Dateline NBC - She Never Left

Episode Date: May 25, 2022

A missing mother in Jacksonville, Florida leaves behind a three-year-old son, whose memory of their last night together offers some clues as to what happened to her. The case remains cold until two decades later when the son, Aaron Fraser, solves the mystery that haunted his childhood. Dennis Murphy reports. 

I was trying to determine what she had on, you know, clothing. And he got real quiet and whispered and he said, red blood. Chills up and down my spine because I thought, wow, this kid saw this. A little boy witnessed something terrifying the night his mother vanished. It just was ripping my heart. He was so traumatized. Everybody's life changed that night. Everybody's did. What had happened to his mom? I still wake up in the middle of the night. Haunted for more than two decades, he would make a chilling discovery that would

unlock this mystery. Now you know the whole story. Yes, sir. Everything kind of clicked. It's just so unbelievable. I knew he was telling his mom's story. After all these years, would he be the one to solve his mother's murder? I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Dennis Murphy with She Never Left. She'd been gone from his life, unaccounted for, for more than 20 years. His mother, Bonnie. It was odd to be the one that found her.

Because you'd spent a lot of your life looking for her, right? Yes, sir. There's a poignant video of the mother and child's last Christmas morning together, December 1992. The boy, Aaron, was three and a half. Tell me, Dad, Mom! Ooh. Yes! We're going to watch that later.

You've seen maybe some home movies and some old pictures. Yeah, recently I've seen a Christmas video. You like that? Yeah. And it didn't trigger any memory. No memory goes with that. No, sir. Can't remember so much as a touch or the sound of her voice.

Okay. But this story is all about memories. Memories lost. Memories later testified to. Had the child, now a grown man, really seen something as terrible as all that? This is a boy's story like few others. Go back in time to January 1993 in Jacksonville, Florida. It's just after the holidays and there's an argument going on inside that modest starter home on Dolphin Avenue. The young wife, just 23, is restless, the story goes,

and she walks out the door. The phone rang early the next morning in the bedroom of Evanne and Bernie Haim across town. A funny question at that hour, did they know where Bonnie was, the wife of their nephew Mike? We got a phone call from a police friend of ours, and he knew Mike and Bonnie. He said, where's Bonnie? We just found her purse in the dumpster at the Red Roof Inn, and y'all need to get out here. A maintenance man had come upon the purse in a dumpster behind the airport motel. Inside were Bonnie's ID, keys, credit cards, and more than a thousand dollars in cash. Bernie and Evanne got to the motel just after 8 a.m. Mike was already there. By the time we got

there, Mike and his dad, John, were in a room. The detectives were there, and they had her purse on the bed, and they had everything laid out. Mike, the husband, seemed perplexed by the amount of cash on the bed. He's like, what in the hell is she doing with all this money? Given a wad of money like that not taken, robbery was quickly ruled out. And I requested them to bring another dumpster right now because we thought maybe Bonnie was in the dumpster where they found her purse. So you're thinking foul play at this point? I'm knowing foul play.

A woman separated from her purse is a very bad sign. So while we're sitting there crying, hoping they don't bring out a body out of the dumpster. But there was no body and no sign of Bonnie's car either. Police handed Bonnie's purse to Mike and advised him it would be best if he just went home. The police told him, go home, sit by the phone, wait for a call from her, a ransom call, an accident call or whatever it might be. Homicide detective Robbie Hinson came on duty later that day

at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. He was assigned the missing person case that would change his life. Did you go back out to this airport motel? Yes, we did. We spent quite some time out there canvassing the rooms and got the register and saw who was out there and interviewed people, interviewed the security guard. And there were stories circulating about strangely acting men, right? Yes. Even then, right? Yeah, even then. A security guard told the detective a man standing earlier on the second floor balcony seemed to be overly interested

in the activity below at the dumpster. But he checked out before Detective Hinson could talk to him. The same security guard also remembered seeing a woman fitting Bonnie's description going into one of those second floor rooms. The detective wondered, where was the woman's car? That was still out there.

Yeah, the car was still missing. The airport was nearby, so Hinson cruised the parking lots there. It would be a logical place to hide a car. Bingo! There was Bonnie's Toyota Camry. Maybe she caught a plane. Right. It was a theory. Had a frustrated wife and mother taken a timeout for herself? Detective Hinson pursued that theory, but struck out.

There was no indication of her being on any of the manifests on any of the departing flights. That's where the road runs out, huh? Until the next day, after they process the car, they find a shoe print. A large man's shoe print on the driver's side floor mat. Fresh and very sandy with a tread mark from a sneaker.

Whose sneaker? While investigators did their thing, Aunt Evanne made a public appeal for help. And if anyone has seen her or has, you know, can shed any light

on this story, just please, please let us know something. And soon on the 11 o'clock news, Jacksonville was introduced to husband Mike and little Aaron. The search for his missing mother was growing more feverish by the minute. What had happened to Bonnie when we come back? I'm looking for a crime scene, and there was nothing there. A secret encounter with another man and a marriage on the rocks. Bonnie said, this is it, I'm leaving. There is no way she would have walked out the door and left Aaron. The old snapshots show a curly-haired young mother and an adoring boy with a beetle cut.

Who knew that video under the Christmas tree would be their last? She didn't have much time left then, did she? She did not have much time. Only had a couple more weeks to hold her son. Bonnie, her sisters Liz, Veronica, and Michelle told us, had married her high school steady Mike Haim. Back then, they thought she'd done okay for herself. I even have a journal entry, and it says,

Today, Bonnie met the man of her dreams. You know, he was cute, and he was charming. He looked like the total package. From high school graduation ceremonies ceremonies direct to the altar, 18 years old, Patty Pacito is Bonnie's mother. Were you surprised when she told you they're getting married? I mean, they're very young. Oh no, I was not surprised and she seemed very happy, so I I wasn't surprised. Happier still with the arrival of Erin two years later. She was happy for that. That's what she wanted. She likes being a mom. Loves, loves being a mom. Everything circled around Aaron. She

works so she can get Aaron everything he wants. Bonnie and Mike in their 20s both worked for a construction supply company. Mike's uncle Bernie was the owner. He was my brother's son. Mike was the manager of the company. Bonnie wore two hats. She did the books, and with her knack for computers, she was the IT person as well. All the employees just loved her. And Evanne, you got to be pretty good friends with Bonnie. Yes. Our relationship just grew over the years, working together.

Good mother, good employee, no known enemies, which made her sudden disappearance all the more mysterious. Her abandoned purse and car had investigators following theories of foul play. Detective Henson went to the couple's home. I'm looking for a crime scene. I'm looking for spatter. We're looming all the house. I was looking at everything I could look at.

And there was nothing there. Nothing in the backyard either. So police launched a massive search. Helicopters scoured the wooded areas near the motel. Family members searched as well. Everyone came up empty-handed. Mike said he wouldn't stop searching. Bonnie's father offered a $2,000 reward for information on his daughter.

Meanwhile, detectives began their routine victimology investigation, asking the question, is there something in my victim's background or life choices that explain why she's gone? Early on, they learned Bonnie had a brief affair. You had to check him out? Yes. He came down to the office. We interviewed him. He told detectives it was a one-time, one-night stand. He was very cooperative. He agreed to take a polygraph. He passed the polygraph. And of course, as they always do, the detective had to take a hard look at the husband, Mike. He told police Bonnie left the house around 11 p.m. and didn't come back. He said he went out looking for her around 3 a.m., drove by her mother's house to see if her car was there.

It wasn't. And just why had Bonnie left? There was an argument. She allegedly, according to him, had stormed out. And he'd volunteered all that, huh? And now nobody could find her. Investigators heard from friends and family that Bonnie was unhappy in her marriage. And by Christmas time, just two weeks before she disappeared, Bonnie told her sister it was all over. Bonnie and I went shopping together, and she said, this is it, I'm leaving. Bonnie told her sister she'd put a deposit on an apartment and found a new school for Aaron. Now family members were wondering if Bonnie broke the news to Mike the night she disappeared. Yvonne said she and Bonnie had planned to get together that night, but instead, Bonnie had called her, crying.

She says, Mike and I are having a discussion, and I'm just going to stay home. You know, I said, do you want me to come out there, Bonnie? And she goes, no, I'll be fine. That was the last time anyone on the outside had spoken to her. And there was growing suspicion that Mike had done something to Bonnie. He was always your prime person of interest. I tried to stay neutral at the very beginning, but there were just too many things that were just screaming at me. Among those things was that shoe print found on the mat of Bonnie's car.

When the CSI techs entered Bonnie and Mike's house, the first thing they spotted were shoes. Size 10 sneakers. Yeah, that match the print. Bonnie's sister's suspicions of foul play were based on her love for her three-and-a-half-year-old son. There is no way she would have left Aaron. There is no way she would have walked out the door and left Aaron behind with him. And then there was an interview Mike did on TV the night after Bonnie disappeared. His matter-of-fact manner left many viewers baffled. Basically, she just wasn't happy and she wanted to leave and I couldn't really stop her from leaving.

But Detective Hinson was more focused on the smiling boy on the couch next to Mike, little Aaron. I wanted the child interviewed. The child? Yeah, I wanted Aaron. The three and a half year old boy? Yes, I wanted him interviewed. And what a horrifying story the boy would tell. Coming up. I was trying to determine what she had on, you know, clothing. And he got real quiet and whispered and he said, red blood. Mommy was wearing blood. Wow. Chills up and down my spine. When Dateline continues. Police had only the husband's story about what happened the night his wife, Bonnie Haim, supposedly walked out the door. Or was there another witness? Detective Henson began wondering what the three and a half year old boy, Aaron, might remember. I want to see if he just has seen anything. I don't know if he has a story. I just want somebody that's a professional to talk to him.

Very sensitive kind of interview. How'd you find the person to do it? I was really fortunate to have Brenda be the one to do it. Brenda was Brenda Meadors with the state's child protection team. A social worker who'd interviewed dozens of kids, Aaron would be the child she'd never forget. He had this bowl cut that went all the way around his eyes and he had these big, big eyes. Bonnie's mother, Patty, and Mike's aunt, Evanne, sat in that day to make Aaron more comfortable. His mother had gone missing just 48 hours before. Did you know much in advance? The only thing I really knew was that

the mother had disappeared, that they suspected foul play. He was traumatized, I could tell. A few hours and a happy meal later, Aaron began opening up. And the story he told was alarming. Aaron tells me that his daddy shot his mommy. Shot? Shot, yes. Oh, and I asked, shot her with what? And he said a gun. I asked him where he shot her.

And he said in the stomach. And he pointed, you know. But I'll never forget the most poignant moment was when I said I was trying to determine what she had on, you know, clothing. And he got real quiet and whispered and he said, red blood. And I remember. Mommy was wearing blood. Wow. Chills up and down my spine because I thought, wow, this kid saw this. Did you believe him or did you think he was reciting a movie he'd seen or something?

I knew. I could tell from the way he delivered it all that it was what he had seen. It was just, you know, I've interviewed, I'm sorry, I've interviewed lots of kids. But this was like, I knew, such a huge moment. And it was always like, when he would talk about these things, he would whisper when he was talking about the things that were so horrible that he'd seen. Is there any doubt in your mind that he saw his father shoot his mother? No. And I said, you can take it to the bank. You took it as literally true. Oh, yeah. That statement that he gave. I'd tell people all the time, I'd say you either believe him or you don't. And that would be the question to tear apart Bonnie's family. Believe the boy or not. Some relatives, like Mike's own aunt and uncle were persuaded by

the child. Your nephew was a killer? I know for sure he did. They did Bonnie. He killed Bonnie. All the evidence was there. But Mike also had two unlikely defenders, Bonnie's mother and father. Bonnie's mom had been in the room for parts of Aaron's interview, although she wasn't there when the social worker said he made the most disturbing statements. He actually tells the social worker, Daddy shot Mommy. Oh, no. And I saw blood on her middle section. I don't think he ever made the statement. Aaron's statement wasn't recorded, wasn't required back then.

More than anything else, Patty said she just didn't think Mike was capable of hurting her daughter. Detective Robbie Henson knew he couldn't make an arrest based on the statement of a three-and-a-half-year-old child. It was a circumstantial case with a classic stumbling block. There was no proof Bonnie was even dead. And no body, no case. No body, no case. The case would remain a mystery, haunting both the detective and the little boy. Coming up... I do not want my dad to kill other people. Little Aaron was not done talking, not by a long shot.

Young Aaron Haim told a horrific story of watching his father shoot his mother. But a three-and-a-half-year-old eyewitness wasn't enough for Detective Robbie Hinson to make an arrest. You work real hard and you get nowhere. And still, it's just a missing person's case. We don't have the body. But Hinson and the child protection team still felt that Aaron might be in danger because of what he said he witnessed. The state removed Aaron from his father's custody and sent him to live with his Aunt Liz. Mike was allowed to see his son twice a week. Liz said those visits took a toll.

He would start pounding the floor, and I would always have to scoop him up and hold him as he just fell apart. Every visitation. The stress added up for Liz too, affecting her family and her health. One solution was to put Aaron in a foster home where Mike wouldn't be allowed to visit. The best place for him to be was in foster care so we can discontinue the visitation and maybe start moving Aaron into a healing cycle. And Liz did something else. She successfully petitioned the court to have Aaron declared a protected witness. And that's what we called it was, Aaron's in protective custody now. Aaron, now five years old, went to live with foster parents Ronnie Frazier and his wife Jean. I never wanted to take Bonnie's place at all. That would not be the right thing to do.

I just wanted him to have the best life he could. In the beginning, all Jean Frazier really knew about Aaron was that his mother was missing. But about six months after he moved in, the boy began dropping hints that he knew something more about his mother's fate. Something sinister. He started talking occasionally about his dad shooting his mom. It went on this way for a few months. Glimmers of information, then Aaron backing off. Over time, that changed. He got to where he would say so much I would have to write it down. And then he got where he would dictate it to me, what he wanted me to write. Foster mom Jean wrote it all down in a notebook

and shared it with the mental health professionals caring for Aaron. In one session, Jean on the right listened as then-six-year-old Aaron spoke with his social worker. Aaron's psychologist taped it. Well, I'm wondering, since you obviously are such a smarty pants, can you read this? I do not want my dad to kill other people. Very good reading. And me either.

Me either. Then Aaron asked his social worker to read what he said. My dad killed my mom. Then he threw the pocketbook away in a different place, somewhere near our house in a dumpster. He buried my mom. We digged it, the hole. You know, Erin, man, that's a really important memory to have, but it's sort of a bad one too, isn't it? I'm sorry that you have to have that memory. He knew exactly what had happened, and he just couldn't find her.

But Aaron seemed determined to try. He would periodically ask Jean to take him out to search for Bonnie. On one such trip, Jean remembered something eerie the child did before they left her house. He said, can we go look for my mom? And we go out to get in the car, and he runs to the backyard, and I'm going, where are you going? He said, to get a shovel. Like, silly, you know, because he knew that she was buried. He just didn't know where.

And Aaron did the same thing with Detective Hinson as well. He'd say, I want to go search for my mom. And so we would put him in a car seat and off we'd go. Hinson, too, thought the body might be buried, but he and Aaron never did find anything. His investigation grew colder, even as his relationship with the boy grew stronger. And the Fraziers, for their part, did everything they could to give Aaron a normal life, the chance to be a kid again. He was into racing bicycles. He had motorcycles. He had played baseball. He took karate. And the most fun he had was fishing. He was a great fisherman. Today, Aaron is grateful for the family who embraced him. Tell me about the Fraziers. How

did your life change once they came into your life? They're just special people, people of incredible character. Opened their home to me, loved me like their own son. I never had to ask for anything. They gave me unconditional love. If I needed something, they were always there. Aunt Liz remained devoted to Aaron and shared his gratitude toward the Fraziers. They have been fantastic. That was the best thing

that happened to Aaron. By 1999, Aaron, now 10, had been living with the Frasers for six years, and the couple wanted to adopt him. He bonded with them, and they're amazing, so why would we pull him away or make something not permanent? To make that happen, Liz went to court and had her sister declared legally dead. Mike's parental rights were also revoked. Aaron Haim became Aaron Frazier. But Liz wasn't through with Mike just yet. She sued him on behalf of Aaron for the wrongful death of Bonnie. Is Michael contesting this?

He didn't even show up for court. In 2005, a judge ruled in favor of Aaron and Liz. They won, and won big. It ended up being a $26 million reward, of course. Which was fantasy money. Oh yeah, fantasy money. It's not real. Because Mike didn't have $26 million. By then, Mike had moved to North Carolina and remarried.

But he did still own shares in Uncle Bernie's company and the key to the old house on Dolphin Avenue. At age 16, Aaron got the shares and became the owner of the house. Growing up under the loving care of the Frasers, Aaron thrived. He graduated from high school and married his wife, Alyssa. I don't think you realized how much you meant to me through the years. And Detective Robbie Henson remained close by just in case he needed him. And so I just told him, I said, you know I love you.

If you ever need me, I'm here. And so I told him, I said, call me no matter what. Little did he know a call one Sunday afternoon from Aaron would turn this whole case upside down. Coming up, the chilling discovery that will change everything. We start digging up against the house. I see a piece of plastic. And I was like, oh, that's weird. And everything kind of clicked.

I just pulled to the side of the road. When Dateline Continues. Aaron Frazier, the little boy with the bowl haircut, is now in his 30s. When we sat down to talk to him, it had been more than two decades since he last saw his mother, Bonnie. And in a story about memory, we discovered a deep irony. When it comes to the murder investigation that ripped open his childhood, the Aaron of today doesn't remember a thing. Did you know any of your history about what had happened?

I knew it in the back of my mind, but I don't have a memory of it happening. I know a lot of things that happened, but I don't remember how I learned them. He has no memory of Bonnie or Mike, his biological parents. Nor does he remember telling Brenda Meadors that his father shot his mother. So telling this social worker this story,

I saw Daddy hurt mom. That's not an active memory for you? No, sir. As he got older, Aaron heard from Aunt Liz and Detective Henson more details about his missing mother, Bonnie, and of his own role in the investigation. Was that kind of out of body hearing all this stuff coming into this thing about what three and a half year old you said and did? Yeah, that's the way it feels. Almost like I'm watching a movie of somebody else. It doesn't even feel like it's me, like I know it was. I have the emotion that it was, but putting that together with what my brain is telling me as far as memories go, there's a little bit of a disconnect.

Aaron's memories begin after all of that. So when your brain kind of turns on and you're aware of where you are, how old are you and where are you living? I would guess I was about four and a half, five years old is my earliest memory. I can remember coming to the Fraziers, my adoptive parents. But even with the Fraziers, he doesn't remember everything. Like those stories told of him searching for his mother. When you were out with the Fraziers, do you remember asking if we could bring a shovel along? No, I don't have an active memory of that. That's not a true memory for you?

No, sir. Aaron also remembered nothing about the house he lived in on Dolphin Avenue. He became the owner after the wrongful death suit. I didn't really want anything to do with the house. I didn't have any desire to have it. I was, you know, it was a tough spot about my life. Renters lived there until 2014. When they moved out, Aaron realized the house was a wreck. His do-it-yourself repairs started inside, but in the backyard, he found the swimming pool and an outdoor shower were also in shambles.

It needed to be completely redone and it was going to be an expensive project. Aaron decided to fill in the pool and remove the shower. He and his brother-in-law, Thad, rented a small excavator one weekend and the two of them went at it. At Sunday, a snafu, they broke a pipe near the outdoor shower and had to find the leak. So they grabbed their shovels. We started digging up against the house, so I see a piece of plastic. I think when I was digging with the shovel, I broke the bag. And I was like, oh, that's weird. There's a coconut in here. Why would somebody bury a coconut in a bag right here? But it wasn't a coconut.

I picked it up. Immediately, I didn't know what it was. I handed it to Thad. He was looking at it. And we looked back in the hole, and we could see some teeth. Teeth. Teeth. We could see her teeth. And then at that point in time, you could see the top portion of her eye socket on the skull, you know, and everything kind of clicked and we stopped what we were doing. It was a horrifying discovery. Aaron, like Hamlet, was holding a skull. He believed it was his mother's. How do you absorb that? Yeah, I mean, it just, it was just what was happening, but it was,

it was odd to be the one that, to be the one that found her. Aaron immediately called Jean Frazier, who was in church. I saw a missed call from him, so I called him back, and he said, what's Detective Robbie's phone number? And I said, why? He said, I found her. I found my mom. I get on the phone with Jean, and she said, Rob, we need you now. We need you right now. And I thought something might have happened to her family.

And she says, we found a body in the backyard. I said, what backyard? And she says, we found a body in the backyard. I said, what backyard? And she says, on Dolphin Avenue. And I said, what are you talking about? And so I'm arguing with her, because I had searched that area. As he raced to the house, Hinson called a friend in the sheriff's department to go to the scene. And he called me back. I said, is it a dog? And he goes, no, it's a human skull. And I just pulled to the side of the road to try to compose, excuse me, try to compose myself like I am now.

Hinson was retired by then, but when he arrived at the house, he faced a fact every detective dreads, haunted by the search not made. I knew when I got there I had missed her, which is a hard thing as an investigator. You're beating yourself up for that, huh? I'm not so much beating myself up. It's just I would have much rather found her than have him find her. Now, all these years later, Dolphin Avenue was a crime scene. It's impossible breaking a cold case.

The disappearance of this young mother more than two decades ago. That search turned up much more than just Bonnie's skull. There were her disintegrating bones, her ring, the acrylic fingernails she wore, even her pants, all found in the dirt beneath the shower. Four months later, DNA testing confirmed the remains were Bonnie's, and the medical examiner ruled Bonnie's death a homicide. In August of 2015, Mike Hain was charged with second-degree murder and taken into custody in North Carolina. Did you think of anything from Jacksonville that would come back to you?

Yeah, my wife. Your wife. Okay. That's why we're here. Okay. She was recovered. I. That's why we're here. Okay. She was recovered. I will not make any statements at all. Mike wouldn't face a jury for another four years, and the case was far from a sure thing. There was little forensic evidence, and the state's key witness, Aaron, had no memory of the crime that he could testify to.

What amazes everybody is that you could argue that you solved your own mother's murder. Yes, sir. Not a detective, not an investigator, just by the happenstance of this day. In his own quiet, unassuming way, Aaron just nodded, the question a painful one. Now he would bookend the case against his father,

what he found as an adult, what he witnessed as a child. Coming up. I called my mom. You see him trying to hold back that anguish. The showdown, 26 years in the making. Did you, in fact, harm your wife? Absolutely not. Would the jury believe father or son?

More than two decades after Bonnie Haim disappeared, five years after her son unearthed her remains, Bonnie's husband Mike went on trial for her death. Charged with second-degree murder and pleading not guilty. Upon conviction, he was facing up to life in prison. While forensic evidence was lacking, prosecutors Alan Mizrahi and Mack Heavener said there was one overwhelming fact,

circumstantial though it might be. A buried wife in your own backyard is a pretty hard piece of evidence for any defendant to overcome. The state believed it had an eyewitness to the alleged murder, little Aaron Hain, but he couldn't remember that awful event. The judge ruled the social worker who interviewed Aaron could testify, but not about the details of what Aaron said, only about who he identified as the person who hurt his mother. Did Aaron indicate that his mother had been hurt?

Yes, he did. And did he identify who did that to his mother? Yes, he did. And who did he say? His daddy. His father. You guys had a good day on the stand with that testimony. Oh, yeah. That was a win.

That was a win. But jurors would hear Aaron on the witness stand telling a different story about the gruesome discovery of his mother's remains under the outdoor shower. Tell the jury what you found next. I was digging the hole. Sitting just a few feet away at the defense table was Mike, his biological father. I picked up the coconut object,

and it ended up being the top portion of her skull. So once you start seeing that it's human remains, what do you do? We set the top portion of the skull back in the hole, and I called my mom, what I refer to as my mom, Jean Frazier. Aaron's not the kind of person that shows emotion. You see him trying to hold back that anguish, that trauma.

The defense did not cross-examine Aaron, but it challenged the meaning of Brenda Medador's testimony about Daddy hurting Mommy. Now, you never determined as to what he was talking about, time-wise. I did ask, was it during the daytime or nighttime, and he said nighttime. Okay, but you didn't try to establish whether it was yesterday or a year ago, did you? No, not due to his age. Janice Warren was one of Mike's attorneys. When did Daddy hurt Mommy? When did Daddy hurt Mommy?

How did Daddy hurt Mommy? How do we know Daddy didn't hurt Mommy's feelings and make her cry? That doesn't mean he killed her. The defense reminded the jury there was no forensic evidence linking Mike to his wife's death. His attorneys say it was a bad police investigation, overly focused on the husband and one that ignored critical evidence. For example, there was this letter received by authorities in 1996. Three years after she went missing,

an anonymous letter was sent saying the body is buried in the backyard. So as a result of that anonymous letter, do they come back again with backhoes and look? No, they don't. They don't. And that is the problem. Attorney Tom Fallis suggested maybe that letter was sent by the real killer. I mean, our theory of defense was that she was killed somewhere else, and then somebody else came and buried the body. To point the blame at the husband? Yeah.

The last witness called by the defense was, to everyone's surprise, Mike Haim himself. After 26 years in the Bonnie Haim case, it would truly boil down to jurors believing either father or son. And she left. Composed and speaking in a monotone, Mike described his wife's state of mind the night she disappeared. And told the same story he told all along, that Bonnie walked out on him. She had been unhappy for maybe a month, maybe two. I can't put my finger on how long, but it had been going on where she wasn't real,

her bubbly self like she was at one time. I was one in trying to find out what was making her so unhappy. Mike said he told Bonnie he was so concerned about her state of mind that he'd spoken to her mother. I don't think she appreciated me calling and getting her mother involved in our relationship. Around 11, he says, Bonnie grabbed her keys and drove off. Where'd you think she was going? I didn't know. I thought she might have went to her mom's house to ask her about our conversation. But by 3 a.m. when she didn't return, Mike says he went to look for her.

He drove to her mother's house, didn't see her car, so he says he drove around a while longer, then returned home. I was very upset because I didn't know really what to do. The final question from defense attorney Tom Fallas was one Mike had to address. And you've been hearing a lot of people pointing their finger at you, literally calling you a murderer. Yes, sir. Basically, everybody wants to know, did you in fact harm your wife? Absolutely not. I love my wife and I would never hurt my wife.

Prosecutor Alan Mizrahi, as expected, didn't buy anything Mike said. Why, he asked, didn't Mike call Bonnie's mother at 3 a.m. when she hadn't returned? I talked to her the next day. Okay. The next day after her purse was in a dumpster, right? Yeah. Okay. It didn't alarm me until they called me with her purse.

It did alarm you because at 3 a.m. you're driving around the city allegedly looking for her. That is correct. Isn't it true, Mr. Hayden, you weren't looking for her, you were dumping the car at the airport. Isn't that true? That's absolutely not true. The trial was brief, just four days. Deliberations brief as well. In less than two hours, a verdict was announced.

We, the jury, have found the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree. Guilty, and that wasn't all. The jury also found that Mike killed his wife in front of their three-and-a-half-year-old boy. The crime was committed in the presence of a victim's family member, to wit her son, Aaron. And that finding exposed Mike to a harsher sentence, life in prison. After decades waiting for this verdict, there was relief tempered with sadness. It was a little bit hollow, you know, hearing the guilty, because I was expecting, like, oh, I'm going to be elated, you know, and just be like, yes.

And that's not what I felt like. I still just wanted to collapse. And it was still empty because she's still not here. Mike was sentenced to life in prison. And even after that verdict, Bonnie's family remained split. Her mom still thinks Mike is innocent, but she does share the family's grief. When have you missed her the most?

Her other children that she may have had. I just, I don't have the words to express. The time missed. After the trial, Bonnie's sisters organized a celebration of her life in a garden dedicated to her. Tomorrow is her 50th birthday. Well, I she probably wouldn't want me to say that. Friends, family, and prosecutors gathered, as well as Aaron, who despite having no memory of what he witnessed, in the end prevailed.

Do you think you were some kind of an agent of justice here, Aaron? That it should come to you finally to be the one to find her? Yeah, I think, I mean, God had a plan that this is what he wanted. You know, I was ready to do it, to be able to find her after all these years. You know, I think God had his hands on it. He wouldn't have let all this happen for no reason. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.