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A young woman alone who was waiting in the dark. I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline.

She would come into her room. The room would just brighten up. People instantly thought I'm Caylee's best for. The very first message that I looked at was, have you seen Caylee?

Can I help you? My daughter is missing. I had this sickening feeling and I'm looking at a desperate man. Anything can happen. I would have never been able to tell my daughter, your monster, you're a boogie man will pull up alongside you. And instead of him coming to help you, he has come to harm you.

Inside the shed, there was a green purse. There's also a large rock saturated and dried blood. This is not a good sign at all. It is not favorable hit in the chest with a sledgehammer. That's about what it feels like. She began coming to and tried to fight. She was trying to turn emergency lights on, trying to grab the radio, trying to honk the horn. Anything that she could do. Because she knew.

She knew. Here's Keith Morrison with Into the Night. It was a Saturday night in the summer and they were so happy at their bachelorette party as they laughed and danced and played their drinking games. Well, outside, in the dark, watchful waiting, hidden in its clever disguise, death cruised by looking for one of them at all around the peaceful town, tucked into sleep, no ghost, no soothsayer to warn them that evil had fooled their defenses and slipped inside to snatch its prey.

This is the place here in the wide, handsome high desert of central Oregon, the small city of Bend, an annual occupant of every list of the best places to live in America.

That's a nice place to live. I love it here. It's perfect.

An outdoor recreation heaven on the slopes of the Cascade Range, rife with rivers and lakes and rugged independence. I mean, everything here is about outdoors, about connection. And Ben was home to a beautiful young woman named Kelly Sawyer. This is Kalif mother, Julie.

She was probably 17. And she said to me, Mom, when people describe me, I want them to describe me as smart and strong and funny. And she was.

Yes, and feisty and fearless. Her best friend, Naomi's sleepover buddy and stunt team cheerleading partner.

I love you so much, but she's not the most coordinated person. We were probably the best stunt team on our squad because our communication, we didn't need to speak. We could look at each other and understand everything about one another. I wouldn't really call her a tomboy, but I also wouldn't really call her a girly girl.

Somewhere in between, she could look like a model one minute and being scruby clothes and ready to go camping the next. She calls her grandfather, Papa Jim, here with Grandma Sharon.

She was our sunshine. She was just our world. Do you worry about her as a teenager? She was in Bend. She had family around. Huh? So my worry was if she left behind, you know, oh, my goodness, what if my Caylee goes up to Portland? She won't have a grandma. Sharon there will have to move. Yeah, we have to go and be with her. That was my worry. Not being in band.

Mind you, Kelly was on her own now, was living with her boyfriend, a young man named Cam.

I could tell from the moment that Caleb met Cam that this was a good relationship for her.

I could see that she was happy.

Now, if she could just figure out what to do with her life, she was gonna be a plastic surgeon.

She was going to be a policeman. She's going to be a chef. She was going to be a photographer. The world was hers. She didn't pick one thing.

No, but this year, the year she turned twenty three, that was changing. She held a job for two full years now is a dental assistant.

She was my work daughter. She'd follow me around to learn how to do things because she really wanted to be the best.

Lisa Castro was Katie's mentor at the dentist's office and discovered Caylee had this rare ability to make people laugh even when they weren't in the mood or were scared.

If there was a difficult patient, you'd put Caylee in the room and they just melt those pretty eyes and that smile.

And then surprise, surprise, Caylee was making plans to enroll in college. Now, she knew what she wanted to do.

One day she comes into work, she says, I've decided I'm going to become a dentist.

So both of them had something to look forward to that Saturday night, July twenty third, twenty sixteen, Lisa was celebrating her upcoming wedding. The bachelorette party was for her. Caylee had already told Lisa and her sister Jenna that she couldn't go. She'd be out of town.

But last minute I got a text from her saying, guess what? I'm going to show up to your party to help celebrate you, but I'm going to show up a little late. But I'll be there.

That's a great thing that we're going to get together for a bachelorette party. Katy, bar the door at our age.

It was after 8:00 p.m. when Katy showed up at a country bar called Mavericks. The party was well underway.

She came in a little dress and just looked adorable in it, and she did. Here are photos of Caylee at that party in that black dress.

She was kicking up her heels a bit, right, because she was having fun.

But when The Bachelorette and her party began to run out of steam, Caylee and a friend left to keep things going at another bar downtown.

You know, I checked them out and said, you know, you girls be safe, you're OK, right? And they said, yeah, we're OK.

We'll be good. And a little before ten thirty pm, she walked out into the night happy, a little tipsy, all together, unaware of what was waiting on the other side of midnight.

When we come back, a friend of Kamps texted him and said, your girlfriend's here dancing with another guy. Out for a night of fun. But where would she be when morning came? The very first message that I looked at was from Cam saying, Have you seen Caylee?

Instantly, I had the sickening feeling in my gut. It was late afternoon, Sunday, July 24th, the day after the bachelorette party. Kennedy's mother, Julie, was driving home from a weekend camping trip. She approached spend around 5:00 pm, reinjured cell phone range.

I turned my phone back on and my phone was just pinging and pinion and pinging. And the very first message that I looked at was from Cam saying, have you seen Caylee? Have you heard from Caylee?

Why would can be asking her about Caylee. After all, they lived together. Julie's phone chirped over and over, texted her the same question almost hourly all day.

So you're looking at multiple messages? Yeah, yeah. It's getting a little more worried. And I called her first and her phone went to voicemail, which Caylee notoriously left her cell phone battery go really loud. OK, so that wasn't surprising by then.

Had already texted Casey's dad, Jamie, and stepmother Krystal as they sat in church.

His phone in his pocket kept buzzing, elbowing him. And I'm like, what's going on? So he kind of said, Cam doesn't know where Caylee is.

And I'm like, OK, so Caylee's dad questioned Cam. What did Camera tell you?

She went to a bachelorette party and and they had an argument going home, an argument.

It seemed really obvious that she'd just walk down the road and probably call the friend to come pick her up because she was mad.

And that was and that was it. And I literally thought nothing more to it than that.

But Cam clearly did. He'd spent that Sunday calling the entire family cam called, said Grandma Sharon, have you heard from Caylee?

And I said, no, I hadn't.

Grandma Sharon called and was like, Have you talked to Caylee? I was like, no, you know, is everything OK? What's going on? So I called her. I don't even know how many times. And her phone was going straight to voicemail. And I figured, you know, she was out with friends. Maybe she ended up just staying with them.

But the bride to be who had said good night to that happy young woman was alarmed instantly. I had this sickening feeling in my gut because that's not Caylee. She would have contacted somebody that, you know, I went to someone's house or whatever.

Julie still driving, trying to comprehend. I got a call from Cam who told her that after the bachelorette party at that other bar, Kelly had a view. I was having fun with some other guy.

They were dancing. And I guess a friend of Kamps texted him and said, your girlfriend's here dancing with another guy. And so he went and picked her up on the way home.

They started to argue Cam's story. He parked outside their apartment a little after midnight. Tempers still hot. He got out of the car. She stayed inside. He told her, come up when you've cooled off. But a few minutes later, she got up and walked away into the night.

It didn't surprise me when he told me that she went for a walk because she had always done that when she was younger and she'd get in trouble. And I would tell her, you know, you need to go to your room. Chances are she went to her room and out her window and she'd go for a walk.

You should work it out. Yeah, man. Yeah, she was mad and she you know, she would go for a walk and that wasn't unusual behavior.

Anyway, Karaman Cavey lived in a crime free neighborhood right across the street from the local college, but Cam didn't sound so sure of his story. So where did she go? Why didn't you come back? Why didn't you call anyone? Julie, encourage Cam to call Ben police, which he did Sunday afternoon.

Can I help you? Hi. Last night I got home from the bars, my girlfriend's, and she got upset at me and ran off. So I still haven't heard from her phone's off. OK, so did she just pick up walking or something from the like? She was mad. Yeah, I thought she would. Yeah, she was mad at me. So I walked inside and told her to come meet me in there and she's like, calm down.

And then I went back out in ten minutes and she was gone. And I called her a few times and she said she was walking down the street. I haven't heard from her since.

As Julie neared Ben, she worried. Would police take it seriously after all? Grown woman lover's spat. So Julie added a little urgency and called 911 one herself, etc..

Can I help you? Yes, I need to have an officer call me. My daughter is missing and she is over twenty three, but she has epilepsy and some medical issues. I exaggerated her seizure condition.

I really react to that. They were concerned about that. They you know, they. They knew that she had been out the night before and she had been drinking, you know, could that have triggered a medical incident?

Julie drove straight to the apartment where she questioned can.

I was frustrated that his story just didn't make sense. And so I walked out of the apartment and I said I just needed to go and take a walk and get some fresh air. And while I was out there walking, the officer came and I said to him, I need you to go talk to camp because his story doesn't make sense to me.

What was going on and where was Caylee Sawyer coming up?

Caylee's mom wasn't the only one troubled by Camm story. My thought was, did they really have that bad of an argument and something bad happened? And what did police think about Caylee sudden disappearance?

Did you both agree at that point something was going on here, something was off? Yeah, we were talking back and forth and he said, do you think we need to get detectives involved? I said, yeah, absolutely. When Dateline continues.

Sunday evening, July 24th, the sun descended toward the Cascades 18 hours after Cavey, Sawyer argued with her boyfriend and walked alone into the dark.

Her extended family gathered at the apartment she shared with her father. Jamie, was part of you kind of suspicious of Cameron? Yes.

My thought was that they really have that bit of an argument and something bad happened.

But your mind went there because, you know, the vast majority of the time and something happens to a young woman. It's somebody very cool.

It's hard to believe, too, because we knew Cameron, very innocent young man. He's just he's a nice guy. Yeah.

That's hard to imagine that. But you still do. Remember Cam's story troubled Caylee's mother to. And police officer Kyle Dennehy arrived and parked outside the apartment right across the street from the campus of Central Oregon Community College. It's on Aubrey Butte, which is one of the more prestigious areas of towns, very nice homes, very safe area. We think it's very safe.

Officer Danny was soon joined by Corporal Eric simply. Well, then he talked to the family, simply found that friend, the girl who'd seen Kelly dancing at the bar, the one who texted, can better come get her.

And a little after midnight, Caylee sent a text message to a friend saying, I'm home, everything's OK. I'm sorry about earlier tonight. And then her friend tried to call her just before 1:00 a.m. and Caylee didn't answer the phone. Did they seem to be any chance that she would have gone back to be with that guy she had met at the Bachelorette party? Initially, I thought maybe there was a chance, but did you talk to her?

So I called him on the telephone and get Caylee's phone number. He didn't give her his phone number. So it was it was just kind of they were hanging out that night. And that was the last he knew or saw her.

And that seemed to make sense to you. So nothing to disprove anything Kamma told them. What was your take on Cameron's story? What happened?

It didn't make sense to the story, made sense and made absolute sense. All Officer Danny took Julie aside to address concerns about Cam.

He was able to come and tell me. It's not that his story is changing. His story is evolving. He's remembering things. I think that he very early on took on the guilt and the responsibility that if something did happen to her, that maybe it was his fault.

Why do you let it go off in the night alone? Yeah, but I never felt that he was involved in in harming her.

Then Officer Danny assembled the family and ask them a question.

I said, hey, is there anywhere you can think of that she might be in? I kind of just sent them on a mission to go start looking at places where she could be if she was trying to cool off.

I remember going up to the campus and walking the route. We were told or assumed that she might have walked that night. A terrifying thing to do, said Papa Jim. You didn't know whether we were looking for a body parts of clothing or purse, so you were worried something very bad had happened? Oh, yes. Petrified, terrified.

I wanted to stay home and I wanted to be there because maybe she'd come home.

Yeah, maybe she'd call.

Maybe for, you know, my husband went out and looked for her. We were praying that he find her, that she's safe. But in a way, you know that something's wrong. I was praying that he didn't find her because I didn't want him. To have to find her if somebody had hurt her.

Now for the two officers, a judgment call, she was a grown woman who was missing, but she had a right to be somewhere else. There was no evidence of foul play. But did you both agree at that point something was going on here, something was off?

Yeah, we're talking back and forth. And he said, do you think we need to get detectives involved? And I said, yeah, absolutely.

Overnight, the first missing person flyer in the Katie Sawyer case without the law enforcement around central Oregon. And the next morning, everyone held their breath, hoping Caylee would simply show up for work at the dentist's office and then they'd all breathe again.

I drove in and walked into her workplace and they all looked at me and their faces just showed me what they were already thinking. And I asked him that. She called in and they just shook their heads.

It was heartbreaking. I mean, nobody could talk. There is just a lot of tears. That's when you knew that's what I knew something and still didn't want to accept it. She was truly missing. And then a few hours later, 20 miles up the road from Bend and Redmond, Oregon, a police detective named Eric Beckwith got up from his desk, went out to my car and got my lunch and was walking through the lobby and saw Isabel Ponce, who's Isabel Plotts.

Isabel Ponce is somebody that we knew in Redmond. She was a police officer recruit and Redmond resident. She seemed to be waiting for something curious. He walked on back to his office, sat down, no idea what was about to worm its ugly way into his world.

Coming up, a worried wife with a wild story. She's crying.

She's crying uncontrollably. I knew we had a big problem. And reality sinks in. Everyone hit in the chest with a sledgehammer, and it's about what it feels like. By Monday morning, they were swamped under waves of panic. It was 36 hours since Katie Sawyer walked into the Oregon night and vanished. I'm trying to get a sense of what it felt like to be in the middle of all of that complete loss of control.

Accompanied with sheer panic. Everybody hit in the chest with a sledgehammer. That's about what it feels like. And then going on noon, 20 miles north of the Richmond Police Department, Detective Eric Beckwith's noticed a newly minted Bend police officer named Isabel Ponce sitting calmly on a chair as if waiting for something odd. That struck me as unusual.

But I didn't approach her strike up a conversation.

I just went went into the office, unwrapped his lunch, prepared to tuck in. When a colleague appeared at his door, he had asked me if I'd had any idea why she would be in the office, that she had called and requested to talk to a watch commander or a supervisor of some kind. He had no idea. I had no idea. Just a short amount of time after that, Sergeant Duff opened his door and yelled down the hall for me to come into his office.

So, of course, Beckwith rushed in there and right into the biggest, most shocking case of his life. Though at first it was just puzzling. Describe the scene to me. She's crying, she's crying uncontrollably. Could you tell what was going on?

I knew we had a big problem. There had been an accident.

She got out through her tears or at least her husband said he'd had an accident, said he'd hit someone with his car. And it must have been that missing girl had been showing on TV, Cayley's Sawyer, did that name Kelly Sawyer mean anything to you?

It did. When I arrived to work on that Monday, I noticed that Ben PD had put out a missing persons flyer and requesting other agencies for any information or to be on the lookout for her. So I knew right away what she was talking about.

Isabel said her husband was a security guard at Central Oregon Community College and something must have happened there late Saturday because she said he seemed kind of distant all day Sunday, like here when they went to the movies. This picked up by a surveillance camera. And then Monday morning so comes out of the room and his eyes are all teary. That's what I've been tell me what happened with things like I hit her with the car. And did he tell you which car he said the security to the job, the car, the days of the job and what and what did you say to that?

So, Mike, what do you mean? What do you mean? You hit her and he's a guy who turned. I panic. All he said was any panic. I never said. He says to me, we get away with it. We needed somebody to do that, especially with which to meet them like it doesn't make any sense. Didn't make sense of Isabel because her husband, Edwin Laura, was a good man, had a degree in criminal justice, was in training to be a cop, and then he told her that awful, confusing story and just got in this car, told her he was going to make a run for it and took off, fled, ran away.

How long did this conversation go on for? It was pretty brief. It was just moving around. And I'm not sure he I don't think he grabbed anything other than he did grab my gun from my purse. And then he just kept saying, I need to go. I need to go.

What did you think when you heard all these things? I thought we had a significant problem. We had a gentleman who was potentially armed would have some knowledge of the way police initiate an investigation.

So Edward Laura, now on the run, knew what police would do, but seemed like Isabel was being rather vague about him.

Only places she think he could be going would be traveling. Southbound from central Oregon to his grandfather's place in Los Angeles right away, was issued a BOLO.

Be on the lookout for Laura and the 2008 silver Nissan Altima. He was believed to be driving and then he activated the major crimes team, called in. Dozens of investigators in town are now among those responding. Deschutes County Sheriff's Detective James McGlothlin, who had his own questions about the story Isabel Pontes had reported about her husband. He had told his wife this crazy tale, which might or might not be true, may or may not be.

There were a lot of things left out as far as details that we needed to know. Law enforcement was like, how did it happen? Where is she now? Where is Caylee, that is. Was she lying in some ditch, badly hurt? What exactly did Edwin Lora do to her and how big a head start did he have? After all, Isabel hadn't seemed to be in a real rush to report any of this, driving from their home eight minutes away from the police department, then waiting for who knows how long, just sitting in the office waiting to speak to a sergeant.

So she could have been on the phone and let people know in a heartbeat. Yes.

So there is an unknown period of time in between his confession to her from when the actual report took place.

You're on a manhunt now. We are. Our goal was this. We are going to hunt for Edwin Inoko, Laura, as quickly and as fiercely as we can so that we can a, potentially locate Caylee alive. And, B, if we can't, that we can find her and that we can stop anyone else from being hurt.

And so began one of the largest manhunts in Oregon history, but not so easy to find a man who doesn't want to be found. Or don't know what that man might do next. Coming up, a mother's nightmare. You hear about news stories about people stealing young women. And now I'm going to have to search for her, you know, being a sex slave when Dateline continues. By Monday afternoon, Katie Sawyer had been gone a day and a half and the calculus was very grim.

It had been Laura had told his wife the truth, Caylee might be dead. But was he telling the truth? And was she or was he still alive and injured or alive and the captive of an armed and obviously dangerous fugitive? But having told them what she came to say, Isabelle Ponce was no longer much help. I don't think he has a plan.

I don't think he I think you're right. I think he knows what he's doing. I don't think he does.

Did you ping his phone with his phone immediately when it initially pinged in Eagle Crest? Eagle Crest is a resort about 10 minutes west of Redmond, but it must have been a false signal, didn't pan out.

So we really didn't have a good idea of where he was or where he might go.

None of this, of course, could be shared with Caylee's family. Not yet, not even with her mother, Julie, who was conducting a search of her own. My best friend and I went and made missing posters and started distributing those all throughout Bente Panichi day. Yeah. And, you know, the whole time that you're doing this, you're checking your cell phone.

Did you think maybe she had been kidnapped or something?

When I heard that she'd gone for a walk, you hear about news stories about people stealing young women. And, you know, now I'm going to have to search for her, you know, being a sex slave, you know, and that was just a pretty awful thing to do is a very awful thing.

And we knew how hard the family was searching for Caylee, how many friends and relatives and people that were out looking for her. So, yeah, that was that was weighing on my mind and other investigators as well.

And the major crimes team was growing by the hour. Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummell.

This was full on every man and woman in every law enforcement agency in Deschutes County and also Kukan Jefferson counties with the Oregon State Police Department as well, putting all resources into it.

We needed to find Caylee because we thought she may may still be alive.

Edwin Laurer was the key. So, again, they asked his wife, where could he be?

Did you ask her whether he knew other people around town that he might, you know, hide with or something like that or.

Yes, I did. She told me that there would be no place for him to go in town or close or anywhere in Oregon, for that matter.

No place at all. She said no family to run to, no one. And then a bit later, one of the investigators, Beckwith, had called in. I remembered something Laura did, in fact, have family in the area. Police said once arrested his stepfather. And that's how the investigator knew that the stepfather lived five minutes from the police department and also only five minutes from Laura's house.

What do you know? And his wife, the police officer, basically led you away from that.

She definitely didn't lead us directly to that place, that's for sure. There.

Lo and behold, just two blocks from his parents house, detectives found Edwin Laura's getaway car, his 2008 Nissan Altima abandoned. The SWAT team was assembled, went to his parents door. Was he at his parent's house? He was not at his parent's house.

And from the parents, there wasn't much detail, if any, only that he had come by, that he had asked for some money. They had no idea where he was, where he had gone, that there was any trouble at all. That was the initial interview. They gave no credible information.

Did they tell the officer that they had given him a car to use? No, that doesn't make it easy to find a person. No, it's typical, but no, it does not.

Maybe there'd be something at Laura's house, some clue to what made him tick or where he might have gone. Detective McGlaughlin got a search warrant headed over there when inside, but nothing could have prepared him for what he would discover. Nothing at all.

Coming up, two discoveries at Edwin Laura's home. One surprising. There were things that were written on certain pages, certain scriptures, the other horrifying. This is not a good sign at all. It is not. Two massive searches were in full force across central Oregon late that Monday in July 2016. In neither case, the searchers have all the facts. Sawyer's family got word out every which way they could poster's Facebook.

Within less than 24 hours, there is 10000 shares of Caylee's missing picture. There wasn't a spot in Downtown Bend or, you know, Red meant that you could go, that you didn't see Caylee's missing picture.

We had people call and said I just canceled everything for the week.

What do you need? Caylee's family did not know what this police officer had told detectives.

He said something that he hit her with the car and then he panicked, did not know that this security company car with the missing flier attached was the very one Edwin Laurel was driving when, as he told his wife he ran in to Caylee. But was she dead or alive? It was most certainly, said John Hummel, a race against time.

But I was holding on to hope and every officer was holding on to hope that she might be clinging to life. And if we could find her, we could raise her to help and bring her back from the point of no return.

And as they searched for her, they searched also for him for answers. But now the major crimes team had grown to more than 30 investigators, one of whom was Detective James McGlaughlin, about to be sent to conduct a search of Edwin Laura's home.

I would like to see what makes this person tick. And it just happened. Coincidence, really, that McGlaughlin was a former pastor, which was about to matter a lot.

We go through the house and I'm immediately drawn to a music room. There's pictures of Edwin and Isabel inside various musical instruments.

They found YouTube videos. Laura singing love songs are going to see your summer.

But also in here was evidence that Laura was a member of his church's worship team.

And here on Laura's bedside table was a well-worn Bible.

You preach from a Bible I have had so, you know, was used by what looks like there were things that were written on certain pages, certain scriptures.

So I I believed at this point, this is one of the focal points of his life.

And when the detective found evidence in a note that Laura was tithing, giving 10 percent of his income to the church, he began taking several steps ahead.

My first thought is I'm here for for some kind of reason. And I believe that unless this is a complete farce, that there's a hook there and I'm looking for a hook through that house. I want to hook.

If there is anybody who could use that hook, it's you and I. I believe that that was my initial thought, is that I can use this something going on with that man.

He's feeding something else. And I'm just wondering what that something else is.

Maybe they'd find it in the backyard shed. Isabel had told detectives Edwin Laura had left some things there. What did reveal anything about what happened or where Caylee was? McGlothin opened the door and this did not look good. What did you find in there?

So inside the shed, there was a trash bag inside that trash bag. There was a green purse. That green purse had a large amount of of castoff and bloodstain on it inside the purse, Caylee Sawyer's passport.

And there were the shoes she'd put on before the bachelorette party Saturday night. But then there it was like a punch in the gut.

There's also a large rock that was very sharp. Half of it at least, was saturated in and dried blood.

A murder weapon had to be. This is not a good sign at all. It is not Caylee's.

So there was not a victim of a hit and run? No, it was much more than that. And in that moment, faint hope died.

I believe that she was dead.

This was a murder. This wasn't any accident. This was definitely not an accident. It was definitely a murder. But if that wasn't horrifying enough, there was one more thing in that shed, this it was a poster board for a criminal justice class. Laura had taken at the community college a project on serial killers.

She had a fascination with serial killers. And so you naturally ask, well, why are you a serial killer?

And if that was a real question, then what were your fears of what could happen?

I very, very real fears that that he was going to abduct and that he was going to harm someone else. I knew he had a firearm. I knew clearly at this point in time, this man is willing to commit murder.

This man is willing to do heinous, unspeakable things to Dr. McGlaughlin. Had no idea then how right his instincts would be. Coming up, a young woman alone with an unexpected visitor key, unlock the door and sat in the car really fast and he had a gun just pointing it at me. I didn't think I was in I live another day. I didn't think I was even going to see the moon that night when Dateline continues.

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I told my husband. I'm not stupid, I know she's not with us anymore. About five minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

That's what they told her, what they'd found that Caylee was dead. And the guy named Edwin Lora was on the run. And now detectives worried what or who was next. I'm looking at a desperate man and anything can happen at this point in time is my thought.

Anything can happen. Oh, it would be 9:00 p.m.. One hundred thirty miles north west of Bend in the capital city of Salem, Oregon, a 19 year old saleswoman named Andrea Mays was walking to her car, tired at the end of her double shift at the Ross dress for less.

It was supposed to leave like in the middle of the afternoon, but I decided to stay and cover someone's shift as you got in her car.

She got out her phone and snapped a selfie. It was just a long day.

I was on my Snapchat, just took a picture of, like, working the double shift.

That's when she saw him. I just in the corner of my eye, somebody reaching into her window.

That's when he unlocked the door and sat in the car really fast. And he had a big backpack with him and he had a gun just pointing it at me.

She flinched, had to be a prank.

She thought I was really confused because at first I thought it was someone I knew. But then she saw this wild book. It just happened all so fast.

Then I saw his face and I was like, What are you doing? And then he started yelling at me, Where was the gun? It was just in between him and his backpack. Would you say to you about the gun? He didn't say anything. He just kept it pointing at me until I started driving.

Then Andrea started laughing, had to be a prank.

And that's when he got really upset and he put the gun on my thigh. And he had told me he's like, do you think this is a game? Do you think this is a joke? Because I will shoot you. I'm not joking.

Everybody reacted then almost before her mind. What does it feel like?

Just this whole part of my face and to my ears was like numb and burning hot and red. I wasn't even crying at this point yet because it was just so unreal to me.

He told her he killed a girl and Ben made her look as she drove with the stories about Caylee on her phone.

How did you not become hysterical? I don't know, in my head, I just kept thinking it'll end soon, maybe he'll just leave or maybe he'll just find another car.

She thought about her family. Would she ever see them again? Was he going to kill her? And then somehow it occurred to her. Her car had an oil leak, if she made it believe it was worse than it was, would he let her go?

I kept telling him it's not going to make it. You just need to find a different car, find somebody else, because I can't help you. And he's like he kept telling me, we'll figure it out. We'll just keep adding oil.

And so they did stopped at a service station and then a McDonald's where he held her at gunpoint. Well, he bought food.

It was the most frustrating feeling ever knowing that I probably talked to maybe five people while he had me captive and nobody even suspected a thing.

And so, again, she drove. He held the gun. And a strange thing happened.

There was a couple of times where I really thought, like, I wasn't going to go home ever or I wasn't going to see my family. So when I would feel like that in those times, I would just in a like I don't care attitude and I would snap at him. I would say things.

And instead of crying or getting terribly upset, you'd get mad. Yeah, I kind of felt like that. I'm probably not going to go home. I'm probably never going to see anybody again. They're probably going to find my body in a ditch somewhere or find me dead in a motel or something.

And sure enough, 90 miles down the interstate, he told her, we're stopping. They pulled up to a motel, the Relaxin. Here he is on surveillance video, keeping an eye on Andrea while he checks in. Once inside their room, he handcuffed her, he took a shower, told her, now it's your turn in my head.

I thought I'd rather die than shower in front of you.

And I told him, I don't care what you do to me at this point, because that would be honestly worse than dying is to shower in front of you. I would rather die. What did you do?

Did you did you have a thought? Maybe I could make a break for it here while he's in the shower.

I was handcuffed the whole time and there so a couple of times I thought I could probably just put the handcuffs around his neck and, you know, maybe we can pass out or something to give me enough time to run or drive away.

But then the thoughts would come into my head. Well, we could go really bad if I'm not strong enough to do that. And he's the one with the gun.

He moved her, handcuffed her to the bed, forced her to take a sleeping pill with his face down beside hers. I was freaking out because I had never put in a position like that, I didn't really know what to do. He was she knew about the rape her. And just then the alarm on her phone went off. I don't even know what that alarm was for, but that alarm probably saved my life because he saw it and was like, what's this?

What does that mean? And then I don't know where I got the idea, but I was like, that's my timer. I have to take medicine every day.

And he was like for a while. And I was like, well, I have an IED. And he was like, You have a what?

And I was like, I have an IED and I've been living with it and I have to take medicine every day.

She didn't. But did you think if I tell him that he won't want to rape me? Yeah, you were right. Yeah.

Then the kidnappers phone rang. It was someone from his family saying the cops were after him. He put on a bulletproof vest, announced they were leaving. And as Andrea's car sputtered down the highway in the pitch dark, far from any town or help, Laura frightened her with a fake story that he came from a family of rapists and murderers, known criminals.

He had started telling me that we're going to Los Angeles, that he has family there. I didn't think I was going to live another day. I didn't think I was even going to see the moon that night. And oh, it would get worse, though, when it did, I don't see anything. It just my whole head just went black. Coming up, a shooting, a gun just went off, another kidnapping we like you just need to drive.

You just need to get me out of here. And a Facebook message from a killer.

And I want a family member who draw that line. And you will be fined. The morning sun lit up the sky over Mount Shasta as dawn arrived in northern California. It was Tuesday, 52 hours after Caylee disappeared. Andrea Mayes and her kidnapper, Edwin Lora, had been on the road eight hours and her car was overheating.

And he told me we're going to have to get a new car. This one's not going to make it. Five a.m., Laura pulled off the road and why Ryko, California, at this Super eight motel where he saw a man unloading his car, checking into his room, he grabbed Andrea, dragged her along and burst in on the man. That's what had happened.

The guy was like, you guys have the wrong room, you need to leave. And Edwin, he's like, we just need your car. We're not going to hurt you. We just need to get out of here. And the guy was like, no, help, help. And and what happened then?

That's when he told him to stop yelling. And he told me if he didn't stop there, he would kill him. And he just kept yelling for help. And then the gun just went off and everything just kind of went black in my head.

The man clutched his stomach, went down. And all I remember was my ears are ringing really loud. And I was just being pulled out of the room.

They ran Laura pulling Andrea with him.

And then I'm like thinking, why just seen him shoot someone in front of me? What's to stop him from showing me in the back on my way to the car? And I was just scared. I didn't know what to do, as all I saw ahead of me was just a gas station.

And that's where he was running to hear the Mobil station. Somebody was gassing up in the car. An older woman and two young men, one behind the wheel. Laura jumped in, pulled Andrea in to the like.

You just need to drive. You just pointed at them. Yeah, he was pointing it at the driver at the time.

He slammed the doors, took off behind them. Someone called 911. One EMTs arrived just in time to save the life of the man Laura shot while in the car. The older woman was hysterical.

She just really to understand what was going on. I mean, who would Laura took their cell phones, made Andrea throw them out the window.

I was just trying to throw them as hard as I could to the grass to make sure that they wouldn't, like, break. So maybe they could pinpoint where we're going or something.

And then 30 miles down the road, you suddenly stopped and he's like, OK, you guys just I'll get out, that is all.

But Andrea, who, as she watched them leave, saw that one of them still had a cell phone.

I think it was one of the boys who was smart enough to just keep it. Out of the car, the boy called nine one one well, Laura, unaware of what the boy was doing, kept driving.

He was going like 120 at that time now, and he was just zooming in and out of cars, honking at people, just driving reckless and crazy.

So how did you understand that somebody was following you? That I did. And it was just him that kept saying, oh, there's a helicopter that's following me. They know where I'm going. And I think he was just paranoid. Or did you see the helicopter? I did it. And a couple of times he could even hear it, I guess, and he would tell me, do you hear it? Where's where's the helicopter? And I would look and there would be nothing there.

Paranoid. But before long, they heard the sirens. Saw the highway patrol cars behind them. Here's the dash cam video emerging from the rig. Even then, screaming down the freeway, Laura made phone calls to his family and recorded this on Andrea's phone. Hi, everybody. I just want to say that I apologize for everything I've done. Most likely I'm going to get caught. And sorry about that girl, that girl in central working. And I have one of my family members of mine, and she will be fine.

So far, he's been going, what are we going to do? You know, if you guys are wondering if I have nothing personal. All right. I'm not that kind of guy. And I know that other I regret it. I regret killed her. She kept screaming at the cops that not the shooter if the shooter. And that's not my fault. Sorry, everybody.

And just hear, Andrea made the last of a series of remarkable decisions, decisions that very likely saved her life and certainly saved her family anguish.

And so he wanted me to post that to my Facebook and share it with everybody. And I remember I think he had me caption it crazy murderer on the loose or something to that effect.

And I kept telling him, like, I have a lot of people I don't want to see this, because he did record me in that video a couple of times. And I didn't want teachers or pastors and friends and people to see that it's terrifying for so vulnerable. Yeah. So I just changed the setting on the post to just only need to see it. So it looked like it really did post, but only I could see it. He was threatening to kill me if I didn't post it.

It was at this very moment 648. And when Edward Laura called nine one one nine one one emergency reporting.

Yes, I was there with Laura and I'm the guy on interstate Interstate five. And I feel I just want to say I am going to turn myself in.

The dispatcher tried to understand, are you by yourself or know someone with me? I kidnapped her in Oregon. She innocent. Her name is Andrea. What's your last name? I'll let you. I'll let her give her last name. You can call her family. Okay. Hello. Yeah. Hi. What's your name? Andrea. Are you hurt at all, Andrea? No.

Then sounding a little sorry for himself, Laura started bargaining.

I want to ask you a favor, huh? So I have asthma. You get that OK? Yeah. So you felt nothing for me because, you know, I can barely breathe right now. You want me to throw my gun out of the window right now? I know. No, no, no. Don't do that right now. All right? I just want you to stop practically to address if you want to kill me. No, no, no.

Finally, just before seven a.m., they'll keep hoping you could pull over. Yeah, I'll pull over right now. OK, I'll let you talk to Andrea. OK, I did. Don't hang up. I'm not going. Hello. Yeah. Hi Andrea. Are you OK? You don't need any medical or anything? No.

He is stopping you. Can you see? Do they have him in custody already? They're going to let him right now. But I'm going to hang up and get out if you walk backwards towards them with your hands up. OK. OK. Hey.

No, but it still wasn't over 400.

She was arrested too, and it was hours before detectives from Oregon arrived and explained that Andrea was the innocent one, a victim. And then two more things happened in this remote California police station. First, a horrifying story, a confession about what that man did to Kelly Sawyer. Then quiet and unnoticed, an extreme complication. Coming up, a brave young woman's battle. She said she became coming to and tried to fight. She was trying to turn emergency lights on, trying to grab the radio, trying to honk the horn, anything that she could do because she knew.

And an odd request from a killer. It was shocking to me to hear him say that when Dateline continues. Red Bluff, California, Tuesday to Haima County Jail after a three day, two state crime spree killing, kidnapping, shooting, carjacking, manhunt, high speed chase.

And finally surrender. That's why Edwin Laura seemed eager to talk to the detectives who just arrived from Oregon.

We were informed actually, as we were walking into the jail that he's been asking for you.

Been waiting for you. The question was, what would he say? But as the detective soon learned, a better question might be what wouldn't Laura say?

My name is Sergeant because at that point, I shouldn't introduce myself because he has no this.

I'm sure you guys already know who I am. There's a really, really strong hint of arrogance and and ego behind that statement.

And right away, it was obvious Laura seemed to be enjoying his new role as a notorious criminal.

Well, all I can say is that I want to go home, that I'm going to do everything possible to go home. Yes, sir. And home. Meaning Oregon. Yes.

But first things first. The detectives implored, where was Kevin Sawyer?

We have not been able to find Caylee's body. Can you please help me find her body immediately before we start talking about anything else? The reason why I'm asking you that is I've done this a bunch of times. I want to tell you where the body is.

And so Laura went to work drawing a crude map is 26 highway.

That's going to say that he dumped her along a highway.

He said 10 miles outside of Redmann.

There is a mailbox right here reads 18th century, really, one eight seven zero zero.

Isn't that a kind of a significant number? It's significant because the California penal code for murder or homicide is 187.

And just about then, as the detectives were talking to Laura, their colleagues back in Oregon found the car he'd taken from his parents and the note inside on which he'd written repeatedly, one eight seven zero zero had he'd been toying with them playing games.

A wannabe cop who left the call signal for a homicide in a note. Is that an address or is it just a message or what the hell is it?

And that's exactly what we're thinking. That is something that he spent time developing and looking for.

And it just so happened to fit his desire to hide her body, but hide it in a way that it. He's not hiding his body of work from the public, he wants it seen eventually Detective Beckwith got on the phone to Oregon, he says, directly across from the cement locks on the south side of the highway.

They went to look and just like that, it's about five minutes after that that we locate Caylee.

Here is where she was, a ravine just off the highway. And Kayleigh Sawyer's family got the call they dreaded. The last time I got to kiss my baby girl on the forehead was through a black body bag.

We asked when we can see her identify their body and they would not let us see her. Their words were, you cannot see her because she's unrecognizable, unrecognizable as the haunting word.

How do you accept that Caylee's mom couldn't bring herself to visit the morgue?

I just knew that if I went, I might climb up on that table with her and not leave her back in jail with the detectives.

Laura seemed pleased to have an audience and had decided to reveal more and worse, like the reason why Caylee's body was unrecognizable. He was in his cruiser, he told them, at Central Oregon Community College, the cruiser that looked just like a real police car in a uniform that made him look just like a real policeman. And along came Caylee Sawyer after that argument with her boyfriend, vice chairman.

And I mean, I didn't hear that. Are bumper with the patrol car an accident?

That's what he told his wife, Isabel, the morning he left and what he claimed in the note he left behind in his car is kind of stuck to that.

I hit her with the car story for a little bit. You knew it wasn't true. We knew it wasn't true. And it was it was easy to get past that.

How will remember Detective McLaughlin, the former pastor, had searched Laura's home the previous day and found his Bible and evidence of his apparent devotion to his church, the hook you now could see for this very moment that was in your house.

I saw the Bible. I know you come through it a lot. I see that you've tibs four months consecutively.

He appealed to Laura the way a pastor would with Psalm Twenty four clean hands and a pure heart.

I said, Do you clean one hand when you wash your hands are clean them both. Well, both.

OK, so now's your time to tell me the real story because what you just said didn't happen that way. And he begins to describe to my shock and and quite frankly, terror, listening to the things that he had done.

The truth, Laura said, was that when he saw Caylee that night, he knew she was the one he'd been looking for a lot. Well, the familiar urge. Is urge to kill a beautiful woman. He saw her as a target the moment he laid eyes on her, and so he cruised alongside Kaili, excited, stopped, got out of his cruiser in his KOPLIK uniform, trying extra hard to look safe, hiding his ugly intention.

Mr Mr. offered her a ride and she refused. She didn't want a ride from him.

So I panicked and I. She says that, in his words, he put her in the car, he didn't open the door, she didn't get in willingly, he put her in there. What do you do to her? Then he took her cell phone from her. He told us that he knew that he felt a sense of relief once he took her cell phone just completely under his control and a vehicle that she can't escape from.

Cannot escape because the campus car had a security cage in the back seat, just like a real police car, then with Caylee unconscious. He drove up the hill to a secluded parking lot B 12. She said she began coming to and tried to fight, she started to crawl through the Plexiglas cage back seat, she was trying to turn emergency lights on, trying to grab the radio, trying to honk the horn, anything that she could do to because she knew.

So I crossed a checkpoint. Shit, shit, shit, shit to screen. It's like the lower down and.

Iraq, he saved and squirreled away like a trophy in his backyard shed, and he decides at that point that he does want to sexually assault her and he sexually assault her there while she's dying.

And drags her up behind a tree and finishes the job with the big 60, 70 pound rock.

And that's when. Afterwards, he told them he felt bad about what he did. She really screwed up. She didn't deserve. What is Laura's confession continued for six hours. They asked if he wanted to call someone. He said that I call the media.

You have a press conference about it or something? What in heaven's name?

It was shocking to me to hear him say that detectives believe they had him. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Coming up, a question from a killer that could let him walk free. Well, it had to be a bad day. It was. It was. So hard. Life can get so busy with kids, work, you name it, that it can feel like you never get to spend quality time with your family and friends.

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On Tuesday evening, they had a vigil from all around Ben. People gathered, most of them silent in disbelief. They had planned this in hope as they searched. And during those two days, the whole town seemed to adopt Carrie Sawyer, Ben's daughter.

They took to calling her. But now Ben's daughter was dead and unbelievably at the hands of a security guard at the local community college, Edward Laura sort of thing. That gives a cop nightmares.

I can imagine maybe my own kid, my own daughter just now walking in to have somebody stop. And her dad's a cop, and she might associate that with being someone of safety and security and trust. And then in a moment like that, he takes it all from her using just what he's wearing. And, you know, it's disgusting. It's also very unsettling. It's as unsettling as it gets. You have to wondered a lot what possessed him to be so apparently devoutly religious and to be want to be a cop and want to be a kind of an upstanding member of society.

But at the same time, he had this stuff going on.

Yeah, I still wonder about that to this day. For him to go from no criminal history to the most severe criminal history in a matter of three days was alarming and is still alarming to me.

So what to do with a man like Edwin Laura, now charged with aggravated murder and kidnapping and other crimes?

It was the D.A. John Hummel's job to decide if the facts in this case did not warrant a sentence of death. And I, in essence, would have been saying that no crime ever and Deschutes County would be appropriate for the death penalty. And I decided to ask the jury to impose a sentence of death.

And so they prepared for trial. They went over and over. All that happened minute by minute. They interviewed and reinterview witnesses, pored over the physical evidence. They examined in minute detail. Laura's six hour confession ensured he'd been read his rights.

You do have the right to remain silent. The detectives even went the extra mile and read Laura his consular rights. Though he was a permanent legal U.S. resident, he was born in Honduras.

He wanted to notify the consulate office.

At this time, it was quite a bit later they discovered one bit of video had been overlooked somehow didn't turn up for months. Mind you, it didn't exactly jump out what Laura said off camera.

Almost as an aside, my lawyer, I'm looking directly across the street from the restaurant, and that was it.

The moment passed. Laura, though, entitled the phone calls, did not ask again and did not phone anyone. So there was a hearing.

The judge listened to defense arguments that at the moment Laura asked about a lawyer.

He invoked his right to counsel it all. Question should have stopped and tossed out Edwin Laura's confession.

All of it, every word.

It had to be a bad day. It was it was so hard her to take, very hard to take.

And it's something we're going to live with and we do live with every day of our lives till the time they put me under the grass. I'm going to have a heart, you know. Hello, heart.

Well, there was other evidence besides his confession, like Caylee's purse and shoes and that rock covered in her blood, all found in Laura's backyard shed and Caylee's blood inside Laura's security company car and on her body evidence that she fought hard to survive.

She left behind evidence that was incredibly damning. She had his DNA under her fingernails. So investigators encouraged the D.A. do not lose faith, push ahead. You know, they said, you know, look, we got this, we can do it.

We have the evidence.

If we thought it was a death penalty case before, there's no reason to back down now except that everything changed again. Coming up, how disorder in the court and a phone call with a killer. Well, hang on a second. You got to explain that to me a little bit. What do you suggest when Dateline continues? She really screwed up. She didn't deserve what it did. Edwin, Laura told the whole story how little, if anything, back and not a word of it would be heard by any jury any time inadmissible.

So as prosecutors prepared, even without that confession, to ask a jury to give Laura the death penalty, his defense team asked for a meeting with the D.A., made an offer. Laura would plead guilty and agree to a sentence of life without parole. But with Carlie's family, go for that. A retired judge sat down with Katie's mother and told her what a jury conviction her desired result would almost certainly be.

He explained to me what happens in a death penalty case and the appeals, as long as he's living on death row, I would be to some choice.

Yeah, I would have had to show up to every appeal.

And so family members stuffed down their grief and anger and said, make the deal.

On a January day in 2018, Judgment Day arrived for Edward Laurer, the courtroom was packed, the first row filled shoulder to shoulder with members of the major crimes team scattered in the gallery behind Cayley's large extended family and many friends. Her boyfriend cam at the defendant's table, Edwin, Laura. And finally, also in the courthouse that day, that young woman, Laura, was charged with kidnapping during his getaway. Andrea Mayes.

This is the first time that I had seen her since everything happened. It was just hard even sitting there because I could see him trying to look over here.

There was something in the air that day. You have no idea how much irreversible damage this piece.

And in my extended family, and I want to feel this park is and let me know how finally it was time for Edwin Lora to speak, what could he say?

Oh, boy, I had lot of work ahead. I'll ask you to please heal the hearts of broken heart.

Jim, quite thoroughly disgusted, stormed out of the court.

I ask you to please cue the hearts of this family. Felt like it was staged.

And in retrospect, I wish I had the courage to stand up and tell them to turn around because all those people had to sit there and watch that happen, that show everything. We saw it rest in peace.

The death sentence, even if they carried it out, would have been too quick for him. You know, he's going to die a lot slower death.

Now, you may recall Laura right after his capture, asked if he could call the media an honest desire to explain hello at one.

Yeah, we were skeptical. So in May 2019, we called his bluff.

I understand you've been wanting to tell your story for some time, but was he serious about explaining himself? No. Instead, Laura floated a strange little conspiracy theory about his bank statements. Yeah, I wish they would have got into my statement, my bank statements every time I stayed in Salem, Oregon. I wish they would have gotten that, but they never did. Right now I'm like frustrated when it comes down to that, you know, but at this point, I honestly don't have nothing to say.

Well, hang on a second. You've got to explain that to me a little bit. Well, what are you suggesting?

Well, once they look into it, they'll be able to figure it out. But figure out what. There's a lot of things, though, right now. I have nothing to say.

And with that, Laura's conversation with us was over. And, of course, we checked. And of course, his bank statements, like everything else about him, had been examined in infinite detail. And there was just nothing to look at there. And the little charade in our phone call, who knows why. But with that, Edward Laura sentenced and safely tucked away in prison, did Cayley's family simply turn the page? Oh, no, not even close.

And Laura still had to answer for one more thing, what he did to Andrea Mays. Coming up, central Oregon Community College bears some responsibility for Caylee Sawyer's death. They bear a lot of responsibility for her death, Charlie's legacy and a time to heal.

I'm not a victim. I am a survivor. In the years after Katie Sawyer's 2016 murder, her loved ones slowly and painfully worked their way through the stages of grief, anger, bargaining, depression. But that final stage acceptance, the way this crime occurred, not a chance. I would have never been able to tell my daughter, your monster, your boogie man will pull up alongside you in a car that looks like a police officer's car and he will get out and he will be dressed like a police officer.

And Katie's family was not alone in its belief that Edwin Lauras crime committed while on the job was a campus security officer, was aided and abetted by the community college as applied both his cop like uniform and patrol car with a cage the professor used when he kidnapped and killed D.A. John Humeau.

Central Oregon Community College bears some responsibility for Caylee Sawyer's death. They bear a lot of responsibility for her death.

Why? Because it turned out that as a campus security guard, Laura had undergone no background check, no psychological tests, and none of the training required of real police officers in Oregon. And yet SIOC had allowed its uniformed officers to make arrests and traffic stops and to investigate crimes. Actions of DEA and other law officers had repeatedly demanded the college stop even before Caylee's murder. How would they react to these demands?

They would say that they think they are legally allowed to do it.

Caylee's family filed a civil rights lawsuit against central Oregon Community College to solemnly swear. Depositions were taken of the campus security director, Laura's boss, who had overseen many changes.

When you first arrived here, did safety officers carry handcuffs? They did not.

And what Edwin Loras College revealed about his behavior prior to Caylee's murder was horrifying. And he's like, oh, here, look at this.

Fellow security officers testified one by one how he showed them pornographic videos starring himself, how he sent inappropriate text messages to them, showcasing his obsession with dead bodies and more.

His behavior changed so much so that I felt like I was trapped.

The family's attorney, Tim Williams, he had physically pinned a female cadet within the building of CPS and forced her to reveal her religious beliefs in great detail.

Those are the behaviors that there were the phrase red flag was invented for. It seems to me that was our understanding as well. How?

They were disturbing depositions and Julie somehow sat through everyone, it was really hard because at the end of these depositions, they all asked to come and say something to me.

They would have tears in their eyes and a lot of them just kept apologizing. And I could have asked them at that point, you know, why didn't you say something? But then I saw the hurt and the guilt in their eyes. And I didn't want to at I want to I didn't want to add to that.

The college, for its part, admitted to no wrongdoing, but agreed to two million dollar settlement with Caylee's family, the maximum allowed by law in Oregon. The college declined our request for an interview, but issued a statement saying in part, SIOC sends our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Katie Sawyer and noting its commitment to safety. The college then listed the changes it's made since Caylee's death, including altering vehicles and uniforms, discontinuing the use of handcuffs and implementing background checks and criminal history checks for officers.

It's because of Caylee that that campus is safe and that that makes me feel good.

But was the family done? Oh, no.

We're going to go ahead and call the Senate Judiciary Committee. Did they pushed Oregon's legislature to pass Caylee's law to require background checks on security officers and to implement a host of other safety checks? Caylee's law was signed into law by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown. In the height of their tragedy, Caylee's family stepped up and said, we're going to make sure that no young person has to go through what our daughter did.

But there was still the matter of that other woman who went through her own hell with Laura. Andrea Mays, how he'd hunted her, caught her, terrorized her, talked of his urge to kill. It was like something out of a horror movie, what she endured, said one prosecutor. Sometimes it all overwhelmed her.

There's days where I wake up and I just really don't want to talk to anybody. I don't want to do anything.

And so as she waited more than a year for her case to make its slow way through the legal system, Andrea fretted over whether or not to be in federal court.

When Laura was finally sentenced for kidnapping and terrorizing her, whether to face him, whether to say something. But then in twenty at the courthouse in Eugene, Oregon, there she was.

I just didn't want to look back 10 years from now and just regret not coming or not saying anything. And so Andrea's summoned up every ounce of courage she could and said her piece to his face. No cameras in this courtroom. So she told us what she said to him in court.

I'm not a victim. I am a survivor. I'm a warrior. I defeated him and I am truly blessed for his crimes against Andrea.

A federal judge handed Laura another life prison sentence. Laura has also agreed to plead guilty to a host of California charges related to his crime spree. Laura's wife, Isabel, by the way, who was never charged with any wrongdoing, filed for divorce, resigned from the Bend Police Department and moved away.

Perhaps there's a sign for the madness of such a terrible story, Andrea has struck up a relationship with Caylee's father, Jamie, and the family. It's been good for them and good for her.

Freezing. OK, we'll look for Caylee. Yeah.

These days, Caylee's grandparents visit the library. Oh, here it is for grandma Sharon.

Read books to Caylee now memorialized on this sidewalk.

Caylee and and Grandma Sharon. Love you. Love you, baby girl. Her family has its ways of coping.

Yeah. And who's to say what's the right way? Maybe Julie's father, the court cases, depositions and lawsuits are finally over.

Every morning I wake up and I love her more and more each day, just like I did when she was here.

You know, I have gotten to that point sometimes where I look at a picture and I smile. And I'm so glad for that because for 23 years, nothing made me smile more than my daughter. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt, thanks for joining us.