Reach other on the phone and when her cousin diane heard that she was a no-show, she had right over to heather s house in germantown where she saw an encouraging sign. there is relief when i saw a car in the driveway because i thought she was there and i thought oh she s sick. tampa how there was probably just sleeping. knocking, knocking, knocking please answer the door. but no answer. alarmed, she called heather s mother to bring over a key. soon, germantown police arrived in open the door and when in first. they say she s not in there. they say nothing looks disturbed. is that a relief in any way? that she s not in there? no. it was terrifying. something is very much wrong. it was now a missing persons case. detective tony kemp took the lead and did his own walk through of the house. did you find any signs of something that might have happened in the house? no. i did not see any weapons. i did not see any blood or
And there it was. a profile with a last name attached. what was that name? edward police dialed a phone number, and he said that he lived 500 miles away in eastern tennessee and agreed to make the eight-hour drive to germantown to be interviewed. detectives wondered, had he made the trip once that week to take heather away, most importantly, could he tell them where she was now? just because you got somebody living 500 miles away, does that mean that they didn t have everything to do with the disappearance. police recorded ed ellerson s interview, during questioning, ed made a potentially important admission. i love her to death. i would do anything for her when the detectives asked me, who would she call if she wanted to disappear? me, i d be here in however many hours it took me today. but he insisted, heather never made that call and there was more. ed told detectives he was
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Best friend melissa smith knew heather wasn t about to be sidelined by a little sniffle. there was no excuse for her not to be there. reporter: school officials couldn t reach heather on the phone, and when her cousin diane heard she was a no-show, she headed right over to heather s house in germantown where she saw an encouraging sign. there was relief when i saw the car in the driveway cause i thought she was there. i thought, oh, she s sick. reporter: diane thought heather was probably just sleeping. knocking, knocking, knocking. please answer the door. reporter: but no answer. alarmed, she called heather s mother to bring over a key. soon germantown police arrived, opened the door and went in first. they say, she s not in there. they say, nothing looks disturbed. is that a relief in any way? that she s not in there? no, no. it was terrifying. something is very much wrong. reporter: it was now a missing persons case. detective tony kemp took the lead and did
and what was that name? edward raulerson. reporter: police dialed a phone number they found for ed. he told them he lived 500 miles away in eastern tennessee and agreed to make the eight-hour drive to germantown to be interviewed. detectives wondered had he made the trip once already that week to take heather away? and most importantly, could he tell them where she was now? just because you ve got somebody living 500 miles away does not mean that they didn t have anything to do with this disappearance. reporter: police recorded ed raulerson s interview. during questioning, ed made a potentially important admission. i love her to death. i would do anything for her. you know, one of the detectives asked me, you know, who would she call if she wanted to disappear. i said, me. i d be here in however many hours it took for me to get here today. reporter: but, he insisted, heather never made that call. and there was more. ed told detectives he was surprised by the first questio