Im glad we know the truth. What were the secrets in the mist . Thanks for joining us. Im lester holt. The internet was still in its infancy when the young mother at the center of this story disappeared. Police didnt have todays highspeed tools to track people who went missing. Decades later, a cold case investigator hit on an idea. Could Facebook Help find out what happened to the woman who vanished so long ago and forced her son to face the truth . Heres keith morrison. Reporter january, point vicente, california. The wet, gray cold has settled in to stay. At noon a police boat sets off into the pea soup fog. A hail mary pass, apparently a slim chance to find the truth at last. But why out there . Why after all these lost 30 years . Maybe some cases are destined to stay cold, easier that way, before they came along with their wild ideas about murder and facebook, of all things. And now this. Their doomed errand into the fog. Her name was carol jean meyer. Low she was carol lubon when all this happened back in march, 1981. The night of the slam doors, the harsh words, the car roaring away. And its an old story anyway. Pretty girl gets pregnant at 15, marries the guy. Pretty soon shes 20 something with two 20 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. Reporter she had these two sisters. Terry was the younger one, gayle the older. We were very close and made each other laugh all the time. Reporter but carol wasnt laughing at the end of march, 81. For one thing, she wanted to be somebody, her own somebody. I know that carol wanted to complete school and further her career. Thats when she went back to study architecture. Reporter sure, her husband was a nice kid and she loved him once with all the intensity of first love. The Handsome High SchoolFootball Player who would hang around on her front porch. His friends would come over. I thought that was kind of cool. All these football athlete friends. Reporter mike stepped up and married her after the baby was born. He was a good father. He seemed to enjoy his kids. Reporter enjoyed carols family too. Especially her dad, milt. Mike became like his son. Reporter milt brought young mike into the family house painting business. He just took to him immediately. Everybody felt that way about mike, his friends, everybody. He was always a very likeable person. Reporter friendly, loyal, but not exactly ambitious. He didnt seem to mind at all settling down to a modest existence, them and the two kids all cramped up in a two bedroom, one bathhouse in torrance. But carol did mind it very much. I think she may have outgrown him somewhat. Reporter she had a secret affair by then. Maybe more than one. She got herself a cute little red car, an audi fox, ordered personalized plates. The car is long gone now, so we did this one up to look just like it. And quite often, shed get in her little car alone and go roaring off to school or to meat markets, like the local red onion was. I know she was going to the red onion. I never went there with her so i dont know what she was like. She had another corner of her life that you werent part of . Yeah. Reporter and then that night in march, kids off to bed. Their son, mike jr. , was just a boy, 10 years old. I was in bed. I had just got a new stereo for my 10th birthday and was listening to the headphones. Reporter 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 didnt . Not that i knew of. I remember her marching past and going out the front door and slamming the door. You heard the slam . I heard the slam of the front door, i know that. And the next morning we got up and she wasnt there. Reporter mike sr. Told carols dad that carol had demanded he sign papers to sell their house and he didnt want to, and she got mad and 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. Reporter nearly a week after carol departed, her red audi fox 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. I didnt know where she went. Reporter they drove around, looking for her. Went to bars. Carols picture in hand. And . Nobody had seen her. What feeling was that . Hopelessness. You know, where did she go . Who did she see . Reporter the Torrance Police department opened a file but they couldnt answer any of the questions, like had she just finally gotten fed up with mike and this little place and gone off to start a new life somewhere else . Or had she been in an accident or something worse . More than a week after carol disappeared, there was 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, sneaked back in here 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 carols 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, it happened again. Some of carols clothes went missing, along with some money from a place no burglar would know to look, under the butter dish in the refrigerator, where mike said he and carol kept 100 in emergency cash and now 60 was missing. Just like carol, said her sister, gayle. She would have not taken all of it. That was in carols personality, to just be very fair. Reporter and then there were those mysterious phone calls. Wed get the calls on special days. Her birthday, my birthday, my grandmother, wed get calls. And just silence on the other end . Yeah. What did you do . Wed say, 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 and total break . Yeah. Reporter 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. Just thinking where is she . When is she coming back . Reporter eventually mike started dating a 19yearold named carrie, brought her into the fold. We were happy that mike was going on with life. Reporter 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 didnt sound right to me. Coming up, doubts about carols disappearance grow, and others also would have suspicions about what really happened. Later they turned to a surprising source to help solve the mystery. Why dont you establish a facebook account for carol. Would they finally answer on facebook . I want you to know stuff i want you to be kind. I want you to be smart. Super smart. I want one thing in a doctor. To speak my language. I dont want you to look at the chart before you say hi. David. Quiero que me hagas sentir segura. I want you to be awesome. Thats the doctor i want. At kaiser permanente, we want you to choose the doctor thats right for you. Find your Perfect Match at kp. Org and thrive. In march of 1981, carol 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, but her son, mike jr. , then just 10 years old. I never felt that my mother abandoned me. I was never upset with her, never. I just was upset she was never there. I thought she would show up at a graduation or something. I always thought, well, she could show up, she could show up. But she didnt. And at family gatherings as the years went by, thanksgiving, christmases, that awful question, why would she leave them, remained the unmentionable elephant in the room. When it came to my family, i think they didnt talk about it because they figured it would upset me or my sister, so they just kind of it was a taboo subject and didnt really talk about her. My family is pretty closed to talking about heavy things, so Something Like that, rarely talked about. It was an awfully heavy thing. Yeah. Could you see it in your mothers eyeeyes, or your fathe . In my fathers for sure. What would you see there . A lot of emotion, a lot of sadness. Im going to cry thinking about it. Reporter 1987, almost six years after carol vanished, the Torrance Police department revisited the case and time seemed to have altered mikes memory a little. A few more details had come back to him. Remember soon after carol vanished, mike said they argued, he went to sleep alone, woke up in the morning early and 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. She woke up, drifted back to sleep and woke up to the sound of a car engine starting and driving away. Odd. But memories do play tricks. Anyway, it didnt seem terribly significant, so the case went back into the file and got colder. Mike took over the house painting business from carols dad and went on to marry carrie and have two more sons. Gail and terri raised their own families and it was having babies started to change terris way of looking at her sisters 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 that she wouldnt leave her children, what did that mean to you . That something happened to her. Reporter in 1996, 15 years since they had heard from carol, the police came around again. This time they scanned the lubahns background with groundpenetrating radar, even dug up the ground. Didnt find a thing. Funny thing, though. About four months later, the local paper did a little story, interviewed mike, and this time his memory was slightly different. He remembered that on that terrible morning when carol left, he heard the garage door go up before she drove away. Just one more little detail, though nothing profoundly different. And of course no evidence whatsoever of any crime. Police went away again. And then one day in 2002, a detective named walt del cine was rummaging through some cabinets behind his sergeants desk. I was just being nosy. I thought what was this. Reporter it was the carol lubahn case folder. Over 20 years old and as cold as they come. I thought this is interesting. I wonder if this lady is still missing. Reporter of course she was. So again he read through the police reports. Couldnt help notice the subtle changes in mikes story. And i thought that was kind of strange, because i wouldnt think that you would forget the last time you saw your wife. Reporter so he went to see carols parents, her mom, melva, her dad, milt. He looked up at me and was starting to cry. I said, milt, are you okay . And he goes, oh, im just so happy. I cant believe you guys are still interested in this case. How much did that have to do with you driving ahead on this case, that conversation . A lot. Im the father of three daughters as well. I thought what if this is my middle daughter. Milt died one month later, never knowing what happened to his beautiful middle daughter. But when terri went to her fathers funeral and saw mike there, a private thought ate at her. Mike must know something. I didnt say anything. I tried to keep away. He was, of course, paying his respects to our family, but i couldnt carry on a conversation with him. Reporter meanwhile, walt delcine had become a little obsessed. He had many other pressing cases, but something kept pulling him back to carol lubahn. I actually would shove some of my work away. I got in a little trouble for that sometimes. Reporter for years the detective chipped away until finally in 2010, eight years after he found that musty old blue file, he decided to pay a surprise visit to mike lubahn. His colleagues thought he was a bit nuts. There was those that thought, yeah, what do you think hes going to admit it to you . I thought, well, i played enough sports in my time, i know youre not going to get anywhere unless you try. Hi. Detective delcine. I want to talk about carol. Reporter what story would mike tell this time . Coming up, this version was straight out of 007. I think i did that james bond thing with the paper on the d r turn around every now and then i get a little bit hungry and theres nothing really good around turn around every now and then i get a little bit tired of living off the taste of the air turn around, barry i finally found the right snack with our new, improved Peanut Butter chewy bars. For eight years, Torrance Police detective walt del is the delsigne had a hurcnch this young mother didnt disappear voluntarily but actual evidence of a crime, there wasnt any. Finally 29 years after carol supposedly walked out on her family and never came back, he decided it was time for a surprise visit to michael lubahn. He went over with his sergeant. He invited us in. We did catch him unexpectedly, but that was the plan. Reporter but was mike upset or thrown off . Not at all. Very nice, like i anticipated he would be, because i had now heard from everybody in the family how mike is a good guy. Reporter so together they went over again the details of that last night down in march of 1981, and right away mike remembered a little more about the night carol presented him with a real estate contract and a demand they sell their tiny house. Did she just turn and walk away with it or what happened . She said you make my skin crawl. You make my skin crawl . Yeah. Yeah. And i thought, bing ill bet you she did say that. So i pushed him 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 wasnt when he went to bed around 10 00 p. M. 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 00 p. M. In the bathtub. I used the bathroom. And then he said maybe around midnight or 1 00 or 2 00, he heard the garage door go up. He went to the door and actually saw carols car driving away. See taillights. And youre sure it was her car . Yes. Also remember that story about putting tape on the dresser drawers after carol left and later he found it broken . He didnt remember that now. But as he sat here in 2010, he did remember some other traps hed set, even more elaborate. I would take like baby powder right inside the door so if somebody stepped in, id see it. Baby powder. Anything else . Ike i did that james bond thing with the paper on the door. Paper on the door . Okay. By now detective delsigne was working with his colleague, john wallace and deputy d. A. John lewin. Do you remember when you saw the results of that interview what you thought . Yeah, i thought that his memory had grown in areas where it shouldnt, and in areas where he should be saying the same story, it was different. Thats the hallmark of deception. Sure. But the mind plays tricks. The mind 20s things and inserts them into your memory and you believe them as strenuously as if they actually happened. Thats an interesting theory. I dont think its really supported. Memories can be lost. But memories dont increase in details over the years, and they dont increase in different details. And thats a sign of what we call a lie. His version of what happened from the start made no sense to any of us. And why would mike lie . To the Cold Case Team it seemed obvious. He killed her that night. She stopped living that night. Everything else thats going that doesnt make sense is all because its a lie. If you know its a lie, then it all lines up. Remarkably mike continued to talk to them three more times of his own free will. Very friendly, without an attorney. He even let the prosecutor take a crack at him. If you were me, if you were in my position, tell me what you would think. Probably what youre thinking. Which is . That i did it. Well, mike, i can tell you, sometimes 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 it had nothing to do with na. Did you catch what mike said . It had nothing to do with that. Lewin did. When you just look at sentence structure and how people talk and communicate, it wasnt about that. What is the it . You gave that great significance, didnt you . Oh, absolutely. Reporter so they kept at mike of t mike. And at one point it seemed to them he was on the verge of confessing. Listen, why dont you give me a few days to think about all of it. Reporter but when he came back, he didnt give them anything and they were right back where they started. Suspicion, sure, but no evidence of a crime. No way to even prove carol was dead. That is, until detective jim wallace hit on an idea. To use a tool that didnt even exist when carol lubahn fought with her husband on a march night in 1981. Coming up, the long arm of facebook. Its the kind of a place where we say here i am. Its also a place you can find people. The result, a dramatic turn in the case and fresh heartbreak for carols family. Another nightmare on top of the first nightmare. Deputy d. A. John lewin and the Torrance Police department Cold Case Team believed mike lubahn killed his wife, carol, back in 1981. But they had one big problem. They couldnt prove carol was dead. The biggest assumption is going to be how do you know shes just not 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. And i was laying in bed. My wife came in and unfortunately when you work these cases, all you talk about is, because we were a dedicated Cold Case Team, youre talking about the case youre working on. Im sure she was tired of hearing it. But she mentioned to me, why dont 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 wasnt even born yet. But 30 years later, detective wallace knew social media and its potential to connect to millions of people around the globe instantly. It could determine once and for all, he thought, whether carol was alive or dead. Because all of us know from using facebook, that number one, its kind of a place where we say here i am. Its also a place you can find people. Surely if carol was still alive, wallace thought, someone on facebook or twitter would know something. Of course he knew wallac