why was a homicide detective getting a call about a case of suspicious littering? when deputies on the scene detained the two younger man, they recognize their last name, rideout, the same name of the m