Dateline : MSNBCW : July 20, 2024 10:00pm-12:00am PDT : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive (2024)

that will do it for me. thanks for watching. tune in tomorrow to the sunday show where the head of the hot -- hispanic caucus joins us live to discuss what could lie ahead for president biden in the coming weeks tomorrow right here on msnbc. follow us on social media using the handle at sign we can capehart and catch clips of the show on youtube. you can also listen to every episode of our show is a podcast for free. scan the qr code on your screen. strike it was like being in a

nightmare because mom was never late. mom did not miss appointments. she did not just disappear. >> a mother of two disappears. >> she waived a quick goodbye, walked down the stairs and out the door. >> she was not the first to vanish. this was a town that appeared to be haunted by a serial killer. >> it became sickening to hear that another girl had gone missing. >> was wendy another victim or could she have been targeted by neighbors she tangled with? or maybe the enemy lurked within. some said wendy had a history of emotional troubles. >> she began screaming obscenities and shouting. >> could this be love to teach or have had multiple personalities? >> he said that's all wendy. when she does that, she is shana. >> was this woman broken or a woman taken? to find out what really happened, an elite group of detectives would launch an elaborate undercover mission.

all leading up to a sit down with the man they called mr. big. high-stakes gamble to reveal the truth on tape with the children left behind. though it may seem perhaps implausible, like a play or a movie with at its dark heart >> the store you are about to his all too real though it may seem perhaps implausible , like a play or movie with, at its dark heart, something unspeakable. the actors are the family divided across a thin line separating truth and deception. there is the gambler's last desperate hand, the voice, the presence summoned from the beyond, and the audacious

undercover caper all to solve an 11-year-old mystery that put under the light of intense personal scrutiny, a most unlikely villain who depending on whom you choose to believe may not be a villain at all. but, in the beginning there was wilderness, fast and lovely and a happy little family, brother and sister who love each other and love their mom and dad. >> always thought of our family is a perfect family. it did not matter where we lived as long as we were together, that was home. >> this is anna sieppert, and home was a country cabin surrounded by the trees and mountains of british columbia, canada and this is her little brother, gabriel. >> always thought of my family and my parents as being perfect.

>> especially when you saw the dysfunction in families around you. >> yeah, like parents get divorced, like it just didn't make sense to me. how would you deal with that? >> their parents, a story is unlikely and romantic as anna and gabriel had ever heard. this shy french-canadian laborer named denis ratte, who fancied himself a gala, and wendy, the sacral hood strayed so far from her middle-class roots in the connecticut suburbs. they met in a hotel in reno, nevada, of all places. >> he hardly knew a word of english and she hardly knew over the french. >> and yeah, they hit it off. when it came time for him to leave, she said take me with you. >> and so, he did, all the way back to northern saskatchewan and against all odds, said denise' sister, dion, the marriage work. >> what i really liked about them is that they seemed to be more friends than lovers, the way they talked to each other,

the way they behave you know, it almost did not feel like husband-and-wife. >> and the kids? anybody could see how close they were. >> it was not just oh, how is anna and what is gab doing now? it was always anna and gab. >> as their friend, lois cook, could plainly see, denis was fiercely protective of all of them. >> i would trust him to do the right thing and keep them safe. he was going to protect his family and protect his kids. >> read the daddy's girl? >> yes, i was. he was the rock that i had. he was calm. he was patient. i always considered him about as close as a hero is a girl could get. >> a strong, silent hero who

preferred long, solitary walks in the woods to show so gatherings except for poker. there was usually a game in town. the family could certainly use the cash, and denis figured he was pretty good. >> he prided himself on being able to read people and know when to hold them, when the men i guess he sort of could because he was winning quite a bit. >> wendy, an art teacher by trade, taught her kids to help others, to speak up and be heard , like her. >> i think you are a little too domineering for me right now. maybe tomorrow we can talk about that. >> in this video, she organized the peace project that taught students, including her own son, about conflict resolution and respect. >> that is the ideal of what she tried to do in her everyday life. she was incredibly nurturing and i think what she succeeded in doing is that she raised a good son and a good man to live in this world is a sane person. >> wendy wanted her children have the emotional stability she cannot seem to manage, even in her solid, middle-class upbringing.

she was open about it, how she was constantly seeking something missing, how as a teenager, she ran away from home, experimented with drugs, how her parents sent her to a psychiatric hospital back in connecticut. >> she wanted to have a peaceful part of her. she wanted to be centered, would be the word, but isn't that life? isn't that something common to all of us? >> he was drawn to spirituality and for a time, to a little- known religious group that called itself the emissaries of divine light. >> i remember her saying she felt at home there. she did that, though. she religion-bounced, surfing for somewhere to belong. >> then, finally she and the family seemed to find it, a place to belong at the edge of the wilderness far from her connecticut past. a small house a few miles outside of prince george, british colombia.

denis took a job at a local lumber mill. wendy found work off and on as a substitute teacher at the local high school. that might have been the whole story, really, except every drama needs a catalyst, right? one day, in 1995, denis returned from work at the sawmill and told the family how a log hit the shoulder and knocked him out cold and when he tried to return to work, tough as he was, he just could not. >> it turned out he had a lot of nerve damage down the right side of his body so he was left high and dry without being able to work anymore. >> denis could no longer be the family strong, stable protector. >> once he lost his job, i think it was up to her to figure out okay, like how we make everything work. >> and then it was a hot morning in august, 1997, when everything stopped working. gabriel was in the kitchen, and

he was more or less paying attention when his mom and dad told him they were off to run some errands. >> she waived a quick goodbye at the door, walked down the stairs and out the door. >> the first inkling of something wrong, something off, was when the phone rang just after lunch. >> i had a phone call from dad asking if we had seen mom because she had not shown up where they were supposed to meet. >> and his dad told her his mom dropped her off downtown so he could run errands and she could tutor a student and pick them up again at the hardware store but she had not returned. as each hour called by that afternoon, and is worry group. that might fall, there was still no sign of wendy. coming up, where was wendy? >> i just kept making phone calls and no one had seen her. no one knew what i was talking about. >> when dateline continues. addt for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma that's not for sudden breathing problems.

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may cause low blood sugar in people with diabetes, especially if you take medicines to treat diabetes. tell your provider about vision problems or changes, or if you feel your heart racing while at rest. depression or thoughts of suicide may occur. call your provider right away if you have any mental changes. common side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. with wegovy®, i'm losing weight, i'm keeping it off. and i'm lowering my cv risk. that's the power of we. ♪ ♪ check your cost and coverage before talking to your health care professional about wegovy®. (♪♪) (♪♪) voltaren... for long lasting arthritis pain relief. (♪♪) keith morrison: it was late summer, a hot morning arthritis pain relief. in saskatchewan when wendy and denis ratte

drove off to run some errands. hours later, wendy was nowhere to be found it was late summer, hot morning in saskatchewan when wendy and denis ratte roloff to run some errands. hours later, wendy was nowhere to be found and her daughter, anna, then a teenager, was worried. >> when i called the police to say i don't know where she is, can you help, their only question was, has it been 24 hours and it had not been, so i cannot make a report yet. >> so, dark now, anna and her father took the family's old truck and drove to prince george to look for her. they stopped by a coffee shop, one of their favorite meeting places. no wendy, but as anna looked around, her eye caught something familiar. >> there was the van sitting under a street lamp in a grocery store parking lot. i was so excited.

the grocery store i think was just closing up and i thought well, maybe she's on her way out of the grocery store so i went and knocked on the door and they said no, there's nobody there. >> the van, a white plymouth voyager, had picked up a dent on the driver side door. weird. the van was locked, but denis had an extra key. inside everything looked normal, so anna drove the van home. >> that night and the next morning i kept making phone calls. i called a friend -- every friend of mine, every friend of hers that kept making phone calls. it was like being in a nightmare because mom was never late. mom did not miss appointments. she did not just disappear. >> the next day, denis and the kids filed a report with the royal canadian mounted police. they created a missing persons poster, a photo of wendy

smiling, happy, her hazel eyes magnified by supersized glasses. they plastered around town. the day went by then two, then a week. >> i kept waiting for her to walk back through that door. i didn't know what else to do. i'm 15 years old and just expecting everything to come and be normal. one of my really vivid memories as we went to see amount -- movie together because we felt like let's have a little distraction from this trauma so i remember standing in line to go to the cinema just feeling awful, feeling the weight of what is happening, having it feel so odd that we were doing that. like, why are we looking for her? >> anna remembered her father going for long walks in the wood alone. seeing devastated, lost, alone,

and denial. >> he broke down for the first time. i had never seen real emotion come from him before. >> by then, wendy's disappearance became news all over prince george. >> i came into contact with the case as a news reporter covering the disappearance. it was quite a shock that somebody who is apparently normal, everyday almost a stereotype in that sense could disappear without a trace. she was everybody's mom and she just disappeared. >> a disturbing echo of other stories people knew all too well. >> this town is used to disappearances and when wendy disappeared, there was a hint, a strong whiff of suspicion that this was another highway of tears case. >> highway of tears? what could that be? coming up, >> it became sickening after a

while to hear the police issue another release that another girl had gone missing. >> was wendy just the latest of a long list of women who have disappeared or been found dead along the stretch of road? >> you could not look at it as an impossibility. another woman gone missing and unsubstantiated ways. >> when dateline continues. switu can build it better, scale it faster and sell more. much more. take your business to the next stage when you switch to shopify.

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the moment i met him i knew he was my soulmate. with fresh food pre-portioned for y"soulmates."eds. soulmate! [giggles] why do you need me? [laughs sarcastically] but then we switched to t-mobile 5g home internet. and now his attention is spent elsewhere. but i'm thinking of her the whole time. that's so much worse. why is that thing in bed with you? this is where it gets the best signal from the cell tower! i've tried everywhere else in the house! there's always a new excuse. well if we got xfinity you wouldn't have to mess around with the connection. therapy's tough, huh? -mmm. it's like a lot about me. [laughs] a home router should never be a home wrecker. oo this is a good book title.

keith morrison: a terrifying specter haunted the lonely highway that pass through prince george on its way into the wilderness. the highway of tears. eight hundred thirty-seven miles of exquisite natural beauty winding its way past dramatic snow-capped mountains and breathtaking vistas of lush forests. the highway of tears, exquisite natural duty wending its way past snowcapped mountains and vistas of forests and clear lakes reflecting blue skies above but also past the site of all the solved mysteries. >> police say there are six

active investigations. tonight, more missing women on the highway of tears. >> by the time denis ratte vanished, at least 15 women had gone missing or been found dead . somewhere along this highway. what was a serial killer was on the list. >> for me as a reporter it became sickening after a while to hear police issue another release that another girl had gone missing. >> had wendy become highway victim number 16? or abandoned van was not far from the highway. >> you couldn't not look at it as a possibility, another woman gone missing and unsubstantiated ways and for some, that is all that is needed and in many ways it is perfectly valid. >> as reporter frank peebles dug into the store he found another so far unsubstantiated theory making the rounds around town. >> another police spend a lot of time thinking about and investigating the jones theory. >> the jones family, once

neighbors of the ratte's. just months before she disappeared, wendy , played very publicly about the joness accusing the family of mistreating their animals and using their land as a garbage dump. >> she was able to get a fairly big news story happening, which made the city react and get them kicked off the property in their animals taken away. >> it was not only damaging for the joneses. the jones family matriarch sent a scathing letter to the prince george citizen bad mouthing wendy and her family, intentionally misspelling the family name, exchanging the tran03s for the rats. >> never met the jones's but the stories i heard about them art that indeed, people would not have been surprised if they

had acted out some of the threats they were alleged to have made. >> there was no question, said gabriel. his mom did feel threatened by the joneses. >> they would hoot and holler at her as they were passing. that's one of the examples of her community activism, having a bad neighbor like that and doing something about it. >> fearlessly, apparently, because she must've known they would not like this obviously. >> she made an enemy for sure. >> that was just four months before she vanished, leaving nothing but her van in the local parking lot, a van with a dent in the door that nobody could remember seeing before. >> it was a pretty sizable dent, so what was it? could it have maybe been some sign of a struggle? if my mom was accosted and

thrown into the van, something forceful must've caused the step. >> you know how people are. they talk, and the longer wendy stayed missing, the more they talked about the joneses. >> so, even in the newsroom, that was a leading theory, that is one of your clear first steps in any disappearance or murder case, is what is the motive, and they joneses could have a motive. >> it was a grudge and certainly there were some differences in it was in the media. >> prince george detective judy thomas is leading the police inquiry into wendy's disappearance in this early in the investigation, and elite was welcome. >> this is the difficulty with any missing person file. there is no real starting point. you don't have a scene, you don't have remains and it makes it difficult. >> thomas decided to focus her investigation closer to home. she discovered that none of wendy's close their personal

things were missing from the house except for her passport, so the obvious question -- did you have the feeling that this is a woman who might have just up and left? >> we have to look at all possibilities. you have to keep an open mind when you start on these investigations because we had at that point, very limited information on who wendy was. >> would you start? maybe a phone call to wendy's family back in the states. >> i hear the story and i think oh, for crying out loud, she's done it again. >> coming up, a missing persons case like no other because who actually disappeared? wendy, or a second personality some say look inside? >> we asked them what is going on. he said that is not wendy. that is shanna. when she does that, she is shanna. >> i met shanna. she was driving a very fast, very expensive car . she was bragging about how much money she made when she said, i'm not

wendy anymore. >> when dateline continues. tin y shields the enamel to defend against erosion and cavities. i think that this product is a game changer for my patients. it really works. icy hot. ice works fast. ♪♪ heat makes it last. feel the power of contrast therapy. ♪♪ so you can rise from pain. icy hot. choose advil liqui-gels for faster, stronger and longer-lasting relief than tylenol rapid release gels. because advil targets pain at the source of inflammation. so for faster pain relief, advil the pain away. swiffer duster traps 4x more dust

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news update. a florida man is in custody after threatening to kill former president trump, his vice presidential running mate jd vance, and their families. the post remained on social media and this comes a week after the assassination attempt against donald trump saturday. authorities are investigating a fire at a church in downtown dallas. no one was hurt. for now, back to dateline. wendy ratte, the sweet, free spirit of prince george, british columbia had vanished from her life, her passport nowhere to be found that is unlikely as it seemed, police

had to seriously consider, corner with a dedicated wife and mother of two skipped town and run away from her own family? which brings us to the greyhound bus station a few blocks from where wendy's van was found abandoned. gabriel was putting up a missing persons poster there. >> asked the lady who was there at the cash register, do you recognize this lady on the poster? she did say that she recognized my mom and i was just taken aback. you do? we asked her repeatedly and she said i saw her. she was sitting at that table over there. >> what does that do inside of you? >> it's hope, you know? >> shortly after wendy disappeared, and i was looking for her mom's papers in search of clues and found an application for a teacher's job in california. >> well, maybe she is there. i know she had spent some time in new mexico when she was getting her teaching degree and she loved it. maybe she went

there. >> and then, there was that religious group she had been so into years earlier, the emissaries of divine light. could she have joined them? >> they feel they have transcended the conflict and tension of their former lives. >> a canadian ms. magazine show profiled the group and found it had several branches in the u.s. >> i had help the police look into that and give the information i could, and would often ask, how much did you look into this because i knew there was an american . >> but still, why would her own kids think it possible she had abandoned her family without so much as goodbye? the reason for that was history. she had done it before. >> just up and disappeared from our lives. >> this is karen, wendy's sister, who told how wendy

vanished the first time when she was 17 years old. the family finally found her living in a tent in new hampshire. >> at our very approach, she began screaming obscenities and shouting and behaving in a menacing, hateful way, and she was not a person i had ever met, and we knew she was not well and needed care, and forcibly took her and put her in the hospital. >> doctors thought wendy suffered from drug -induced manic depression but karen said they did not have time to make an official diagnosis. that is because wendy turned 18, checked herself out then disappeared again, this time for almost two years. >> when wendy disappeared, all traces of her were gone. she did not call anybody. we cannot find her. we could not tracker. >> she showed up suddenly, apparently seeking refuge from an abusive relationship she was in at the time, then was gone again. >> there was a clear

disengagement from reality. she did not understand that her disappearances were hurtful to her family members. did not get that at all. >> so it went on and on until one day she turned up and announced she was getting married to denis. the family was overjoyed. >> our family thought he was a very good influence on her, and the fact that he chose to take a chance and take her away was nothing short of amazing. >> wendy became a dedicated wife, teacher, artist, mother, but there were always issues, mood swings, for one thing. >> somedays she would be so happy and other days the world would weigh down on her. >> but hurt wendy's sister said what she observed back in saskatchewan when anna and gabriel were still young were just mood swings.

>> the first time i really noticed it was with the kids. she was always so gentle with them, soft-spoken and all of a sudden she was very cold and very abrupt with them and i started noticing denis, when this would happen, would take her away and say oh, we're going for a walk now, and when they got back, she was back to normal, and then finally we asked him you know, what is going on? finally he said you know, that is shanna, that is not wendy. he said when she does that she is shanna. >> wait, did wendy suffer from multiple personality disorder? that was never diagnosed. the stories were all anecdotal, but -- >> i met shanna. wendy and i met in a parking lot somewhere just to say hi. she was driving a very fast, very expensive car.

she was bragging about how much money she made. she was uninterested in anybody else besides herself, and she said, i'm not wendy anymore. >> shanna seems to of been around off and on for quite a while. she even called herself that in a letter she wrote her parents when she was just 23. shanna has magic, she wrote. so, two wendy's? >> wendy was the good mother, conservative hard worker, wanted to save the world while shanna was the wild child. she did not want to be tied down. she wanted to have a good time. she felt restrained by the bonds of marriage and family. >> maybe it was shanna who got on that bus, or perhaps old shanna? yes, three wendy's. oceana came to life in siances.

>> i don't know if they were real or weren't real. they seemed real at the time. >> she was speaking invoices? >> she was very in touch with the spirit, and ancient spirit named oceana. she found some peace and that in one day she said let's hold hands and speak with our shanna. >> i remember her transforming into this character, this different self, and it was a surprise to me. i did not know she did this. she was a completely different person. she was not responding in the way my mother usually does. >> so, everybody was looking for wendy said gabriel, when really they should have been looking for one of the shanna's. >> i think she had the capacity

to pick up and go. she might've reached a breaking point where she just snapped and just left. >> then, one day after a month of rumors and unsubstantiated theories, there was a break. wendy had been getting unemployment insurance and two of her checks had been cashed at an atm in the full view of the bank surveillance camera. coming up, another potential clue is about to surface from wendy's past. a crucial moment when a high- stakes gamble went very wrong. >> she was so angry she just vibrated. >> what that told investigators, when dateline continues. told investigators, when dateline continues. but this is my story. ( ♪♪ ) and with once-daily trelegy, it can still be beautiful. because with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open for a full 24 hours and prevents future flare-ups. trelegy also improves lung function, so i can breathe more freely all day and night.

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they said 10% chance of rain. -seems more like 40% to me. -no. it has nothing to do with the dew point. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us. what are those, cumulus clouds? your best defense against erosion and cavities is strong enamel. nothing beats it. i recommend pronamel active shield because it actively shields the enamel to defend against erosion and cavities. i think that this product is a game changer for my patients. it really works. keith morrison: a month into the investigation, police i think that this product is a game changer for my patients. thought they were a big step closer to solving the mystery surrounding wendy's disappearance. someone cashed in her unemployment checks at an atm. a month into the investigation, police thought they were a big step closer to solving the mystery surrounding wendy's disappearance. someone cashed in her unemployment checks at an atm. was it wendy? was it someone who had done her

harm? rcmp investigator judy thomas checked the banks and surveillance cameras and there he was. denis ratte, wendy's husband. so you asked him about it. >> and he admitted it. >> straight up, didn't try to lie? >> i don't think he could lie about it when you have a picture of him cashing the check. >> did he have an explanation? >> he explained the fact that his wife and disappeared. there was no money coming in and he needed to pay the bills. it made me wonder about his character. >> denis suddenly became suspect number one . it was hardly a surprise police would look at the husband. in fact in the very first week of the investigation, thomas had questioned him three times. >> i introduced myself as a police officer coming to talk

to him and i said, how are you doing? his comment was better. that struck me odd right at the beginning. >> did he seem nervous, upset? >> he did not strike me as overly concerned, not distraught by any means. >> frustrated is what he was. >> i said get used to it. you are the husband. they're going to look at you because 90% of the time, the husband did it. >> it did not help that from one interview to the next, denis appeared to change vital information about the day his wife went missing. >> he said she had left with no money but in the following statement, he claims that he gave her money. >> more than $2000, in fact. many had gotten in advance for an odd job, which he asked wendy to return when he can complete it. >> it struck me as -- >> why didn't you tell me that the first time? you don't think you would forget about $2000. >> exactly. >> in the fall of 1997, as investigators interviewed more and more people who knew the ratte family, they discovered that ever since denis had the

mill accident and lost his job two years earlier, the perfect little family had not been quite so perfect after all. >> that is really hard for him, as you could imagine. he liked being the man of the house. >> sure. the physicality in your ability to provide for your family, are taken away from you, that's got to be hard on the ego. very hard. >> it was very hard. >> especially hard on the families finances. their visa cards almost maxed out, the only income came from wendy's work as a substitute teacher, not exactly a lucrative profession, so denis did what he always did when times were rough. he played poker. >> you got a little desperate and started gambling more and more to try to get money for the family and gamble too much and started losing money, money that didn't have. >> it was on one of those

nights sometime around february, 1997, around six months before wendy disappeared when hunched around a poker table in the company of highrollers, denis found himself staring at her hand that spelled salvation with $25,000 in chips sitting on the table. >> maybe it's every gamblers excuse, my hand was so good that no one's going to beat it. >> so, he threw everything into the pot? >> yes, he but the highest he could and he lost it. i think that went on to the visa, as well. it was terrible. >> mom was very vocal. i remember her yelling. she was so angry she just vibrated. >> vibrated? >> mom was emotional. i've never seen her yell at him like that before. she talked about how much she loved albert was so angry with him that she wasn't sure she

could forgive him that it was betrayal to put years of devotion and someone and be cut down like that. >> your father's addiction is ruining us, wendy told anna, and as was wendy's way, told everyone else who cared to listen. 16-year-old anna, daddy's girl, began to see the tarnish in her father's halo. >> when i heard that mom had to change bank accounts and her name, she had to protect the family's income, that was the first waiver i had with my father's character. >> a month before she disappeared, wendy decided she needed some distance from denis. she took the kids and went to visit her old friend, lois. >> i feel that the decision wendy was making was whether she was going to end the marriage with denis or not, but she knew how much he loved his children and how much the children love denis.

>> so, she decided to give denis one last chance. she went back to prince george, had a heart-to-heart with him, then called lois. >> when she phoned, she said i've talked with denis. we've decided we're going to give it another try. that phone call was happiness with a lot of relief in it, but my sense was, if denis betrayed her trust again, it was over. >> denis told wendy he would do whatever it took to save the marriage, but anna could clearly see that wendy's very public complaints about his failings had been bothering him a lot. >> he was a proud man. he did not like his dirty laundry aired, and she just had to, to everyone they knew. >> as failings have been put on display. >> and they never had been before. what it took for her to forgive him hurt him deeply.

>> but, denis told people again and again that his marriage is back on track. he had absolutely no reason, he said, to hurt wendy or have anything to do with her disappearance. police said, prove it. >> what we were talking on the phone and he said they want me to take a life detector -- lie detector test. i said don't take a lie detector test. they scare me, don't do it. >> denis did not listen to his little sister. four months after wendy disappeared, he volunteered to take the test. >> a lot of people are nervous when they come in. they are unsure of the procedure. >> right. it would be pretty scary, i would think. >> yes, he was that way, wondering what was going to happen, what is going to take place. >> there was a polygraph question that had to be asked. last august, did you murder wendy? denis ratte answered with conviction , no, i did not, and waited to see what the machine would say.

coming up, the investigation is transformed when detectives run up against a fresh and frustrating piece of evidence. >> didn't seem to you at the time hey, this can't be? >> i remembered having a thought of it is not what i expected. >> when dateline continues. ed. >> when dateline continues. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. i'm lowering my risk. adults lost up to 14 pounds. i lost some weight. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop ozempic® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis.

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morrison: four months into the investigation of wendy ratte's disappearance, no sign of wendy anywhere, police radar was squarely pointed at her husband, denis, which was no surprise to seasoned prince four months into the investigation of wendy ratte's disappearance, no sign of wendy anywhere. police radar was squarely pointed at her husband, denis, which was no surprise to seasoned prince george reporter frank peebles. >> it was the natural assumption that someone of that style, that demographic would not go missing unless it was to someone she knew closely.

>> denis, of course, claimed his innocence and took a lie detector test to prove it. there was no shortage of theories in the case though there is, like rumors are easy. separating rumor from fact is another matter altogether as detective judy thomas suspected that she chased down leads. first, the highway of tears. for years, women had been going missing out here, a body occasionally turning up behind the road, a horrifying surprise for passersby but thomas had investigated those cases and expected no surprise in wendy's case. was sure of it, in fact. wendy did not fit the profile. >> some of the victims we see our hitchhikers also involved in drugs and organized crime are some of the folks that are

sex trade workers. there was nothing to indicate she was connected to any of them missing and murdered women on highway 16. >> so, said judy thomas, no highway of tears but wendy could still have left prince george of her own accord. there was after all that siding at the greyhound bus station but no, said thomas, false alarm. >> with various files to get a lot of people saying i saw this person. they're quite adamant but when i spoke to the woman, she actually said no, i would not be able to say that at all. we flagged bank accounts, credit cards, social numbers, we put wendy on the canada-wide database and checked lines at border crossings. there was nothing. >> what about the religious group, the emissaries of divine light wendy had been drawn to two years before? >> they said they had never heard of her. >> reports that wendy was mentally ill, that it was not her, but her alter ego that may

have left town? thomas interviewed wendy's mother about her daughter's troubled youth. >> we spoke at length. she told me all about wendy and her background in growing up. >> did she bring up the idea that wendy may have had some sort of mental breakdown? >> there was talk of some issues wendy had. we looked into medical records and there was nothing recent. there was a time in her life when she did i don't know if you want to call it disappear, but lost contact with her family, but that is in a person's youth, which is much different than when you are married with children. >> thomas interviewed several of wendy's closest friends. all told her the same thing. wendy was first and foremost a mother. >> to get a sense that you know these people when you're looking for what happened? >> you certainly develop an idea of who that person could be. for wendy, a very caring, loving mother. when i was talking with anna and gabriel, the love they have for their mother, i knew it had to be reciprocated, that obviously

wendy loved her children very much and i kept hearing that over and over, that she would not leave her children. >> that was a central fact in your mind. >> definitely. >> so, runaway wendy? investigator thomas decided no. so what about the jones family, the neighbors wendy helped evict from the property? they would've had the motive to hurt her. >> you look at the full circ*mstances of it, that family had moved four months prior, the main person they alluded to is not even in the area and there was nothing else to support that. >> the joneses rolled out as suspects in the disappearance of wendy ratte , which left wendy's has been, denis. he created the suspicion himself when he illegally cashed wendy's unemployment insurance checks , and his gambling habit almost bankrupted the family and led to those terrible fights months before wendy disappeared.

but, remember he agreed to take a lie detector test and now, the results were in. >> the polygraph operator came back and told denis that he found him to be truthful. >> you heard right. truthful. letting him go as a suspect had to of been difficult. didn't seem to you at the time hey, this can't be? >> i remember having a thought as that is not what i would've expected. >> dion, who warned denis not to take the lie detector test, got a call from her relieved brother. >> i did the lie detector test and i passed it and you told me not to do it but i did it and it paid off and now they know i didn't do it in there leaving me alone. see, i was right? is that okay, you were right, you win. >> the case of the disappearance of wendy ratte was at a dead-end. >> he told me we don't

understand. further cases there is at least bogus information coming in. there was nothing coming in. >> was her mom alive? was she dead? could she have abandoned the children who loved her so much? it is a very personal thing, the way humans react to trauma. for three years after his mother disappeared, gabriel's way was to forget, force it out of his head. he went to vancouver, registered for college, tried to go on with life. >> i did not give it a lot of thought to the point where i try to remember her face and i couldn't. i would have dreams, though, dreams of her coming back up those stairs the same way she walked out. >> anguish like that could not stay hidden for long. it happened in a drama class. gabriel was reciting a scene from a play that dealt with abandonment, anger, desperation , the very feelings he had been

trying to suppress. >> i broke down. i was bawling in the classroom. they could not console me. i was on the ground. i was heaving. this was like a three-year buildup of holding it in. i just quit school because i felt like this is too much right now. >> my brother was lost. i say i always felt that i connected with my father more. i always felt that my brother connected with her more. i feel a lot of guilt for not being able to have been able to replace her. >> why should you replacer? >> because then maybe he would've been okay. but we were both so lost. we could not be there for each other. >> coming up, and i gets word there might be witnesses who know what really happened to wendy. >> were these people? have they called the police? >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues. for.

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her husband, never to return. it had been years since that fateful day wendy 'sratte took the family van to run errands with her husband and never returned. for the couple's daughter, the pain of her mother's disappearance continued to burn. 20 living with the boyfriend hundreds of miles from prince george, she was determined to keep the search for her mother alive. >> everything else i did was mechanical motion. my emotion went into finding her. >> she began to believe she was quite alone. that rcmp let the case go cold. >> they promised they were still looking. nobody would be working on it. finally, i was tired of this file shuffle and went to the media to say, don't forget this was a person in your community. don't forget. >> she came in carrying this

folder of news clippings and possible leads that connected to her mother. i talked to many families of many disappeared people over the years and i could see the light in the eyes that this was one of those people that was not going to let this go. >> anna's father had given up. not only of finding his wife again, but on himself. >> he was changing in front of my eyes. this calm, patient, sturdy, steady person was emotional. >> falling apart? >> angry. he was a mess. i saw him at the food banks and with girlfriends that he had to pay for. i saw his demeanor change from a proud workingman to a street thug. >> he was in a downward spiral, desperate for money, he turned to small-time crime. got caught. he was lucky it was his first

offense. he only got probation. >> he did this drug deal because he needed the money to keep her home, wendy's home. he said of fike keep the house she'll have a home to come home to. >> denis lost the house. he was living in an apartment in the seediest part of town, collecting bottles to make ends meet. >> it was a blow that he had gone that low. when i tried to question him about it, he just, he said my kids are gone. my wife is gone. don't have much left. >> anna had a sense, a nagging feeling, that it wasn't just grief that capped denis from being the dedicated father she had known. was a possible, she wondered, that it was guilt? >> i thought he was hiding

something. >> what would he know? >> i don't know. he said i've gone through my story, if you need to hear it, go to the police and asked them to tell you the story. he said i'm not talking about it anymore. i understand about being fed up. i can't imagine how it would feel to be the one investigated but i believe in the truth. if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to hide. >> when anna kept pushing, her dad snapped back that he was conducting his own investigation. his target, suspects the police had eliminated. the jones' family. >> he said the day they disappeared, friends of his saw the family from down the street that she had kicked out. she saw them following her. assad versus coming from? who are these people? have you told the police? they are afraid of this family. i couldn't understand he would be okay with not telling the police. >> if her father didn't want to

go to police, anna decided, then she would. >> is could i have my father story line and the police said we don't have a clear picture of what happened that day. every time he tells a story, there's big holes. >> what did you think when you heard that? >> just at a loss. it was like he was putting a barrier in front of the investigation. >> but, there was something anna did not know. the case of her mother's disappearance wasn't cold at all. in fact, police were actively investigating her father. four years after denis passed his lie detector test, they review to. standard practice in unsolved cases. this time, an unexpected outcome. >> the polygraph operator rereads his charts and then we find that he was actually deceptive. >> deceptive, meaning according to the calligrapher, that denis

ratte lied when he said he had nothing to do with wendy's disappearance. investigator thomas wanted to be sure. >> we had five polygraph operators read those charts. everyone read them to be deceptive. >> a failed lie detector test was not enough evidence to arrest denis let alone charge them with a crime. >> it was hard for me not to tell anna. i couldn't because i have to balance the integrity of the investigation. you don't want to jeopardize. >> all thomas could do was file the results away and try to find more evidence against denis. is the years ticked by one by one, nothing. finally, in 2007, decade since wendy vanished, thomas decided she wanted to get closer to denis to find out what he knew once and for all, she would need some help. >> that's when we looked at passing it off to the unit.

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keith morrison: it was a sweet wedding, arthritis pain relief. happy and a little sad, too. it was a sweet wedding. happy and a little sad too. wistful when and other pride danced with their father. it was 2003. six years since her mother vanished from her life. father insisted he had nothing to do with it. tender moments like these, anna said, reminded her how much she yearned for the bond they once had. >> i had to leave him. he is still my hero, my childhood hero was still there. >> she was sliding into it darker understanding of her father. until the daily 2007 when anna met a reporter in a downtown cafe. >> there's no one else in the

room and we were talking quietly. after about an hour of conversation, she finally shook her head and said, i'm very sure it was dad. and the wrench in her eyes when that came out was something i don't think i can never forget. >> by then the lead investigator, robert, the unsold homicide unit in vancouver was in charge of the case. one of 800 unsolved cases on their books. >> we came to the same conclusion as denis ratte was the suspect and his wife's disappearance. >> but there was not quite enough to charge him? >> correct. the corroboration to move the file forward. >> undercover operation? the unsolved homicide squad came up with the and it was so elaborate and ambitious it may seem unbelievable. they created from scratch a fake

criminal organization, complete with detectives posing as crooks. the gold to look denis ratte into their missed and gain his trust to find out what he really knew about his wife's disappearance. >> the rcmp conducted over 350 of these investigations. >> the criminologist at the vancouver university has studied these operations had written a book about them. >> they have creatively fashioned a backdrop that simulates a real-world criminal environment. so much so that fiction is often difficult to differentiate from reality. >> the rcmp would not discuss the specifics of the undercover operation that targeted denis ratte. we referred an rcmp summary of the mission. june 2008, an undercover officer approached denis in

prince george. he was looking for something but didn't know his way around town. denis agreed to help him. a week later, another question. would denis like to make money on the side delivering bags , contents unknown? no problem said tran the dashed denis. and as days went by, denis became fully involved in what he believed was a criminal gang. after a couple of months, by august they were helping him smuggle alcohol in exchange for stolen diamonds even to transport guns, or so he thought. >> overtime the target is led to believe that he's an up and comer in the organization. >> then, it can't more serious. denis was asked to threaten a man. he did although he said he did not like it. he guarded a hotel room door as the undercover officer savagely beat the woman. he never suspected it was an act. >> the undercover officers are

amazing actors and describe right out of hollywood with the scenarios they do. the beatings, the stage kidnappings, the fake blood, is truly phenomenal. >> denis bonded with his crime buddies over meals at fancy restaurants and evenings in strip clubs. the pay was good too. about 12 grand, little more than three months. more than he had earned in years he told his sister without divulging too much. >> he said i'm not eating at the soup kitchen anymore. i thought, great, he got a job india's people he's working with he really likes and they really like him. >> during one of his delivered trips to vancouver, denis stepped to see his son gabriel. 26 and a college student once more. gabriel said the self-assured denis was back. >> i saw that clint nsi where he felt proud of himself again.

he hadn't felt that since he had been injured. >> three months into the operation, the sting was primed. the real police showed up at danny's life and said the investigation had been reopened and it was a prime suspect and he felt that lie detector test all that years ago. now suddenly worried, denis , just as planned, had no one else to turn to except for his new friends. the undercover detectives had them where they wanted him. time for mr. big. >> mr. big is the commanding all-powerful boss of the criminal organization. he is the one who calls the shots. if he likes you and wants to bring you and, he can make your problems go away. >> denis, his crime buddies assured him, had all it took to be a made guy because he had been with the organization value the most. honest and loyal. that's a common safeguard of

the mr. big technique. to ensure as much as possible of the suspect does not lie to gain respect. >> just be honest. if you are honest, things will be great. if you like, there could be devastating consequences. mr. big will only accept the truth. >> so far, whenever undercover officers asked him about his missing wife, about a dozen times or so, he didn't waver from the story he had stuck to for more than a decade. he had nothing to do with it. september 27, 2008, the hotel room in winnipeg. lead investigator monitoring the video in a nearby room. you've got this elaborate set of. what are you trying to get? >> i've been involved where we were able to clear a person of any wrongdoing. it's not just there to find a

person guilty. it is there to seek the truth. >> the moment had come. time for denis to come clean. coming up. his back against the wall, what would denis say to mr. big? ig

the moment i met him i knew he was my soulmate. "soulmates." soulmate! [giggles] why do you need me? [laughs sarcastically] but then we switched to t-mobile 5g home internet. and now his attention is spent elsewhere. but i'm thinking of her the whole time. that's so much worse. why is that thing in bed with you? this is where it gets the best signal from the cell tower! i've tried everywhere else in the house! there's always a new excuse. well if we got xfinity you wouldn't have to mess around with the connection. therapy's tough, huh? -mmm. it's like a lot about me. [laughs] a home router should never be a home wrecker. oo this is a good book title.

this as a job interview, okay? denis ratte (recording): yeah, okay. mr. big: that's a job interview. we are gonna to put everything on the table. denis ratte: sure. mr. big: okay? keith morrison: denis ratte had come to the moment of truth.

he was meeting mister big, the man he believed to be >> denis ratte had come to the moment of truth. he was meeting mr. big, the man to be a powerful crime boss. his audition, he believed, for membership for trust. help from mr. big. the royal canadian mounted police discussed the identity of voices of the undercounter -- undercover agents on this video. >> first, mr. big told denis he would have to come clean about his past. especially about the mystery of his wife's disappearance, that is, if he knew anything about it. the undercover canadian investigator posing as a crime boss wanted denis to feel comfortable. so, he spoke french . we have translated and dumped over the conversation in english.

>> there are three things i want. loyalty, truth, honesty. the last one, i didn't, honesty, being honest. >> honesty, yeah, okay. >> then a knock on the door. it was one of the alleged cronies with an internal police memoranda. read it said mr. big. as denis sat and listened. denis ratte: satellite results? keith morrison: that was a lie, of course. there had been no satellite watching denis on that august >> that was a lie, of course. there have been no satellite watching denis on that day in 1997. >> they are 100% sure he did it. >> denis insisted he had nothing to do with his wife's

disappearance. now, suddenly, for man he believed to be a crime boss, he changed his story. >> okay, what you have to say? >> i'm going to tell you. i'm going to tell you. i'm going to tell you honestly what happened. the honest truth. i never told that in my life. i ain't happy about it, but i did a. okay? i'm not happy i did it, but i still did it. everything worked perfect. with a rifle. one shot, you know, nice and easy. >> you shot her where? >> in the head. >> where in the head? >> in the back of the had, you know. i did not check when i hit her. i was pretty nervous. i guess around here. >> he shot wendy denis told mr. big that morning at their house at prince george. she was feeding the ducks, her back to him, when he took aim

with the rifle. >> right or left side? >> i've got to put myself back there. >> seeing the husband trying to relive the moment when he said he murdered his wife. >> okay, you move over there like that. >> yeah. i remember turning. yeah. >> that's your left side? >> that is my left side. >> denis said it was just one shot. not a lot of blood. after wendy fell to the ground, he ripped her body in a black tarp and that's when he noticed she was still moving. >> i took a bumper jack. those old jacks you used to put under vehicles. >> okay. >> it was a big thing with a cover run a. i didn't want to leave a mark. i finished her off with it. >> where?

>> in the face. >> then he put the body and her plymouth voyager and made a left turn on the highway of tears intro to an abandoned loggers road about 1.5 hours away. there was a swamp there. >> a major, the body, -- >> what did you put on top? >> there was mud and there was a stick. you know. i stirred it around and it slipped. >> denis told mr. big he drove back to prince george, got rid of the gun and his wife's ideal on the way left the van in this grocery store parking lot. then he wandered around for a bit before i called anna to report her mom was missing. later that night, came back with an it to the coffee shop so she would discover the van.

>> right after the curve, the house is right there. >> the day after his meeting with mr. big, two other undercover officers were taken to the crime. he believed they were fellow gang members. >> after you shatter, what happened then? >> i brought her behind the garage. >> then his criminal friends asked him to take them to where he dumped her body. they said they needed to make sure there was no evidence left. it took a while to find the place. he had not been back in 11 years. finally, he was sure. >> so, by walk there, the wires there there. everything makes sense. >> as he continued searching the area. >> oh, my gosh. i'm putting on my gloves. if that's black on the other side, that's the tarp. >> a couple of days later, and i got a call. it was the police asking her to come downtown. >> and, they sat me down and

said, we just arrested your father for the murder of your mother. >> what was it like to hear that? >> shattering. i broke down, but at the same time, it's like i knew. i just didn't want to believe it. the signs were all there. he changed so much. just hearing it, made it kind of official that the person i held so dear was not there anymore. >> not a big surprise. and i had doubts about her father all along. but her brother, gabriel? that was a different story altogether. >> i can't imagine how anyone would say it's 100% certain that my dad did it. >> coming up. gabriel this and the only one

with doubts. the confession is one thing, but did police have anything else on denis? >> i am going, wait a minute, they fell nothing that would corroborate his story. corroborate his story. i recommend pronamel active shield because it actively shields the enamel to defend against erosion and cavities. i think that this product is a game changer for my patients. it really works. icy hot. ice works fast. ♪♪ heat makes it last. feel the power of contrast therapy. ♪♪ so you can rise from pain. icy hot. choose advil liqui-gels for faster, stronger and longer-lasting relief

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hi, i'm richard lui with a news update. new york governor kathy hochul has requested a federal emergency declaration in response to an unprecedented number of tornadoes in new york state. new york has seen 17 tornadoes this month which is more than oklahoma, kansas, alabama, mississippi and iowa combined. brittney griner and her wife announced friday they welcomed their first child. the news comes in less than two years after she was released from persian. she will head to paris for the 2024 olympics. the police, they said they needed to see him right away. tery gabriel was at work whe

the call came. the police, they said they needed to see him right away. >> they put me in a room with a camera, and that's when they broke it to me. they told me they know that my father did it. they are 100% certain. >> and your very first reaction was what? >> it's felt like my world came unhinged. like, it was a dream. like reality had ceased to be. >> right then and there, the police asked gabriel to record a message to his father, and so, of course, he did. >> i spoke to him in french about how i loved him. i told him, if this happened, i just want to know more. please be honest. please know that i am here for you. >> then with a heavy heart, gabriel called wendy's family.

instead of anger, he was surprised to encounter skepticism. >> i did not believe it. all of us saw him as someone who would have died to protect his family. that was who he was. that was his source of pride. at that point, it was the only source of pride he left. >> the only way gabriel could make sense of it all was to confront his father in jail. >> i told him right away, want the truth, whatever it is. i want you telling the truth. he told me, no, there's no way. i did not do it. >> gabriel wondered what hard evidence police found approved his father was guilty of murder? it turned out, they hadn't found anything. >> that's the piece of the tarp. >> the day after he led

detectives to the scene of his alleged crime, they return to pick up that piece of tarp. sent it to the lab for analysis. the results were inconclusive. they also searched the area for a body. nothing at all. not so much as a bone. >> it is not unusual over that timeframe because of animal activity not to find either any remains of very few remains. >> but the gun barrel. the bits and pieces of things he stashed, drivers license and so one. >> it had been over 10 years. i think it's reasonable to expect a lot of those items would have disappeared. >> you didn't have the physical evidence to back up his confession. >> it was not physical evidence. >> i am covid, wait a minute, they found nothing to corroborate his story. >> it was painful for her to watch the video of the confession. she was shocked to learn the confession was the only thing

they had to convict her brother killing his wife. that is why she became convinced that denis lied to mr. big. his confession was false. the proof? she said the chilling details of his alleged cold-blooded murder that didn't make any sense. >> i cannot see him, the way he loved her, doing there. especially not with his kids in the house. there's no way he would've taken that kind of a chance. i asked, do you hear gunshots all the time? he said no and especially not outside my window. there was no gunshot. >> he said he did it between the house and the garage. >> you would've heard that? >> i definitely would've heard of. >> then the sweater and jogging pants. >> it couldn't be true because of my recollection of the morning. he said she was wearing different clothes then i saw her leave with. >> something else bothered him.

something denis told his crime buddies if they asked him if he was capable of murder. >> early on, he confessed to killing a man with rat poison. it turned out he died of natural causes. it never happened. >> it was a fake confession. >> it was. >> while i? gabriel said denis was desperate to be accepted by his tough guy friends. if he lied about one murder, why not lie about killing wendy too? especially when what was at stake was his acceptance in the gang and his new job, mr. big's loyal footsoldier. >> all he remembers a glint in his eye when he said he was working again and how proud he looked. perhaps a regular crime organization wouldn't even up brought him in. this crime organization was to sign for him. >> he made a lot of money first

of all. more money than he had made in a long time. he found a newfound family that respected him, that thought he was intelligent. he did not want to lose that. >> perhaps the most convincing argument was from denis himself when she went to see him in jail. for all those years he told her, the police wouldn't leave him alone. is meeting with a crime boss, he said, was a chance to finally make the investigation stop. >> we are going to talk to each other and work out these problems. were going to fix them, okay? that's what we are going to do. we are going to fix them. >> i couldn't tell them i did nothing, then they can't help me. and so, he said i made up a story that i thought they would find me some kind of alibi or something. they will fix it so these cops would get off my case. he had such a miserable, lonely

life, that i believe, at that point, he would've said almost anything. >> relatives of suspects, mr. big, have a right to cry foul. >> the ingenuity, it's achilles' heel. while it's capable of exposing the guilty, it can induce innocent suspects to falsely confess to a crime they did not commit. the litmus test, to me, is corroboration. without it, there's no way to tell whether the suspect is telling the truth or is lying. >> and i watched the tapes too, and she said she could tell. >> i know my father. i know his mannerisms. i know when he is hiding something. when he is not being truthful. >> unlike her mom eye family in the states, and i was convinced her father was guilty as charged. >> i knew when he was talking about my's murder that it was

true. that's what he had done. >> just about finished their investigation. they are waiting for satellite results from u.s. >> satellite? >> that's when he folded. i saw the look in his eye. i am caught. i saw the i am caught look in his eye. >> the gun shot, tarp, the car jack, the brother said it was all a lie, but anna had another word for it. >> that is cold. cold to talk about that. how do you talk about the woman you were married to, if you didn't do it, could you really tell that story? >> or could he or would he? tell it again? >> coming up. water for danny was or was not about to say, would it make sense that he would hurt wendy?

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it really works. keith morrison: denis ratte caught i think that this product is a game changer for my patients. by an elaborate undercover sting, a confessor to murder, denis ratte caught by an elaborate undercover sting. confessor to murder sat in jail while outside his two children battled over whether he belonged there. and i thought the confession finally proved it. her father was guilty. that she stood alone, most of her family sided with gabriel. there was no evident said

denise's sister. >> she was the breadwinner and the brains of the operation. she was his everything. he lost the house and his kids. he lost his whole life, why would he kill her? >> in his confession, he had a reason. although it seemed twisted, the police nor anyone believed it. when he was said to have a split personality, and any claimed on the day he killed her, he knew wendy's alter ego was going to sexually assault and up. and of course, he couldn't let that happen. >> i had no choice. save the little girl. save my little girl. >> what did you think when you heard that? >> i was disgusted. of all the lies you could've said for why, had to involve me again. >> it was too much for anna. the lies. the betrayals. now, her dear brother refusing

to share her outrage. >> he wants very much to think your father is not guilty. >> i know. i can't blame him. i think he didn't see what i saw. he was not there. i was up to my neck and investigation trying to find mom. i can understand wanting to be blind to the truth. i was there too. >> i don't want to speak badly about my sister. i really don't, but she, because of her activism in trying to find my mother for so many years made it easier for her, i think, to put everything aside and create an easy solution. me, i'm happy to live with a question mark. i won't pretend it's anything else. >> why don't you want to see

some kind of evidence to back up what you have seen on tape. >> the look in his eye on that tape. >> that's all you need a quick >> that's all i needed. >> or you can't stand living in the stout any longer? >> i saw the truth on his face on the tape. >> the man who ran the undercover sting, the lead investigator, insisted his team took all precautions to make sure denis didn't lie when he met with mr. big. >> we are mindful of false confessions. >> allegations are made all the time? >> correct. no loved one really wants to believe someone they know and care about could be responsible for somebody's murder. >> the mr. big undercover technique has been upheld by canada's supreme court. although the rcmp didn't find any physical evidence to cooperate the confession, turned out they did of evidence that was perhaps much more compelling. they got it after denis was arrested. >> by that point, denis ratte's

read all of his rights. he has provided under the canadian law. >> he could've said, thought i was talking to a crime boss and i was lying. >> absolutely. >> and he did not. >> he did not. >> he had no idea he was caught in a staying in his confession to mr. big was on tape. the police showed him the video. >> does this come back to you? is a coming back to you, denis? >> for almost an hour, denis seem to be in denial. >> i never said that that i killed her first of all. >> but denis, we know you killed her. >> i never said a. >> you said. you said at there. >> i said at there? >> yes. >> that's when the interrogator decided to show denis another day. the one they made of gabriel

the day they told him they arrested his father. >> essentially, denis, your son is asking you to tell the truth. >> then a couple of minutes later, a silent nod and he began to confess, again. the same details. the gun shop. the tarp. the car jack. >> she did not suffer. >> she did not suffer? >> no. >> it was fast? >> it still hurts. >> it had been a heavy burden to care that all those years said denis. >> you know, it's hard. someone who looks at you. i've always loved my wife and i still love her. we were friends, okay? >> you have killed your friend? >> yes. it took everything for me to do it. i even cried when i did it. >> there. he admitted it. this time. >> check the tapes. it's all true. >> it's true what you told

them? >> it was true. >> you didn't tell lies. >> a confession is the strongest evidence anyone get senate generally does the deed. that was a pretty detailed confession, not just once but twice. >> that's the one i don't understand more than everything. why did you confess when you knew you were in front of a police officer? why wouldn't you say, oh, well, of course i did not do it. i was trying to get in with this organization. he didn't have much of an answer. if there is an ounce of me not believing him, this is the biggest weakness. >> given on the absence of physical evidence, the second confession still was martin of to convince gabriel his father killed his mother. is it possible that you are living in denial? >> no.

you are not the first person to ask me. >> i bet. >> i thought about it but i think i am balanced about a. i can be swayed by the evidence whether for or against my dad. show me the evidence. >> as a jury was about to decide , a brother and sister, were prepared to fight for what they believed was right, even if that meant losing each other. >> coming up. anna and gabriel face-off in court. what was it like to testify at the trial? >> it was hard. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. ♪ ♪ i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular

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because advil targets pain keith morrison: december, 2010. thirteen years after wendy ratte disappeared. december 2010, 13 years after wendy ratte disappeared. in a prince george courtroom, the battle lines were drawn. this case was an only the crown versus denis ratte but brother against sister on the witness stand. what was it like to testify at the trial? >> it was hard. >> no doubt you so everyone in the family who disagreed with you. >> they are still my family. it was tough for all of them. they all felt i should've been with him more, siding with him

more. but, i had to make it clear that someone has to defend mom. >> denis ratte pleaded not guilty, and recanted the confessions he made both to mr. big and the police after his arrest. his son gabriel was one of two witnesses the defense presented to the court. >> i kind of hold my breath and go through it and hope whatever i say is going to work for my dad. and, i am utterly aware i'm the only person there who is speaking in favor of my dad. >> the defense lawyer hammered undercover detectives about the lack of physical evidence and pointed out last denis had told mr. big and his gang. proof, he told the jury, that the confession should not be believed. after four weeks, the end to the mystery was finally at hand. it took the jury two hours to

find denis ratte guilty of second-degree murder. >> so much of my life had been devoted to finding the truth, and now i had the truth, and it's not the truth i wanted. nonetheless, it's what i had. i am happy you have a. >> interesting that getting the truth isolate you from the people you love. >> that is true. but isn't the truth more important? it does not matter that my family might be angry with me for the results of where this trial led. the truth is all that matters. that is how mom let her life. >> anna knows too well that the truth will never replace her mother's soothing voice. what she yearns for most these days. if only she could speak to the spirits the way her mom once did.

>> i think maybe then i could hear her and she could speak to me. if i open enough, she will talk to me. but, not today. >> there was one last moment, of melodrama. right after denis was sentenced 15 years to life, he suddenly turned to anna. >> as she was leaving, he said to her, keep looking for your mother. >> gabriel was not there for the guilty verdict. he had to leave after his testimony. back to vancouver to his college graduation that very same day. >> it was such a whirlwind and i was late to get my gown, get ready to go to the ceremony. and think, oh my god, what is this life, where are my parents to watch this? >> his father was in prison and his mom? well, his mom -- do you believe

in your heart there's a possibility that your mother is still out there somewhere? that she is still alive? >> that is the part of me, the dreamy, hopeful, optimistic side. you hear the odd story of someone returning after 25 years of absence. it does happen. so, when i do hear one of those, my heart fills with optimism. >> there hasn't been a happy ending for anybody except your sister, anna, thanks it's the right ending. >> it's hard being on the other side of this with her. i'd love to have a better relationship with her. we tried to talk every once in a while. it's kind of a thing where she says, can't believe you can't see it. it is so obvious he is guilty. i say how can you think that?

there is no evidence. we just go back and forth like that. it's impossible to get around. >> gabriel as a father himself now with a daughter. his father in prison has met his little girl now. when we last spoke with gabriel, anna had not. >> we love each other very much. we have a bond as brother and sister that was very strong as children, and it will always be there. this is a difficult situation for both of us. we will get through it. it's all that's left of our perfect family is the two of us. we can't let that go. "dateline" hello.vi i am craig melvin. this is dateline.

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When Wendy Ratte, a free-spirited mother of two, goes missing, police go under cover to crack the case.

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