so when he suddenly vanished without a trace, gavin s sisters wondered why his wife lisa wasn t doing more to find him. overs years forced lisa to reveal and uncover painful things about their marriage.s keith morrison with dark valley . there was a kind of peace here, in her own chosen exile, vast pacific for company. how else to live with what s impossible to understand or forget? what began that sunny afternoon far away in southern california, san fernando valley, early may, 2012. something was really wrong, but a lot were wrong than i could imagine. reporter: it was the boy who knew at first, knew something was wrong.
secret would be all over the gym. lauren just 18 years old back then asked us not to use her last name. not after she found herself in the middle of a homicide investigation. when police came across her doing under surveillance on john creech. lauren used to work at the pro shop of the power house gym in chatsworth, california. that s where she first met creech. he was beautiful. he was tall and he was muscular and a lot of women especially wanted to date him. a lot of men wanted to be him. reporter: lauren fell for him. he told her he was separated from his wife chandy, but that didn t stop chandy from calling lauren. she texted and called me and was very belligerent and rude. reporter: angry, perhaps that her husband, then 39 was dating a high school girl. in fact, sheer coincidence, lauren went to high school with gavin smith s son.
and that gavin was a victim long after he was murdered. and so are we. john creech was sentenced to the maximum for manslaughter, 11 years in prison. the d.a. in detroit, michigan, indicted mr. creech on federal drug trafficking charges. if convicted his exposure was anywhere 5 to 40 years in prison. in june 2019, john creech was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, ten years, ten months, to be served concurrently with time for manslaughter in california state prison. lisa smith has done her best to restart her life, she and the boys in hawaii now. far from the wreckage of that california life that never was quite as perfect as it looked. it was painful to remain
where months later the detective noticed one detail that saved the cover up. i was looking at the license plate, i see it s not there. should be a california license plate, that kind of thing, it s gone. i also see there is one screw missing and one screw screwed back in halfway and that screw came back positive dna to john creech. reporter: bingo, the unassailable link to pull together all that evidence. phone records, chandy s testimony, the friends, the dna and it all condemned john creech. but a surprise was coming. for everyone. raise your right hand. coming up. i was scared for my life. reporter: a dramatic tale from the stand. he punched me, pulled me in by my sweater. put his hand up on my throat, choking me on my throat. who attacked who? who would the jury believe ? my skin was just crawling. when dateline continues.
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