Southern californias south bay. A singularly stunning strand of shoreline, with familiar names like hermosa, redondo. We call it the sand box. No one thinks that this part of los angeles exists, but it does. This Seaside Playground is lined with Beach Front Properties worth millions, and nestled among these small beach towns is an oasis called el segundo. Its main street, usa. Its a great place to raise kids. And in el segundo and the south bay, one of the rain makers in the real estate business, selling those Beautiful Homes in the sand box, was the woman on this business card, julia keller, known as deede. She really just embraced everyone that came into her path. Deedes best friend, cindy ertman and Real Estate Sales partner, Linda Dondero. She was good at her job . I loved working with deede, everyone did. She was so easy to like. Her clients were very loyal over the years. Deede was loyal too, not only to her clients but to her children, mike and julie. I remember my mom explaining to me when i was about 10 years old that as you get older, were probably not going to be as close or, you know, you wont like me quite as much and it never happened. If anything, we just got closer. But deede keller had a heart problem. Not literally. It may have been a little too big. She loved without limits and she simply hated to disappointment or let anyone down. She loved dogs so much she literally couldnt say no by another one. She was surrounded by them at home. Even in her real estate ads. I always joked that as soon as i graduated college, thats when she started replacing us with dogs. She never stopped being a mom. And she never stopped sort of loving everybody, i guess . No, she never did. She was ready to be embraced and to embrace you whenever you wanted it. But there was one area of her life in which deedes hahn industry honesty and embrace hadnt caught hold. Your mom was so lucky and her life was so easy in many ways. She had a wonderful life but i guess, no, she hadnt found that person. She did have a longterm relationship but that ended sadly in 1997. Soon after, she met someone new. He was a real estate client named irwin howard. A pilot and Airline Mechanic, originally from bolivia. I remember deede telling me she was not going to date anyone else unless they loved, treasured and adored her. And she did feel loved, treasured and adored by irwin. He treated her like a queen. When irwin popped the question, deede said yes. At deedes bridal shower in march of 1998, irwin dutifully delivered his fiancee to the Surprise Party but the smile didnt last after the engagement was over and the marriage began. It wasnt more than six months after they were married, she just blurted out that she had married him on the rebound. And was having second thoughts . Apparently so. It was very hard for her to enthusiast think about ending it because of what it was going to do to him because she knew he loved her. So much, in fact, that the marriage lasted another four years after that conversation. Ultimately their divorce was amicable and a year after the split, it was summer of 2004, deede seemed to be finding her footing once again. She had begun dating a wellknown south bay car salesman named bobby lowe. That new relationship was going so well that on the evening of thursday, july 8th, bobby lowe took deede out to dinner at this restaurant to meet his father. I talked to her before her date. Any sign that she was nervous about anything . She was in a happy state when i talked to her, and we had made plans to hopefully get together the following night so i could get an update on the date. But that conversation never took place. I called her on friday, and she didnt call me back, which was not unusual for deede. I called her on saturday and she didnt call me back. That was pretty typical. But by sunday i started getting concerned. Concerned too was daughter julie. She had talked of meeting her mom that same friday during a layover at l. A. X. As julie headed for cabbo san lucas mexico. She was like i might have an appointment but if i dont, ill text you, well have coffee. I didnt get a text, which was a little odd, but didnt think much of it. Her son, mike, was beginning to worry after he returned from a business trip to the San Francisco area. When i called her cell phone, the voice mail was full and that had never happened with my mom. She prided herself on being responsive. So you go over to your moms house . So i went in the back gate and instantly it was clear that she had not been there for a while. What knemade that clear . The dogs water dish was bone dry. My mom would die of thirst before her dogs went without water. Mikes first call was to cindy. And he said, cindy, wheres my mom . And i just i instantly knew in that moment that something had happened. I just knew, and i just said, michael, call the police, im on my way. Where was deede keller . Not only was there no water left outside for deedes beloved dogs, but detectives noticed lots of other things wrong inside the house. Her purse was there, but her wallet was missing. And this was a woman with money, lots of it. How much money did she have in the bank . I think it was over seven figures. Who got that money in the event of her death . The beneficiaries were her two children. [ female announcer ] safeway presents real big deals of the week. Or how to get great deals the easy way. You do enough flying around. Thats why we give you real big club card deals. This week, load up on your favorite coke products. 12 packs are 2. 77 each. Tide is 16. 99 for 150 ounces. Thats under 20 cents a load. And oikos greek yogurt is just a buck. Real big deals this week and every week. Only at safeway. Ingredients for life. On a sunsplashed sunday in l. A. s south bay, clouds were rolling in over one household. It was july, 2004. El segundo Real Estate Agent, julia keller, known to the world as deede, was missing. Deedes son, mike, had gone to her home when he hadnt heard from her in three days. The biggest red flag, deedes beloved dogs left without food or water. What did you think had happened . I didnt know at that point. I just knew that something was very, very wrong. Mike called his moms best friends, Linda Dondero and cindy ertman. Cindy, who had last spoken to deede three days before as deede prepared for a date rushed to the house. You could tell just the dogs had been running around for days, but the way the tv was on and the way the shades were, i felt like thursday night had never ended. I felt like friday morning never came. Cindy immediately phoned deedes new boyfriend, car salesman bobby lowe. He reported they had had dinner on thursday at a local restaurant and then returned to deedes house for a nightcap. He said she had had a little bit too much wine and she laid down on the couch and was starting to fall off to sleep and so he just said good night and let himself out. Anything about what bobby lowe said sound in any way suspicious to you . Not at all. The next call, to el segundo police, and soon on the seen, then detective sergeant carlos mendoza. This does not happen, especially to people as well known as deede is. And what detectives found in their initial search of deedes home only deepened the mystery. In the kitchen, deedes purse, her cell phone still inside, but no wallet. A vodka bottle that police learned was usually kept in the freezer was out on the counter. And in the living room, the tv was on cnn. We discovered that whenever she left the house, shed always put the tv onto a Classical Music station so it would relax the dogs, but it was on cnn when we came into the house. So deede was watching cnn, had the dogs there, was having a drink and then left for some reason . Suggesting kind of what happened, happened in a big hurry . She didnt have time to do her routine that she usually does before she leaves. And it appeared deede had left in her car. The garage was empty. Her silver 1999 mercedes gone. But strangely, police found the car keys sitting on deedes patio. We decided to call the l. A. Sheriffs Department Homicide bureau to come and assist us. Answering that call, veteran detective jimmy gates. There was no forced entry whatsoever. When we started walking through the house, i noticed several articles that were very valuable. So she let in whoever it was and it wasnt robbery . Absolutely corr if she didnt let them in, that person let themselves in and they may have had a key. Gates wondered, had deede left in her car with someone she knew . And how did her car get taken without its key . If you dont have a key, is it as easy to steal a car as movies depict . Its certainly not 1999 mercedes. Its hard to hotwire it and hard to steal it. You almost need a key to gain access to it. If your car doesnt have a key, the next stop is a car dealership to have a new one made. But first gates and his crew searched the house, looking for deedes spare mercedes key, without success. And gates quickly became convinced of one thing. You thought finding deedes car was going to be the key to this. That was going to be extremely important. Deedes friends and family presented up posters, and along with Law Enforcement launched a massive search. An army of people band together to try to help find her. We broke up into teams and mapped everything out in onemile increments to start to search every parking lot looking for her car. We would ask people have you seen this woman, have you seen this car . It was frantic. It was heartbreaking. And it was leading nowhere. At the same time detective gates wondered who might have had a motive to have ak dubbducted de from her home . The most common of motives, love, money, jealousy, are always the ones police hug first like old friends. Deede made a lot of money being a realtor. She was successful, yes, sir. How much money did she have in the bank . I think it was over seven figures. Seven figures. A lot of murders committed for a lot less than that. Absolutely. Who got that money in the event of her death . The beneficiaries were her two children. And the detective noticed something about the whereabouts of deedes two children, mike and julie, at the time of deedes disappearance. They were both out of town at the time their mother went missing. Why was that significant . Why wouldnt the reverse be true . I thought the mother goes missing and it just so happens that mike is gone at san jose and julie is down at a resort. Its been my experience that sometimes people dissipate stress after they commit a crime in different ways. Some people drij, some people take drugs and some people leave the area just to dissipates. And there was, strangely, one more person who just happened to have been traveling near the time of deedes disappearance. Her exhusband, erwin howard, had just flown to his home country of bolivia. And erwin was a mechanic who worked for American Airlines in l. A. The Common Thread in all these trips, nearby l. A. X. Airport. And so the detective thought what better place to dump a car . L. A. X. Is a big place. Very big place. A lot of parking lots. A lot of parking lots and it took a few days. You looked through them all . Every one of them. No mercedes, and no shortage of persons of interest. A lot of people close to deede keller were about to be hugged like old friends. Coming up, deedes daughter, julie, rushes back from vacation to help find her missing mother. It was the most surreal experience. Never suspecting detectives have questions for her when dateline con in the days after the disappearance of el segundo realtor deede keller, all of l. A. s south bay seemed to be looking for her and for her missing mercedes. Leading the search, her best friend, cindy and linda. A lot of times people disappear. You get the immediate family working on it and then everybody else is like, well not in this town. She had an army. Deedes daughter, julie, rushed back to l. A. From a trip to mexico. It was the most surreal experience. Only to be greeted by suspicion. L. A. Sheriffs detective jimmy gates had discovered that in the event of their mothers death, julie and her brother, mike, stood to inherit more than a million dollars, so he confronted deedes kids, using one of the oldest tricks in the investigators handbook. Do you remember an interview that you did with jimmy gates . I do. In which he asked you some pretty basic questions like, you know, whats your name, where do you live, pretty ordinary stuff. And then all of a sudden he says did you have anything to do with your moms disappearance . I think it was more did you kill your mother. And youre, what, startled or angry . It was a horrible question but i can understand why it needed to be asked. Detectives asked similar questions of julie. Next, in attempting to rule out as suspects those closest to deede, detectives turned their attention to her exhusband, erwin howard. It turned out that although deede and erwin had been divorced for more than a year at the time of her disappearance, friends told police that she had recently invited him back into her life. About six months earlier deede had been in a car accident and as she recovered, she needed help with her dogs. Deede also felt bad about the pain their divorce had caused erwin. She called erwin to help her because thats what he did best. He helped nurse her back to health and help take care of the dogs and the house and her. And in taking a hard look at erwin howard, the detective found that he had a rock solid alibi. On the night of deedes disappearance, july 8th, erwin had clocked into work for his job as an Airline Mechanic at the American Airlines hangar at l. A. X. At 8 30 p. M. He said he worked all night but it wasnt just erwins word, he had to use an electronic key card to get into the hangar. Thats a pretty good alibi. Thats not something that generally the employee can influence. Thats correct. Thats absolutely correct. That left the last person to see deede alive her new boyfriend, car salesman bobby lowe. He said he left her house around midnight that night and had gone to the gym the next morning. What possible motive could bobby lowe have to want deede dead or out of the picture . There was no motive that i could determine whatsoever. And lowe provided investigators with two important clues. First, he said while he was at deedes that night her dogs had all started barking at something outside, as if someone were lurking. And the next morning, he discovered someone had keyed the side of his ford explorer, leaving a long scratch. Which suggests what, somebody is following them on that date . Absolutely. Thats what it meant to me. But who was following deede and bobby . Who was that angry . That act of vandalism pointed away from bobby lowe. I was an investigator for several years, and ive never known anybody to vandalize their own car. That kind of thinking is what would make it a perfect alibi. Sure, sure. If hes sophisticated enough. But his background indicated that he was a wellliked guy, kind of successful himself and didnt have a lot of enemies. And then even as investigators looked at suspects, came the news that all who came deede had at once hoped for and feared. Deedes car had been found, not at l. A. X. , not in l. A. , but two and a half hours down interstate 5 in san diego. That silver mercedes had been parked on this street in downtown san diego for days, earning it several parking tickets. When the local pd ran the plate, it came up as belonging to a missing person. And when the trunk was finally opened, there was a body wrapped in sheets, covered by a blanket, which was itself decorated with dog paws. Deede keller was no longer missing. Police asked to meet with deedes family. It was just a wide range of emotions. There was almost some type of relief that they had found her, because we were starting to think at that point how long could this go on . Hardest days of my life. And one of the hardest days for my children and all of her friends and her family. Deede keller was dead at age 54. An autopsy showed she had been asphyxiated. And the clues that were and were not left in her car were about to take this case back in a familiar direction. Coming up, just days before she was murdered, deede had a visit from a stalker. She said that she was in the shower, kind of pulled her out of the shower and they had this huge altercation. He was calling her every name under the sun. [ male announcer ] more room in economy plus. More comfort, more of what you need. Thats. Built around you friendly. On a downtown street in san diego in july, 2004, deede keller had finally been found, dead in the trunk of her silver mercedes. The car had been the subject of a massive search ever since deede had been discovered missing a week earlier from her home, two hours north in el segundo. Homicide detective jimmy gates, who had always thought finding the car would be the key to finding deede, now gave the mercedes a thorough going over. Fingerprints or dna in the car . There wasnt one fingerprint either on or in that car or was there any partial prints. Nothing. Deedes or anybody elses . Nothing. So what does that say, professional . Someone went to Great Lengths to make damn sure they winter identified through fingerprints, thats for sure. But the killer did leave a clue in the tape wrapped around deedes body. I had never seen tape like that. It appeared to us to be consistent with red duct tape. That started gates in one direction, but he also looked closely at the way deedes body had been placed in that car. Someone took great care to place her in that car, and that indicated to us that someone cared deeply about her. So part of this says professional and part of this says somebody that knew her. Thats exactly correct. But the suspicions that said professional soon fell away in favor of those that said someone who knew her. Not her children, but someone who had reentered deedes life in the months before her death, her exhusband, erwin howard. Did you ever think of erwin as violent or dangerous . No. I never suspected that he would do something physical. But detectives soon learned something had changed in erwin howard in the months before deedes murder. Remember, after a car accident in january, 2004, deede had invited erwin back into her life to help care for her and her dogs. That request had apparently been misinterpreted by erwin. We know he started wearing his wedding ring again. Erwin wanted back in her life, and it sounds to me like on some level she sort of appreciated that part of him that adored her and wanted to take care of her, even if its something that youre not going to be with anymore. Yes. Right. Do you think she made that point clear enough to him . No. She was too nice . Always too nice, and very trusting. And that may be why, investigat