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00:08tonight on dateline that's me our little shining star it was devastating that emptiness we had to
00:19believe that we would find her someday Bethany Decker was a dedicated student a dedicated mother
00:27the last thing she said to me is mom I love you where did Bethany go is this a missing
00:32person
00:32is it a homicide we don't know yet there's no obvious bloodstains there's no weapon that's
00:38found inside of the apartment one clue that came along was Vicki Willoughby I tried to get away
00:45once but he pulled me back she was a woman in fear just kept beating me in the head he
00:51said I could
00:51kill you right now if I wanted to what she went through unimaginable two women turn targets could
00:58one help solve the mystery of the other there is this evil person out there that's shilling to
01:05think the amount of violence that he's bestowed on this world he had to hope he had to pray
01:11there are still people at risk he's got to be put away I'm Lester Holt and this is dateline
01:27here's Keith Morrison with Bethany vanished
01:34all right it's Thursday November 13th 2014 it was just after 2 p.m. when the investigator pressed record
01:43don't worry about moving and stuff like that all right
01:46lying across from him was a woman in a hospital bed bruised and beaten she'd survived a violent
01:53assault by some miracle she could recall every painful detail he was punching me punching me in
02:02the head I think she kept hitting me over and over and I'm pretty sure in another moment he had
02:08his
02:13her violent attacker was well known to detectives they'd been hunting him for years from one town to
02:22another as he leapfrogged from one abusive relationship to another he was crafty dodging arrests at every
02:32turn managing to escape their grasp because there was never enough evidence until now until the woman
02:40in the hospital told her story she would become the key to solving a mystery three years in the making
02:48the
02:49mystery of a young mother three months pregnant who without a word suddenly vanished
03:01the last day that I saw Bethany was a glorious day as was every day Evelyn Bales got to see
03:09her granddaughter
03:10by that last day in 2011 Bethany Decker was all grown up and very busy buzzing around Ashburn Virginia an
03:19hour's drive away and balancing college her toddler son Kai her new baby on the way so spending the day
03:27with Bethany and her husband Emil was a treat she came over and we got to just spend the time
03:36talking with each
03:37other and sharing you know like how she was doing how everything was going work in school I made homemade
03:45pizza for her and she loved my ginger snap cookies so I made ginger snap cookies call it a grandma's
03:54intuition
03:54but something seemed to be weighing on Bethany she wasn't herself she was more troubled than ever before I
04:03had never seen her so edgy she was up at my parents house and she called me Kim Nelson is
04:13Bethany's mother
04:14Kai was living with her at the time so Bethany called to check in but Kim thought her daughter seemed
04:21distracted distressed you know the last thing she said to me is mom I love you Evelyn said when she
04:28wasn't talking on her phone Bethany seemed to be firing off a text every second and then suddenly
04:34she said she had to leave right away I actually stopped her at the door I blocked the front door
04:41and
04:42I wouldn't let her leave Bethany found a way around and drove off and then she went silent
04:50I called Bethany every single day after that and there was no answer I thought well she you know
04:59like she's got a lot going on she's got school she has a baby and she was 21 years old
05:07my parents
05:09actually drove by her apartment and saw her car parked there so we thought okay you know maybe something
05:17is going on but she's still there it's okay but when two weeks turned to three Evelyn and her husband
05:24decided to go to Bethany's apartment again on the way down my husband told me he said Evelyn if we
05:31can't
05:32find her we're calling the police later that day that's just what they did how did the police get involved
05:41in this so we didn't get notified until February 19th after Bethany's grandmother and Bethany's mother
05:48realized that neither one had had any contact with her since that night on January 28th Mark Bush is a
05:54detective with the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office he was part of a team called in to look for Bethany
06:01the team that included then sergeant Steve Shoshay you know you try to gather is this a missing person
06:09is it a homicide we don't know yet did Bethany just get fed up and leave a deputy met Evelyn
06:17at
06:18Bethany's apartment when they went inside it was empty because Bethany was in the process of moving out
06:24but Evelyn was surprised to find what was left behind when we went into the master bedroom in the closet
06:33on the
06:34right-hand side on the shelf was Bethany's purse that she always brought to my house her little
06:41wallet and then there were keys to her car a purse with some keys yes sir the sort of thing
06:49a person
06:49would take if they decided to go on the run voluntarily absolutely Evelyn showed the deputy
06:56Bethany's car who's in the parking lot it looked different than the last time she'd seen it that
07:03car was covered in dust completely covered like it had never been moved what was in the car the trunk
07:11was completely packed with her personal belongings and clothing and at the bottom we found a computer and three
07:18cell phones underneath of all of the junk odd yes but evidence of a crime the detectives weren't so sure
07:28there's no obvious bloodstains there's no obvious bullet holes in the walls there's no weapon that's
07:34found inside of the apartment still at the apartment the deputy got on the phone with Kim he asked me
07:42the
07:42question do you think your daughter's in danger and you know he asked me again and I'm like yes I
07:48think
07:48she's in danger danger from what or who it had all been so confusing and frightening what happened to
08:12Bethany Decker it was just like this foreign world like it could never even imagine for three
08:20weeks her family had refused to dwell on awful possibilities after all they heard Bethany was
08:26still talking with friends on Facebook several messages get sent to her sister some friends Kim saw
08:36some of those direct messages from Bethany's Facebook and one of the Bethany said everything
08:40is fine and later that she didn't want to talk was it a relief did you think oh she's okay
08:48or yeah
08:48maybe this is how she's like reaching out to us and so they had waited and tried very hard not
08:56to
08:56worry why did it take so long for them to get in touch with the police Bethany was always good
09:01about
09:02reaching out to somebody in the family even if she was mad at her mom or her grandmother she'd still
09:07reach out to her sister if she wasn't reaching out to her sister she'd be talking to friends so I
09:13believe it was a situation where everybody thought that Bethany was just communicating with someone
09:17else investigators however took a much less optimistic approach detectives back then searched the wooded
09:26areas all around her apartment we moved down into using four-wheelers and cadaver dogs and bloodhounds
09:34into the fields around the apartment complex we started using our dive team to search retaining ponds that
09:39were near the apartment complex but they had a big disadvantage they were way behind Bethany had been missing for
09:47almost three weeks by the time they were called in who knew what evidence might have been lost there was
09:54a trash
09:55compactor that trash compactor could have been dumped three or four times or more before we got to search it
10:02but still the
10:04Kim and her family desperately needed Bethany to be okay in so many ways she was the beating heart of
10:10the family there Bethany the sweet and generous one love you mom you're best a lot of people when you're
10:19in a conversation they're talking about themselves but Bethany was always the kind that wanted to know
10:26about you and how you were doing she'd been born in Hawaii and an island girl style seemed to stick
10:34said
10:34her sister Ashley she'd wear the flip-flops and she'd have just the tan and the really gorgeous hair
10:44growing up Bethany was a sister to her three younger siblings but also a kind of mom assistant she really
10:52liked being the leader you know of the kids and you know whether it's cleaning house doing chores
10:58always wanted to sort of do something to help somebody else is that the idea absolutely absolutely
11:04like I didn't have to ask her to make dinner or to do the dishes or to do things that
11:10like she just did
11:11them it's pretty rare thing isn't it it is a rare thing I just loved everything that she did everything
11:17everything that she she wore everything that she did everywhere that she went I wanted to do the
11:23same thing who wouldn't want to be like Bethany she made life look effortless honors program marching
11:33band lots of friends when it came time for college she had her pick of schools she ended up going
11:41to
11:41George Mason University in Fairfax Virginia and she saw there was a brand new major called global and
11:49environmental change and she had always had a heart for the environment and making the world a better
11:55place Bethany visited home often and during one particular visit she shared some news she mentioned that
12:04she met somebody while doing laundry at school that someone was Emile Decker he was in a fraternity in ROTC
12:14how did the two of them connect with each other were they the same were the opposite what were
12:19they like together complimented they complimented each other I think their two personalities really
12:25balanced each other because she was big and bold and loud and he was a very calm but a very
12:31gentle
12:32personality in comparison in a little more than a year they went from college sweethearts to newlyweds
12:40and in a blink they were parents too they named their little boy Kai did she take to motherhood pretty
12:48easily very natural Bethany like loved him more than anything just the way she would dress him and sing
12:56to him and and you know talk about you know his future Emile was in the national guard now too
13:05and his military work often took him away sometimes far away and family had been pitching in to help
13:11look after Kai while Bethany was at work or school eventually Kai moved in with Kim full-time that's why
13:18this
13:18ominous feeling could no longer be denied because Bethany would never go so long without seeing her boy
13:27it kind of just sank in my chest like I just steadily got this cold pit and it just got
13:34worse and worse
13:36as I like started realizing something something's really wrong but
13:40that can't that can't that only happens on TV that couldn't happen here
13:45but it was happening here and it was all people were talking about
13:51Bethany Decker her husband Emile and what's this another man the ultimate motive exactly
14:10that's what's going to happen here and that's what's going to happen here
14:12that's what's going to happen here and that's what's going to happen here
14:16by the time Bethany Decker had been missing for over a month she was the focus of intense community
14:22speculation and some of it was about him there's people out there casting suspicion on Emile
14:30Emile Bethany's husband as police interviewed family and friends they learned the couple was no longer living together
14:39well that detail fed the gossip machine you've got all these people believing that he must have had
14:45something to do with it and there was more Bethany had been living with a new man before she went
14:52missing
14:52and was pregnant presumably with the new man's child and Emile knew all this
15:00the ultimate motive exactly so he's being looked at he's being tried in public
15:07when investigators started looking into it Emile was deployed way off in Afghanistan but then they
15:14discovered first from people who had seen him and then from military records Emile was home on leave
15:19when Bethany was last seen alive so they had contacted the military and got permission to speak to
15:26Emile and Emile got leave and was able to come back to Loudoun County he came back to the sheriff's
15:32office came with an attorney who was by his side as he told detectives about the last time he'd seen
15:38Bethany which was at her grandmother's house that last day when she fired off all those text messages
15:44and then left in a hurry Emile said he rushed after her she's driving back home and Emile attempts to
15:53follow her and they stop at a local gas station he has a conversation with Bethany fills her tire up
15:58she had a tire that was going low on air tried to convince her not to continue going back to
16:02Ashburn
16:03but Bethany wouldn't listen he said and just took off apparently back to her apartment a good hours
16:10drive away and it was late at night he said so he pulled off the road and slept for a
16:16bit in his car
16:17he said he was a little too embarrassed to go back to the grandmother's residence
16:21and Bethany continued back to Ashburn detectives pressed Emile what happened to his marriage
16:30and he blamed their problems on the very real demands of his military service
16:37his obligations with the guard took him away from their marriage for extended periods of time
16:42she was working as a waitress she was going to school and she was raising their son
16:46that is tough i mean not only an awful lot for one person of responsibility for one person one young
16:52person to shoulder absolutely and she's at the same time uh getting high high grades at school
16:59taking high level courses she's got a lot on her plate and although detectives discovered Bethany had
17:06a new man Emile hadn't given up on their marriage in fact the week before she disappeared
17:12he took her to Hawaii it was a trip that he had planned in hopes of saving their marriage knowing
17:19that Bethany was seeing another guy knowing that Bethany was pregnant more than likely with another
17:23man's child at that point and he was okay with continuing to try to make this relationship work
17:28yeah he offered to raise this next child as if it was his own and try to save their marriage
17:35Bethany's mother had heard that too he was trying to repair the relationship yes there
17:40i mean she had mentioned that to me i think that time was very precious and that there was hope
17:47that the situation would be resolved it was quite a story and detectives were paying close attention
17:56both to Emile's words and his body language he had an open body posture he was forthcoming with
18:04information his information didn't seem to change he was accepting of his role in a situation how he
18:11had made things harder on Bethany he wasn't angry he said he still loved her we recovered a whole bunch
18:19of videos from cell phone records that showed him sending love messages to to Bethany
18:27that he was upset that he wasn't going to be home for certain events or wasn't going to be home
18:31with her
18:32and kai
18:34here's a holiday message Emile recorded while stationed in the middle east a couple of months before
18:39Bethany disappeared i just want to give a lovely shout out to my wife who lives in fredericksburg virginia
18:44and to my son uh kai i love you and i miss you very much have a merry christmas
18:52police let Emile go knowing there was one other side of this love triangle the other man
18:58ronald roldan who seemed to be living quite a different life from bethany's husband's we knew
19:04that he was a ladies man he was very outgoing that he had a lot of friends um life of
19:10the party type
19:13they found him of course the talkative ronald roldan a very curious man he would turn out to be
19:20do you know what happened to him
19:38it was a kind of hell that awful time of unknowing after bethany vanished i can't even
19:45count how many flyers i passed out her family knew it was bad of course they did but they would
19:52not
19:53not stop searching here are kim and her husband on nbc station wrc i'm praying and i have faith that
20:01she's safe they got the whole country talking about bethany a young pregnant mother has gone missing
20:09detectives meanwhile occupied themselves with hard realities to them the facts said homicide so they
20:16tracked down the other man in her life ronald roldan i started this it is friday february 25th and we
20:25are
20:25investigators found him at his mother's house where he seemed more than willing to talk about bethany
20:30he's very engaging he's painting the entire relationship with a rosy picture
20:36he said they met at a restaurant where they were both waiters
20:40so last march is when you met i think she started working in march like the beginning
20:46around that time the army had taken a meal away she was definitely alone in a way that i don't
20:52think
20:52even she was prepared for she'd never been alone before yeah so she and ronald struck up a friendship
21:00platonic apparently and bethany being bethany she empathized when he told her his sad story
21:10i remember her telling us that there was a co-worker at her work that had kids she said he
21:17was
21:17kicked out of the place where he was staying and so she offered him a place to stay
21:24with her as a border that is nothing more until apparently it was something more
21:33at least according to ronald when she told me that she wanted us to like live together
21:38um you know i thought about it because you know i was like wow you know just
21:43we haven't been seeing each other that long and plus you know she's married even though she's
21:48separated but you know like i had like strong feelings for her something about this rosy picture
21:54didn't sit right with investigators especially when ronald told detectives he was the father of
21:59bethany's unborn child but she'd been missing a month and he seemed unfazed
22:07okay ronald have a seat right there if you would so detectives called him to the sheriff's office for
22:13a second more extensive interview the last day you saw her was that saturday right yeah okay
22:21bethany had returned home sometime around 2 a.m after spending the day with her grandmother
22:25said ronald seemed exhausted went to bed and then woke up in the morning and went out again
22:33i was in the kitchen and she said you know she was like all right i'm gonna go okay i
22:36was like all right
22:37bye as far as he knew said ronald bethany was driving back to her grandmother's house across the
22:43state border in maryland so when he saw her car outside the apartment a couple of days later i was
22:49like
22:49huh i was like wonder what a person yeah yeah did he adamantly deny that he was involved in her
22:56disappearance yes yes he he continuously stated over and over again that she left on her own free
23:02will and accord and that he had no clue where she went but when the detectives asked bethany's family
23:07about ronald rodin they got an earful i couldn't locate a single family member that had anything nice
23:15to say about ronald at first they said they thought ronald was just a leech taking advantage of
23:22bethany's general's hospitality but gradually it seemed to them he began to take her over as if he
23:30was somehow in control of her he had to know where she was and i had heard a time that
23:36he had installed
23:36some software on her cell phone to be able to track her and then this was alarming kai was about
23:43a
23:43year old and was dropped off at kim's house with bruising around his eyes kim was told kai heard
23:50himself falling from a chair and found out later ronald had been watching him the injury that he had
23:57with the blackness above his eyes was not aligned with him climbing up on a chair and falling backwards
24:05that's when kai moved in with kim full time with bethany's blessing and yet she could not seem to shake
24:12the guy off even as he grew ever more controlling and threatening and even worse bethany confided he'd
24:20become abusive it was at that time where she started to realize that this was a troubled person but she
24:28couldn't get out of it so she was in a relationship with somebody that was abusing her physically and
24:37emotionally and threatening her family was she afraid to kick him out or just leave him she seemed
24:47petrified all the time and so her family had a kind of intervention and we talked about restraining
24:54orders which she was like it's just a piece of paper and it's not going to help we called the
25:00domestic abuse
25:01hotlines we were creating a plan for her to be able to escape from this situation emil was worried
25:09about bethany too when he sneaked her off to hawaii without ronald knowing it wasn't just about
25:16reconciling it was to get her away from that man but the whole time they were gone ronald texted
25:25incessantly demanding she returned so police had questions for ronald were you abusive to her never
25:33do you know that she did tell people that you were physically abusive to her no i did not know
25:37that
25:38never laid a hand on her never never laid a hand on her we never we never got in fights
25:44to the point
25:44where you're screaming at each other never ever do you want to know what happened to her yes you do
25:49want
25:49to know yes do you know what happened to her no and then this um it would help us out
25:55a lot if you
25:56if you would agree to take a polygraph i have no problem helping you guys happy you guys but i
26:00think
26:01i think i need to i think i need to speak with someone else okay someone other than us yeah
26:09i mean like
26:09i think i need to speak i think i need to speak to a lawyer they had to let ronald
26:14leave because besides
26:16their suspicions they had very little to go on no murder weapon no crime scene no body and as days
26:24piled up a kind of limbo set in what's it like to watch a case kind of gradually go cold
26:31frustrating
26:31it's completely frustrating and it stayed that way for years but just when detective mark bush was
26:40about to give up hope the phone rang my supervisor told me that i needed to head to pinehurst north
26:46carolina uh oh now what
27:08keeps you up at night you wake up in the morning it's the first thing on your mind when you
27:12go to bed
27:13it's the last thing on your mind sergeant steve chauchet was convinced bethany decker was dead
27:20and spent many days in this wooded area just 200 yards from her apartment searching for her remains
27:26this area is special to me because i used to drive around it not knowing where bethany decker was
27:32but i said maybe i could get some kind of hint from her i'd say come on bethany just give
27:38me some kind
27:39a sign show me something help me find you thing was all the detectives were convinced there was one
27:46guy who could tell them where she was ronald roldan but he was busy we were paying attention to where
27:56ronald moved what jobs he took on who was he invited into his life he found other women to date
28:02and new restaurants to work in life for him went on as usual apparently if ronald was really their
28:11man police needed a big break and then almost four years after bethany vanished they got one did they
28:20ever i got a phone call from my supervisor who told me that i needed to pick up everything and
28:26head to
28:26pinehurst north carolina because ronald roldan had shot his new girlfriend detective mark bush worked
28:32the phone who was this new girlfriend and how did she get mixed up with ronald roldan
28:39vicky willoughby was a waitress and she was working at a steakhouse and she just happened to be working
28:44with one of their new servers named ronald roldan the two of them struck up a friendship that led to
28:49them
28:50becoming romantically involved apparently vicky thought it was casual but soon ronald changed became
28:57controlling and threatening she said and then physically abusive eventually vicky saw an opening
29:03to leave him she finds out that a house that she had owned in north carolina i believe she was
29:11coming
29:11back into ownership of that house or the renters of that house were leaving the house but ronald
29:17followed her to north carolina she said and refused to leave so it was a small miracle that detective bush
29:24found her hospitalized but alive thank goodness and talking you were surprised she was able to talk at
29:32all uh yeah she lost an eye had to undergo surgery and the fact that she could talk was even
29:37more
29:37amazing and the fact that she was able to recount what occurred seemed kind of unreal here is vicky's
29:45story recorded right there in her hospital bed with her broken neck her bullet wounds her purple bruises
29:53still hooked up to machines and tubes that made her voice hoarse but remarkably she managed to tell
30:01police what happened when she refused to have sex with ronald he came in the living room and started
30:07getting in my face and then he kicked the ottoman and then i knew it was over once he kicks
30:12the ottoman he's
30:13gonna kick you he was dragging me around the room i remember that okay screaming don't get up don't get
30:21up
30:21he was punching me punching me in the head i think she kept hitting me over and over she's already
30:29been
30:30in fear for her life and she hit a revolver under the couch she grabs it with her left hand
30:36backwards
30:37and putting her thumb in the trigger shoots ronald rolled down two times in the chest but then he took
30:44it from me shot me right up close ronald shot vicky in her arm and her head taking out her
30:53right eye
30:55and then once he shot me he just kept beating me in the head the blood was splattering everywhere
31:01i tried to get away once but he pulled me back and then he was freaking out he's like oh
31:06my god i'm
31:06gonna die and he wanted to see his mother he wanted to see his mother she flees the house bleeding
31:13bloody hardly any clothes on that was scary i couldn't see because of my eye
31:23it took me three neighbors till i found somebody when the police arrive at her location which is a
31:31neighbor's house they gather the evidence they go back to her house and roldan is dressed had taken
31:39a shower and he's on the phone with his mother two bullet holes in him you try that she had
31:46shot ronald
31:47above his heart and in his gut so he was rushed to the hospital too once he was healed enough
31:53he
31:53was transferred to a holding facility and charges that included assault with a deadly weapon speaking
32:00from her hospital bed vicky was still terrified oh he's gonna know i said all this stuff you can't
32:07be saying this stuff he'll get my kids he already told me if i ever went to the authorities ever
32:13ever could i'll get my kids she told the detective she'd lived under the threat of violence throughout
32:20her relationship with ronald he said i could kill you right now if i wanted to but he always makes
32:27sure that i know that he could kill me and then vicky said the most extraordinary thing he killed her
32:34and
32:34got away with it her the her vicky was referring to was bethany i just know my heart that he
32:42killed her
32:43his statement to her was i've made one girlfriend disappear i can do it again
32:48that sounded a lot like a confession would it finally be enough
33:08ronald rodan had a problem a vicky willoughby problem she'd been brave enough to tell detectives
33:15all about ronald's violent behavior giving north carolina prosecutors solid evidence against him
33:20ronald wouldn't be able to skate by with a denial the way he'd done in the bethany decker case
33:27i think they knew that he was a danger and they had to put him away for as long as
33:30they possibly could
33:32but it's always a roll of the dice with a jury and so the prosecutor ended the uncertainty and made
33:38a deal with ronald he pleaded guilty to assaulting and shooting vicky in exchange for a minimum sentence of
33:45six years behind bars in north carolina vicky's courage had breathed new life into bethany's case
33:53but it also gave detectives in virginia a deadline find usable evidence to prove he killed bethany
34:00or watch him get away with murder we had a 2020 deadline that he was going to be released and
34:07deported
34:07deported to his native bolivia making any future arrest infinitely more difficult so one more time
34:16detective bush combed through the case file and this time noticed something in the facebook messages
34:23apparently sent by bethany but after she vanished i was able to put together almost a separate
34:30spreadsheet of ip addresses nothing wrong with those ip addresses if they all belong to bethany's
34:36devices but they didn't every time ronald roldan was checking his email or he was on his password
34:44protected facebook account he was checking her email and sending facebook messages posing as her what
34:50was it like to find that it was an aha moment was it enough it was now or never and
34:58so they took a
34:59chance and charged ronald with second degree murder shanequa clark nelson and her colleagues would prosecute
35:06had you ever tried a nobody case before i have never tried a nobody case i've tried homicides but but
35:12never a nobody without a body any good defense attorney could say there wasn't even proof of a homicide
35:20let alone any evidence of what ronald allegedly did to bethany even if we're able to get this past
35:2712 jurors and they agree with us that he's our murderer and we get our conviction we still cannot
35:32go back to kimberly nelson and tell her what happened to her daughter and so the state made a deal
35:38ronald roldan would plead guilty to second degree murder in exchange for a 12 and a half year sentence
35:44there was one condition ronald had to tell them what he did to bethany in january 2023 almost 12 years
35:54after bethany disappeared clark nelson and detective bush went eye to eye with her killer who sat next
36:00to his attorneys i'm ready for for whatever question you have to ask such as of course what happened he
36:11said that they were in their apartment that they shared and there was an argument about bethany going
36:19to work she had actually called in to her job to take on a shift she was trying to walk
36:26away from
36:26the conversation i pushed her and when i pushed her she tripped over over like her feet at the windowsill
36:35was she bleeding no any bruising swelling going on at that point um i'm sure but i really don't remember
36:45like that ronald said he put his fingers under bethany's nose and she wasn't breathing why did you
36:52not call that woman just because i didn't i didn't i didn't think that they would believe what i had
37:00to
37:01say what did you think was going to happen if you called that woman
37:10i was going to get arrested what do you believe really happened i think she finally got confronted
37:16with the hawaii trip with emil and when she admitted that she had been in hawaii with her husband
37:22i think that flew him into a fit of rage he choked her to death the next part of ronald's
37:28story though
37:29felt true to detective bush when you start talking to him about the disposal it's very matter of fact it's
37:34very step one step two step three there was a bag in the apartment for um for christmas for uh
37:43christmas
37:44removed and um i just put her inside of the bag then ronald took bethany to the apartment complex's
37:54trash compactor do you recall which part of the dumpster that you put her in it just has like a
38:01sliding door when you put her inside of there what if anything did you do after that i close it
38:09just
38:10walked back he's very much that sociopath who feels no remorse ronald rodan will serve roughly 17 years
38:20for killing bethany and assaulting vicky he still has about eight to go and then he'll be deported
38:27after spending years searching for bethany investigators could at least finally tell her
38:33family where her body likely was when the trash compactor got dumped it went to a landfill
38:42but recovering her remains probably impossible it would approximately be five million dollars to try to
38:49recover her if we could recover her detectives played the video of ronald's confession for bethany's
38:56family it was very hard to hear the disregard for human life you're in a state of shock when you're
39:04hearing such things that you can't even believe that a human being would be capable of such violence and
39:15such horrific heinous acts and i can't allow myself to go there because if i do i won't be able
39:23to survive
39:25i can't so i don't there was some solace bethany's son kai now lives happily with his dad emil and
39:39any
39:39lingering suspicion that emil had something to do with what happened to bethany went away for good
39:46finally he must have gone through a lot of well hell in the period of time between
39:53and the murder and finally being absolved forever in the face of grieving for her and and not knowing
40:03what happened to her i don't know how he did it he's incredibly strong for years bethany's family had
40:10kept looking and looking and hoping and they couldn't save her which is why they wanted to tell her story
40:18to save the next bethany so what do you want people to take away from her story what i would
40:26probably say is if you are in a bad situation then get help don't believe lies that there is no
40:34hope
40:34in that there isn't a way out there is
40:42that's all for this edition of dateline we'll see you again friday at 9 8 central and of course i'll
40:48see you each week night for nbc nightly news i'm lester holt for all of us at nbc news good
40:55night
40:58you
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