the actors are the family, divided across a thin line separating truth and deception. i was nervous. hello. >> just disappeared from her life. so, uh, yeah, just a silly mistake. we couldn't track her. >> just at a loss. it's all true. i called every friend of mine, every friend of hers. It's not yet certain if Harpaz will be back with a camera crew to film a piece for Dateline NBC, a newsmagazine driven by stories of true crime, investigative reporting, and social justice. standard practice in unsolved cases. >> denis told mr. big he drove back to prince george, got rid of the gun and his wife's i.d. >> i remember her transforming into this character. available over the counter. >> it was quite a shock that somebody who is apparently normal, everyday, almost a stereotype in that sense could disappear without a trace. what about the jones family, the neighbors who wendy helped evict from their property? like why aren't we looking for her? i've asked him more than once, why did you confess when you knew you were in front of a police officer? on behalf of all of my colleaguesa the networks of nbc news, good night. >> it felt like my world came unhinged. so, man, whenever i do hear one. everything makes sense. >> but she wasn't the first to vanish. >> when "dateline" continues. after wendy fell to the ground, he said, he quickly wrapped her body in a black tarp. it happened in a drama class. Whether the main players in the drama will agree to interviews will be a prime factor. no one knew what i was talking about. he went to vancouver, registered for college, tried to go on with life. >> translator: i said it there? -i did. >> sure. she even called herself that in a letter she wrote her parents when she was just 23. >> i met shawna. >> right. that's not wendy." A crew from the U.S. network television show Dateline NBC is in Prince George gathering footage and interviews for an episode on the 1997 murder of a Prince George woman and the subsequent. in fact, police were actively investigating her father. we were friends, okay? >> there's no one else in the room at the time. and all of a sudden she was very cold and very abrupt with them. >> translator: it was all true. >> he says, i'm earning some money. this is a really difficult situation for both of us. web pages that family had moved four months i believe prior. >> what would he know? >> did the lie detector test, and i passed it. >> just be honest. On Aug. 18, 1997, Wendy Ann Twiss Ratte, 44 at the time, was reported missing and the family's van was found parked at a supermarket, now Value Village. >> yeah. >> they've just about finished their investigation, and they're waiting for satellite results from the u.s. >> satellite results? you know, someone who looks at you and -- i've always loved my wife. they can find you the right health plan and make sure you get all the subsidies you deserve, without playing games. >> then there were the clothes denis said wendy wore. and there was a stick. is that a good idea? the highway of tears. >> wendy became a dedicated wife, teacher, artist, mother. and shipping is always free. Wendy Ratte, a free-spirited mother of two, was missing. denis agreed to help him. but even when i was there. >> i spoke to him in french about how i loved him, first of all. >> and right then and there, the police asked gabriel to record a message to his father. 2022. she wanted to have a good time. >> but given the continued absence of any physical evidence, that second confession still wasn't enough to convince gabriel his father killed his mother. >> the polygraph operator rereads his charts. thomas interviewed wendy's mother about her daughter's troubled youth. >> what? yes, three wendys. i couldn't understand that he would be okay with not telling the police. is it possible, though, that you're liing in denial? >> mm-hmm. i never told it in my life. the royal canadian mounted police disguised the identities of the undercover voice on this video. with a rifle, one shot, you know, nice and easy. how her parents sent her to a psychiatric hospital back in connecticut. and don't forget, we offer a full 90 day money back guarantee on your first bid pack purchase. >> uh-huh, yep. we try to talk with each other every once in a while. On Friday the judge is expected to rule on when Ratte will be eligible for parole. and we decided an undercover operation may be the best to move this forward. we asked her repeatedly, and she said, "i saw her, she was sitting at that table over there." she didn't want to be tied down. "It's really about trying to see what kind of access we can get, how people deal with us. >> it was not only damaging for the joneses, it was humiliating. >> reports that wendy was mentally ill, that it wasn't her but her alter ego that may have left town? -blue. coming up -- his back against the wall, what would denis say to mr. big? >> his failings had been put on display. in fact, just four months before she disappeared, wendy complained very publicly about. >> she began screaming obscenities and shouting. they told him they needed to make sure there was no evidence left. >> uh-huh. was she dead? have they phoned the police? >> and what idea did you develop about wendy? a stand mixer for less than $20. a high stakes gamble to reveal the truth on tape for the children left behind. you need flexibility- to work from anywhere and manage from everywhere. i just quit school because i felt like this is too much right now. if only she could speak to the spirits the way her mom once did. we sold an ipad worth $505 for less than $24. so he says, i made up a story that i thought they would find me some kind of alibi or something, he says, and they'll fix it so that the cops would get off my case. [phone rings] "sore throat pain? she had done it before. the lies, the betrayals. don't forget. >> you certainly develop an idea of who that person could be. he was meeting mr. big, the man he believed to be an all-powerful crime boss. you had to make a decision, and that was the decision you made? did he have an explanation that made any sense? and two of her checks had been cashed at an atm in full view of the bank's surveillance camera. then he wandered around for a bit before he called anna to report her mom was missing. >> and i told him right away, "i want the truth, whatever it is. i got this mountain bike for only $11. >> the case of the disappearance of wendy ratte was at a dead end. now back to "dateline". one day in 1995, denis returned from work at the sawmill and told him family how a log hit his shoulder, knocked him out cold. so, i talked to my doctor and learned humira is for people who still have uc or crohn's symptoms. June . the staged kidnapping. >> but as reporter frank peebles dug into the story, he found another so far unsubstantiated theory making the rounds around town. i'm not eating at the soup kitchen anymore. >> who are these people? Skip to main content Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. >> so runaway wendy? >> over time the target is led to believe that he is an up-and-comer in the criminal organization. >> could this beloved teacher have had multiple personalities? and i can't blame him. he had absolutely no reason, he said, to hurt wendy or have anything to do with her disappearance. that it was betrayal, and you put years of devotion into someone, to be cut down like that. >> i didn't believe it. >> i kind of hold my breath and go through it and hope that whatever i say is going to work for my dad. >> upon our review, we came to the same conclusion as judy did, that denis ratte was the suspect in his wife's disappearance. that came from me. healthmarkets' fitscore instantly ranks plans both on and off the government exchange to find one that best fits your insurance needs. her abandoned van wasn't far from the highway. >> translator: i'm going to tell you. when she does that, she's shawna. Box 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6. Join Facebook to connect with Gabriel Ratte and others you may know. the gunshot, the tarp, the carjack. It'd take an elaborate, undercover mission to finally crack this case. >> you hear right, truthful. >> i feel that the decision wendy was making was whether she was going to end the marriage with denis or not. >> it was very hard. she went back to prince george, had a heart to heart with him and then called lois. the reason for that was history. >> the first time that i really noticed it was with the kids. he said, no, and especially not first thing in the morning outside my window. -sorry. i went to the media to say don't forget. >> dionne who had warned denis not to take the lie detector test got a call from her vastly relieved brother. >> so gabriel wondered what hard evidence had police found that proved his father was guilty of murder. 0. you have to keep an open mind when you start on these investigations because we had at that point very limited information on who wendy was. >> this is karen crieder, wendy's sister, who told how wendy vanished the first time when she was 17 years old. and help heal your skin from within with dupixent. she was incredibly nurturing, and i think what she succeeded in doing is that she raised a good son and a good man to live in this world as a sane person. >> why lie? big." she saw them following her. you're not the first person to ask me. a little sweater and jogging pants. cuz i remember turning. the beatings, the staged kidnappings, the fake blood pacts. later that night, he came back. >> she made an enemy for sure. >> i was disgusted. that was his source of pride. i thought i was lying to him. healthmarkets has options from both on and off the government exchange. 11 Mar. the vice president won the state by more than 14,000 votes. >> i don't think he could lie about it when you have a picture of him cashing the check at an atm. i saw the truth on his face in that tape. i saw him with girlfriends that he had to pay for. he was patient. 615 following. Police investigated: a bitter feud with a neighbor, a possible serial killer. you win." >> he said that's not wendy, that's shawna. and at that point, it was the only sense of pride he had left. okay. and now her dear brother refusing to share her outrage. >> we had to look at all, possibilities. for three years after his mother disappeared, gabriel's way was to forget, force it out of his head. it was one of the crime boss's alleged cronies with an internal police memorandum. >> i broke down. certainly there was some differences. there's no way. they created a missing persons poster, a photo of wendy smiling, happy, her hazel eyes magnified by supersized glasses they plastered around town. they promised they want still looking. >> very. >> and he hardly knew a word of english and she hardly knew a word of french. and he hadn't felt that since he -- since he'd been injured. >> translator: it still hurts. along the way, and left the van in this grocery store parking lot. dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. >> mm-hmm. >> yeah, like parents get divorced? you hear the odd story once in a while of someone returning after 25 years of absence. but this case wasn't only the crown versus denis ratte. this was a town that appeared to be haunted by a serial killer. >> better? >> the man who ran the undercover sting, lead investigator robert burret, insisted his team took all precautions to make sure denis did not lie when he met with mr. big. there was, after all, that sighting at the greyhound bus station. none of that showed up. >> this town is used to, disappearances. try move free ultra now. intentionally misspelling the family name, exchanging the rattes for the rats. she chased down the leads. . Wendy Ratte was 47-years-old when she disappeared while shopping in downtown Prince George in August of 1997. where are my parents to watch this, you know. Police investigated: a bitter feud with a neighbor, a possible serial killer. >> it wasn't physical evidence, correct, yeah. >> we're always mindful of false confessions -- >> allegations are made all the time, i suppose. -[narrator] we are boomer natur. >> she showed up suddenly apparently seeking refuge from an abusive relationship she was in at the time and then was gone again. >> i cannot see him the way he left her doing that. he had found a newfound family that respected him, that thought he was intelligent. was it possible, she wondered, that it was guilt? denis ratte answered with conviction, "no, i did not." we're going to fix them, okay? TV Archive Wendy Ratte was 47-years-old when she disappeared while shopping in downtown Prince George in August of 1997. but her brother, gabriel? >> denis did not listen to his sister. >> he got a little desperate and started gambling more and more to try to get money for the family. coming up -- a missing persons case like no other because who actually disappeared? >> they're described as right out of hollywood. denis lied to mr. big. When search suggestions are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. they seem -- seemed real at the time. i got these three suitcases for less than $40. and tender moments like these, anna said, reminded her how much she yearned for the bond they once had. and the wrench in her eyes when that came out was something i -- i don't think i can ever forget. 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