Face of the earth. Reporter a baffling disappearance. Where was he . My dad is not just a missing person, he has three sons, he has a wife. I was very afraid that something terrible was wrong. And i got scared. Reporter the clues, a missing mercedes. A handprint in blood. And a Musical Chairs of secret affairs. We have multiple love affairs . Yes. Theres more women, theres more lovers involved in this whole thing. Reporter was this beauty hiding something deadly . I wanted to get away. I was scared. Reporter how would this hollywood story end . I was in fear for my familys life im too young to lose my dad like who are these people . Reporter dark valley. Hello and welcome to dateline extra. Im craig melvin. Success seemed to find davin smith. A star athlete in college and then an actor turned hollywood movie executive who always made time for his adoring kids. So when gavin vanished his loved ones were at a loss. At first investigators were, too. Unsure if he up and 4re679 or if gavin was a victim of foul play. Soon his wife revealed that the missing father held dark secrets, and all was not as sunny as it might have appeared. Heres Keith Morrison. Reporter there is a kind of peace here. Here in her own chosen exile. The vast pacific for company. How else to live with whats impossible to understand or forget. What began that Sunny Afternoon far away in southern californias san fernando valley, early may 2012. Something was really wrong, but a lot more wrong than i could imagine. Reporter it was the boy who knew it first, knew something was wrong. His dad was supposed to take him to school that morning. But after school i was to go to the school and pick him up after basketball practice. When i showed up, he said, daddy didnt pick me up this morning. And i said, what . He said, daddy didnt show up this morning. Reporter it can happen. Busy families. People forget. The boy got to school some other way. He said he called a friend from around the corner. Reporter or sometimes things fall apart. The situation sounded too crazy. Love affairs, love triangles, drug dealers, it just sounded too outlandish. Reporter once those stable, loving pieces have flown apart, how do they come together again . Somebody is going to walk away from this who maybe you wish wasnt going to walk away. Exactly. How do people sleep at night . How do they live with themselves . Reporter but that afternoon lisa smith knew instantly, something must be wrong. Her husband gavin was a dedicated father. Nothing that would keep him from picking up his kid ever. Reporter because gavin was so good at these things, said his sister tara addeo, he was so impressive, so tall. You both got the tall gene, right . We did. Whole family. Whole family. Reporter gavin was the tallest, 66. He walked in a room, you noticed him. You wanted to gravitate to him. He was a magnet. Reporter he played basketball for legendary coach john wooden, ucla, 1975. He was a forward. It was woodens final championship team. Just to be on that team was pretty fantastic, it was a once in a lifetime. Reporter and then he drifted a bit. Worked as a golf caddie and this being los angeles, and he a goodlooking, towering athlete. People noticed him, movie people. They gave him a couple of roles. And he got the bug. Reporter the acting bug. First as a body double back on the Basketball Court in the movie inside moves and then as a bartender in cobb. Congrats, al four pieces in National Magazines this month. Reporter when he met lisa, he was acting, but also waiting tables. He twinkled. He was just charming. I was thrilled that he asked me for my number. Reporter they married. Had three sons together. And with a growing family to support, gavin gave up acting and took a job on the business side at Twentieth Century fox, eventually as a Film Distribution executive. Fox is a Wonderful Company to work for, and he loved it. It was film. Reporter first place lisa called when gavin failed to pick up their son. Was he at work that day . They told me he just hadnt shown up to work. Gavin, in 18 years had never ever not shown up to work. Reporter so then lisa, very worried now, went to the lost hills sheriff station to report gavin missing and waited and waited. Days later, gavins family went on nbc4 in los angeles to plead for help. Im not going to stop until i find him, so please help me find him. If you guys just want to each pick up one of these streets. Now im in panic mode. Weve got to do something. What did that feel like being in that spot . Oh, it was surreal. Reporter the smith family put together a 20,000 reward for any information leading to gavins whereabouts. Nothing turned up. And i would think with every hour that went by, it would be more and more dire and darker for you, right . Its very dark. Its very, very dark. Reporter it wasnt just the family having dark thoughts. They dont normally call a couple of seasoned homicide detectives to look into a missing persons case. They do when there are some suspicious circumstances. Reporter and in this case, they called in sheriff detectives ty labbe and his partner john obrien. His phone was missing. There was no use of it. We checked his Bank Accounts from the time that he was missing. We checked his medical insurance to see if he had checked himself into a hospital. That never showed any activity. He was completely dropped off the face of the earth. Reporter but then, out of nowhere, a sighting. Hundreds of miles north of los angeles, a businessman visiting californias Central Coast said he saw gavin smith and a beautiful woman at a cashonly taco restaurant in morro bay. I happened to click on the link, saw the photo, and i said, oh, boy reporter the waitress corroborated the story. He was sitting here, she was sitting right here. Reporter gavins sister tara raced up the coast to the restaurant. And i said, heres my brothers picture. Did you see him . And . No. That was truly heartbreaking to me. Reporter it was all a big mistake. But it wasnt the last of the sightings. People seemed to see gavin smith everywhere. Because he kind of stands out in the photo, you know, big, white smile, tan face, tall guy, pretty much every tall, tan, blondehaired man was getting spotted as being gavin smith. Reporter weeks, months passed. No sign of gavin. And with no answers, lisa was forced to reveal something publicly, something painful and maybe crucial. Coming up what happened to gavin smith . It didnt make sense to me. Its so i just kept no. It cant be. It cant be. Said i think this is suicide and then we go i think this is a murder. Our gut instincts were going different ways. I wondered if she had something to do with this. It crossed our minds all the time. Somehow, it kept playing back, why wont you search . Why . When dark valley continues. Frustrated that clean clothes you want to wear always seem to need an iron . Next time try bounce wrinkle guard dryer sheets. Just toss it in the dryer to bounce out wrinkles. We dried these shorts with bounce wrinkle guard, and a pair without. The bounce wrinkle guard shorts have fewer wrinkles and static, and more softness. Its the worlds first mega sheet that does the job of three dryer sheets. It also comes in unscented. If you dont love bounce wrinkle guard, well give you your money back. Welcome back to dateline extra. Gavin smiths family was distraught after the 57yearold larger than life dad vanished. How could the hard to miss 66 disappear . Detectives were about to discover secrets. Gavin had a troubled part. Continuing our story, heres Keith Morrison. Reporter gavin smith, as just about anybody could see, was his familys golden boy. His sister tara grew up in his aura, idolized him. He, of all people, should not just up and vanish. It didnt make sense to me. And so i just kept, no, it cant be. It cant be. I just kept hoping. I did everything i could. Reporter but even as she ran down leads herself, it seemed to tara that lisa, her sisterinlaw, gavins wife, wasnt searching. So he disappeared, and you couldnt give up on the possibility he was out there somewhere and lisa could. And i wondered whether there were ever sort of dark nights to your soul where you thought i wondered if she had something to do with this. It crossed our minds all the time. It just did. I mean, did i think that she could ever be the one responsible, the physical . No. But somehow it kept playing back, why wont you search. Why . The only way somebody doesnt look for you is if you already know definitively yeah. Theyre no longer living. And you must have a reason for knowing that. Thats what i would assume. Reporter and it turned out lisa did know something, just not what tara suspected. There were secrets, which lisa and gavin kept hidden. I was the love of gavins life. He adored me. Our family was exactly what he wanted to have. He just got lost. Reporter lost. It all started in the early 80s, even before she met gavin, when he was a stuntman on the tv series remington steele. He played a shooting victim falling from a second story window. The stunt went wrong, and he broke his back. He would get pain pills for his back. So usually percocet, Something Like that for pain. When that didnt work anymore, he was prescribed oxycontin, and he was addicted to it. Reporter he went to a Drug Rehab Center called the Matrix Institute here in the san fernando valley. He clearly stopped using. He was feeling healthier than he had felt in years. Reporter but when detectives john obrien and ty labbe learned about gavins addiction, they had to consider a raft of new possibilities. He disappeared. Maybe he overdosed. We didnt exactly have any of those answers. Driving all over the valley, we would have moments in the car of where we looked at each other and said, i think this is a suicide. And then an hour later, wed interview somebody or something would happen, and wed go, i think this is a murder. And our feelings and our gut instincts were going different ways very early on very fast. Yeah. Its got to be pretty unusual though . It was very confusing. Reporter confusing for lisa too, because here was another secret, the smiths were underwater on their mortgage. On the verge of losing their home. We were in a horrible position financially. Reporter lisa discovered that before he disappeared, gavin had been taking money from his retirement account and recklessly blowing through his sixfigure salary. And there were other signs of strain in the family. In april 2012, a month before gavin disappeared, his son evan wrote this message on twitter. Thoughts and prayers out to my amazing mom and brothers, please. My dad decided to leave the family last night. Real family sticks together. Sister tara spoke with gavin at the time. He was struggling with losing what he had come to know and love for so many years, and that was his family unit. Uhhuh. And he didnt want to hurt those boys. And thats what he kept saying, i dont want to be without them. Reporter but as much as he loved his boys, detectives learned, gavin had been unfaithful to his wife, had been seeing a woman named melanie, and now that gavin had disappeared without a trace we went to talk to her and to see if she had any information. Did she . No. The relationship had ended, and she had not talked to him, and she had no idea where he was at. Reporter but though melanie was the reason gavin moved out of his house a month before he vanished, she was not his first affair. There had also been a woman named chandy. That relationship was years in the past, but phone records showed gavin called her on may 1st, the day before he disappeared. Cops tracked her down, too. What did she tell you . She acknowledged the prior affair, and she said that she had not been in contact with him for some time, but then they started communicating via email. And that would explain the fact that he called her on the phone . Yes. Reporter but chandy said she didnt see him may 1st, hadnt heard from him since. Last sighting . A colleague saw him driving his black mercedes. We felt that the vehicle was still out there somewhere. Reporter so find the car, and maybe find out what happened to gavin. And nine months after gavin vanished, they finally got the break they were looking for. I said, im here to talk to you about your daughter. And he started crying. And he said, she saw everything. Reporter coming up. We waited until she showed up and kind of surprised her. Very nervous. Startled. A new witness and a game changer of a clue. I kissed my partner on the cheek. It was pretty exciting. Big piece of evidence. Huge moment. You think you cant be shocked. But you can be. When dark valley continues. Everything your trip needs for everyone you love. Expedia. For everyone you love. Us lives here. Where we can be surprised by others. And ourselves. For a better us, donate to your local y today. Welcome back. As california investigators tried to make sense of gavin smiths mysterious disappearance they learned that gavin had troubles he kept hidden. The man who seemed to have it all struggled with adridiction d serious financial problems. Detectives were far from answers, but that would change when someone gave them a name that led to a crucial discovery. Heres Keith Morrison with more. Reporter like it or not its a fact, an element of human nature. Some people have affairs. Some of them just flings and others a lot. As they poked through his life. One name kept popping up. Chandy. Her full name, Chandrika Creech. Shed already told the detectives that she and gavin had an affair years earlier. And that he called her right before he vanished. But now, nine months after gavin disappeared, the detectives got a tip. Her father knew more. Chandys dad started telling a tale about something his daughter may have seen, and he was distraught and wanted to talk about it. And he said, well, you know reina . I go, yeah, i know the name. Reporter reina lim. She lived with chandy. She took care of chandys grandmother. Chandys dad said reina knew something, something important. And he goes, i think she knows where the car is. Reporter the elusive mercedes. Detective labbe and his partner john obrien drove out to see reina. We just waited till she showed up, and we kind of surprised her. Thats what you guys do, right . You know sometimes it works better that way, yeah. She was very nervous and startled and wasnt quite sure what to do. But ultimately she provided us with the paperwork for the storage locker. Reporter reinas storage locker. It was a kbig one. 10 feet by 20. We rolled the door up and the only thing in it was a black Mercedes Benz with no license plates on it. Wow. Huge moment. Reporter a black mercedes sedan. Had to be gavin smiths. I kissed my partner on the cheek. Thats a true story. It was a big piece of evidence. And we were able to get closer and able to see that our entire crime scene, in our opinion, was inside that car. Reporter crime scene . Yes. Suddenly all other theories seemed to fall away. The passengers seat was completely covered in blood. And at one point it was very eerie when you looked at the blood and you could see a handmark of gavin smith as he died in that seat. Reporter soon the news reached gavins family. Tara was devastated. Theres no going back from that. There is no going back. You accepted it . You know, youre forced. You know, trauma happens to people all the time. You dont think its going to happen to you, but it does. You know when you already expect the worst, you think that you cant be shocked, but you can be is all i can say about that. Reporter but if gavin was dead, and certainly it looked that way, where was his body . How did his car wind up in the storage locker . And above all, who would have wanted him dead . Reina lim certainly seemed an unlikely suspect. She told them she had rented the storage unit for someone else. Meanwhile, detectives looked further into chandys affair with gavin and discovered the two had met in rehab and in december 2010, less than two years before gavin disappeared. Lisa found out about it. I was heartbroken. Reporter so she took an extreme step to save her family. She and two of her sons, then 14 and 20, went to the creechs house to speak to them, family to family. And i was really upset when we were driving there. So i stayed in the car, and i let my sons go in the house. Reporter but they didnt meet chandy in there. They met her husband. His name was john, john creech. Not pleasant. When they came out, they were both crying. Reporter they told their mom creech threatened to kill gavin if he didnt stay away from chandy. So 17 months later, he vanishes after calling chandy . Lisa had a very bad feeling. Everything changed right then for me. Reporter detectives were suspicious too. Remember, chandy told them she didnt see gavin that night. But there was evidence to the contrary. Cell phone records showed that gavins phone and chandys were in the same place that night. A little triangulation narrowed down just where. We came upon this street here. And we thought this was a good spot. This was a likely spot. Yeah. Reporter a likely spot for a tryst, that is. Met for sex or confident or something. Quite a lot to learn from those phone records, but there was more. A third phone. John creechs phone. In the same spot, on the same night. And this was eerie, creechs phone seemed to be moving in sync with gavins. John creechs phone and gavin smiths phone paralleled each other. Together together. Together. Sometimes hitting off the exact same towers or parallel towers. Wow. What was that like . That was an eyeopening moment. Reporter but when they interviewed john creech. He denied ever meeting gavin smith. He said he knew who he was, that he was having an affair with his wife in the past. Reporter so, despite their suspicions, there was not much police could do because one thing we didnt have was gavin smith. Reporter that is, they had no body. No way to prove who killed gavin or that there was a murder at all. That is, until a dog named buddy went for a walk. A reallife dog detective who make as deadly discovery on a deserted trail. Coming up and he just looking at the bush. So we go up there, and were looking, and its like, wow. What is that looks pretty strange. And a young woman suddenly finds herself in the middle of this mystery. I discovered he had scraped on his hands and on his arms. When dark valley continues. Whats going on . Oh, darn let me help. Here we go. Lift and push and push there. Its up there. Oh, boy. Hey joshie. Wrinkles send the wrong message. Help prevent them before they start with new downy wrinkleguard. Hey bud. Hey, pop pop so you wont get caught with wrinkles again. I felt awful. Because of my psoriasis. I was covered from. Head to toe with it. I was afraid. To show my skin. Every time i moved my arm. My skin cracked and bled. It really hurt. Then i started