Scared. Yes. Nobody to say what that was . Right. What had happened to this Beautiful Army sergeant . That question would launch a spell binding mystery. There were a number of potential suspects, absolutely. Was a killer out there . Il she was in danger. Could police catch him . They would hatch a plan of virtual jean. One of the detectives said, youre not going to believe this. Welcome. Mary bell was a fighter and joining the army and doing two tours oversea before returning to civilian life but even her military experience would not be enough to prepare her for the evil she battled back home. Here is josh with mystery in Orange County. Reporter orangey. County, california. On tv its a place of sun, fun, and privilege. Its where the real housewives first aired their dirty laundry. Its where the kid from the oc showed us all what temperature cool really was. Around here r you get the sense that everyone is rich and white and lives in a mansion with a view of the pacific. But step back from the coast and youll see the Orange County that isnt on tv. Not as wealthy. Not as white. Full of those who came here from somewhere else. Chasingom a better life and finding it play like santa ana. Its the place where people know they have to work hard to survive. Mary bell left mexico behind and came here as a baby and would not only survive here but thrive. This story is going to end differently. There are some parts of life that hard work just cant fix. A. Some things are beyond our control. All of this should have never reached that point of no return. So maybe its a story of simple bad luck of two lives that should never have come together. Tell me about growing up with maribel. What was she like . Troublemaker. Mom wanted to her stay at home andhe she wanted to go play baseball. Reporter tomboy . R yes. Reporter her sister says maribel had a spark. She would come in and introduce herself to everybody . Easy to talk to. Reporter did you see boys independence in her . Oh, definitely. Reporter from an early age . E from an early age. Reporter that never ended, did it. No. Reporter the little sister said her mother worked two jobs to make ends meet. You were how much younger . Sevenun years younger. Reporter yet even as a child, maribel figured out a different world existed and she wanted to liveen there. Oh, she knew at a young age that there was a lot more to life than what we had around us. Theres things you can do and go to school and have opportunities and live in a nicer house. Reporter she saw all of that . Yeah, yeah, definitely. Reporter Maribel Ramos knew she had to work hard. She worked as security at kmart and would like to be a cop but she needed a College Degree and that meant money so she became private first class ramos. She joined the army hoping to use the g. I. Bill. Her first day was august 8th, 2001 and 34 days later, the whole world changed. Wege all sort of recoiled in horror but you probably also thoughtal that is going to effe my sister . Yes. I turn on the tv and the towers are crumbling. First thing i thought was, oh, my ghgosh, my sister is going t war. Reporter lucy worried. Their mother worried. Maribel was like a rock. What did she say about going oversea . She didnt express her feelings about it. She justfe said, well, this is what is happening, sister, we need to talk to mom. Reporter lkmaribel went to r in iraq. What was it like to see her in uniform . It was pretty mega. Reporter gisele sandhouse is her niece. Sometimes i would say, whoa, youre going out there like to save everybody. Reporter you were proud of her . Yeah. Reporter maribel learned to jump out of airplanes and man the guns for armed convoy and saw more than her share of combat. She also made sergeant and when her tour in iraq ended she reenlisted fornd another. She seemed fearless. She could have easily become a casualty . Yes. And other people did die, other friend of hers. Reporter after two tours in iraq in 2009, maribel left the army and set plan two of her plan in action and went to college but adjusting back to civilian life was not as easy as she expected. Like a lot of war veterans she suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder or pstd. She had seen some terrible things. Did she ever talk about that . Not with me. Reporter winstead, she focused on school, work, and family, especially her niece gisele. She kind of adopted you as this project . Yeah. Reporter now why did she do that . I think it was because she wanted me to have the best. Reporter as gisele grew older, the selfimprovement message sometimes came completely with pushup. After all, maribel was all army. When i would get in trouble, she would make me do exercise in order to like work off the punishment. Reporter all this time, maribel was hammering away at gisele youre going to finish school and study hard and have a career . Yes. That is what youre going to do and she would tell her. Okay, gisele . Yes, dia. Reporter maridel got a dog and rented an apartment in orange where she shared with a roommate a quite chemist who also had a dog. I thought a perfect match. He has a dog, he is she has a dog and he seems quiet and wont have all of these people coming over. Reporter e by may of 2018 everything seemed great and she finished up her College Degree and gisele was following in her strong footsteps. She was dropping off money at my house because i had gotten good grade and she had just got her hair done, dyed, and styled because for her graduation. Reporter she looked great . Yeah. Reporter she was happy . Yeah, she was. Reporter and that is why it made no sense when just days later, Maribel Ramos, soldier, student, loving aunt, simply disappeared. Coming up, what happened to Maribel Ramos . Nobody heard from her. Nobody. Nobody heard from her. Nobody. Lets be honest, you need insurance. 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Everything you ever wanted to hear. I signed up for getting a credit every month, and i started exploring books that i normally wouldnt read. Our ability to empathize through these stories, with these stories, can be transformational. Its my own thing that i can do for me. See what listening to audible can do for you. Just text listen5 to 500500. May 3rd, 2013 was a friday, a day that should have been an easy day for Maribel Ramos. School was nearly over. Graduation was so close. But that morning, things werent right. I got a text from casey at 10 00 a. M. And he said your sister didnt come home. They had been roommates more than a year now. Casey felt protective of maribell. She didnt come home last night. I text her at 11 00 and i said, happy friday. We usually text each other any ways. That was my way of connecting. She didnt text me back. Reporter unusual . Yes. Reporter lucy still wasnt worried. She knew her combat hardened sister could take care of herself but then evening came and for maribell friday night was softball night. She loved to play and never missed a game. But this friday night, she didnt show. Now lucys phone was ringing. Maribel teammates on the line. They had go to the house and police are there and dont take gisele. I freak out and i walk in and my sister is not there. Her door is open and her lights are on and her bed is undone. My head started spinning. Everything was horrible and i felt it. Reporter detective joey ramirez with the Orange Police department got the call that evening. He also had a bad feeling about everything. It sound like you were taking this pretty seriously from the getgo . Absolutely. Reporter why couldnt she be off or with other friend and maybe she lost her phone and forgot to call . That was our help but the family and friend expressed she was very responsible. Reporter and nobody heard from her . Nobody. Reporter so ramirez and his team went into action. They quickly figured out that if she left on her own accord, it didnt look like maribel had planned to be out long. She left her car home . Her car was there. Her keys were gone. Her phone was gone. Reporter but her toothbrush was there, so was her big purse she used when she had a lot to carry. Casey returned home hours after police first got there. He again, told the cops what he had told them that morning, that maribel was missing. Lucy and the Softball Team went to the Police Station hoping for answers and there werent any. To lucy decided to stop waiting and make her own luck. I woke up on saturday and i thought this is seriously happened so i posted a picture of her on facebook and it was immediate. People went into action. Reporter friends from the University Got together. Family members. Her roommate. Lots of people who maribel had touched wanted to help and they hung flyers in english and spanish and they reached out to reporters. Very not like her after eight years of service in the army to disappear. Unusual thing next day friday morning she was not mere. I helped my mom pass out flyers around school. Pretty much anything i could do. Reporter did you think they would find her . Yes, i did. Reporter gisele was 14 at the time. But detective ramirez, who has been a cop for more years than gisele has been alive, was not as hopeful. She is not using her cell phone and not taking any money out. No one has heard from her. When youve picked up no trace for her after a couple of days, do you think youre still looking for a living person . The percentages are starting to drop. Not in her favor. Reporter because by then youve called all hospitals . All hospitals. Jails. Reporter there is an alert out that any police officer, what, in Southern California sees her . Correct. And the media was also helping. Reporter and nothing . Nothing. Reporter no maribel on security tape from any nearby store. Police checked all of them. They found only this image from the Security Camera outside the Managers Office for her apartment complex. Its maribel paying the rent. Its may 2nd at 8 18 p. M. , the night before anyone realized she had disappeared. Maribel seems to be alone. What the cops needed to do was to you to everyone who was anyone in her life. Turns out there were a lot of people they suddenly needed to get to know, including a current boyfriend, an exboyfriend, and someone maribel had just met. A guy she had made a date with online. A guy who name maribel had apparently kept completely to herself. Coming up, that phone call. Reporter something had happened . Yes. When dateline continues. Ds im just a normal person who got an awful skin condition. With uncontrolled moderatetosevere eczema, or atopic dermatitis, you feel like youre itching all the time. 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Got some layers in there, huh . The more, the merrier. Got to have this stuff in the morning. Oh, thats too hot. Act your age. Get your own insurance company. Carlo, why dont you start us with a little bit of cereal . You can spread it all around the table. And were gonna split the warm hot dog. And ill have a glass of grape juice to spill on the carpet. Oh, uh, do you want some to spill . Act your age. Get your own insurance company. This is the city of orange, california, in the county of orange, california. Much of it is a small town stuck in time. There is a university, a zoo, cute local businesses. And a Police Department that doesnt have to deal with a lot of violent crime. After all, the happiest place on earth is just down the street. But in may 2013, detective joey ramirez was far from happy. He had a lot of ground to cover and a strong sense that time was against him as he tried to figure out what had happened to Maribel Ramos. She just vanish . Gentlemen. Reporter how often does that kind of think hang . It doesnt happen often. Reporter ramirez started by investigating the man in her life and it turned out there were a few of them. Did you know she was doing all of that Online Dating . Did she talk about that . Reporter yeah, she did. Sometimes they met guys through a website called plenty of fish and how she found paul lopez. They had been waiting a few months and paul had even joined her weekly softball game. Lopez was the last person maribel talked to on the phone and now Police Wanted to talk to him. Youre not under arrest. I wouldnt think so. Reporter ramirez sat across from paul and asked about his relationship with maribel. He asked lopez where he was on the night maribel disappeared. Did you come into orange on thursday . No. Reporter police had to consider this. Maribel told lucy things were not working out with paul. She was on online talking to people. Reporter maribel was back on plenty of fish and back online and was dating a guy from the military. How would she describe that guy . She had i met someone very interesting and we have a lot in common. Reporter i thought good . I thought great. Reporter they planned a date for cinco de mayo, about two dates before that date was to happen maribel vanished so police talked to that man and made a recording of the conversation. So ed, any way. There was also an exboyfriend who had been calling. Police needed to check him out. And there was this lead. There was a person at cal statefullerton that was in the Veterans Association with her that had given her a bad feeling. He may have wanted to pursue some sort of dating relationship. Reporter but it gave her a bad feeling. How . She wasnt interested and she didnt give him any attention, yet he didnt go away. Reporter so he made her feel uncomfortable . Correct. Reporter and by now, detective ramirez had learned something else. Just a little over a week before she vanished, Maribel Ramos had called 911. She wanted it on the record and wanted police to know she was very afraid of someone. She might have been afraid but this army strong woman who had always taken care of herself feared she might be the one putting the hurt on her attacker. Something happened to make her pretty scared . Yes. Reporter nothing on call to say what that was . Right. Reporter what she was she afraid of . Not clear. Who was she afraid of . That was another story entirely. Coming up. You were doing your own surveillance . Yes. Did her roommate know something that police didnt . When dateline continues. Didnt when dateline continues. Beep goes off ] now that you have new dr. Scholls massaging gel advanced insoles with softer, bouncier gel waves, youll move over 10 more than before. Dr. Scholls. Born to move. Keith used to be great to roadtrip with. But since he bought his house. Are you going 45 . Uh, yes. 55 is a suggestion. 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The mayor of new york city tweeted about unsuccessful Immigration Enforcement action in saturday. The raid were postponed three weeks ago and scheduled to begin saturday. Now back to dateline. Welcome back. Im craig melvin. Maribel was putting her way through college but days before cher graduation, she vanished. She called police to say she was in danger and her life was in danger and what was it or who was it that had her so concerned . Reporter by now, posters blanketed the city of orange. Maribel ramos was missing and her family was frantic. As soon as i got a call she didnt show up to her baseball game i got the worst feeling in the world. Reporter putting himself out there with all of the rest was maribels roommate casey joy. She is the only family i have. She is my best friend and want her to come back. Thats all. Reporter casey had moved from southern tennessee to california for a job and had no family and few friend here so he turned to maribel and she was happy to include him. She even arranged for casey to tutor her niece in math. He seemed nice, respectful. He liked to be involved with the family and my aunt.