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00:00:09I'm Lester Holt.
00:00:10Tonight on Dateline, a mother makes a promise to her son.
00:00:15Keeping it will be the hardest thing she'll ever do.
00:00:19I knew he was going to be out of the lake.
00:00:22I'm calling, and we're getting nothing.
00:00:25Days and days, putting out flyers and just searching.
00:00:28All I can think about is I want James.
00:00:33I'm pretty confident we've got blood spatter on the side window.
00:00:37The last person to see him alive, that's the key.
00:00:40You have not told me that truth as you walked in that door.
00:00:43He would post on Facebook different personas, homicidal highway.
00:00:48He will morph to survive.
00:00:51Why is he in a Bible college?
00:00:52They got a wolf in sheep clothing.
00:00:54So he's talked about shooting people before?
00:00:56He's made it sound like that.
00:00:58He's now seeing a young woman.
00:01:01That terrifies me.
00:01:02We did not even have a body in the case.
00:01:04The evidence was not overwhelming.
00:01:07You literally cannot stop thinking about it.
00:01:12What keeps you going on these searches?
00:01:15My promise.
00:01:17It's all I got left to give him.
00:01:20And he's worth every mile.
00:01:33Here's Andrea Canning with The Bridge.
00:01:45What we're going to be doing is a foot search on each side of the banks of the river.
00:01:50What you're looking for is any sign of any remains that may be left.
00:01:55Don't leave any stone unturned.
00:01:58It was a long shot.
00:02:01A Hail Mary.
00:02:04One more look.
00:02:08Spring 2021.
00:02:11Search teams scoured the thick forest some 40 miles from Fayetteville, North Carolina.
00:02:17It's going to be difficult, but it's not impossible.
00:02:21Everything is possible.
00:02:23Among them, a devoted mother.
00:02:26Relentless in the face of a shattering loss.
00:02:29She never stopped searching or believing the mystery could be solved.
00:02:34You have to be really careful when you pull it out.
00:02:36A mystery dating back seven long years, when her son simply vanished.
00:02:42I love him.
00:02:43I promised him.
00:02:45And I'm here till we find him.
00:02:49Now, all this time later, could she and the others finally do it?
00:02:54Take a picture of that.
00:02:55And end the nightmare that's haunted his family for so long.
00:02:59I pray it's part of my son.
00:03:02If it is, it's a long time coming.
00:03:12It all started on a hot and humid afternoon in August 2014,
00:03:17when a weekend of fun awaited James Chambers.
00:03:20It was Friday.
00:03:22Payday.
00:03:23James' getaway day.
00:03:27He just wrapped a busy week, working for his dad Pete's construction company.
00:03:31On the weekends, he went down to Lake Layman in Wallace, North Carolina,
00:03:35and was on the lifeguard down there.
00:03:37That's where he was supposed to be headed that night.
00:03:39Had he always kind of had a love of swimming in the water?
00:03:42Yes, loved it.
00:03:42And fishing.
00:03:43Yeah, loved it.
00:03:46And everybody seemed to love James, says his mom, Rachel Wellhauser.
00:03:52He's 28.
00:03:53He's single.
00:03:55There's a couple of girls he's talking to.
00:03:58He's figuring out which direction he's going.
00:04:01He was good looking.
00:04:02He was popular.
00:04:03He was outgoing.
00:04:04Yes.
00:04:06He loved the women.
00:04:08A real people person remembers his close friend and roommate, Brandy Chagru.
00:04:14James was smart.
00:04:15He was very witty.
00:04:16He was caring.
00:04:18He cared about people.
00:04:21James' parents were divorced, but he remained close with both and always kept in touch.
00:04:26Pete Chambers says his son was someone you could count on.
00:04:30If he told you he was going to be there, he'd be there.
00:04:32Did you always kind of know her when he was coming and going?
00:04:35He would call, text.
00:04:37He would do something to let me know where he was at.
00:04:39In fact, James spoke to his mom the day before he was supposed to leave for the lake.
00:04:44Do you remember how you ended the call?
00:04:47Like always.
00:04:49I love you.
00:04:50I miss you.
00:04:51Did you hear from him again over text?
00:04:54No.
00:04:58Neither did his roommate, Brandy, who said that by Sunday, James hadn't returned home.
00:05:03We all thought that James was off doing James things.
00:05:07He's found a girl he likes, and he's just holed up somewhere for a few days, and then he'll pop
00:05:11back up.
00:05:14But as a new week began, still no James.
00:05:18Monday morning, he's supposed to be at work.
00:05:20Yep.
00:05:20Doesn't show.
00:05:21Doesn't show.
00:05:22What's your first thought?
00:05:23No show.
00:05:24I tried calling him, texting him, never anything about him.
00:05:26So then I said, well, I'll just let it go for a day or so, and then Tuesday shows up,
00:05:30and he's not here.
00:05:33Rachel was now in a panic.
00:05:35I started blowing up his phone.
00:05:37I left a message.
00:05:39Marco.
00:05:40Marco?
00:05:41That was her family's emergency code word.
00:05:44My daughter and my son and my husband and myself always knew we had to have a safety word to
00:05:52contact immediately.
00:05:55James didn't.
00:05:56That must have spoke volumes to you.
00:05:58I was screaming inside.
00:06:01Five minutes, ten minutes, an hour goes away.
00:06:04James has always immediately responded to anything.
00:06:12By now, James' roommate, Brandy, was also worried and called his manager at the lake.
00:06:17The lake said he never showed up.
00:06:19I was kind of gobsmacked at that moment.
00:06:22I did.
00:06:22I was like, what do you mean he didn't show up?
00:06:24I was like, no, he didn't show up.
00:06:26So at that point, it was kind of a deer in the headlights moment.
00:06:32Especially when Brandy realized what James had left behind.
00:06:35His driver's license, his dog.
00:06:37At that point, that was when it said, hey, something's not right.
00:06:45Maybe James had suddenly changed plans about leaving for the lake.
00:06:49If so, he didn't tell Rachel or anyone else for that matter.
00:06:53I'm an absolute basket case.
00:06:56Because I know James.
00:06:59Were you holding out any hope that maybe he's been in an accident?
00:07:02Maybe he's not able?
00:07:03I was hoping that the vehicle was off on an embankment or somewhere.
00:07:09Somewhere I could find him.
00:07:12And we hit the roads.
00:07:16Criss-crossing every back road in the county.
00:07:19Little did Rachel realize her journey to find her son was just beginning.
00:07:24And would take her tens of thousands of miles to places she could have never imagined.
00:07:32What had happened to James?
00:07:34His parents take the next step when we come back.
00:07:38Kind of scary going to the police because you're almost sort of acknowledging
00:07:43Yeah.
00:07:43That this could be really bad.
00:07:44Yep.
00:07:45All I want to know is where he was at.
00:07:46Would it be another dead end?
00:07:49Just not taking you seriously enough.
00:07:51Is that how you felt?
00:07:51Yes.
00:07:52Like, how do you know he's not off on a trip somewhere?
00:07:55Yes.
00:07:56But I was screaming, I know my son.
00:08:02I know my son.
00:08:15Where was James Chambers?
00:08:17The young man who kept in constant contact with his family had simply disappeared.
00:08:24I start getting in touch with different ones of his friends.
00:08:26No one has seen him.
00:08:28Jessica, his sister, she is posting all over Facebook, trying to find where he's at.
00:08:33She's calling.
00:08:34I'm calling.
00:08:35And we're getting nothing.
00:08:39Five days passed.
00:08:41With hope fading that James would somehow show up, his father, Pete, made the one call
00:08:46everyone dreaded.
00:08:47Something's not right and I need to call and make a police report.
00:08:50Kind of scary going to the police, too, because you're almost sort of acknowledging
00:08:55Yeah.
00:08:55that this could be really bad.
00:08:57Yep.
00:08:57All I want to know is where he was at.
00:09:00The Fayetteville Police Department launched a missing person investigation.
00:09:04Pretty routine.
00:09:06But it was not routine for Rachel.
00:09:08Years earlier, she'd made a promise to James and was determined to keep it.
00:09:13I have a meeting.
00:09:15Pete has a meeting.
00:09:16We're all meeting with the police.
00:09:17I think we're driving the police crazy.
00:09:19Like most missing person cases, police believe James would eventually turn up.
00:09:24Just not taking you seriously enough.
00:09:26Is that how you felt?
00:09:27Yes.
00:09:27Like, how do you know he's not off on a trip somewhere?
00:09:30Yes.
00:09:31But I was screaming, I know my son.
00:09:35This wasn't the first time Rachel had felt so helpless.
00:09:39Six years earlier, she lost her younger son, Michael, to muscular dystrophy.
00:09:44Now, the prospect that James could also be gone was becoming a painful reality.
00:09:49I know when that word, Marco, came out and it did not come back.
00:09:54And there had been no report of an accident.
00:09:58I knew my son was not with me anymore.
00:10:05Two weeks passed.
00:10:07Still, no sign of James anywhere.
00:10:12So the missing persons unit turned the case over to the homicide division and veteran detective, Mike Ballard.
00:10:18This is like he fell off the face of the earth.
00:10:20Based on my experience, we weren't going to find Mr. Chambers alive.
00:10:23You thought that very quickly after you got the case?
00:10:27When we found out there was no contact with family, I didn't think he would be found alive.
00:10:34Ballard kept that to himself as he started interviewing James' inner circle,
00:10:39quickly learning about the last day anyone saw him alive.
00:10:43Chambers went to work that day.
00:10:45The roommates took him to work.
00:10:49Howard, as Detective Ballard discovered, was Howard Ashleman, a fun-loving 21-year-old co-worker of James' hired by
00:10:58Pete.
00:10:59He was a nice young boy. He was polite, respectful.
00:11:02This was a good employee.
00:11:03Yeah, he was. He worked out pretty good.
00:11:08Howard lived in this country house with an older couple named the Bensons,
00:11:12who knew his family and helped him get a job with Pete.
00:11:15In fact, Pete had asked Howard for a favor the day his son disappeared.
00:11:19I said, all right, Howard, do you mind taking James home?
00:11:24He said, no, I have no problem.
00:11:27So Detective Ballard wanted to learn more about Howard.
00:11:30Raised by a religious family in Illinois, Howard later moved to North Carolina.
00:11:36Turns out he had been interviewed by the Missing Persons Unit several days earlier.
00:11:40So Ballard studied the tape as Howard discussed his relationship with James.
00:11:45Did you guys ever hang out after work?
00:11:47Yes, ma'am.
00:11:48How was that?
00:11:48Not bad.
00:11:51Howard was soft-spoken, polite, and seemed eager to help.
00:11:55You guys left work. Tell me what happened.
00:11:58Well, we went and I stopped at the ABC store.
00:12:01How was work that day? Was everything good?
00:12:04Everything was great.
00:12:06Howard recalled how he took James to buy liquor,
00:12:09then went to James' house where they had some drinks.
00:12:14Howard said he left before it got dark.
00:12:17So this is the last sighting by anybody, then, of James?
00:12:21By anybody. All contact with family, social media. He disappeared from everything.
00:12:25Everything.
00:12:26Howard then detailed what he did the rest of the evening.
00:12:29When I left him, I went straight home.
00:12:32And the neighbors were having a barbecue across the street.
00:12:36So I stopped in there.
00:12:37Who was all at the barbecue?
00:12:39The people who were there?
00:12:41Just them?
00:12:42Just them?
00:12:42Some friends.
00:12:45Surveillance video confirmed Howard's account of being with James Chambers that afternoon.
00:12:50But what happened after he dropped James off remained a mystery.
00:12:55Given their late start, homicide detectives were now playing catch-up, and it would cost them.
00:13:00We done lost a tremendous amount of time.
00:13:03We was behind the eight ball.
00:13:05But sitting just a mile from the police station was a strange but significant clue, if they could still find
00:13:13it.
00:13:15Coming up.
00:13:17I could just almost hear the desperation in her post.
00:13:22A stranger comes to a mother's rescue.
00:13:25She's like your guardian angel.
00:13:26Yes.
00:13:28When Dateline continues.
00:13:44Fayetteville police were chasing every lead, checking locations, interviewing virtually anybody who knew James Chambers, including his roommate, Brandy Chagru.
00:13:55We don't know where he is.
00:13:57We haven't heard anything from him.
00:14:01James' mom, Rachel, and sister Jessica feared the worst, so they posted an urgent message on Facebook pleading for help.
00:14:08It was seen by people all over the country.
00:14:11A lot of people saying they were praying for us, and that meant so much.
00:14:17Someone is praying for your son to come home.
00:14:24That Facebook message just happened to catch the eye of a woman named Fran Funderburg.
00:14:29I could just almost hear the desperation in her post as though I were hearing her voice to say, someone
00:14:37please just help us find James.
00:14:41Fran was a long time volunteer with class kids, an organization that assists families whose children are missing or exploited.
00:14:49It was founded after the disappearance of Poly Class in 1993, a tragic story that captured worldwide attention.
00:14:58Police are searching for any sign of 12-year-old Poly Class.
00:15:04Fran reached out to James' family, then drove 90 minutes to Rachel's house.
00:15:09When I opened the door and she said, I'm with class kids, and we are here to help you, felt
00:15:16like a lifeline.
00:15:18You needed that at that moment.
00:15:20Oh yeah, because I was falling apart.
00:15:23One of the first things that I said to Rachel is, you, from this moment forward, you are the voice
00:15:31for your child.
00:15:35Fran immediately put a plan into place and gave Rachel a reality check on what to expect.
00:15:41This may not happen tomorrow, and this may take years.
00:15:44Without her guidance, there is no way I'd have been prepared for this journey.
00:15:48She's like your guardian angel.
00:15:50Yes.
00:15:54Fran and Rachel circulated thousands of flyers and canvassed countless neighborhoods
00:16:00as search teams scoured the forest surrounding Fayetteville.
00:16:05We walked days and days putting out flyers and just searching anywhere we thought he might be.
00:16:11But nothing?
00:16:12Nothing. Nothing at all.
00:16:16It was around this time that Pete told Fran about Howard Ashleman.
00:16:20He had a hunch Howard might know more than he was letting on
00:16:23and suggested that Fran, who had experience with these types of cases, talked to Howard.
00:16:28So they met at this restaurant.
00:16:31What were your first impressions?
00:16:33Oh, he was charming.
00:16:35He was very cordial, very polite.
00:16:38We wanted to understand what his last encounter with James was.
00:16:46Once again, Howard gave the same story he told the missing persons unit.
00:16:50But to Fran, the way he answered her questions was a little strange.
00:16:54Sometimes he's very forthcoming, and other times there's a long pause as though he's thinking of his answer.
00:17:03So that did make us concerned about how truthful he was actually being.
00:17:10Did you ever ask him, did you have anything to do with James' disappearance?
00:17:14Absolutely.
00:17:15What did he say?
00:17:16No.
00:17:17So they wrapped up the meeting, which ended as warmly as it started.
00:17:21When he left, we embraced.
00:17:25And I said, hang in there.
00:17:27When the police come to you, cooperate, and they'll be done with you.
00:17:33But detectives weren't done with him, especially after they checked out something odd, Howard said during his police interview.
00:17:41It was about his truck, the one he gave James a ride home in.
00:17:45What happened to the vehicle?
00:17:47My vehicle?
00:17:48Mm-hmm.
00:17:49I sold it already.
00:17:50Not only sold it, Howard said he sold it to a scrapyard of all places.
00:17:57Sure enough, detectives found surveillance video that showed his truck being towed into the yard just five days after James
00:18:04disappeared.
00:18:05What was wrong with your truck?
00:18:07I blew it up.
00:18:09Blew it up, doing donuts and burning rubber on the road for fun.
00:18:16Howard said it wrecked the engine, so he scrapped the truck.
00:18:20All of which seemed very strange to Detective Mike Ballard.
00:18:24Why would you scrap a truck?
00:18:25If the engine locks up, you replace an engine.
00:18:29Once they crush it, it's gone.
00:18:31It just didn't make sense.
00:18:34But to Pete Chambers, it was starting to make sense.
00:18:38Pete remembered confronting Howard at work a few days after James disappeared.
00:18:42The very next day, Howard sold the truck.
00:18:46And...
00:18:47He never showed back up for work.
00:18:49That's odd.
00:18:50Yeah, very odd.
00:18:53Odd, yes.
00:18:54But incriminating?
00:18:56Not really.
00:18:57Detectives had nothing solid linking Howard to James' disappearance.
00:19:02But little did anyone know that a stunning list of new names would soon surface, leading to a prime suspect.
00:19:12Coming up, someone knew much more than they were saying.
00:19:16He was with Howard Ashleman on the evening that James Chambers was witnessing.
00:19:21But he didn't want to talk to police.
00:19:24This is not without a warrant.
00:19:25So something's up with him, you feel like?
00:19:27Something's up with him.
00:19:28Something's up with him.
00:19:28Sweet.
00:19:49Men and!
00:19:56Lori West
00:19:57were feeling heat from the family at this point we did not even have a body in the case we
00:20:04didn't
00:20:04know if it was a missing persons case or a homicide case and all we had were some stories
00:20:09from howard ashland that did not add up so detectives brought him in for yet another interview
00:20:16howard told basically the same story but he did add a few intriguing new details
00:20:22when you left james house where did you go home where were you at for the whole evening
00:20:29i was at the house and my friends across the street
00:20:35except detectives had checked howard's cell phone records and they showed he was not exactly where
00:20:41he said he was your cell phone was pinging at this place for almost two hours okay so that means
00:20:49you
00:20:49within this three mile radius that means you're not at home
00:20:55okay well explain it to me
00:21:00reno's house is in here somewhere okay and he had my phone on him when he went back home
00:21:08who was reno and why would he have howard's phone for two hours detectives learned his full name was
00:21:16reno parks and that he sometimes hung out with howard we didn't know a whole lot about him but
00:21:21what really stood out was that he was with howard ashleman on the evening that james chambers witnessing
00:21:30then howard admitted something else he was with reno parks after that barbecue across the street
00:21:38he said reno needed to treat a cut on his finger so howard went to the hospital with him around
00:21:433 a.m
00:21:44as his story kept growing so did detectives suspicions
00:21:49howard this is your this is your out i brought you in right now to tell me the truth you
00:21:54have not
00:21:54told me that truth since you walked in that door yes no you have not that's the only thing i
00:21:59want for
00:22:00you today howard is the truth i'm sorry i mean some of the some of this stuff it's not like
00:22:08it
00:22:08happened yesterday for the rest of the interview howard didn't offer much more but he did give
00:22:15detectives and the d.a a new lead reno parks reno spent quite a bit of time with howard ashleman
00:22:24they socialized together i think there maybe was some criminal record there reno parks was now out
00:22:30on parole but he was hard to track down so detective ballard did a little research on when parks would
00:22:36be at the probation office and paid him a surprise visit he just lost all color in his face when
00:22:42he
00:22:42seen us walk in because he's been ignoring us and avoiding us and we asked him if he would talk
00:22:46to us
00:22:47he says not without a warrant so something's up with him something's up with reno parks we feel
00:22:52like reno parks at this time knew something or had something to do with it with reno and howard
00:23:00having clammed up rachel and fran moved ahead with their own online investigation hoping to learn more
00:23:07about who howard ashleman really was i knew i was piecing together the personality of the person that was
00:23:15with my son last when we started watching watching howard by watching his facebook page
00:23:22i started to learn a lot about him i was consumed by that when you work on social media it's
00:23:30like a
00:23:31spider trail one person leads to another and rachel was doing the same thing
00:23:37if i was awake i was on social media it kind of takes on a life of its own it
00:23:43snowballs you think
00:23:45you're looking at one person but if you go from one person into their friends and you start tagging
00:23:52from friend to friend and you see the list there of names that's how i found 12 howards
00:24:00did you get that 12 different howards 12 unique facebook accounts according to fran and rachel each
00:24:09with its own persona it started out where he was doing a thuggish look and then he transformed over to
00:24:17a intellectual college look but all along he's going under 12 different names howard ashleman he was
00:24:27adrian manson manson there were just a myriad of different names and and personas and photos that he
00:24:37would post on facebook and they also found one more rather chilling reference to howard homicidal howie
00:24:48he's calling himself that yes and manson these are very very disturbing pages
00:24:58even more disturbing were some of the things fran and rachel believed howard and his friends
00:25:02were sharing on facebook you want to read this one this is one of the earlier post i never knew
00:25:09much
00:25:09about people until i took one apart just to see how it worked that's pretty daunting this really became
00:25:17a job for you two just scrolling and searching and looking for clues anything just to try to find james
00:25:25some of the posts were bizarre ranging from cannibalism to burning things fran also said there
00:25:33were references to violence and weapons this is a post by howard using his pseudo name he says you might
00:25:41shoot fast but i shoot faster bust your ass like a big contractor
00:25:49it was hard to make sense of what howard was up to or why
00:25:54fran and rachel wondered if they were just attention seeking posts from a 20-something kid
00:25:59or maybe they were cryptic clues about what happened to james like howard's exchanges with
00:26:05his facebook friends sleeping with the fishes his friend posted that we don't do drive-bys we do walk-ups
00:26:14howard responded you already know and in your mind are you connecting this to james yes
00:26:24they turned the posts over to police and even though detectives also believed they came from howard
00:26:30there wasn't much they could do with them you can't arrest someone based on that facebook post
00:26:36it's not evidence so the case sat on the shelf months passed then it was christmas
00:26:45the first christmas without james how are you coping i'm not i'm just desperate
00:26:52i want james and that's all i can think about is i want james but the new year would bring
00:26:59stunning
00:27:00new leads and a new investigator rica find who you just might remember from dateline smell something up
00:27:08here coming up a local legend hits the jackpot we start inspecting it and sure enough we've got blood
00:27:20spatter on the side window and howard ashleman faces new trouble he had beat the teeth off of her
00:27:28when dateline continues
00:27:42six long and painful months after her son james disappeared
00:27:46rachel wellhauser and her second husband dennis made a tough decision they moved out of state
00:27:53in trying to find james rachel was beginning to lose herself i was obsessed i'd have walked north
00:28:00carolina looking for him if i wasn't on the computer i was looking my husband thought the only way i'm
00:28:09gonna save me is to get me out of here where i'm not looking over every bridge looking in every
00:28:14field
00:28:15so he took me to texas even 1200 miles away in dallas the obsession didn't leave her rachel continued
00:28:24hunting howard ashleman on social media are you starting to become more suspicious of howard ashleman
00:28:30the more you learn about him when i'm seeing some of the posts he's putting up he's terrifying me
00:28:38because he's out there then during the summer of 2015 came another post involving howard
00:28:46only this one wasn't on facebook but rather the criminal court docket howard ashleman was charged
00:28:53in a domestic violence incident uh with a young lady he was in a relationship with at the time
00:29:01james's roommate brandy was facebook friends with the woman and clearly remembered the allegations
00:29:06i wonder you need to be careful and that was when it came about that he had beat the teeth
00:29:13off of her
00:29:14howard was charged a court date set but we were not able to proceed to trial and the case was
00:29:22ultimately
00:29:22dismissed dismissed dismissed because the woman didn't attend a pre-trial hearing she was so scared
00:29:29of him she was afraid to see him in court the james chambers case wasn't looking too promising either
00:29:37even though the d.a now considered howard the prime suspect we simply did not have enough evidence
00:29:44to charge him with any crimes related to the disappearance of james chambers we did not have a
00:29:50body to build our investigation upon so it was going cold
00:29:57but james's father pete was hot furious that the investigation had stalled he desperately wanted
00:30:04fresh eyes on the case my brother and i were talking one day and he said let's contact david
00:30:10david was david marshburn a private investigator pete had seen on tv marshburn is known for finding
00:30:17missing people on his own time and own dime he had become a local legend after cracking a cold case
00:30:23in
00:30:232014 involving a missing army medic a story we covered on dateline how daunting of a task was it
00:30:31it's not that easy to find marshburn had secured a confession and even found the body
00:30:38after hearing pete's story about his son's disappearance he signed on immediately the
00:30:44james chamber case seemed to be one that could be solved in a reasonable time
00:30:52marshburn got right to work i asked pete could we get on the property of the bensons and that's
00:30:58where howard was living and pete said well i think we can make that work the bensons were the couple
00:31:07who had taken howard in after he moved to north carolina happened to be mr benson was not there
00:31:14this benson was she didn't like howard she said search all you want to we get the dog out and
00:31:21have
00:31:21him start looking around your cadaver dog kaz did kaz hit on anything he did um the first thing he
00:31:28did
00:31:28was he went to these two abandoned vehicles when pete took a closer look he hit the jackpot
00:31:37you could see the expression on his face oh my god i'm like what he said these are the truck
00:31:44parts
00:31:46these are all howard's truck that he tore apart remember howard sold his truck for scrap right after
00:31:55james disappeared but now it turned out he'd kept some parts significant ones like windows the radio even
00:32:04seat belts that was like a gold mine we started inspecting it and sure enough we've got blood spatter
00:32:13on the side window it's still there we've got blood spatter on the radio so this is at least what
00:32:21you think it is i'm pretty confident at this point in time because this is high velocity spatter right
00:32:27here suggesting someone may have been shot inside the truck fayetteville police were also at the scene
00:32:36and collected the parts to have them tested for dna maybe we have something now that we can prove that
00:32:42howard did this while they waited for the results marshburn had another idea see if reno parks would
00:32:49talk reno wasn't hard to find he was locked up on a robbery wrap so marshburn arranged a meeting at
00:32:58the
00:32:58prison i said reno i have this evidence and he's interested now because he's like wait a minute what
00:33:07evidence i thought it was all gone i showed him a picture of the seat belt with the blood stain
00:33:12the
00:33:13radio and the windows what was his reaction he shook his head looked at him and i said you can
00:33:21either
00:33:21be a witness or defendant it's up to you did he start talking he looked at the pictures looked down
00:33:28and next thing i know when he looks up he's crying he's got tears streaming down his face
00:33:34and he said what do you need to know nothing would ever prepare me for what would come next
00:33:41coming up murder is one thing this was the stuff of nightmares i called the dad and i said pete
00:33:50you
00:33:50don't want to know that's when he told me
00:34:12inside these prison walls david marshburn could feel it
00:34:16he had reno parks primed and ready to reveal what happened to james chambers
00:34:21and i said i need to know where this boy is
00:34:24and is he like nervous how's his demeanor as he's telling you this he's nervous he's just
00:34:29doing like this and he he'd look up at me and said this boy did not deserve this
00:34:37marshburn had limited time with reno so he got him talking about how it all started
00:34:43he says that reno remembered hanging out at that barbecue across the street from howard's house
00:34:49when soon all hell broke loose he said howard stopped at the beginning of the driveway
00:34:56got out of his truck went to the back of the truck lowered the tailgate got out a gun
00:35:04raised it up and just shot right into the back window of his truck
00:35:10this is huge it is he said i saw him shot reno insisted he wasn't involved in the shooting
00:35:19but his story was horrific he said howard first hid the body on the benson's property
00:35:26then two days later he tried to burn it when that didn't work reno said howard did the unthinkable
00:35:34and he is bawling at this point in time and he said ma'am please tell that mom and dad
00:35:41i'm sorry
00:35:41i'm sorry he said he cut him up cut him up reno explained by actually dismembering the body
00:35:50and putting it into thick plastic bags with his time in the prison running out marshburn still needed
00:35:59reno to reveal the most crucial detail of all what howard did with james's body as i'm trying to leave
00:36:08i said well where did he put him he said over a bridge it was concrete had columns reno said
00:36:14he was
00:36:14with howard when he threw the bags yes he he rode with him was reno parks's story for real we
00:36:25tried
00:36:25reaching out to him but never heard back reno remember had a rap sheet how reliable was he as a
00:36:31witness marshburn believed him and now as he was leaving the prison came the most difficult part of all
00:36:40i called the dad and i said pete you don't want to know
00:36:46that's when he told me he told you what happened that howard shot him
00:36:53in the back the back of the head and tried to burn him
00:37:04then cut him up into pieces
00:37:10i'm so sorry
00:37:15cut him up into pieces and put him in bags and threw him in the damn river like he was
00:37:19trash
00:37:24after 18 months he finally had some answers assuming reno was telling the truth if so perhaps pete and
00:37:31rachel could bring their son home and maybe bring howard ashleman to justice
00:37:39by now there was a new fayetteville detective on the case larry donnegan had taken the lead
00:37:45i got promoted to homicide it was one of those hey this cold case is yours
00:37:52detective donnegan later learned about that disturbing interview with reno parks and discussed
00:37:57the details with marshburn but donnegan wanted to conduct his own interrogation with parks on tape
00:38:03to make sure it would hold up in court he declined he didn't even want to talk to us did
00:38:09you try to
00:38:09interview howard again i wanted something new to throw in front of him to try and get him to a
00:38:15point like uh-oh they got me that's what we try to do the dna the dna remember the truck
00:38:23parts that
00:38:23howard saved the ones which appeared to be stained with blood maybe that blood would match james's dna
00:38:31detective donnegan expedited extensive tests at two different labs the seat belts were tested yes and
00:38:40nothing nothing nothing too much time had passed yeah everything was inconclusive big big let down
00:38:49and it goes you're back to square one digging deeper into the case file detective donnegan reviewed
00:38:56all those police interviews with howard and all his suspected facebook pages watching him change
00:39:03he seemed to be an individual i can kind of move through different crowds and everything just kept
00:39:09leading back towards howard that he was the primary key to the case
00:39:17so donnegan went to the house where howard lived with the benson family for a look around
00:39:22he found nothing but he did encounter ruth benson that's where i found out kind of howard was a
00:39:28hunter he had access to mr benson's guns and then she made a comment about howard where she refers to
00:39:36howard as homicide howie mrs benson yes calling him homicide howie that name much like the one rachel and
00:39:45fran had discovered ruth benson told us that she called him homicide howie because she said he had
00:39:52killed a friend's dog but police suspected the nickname really referred to what howard did to james did you
00:39:59start to feel like this is an open secret how people feel about howard and what he may have done
00:40:05yes i believe the benson's knew more and the same with his circle of friends but the benson's told detectives
00:40:13and also us they were unaware of any crime howard might have committed against james
00:40:20as for howard the day detective donnegan visited the benson's property
00:40:24he wasn't there turns out howard would soon disappear and leave fayetteville far behind
00:40:32coming up a mother's vow to her son he says just promise and i said i promise promise james when
00:40:45dateline
00:41:01is
00:41:05it's a long drive from texas to north carolina 20 tedious hours
00:41:13but every few months rachel returned to the carolina countryside to search for her son
00:41:20often alone sometimes with her husband dennis this is where we started at today yeah this is need more
00:41:31here going off some of the grim details of reno parks's story and her own intuition rachel would
00:41:37tromp through the thick forest along rivers and streams combing the brush surveying every bridge
00:41:44searching for any trace of her son something she could bring back home to give james a proper burial
00:41:51if i can't find even 50 miles i'll put 100 miles you'll expand your grid yes till if i do
00:41:59is this
00:42:00something you'll do until you just can't do it anymore i'll do it till i die
00:42:07what keeps you going on these searches my love
00:42:13my promise
00:42:16her promise remember when james first went missing and rachel was frantically trying to fulfill a
00:42:22promise by finding out where he was turns out that promise was one she'd made years earlier when james's
00:42:29little brother michael died the day of the funeral when we were walking away from michael's casket
00:42:37and james touched my arm and says mom something ever happens to me put me by michael and i beg
00:42:47i said james
00:42:47please don't ask me that you couldn't bear losing another son no and he says just promise and i said
00:42:57i promise
00:43:01promise promise james
00:43:04so rachel tried to fulfill that promise one step one stream and one bridge at a time
00:43:13in all kinds of wilderness and weather
00:43:17this rugged area makes searching very difficult thick forests swampy terrain wild animals deadly snakes
00:43:25not to mention how many years have gone by
00:43:31the region had also seen a major hurricane and several other severe storms which could have washed
00:43:36away any trace of james so it wasn't surprising that all of rachel's searching led absolutely nowhere
00:43:44do you ever want to give up no i'll give up when we find him i've had a lot of
00:43:52people say it's been too
00:43:53long not for me it hasn't i'm not giving up i can't sit and wait i'm running now
00:44:06so finding him would give you at least yes a piece of the closure yes and to be able to
00:44:11go to his grave
00:44:13and to know that's as close as i can be to him because right now i'm living in the where
00:44:17where are you
00:44:21when she wasn't searching rachel was clicking constantly checking howard ashelman's facebook
00:44:28pages and comparing notes with her co-investigator fran funderberg then a couple of years after james
00:44:36disappeared the two noticed something rather surprising howard's social media postings just
00:44:42suddenly stopped many of the postings that had been placed there in the um year past were removed
00:44:51it's quite the contrast from the howard that you'd been investigating it really was and we were quite
00:44:58concerned when he went off the grid for a time he stopped posting we were concerned that maybe he was
00:45:05in the wind and uh would not be found anytime soon detectives and the d.a also noticed that howard
00:45:16seemed to just vanish the homicide detectives certainly were watching his movements and
00:45:21whereabouts although there was nothing to constrain him at this time he sort of just you know dropped
00:45:27off the uh the face of the earth so to speak then one day several weeks after howard had gone
00:45:34silent
00:45:35a picture popped up on facebook it was howard in the last place you would ever imagine
00:45:44coming up he will morph and change into whatever he needs to change into to survive
00:45:52like why is he in a bible college where he apparently found religion and a girlfriend too she's standing
00:45:59there with evil
00:46:16it was late summer 2016 when rachel saw it a new photo of howard ashleman but it was the setting
00:46:25that
00:46:25really caught her attention in the background there's palm trees a couple of buildings license plates
00:46:33he is now in florida further through his page there are pictures and on the corner of a picture
00:46:42there is hope sound
00:46:46hope sound a quiet community near west palm beach
00:46:51i start googling looking for hope sound hope sound bible college hope sound christian church all this
00:46:59is popping up in the area and then her search revealed exactly what howard was up to
00:47:07he is going to a bible college what do you think when you see that that he is attending a
00:47:13bible college
00:47:14he needed it perfect place for him i thought yes howard ashleman aka homicide howie was actually attending
00:47:23an accredited christian college whose mission statement in part reads committed to preparing
00:47:29servant leaders who think biblically live spirit-filled lives and here's howard sporting a new look
00:47:38dramatically different from his fayetteville days singing a hymn called statue of liberty which was
00:47:45posted on social media i'm so glad to be called a christian singing those lyrics howard seems to
00:47:58be proclaiming his faith
00:48:06word of the new howard spread fast to fayetteville it is definitely like two different people it was
00:48:12quite confusing to us to understand what his motivation behind that was
00:48:20it's divine irony for me for somebody who's fleeing to go to bible college i wish i could explain
00:48:28the cluster cluckery that is howard ashleman's mind
00:48:34everyone now wondered had howard come here to find god or find cover i think he's remorseful at this
00:48:42time and he wants forgiveness i think it's eating him alive
00:48:49rachel amped up her internet search and discovered even more about howard's new life on campus
00:48:54then i find out going through different facebook pages he's now seeing a young woman out there
00:49:04that terrifies me her name was hannah jones just 17 at the time she also attended the bible college and
00:49:14sang in the choir a high-profile school activity the college posted videos of it on their youtube account
00:49:21i was genuinely worried about her and i didn't know if she knew she was standing next to through her
00:49:30eyes she's standing there you know with mr wonderful with yeah her god-loving clean-cut
00:49:35boyfriend through your eyes she's standing there with a monster she's standing there with evil
00:49:47and says i need your help i'm like what's going on kind of find out howard's at a bible college
00:49:55what
00:49:55do you think when you hear that he's hiding he's trying to play i got away with it i'm gonna
00:50:01get into
00:50:02an environment that keeps me straight so i don't mess up marshburn reached out to the college's youth
00:50:11pastor and shocked him with the news that howard the bible student was also howard the murder suspect
00:50:19he's like well not howard you know he's in the choir and i said well you obviously don't know howard
00:50:26like
00:50:26we know him i said go online look at it look up james chambers missing i did remind him that
00:50:32his job
00:50:33was to take care of his flock you got a potentially a bad sheep in the flock well they got
00:50:39a wolf in
00:50:40sheep's clothing yeah after alerting the bible college marshburn spoke with the father of howard's
00:50:47girlfriend and i said i believe that your daughter could be in danger and he's like i can't believe
00:50:54i said sir it's just a matter of time and your daughter's gonna wind up hurt physically mentally or something
00:51:05by now the martin county sheriff's office was alerted detective dan dulac was assigned to
00:51:11what would quickly become one of the most memorable cases of his career we were concerned
00:51:16for the safety of of everybody in martin county we need to find out more about what's going on
00:51:22so dulac spoke with fayetteville police to get the lowdown on the james chambers investigation
00:51:28detective donnegan filled him in and shared his concerns about howard he's a true chameleon that he
00:51:34will morph and change into whatever he needs to change into to survive what is he up to like why
00:51:41is
00:51:41he in a bible college yeah usually killers find god maybe once they're behind bars yes so what's the
00:51:49end game to this we were able to kind of get a background an idea of the type of person
00:51:55he was
00:51:56and who we might be dealing with before we actually approach him like how dangerous could this guy
00:52:00potentially right and that's the concern is how do we need to deal with him detective dulac now found
00:52:07himself knee-deep in a homicide investigation and soon he would be sitting face to face with the man
00:52:14at the center of it all do you have any idea why you're here right now coming up howard's girlfriend
00:52:22hannah would also soon be meeting with police so he's talked about shooting people before
00:52:31he's made it sound like that was hannah in danger she was concerned that if he found out that she
00:52:38had
00:52:38been talking to law enforcement already would his demeanor change toward her when dateline continues
00:53:00hope sound florida bills itself as a charming little beach town with understated elegance
00:53:06but in january 2017 there was nothing understated or elegant about what was going down at the martin
00:53:14county sheriff's office how long have you known uh howard since late august that's hannah jones howard's
00:53:26bible college girlfriend with her parents undergoing a probing police interview what have you been told by
00:53:32anybody is there some way that you can use hannah to try to get something out of howard yes the
00:53:46first
00:53:46plan with hannah was just to get information from her to find out what howard had told her about his
00:53:51life
00:53:51in fayetteville and according to hannah howard admitted he was no choir boy in fayetteville
00:53:57he mainly sold drugs and he was in some gangs
00:54:06and he didn't care a lot about what people thought if they didn't do what he wanted
00:54:12they'd just shoot him so he's talked about shooting people before
00:54:19he's made it sound like that i don't know if he came out my impression from hannah
00:54:22was that it almost seemed like this is someone who was broken and needed help and fixing it was
00:54:30apparent that she truly was in love with this guy hannah seemed to be on the fence about howard she
00:54:37wasn't sure how she was going to be able to break it off with him but hannah's parents feared their
00:54:4217
00:54:42year old daughter was now in danger we obviously don't feel comfortable with her hanging out with
00:54:48howard i don't know when he might snap or change who he is as a person and she'd be right
00:54:55in the middle
00:54:55of it and um that concerns me as a dad so hannah seemed to think that howard didn't pose any
00:55:03kind
00:55:04of threat to her but she was concerned that if he found out that she had been talking to law
00:55:09enforcement already would his demeanor change toward her detective dulac needed to get to howard
00:55:17quickly before he discovered police were poking into his past howard was at work but agreed to come
00:55:24in for an interview i don't want to go through that well i understand but we need we need to
00:55:30try to
00:55:31what kind of person do you think he was what what impression were you getting it was just really hard
00:55:36to read him he wasn't giving me a lot to work with he was very evasive he didn't want to
00:55:40talk
00:55:42especially about his troubled time back in fayetteville i've tried to erase it out of my mind because it
00:55:47was traumatic for me right after that i started using drugs real heavy and i kind of fried my brain
00:55:58and i said okay but i'm sure you still remember i remember a little bit and stuff but howard offered
00:56:04no specifics about the murder you asked him straight up if he killed james chambers i did and i told
00:56:11him
00:56:11i said i have no doubt in my mind that james is dead and that you know something about what
00:56:17happened to
00:56:18him you want to be a preacher howard wouldn't say dulac even tried appealing to his newfound faith
00:56:24you have made a decision to be a different person to be a good christian to be a leader of
00:56:30the
00:56:30christian faith he's here at the bible college he's trying to be a pastor he's learning about
00:56:36christianity you're really trying to play to the new howard yes yes not the old howard i knew that
00:56:43the old howard would never talk to me but in the end the new howard wouldn't talk either
00:56:52after that police interview howard went to see hannah and she had a conversation with howard
00:56:59and she recorded that conversation did she tell you she was going to do that she did not tell us
00:57:04she
00:57:04was going to do that hannah didn't tell howard either as her cell phone secretly recorded their
00:57:10conversation she had to know was her boyfriend also a killer who got killed what it was you or not
00:57:18who got killed hey did you do something there
00:57:25you want to tell him i can't as the conversation continued hannah kept urging howard to give up his
00:57:36horrible secret did you kill the person tell me i don't have to do that no you don't have to
00:57:44you sure you know if you didn't you tell me you didn't
00:57:51you did when hannah said did you kill someone and he nodded his head she tells us later that he
00:57:59nodded
00:57:59his head yes even though he's not giving a full out confession he's really like coming right up to
00:58:06the line yes clearly the facts of the admissions that he's making lined up with the facts of the
00:58:12case of james chambers being missing clearly this was going to be strong evidence in the case against
00:58:17him hannah's mother later turned the recording over to the sheriff's office but not before yet another
00:58:24bombshell a couple hours later my supervisor is calling me saying hey howard wants to confess
00:58:31to the murder of james chambers what are you thinking that's amazing over the course of one
00:58:37day we went from having never even heard of this case before to him coming in and now confessing to
00:58:42this murder detectives in two states couldn't crack howard but it seemed his devout and determined
00:58:49girlfriend had finally done it a meeting was hastily set up in this walgreens parking lot with howard and
00:58:57the jones family i told him okay i'm all ears tell me what you want to tell me i'm definitely
00:59:02going to do the right thing i'm not trying to run or nothing you know okay i would believe it
00:59:09but that was it because the jones family actually said he needs a lawyer before he he says anything
00:59:17a florida public defender soon arrived and advised howard to hold off on talking
00:59:23so no confession that was a huge letdown i wanted to call fayetteville and tell them hey
00:59:29we have a confession we've got him here in custody so he just drives away yes we parted ways with
00:59:37howard
00:59:38the bible college also parted ways with howard the college declined our request for an interview
00:59:44but its president provided a video statement about their former student when he shared the incident
00:59:49with us we realized it was very serious and we told him that he could no longer continue as a
00:59:56student at hope sound bible college we urged him to go back to north carolina and make confession to the
01:00:03proper authorities whether it was pressure from the college hannah her parents or his own conscience
01:00:11howard decided to head up the highway to fayetteville and finally confess
01:00:15yes as that was happening district attorney billy west was finalizing a plea deal with the fayetteville
01:00:22public defender assigned to howard's case howard ashwin would plead guilty to second-degree murder he
01:00:27would get a sentence of 15 to 20 years we thought that we'd get some justice for james and his
01:00:33family
01:00:34and maybe even find james but then a snag a big one
01:00:42coming up more pain for james's parents you must have been so mad oh man yeah livid
01:01:08when howard ashleman returned to fayetteville to meet with his public defender and law enforcement to
01:01:14confess it seemed too good to be true turned out it was he basically got cold feet and left the
01:01:25area
01:01:25and did not enter into the plea no plea meant no deal no confession no justice
01:01:35and most importantly no james his father pete was devastated
01:01:41what i was told by fayetteville pd was public defender told him they don't have anything on you
01:01:46they thought that they were looking out for his best interest right he don't care about
01:01:50parents of the guy who killed you must have been so mad oh man yeah livid livid
01:01:59so was james's mother rachel just hours earlier it seemed like she was on the verge of getting all the
01:02:06answers about her son's murder did you just want to give up at that point no one thing howard wants
01:02:13me to do is give up walk away lay down and grieve one thing i want is james
01:02:22without a confession the case against howard collapsed district attorney billy west had to let it go
01:02:29the evidence was not overwhelming against howard ashley we were confident that he was responsible
01:02:36for james's death but we did not feel like that we were in a position right then to proceed towards
01:02:44trial with the case it seemed like he got away scot-free he walked off skipping and whistling
01:02:53howard returned to florida and continued his relationship with hannah jones what about the
01:02:59jones family were they accepting howard back into their lives yeah from my understanding that he was
01:03:04still very close with the jones family i believe he was staying with them um and they were very tight
01:03:10knit still so like after all they learned about him they were still they were still very supportive
01:03:17of him it appeared howard the murder suspect was back to being howard the boyfriend we tried asking
01:03:24hannah and her parents to explain their 180 they declined detective dulac though had a theory
01:03:31something happened that made them a change their opinion of howard i don't know if they were just
01:03:37that forgiving if they really just saw a lot of good in him or what was really going on there
01:03:43but back at the fayetteville police department detective larry donnegan's opinion of howard
01:03:48hadn't changed even though his case had gone from solved to shambles donnegan still believed he could
01:03:55nail him we're starting from scratch all over again so how much pressure are you feeling to catch howard
01:04:02now it's there because now he's back in florida but is he going to uproot and disappear
01:04:10or perhaps do something even worse i was terrified he was going to do this to someone else and are
01:04:19you
01:04:19tracking him again daily i'm still watching him yes because we're worried about the people around him
01:04:28detective dulac also feared the worst we would keep an eye on what was going on and hopefully that he
01:04:36would go back to north carolina very quickly before anything else would happen
01:04:42months passed howard laid low did you start to worry that he would never be charged i mean there
01:04:50was no solid evidence there was no body no i was told early on get prepared your this could take
01:04:57years
01:04:58those words just stuck with me this could take years
01:05:03but little did rachel know detective donnegan was continuing to compile a case against howard
01:05:09i went back through the case file start looking over stuff we have a statement here check we have
01:05:15the stuff that he talked to hannah check we have statements over there check it's not perfect but is
01:05:20it enough now it's to the point where i can charge him the case against howard included that secret
01:05:27tape from hannah jones which d.a billy west hoped would help sway a jury we're going to get this
01:05:34case
01:05:34ready we're going to make sure that we've got evidence beyond reasonable doubt and then we're going to
01:05:39proceed december 2017 it was almost a year since howard's plea deal went sideways billy west called a
01:05:50meeting i remember looking at detective donnegan my homicide team and said we're going to charge him
01:05:57with murder and proceed to trial if he will not accept our plea agreement that's what we're going to do
01:06:05they contacted howard's public defender between the public defender and the prosecutor's office up
01:06:12here things were worked out a deal was worked out yes first he had to confess to everything then after
01:06:19the confession he had to work with us in an attempt to find james once again howard returned to fayetteville
01:06:29he showed up more or less here i am did you arrest him no no i charged him so howard
01:06:38was supposed to
01:06:40come confess as part of the arrangement we're going to let him leave he would return back the following
01:06:46day and then the process more or less would start but then it was deja vu all over again poof
01:06:55he's gone again
01:06:58coming up wedding bell blues why do you marry somebody that you know killed somebody when dateline continues
01:07:19i appreciate you first he was a murder suspect then a bible college student and now howard ashleman was a
01:07:27fugitive just a day after he promised once again to confess howard was missing which had d.a billy west
01:07:36worried we didn't know where he was people can try to you know drive several states away or take a
01:07:43flight
01:07:44to another country sort of go underground the d.a's office called the public defender's office which
01:07:52didn't know exactly where howard was either so detective larry donnegan moved into manhunt mode
01:07:58i conferred with the violent criminal apprehension team they went and did what they had to do to track
01:08:04him down and it didn't take long using cell phone records they located and then arrested howard some
01:08:1348 hours later near the tiny town of randleman north carolina i just don't know where they plan on going
01:08:20from there perhaps on a honeymoon because howard ashleman had married hannah jones
01:08:30that's right hannah now 18 was mrs howard ashleman just a few days before howard's arrest
01:08:38the two had driven to another county and tied the knot at this local courthouse
01:08:45when pete chambers got word of the wedding he wasn't exactly celebrating why do you marry somebody
01:08:52that you know killed somebody why do your parents let you marry them couldn't believe it why but yet
01:09:00they run off and get married and then apparently celebrated their marriage in rural north carolina
01:09:08so there's not going to be a tropical honeymoon in this case when he's got a one-way ticket
01:09:14to the big house no i don't know if his intention was just give me some time with my new
01:09:18wife and then
01:09:19i'll come and take the plea deal but it was the craziest thing i've seen
01:09:27or maybe not crazy maybe it was calculated was it a strategic move did you think why now that was
01:09:36i think to keep her quiet so she won't have to testify against him if they're married once they're
01:09:40married she can claim special immunity i'm not going to speak he's my husband and would their marriage
01:09:46also prevent the prosecution from presenting hannah's secret recording there certainly was a bit of a
01:09:53concern from a legal point of view are they trying to make some type of move where the evidence that
01:10:01hannah has is not presented to a jury if this case should go to trial so now it was critical
01:10:09to
01:10:09establish a timeline of howard and hannah's relationship and get a window into their private
01:10:14lives so detective donnegan got a search warrant for hannah's cell phone and downloaded hundreds of
01:10:19pictures sure enough there was howard proposing and their wedding at the courthouse plus a collection
01:10:26of photos of the loving couple throughout their relationship how did those photos of hannah and
01:10:32howard really help your investigation it gives a little more insight of their relationship my concern
01:10:41was that potentially hannah could disappear just like james by going through the photos looking at
01:10:49their life together their relationship time frame it appeared more that he actually truly cared about her
01:10:58after researching north carolina's spousal privilege laws da billy west was confident howard's tacit
01:11:05confession could be used in court because it was recorded by hannah before they were married so detectives
01:11:12hauled howard into an interrogation room while attorneys finalized his plea deal which included several
01:11:18more months of prison time to make up for that year of freedom he enjoyed after nixing the first deal
01:11:25he pled guilty to second degree murder and essentially 15 to 20 years and also he agreed to a full
01:11:33debriefing about what happened between he and james it was such a sense of relief that he was finally
01:11:48going to answer for what he had done you needed one more thing though mm-hmm james just want james
01:12:00that depended on howard and his confession would he finally reveal what really happened to james that
01:12:07hot august afternoon and would he share the secret of where to find him i was scared i didn't know
01:12:13what to do
01:12:15coming up tracing a killer's footsteps to try to find james we walk to the edge of the bridge he
01:12:23looks
01:12:23he's looking he's like this is familiar
01:12:43you have the right to remain silent anything you say can finally after nearly four years the man who
01:12:50morphed from homicide howie to bible college student to newlywed yes sir was ready to confess and
01:12:57solve the mystery of his own making about what happened to james chambers and where his body was hidden
01:13:03i don't know why
01:13:06i did what i did
01:13:10howard showed little emotion as he started spilling his dark secret
01:13:14which first began when he gave james a ride home in a truck similar to this one
01:13:20later that afternoon howard took james to the benson's house where he lived howard recalled during
01:13:25the drive james said he wanted to go see a guy to collect a debt and would beat him up
01:13:30if he didn't
01:13:31pay which howard didn't want to do howard said james got upset things got heated then got ugly
01:13:40i just wanted to scare him and tell him to back off basically went in the back of my truck
01:13:47and i picked up the rifle and i didn't even look through the scope or nothing i just
01:13:54raised up and squeezed the trigger off
01:14:02i was waiting for him to come out yelling at me to say that you just try to kill me
01:14:07but nothing
01:14:09happened you know then i realized
01:14:15i was in trouble
01:14:18he alludes to the fact that shooting james was perhaps an accident did you buy that no
01:14:25no not one bit you don't grab a hunting rifle and accidentally shoot through the cab of the truck
01:14:34i put my hand up there and there was no pulse or nothing and he wasn't breathing
01:14:40james died instantly howard detailed how he dumped the body in the woods behind the benson's house
01:14:48hours later howard said he and his friend reno parks went back to where he left it there in the
01:14:56dark
01:14:56woods howard lit a campfire so he could see then he admitted he tried to burn the body but it
01:15:03didn't
01:15:04work so howard said reno helped him bury it then some two weeks later when howard learned detectives
01:15:12were zeroing in on him he said he got nervous dug up the body and dismembered the remains
01:15:20you put the body in three bags yes and i wanted to be able to be easier to handle
01:15:30easier to handle said howard when he took the bags and drove with reno to a rural bridge
01:15:35where he tossed them into a creek below it was that weekend yeah when detective donnegan read the
01:15:42transcript of howard's grim confession to rachel it instantly triggered memories of all those facebook
01:15:47posts she'd seen as he was reading it i went he posted that he posted that fire dismemberant he had
01:15:59been
01:16:00giving you all along a road map yes to what had happened to james yes he had everything except for
01:16:07one the one crucial detail where was james howard as part of his plea deal was supposed to help detectives
01:16:16find the remains a week after the confession donnegan took howard and his attorney to the scene of the
01:16:24crime the benson property nothing of note turned up there so now they headed off looking for the bridge
01:16:33where howard said he dumped james's body does he know where to go completely clueless he just knows it
01:16:43is a bridge in sampson county that's concrete how many bridges are like that we narrowed it down to 12
01:16:51to 15
01:16:55bridges for a week they crisscrossed the rural county surveying every bridge we went by probably
01:17:01about 10 11 bridges and it was all no no no no no no then a local deputy gave donnegan
01:17:08the location of
01:17:09a bridge that seemed to match howard's description we walked to the edge of the bridge he looks and
01:17:14he's looking he's like this is familiar they searched the area but some four years after the murder
01:17:20there was no trace of james soon after the search howard was sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in
01:17:31prison at his court appearance covered by local media howard was actually caught on camera smiling
01:17:39if i could have got to him i'd be in jail because i lost it that day because now here
01:17:46he is actually
01:17:46confessing in front of me to killing my son did he apologize did he show any remorse no never never
01:17:52turned around looked at anybody cold a few months later another search was done around the bridge that
01:18:00howard had seemed to remember but again nothing
01:18:07another year passed still no hint of james time didn't heal the pain for his parents who vowed to keep
01:18:15searching i'm still not gonna stop till my son's laid to rest was it kind of the first thing you
01:18:21thought of when you woke up the last thing you thought of when you went to this day it's that
01:18:26way
01:18:28before i go to bed when i wake up it's all day you literally cannot stop thinking about it
01:18:36but maybe there was someone who could help someone who drove with howard to the bridge where he threw
01:18:41those bags with james's remains into the creek below it's going to be reno and reno only that can get
01:18:47us
01:18:48to the bottom of it reno parks remember pi david marshburn interviewed him three years earlier
01:18:56now marshburn knew that reno's statement about the murder was very similar to howard's confession
01:19:02so he went to visit reno in prison again to get specifics on the bridge where james's remains were
01:19:08dumped you remember the bridge you talked about with solid concrete was it like that
01:19:14no it was solid but there was no metal guard rail
01:19:19that's uh the keener bridge
01:19:23the very same bridge howard seemed to recognize now marshburn and others wanted to check it again
01:19:31so another search was mobilized in april 2021
01:19:39for two long days search teams tracked both land and water looking for any remnant of james
01:19:45there were a few findings like this cell phone zte can you see what year it is but it didn't
01:19:51belong to james
01:19:52boom that's big yeah neither did this bone which turned out to be from an animal
01:20:03as the sun began to set reality set in too james still wasn't coming home not on this day
01:20:13do you still believe that you can find him yes they find missing people all the time
01:20:19he'll be found what keeps me going is the fact that my son is laying in a creek bed somewhere
01:20:28like a piece of trash and that's not gonna happen
01:20:37we reached out to howard in prison to ask if he remembered any more about where he hid the remains
01:20:42of james chambers he never responded if he knows he's not saying who does this confession means that
01:20:53you tell the truth that i don't think he has and i think he knows that he hasn't but in
01:20:59the end
01:21:00karma drives a big bus and she knows everybody's address
01:21:07even without howard's help david marshburn remains optimistic and promises more searches
01:21:14he's even hoping that reno parks who is now out of prison can be convinced to help confirm exactly
01:21:20where howard dumped james's remains we'll keep coming back and coming back it might take
01:21:26five more years seven more years but it's all in god's time not ours
01:21:34for rachel those long drives to north carolina to search for her son continue
01:21:40a promise is a promise and one she intends to keep until she can bring james home
01:21:46and bury him next to his brother every step i take out here i'm walking with grief to finally take
01:21:55away
01:21:55the where are you is when our peace and our healing will begin
01:22:01you'll keep making those 20-hour drives it's all i got left to give him and he's worth every mile
01:22:15that's all for this edition of dateline we'll see you again next friday at 9 8 central and of course
01:22:20i'll see you each week night for nbc nightly news i'm lester holt for all of us at nbc news
01:22:27good night
01:22:29you
01:22:32you
01:22:33you
01:22:33you
01:22:33you
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