I'm Craig Melvin
and this is "Dateline:
Secrets Uncovered".
- It was rough.
It was a rough time
for the whole community.
- It hit her town
like a lightning bolt,
the strange disappearance
of Carrie Olson.
- It was scary.
Everyone loved Carrie.
- It was so painful.
- You reached out
to "Dateline".
- I did. Yes.
We started getting people
following our page.
- Where was she?
What was behind this?
Far from home, a lead.
- I saw the tattoo and I said,
that's her tattoo, isn't it?
- And three
caught-on-camera clues.
Someone's in her car.
Someone's at her bank.
But most
jaw-dropping of all,
someone's up on stage with
a song turned sinister.
- I couldn't believe what
I was hearing and seeing.
- Could karaoke be
a key to this case?
- My heart was just
pounding and pounding.
- I was sweating;
I was nervous.
We need to
figure this out, fast.
**
- Hello and welcome to
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered".
Carrie Olson was the girl
next door who dreamed
of falling in love
and starting a family.
She was looking
for that perfect guy
when she vanished.
Those close to Carrie
launched a desperate search
for answers but investigators
wondered if one of them
was hiding
a dark secret.
Here's Andrea Canning
with "Without A Trace".
- It's a sad fact
of American life;
families separated
from their loved ones,
gone without a trace.
Nationwide,
there are almost 100,000 active
missing persons cases.
Since December 2013,
"Dateline's" online
"Missing in America" series
has been telling some
of those heartbreaking stories.
One of the first came
from the Heartland
where not everything
is serene and pastoral.
This is the Quad Cities,
urban,
industrial,
gritty,
four cities split by
the mighty Mississippi River,
two on the Iowa side,
two in Illinois.
These days, the Quad Cities
is a sometimes uneasy mix
of old-fashioned
Midwestern values
and modern urban life where
crime is an inescapable part
of the landscape.
This is where
Carrie Olson went missing
in December of 2013.
- She had a heart of gold
and she made you
always feel welcome.
- Amanda Smith and Carrie
were BFFs from the moment
they met as 11-year-olds
at a neighborhood pool.
- We were just swimming
together one day
and sparks just flew.
- How do little girls
have sparks?
What was it about Carrie?
- She was outgoing, fun.
She'd push you in the pool,
she'd splash you.
She'd give you
the best bearhugs.
You know, just would send
tingles through your body
and made you
feel so special.
- The vivacious Carrie
was a people person.
And according to Sarah Paxton,
another friend,
a dog person, too.
She loved her Colby.
- Her dog, Colby Jack,
Colby, Colby Cheese.
She loved, loved,
loved Colby.
Colby was like her child.
- Twenty-nine-year-old Carrie
worked in her father's flooring
and carpet store.
- Carrie was a bit of, um,
a mommy and daddy's girl.
- She was.
- Is that fair?
- Yeah.
- Her dad seemed to do a lot
of things for her.
- He did.
If she needed something,
he was there taking care of it.
- But Carrie was trying
to find her own way.
She lived in her own house
and dreamed of one day
walking down the aisle.
- She wanted to be loved.
She wanted a family.
She wanted something
stable in her life.
- The outgoing Carrie
had no trouble meeting guys
but hadn't found
Mr. Right.
- Carrie was
such a sweetheart.
She was always bubbly.
- Kelly Hornick was a nurse
who moonlighted as a bartender
at a karaoke joint
named Jimmy O's.
Carrie was a regular.
- She was always well-behaved,
always there just hanging out
with her girlfriends,
having a good time.
- It was at Jimmy O's
where Carrie met Tim McVay.
From the moment they laid
eyes on each other,
they were smitten.
- They were flirty
with each other.
You could tell that they
were both interested.
It was cute.
- Tim studied theology
at Augustana College.
He planned on becoming
a minister but felt
he was just too young
and inexperienced
to live up to
the responsibility.
So, he took a dramatic U-turn
and found a very different
calling in bars and clubs
as the karaoke king
of the Quad Cities.
- He was very good
at running karaoke.
He was funny.
He entertained
the customers,
he got out there
and danced with them.
He would sing songs.
Yeah, he was a good guy.
- Tim, a divorced father of two,
was ten years older than Carrie
but that didn't
seem to matter.
They were having fun and Carrie
could imagine a future together.
- She saw everyone around
her getting married
and having children,
myself included.
And I know
she wanted that.
- But Tim wasn't interested
in having more children
and that was a deal breaker
for Carrie.
So, they decided to go
their separate ways.
Carrie soon started
dating Justin Mueller,
an Iraq war vet with
a very different personality
from the gregarious
fun-loving Tim.
- He seemed
very quiet and pleasant.
He was polite;
he was nice.
He seemed
a little awkward.
- Despite his quiet
and awkward demeanor,
Justin looked like
a good fit for Carrie.
He was closer in age,
hard-working, loyal,
and he seemed to find
a place in her heart.
So, they moved
in together.
It was a big step.
For Carrie, it was
the first time
she had set up house
with anyone.
- But right from
the start it wasn't
the happily ever after kind
of life Carrie dreamed about.
The Iraq war left Justin
with a difficult case
of posttraumatic
stress disorder.
- I felt like it wasn't
a good match.
All he wanted to do was
stay home where Carrie
was always wanting
to go out and do things.
- Did you sort
of see that as like
I can see this is
going to be a problem?
- I did.
I saw like a clash.
- Then just three weeks
after Justin moved in,
there was a problem
and it was a big one.
Carrie suddenly disappeared.
It was a Monday,
December 30, 2013,
the start of a work week.
Carrie didn't
show up at the store
and didn't call in,
not like her at all.
- Something was wrong.
- Right. I called her.
I could tell
her phone was off.
It was going
straight to voicemail.
And I thought about
calling hospitals.
I just was scared.
- Not home, not at work,
not in touch.
Where was Carrie?
- A frustrating
search for Carrie.
- It just felt like
a needle in a haystack.
- Grief can sneak in like
a thief and steal your joy.
- That's what seemed to happen
when Carrie Olson disappeared.
Grief ripped an entire community
and didn't let go.
- On New Year's Day
I did create
a Find Carrie Olson
Facebook page.
People were sharing
it left and right,
so, her story
was getting out.
I even contacted "Dateline"
and they published her story.
- When we posted
Carrie's story as part
of "Dateline's" online
"Missing in America" series
it reached 1.9 million people
and was shared 42,000 times.
- Did you feel like that was
something that could help?
- Yes.
- Just getting it out
on a national level.
- I think it
helped out a lot.
- Thousands started
to follow Amanda's page.
Carrie's story united
the Quad Cities
in a remarkable way.
Everyone wanted to help
and everyone was hoping
for a break in the case
but they were also on edge.
- Did you just start to have
worse and worse thoughts
as you waited?
- I did.
- What are you told about
what's going on with Carrie?
- That she did not
show up for work,
the family was concerned.
- The family was so concerned
they called the police.
The case went to Detectives
Rick Voy and Bill Thomas
of the Davenport
Police Department.
They say Carrie's
live-in boyfriend Justin
told them he had no idea
where she was.
- Justin didn't
have any answers.
- Justin said he
and Carrie had a fight.
She stormed
out of the house
and he hadn't seen her
in two days.
- Carrie was upset.
- What did she say to him?
- She said something
to him being stupid.
- Carrie's ex, Tim McVay,
was in Las Vegas on vacation
when he was told
she was missing.
He and Carrie were
still close friends.
Tim said he wanted
to help and had an idea.
He talked to Carrie's father
Dave about where to look.
- Tim told him, hey,
she could be at my place;
go over and look.
There is a window open,
you can crawl in
through the window
and search the house.
- Dave went over there
and searched?
- Yes.
- He did.
- Through the window.
Did he see anything?
- Nope.
- No Carrie at Tim's,
no Carrie anywhere.
And one thing left behind
at her house was a sure sign
something was
terribly wrong.
Her beloved dog Colby.
- Her everything
was Colby.
Just like a little kid.
And if she did go somewhere,
Colby was either with her
or she would make
arrangements for Colby.
There was-- she would
never just leave.
- Colby being at home
without Carrie led
detectives Voy and Thomas
to a grim possibility.
As detectives, do you have
to consider that someone
might have taken
their own life?
- In a missing person's
investigation
that's always
a possibility.
- Amanda gave that theory
some weight.
She said there
was a sadness
behind Carrie's
bubbly personality.
- I started thinking that maybe
she committed suicide somewhere.
- Did you think that
Carrie was capable
of taking her own life?
- Well, she seemed
depressed at times.
- Still, detectives
needed to know more.
They executed
two search warrants,
the first at the house
Carrie shared
with her boyfriend Justin.
- The search warrant that
we prepared for Carrie's house
included everything
that Justin owned
and Justin's vehicle.
- Justin's truck was checked
and photographed and a sweep
was made of the house
it was tidy, undisturbed,
didn't look like
a crime scene.
Another search was done
at ex-boyfriend
Tim McVay's house.
- We wanted to get
into his residence
and see was she there,
was she not there,
were there any clues
that we needed to go on.
- Detective Tina Noe executed
the search on Tim's home.
- We took lots of
photographs because you
never know what's going to be
important possibly later on.
- Tim was in the middle
of a major renovation.
The house was a mess.
Random things were
strewn everywhere:
clothes, construction materials,
rolls of carpeting.
But nothing looked
like a good lead.
Carrie's family was growing
increasingly desperate.
They wanted to do
something, anything.
When they reached
out to Dennis Harker
of the Quad Cities
Missing Persons Network,
sadly, he knew
just what to do.
- It's traumatic.
I mean, it's just a crisis
and it's overwhelming.
- His own son went missing
just a few months earlier.
- You find yourself
being tireless.
You can't sleep anyway;
you might as well
be doing something.
- Dennis offered suggestions
and organization
to help find Carrie
and keep her story public.
It was
a remarkable effort.
A reward was offered,
a prayer vigil
became a moment
of peace and faith.
And, of course,
there were endless searches.
Dennis led one at
the Mississippi River
where his son's body
had been found.
- The Mississippi tends
to collect a lot of people
that go missing.
- Amanda was with Dennis for
one of his river searches.
- Maybe she had drowned or
been dumped in the--
in the river.
So, we started looking
along the river.
And I was lifting up everything
looking for her.
- I had to do
something for her
because she would have
done it for me.
- Sarah Paxton
was searching too.
She remembers the frustration
of trudging through a huge park
covered with
a fresh blanket of snow.
- Every search I felt
smaller and smaller
and the world
felt bigger and bigger.
She was one of
my closest friends.
I loved her dearly.
It just felt like
a needle in a haystack.
- A needle in a haystack.
But Carrie's
friends and family
would not stop
looking or hoping.
Dozens of tips came
in from strangers,
well-wishers, even psychics,
but it would be something
much closer to home
that would finally lead
to the first clues about
what really happened.
- Coming up...
New questions about
Carrie's new boyfriend.
- It sounds like she was
getting ready to maybe end
the relationship
with Justin.
The people of the Quad Cities
were desperately searching
for Carrie Olson
and law enforcement
on both sides of the Mississippi
were doing their best,
pushing the investigation
as hard as they could.
For Detective Tina Noe,
solving the case
became a mission.
- Finding someone quickly
is very important.
- It is very important.
It was bothering me.
Where-where is she?
What could have
happened to her?
We need to find answers.
- In murder investigations,
eight out of ten suspects
and victim know
each other.
- And that meant
taking a harder look
at Carrie's boyfriend
Justin Mueller.
Detectives started by talking
to Carrie's family about him.
- We rely heavily
on the information
that families give us early on
in an investigation.
- But Carrie didn't share
details of her love life
with her family.
They didn't even know Justin
had moved in with her.
It turns out the person
Carrie did confide in
was her ex-boyfriend,
Tim McVay.
- To me, it appeared
that they were best buds.
They talked daily,
sometimes they would talk
over 20 times a day.
Their man way of communicating
was text messaging.
- Tim drove straight to
police headquarters
when he flew back
from Las Vegas
saying he wanted to help.
- I want to talk to you, uh, uh,
about Carrie.
- Absolutely.
- You know, that's why
you're down here, right?
- Yeah, anything you want
to know.
I don't know where she is;
I don't know what she's doing.
I-I very much want to know
because I am concerned.
- It turned out
Tim also had a lot of concerns
about Justin,
which he shared
with the detectives.
He said the problem started
even before
Justin moved into
Carrie's house.
- She called me out of the blue
one afternoon
freaking out because
this guy Justin
that she had been dating
was kind of stalking her.
- It was something
best friend Amanda
also worried about
when Carrie went missing.
- Who did you think
would want to hurt her?
- I immediately thought Justin.
- Had you ever heard anything
about Justin stalking Carrie?
- She had told me that
he would drive by her house
before he ended moving in.
He wanted to be with her
so bad.
- And then there was Justin's
post-traumatic stress disorder.
Carrie had talked
to her about it
and she could relate.
Amanda's own military husband
also struggled with PTSD.
- That could be a lot to handle
if you're not used to that
and then you start
dating a guy with PTSD.
- It is a lot to handle.
- Tim told police
that Carrie thought
her relationship with Justin
had reached a tipping point.
- And she was, yeah, I just --
I can't do this anymore.
I-I can't even keep pretending,
you know,
that this is going to be okay.
- Tim then speculated that
the problems in the relationship
had escalated into
that Saturday morning fight.
- Her and Justin
got in a fight.
She didn't really
want to go back
and get in to more.
She wants to --
she was stewing;
she wanted him
to learn his lesson.
- And how did Tim
know about that fight?
Carrie had gone to his house
after running out on Justin
in a huff
and told him all about it.
- It sounds like
she was getting ready
to, um, maybe end
the relationship with Justin.
- Tim went on to tell police
that he dropped Carrie back home
the next morning.
- I just watched her
walk into the garage.
- He then borrowed her car
and headed to the airport
for his trip to Las Vegas.
But when detectives
spoke to Justin,
he said
after Carrie stormed out,
she never came back home
and he hadn't seen her since.
And that made a tip
called into police
all the more intriguing.
- You all get a tip that
there's a man looking for Carrie
in the Milan area.
- Yes.
- That deserved a close look
because two days
after she disappeared,
her phone, which hadn't been
connecting to her cell network,
suddenly started pinging
in the nearby town of Milan.
The man with the tip
said the searcher
was Carrie's boyfriend.
- Did you think
it was Tim at first
or did you think it was Justin?
- Justin.
- But Justin had
another story to tell.
He said he wasn't in Milan
and insisted the fight
with Carrie was no big deal,
that it was about
something trivial.
- Over some burnt eggs.
- And she had left that day,
slammed the door
and called him stupid?
- Yes.
- Justin insisted
he never saw Carrie again
after that fight.
And the morning Tim said
he dropped her at home
and watched her
go into the house?
Justin said
that never happened.
- When one guy tells us,
I dropped her off here
at 6:30 in the morning
and the other guy says
she never came in the door,
we know there's a problem.
- A boyfriend
who had a blowout with Carrie
and an ex who gave her
a shoulder to cry on.
One of them was lying.
But which one?
- Coming up...
A caught-on-camera
stunner.
Who is that
using Carrie's bank card?
- He's seen on video
trying to get $400 out.
**
Welcome back to
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered".
I'm Craig Melvin.
Carrie Olson
had disappeared.
Detectives zeroed in
on two men in her life,
one who was about to appear
in some troubling
surveillance footage.
But it was a brazen act
in a bar that friends hoped
would bring the investigation
into focus.
Could it hold the secret
to Carrie's disappearance?
Back to Andrea Canning
with "Without A Trace".
- Carrie Olson's boyfriend
and ex-boyfriend
had given conflicting stories
about the day
Carrie went missing
and now police
were taking a close look
at both of them.
- That's kind of a tough thing
to have to figure out
when you've got
two potential suspects.
- One of these two individuals
is not telling the truth.
- Detectives were
trying to figure out
which one when they came across
a significant clue.
A trace on Carrie's debit card
led them to a gas station
where they looked
at security camera video.
It was chilling.
There was Carrie's car.
Her debit card was being used
but there was no Carrie.
Instead, the person
using the card was Tim McVay.
- He is seen on video
at the pump
trying to enter a number
several times.
You can tell
it's unsuccessful.
- Tim also tried the card
at a drive-through ATM
at the Mississippi Valley
Credit Union
but he had problems.
- That's Carrie's bank.
He's seen on video
over there three separate times
trying to get $400 out.
- The pin is not working.
- Why was Tim
driving Carrie's car
and using her debit card?
Tim told detective Voy
there was a simple explanation.
Even after they broke up,
he and Carrie
always had each other's backs.
- She was the kind of friend
that if she called me,
I would drop whatever
I was doing and go help her out,
the shirt off my back
kind of thing.
- Tim said that's why
he had taken care of Carrie
when she came to his house
after storming out on Justin.
And it also wasn't unusual
that she lent him her car
and debit card, he said.
- She gave me her debit card.
She said go to
the IH Mississippi ATM
and get out $400.
Then go and
top off the gas tank,
whatever it takes
to fill it up.
- Tim said Carrie
had also promised to
drive him to the airport
in Minnesota that Sunday
but then she changed her mind
at the last minute.
- She says just take my car
and drive yourself up there.
Drop me off at home.
- So, according to Tim,
he goes back up to his house
and he and Carrie
get into the car
and he takes Carrie
back to her residence.
- And when they pulled up
to the house,
Tim said Carrie told him
she didn't care
how Justin might react
to her doing him a favor.
- She was saying,
I'm going to walk in the door
and say, "Hey,
I let Tim borrow my car
to get himself
up to the airport.
You need to shape up
or ship out.
- Detective Voy questioned
Tim's version of events,
saying security camera video
from the Genesis Health Clinic
next to Carrie's house
did not show him
dropping her off at home.
- Explain to me then
the video cameras
on the side of the Genesis
where you dropped her off,
it does not show you there.
- It has to show
that the car was there.
- It didn't.
- Tim didn't realize it
but Detective Voy
was testing him.
There was actually
no video camera at the clinic.
Tim stuck to his story
insisting he dropped off Carrie.
- You're not on the video
and Justin said
she never came in that house.
He's home.
- I don't know.
- She didn't walk into
the garage and then walk away.
- I'm thinking Justin
is probably not being
very truthful with you.
- It was clear one of them
wasn't telling the truth
and it was time
to find out which one.
- Did you ask Tim
to take a polygraph?
- We did.
- Did you give Justin
a polygraph?
- Did.
- But when Justin and Tim
took those lie detector tests,
they both passed.
And then they both
went back to their lives.
Still, detectives
kept an eye on them,
hoping one might slip.
One night later that winter,
Tim McVay,
the karaoke king
of the quad cities,
was back
singing in front of a crowd.
He sang "I Used To Love Her"
by Guns and Roses.
* I used to love her
Oh yeah *
* and I had to kill her *
- A woman at the bar
who was aware of the case
knew McVay was a suspect.
Shocked by his performance,
she said she shot this video
to document it
then gave it to Detective Noe.
- He says, I used to love her
but I had to kill her
and I put her six feet under.
* Six feet under *
- Tim knew what he was doing.
And to get up there
and sing that song,
it was sickening.
- But that song was played
frequently at the bar
and Detective Noe knew
that Tim's performance
didn't prove anything.
So, with no physical evidence
connecting Tim
to Carrie's disappearance,
there was nothing she could do.
The investigation
had hit a wall.
- It was a mystery.
We felt something
just wasn't right.
Something was going on
and we needed to
figure this out. Fast.
- Carrie was still missing.
Winter was settling in
and it would be a long one.
- Coming up...
A brand-new clue.
This tattoo.
Where would it lead?
Police are poised for
a major break in the case.
- That was a huge piece
to our puzzle.
**
April 5, 2014.
Warm weather finally
after a merciless
Midwestern winter.
Melting snow led to
a terrible discovery.
- A body had been found
in Minnesota
that was similar to
Carrie's description.
- It was found unclothed
in a wooded area
off a country road
in the town of Hastings,
300 miles from
where Carrie Olson went missing.
Police circulated
a possible identifying image,
the dead woman's tattoo.
- I had one picture
of her tattoo.
I sat and compared it
to the drawing
on that news report.
- What is that moment like
when you look at the photograph
of your friend
and the photograph of the tattoo
in the news report?
- I was completely empty.
I called my mom and dad
and I said
there's a definite match
for Carrie
in Hastings, Minnesota.
- This is where
Carrie Olson's body was found
on Saturday night.
- We had mixed emotions.
Obviously, we wanted
to find her
but then finding out
what had happened,
it was rough.
It was a rough time
for the whole community.
- I just sat there.
I cried.
I lost a confidant.
I lost someone
I could laugh with.
I lost-I lost
a very good friend.
- The funeral was at
St. Paul's Church in Davenport.
- She got to
come back home again.
- It was a day
to lay Carrie to rest
and remember a beautiful life.
But there were still
so many unanswered questions.
- Now, we need to find out why.
We need to find out
what happened.
- First step, an autopsy.
But it couldn't answer
the key question for detectives.
- The doctor
that did the autopsy
called it homicide
by unspecified means.
- No cause of death.
- Are you thinking,
"Come on, there's got to be
a cause of death?"
- It's rare, but we had
seen the photos of the scene
and you can tell that
she didn't walk up there
and just fall over dead.
Her body was placed there.
- But the autopsy
did offer a possible clue.
- The doctor had found
a chunk of carpet in her hair.
We remembered from
January's search warrant
that Tim had beige carpet rolls
in his house.
- But they also knew that
Carrie worked in a store
that sold carpeting,
so it might not mean anything.
Still, the carpet
in Carrie's hair
and the carpet
in Tim McVay's house
were sent to the lab
for analysis.
- How long did it take you
to get your answer?
- It-it takes a while.
It doesn't come back
after the commercial break
like on TV.
- While detectives
waited for results,
they explored
the most tantalizing clue
they had received
and it didn't come from
Carrie's body.
It came from
where she was found,
Hastings, Minnesota.
- We knew that's where
Tim parked his car
before he went to the airport.
- When Tim McVay flew from
Minneapolis to Las Vegas
the same weekend
Carrie disappeared,
it turns out
he left Carrie's car
in Hastings.
Why?
That's where his girlfriend
at the time lived.
- Pretty big coincidence.
- Yeah.
That's what we call a clue.
- But detectives needed more.
They had to tie McVay
to the very spot
where Carrie's body was found.
They did have
one long shot clue.
Just a few feet
from Carrie's body
investigators discovered
this $4 price tag.
A Google search showed
the tag was for a kid's shovel
sold at the discount chain
Big Lots.
Detective Thomas found
a Big Lots store
in La Crosse, Wisconsin
where that kind of shovel
was bought on the same day
McVay drove to Minnesota.
La Crosse is about
two-thirds of the way
between the Quad Cities
and Hastings.
But the store security
cameras were broken.
No video.
So, how could detectives
tie McVay to this purchase?
They decided to
work backwards.
- Inside the Tobacco Outlet
he is seen on video.
- McVay had told police
that before driving to Minnesota
and the airport that Sunday,
he stopped to buy a cigar
at this Tobacco Outlet
in the Quad Cities.
- So, you knew exactly
what time Tim had been here.
- Exactly.
- And where he was going.
- Correct.
- The Big Lots in La Crosse
is a 3-1/2-hour drive
up Highway 61
from the Tobacco Outlet
and it turns out the shovel
was purchased
exactly 3-1/2 hours
after McVay bought that cigar.
- That was huge for us.
You leave the Tobacco Outlet,
which is the exact
amount of time
to get to
La Crosse, Wisconsin.
- But detectives still needed
something more concrete
to connect McVay to
the purchase of the shovel.
- So, then we asked for, uh,
the actual sales receipt.
- On the receipt was
not only the shovel
but a black bag.
- Black bag.
- A Desage brand travel bag.
It cost only $10,
but it was the big payoff
police had been looking for.
- We found it in the garage
at Tim's parents' house.
That was a huge piece
to our puzzle.
- So, on July 18, 2014,
3.5 months after
Carrie's body was found
and seven months after
she went missing,
Tina Noe and
the other two detectives
went to a construction site
where McVay was working.
- Tim was up on a ladder
and I said
we have a warrant
for first-degree
murder for you
and concealing a homicide.
- Tina also brought along
her signature accessory,
pink handcuffs.
- You chose to cuff him
with your
hot pink cuffs?
- Yes.
- How did it feel seeing him
in pink handcuffs?
- Good.
- Was it an extra
little jab?
- Yes.
Yeah, for Tina.
- That was a good moment
for us.
- Mr. McVay, come on in.
- Tim McVay pleaded
not guilty.
He was denied bail
and put in the county jail.
That's where "Dateline"
found him
for his first
television interview.
- I did not kill Carrie
and I did not
dump her body.
- Tim said the wrong guy
was behind bars,
pointing to the fight
Carrie told him
that she and Justin had
that Saturday morning.
- Did she say
what the fight was over?
- Romantic, uh, issues,
I guess that would be
the best way to put it.
- Of a sexual nature?
- That was
my impression, yes.
- And then what happened
after that?
- There was some throwing.
A couple of things
had gotten broken.
There was a little bit of,
uh, a physical altercation
between the two of them.
- Tim said the last time
he saw Carrie
was when he drove her
back to her house
just before he went
to the airport.
- She was walking into
the garage of her house
alive, happy,
as well as could be.
- Tim said he still
loved Carrie,
even though they'd
broken up.
How could he explain
this seemingly damning lyric,
I used to love her
but I had to kill her,
that he sang
at the karaoke bar
while she was
still missing?
- Maybe not
the best choice of song,
given...
- Oh, I agree with that.
Actually, I-I told
my brother-in-law,
he was with me
that night, I said,
why didn't you slap me
when I put that song in?
It was kind of
a bonehead move, just--
but it had nothing
to do with Carrie.
It was nothing
to do with anything.
It was a song.
- But to prosecutors,
it was more than a song.
It was a look inside
the mind of a killer
and they were determined
to prove that in court.
Tim McVay was about
to stand trial for murder.
- A showdown in court
as Tim's old girlfriend
reveals a damning secret.
Then Justin takes
the stand
to share his last moments
with Carrie.
- Coming up...
- She stormed
out of the door
and I thought
maybe I upset her.
- What really
happened to Carrie?
- Tim McVay's murder trial
started in June of 2015.
- What I would like
to do is...
- There was no jury.
Judge Michael Meersman
would decide.
McVay's defense attorneys
believed they held
the winning hand.
- And he had passed
the polygraph,
so, we thought
this could be
the truly innocent,
uh, accused here.
- John McGehee
prosecuted the case
and knew he was facing
a tough test.
- You had no cause of death.
You had no weapon.
You had no ironclad
forensic evidence.
- I did feel that
it could be an uphill battle,
that it was going to be
a real challenge.
- As the trial began,
McGehee presented
the prosecution's theory
as to how Tim did it.
- Even though there was
no official explanation
for how Carrie died,
the state presented
something called Burking,
a method of suffocation
designed to leave no marks
by sitting
on someone's chest
and covering
their nose and mouth.
- Do you solemnly swear...
- To support that scenario,
the state called
one of McVay's
ex-girlfriends, Cati Smitty.
- I'm scared of him.
- Cati described an incident
one night in 2013.
She said she was
startled awake by McVay
sitting on her chest.
- I couldn't breathe.
He had cut off my air.
I couldn't-- he was--
he's a big man
and I'm not
a very large woman.
I couldn't--
I couldn't inhale.
- Yes.
- The evidence in
Prosecutor McGehee's case
was largely circumstantial
but he still felt
it was strong.
He believed McVay
was the last one
to talk to Carrie.
He had her car,
used her debit card,
and her body was found
just minutes from
where he parked her car
at his girlfriend's house.
And the prosecution
had the test results
for the carpet fibers
found in Carrie's hair.
They matched
that rolled-up carpet
in McVay's house.
- The prosecutors also used
McVay's internet searches
to show how he was
constantly checking
the website of the newspaper
in the distant town
where Carrie's body
was found.
- What were you looking for?
- I--
- You don't live
in Hastings.
It's-it's kind of
a long way away.
- A newspaper is a newspaper
but I'm not going to answer
any questions about that.
- And why not?
- All I can say is
a newspaper is a newspaper
and I don't have any other
comments about that.
- Just interest in Hastings?
- Move on to
your next question.
- Finally, prosecutors
called to the stand
Carrie's boyfriend,
Justin Mueller.
He testified about
the last time he saw Carrie.
- I didn't really have
a chance to say goodbye,
she-- the way she left.
I mean, I tried to say
goodbye, yes.
- Justin acknowledged
that she was upset with him.
- The way she stormed out
of the door,
and I thought maybe I upset her
in maybe some minor way
because I wasn't paying
attention to her somehow.
- As the hours of
Carrie's unexplained absence
and silence grew,
so did Justin's concern
and his texts.
Prosecutors had him
read them in court.
- Baby, come home.
I love you.
I'm sorry for
whatever I did.
I love you.
Colby and I miss you.
Is everything okay?
I gave Colby his pill.
- No.
- Yes.
- Although there was
no evidence presented
about McVay's motive
for murder,
in closing arguments,
the prosecutors offered
their theory.
He killed Carrie in
a twisted fit of rage
because he demanded her car
to get to the airport
and she had said no.
- We see it all the time
that people,
uh, are-are murdered
for sometimes
the smallest little things.
And you-you're just surprised
that another human being
can do this
to another human being.
But that's what happened.
- McVay's attorneys,
Aaron Dyer, Dan Dalton,
and John Ruud argued
that the prosecution's theory
of motive was preposterous.
- The idea that he could
kill her and take her car
to just get a ride
to Minnesota,
I think is laughable.
- They didn't have
a cause of death,
so, how do you point
the finger at somebody?
- The defense didn't produce
any witnesses of their own.
Instead, they
aggressively challenged
the state's witnesses
like that former girlfriend.
The defense tried
to show McVay
was more playful
than violent.
- Yes.
- No, he was not
striking me.
He's never struck me.
- Defense attorneys also
attacked Detective Bill Thomas
who traced
that kid's shovel
to a Big Lots store
in Wisconsin.
- No.
- No, it was paid by cash.
- The defense confronted
Justin Mueller.
Police said he was
spotted in the town
where Carrie's phone
last pinged
but he wouldn't admit it.
- No.
- His phone records
put his phone,
at the very least,
in Milan.
Uh, another person
indicated to police
that he was seen
in Milan.
- What do you make of that?
- I think it's a huge hole
in the prosecution's case.
- The defense also challenged
the state's evidence,
like the carpet fibers
found in Carrie's hair
that investigators
said matched the carpeting
in McVay's house.
- She worked
in a carpet store.
So, just because it
happened to be in her hair
certainly doesn't indicate
anyone intentionally
killed anybody.
- They even challenged
the idea that a crime
had been committed at all.
- How did she get there?
We don't know.
How did she die?
We don't know.
It's one of
the biggest mysteries
that not even
Sherlock Holmes,
I don't think,
could solve.
- Tim McVay declined
to take the stand
in his own defense.
But he maintains
that he's a family man
who loves his kids,
not the violent thug
described in court.
- I'm-I'm just not
that kind of person.
- I couldn't inhale.
- You were accused
by Cati Smitty, though,
of getting violent.
- Well, that was a lie.
That was a lie.
- Did you kill Carrie?
- I did not.
- There's a lot of
coincidences going on.
- There are, there are.
- Terrible coincidences
for you.
- I agree, yeah.
- What-what do you say
to those people watching
who-who just maybe don't
believe you right now?
- All-all I can say is
what I know.
I know that
I did not kill Carrie.
She was a beautiful person,
a wonderful friend,
a lover, a confidant.
She was-- she meant
the world to me.
- It's been the end
of a long trial.
- After more than two weeks
of testimony and argument,
Judge Meersman was ready
to give his verdict.
- Timothy McVay,
I find you guilty
of count one murder,
count two concealing
of a homicidal death.
- I jumped out of my seat.
I was so excited
and happy.
- Tim McVay was stoic,
showing no emotion.
And three months later,
he was just as stoic
when the judge sentenced him
to 45 years in prison.
- I believe you killed her.
And the saddest part is
you killed her
for a car and some money.
- For Justin Mueller,
the cloud of suspicion
finally lifted.
For Carrie's family
and friends,
the verdict meant justice
and bittersweet relief.
- I just dropped my head
and started crying.
And it-it felt just like
this huge weight was gone.
- But justice for Carrie
still couldn't
explain the why.
- If it was over a ride
to Minnesota, a car,
and money, that's not
a very good why.
- What will you miss most
about Carrie?
- What I ultimately miss
is she's not there
pulling in that driveway,
honking, you know?
Announcing that she's here.
She had a heart of gold.
She was there
for everybody.
She had a lot of hope
for her future.
She had everything
to live for.
- That's all for
this edition
of "Dateline:
Secrets Uncovered".
I'm Craig Melvin.
Thank you for watching.