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Dateline: Secrets Uncovered - Season 16 Episode 2 -
Bethany Vanished
Bethany Vanished
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00:00I'm Craig Melvin and this is Dateline Secrets Uncovered.
00:06Bethany, our little shining star.
00:10It was devastating, that emptiness.
00:14We had to believe that we would find her someday.
00:19Bethany Decker was a dedicated student, a dedicated mother.
00:23The last thing she said to me is, Mom, I love you.
00:26Where did Bethany go?
00:27Is this a missing person? Is it a homicide? We don't know yet.
00:31There's no obvious bloodstains.
00:33There's no weapon that's found inside of the apartment.
00:37One clue that came along was Vicki Willoughby.
00:40I tried to get away once, but he pulled me back.
00:43She was a woman in fear.
00:45Just kept beating me in the head.
00:47He said, I could kill you right now if I wanted to.
00:49What she went through, unimaginable.
00:52Two women turned targets. Could one help solve the mystery of the other?
00:58There is this evil person out there.
01:00It's chilling to think the amount of violence that he's bestowed on this world.
01:04He had to hope. He had to pray.
01:08There are still people at risk. He's got to be put away.
01:12Hello, and welcome to Dateline Secrets Uncovered.
01:23Bethany Decker was a giver, always putting others first.
01:28She was passionate about the environment and wanted to make a difference in the world.
01:32Then one day, she disappeared.
01:34Detectives suspected foul play, but it would take years and a powerful act of courage
01:41before the secrets behind Bethany's disappearance came to light.
01:45Here's Keith Morrison with Bethany Vanished.
01:51All right, it's Thursday, November 13th, 2014.
01:55It was just after 2 p.m. when the investigator pressed record.
02:00Don't worry about moving and stuff like that, all right?
02:03Lying across from him was a woman in a hospital bed, bruised and beaten.
02:08She'd survived a violent assault.
02:10By some miracle, she could recall every painful detail.
02:15He was punching me, punching me in the head, I think.
02:19He just kept hitting me over and over.
02:22And I'm pretty sure in another moment, he had his knee at my throat.
02:27Psycho.
02:30Her violent attacker was well known to detectives.
02:35They'd been hunting him for years, from one town to another,
02:39as he leapfrogged from one abusive relationship to another.
02:45He was crafty.
02:47Dodging arrest at every turn, managing to escape their grasp
02:50because there was never enough evidence.
02:53until now, until the woman in the hospital told her story.
03:00She would become the key to solving a mystery three years in the making.
03:05The mystery of a young mother, three months pregnant,
03:08who, without a word, suddenly vanished.
03:12The last day that I saw Bethany was a glorious day.
03:22As was every day, Evelyn Bales got to see her granddaughter.
03:27By that last day in 2011, Bethany Decker was all grown up and very busy.
03:33Buzzing around Ashburn, Virginia, an hour's drive away.
03:36And balancing college, her toddler son Kai, her new baby on the way.
03:42So spending the day with Bethany and her husband, Emile, was a treat.
03:48She came over, and we got to just spend the time talking with each other
03:54and sharing, you know, like, how she was doing, how everything was going, work and school.
04:01I made homemade pizza for her, and she loved my gingersnap cookies,
04:06so I made gingersnap cookies.
04:09Call it a grandma's intuition, but something seemed to be weighing on Bethany.
04:14She wasn't herself.
04:16She was more troubled than ever before.
04:19I had never seen her so edgy.
04:22She was up at my parents' house, and she called me.
04:28Kim Nelson is Bethany's mother.
04:31Kai was living with her at the time, so Bethany called to check in.
04:35But Kim thought her daughter seemed distracted, distressed.
04:39You know, the last thing she said to me is, Mom, I love you.
04:42Evelyn said when she wasn't talking on her phone,
04:46Bethany seemed to be firing off a text every second.
04:49And then suddenly she said she had to leave right away.
04:54I actually stopped her at the door.
04:56I blocked the front door, and I wouldn't let her leave.
04:59Bethany found a way around and drove off.
05:04And then she went silent.
05:06I called Bethany every single day after that, and there was no answer.
05:13I thought, well, she, you know, like, she's got a lot going on.
05:17She's got school.
05:19She has a baby.
05:21And she was 21 years old.
05:24My parents actually drove by her apartment and saw her car parked there.
05:30So we thought, okay, you know, maybe something was going on.
05:34But she's still there.
05:35It's okay.
05:37But when two weeks turned to three,
05:39Evelyn and her husband decided to go to Bethany's apartment again.
05:43On the way down, my husband told me, he said,
05:46Evelyn, if we can't find her, we're calling the police.
05:50Later that day, that's just what they did.
05:55How did the police get involved in this?
05:58So we didn't get notified until February 19th,
06:01after Bethany's grandmother and Bethany's mother realized
06:04that neither one had had any contact with her since that night on January 28th.
06:09Mark Bush is a detective with the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.
06:14He was part of a team called in to look for Bethany.
06:17The team that included then Sergeant Steve Chauchet.
06:21You know, you try to gather, is this a missing person?
06:25Is it a homicide?
06:26We don't know yet.
06:28Did Bethany just get fed up and leave?
06:32A deputy met Evelyn at Bethany's apartment.
06:35When they went inside, it was empty because Bethany was in the process of moving out.
06:40But Evelyn was surprised to find what was left behind.
06:44When we went into the master bedroom, in the closet, on the right-hand side on the shelf,
06:53was Bethany's purse that she always brought to my house, her little wallet.
06:58And then there were keys to her car.
07:02A purse with some keys?
07:04Yes, sir.
07:05The sort of thing a person would take if they decided to go on the run voluntarily?
07:09Absolutely.
07:11Evelyn showed the deputy Bethany's car, who's in the parking lot.
07:16It looked different than the last time she'd seen it.
07:19That car was covered in dust, completely covered, like it had never been moved.
07:25What was in the car?
07:26The trunk was completely packed with her personal belongings and clothing.
07:31And at the bottom, we found a computer and three cell phones underneath of all of the junk.
07:38Odd?
07:39Yes, but evidence of a crime?
07:42The detectives weren't so sure.
07:44There's no obvious blood stains, there's no obvious bullet holes in the walls,
07:49there's no weapon that's found inside of the apartment.
07:53Still, at the apartment, the deputy got on the phone with Kim.
07:57He asked me the question, do you think your daughter's in danger?
08:00And, you know, he asked me again and I'm like, yes, I think she's in danger.
08:05Danger from what? Or who?
08:22It had all been so confusing and frightening.
08:25What happened to Bethany Decker?
08:28It was just like this foreign world, like I could never even imagine.
08:32For three weeks, her family had refused to dwell on awful possibilities.
08:38After all, they heard Bethany was still talking with friends on Facebook.
08:44Several messages get sent to her sister, some friends.
08:49Kim saw some of those direct messages from Bethany's Facebook.
08:53And one of them Bethany said everything is fine.
08:56And later that she didn't want to talk.
08:59Was it a relief? Did you think, oh, she's okay?
09:01Yeah, maybe this is how she's like reaching out to us.
09:06And so they had waited and tried very hard not to worry.
09:11Why did it take so long for them to get in touch with the police?
09:14Bethany was always good about reaching out to somebody in the family.
09:17Even if she was mad at her mom or her grandmother, she'd still reach out to her sister.
09:23If she wasn't reaching out to her sister, she'd be talking to friends.
09:26So I believe it was a situation where everybody thought that Bethany was just communicating with someone else.
09:31Investigators, however, took a much less optimistic approach.
09:36Detectives back then searched the wooded areas all around her apartment.
09:42We moved down into using four-wheelers and cadaver dogs and bloodhounds into the fields around the apartment complex.
09:50We started using our dive team to search retaining ponds that were near the apartment complex.
09:55But they had a big disadvantage.
09:58They were way behind.
09:59Bethany had been missing for almost three weeks by the time they were called in.
10:05Who knew what evidence might have been lost?
10:08There was a trash compactor.
10:10That trash compactor could have been dumped three or four times or more before we got to search it.
10:17But still, Kim and her family desperately needed Bethany to be okay.
10:22In so many ways, she was the beating heart of the family.
10:24There's Bethany, the sweet and generous one.
10:30Love you, Mom. You're the best.
10:32A lot of people, when you're in a conversation, they're talking about themselves.
10:36But Bethany was always the kind that wanted to know about you and how you were doing.
10:43She'd been born in Hawaii.
10:44And an island girl's style seemed to stick, said her sister Ashley.
10:50She'd wear the flip flops and she'd have just the tan and the really gorgeous hair.
10:58Growing up, Bethany was a sister to her three younger siblings, but also a kind of mom assistant.
11:06She really liked being the leader, you know, of the kids and, you know, whether it's cleaning house, doing chores.
11:12Always wanted to sort of do something to help somebody else. Is that the idea?
11:17Absolutely. Absolutely.
11:19Like, I didn't have to ask her to make dinner or to do the dishes or to do things.
11:24That, like, she just did them.
11:26That's a pretty rare thing, isn't it?
11:28It is a rare thing.
11:30I just loved everything that she did. Everything.
11:32Everything that she wore, everything that she did.
11:35Everywhere that she went, I wanted to do the same thing.
11:38Who wouldn't want to be like Bethany?
11:42She made life look effortless.
11:45Honors program, marching band, lots of friends.
11:49When it came time for college, she had her pick of schools.
11:53She ended up going to George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
11:57And she saw there was a brand new major called Global and Environmental Change.
12:05And she had always had a heart for the environment and making the world a better place.
12:11Bethany visited home often.
12:14And during one particular visit, she shared some news.
12:17She mentioned that she met somebody while doing laundry at school.
12:22That someone was Emile Decker. He was in a fraternity in ROTC.
12:28How did the two of them connect with each other?
12:31Were they the same? Were they opposites? What were they like together?
12:35Complimented. They complimented each other.
12:37I think their two personalities really balanced each other because she was big and bold and loud.
12:43And he was a very calm, but a very gentle personality in comparison.
12:48In a little more than a year, they went from college sweethearts to newlyweds.
12:54And in a blink, they were parents too.
12:58They named their little boy, Kai.
13:00Did she take to motherhood pretty easily?
13:03Very natural. Bethany, like, loved him more than anything.
13:08Just the way she would dress him and sing to him and, you know, talk about, you know, his future.
13:15He got a very dramatic personality from his mom when he was baby, especially.
13:19You know, if you'd hold him up in front of the mirror, he'd just start big pout.
13:24Just really, really funny but adorable.
13:27Bethany would take endless pictures.
13:31She was obsessed.
13:34Emile was in the National Guard now, too.
13:37And his military work often took him away.
13:40Sometimes far away.
13:42And family had been pitching in to help look after Kai while Bethany was at work or school.
13:47Eventually, Kai moved in with Kim full-time.
13:50That's why this ominous feeling could no longer be denied.
13:53Because Bethany would never go so long without seeing her boy.
13:59It kind of just sank in my chest.
14:02Like, I just steadily got this cold pit.
14:05And it just got worse and worse.
14:08As I, like, started realizing something's, something's really wrong.
14:12But that can't, that only happens on TV.
14:16That couldn't happen here.
14:17But it was happening here, and it was all people were talking about.
14:23Bethany Decker, her husband Emile, and what's this?
14:28Another man?
14:30The ultimate motive.
14:32Exactly.
14:33By the time Bethany Decker had been missing for over a month, she was the focus of intense community speculation.
14:55And some of it was about him.
14:57There's people out there casting suspicion on Emile.
15:01Emile, Bethany's husband.
15:04As police interviewed family and friends, they learned the couple was no longer living together.
15:10Well, that detail fed the gossip machine.
15:13You've got all these people believing that he must have had something to do with it.
15:17And there was more.
15:18Bethany had been living with a new man before she went missing and was pregnant, presumably with the new man's child.
15:28And Emile knew all this.
15:31The ultimate motive.
15:33Exactly. So, he's being looked at, he's being tried in public.
15:38When investigators started looking into it, Emile was deployed way off in Afghanistan.
15:43But then they discovered, first from people who had seen him and then from military records, Emile was home, on leave, when Bethany was last seen alive.
15:53So, they had contacted the military and got permission to speak to Emile.
15:58And Emile got leave and was able to come back to Loudoun County.
16:02He came back to the sheriff's office.
16:03Came with an attorney who was by his side as he told detectives about the last time he'd seen Bethany.
16:10Which was at her grandmother's house that last day when she fired off all those text messages.
16:16And then left in a hurry.
16:18Emile said he rushed after her.
16:20She's driving back home and Emile attempts to follow her and they stop at a local gas station.
16:26He has a conversation with Bethany, fills her tire up.
16:28She had a tire that was going low on air.
16:31Tried to convince her not to continue going back to Ashburn.
16:34But Bethany wouldn't listen, he said, and just took off.
16:39Apparently back to her apartment a good hour's drive away.
16:42And it was late at night, he said, so he pulled off the road and slept for a bit in his car.
16:48He said he was a little too embarrassed to go back to the grandmother's residence.
16:52And Bethany continued back to Ashburn.
16:54Detectives pressed Emile.
16:58What happened to his marriage?
17:01And he blamed their problems on the very real demands of his military service.
17:07His obligations with the guard took him away from their marriage for extended periods of time.
17:13She was working as a waitress, she was going to school and she was raising their son.
17:16That is tough.
17:18I mean, not only an awful lot for one person, a responsibility for one person, one young person to shoulder.
17:24Absolutely.
17:25And she's at the same time getting high grades at school, taking high level courses.
17:32She's got a lot on her plate.
17:33And although detectives discovered Bethany had a new man, Emile hadn't given up on their marriage.
17:41In fact, the week before she disappeared, he took her to Hawaii.
17:46It was a trip that he had planned in hopes of saving their marriage, knowing that Bethany was seeing another guy, knowing that Bethany was pregnant more than likely with another man's child at that point.
17:55And he was okay with continuing to try to make this relationship work.
17:59Yeah, he offered to raise this next child as if it was his own and try to save their marriage.
18:06Bethany's mother had heard that too.
18:09He was trying to repair the relationship?
18:11Yes, I mean, she had mentioned that to me.
18:14I think that time was very precious and that there was hope that the situation would be resolved.
18:21It was quite a story and detectives are paying close attention both to Emile's words and his body language.
18:31He had an open body posture. He was forthcoming with information. His information didn't seem to change.
18:39He was accepting of his role in a situation, how he had made things harder on Bethany.
18:44He wasn't angry, he said. He still loved her.
18:48We recovered a whole bunch of videos from cell phone records that showed him sending love messages to Bethany that he was upset that he wasn't going to be home for certain events or wasn't going to be home with her and Kai.
19:04Here's a holiday message Emile recorded while stationed in the Middle East a couple of months before Bethany disappeared.
19:11I just want to give a lovely shout out to my wife who lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and to my son, Kai. I love you and I miss you very much. Have a Merry Christmas.
19:22Police let Emile go knowing there was one other side of this love triangle. The other man, Ronald Roldan, who seemed to be living quite a different life from Bethany's husband's.
19:34We knew that he was a ladies man. He was very outgoing, that he had a lot of friends, life of the party type.
19:43They found him, of course, the talkative Ronald Roldan, a very curious man he would turn out to be.
19:51Do you know what happened to him?
19:52Welcome back to Dateline Secrets Uncovered. I'm Craig Melvin.
20:09Detectives learned Bethany Decker and her husband Emile were separated when she disappeared.
20:14Emile told police that he had been trying to save the marriage, but complicating matters, Bethany was pregnant and seeing another man.
20:24Now, investigators were about to dig into that relationship and uncover a disturbing secret.
20:31Here again is Keith Morrison with Bethany Vanished.
20:37It was a kind of hell, that awful time of unknowing after Bethany vanished.
20:42I can't even count how many flyers I passed out.
20:46Her family knew it was bad. Of course they did. But they would not, could not stop searching.
20:54Here are Kim and her husband on NBC station WRC.
20:58I'm praying and I have faith that she's safe.
21:02They got the whole country talking about Bethany.
21:05A young pregnant mother has gone missing.
21:07Detectives, meanwhile, occupied themselves with hard realities.
21:10To them, the facts said homicide.
21:14So they tracked down the other man in her life.
21:17Ronald Roldan.
21:19I started this. It is Friday, February 25th.
21:23And we are...
21:25Investigators found him at his mother's house, where he seemed more than willing to talk about Bethany.
21:30He's very engaging. He's painting the entire relationship with a rosy picture.
21:34He said they met at a restaurant where they were both waiters.
21:39So last March is when you met?
21:41I think she started working in March.
21:43Around that time, the army had taken a meal away.
21:48She was definitely alone in a way that I don't think even she was prepared for.
21:52She'd never been alone before.
21:55Yeah.
21:57So she and Ronald struck up a friendship.
22:00Platonic, apparently.
22:02And Bethany being Bethany, she empathized when he told her his sad story.
22:08I remember her telling us that there was a co-worker at her work that had kids.
22:15She said he was kicked out of the place where he was staying.
22:19And so she offered him a place to stay.
22:23With her.
22:25As a border that is nothing more.
22:28Until apparently it was something more.
22:31At least according to Ronald.
22:34When she told me that she wanted us to like live together.
22:38You know, I thought about it because, you know, I was like, wow, you know,
22:42we haven't been seeing each other that long.
22:44And plus, you know, she's married, even though she's separated.
22:47But, you know, like I had strong feelings for her.
22:50Something about this rosy picture didn't sit right with investigators.
22:55Especially when Ronald told detectives he was the father of Bethany's unborn child.
22:59But she'd been missing a month and he seemed unfazed.
23:05Okay, Ronald, have a seat right there if you would.
23:09So detectives called him to the sheriff's office for a second, more extensive interview.
23:14The last day you saw her was that Saturday, right?
23:17Yeah.
23:19Okay.
23:20Bethany had returned home sometime around 2 a.m. after spending the day with her grandmother, said Ronald.
23:25Seemed exhausted.
23:27Went to bed.
23:29And then woke up in the morning and went out again.
23:32I was in the kitchen and she said, you know, she was like, all right, I'm gonna go.
23:35I was like, all right, bye.
23:37As far as he knew, said Ronald, Bethany was driving back to her grandmother's house across the state border in Maryland.
23:42So when he saw her car outside the apartment a couple of days later.
23:48I was like, huh, I was like, wonder why her car's here.
23:50Yeah.
23:52Did you go over and look in it or?
23:54I didn't go and look in it.
23:55Went upstairs and, you know, of course she wasn't there.
23:57Did he adamantly deny that he was involved in her disappearance?
23:59Yes.
24:01Yes.
24:02He continuously stated over and over again that she left on her own free will and accord and that he had no clue where she went.
24:09Where do you think she is right now?
24:11I have no idea.
24:13But when the detectives asked Bethany's family about Ronald Rodin, they got an earful.
24:19I couldn't locate a single family member that had anything nice to say about Ronald.
24:22At first they said they thought Ronald was just a leech taking advantage of Bethany's general's hospitality.
24:31But gradually it seemed to them he began to take her over as if he was somehow in control of her.
24:40He had to know where she was and I had heard at a time that he had installed some software on her cell phone to be able to track her.
24:47And then this was alarming.
24:50Kai was about a year old and was dropped off at Kim's house with bruising around his eyes.
24:55Kim was told Kai hurt himself falling from a chair and found out later Ronald had been watching him.
25:03The injury that he had with the blackness above his eyes was not aligned with him climbing up on a chair and falling backwards.
25:11That's when Kai moved in with Kim full time, with Bethany's blessing.
25:17And yet she could not seem to shake the guy off, even as he grew ever more controlling and threatening.
25:24And even worse, Bethany confided he'd become abusive.
25:28It was at that time where she started to realize that this was a troubled person, but she couldn't get out of it.
25:36So she was in a relationship with somebody that was abusing her physically and emotionally and threatening her family.
25:49Was she afraid to kick him out or just leave him?
25:53She seemed petrified all the time.
25:57And so her family had a kind of intervention.
25:59We talked about restraining orders, which she was like, it's just a piece of paper and it's not going to help.
26:07We called the domestic abuse hotlines.
26:09We were creating a plan for her to be able to escape from this situation.
26:15Emile was worried about Bethany, too.
26:18When he sneaked her off to Hawaii without Ronald knowing, it wasn't just about reconciling.
26:23It was to get her away from that man.
26:27But the whole time they were gone, Ronald texted incessantly, demanding she return.
26:34So police had questions for Ronald.
26:38Were you abusive to her?
26:39Never.
26:40Did you know that she did tell people that you were physically abusive to her?
26:43No, I did not know that.
26:44Never laid a hand on her?
26:45Never.
26:47Never laid a hand on her.
26:48We never got in fights to the point where you're screaming at each other.
26:52Never.
26:53Ever.
26:54Do you want to know what happened to her?
26:55Yes.
26:56You do want to know?
26:57Yes.
26:58Do you know what happened to her?
26:59No.
27:00And then?
27:01This.
27:02It would help us out a lot if you would agree to take a polygraph.
27:05I have no problem helping you guys.
27:07Perfect.
27:08But I think I need to speak with someone else.
27:12Oh, okay.
27:14Someone other than us?
27:15Yeah, I mean, like, I think I need to speak, I think I need to speak to a lawyer.
27:20They had to let Ronald leave because, besides their suspicions, they had very little to go on.
27:26No murder weapon.
27:27No crime scene.
27:29No body.
27:31And as days piled up, a kind of limbo set in.
27:35What's it like to watch a case kind of gradually go cold?
27:38Frustrating.
27:39It's completely frustrating.
27:41And it stayed that way.
27:43For years.
27:44But just when Detective Mark Bush was about to give up hope, the phone rang.
27:50My supervisor told me that I needed to head to Pinehurst, North Carolina.
27:55Uh-oh.
27:56Now what?
27:57Keeps you up at night.
28:13You wake up in the morning, it's the first thing on your mind.
28:16When you go to bed, it's the last thing on your mind.
28:19Sergeant Steve Chauchet was convinced Bethany Decker was dead.
28:24And spent many days in this wooded area, just 200 yards from her apartment, searching for her remains.
28:30This area is special to me because I used to drive around it, not knowing where Bethany Decker was.
28:36But I said, maybe I could get some kind of hint from her.
28:40I'd say, come on, Bethany, just give me some kind of sign, show me something, help me find you.
28:46Thing was, all the detectives were convinced.
28:49There was one guy who could tell them where she was.
28:53Ronald Roldan.
28:55But he was busy.
28:58We were paying attention to where Ronald moved, what jobs he took on, who was he inviting into his life.
29:04He found other women to date, and new restaurants to work in.
29:09Life, for him, went on as usual, apparently.
29:13If Ronald was really their man, police needed a big break.
29:18And then, almost four years after Bethany vanished, they got one.
29:23Did they ever.
29:25I got a phone call from my supervisor, who told me that I needed to pick up everything and head to Pinehurst, North Carolina,
29:31because Ronald Roldan had shot his new girlfriend.
29:34Detective Mark Bush worked the phone.
29:37Who was this new girlfriend?
29:39And how did she get mixed up with Ronald Roldan?
29:43Vicki Willoughby was a waitress, and she was working at a steakhouse.
29:46And she just happened to be working with one of their new servers named Ronald Roldan.
29:51The two of them struck up a friendship that led to them becoming romantically involved.
29:56Apparently, Vicki thought it was casual.
29:59But soon, Ronald changed.
30:01Became controlling and threatening, she said, and then physically abusive.
30:06Eventually, Vicki saw an opening to leave him.
30:08She finds out that a house that she had owned in North Carolina,
30:13I believe she was coming back into ownership of that house or the renters of that house were leaving the house.
30:20But Ronald followed her to North Carolina, she said, and refused to leave.
30:25So it was a small miracle that Detective Bush found her hospitalized, but alive, thank goodness, and talking.
30:34You were surprised she was able to talk at all?
30:37Yeah, she lost an eye, had to undergo surgery.
30:40And the fact that she could talk was even more amazing.
30:42And the fact that she was able to recount what occurred seemed kind of unreal.
30:48Here is Vicki's story, recorded right there in her hospital bed, with her broken neck, her bullet wounds, her purple bruises.
30:57Still hooked up to machines and tubes that made her voice hoarse.
31:02But remarkably, she managed to tell police what happened when she refused to have sex with Ronald.
31:09He came in the living room and started getting in my face.
31:12And then he kicked the ottoman, and then I knew it was over.
31:15Once he kicks the ottoman, he's gonna kick you.
31:18He was dragging me around the room, I remember that.
31:21Okay.
31:22Screaming, don't get up, don't get up.
31:25He was punching me, punching me in the head, I think.
31:29Just kept hitting me over and over.
31:32She's already been in fear for her life, and she hit a revolver under the couch.
31:39She grabs it with her left hand backwards, and putting her thumb in the trigger, shoots Ronald Roldan two times in the chest.
31:47But then he took it from me and shot me right up close.
31:53Ronald shot Vicki in her arm and her head, taking out her right eye.
31:58And then once he shot me, he just kept beating me in the head.
32:02The blood was splattering everywhere.
32:04I tried to get away once, but he pulled me back.
32:07And then he was freaking out.
32:09He's like, oh my God, I'm gonna die.
32:11And he wanted to see his mother.
32:13He wanted to see his mother.
32:15She flees the house, bleeding, bloody, hardly any clothes on.
32:21That was scary.
32:23I couldn't see because of my eye.
32:28Took me three neighbors till I found somebody.
32:31When the police arrive at her location, which is a neighbor's house, they gather the evidence, they go back to her house.
32:40And Roldan is dressed, had taken a shower, and he's on the phone with his mother.
32:46Two bullet holes in him.
32:48You try that.
32:50She had shot Ronald above his heart and in his gut.
32:53So he was rushed to the hospital too.
32:56Once he was healed enough, he was transferred to a holding facility on charges that included assault with a deadly weapon.
33:03Speaking from her hospital bed, Vicki was still terrified.
33:08Oh, he's gonna know I said all this stuff.
33:10He can't be saying this stuff.
33:12He'll get my kids.
33:13He already told me if I ever went to the authorities.
33:16Ever.
33:17Ever.
33:18He'll get my kids.
33:20She told the detective.
33:22She'd lived under the threat of violence throughout her relationship with Ronald.
33:26He said, I could kill you right now if I wanted to.
33:29But he always makes sure that I know that he could kill me.
33:33And then Vicki said the most extraordinary thing.
33:37He killed her and got away with it.
33:39Her?
33:40The her Vicki was referring to was Bethany.
33:44I just know in my heart that he killed her.
33:47His statement to her was, I've made one girlfriend disappear.
33:51I can do it again.
33:52That sounded a lot like a confession.
33:55Would it finally be enough?
34:10Ronald Rodan had a problem.
34:12A Vicki Willoughby problem.
34:14She'd been brave enough to tell detectives all about Ronald's violent behavior.
34:19Giving North Carolina prosecutors solid evidence against him.
34:23Ronald wouldn't be able to skate by with a denial.
34:26The way he'd done in the Bethany Decker case.
34:29I think they knew that he was a danger and they had to put him away for as long as they possibly could.
34:33But it's always a roll of the dice with the jury.
34:36And so the prosecutor ended the uncertainty and made a deal with Ronald.
34:41He pleaded guilty to assaulting and shooting Vicki in exchange for a minimum sentence of six years behind bars in North Carolina.
34:49Vicki's courage had breathed new life into Bethany's case.
34:54But it also gave detectives in Virginia a deadline.
34:58Find usable evidence to prove he killed Bethany.
35:01And watch him get away with murder.
35:04We had a 2020 deadline that he was going to be released and deported.
35:09Deported to his native Bolivia.
35:12Making any future arrest infinitely more difficult.
35:15So one more time Detective Bush combed through the case file.
35:20And this time, noticed something.
35:23In the Facebook messages.
35:25Apparently sent by Bethany.
35:27But after she vanished.
35:29I was able to put together almost a separate spreadsheet of IP addresses.
35:34Nothing wrong with those IP addresses.
35:36If they all belonged to Bethany's devices.
35:39But they didn't.
35:41Every time Ronald Roldan was checking his email
35:44or he was on his password-protected Facebook account.
35:47He was checking her email and sending Facebook messages posing as her.
35:52What was it like to find that?
35:53It was an aha moment.
35:55I felt like I had finally found something.
35:57I have this long-term circumstantial evidence case
36:01where I've got all these people pointing the finger at Ronald.
36:04I've got this pattern of behavior where Ronald is escalating his violence in his relationships.
36:10He's controlling all these women.
36:11Now, all of a sudden, I find a way to attach him.
36:14Was it enough?
36:16It was now or never.
36:18And so they took a chance and charged Ronald with second-degree murder.
36:23Shaniqua Clark Nelson and her colleagues would prosecute.
36:26Had you ever tried a no-body case before?
36:29I have never tried a no-body case.
36:31I've tried homicides, but never a no-body.
36:34Without a body, any good defense attorney could say there wasn't even proof of a homicide,
36:40let alone any evidence of what Ronald allegedly did to Bethany.
36:45Even if we're able to get this past 12 jurors and they agree with us that he's our murderer
36:51and we get our conviction, we still cannot go back to Kimberly Nelson
36:54and tell her what happened to her daughter.
36:57And so the state made a deal.
36:59Ronald Roldan would plead guilty to second-degree murder
37:02in exchange for a 12-and-a-half-year sentence.
37:05There was one condition.
37:07Ronald had to tell them what he did to Bethany.
37:10In January 2023, almost 12 years after Bethany disappeared,
37:16Clark Nelson and Detective Bush went eye-to-eye with her killer,
37:20who sat next to his attorneys.
37:22I'm ready for whatever question you have to ask.
37:28So, Chaz, of course, what happened?
37:31He said that they were in their apartment that they shared
37:36and there was an argument about Bethany going to work.
37:40She had actually called in to her job to take on a shift.
37:43She was trying to walk away from the conversation.
37:47I pushed her.
37:48And when I pushed her, she tripped over her feet at the windowsill.
37:55Was she bleeding?
37:57No.
37:58Any bruising, swelling going on at that point?
38:01I'm sure, but I really don't remember like that.
38:07Ronald said he put his fingers under Bethany's nose
38:10and she wasn't breathing.
38:12Why did you not call that woman?
38:17Just because I didn't think that they would believe what I had to say.
38:22What did you think was going to happen if you called that woman?
38:26I was going to get arrested.
38:32What do you believe really happened?
38:34I think she finally got confronted with the Hawaii trip with Emile.
38:39And when she admitted that she had been in Hawaii with her husband,
38:42I think that flew him into a fit of rage.
38:45He choked her to death.
38:46The next part of Ronald's story, though, felt true to Detective Bush.
38:51When you start talking to him about the disposal,
38:53it's very matter-of-fact.
38:55It's very step one, step two, step three.
38:57There was a bag in the apartment for Christmas tree removal.
39:05And I just put her inside the bag.
39:11Then Ronald took Bethany to the apartment complex's trash compactor.
39:16Do you recall which part of the dumpster that you put her in?
39:20It just has like a sliding door.
39:22When you put her inside of there, what, if anything, did you do?
39:28After that, I closed it and just walked back.
39:32He's very much that sociopath who feels no remorse,
39:37who wants nothing to do with the person he's with
39:40other than what he can get from that person.
39:42And he's always got that next person lined up.
39:44He's always got that next person waiting in the wings to be taken advantage of.
39:48Ronald Roldan will serve roughly 17 years for killing Bethany and assaulting Vicki.
39:54And then he'll be deported.
39:57After spending years searching for Bethany,
40:00investigators could at least finally tell her family where her body likely was.
40:07When the trash compactor got dumped, it went to a landfill.
40:11But recovering her remains? Probably impossible.
40:16It would approximately be $5 million to try to recover her, if we could recover her.
40:22Detectives played the video of Ronald's confession for Bethany's family.
40:26It was very hard to hear the disregard for human life.
40:31You're in a state of shock when you're hearing such things,
40:37that you can't even believe that a human being would be capable of such violence
40:44and such horrific, heinous acts.
40:48And I can't allow myself to go there, because if I do, I won't be able to survive.
40:55I can't. So I dove.
40:58There was some solace.
41:03Bethany's son, Kai, now lives happily with his dad, Emile.
41:08And any lingering suspicion that Emile had something to do with what happened to Bethany
41:13went away for good, finally.
41:17All Emile Decker ever tried to do was try to reconcile their marriage.
41:21All he ever did was help raise his son.
41:24All he ever did was serve his country.
41:27That every step of the way, he's always done what he's supposed to do
41:30or what would be expected of him.
41:32He must have gone through a lot of, well, hell in the period of time
41:37between the murder and finally being absolved forever.
41:43In the face of grieving for her and not knowing what happened to her,
41:48I don't know how he did it. He's incredibly strong.
41:51For years, Bethany's family had kept looking and looking and hoping.
41:57And they couldn't save her.
42:00Which is why they wanted to tell her story.
42:03To save the next Bethany.
42:06So what do you want people to take away from her story?
42:09What I would probably say is if you are in a bad situation, then get help.
42:15Don't believe lies, that there is no hope and that there isn't a way out.
42:21There is.
42:25That's all for this edition of Dateline Secrets Uncovered.
42:30I'm Craig Melvin.
42:31Thank you for watching.
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