Its only a matter of time. Suddenly, rachael disappeared and a desperate search began. You can see the vastness in all the various places that you could conceal a body. Months went by, the case stalled, then investigators learned that the plot might be bigger and darker than they ever could have guessed. This is a very tantalizing thread that many koss together. Absolutely. Whispers that rachael was the victim of something out of a hitchcock movie, a moment of pure evil. I looked in his face, what i described as satan. And just maybe a second woman in the crosshairs. If the stories were true, then you had married a stranger. Exactly. Im lester holt. And this is dateline. Heres Dennis Murphy with secrets of the snake river. Reporter in country so beautiful as the palouse, the wheat and bean fields running up and down the bumps and hollows of Eastern Washington as far as the eye can see, its hard to imagine anything bad happening out here. But gaze, and listen closely, and sometimes youll uncover secrets in the shadows. Murder and betrayal as close as the stranger sleeping beside you. Here in the city of clarkston, a 40year old single mom was raising her two young sons. She also had two older daughters. Rachael anderson was her name, just 5foot and a bit, and how susie jepson enjoyed her company. We were just friends from the getgo. She was just spunky and fun. She love to laugh. Reporter her grown daughters were out of the house. She was my hero. She was my everything. She just had a really fun spirit about her. Ashley. She raised us, gave us everything we need. Taught us everything we needed to know. Reporter rachael had been married and divorced three times when by the spring of 2009 a new man had entered the picture. She told me that shed met somebody. Theyd gone out on a date. And that she was very impressed because he wanted to have a blessing over the food that he and she thought that was just wonderful. Reporter a publicly christian man with a notorious gangsters last name, Charles Capone. I asked her out for dinner and we went to dinner and we found each other attractive. What made you laugh about her . How she looked at life, everything is to be absorbed. Everybody should have a good time, nobody should fight. Reporter what was going on in her life . I thought she was a brilliant woman. I thought, oh, this womans focused, got direction, awesome. Reporter rachael told her daughters about charles. How devout, kind and handsome he was and successful. He owned a busy Auto Repair Shop up the road a ways in moscow, idaho. He did service on peoples cars for no charge to help, you know, people who didnt have the money in the community. Reporter the new couple were soon regulars at sunday worship. And charles found himself with a new business partner. She started helping me with the shop. She had that office totally changed around and working more efficiently and saving me money in just a matter of, you know, two months. Reporter rachael and charles dove headlong into a whirlwind romance. Introduced in may, they eloped in november. The newlyweds made their home at rachaels place about 30 miles south of charles auto shop. Rachaels sons 6 year old gavin and 10 year old aiden lived with them. We took the kids fishing. Theyd never been fishing before. Shed throw on camo and go hunting with the guys. Reporter but thrill was gone not more than a month after the wedding. The couple went their separate ways. A lonely charles moved into his shop for a while until a friend offered him a place to stay. Separated but their lives remained curiously entwined. Were talking all the time. Were either getting along or were not getting along. We could have one phone call that was, you know, just enjoyable, talking about things that needed to be taken care of. Then have one phone call where were just going at each other. Reporter as winter turned to spring in 2010 rachael and charles did have something to talk about. Strange, unsettling things were happening to rachael. She told her friends someone was stalking her. We were talking late at night, and she got real panicked. And she said, i think theres somebody outside. Reporter and then came a rash of disturbing phone calls, no caller i. D. , disguised voices. Its funny. You just dont get it. Reporter she gave her friend Jennifer Norberg the low down. What kinds of things were going on with her . Phone calls. Distorted voices. Reporter creepy movie kind of stuff . Knowing where shes at in her house, which lights were on. Reporter not just i know where you are. I know the bedroom right now . Umhmm. I know what time you came home last night and what time you left today. Its only a matter of time before we get your cell phone number. Reporter charles meanwhile told rachael he was getting the same kind of disturbing calls. And in april, it got worse. Rachaels vehicle was vandalized more than once, tires slashed, windows broken. Charles volunteered to fix her car, even though they were living apart. He gave her a loaner suv to drive. Rachael was pretty sure who was behind all the scary nonsense, a guy shed gone out with a few times and had developed, she thought, an unhealthy thing about her. Rachael went to the county Sheriffs Office and told her story to captain dan hally. She was extremely frightened. She believed an individual that she had dated for a couple weeks by the name of William Slemp, he was the one stalking and harassing her. Reporter so when rachael left that day, what was the plan . She was essentially going to put together the information she had and then w meet again that friday. Reporter did you see her again, captain . I talked to her on the phone, but i never saw her again. Reporter not long after leaving the Sheriffs Office, rachael applied for a restraining order against William Slemp. It was the weekend, the two boys had visitation with their dads. It wasnt until midmorning the following monday that people began to realize that something had gone very wrong. Rachaels daughter amber got a message that her mom hadnt shown up to work as a medical technician. Totally unlike her . Yeah, i knew immediately that it was bad. Reporter amber got word to sister ashley and they raced to their moms home. When there was no answer tt door, they called police. Captain hally dispatched his lead detective Jackie Nichols. There were several people in the front yard. Rachaels daughters, and they were frantic. I searched the house looking for any type of evidence. Reporter nothing, huh . No. The last time i had seen her she said i think this will end in my death. Where was Rachael Anderson . An allout search is about to set off a string of alarm bells. When we return, the first ominous clues. The vehicle was left unlocked with her purse in plain sight with the keys sitting in plain sight. What woman leaves her purse behind . It was a bad sign. And now, save without settling. Get 2 lines with 10gb of data for just 110. Or 4 lines for just 140. And get a 150 bill credit for each smartphone you switch. Only on verizon. Life lessons with ziploc. Tomorrows science project requires 150 cats eye marbles. If this bag breaks emmas chance of impressing the teacher could slip away. Life needs ziploc. Sc johnson. For very dry skin, you need healing. New vaseline intensive care with microdroplets of vaseline jelly relieves dry skin and moisturizes to heal it in just 5 days. Clinically proven. Thats the healing power of vaseline. Dave, im sorry to interrupt. I gotta take a sick day tomorrow. Dads dont take sick days. Dads take nyquil. The nighttime, sniffling sneezing, coughing, aching fever, bestsleepwithacold medicine. Walgreens knows you dont have time to play around with cold and flu symptoms. Thats why walgreens makes it easy to find relief fast with Solutions Like nyquil. At the corner of happy and healthy. Rachael andersons loved ones were filled with dread when she failed to turn up for her job as a medical technician that monday morning in 2010. She would have never left her children. She would not have left her sons, not for a minute, not for a day. Reporter investigators had a few bare facts to work with. They knew rachael had canceled that friday meeting with Asotin County sheriffs captain dan haley about the stalking incidents. Detectives could find no atm or cell phone activity since a voice mail rachael left at 8 09 friday night. That meant rachael had been off the grid nearly three days. I knew there was something very, very wrong. Reporter youd swung into action . I had about a thousand flyers printed at staples. Reporter monday afternoon Law Enforcement pinged rachaels cell phone and got a weak echo just across the snake river from her home. We got a lot of people out into that field that night. Also used a bloodhound to do a live search. We were looking in trash bags and tarps and under bushes. We searched all night. By the time i got home my knees were bloody and my hands. Reporter the search was futile. Early the next day, tuesday, captain hally formed a regional missing person task force. So whats on your white board . Whats on your agenda . William slemp. Reporter the former boyfriend. Boyfriend, exhusbands. Family. There had been a neighbor that lived across the street from rachael that had some suspicious behaviors. Hed ask rachael out on a date and shed turned him down. And then he left town very abruptly. I mean thats certainly suspect. Were checking hospitals, travel information. We checked every bus ticket that was sold that weekend. Reporter an early lead may have come when rachael talked to sheriffs captain dan hally the week before. She told him that day she was terrified of the slemp guy messing with her, but the captain had a different stalking suspect in mind after rachael told him she was divorcing charles. So an early stop for investigators was charles shop. So whos the guy you met . Easy going, you know, he was very cordial. Hes being cooperative. Didnt have anything to hide what was i gooding to hide . Here he comes, come on in. Reporter charles assured police he had nothing to do with the stalking or damaging of her car. Youre not vanlizing the vehicle, youre in the scary walking her house . Absolutely not. Reporter did you slash her tires . Absolutely not. Reporter he told the cops he was helping rachael get to the bottom of the harassment. He said the estranged couple together went out looking for the obsessed exboyfriend to sort him out. She tells me about him and we go driving over to his house because theres a pay phone right near his house thats one of the pay phones that was making phone calls to her. Reporter you thought shem slemp was the stalker . I thought he was still involved with her because he had this huge crush on rachael. He tell meese hes being the helpful guy and trying to help her figure out who is stalking her. Reporter charles went on to tell investigators he hadnt seen rachael since friday night when she stopped by to pick up her car. It wasnt ready. She was upset because hes working on her car. Reporter charles said rachael then left to buy a computer. She conned find what she wanted but returned with a six pack. They drank a few of the beers and she left. Whats the picture coming together for you . Im trying to keep all options open. Because i was concerned that she might have been impaired and driven off the road. Reporter a benign explanation to why shes gone missing. Right. Reporter but that was doused when they found her suv at a store that doubled as a bus station not far from her house. The vehicle was left unlocked with her purse in plain sight with the keys in plain sight. Reporter what woman leaves her purse behind . It was a bad sign. Reporter and the detectives had to consider another scenario. Had pretty 54 rachael 120 pounds soaking wet offered an easy target for an abduction by stranger unknown . While detectives were doing their official thing, rachaels loved ones were widening their increasingly desperate search all across the palouse. We were putting up flyers from here to colfax, east, west, north, south, we were out every available minute. Reporter it was as though the palouse had just swallowed her up. Coming up finally a break, police learn there was somebody else with Charles Capone the night rachael disappeared, but something doesnt add up. He provided a timeline for that evening, and it was different than Charles Capones timeline. When dateline continues. Thank you guys our tent is falling. You got it . We need nails. Anncr with just five minutes prep, campbells oven sauces help you cook a real dinner right in the middle of real life. Reporter Rachael Anderson, a mother of four, had vanished, and it was the job of captain dan hally and the missing Persons Task Force to find out what had happened to her. Rachael has not hopped a bus. No. Reporter shes not in anybodys emergency room . No. Thats correct. Reporter you suspect foul play. The investigators started working their way through a list of suspects, starting with the men who wanted to be in rachaels life. There was the neighbor who tried to take her out and been turned down. He had an alibi. That left the old boyfriend named slemp, the one rachael said she was afraid of, but he could account for his whereabouts when rachael went missing. The former boyfriend was not playing out . Correct, yeah. Reporter you had to follow all those leads . Absolutely. As these threads started, we would follow them as we could, but Charles Capone was the one that never was a dead end. Reporter captain dan hally had been suspicious of charles ever since rachael stopped by to make a stalking complaint about the exboyfriend, but that same day rachael had also told the captain she was in the midst of divorcing Charles Capone. The grounds . She said he tried to choke her. That was a huge red flag. Captain hally advised her to get a restraining order right away against her estranged husband. Rachael didnt want to hear that. She was agitated because im telling her that your soon to be ex charles is doing this, not slemp. Reporter two days later the captains phone rang. She called me and she told me that she was going to see charles that night, she was going out to tell him that they were done. Reporter what did you tell her . I told her dont go. I said hes dangerous. Do not go up there. Reporter charles account of that night was looking sketchy. The cops suspicions grew after charles decided to stop cooperating. They suggest maybe you should go downtown. You dont do that. I talked to my attorney. He said have them contact me if you have any more questions. You dont have to go down there. Reporter the car mechanic had a secret he knew the police would uncover. It turned out that the publicly pious pray over his pancakes christian had a past that rachael and her family knew nothing about. A back story that included prison time for bank robbery and assault. But the onetime felon had apparently changed. Im going and doing everything that a normal person does because i always feel like, okay, i paid my debt, let me go and move on and do something good and constructive. Reporter youre paying your taxes, mowing the lawn. Nice to be able to walk around with your head up. Reporter the cops werent so sure and were now chasing down his friends, including his good pal david stone, a married High School Baseball coach and employee at the moscow idaho mains department. To the investigators astonishment david volunteered that hed been hanging out with charles and rachael at the missing. Thats absolutely reporter you got another guy with information. Someone with information immediately raises the question, why didnt Charles Capone ever mention david stone to me during the entire time i interviewed him . Reporter three days after rachael was reported missing, the Task Force Detectives sat david stone down and grilled him. He provided a timeline for that evening, and it was different than Charles Capones timeline. Reporte the husbands friend told the cops rachael came by the shop about 5 00 p. M. And waited for charles to finish her car. David stone says he then left to get some food at an a w and when he got back to the garage around 8 00, rachael was gone. Stone said he drove charles to the local bar, swung by his home for a while, then went out later to pick up charles at the bar. Many of the investigators knew david stone and his wife alisa. She worked in Moscow City Hall as a grants writer. Personality, character . Someone that was very caring, was a really good stepdad, was on the volunteer fire department. Reporter Charles Capone, were they friends . Yes. Reporter did you know rachael . I only from church. Reporter alisa knew her husband was at the garage that friday night and said nothing seemed amiss. What did he say was going on . He dropped charles off at mingles and there had been some interaction with rachael that wasnt happy and charles said he wanted to have a drink and he dropped him off and he was going to go back and pick him up and hed be home. Reporter intriguing perhaps but the two friends mismatched stories did nothing to advance the cops case. With rachael still missing, there was no evidence an actual crime had even occurred. All they had were their suspicions about david stone and Charles Capone. So now you got two different versions. Two different versions. They were supposedly together but theyre telling two different stories. Reporter tangled somewhere in the differing accounts, the cops thought, there must be a buried clue about what had happened to rachael. Meantime, her heartbroken daughters did what they could to fill the awful hours. Organizing searches, building a web page and pressuring the police. We searched ditches, we searched, gosh, abandoned buildings, we searched yeah, we plut flyers in towns so that somebody would see her passing through. Their mom meant so much to them. And they did not want this to just become another cold case. Reporter the investigation was heading that way until the detectives revisited an early lead. A nefarious scheme, if true, hard to believe that something as evil as that could happen in the palouse. This is a very tantalizing thread that comes together. This is stuff of the movies . Absolutely. Coming up the case is about to go in an unthinkable direction. With the