(NBC) — On “Dateline,” detectives investigating the disappearance of Pamela Butler in Washington D.C. discover a puzzling connection to Virginia resident Marta Rodriguez, who vanished two decades earlier.
Friday’s new episode follows investigators as they untangle the mystery of the two missing women, revealing a sinister secret hidden along one of the busiest stretches of interstate in the country.
Here is a preview of Dennis Murphy’s report:
These grainy night-time images are some of the last known moments in the life of a successful woman: A person who simply vanished without a trace from her home.
JENNIFER: What happened inside that house?
You might know some of her story, but solving what happened to her opened an entirely new saga you don’t know, about another missing woman.
DETECTIVE ROSA ORTIZ: It’s a big puzzle.
It took decades to unsnarl the stories of the two women who didn’t know one another but who both ended up years apart in the same place.
RYAN FITZGERALD: It’s idiosyncratic. That’s a signature.
Without a few individuals stricken with a bad case of justice fever, we might never know their stories at all.
DERRICK BUTLER: They found out that I wasn’t going to give up.
Not the twists.
DENNIS MURPHY: Two women, two children, neither knows about the other.
DETECTIVE ROSA ORTIZ: Yes.
The setbacks.
SANDRA PARK: The cause of death was undetermined.
The stark fear of it all.
DETECTIVE FULTON: He says, “Oh my god, he’s gonna kill her and he’s gonna kill me.”
The fates of Pam and Marta, united in horror on one of the busiest stretches of Interstate in the country.
MITCH CREDLE: And when all that stuff started coming out, I was like, “Oh my god. This guy’s a monster.”
Watch “Dateline: A Haunting Stretch of Road” Friday at 9 p.m. on NBC4.