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Dateline NBC S32E06 Bethany Vanished H 264
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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 once
00:46but he pulled me back she was a woman in fear just kept beating me in the head he said
00:51I could kill
00:52you right now if I wanted to what she went through unimaginable two women turn targets could one help
00:59solve the mystery of the other there is this evil person out there that's chilling to think the amount
01:06of violence that he's bestowed on this world he had to hope he had to pray there are still people
01:13at
01:13risk he's got to be put away I'm Lester Holt and this is dateline
01:26here's Keith Morrison with Bethany vanished
01:31all right it's Thursday November 13th 2014
01:39it was just after 2 p.m. when the investigator pressed record don't worry about moving and stuff
01:45like that all right lying across from him was a woman in a hospital bed bruised and beaten
01:51she'd survived a violent assault by some miracle she could recall every painful detail
01:58he was punching me punching me in the head I think she kept hitting me over and over and I'm
02:07pretty sure
02:07in another moment he had his knee at my throat her violent attacker was well known to detectives
02:18they'd been hunting him for years from one town to another as he leapfrogged from one
02:25abusive relationship to another he was crafty dodging arrest at every turn managing to escape their
02:34grasp because there was never enough evidence until now until the woman in the hospital told her story
02:43she would become the key to solving a mystery three years in the making the mystery of a young mother
02:50three months pregnant who without a word suddenly vanished
03:01the last day that I saw Bethany was a glorious day
03:06as was every day Evelyn Bales got to see her granddaughter
03:10by that last day in 2011 Bethany Decker was all grown up
03:15and very busy buzzing around Ashburn Virginia an hour's drive away and balancing college her toddler
03:23son Kai her new baby on the way so spending the day with Bethany and her husband Emil was a
03:30treat
03:31she came over and we got to just spend the time talking with each other and sharing you know like
03:40how she was doing how everything was going work in school I made homemade pizza for her and she
03:47loved my ginger snap cookies so I made ginger snap cookies
03:52call it a grandma's intuition but something seemed to be weighing on Bethany
03:57she wasn't herself she was more troubled than ever before I had never seen her so edgy
04:06she was up at my parents house and she called me
04:12Kim Nelson is Bethany's mother Kai was living with her at the time so Bethany called to check in
04:18but Kim thought her daughter seemed distracted distressed
04:22you know the last thing she said to me is mom I love you
04:27Evelyn said when she wasn't talking on her phone
04:29Bethany seemed to be firing off a text every second
04:32and then suddenly she said she had to leave right away
04:37I actually stopped her at the door I blocked the front door and I wouldn't let her leave
04:43Bethany found a way around and drove off and then she went silent
04:51I called Bethany every single day after that and there was no answer I thought well she you know
04:59she felt like she's got a lot going on she's got school she has a baby and she was 21
05:07years old
05:07my parents actually drove by her apartment and saw her car parked there so we thought okay
05:15you know maybe something was going on but she's still there it's okay
05:20but when two weeks turned to three Evelyn and her husband decided to go to Bethany's apartment again
05:27on the way down my husband told me he said Evelyn if we can't find her we're calling the police
05:34later that day that's just what they did
05:39how did the police get involved in this so we didn't get notified until February 19th after
05:45Bethany's grandmother and Bethany's mother realized that neither one had had any contact with her since
05:51that night on January 28th Mark Bush is a detective with the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office he was part
05:58of a team called in to look for Bethany the team that included then Sergeant Steve Chauchet you know you
06:06try to gather is this a missing person is it a homicide we don't know yet did Bethany just get
06:14fed up and
06:14leave a deputy met Evelyn at Bethany's apartment when they went inside it was empty because Bethany was in the
06:23process of moving out but Evelyn was surprised to find what was left behind when we went into the master
06:31bedroom in the closet on the right hand side on the shelf was Bethany's purse that she always brought to
06:40my house her little wallet and then there were keys to her car a purse with some keys yes sir
06:48the
06:48sort of thing a person would take if they decided to go on the run voluntarily absolutely Evelyn showed
06:55the deputy Bethany's car who's in the parking lot it looked different than the last time she'd seen it
07:02that car was covered in dust completely covered like it had never been moved what was in the car
07:10the trunk was completely packed with her personal belongings and clothing and at the bottom we found
07:16a computer and three cell phones underneath of all of the junk odd yes but evidence of a crime
07:26the detectives weren't so sure there's no obvious blood stains there's no obvious bullet holes in the
07:32walls there's no weapon that's found inside of the apartment still at the apartment the deputy got on the
07:39phone with Kim he asked me the question do you think your daughter's in danger and you know he asked
07:46me again and i'm like yes i think she's in danger danger from what or who
08:07it had all been so confusing and frightening what happened to bethany decker it was just like this
08:15foreign world like could never even imagine for three weeks her family had refused to dwell on
08:22awful possibilities after all they heard bethany was still talking with friends on facebook
08:30several messages get sent to her sister uh some friends Kim saw some of those direct messages from
08:37bethany's facebook and one of the bethany said everything is fine and later that she didn't want
08:43to talk was it a relief did you think oh she's okay yeah maybe this is how she's like reaching
08:50out to us
08:51and so they had waited and tried very hard not to worry why did it take so long for them
08:59to get in
08:59touch with the police bethany was always good about reaching out to somebody in the family even if she was
09:04mad at her mom or her grandmother she'd still reach out to her sister um if she wasn't reaching out
09:10to
09:11her sister she'd be talking to friends so i believe it was a situation where everybody thought that bethany
09:16was just communicating with someone else investigators however took a much less optimistic approach
09:23detectives back then searched the wooded areas all around her apartment we moved down into using
09:30four-wheelers and cadaver dogs and bloodhounds into the fields around the apartment complex we started
09:37using our dive team to search retaining ponds that were near the apartment complex but they had a big
09:42disadvantage they were way behind bethany had been missing for almost three weeks by the time they were
09:49called in who knew what evidence might have been lost there was a trash compactor that trash compactor
09:57could have been uh dumped three or four times or more before we got to search it but still kim
10:04and her family desperately needed bethany to be okay in so many ways she was the beating heart of the
10:10family there bethany the sweet and generous one love you mom you're the 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's style seemed to stick
10:34said her sister ashley she'd wear the flip-flops and she'd have just the tan and the really gorgeous
10:42hair growing up bethany was a sister to her three younger siblings but also a kind of mom assistant
10:51she really liked being the leader you know of the kids and uh you know whether it's cleaning house
10:57doing chores always wanted to sort of do something to help somebody else is that the idea absolutely
11:04absolutely like i didn't have to ask her to make dinner or to do the dishes or to do things
11:10that like
11:11she just did them it's pretty rare thing isn't it it is a rare thing i just loved everything that
11:17she did
11:17everything everything that she she wore everything that she did everywhere that she went i wanted to
11:23do the same thing who wouldn't want to be like bethany she made life look effortless honors program
11:32marching band lots of friends when it came time for college she had her pick of schools
11:39she ended up going to george mason university in fairfax virginia and she saw there was a brand new
11:47major called global and environmental change and she had always had a heart for the environment
11:54and making the world a better place bethany visited home often and during one particular visit she
12:01shared some news she mentioned that she met somebody while doing laundry at school
12:08that someone was emile decker he was in a fraternity in rotc how did the two of them
12:16connect with each other were they the same were the opposites what were they like together
12:21complemented they complemented each other i think their two personalities really balanced
12:26each other because she was big and bold and loud and he was a very calm but a very gentle
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 emil was in the national guard now too
13:05and his military work off and took him away sometimes far away and family had been pitching
13:11in to help look after kai while bethany was at work or school eventually kai moved in with kim full
13:16time
13:17that's why this ominous feeling could no longer be denied because bethany would never go so long
13:25without seeing her boy it kind of just sank in my chest like i just steadily got this cold pit
13:33and it just got worse and worse as i like started realizing something something's really wrong but
13:40that can't that only happens on tv that couldn't happen here but it was happening here and it was
13:49all people were talking about bethany decker her husband emil and what's this another man the ultimate
14:15motive exactly
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 emil emil bethany's
14:32husband as police interviewed family and friends they learned the couple was no longer living together
14:39that detail fed the gossip machine you've got all these people believing that he must have had something
14:45to do with it and there was more bethany had been living with a new man before she went
14:52missing and was pregnant presumably with the new man's child and emil 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 emil was deployed way off in afghanistan but then they
15:14discovered first from people who had seen him and then from military records emil was home on leave
15:20when bethany was last seen alive so they had contacted the military and got permission to speak
15:26to emil and emil got leave and was able to come back to louden county he came back to the
15:31sheriff'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
15:45and then left in a hurry emil said he rushed after her she's driving back home and emil 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
16:10hour's drive away and it was late at night he said so he pulled off the road and slept for
16:16a bit in his
16:16car he said he was a little too embarrassed to go back to the grandmother's residence and bethany
16:22continued back to ashburn detectives pressed emil what happened to his marriage and he
16:32blamed their problems on the very real demands of his military service his obligations with the guard
16:39took him away from their marriage for extended periods of time she was working as a waitress
16:44she was going to school and she was raising their son that is tough i mean not only an awful
16:49lot for
16:50one person of responsibility for one person one young person to shoulder absolutely and she's at the
16:55same time uh getting high high grades at school uh taking high level courses she's got a lot on her
17:02plate
17:03and although detectives discovered bethany had a new man emil hadn't given up on their marriage
17:10in fact the week before she disappeared he took her to hawaii it was a trip that he had planned
17:16in hopes of saving their marriage knowing that bethany was seeing another guy knowing that bethany was
17:22pregnant more than likely with another man's child at that point and he was okay with continuing to
17:26try to make this relationship work yeah he offered to raise this next child as if it was his own
17:32and try to save their marriage bethany's mother had heard that too he was trying to repair the
17:39relationship yes there i mean she had mentioned that to me i think that time was very precious and
17:46that there was hope that the situation would be resolved it was quite a story and detectives are
17:54paying close attention both to emil's words and his body language he had an open body posture he was
18:03forthcoming with information his information didn't seem to change he was accepting of his role in a
18:10situation how he had made things harder on bethany he wasn't angry he said he still loved her we
18:18recovered a whole bunch of videos from cell phone records that showed him sending love messages to
18:25to bethany that he was upset that he wasn't going to be home for certain events or wasn't going to
18:31be
18:31home with her and kai decker virginia here's a holiday message emil recorded while stationed in the
18:37middle east a couple of months before bethany disappeared i just want to give a lovely shout
18:42out to my wife who lives in fredericksburg virginia and to my son uh kai i love you and i
18:48miss you very
18:49much have a merry christmas police let emil go knowing there was one other side of this love triangle
18:56the other man ronald roldan who seemed to be living quite a different life from bethany's husband's
19:04we knew that he was a ladies man he was very outgoing that he had a lot of friends
19:10life of the party type they found him of course the talkative ronald roldan
19:17a very curious man he would turn out to be do 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 count how many
19:45flyers i passed out her family knew it was bad of course they did but they would not could not
19:54stop
19:54searching here are kim and her husband on nbc station wrc i'm praying and i have faith that she's
20:02safe i 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
20:15so they tracked down the other man in her life ronald roldan i started this it is friday february 25th
20:24and we are investigators found him at his mother's house where he seemed more than willing to talk
20:29about bethany he's very engaging he's painting the entire relationship with a rosy picture he said
20:37they met at a restaurant where they were both waiters so last march is when you met i think she
20:43started working there in march like around that time the army had taken a meal away she was definitely
20:51alone in a way that i don't think even she was prepared for she'd never been alone before yeah
20:57so she and ronald struck up a friendship platonic apparently and bethany being bethany she empathized
21:07when he told her his sad story i remember her telling us that there was a co-worker at her
21:14work that had
21:16kids she said he was kicked out of the place where he was staying and so she offered him a
21:22place to stay
21:25with her as a border that is nothing more until apparently it was something more at least according
21:34to ronald when she told me that she wanted us to like live together um you know i thought about
21:41it
21:41because you know i was like wow you know just we haven't been seeing each other that long and plus
21:46you
21:46know she's married even though she's separated but you know like i had like strong feelings for her
21:52something about this rosy picture didn't sit right with investigators
21:56especially when ronald told detectives he was the father of bethany's unborn child
22:02but she'd been missing a month and he seemed unfazed
22:10so detectives called him to the sheriff's office for a second more extensive interview
22:15the last day you saw her was that saturday right yeah okay bethany had returned home sometime around
22:232 a.m after spending the day with her grandmother said ronald seemed exhausted went to bed and then
22:30woke up in the morning and went out again i was in the kitchen and she said you know she
22:35was like all
22:35right i'm gonna go i was like all right bye as far as he knew said ronald bethany was driving
22:41back to
22:41her grandmother's house across the state border in maryland so when he saw her car outside the
22:47apartment a couple of days later i was like huh i was like wonder what a car is it yeah
22:52yeah did he
22:54adamantly deny that he was involved in her disappearance yes yes he he continuously stated
23:00over and over again that she left on her own free will and accord and that he had no clue
23:04where she went
23:05but when the detectives asked bethany's family about ronald rolled down they got an earful i couldn't
23:12locate a single family member that had anything nice to say about ronald at first they said they
23:18thought ronald was just a leech taking advantage of bethany's general's hospitality but gradually it
23:26seemed to them he began to take her over as if he was somehow in control of her he had
23:33to know where
23:33she was and i had heard at a time that he had installed some software on her cell phone to
23:39be
23:39able to track her and then this was alarming kai was about a year old and was dropped off at
23:45kim's
23:46house with bruising around his eyes kim was told kai hurt himself falling from a chair and found out
23:53later ronald had been watching him the injury that he had with the blackness above his eyes was not
24:00aligned with him climbing up on a chair and falling backwards that's when kai moved in with kim full
24:07time with bethany's blessing and yet she could not seem to shake the guy off even as he grew ever
24:15more
24:15controlling and threatening and even worse bethany confided he'd become abusive it was at that time
24:23where she started to realize that this was a troubled person but she couldn't get out of it so
24:30she was in a relationship with somebody that was abusing her physically and emotionally and
24:40threatening her family was she afraid to kick him out or just leave him she seemed petrified all the time
24:49and so her family had a kind of intervention and we talked about restraining orders which she was
24:55like it's just a piece of paper and it's not going to help we called the domestic abuse hotlines we
25:02were creating a plan for her to be able to escape from this situation emil was worried about bethany too
25:11when he sneaked her off to hawaii without ronald knowing it wasn't just about reconciling it was to
25:18get her away from that man but the whole time they were gone ronald texted incessantly demanding she
25:26return so police had questions for ronald were you abusive to her never did you know that she did
25:34tell people that you were physically abusive to her no i did not know that never laid a hand on
25:39her
25:39never never laid a hand on her we never we never got in fights to the point where you're screaming
25:45at
25:45each other never ever do you want to know what happened to her yes you do want to know yes
25:50do
25:50you know what happened to her no and then this um it would help us out a lot if you
25:56if you would
25:57agree to take a polygraph i have no problem helping you guys but i think i think i need to
26:02i think i need
26:03to speak with someone else oh okay someone other than us yeah i mean like i think i need to
26:10speak i
26:10think i need to speak to a lawyer they had to let ronald leave because besides their suspicions they
26:17had very little to go on no murder weapon no crime scene no body and as days piled up a
26:25kind of limbo
26:26set in what's it like to watch a case kind of gradually go cold frustrating it's completely frustrating
26:34and it stayed that way for years but just when detective mark bush was about to give up hope
26:42the phone rang my supervisor told me that i needed to head to pinehurst north carolina
26:48uh-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
27:27this area is special to me because i used to drive around it not knowing where bethany decker was but
27:33i
27:33said maybe i could get some kind of hint from her i'd say come on bethany just give me some
27:39kind of sign
27:39show me something help me find you thing was all the detectives were convinced there was one guy who
27:47could tell them where she was ronald roldan but he was busy we were paying attention to where ronald
27:56moved what jobs he took on who was he inviting into his life he found other women to date and
28:03new
28:03restaurants to work in life for him went on as usual apparently if ronald was really their man
28:11police 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 head
28:26to pinehurst
28:26north carolina because ronald roldan had shot his new girlfriend detective mark bush worked the phone
28:33who was this new girlfriend and how did she get mixed up with ronald roldan
28:39vicki 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
28:49led to them becoming romantically involved apparently vicki thought it was casual but soon
28:55ronald changed became controlling and threatening she said and then physically abusive eventually
29:02vicki saw an opening to leave him she finds out that a house that she had owned in north carolina
29:09i believe she was coming back into ownership of that house or the renters of that house were leaving
29:15the house but ronald followed her to north carolina she said and refused to leave so it was a small
29:22miracle that detective bush found her hospitalized but alive thank goodness and talking you were
29:31surprised she was able to talk at all uh yeah she lost an eye had to undergo surgery and the
29:36fact that
29:36she could talk was even more amazing and the fact that she was able to recount what occurred
29:41it seemed kind of unreal here is vicki's story recorded right there in her hospital bed with her
29:49broken neck her bullet wounds her purple bruises still hooked up to machines and tubes that made her
29:57voice hoarse but remarkably she managed to tell police what happened when she refused to have sex with
30:04ronald he came in the living room and started getting in my face and then he kicked the ottoman and
30:10then i
30:10knew it was over once he kicks the ottoman he's gonna kick you he was dragging me around the room
30:16i
30:16remember that okay screaming don't get up don't get up he was punching me punching me in the head i
30:25think
30:26just kept hitting me over and over she's already been in fear for her life and she hit a revolver
30:33under the couch she grabs it with her left hand backwards and putting her thumb in the trigger
30:40shoots ronald roldan two times in the chest but then he took it from me shot me right up close
30:50ronald shot vicki in her arm and her head taking out her right eye and then once he shot me
30:57he just
30:57kept beating me in the head the blood was splattering everywhere i tried to get away once but he
31:02pulled me back and then he was freaking out he's like oh my god i'm gonna die and he wanted
31:08to see
31:08his mother he wanted to see his mother she flees the house bleeding bloody hardly any clothes on that was
31:17scary i couldn't see because of my eye
31:24took me three neighbors till i found somebody when the police arrive at her location which is a neighbor's
31:31house they gathered the evidence they go back to her house and roldan is dressed had taken a shower
31:40and he's on the phone with his mother two bullet holes in him you try that she had shot ronald
31:47above
31:47his heart and in his gut so he was rushed to the hospital too once he was healed enough he
31:53was
31:54transferred to a holding facility and charges that included assault with a deadly weapon
32:00speaking from her hospital bed vicki was still terrified oh he's gonna know i said all this
32:06stuff you can't be saying this stuff he'll get my kids he already told me if i ever went to
32:11the
32:11authorities ever ever it'll get my kids she told the detective she'd lived under the threat of violence
32:20throughout her relationship with ronald he said i could kill you right now if i wanted to
32:25but he always makes sure that i know that he could kill me and then vicki said the most extraordinary
32:32thing he killed her and got away with it her the her vicki was referring to was bethany i just
32:41know in my
32:42heart that he killed her his 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 vicki 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
33:31could but it's always a roll of the dice with the jury and so the prosecutor ended the uncertainty
33:38and made a deal with ronald he pleaded guilty to assaulting and shooting vicki in exchange for a
33:44minimum sentence of six years behind bars in north carolina vicki's courage had breathed new life
33:51into bethany's case but it also gave detectives in virginia a deadline find usable evidence to prove he
33:59killed bethany or watch him get away with murder we had a 2020 deadline that he was going to be
34:06released
34:07and deported deported to his native bolivia making any future arrest infinitely more difficult
34:14so one more time detective bush combed through the case file and this time noticed something
34:21in the facebook messages apparently sent by bethany but after she vanished i was able to put together
34:29almost a separate spreadsheet of ip addresses nothing wrong with those ip addresses if they all
34:35belong to bethany's devices but they didn't every time ronald roldan was checking his email or he was
34:43on his password protected facebook account he was checking her email and sending facebook messages posing
34:50as her what was it like to find that it was an aha moment was it enough it was now
34:56or never and so they
34:58took a chance and charged ronald was second degree murder shanequa clark nelson and her colleagues would
35:05prosecute had you ever tried a nobody case before i have never tried a nobody case i've tried homicides
35:12but but never a nobody without a body any good defense attorney could say there wasn't even proof of a
35:19homicide let 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
35:39roldan 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 uh
36:24walk away from
36:26the conversation i pushed her and when i pushed her she tripped over over like her feet and hit the
36:34windowsill was she bleeding no any bruising swelling going on at that point um i'm sure but i really
36:45don't remember ronald said he put his fingers under bethany's nose and she wasn't breathing why did you not
36:52call that woman just because i didn't i didn't i didn't think that they would believe what i had to
37:01say what did you think was going to happen if you called that woman i was going to get arrested
37:12what do you believe really happened i think she finally got confronted with the hawaii trip with emil
37:19and when she admitted that she had been in hawaii with her husband i think that flew him into a
37:24fit
37:24of rage he choked her to death the next part of ronald's story though felt true to detective bush
37:31when you start talking to him about the disposal it's very matter of fact it's very step one step
37:36two step three there was a bag in the apartment for um for christmas for uh christmas tree removed and
37:47i just put her inside of the bag then ronald took bethany to the apartment complex's trash compactor
37:55do you recall which part of the dumpster that you put her in it just has it's like a sliding
38:01door
38:01when you put her inside of there what if anything did you do after that i close it just walked
38:10back
38:11he's very much that sociopath who feels no remorse ronald rodan will serve roughly 17 years for killing
38:20bethany 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
38:49to recover 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
39:14and such horrific heinous acts and i can't allow myself to go there because if i do i won't be
39:23able to
39:24survive i can't so i don't
39:31there was some solace bethany's son kai now lives happily with his dad emil and any lingering suspicion
39:40that emil had something to do with what happened to bethany went away for good finally
39:46he must have gone through a lot of well hell in the period of time between
39:54the 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
40:17tell her story to save the next bethany so what do you want people to take away from her story
40:25what
40:26i would probably say is if you are in a bad situation then get help don't believe lies
40:33that there is no hope and 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
41:02so
41:02you
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