Dateline Originals - Five Miles From Home - Ep. 2: "She's the Only One Missing"

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

After a discovery in the desert, investigators start with Mickie’s inner circle. This episode originally published on June 8, 2026. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How quickly the world around them had shifted. How terrifying now. What was a source of civic pride a mere two days before? The famous Bonneville Salt Flats nearby, keeper of wild stories, source of speed records and courage and death-fying stunts, was in all its 30,000 acres just another daunting place to search for a sweet missing girl. Just like the old air base, where last week tourists could gawk at the very place where they loaded the atom bomb into the belly of the Annola Gay.

No pride now, no awe. On Saturday morning, a pink pale sun rose over the Great Basin and West Wendover. 38 hours since anybody had seen Mickey Costanzo. That morning, dozens of volunteers roused themselves and followed the police and their search dogs out into the desert around the town. Among them was a man named Michael Moore. People called him Mick. Moore was assistant superintendent at the golf course, spent his free time hunting for elk and antelope outside of town.

So he certainly knew his way around, knew all the back roads. He figured he could probably accomplish more on his own than with a crowd, so he set off by himself. Toward an area called the gravel pits. He'd taken one of the back roads, noticed that there were some tire marks off the side of the road. In a place where there wouldn't normally be tire marks? Correct. It just kind of led off into the field to, I guess, the base of the train tracks, and then he wanted to go look at it.

The tar tracks looked fresh. And anyway, who would drive off the road and threw an open field to the train tracks? So Mick Moore followed the tracks to where they finally petered out, and then he got out of his truck. for a closer look. And that's when he saw it. There was some sagebrush that had appeared to been cut and placed over top of an area.

And underneath that, he noticed what he thought was blood. I'm Keith Morrison. And this is five miles from home, a podcast from Dateline. Episode two. She's the only one missing. She had not slept, not at all. By that Saturday morning,

all hope that her precious, 16-year-old daughter would suddenly show up, safe and sound, was in Celia Costanzo's tortured mind, a hopeless delusion. Her prayer was different now. I was praying with everything I had that we would find her body at that point in my own mind. I participated a little bit in one of the searches, and then I had to go home. And watch the door. And watch the door, and they kept saying you have to be home. Time flew by but stood still at the same time.

Still, difficult as it was, Celia obeyed the detectives directed. She stayed home. Just in case, by some miracle, a living Mickey turned up. Stayed home and tried to stay sane. Meanwhile, eldest daughter Christina was driving round back roads and old party haunts on the cusp of the desert searching for her little sister because she couldn't sit still. Neither of the new, not Celia, not Christina,

that just then volunteer searcher Mick Moore was staring at something, a stain that looked like blood. Five miles from Mickey Costanzo's home in an area called the gravel pits. What was it there in the ground? He couldn't tell. I was hoping it wasn't her, he said.

I was hoping it was a buried dog. Here's Detective Donald Burnham. What'd you think when you got that call? I thought the worst. Within minutes, anybody who was anyone at the police department was at the gravel pits, peering at that odd clump of sagebrush sitting atop a bloody mound of dirt.

Disturbed earth is what they called it. And then police chief Ron Supp grabbed a shovel and braced himself and ever so gently, Doug, this is the audio of that very delicate operation. It took just a moment. We found what we thought was part of a human body. Did you just uncover the body then? No, no.

We backed out of the area and contacted Wansho Crime Unit to come in and exhume that area for evidence. The crime scene investigator is from Reno. But Reno was 400 miles and eight hours away. The CSI team wouldn't arrive until the next morning to excavate the body and confirm it was truly Mickey, or that it wasn't. As police started to secure the scene, a car suddenly appeared on the horizon, cruising slowly along the remote desert road. It was Christina. still searching for her sister.

I saw the unmarked police car and a truck driving on the gravel pit road that I was on the night before. And so I sped up and I went straight to my mom's and she says, they've called off the search. And I said, I know where she's at. Let's go. And she says, I'm supposed to stay right here. The chief is going to come talk to me. We're staying here.

So she's trying to keep me put, and at this time I'm a nervous wreck. What was going on inside you? What was life? I knew that the only place I wanted to be was I wanted to go and get her. I didn't want strangers to get her. I wanted to pick her up and take her home, and my mom's just making me stay there. So they waited, the most excruciating weight of their lives, until the police chief arrived in a squad car

to personally escort Christina and her mom Celia to the grave site. As they pulled out, the chief took a deep breath and gathered himself before turning to Christina and Celia, fully dreading what he was about to say. We have found a body.

So we called off the search because she's the only one in Elko County that's missing. And I guess out of hope, I says, well, can you see? see her? And he says, no, we can only see a small square inch of flesh. I says, well, then you don't know it's her. And he says, you're right, because you know it. She's the only one missing. So we're pretty sure it's her. A few minutes later, they arrived at the grave site, a remote little clearing surrounded by sagebrush tucked up against a set of railroad tracks and guarded all around by

policemen. They're just all standing there. And I said, aren't she going to go and get her? What if she's still alive? What if you can help her? And he says, Christina doesn't work that way. The forensic team will be here in the morning. And I said, in the morning, you're going to leave her out here again all night? And he said, yes, we have to. And I remember saying, then I'm not leaving. She shouldn't be left with strangers. He says, one of our guys will stay out here with her so she's not with strangers and they made us leave. Leave to spread the news. First to Mickey's sister DJ who by that time exhausted by the fear and uncertainty had fallen into a deep sleep. I'm woken up shaking cops there.

My heart sank to the pit in my stomach. She told me, she says, We found your sister, we think. And I said, well, what do you mean, think? She says, we found a body. I felt numb. Soon after, police made it public. Shallow grave was discovered, the contents of which are unknown.

Because the grave was found outside the city limits, the case would now be under the jurisdiction of the Elko County Sheriff. whose office was 110 miles away. And a detective named Kevin McKinney got on the highway and headed off to West Wendover. McKinney was in his mid-40s, blonde hair, penetrating light blue eyes. No-nonsense sort of guy.

As he raced eastward on Interstate 80, he reviewed the possibilities. A young, attractive girl, inexplicably missing, a fresh grave, a remote location near the freeway, No apparent motive. Elko County has several unidentified homicide victims that have been highway dumps. We've never been able to identify, much less investigate as to who might have committed this crime. Somebody's daughter, picked up, abused, killed, and left there.

In fact, they talk about a possible serial killer, that roams I-80. So with that disturbing possibility running through his head, McKinney eased his SUV off I-80 and onto the dusty desert road that led to the gravel pits, the bright yellow police tape, and a blue tarp covering whoever it was in that makeshift grave. He was greeted by Detective Burnham, who was pretty amped up by then. There's a lot of things going through my mind.

Number one, what we were going to find. in the grave site. Number two, locating and identifying the suspects. In terms of investigating what happened to her, what was that foremost in your mind? Identifying and apprehending the person or persons involved in this. As dust fell over the desert that third night, a semicircle of police cars and officers kept watch over the grave site. A small pool of light in that big dark desert. It would be a long, grim night at the gravel pits. But a few miles away in her little apartment, Celia Costanzo,

exhausted and emotionally drained, for the first time in three days, found a sliver of comfort thanks in part to the West Wendover PD. Knowing that she had to stay there overnight, right exactly as she was, they did not let her be alone. They had already volunteered all their time and energy and had been up for days with very little sleep as it was. And for them to tell me, we'll all be here, she won't be alone.

It made me feel pretty good, as good as you can feel. At least until the rude shocks of the morning to come. They drove all night from Reno to get there, 400 miles from one end of Nevada to the other. It was early Sunday morning when the team of crime scene investigators arrived at that grim place in the desert. It was a dreary day,

a thick layer of cloud overhead and a raw wind and spread a chill among the police cars guarding the grave and the officers standing watch farther away on the desert road. Detective Kevin McKinney showed the CSI team what they had come to see. and they started digging. That area is very hard-packed, dirt and silt,

and this spot looked like a freshly dug area. The dirt was loose, you know, a little bit of gravel, which was very inconsistent with the normal terrain of that area. So it kind of stood out like a sore thumb. The CSIs erected a small tent over the site. And then they started sifting, and we were helping. and observing. It was quiet, tense.

Barely a word was spoken. And the body was uncovered. It didn't take very long once it started. And there was no doubt, no surprise. It was her, Mickey, in a shallow grave five miles from home. What was it like when they uncovered that body? What did it look like to you?

I was very emotional. The age of the victim, And the brutality, I guess disturbing, would be the word. Mickey was partially naked from the waist up. She had been beaten and cut and stabbed repeatedly. Several jagged slashes across her face, neck, head. The blood loss had saturated the ground underneath her. It was pretty brutal.

Look kind of personal. Mm-hmm. Now, there was a significant slash across. her jaw, one across her neck, and then what I would call a penetrating wound into her neck. It was murder, the capital M. Detective McKinney, along with the other officers, took a good look around, hoping to find something, anything that might turn into a clue. Well, there was footprints, tire prints, not really a lot of physical evidence to collect,

but a lot of impression evidence that we... could photograph and cast to try and identify who was out there at the scene. It appeared that a single vehicle had come in and backed into that location and then driven out of that scene. This is Detective Burnham. And there appeared to be a single set of footprints tread around that area. So is it one person had committed this crime? It appeared at that time that was the only thing we had found was one distinct set of footprints. we didn't notice any other footprints, not even Michaela's.

The CSI team tenderly tucked her battered body into a heavy nylon bag for the long trip back to Reno, where the medical examiner would conduct an autopsy and swab for DNA. And the policeman went to West Wendover to tell Mickey's family. And I screamed. I just dropped. I just kept screaming. My baby, not her. This is Mickey's sister, DJ.

She was my best friend, and someone hurt her. I kept trying to think that she didn't feel much. I didn't want to think she felt much, and I couldn't help her. Mickey's mother, Celia, devastated by the news of having lost her daughter, now worried she might, in a way, lose DJ as well. The one thing I will never ever forget in my entire life, is watching my daughter DJ scream. The scream I haven't heard from her even as a baby

and fall to the ground in shock and disbelief and in physical pain because her best friend and her sister was gone. She physically did what I felt like I wanted to do but I couldn't do it because I'm the mom. I had to keep myself together. I had to be the strong one. Later that same afternoon, police held a news conference

and met with a horde of anxious reporters to make it public. We did find a young female in there. It has been tentatively identified as Michaela. Then Celia somehow found the strength to step up to the microphone, saying at this point what everybody in town was thinking. Please, ladies and gentlemen, this is not over yet until the person or persons responsible are brought to justice. But nothing about this made any sense at all.

Why would anybody take Mickey Costanzo, of all people, sweet and accommodating and popular Mickey to a remote bit of desert and then beat her and slasher and stab her and dump her there? Where, by the way, one piece of evidence had emerged. Adding to the horror, Detective Burnham. There was a zip tie that was bound around her wrist. One of her wrists. One of her wrists that I personally observed, yes.

A clear plastic zip tie, strong and stiff, just like the ones used to bundle cables or secure fencing. It indicated to me that she was restrained and more than likely taken from that skull against her will. Somebody kidnapped Mickey Costanzo, and then murdered her with an almost unconstitutional. unimaginable brutality. But who would do that? And why would they do it?

They were big questions. That a tiny little clue sitting at the local high school just might help answer. A grainy surveillance video of Mickey Costanzo inside the school. Moments before she vanished. And she wasn't alone. Wes Wandover had just one high school. which sits at the edge of town, a one-story brick building with blue trim, nothing fancy, but certainly serviceable for its 300 students.

When it opened in 1996, one of its state-of-the-art features was a video surveillance system recording 24-7, including, of course, that day in March 2011, when Mickey Costanzo disappeared. So, as the crime scene investigators completed their dismal work in the desert, Detective Kevin McKinney got back into his car and... We went back to the school. We obtained some video surveillance. The school has some cameras in the hallways. Lots of cameras.

Officers and school staff had been scanning through the tapes ever since Mickey vanished. It was tedious and time-consuming. But then, lo and behold, they found it, A grainy image of Mickey herself walking down the hallway, timestamped just after 5 p.m. We did confirm that she'd actually left from the rear of the school, and then at the same time we found out that just prior to her leaving from the back of the school,

we saw Cody Patton leave the same doorway. Really? Yeah. Just a few minutes earlier? Mm-hmm. Yes, Cody Patton, Mickey's childhood chum. His were the very last calls and text messages to her phone before that phone stopped recording anything at all.

So now, Detective McKinney backed up the video to the period before Mickey showed up on the tape. And there was Cody in the school, after school let out, wandering in the hallways, four different times. We actually saw Cody kind of walking in the hallway in the area of the girls' locker room entrance. Why would he be around the girl's locker room entrance? Was Michaela in that?

Well, Michaela was at track practice. Oh, so she might have got in there to get changed. Well, yeah, and we believe he was waiting for her to finish track practice. So clearly this is somebody who needed to be talked to. Yes. Especially because of what Cody had told Detective Burnham the day before about seeing Mickey leave the school. She was going out to front of him.

How sure you were, I was that he was from. Well, I found positive. The video surveillance at the school found that Cody Patton was probably the last person to have seen her due to the fact she had left through the southwest doors, and he was in that area. And yet, Cody told Detective Burnham, insisted, in fact, Mickey left the school through a different set of doors altogether. Now, why would he say that? Suddenly, Cody Patton, childhood playmate, a lifelong friend was becoming a person of interest. But before they talked to him again,

detectives needed to know a little more about Cody, about his character, his background. Something Mickey's mom, Celia, knew all too well. Cody is a very interesting young man. I saw the good and the bad sides of Cody at the same time. He could turn on a dime. Cody could be the sweetest person in the world. And then turn right around and just,

not be okay. Cody has a tough temper. Cody has a hot temper. Also, Cody had been struggling at school. He clashed often with his teachers and classmates. He had some issues at home, too. He had a hard time getting along with his parents. This is Cody's fiancé, Tony Frato.

After he had turned 18, they had gotten an argument, and they had basically kicked him out of the house. But he called you right away, I'm assuming. He let me know, yes, and then we had talked to my parents and everything, and he had come and lived with us. Tony was the youngest of the five Frato children, close-knit Mormon family, deeply devout. Tony was petite, barely five feet tall,

Dakota's six-foot-six. She had dark hair and dark, Do-like eyes. The two had been dating for three years. And during their senior year of high school, they got engaged. Tony was over the moon. He has a really loving side, and he was one to go out of his way and help others out and make others feel good about themselves and everything.

They were young, of course, to be planning a marriage, just 18. But Tony's parents, Cassie and Claude Fratto, supported their daughter's marriage plans. They liked Cody and now had a vested interest in seeing him succeed. So that's why they allowed him to move in, they said, when he said he had no place else to go. Separate rooms, of course. Here's Claude. I wanted to extend a hand to him to help him get through school. This is Cassie.

We became his second family, and we were really invested in his success. Claude and Cassie Frato talked to me for almost two hours. They lived in a modest prefab house on the edge of West Wendover. Claude, quieter and more measured when he spoke, while Cassie was high energy, eager to discuss her daughter Tony in that relationship with Cody. Tony and Cody were becoming quite close, and they had planned to have a future together. This was towards the end of their senior year. So Tony at that time was determined to be Cody's savior, as you will.

The person that helped him to graduate. She encouraged him to do a schoolwork. She encouraged him to keep on track to graduate. She encouraged him to try and be a better person and try to be a better person and try to be kind. In fact, Frato's convinced Cody to join the Mormon church where he was baptized. I really wanted Cody to graduate. I really wanted Cody to be able to join the Marines.

I wanted him to succeed. Sure. You know, if he's going to get married to your daughter. Right. We were trying to steer this into the right direction. But you really cared for him, right? Of course. Yes.

He was like a son to me. But when Detective McKinney asked to interview Cody, it wasn't Claude Frato who brought him to the police station, but his actual father, Kit Patton, along with his mom. And they were joined there by fiancé Tony and her parents, his extended family support group. Cody plopped down in the same white wall room where he'd been interviewed just the day before and immediately made a quick impression on Detective McKinney. He looked like your average high school student to me. Tall, lean, clean cut, polite.

He was very self-confident. You doing okay? All right, Cody. You kind of want to talk to you about what happened on the third. At the outset, McKinney was deliberately upbeat, trying to keep the tension down. Didn't want to spook, Cody. He eased into the interview. several softball questions.

You sleep okay last night? No. Why not? I've played horrible and claimed to make you remittance. How come? Any friends? I've known her since I was a kid. Since I lived in the apartments that she lived up.

And she didn't show. I started worrying me because that's not like killed. For the next two hours, Detective McKinney probed and prodded Cody, coaxing any new details. that might advance the case, or eliminate him as a possible suspect. Did you have anything to do with her disappearance? No, sir.

Sorry if I use a phone show. It kind of upsets me with people that spit. So, who do you think might have been involved? Everybody likes me. Cody was calm, polite, cooperative, perfectly willing to have his DNA swabbed as he rehashed the same story he told the Wendover PD one day earlier,

how he'd been calling and texting Mickey, asking for help to move from car parts and then saw her leaving the school from the front door. But Detective McKinney knew from that surveillance video that both Cody and Mickey actually left from the back door just minutes apart. And with that, that obvious lie, Detective McKinney turned up the heat. You don't all of a sudden start calling her.

Okay? You don't all of a sudden start hanging out the school waiting for her to get done with track practice. Something happened that day. Hang out to wait for her. You were in that school four different times after school. You went by the girl's locker room three times. Okay. Cody, he need to explain this what's going on, buddy.

You're not being totally truthful with us. Yes, I have. No, you're not. But there was no getting around it. Video does not lie. The video from the school indicates to us that you were waiting for her. Okay? I wasn't.

Because that was the time she disappeared. And that was the time she died. And you were involved. I wasn't involved in her death. I know you were now. I did not kill a kill Stato. Then the detective suddenly dialed back and tried a softer approach. Cody, you need to tell us the truth, buddy?

Cody, we want to help you, bud. We really do. We really do. How she did her? Were you so mad that you don't remember what happened? I was confused. An exhausted Cody. Resusted Cody, took a deep breath, and looked away for a moment.

And then said, quietly, I just want to see my family. I just want to be with them for a little bit. I want to take a break from it. Please. All right. So the detectives left the room, and Cody's father Kip went in and closed the door for a father-son chat. Unlike any other.

Coming up in future episodes of Five Miles from Home We went back into the interview room And his father told him he needs to tell us what I have But was Cody telling all What was true? What wasn't? And who really knew? I wanted to tell what really happened Because I knew they were not going to get the real story from Cody.

All of a sudden, it gave us something to point the case towards other than Cody's axe. And pointing, well, pointing there certainly would be. She was afraid that she would be the one lying next to Michaela if she did not follow his orders that evening. Lies, cover-ups, and betrayal. Who could have imagined? I was very surprised.

Came out of the blue. I was blindsided. Five miles from home is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Robert Dean is the producer. Brian Drew, Marshall Housefeld, and Meredith Greenstein are audio editors. Molly DeRosa is associate producer. Adam Gorphane is co-executive producer. Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer.

From NBC News Audio, sound mixing by Rich Cutler.