This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code). >> they've just about finished their investigation, and they're waiting for satellite results from the u.s. >> satellite results? and -- >> i asked the lady who was there at the cash register, do you recognize this lady on the poster. >> translator: okay. the beatings, the staged kidnappings, the fake blood pacts. it has triple action support for your joints, cartilage and bones. you'll thrive. Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem. that it was betrayal, and you put years of devotion into someone, to be cut down like that. while shawna was the wild child. >> so she decided to give denis one last chance. she just vibrated. the grocery store, i think, was just closing up, and i thought well, maybe she is on her way out of the grocery store. if your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help. they promised they want still looking. and there was a stick. about a week later, another question -- would denis like to make some money on the side delivering bags mostly, their contents unknown. >> because i think maybe then i could hear her. standard practice in unsolved cases. and the animals taken away. >> they're still my family. Her remains were never found, and the case remained unsolved for more than a decade,. finally, he was sure. He is a director and writer, known for Karmina (1996), La vie aprs l'amour (2000) and L'automne sauvage (1992). 2022. one that's more than just fast. When Wendy Ratte, a free-spirited mother of two, goes missing, police go under cover to crack the case. wistful when anna, the bride, danced with her father. if you need to hear it, go see the police. web pages one of the worst things about a cois how it can make you feel. >> i kind of hold my breath and go through it and hope that whatever i say is going to work for my dad. and that's what we deliver. so the obvious question -- did you have the feeling that this is a woman who might have just up and left? >> translator: okay, man. >> when "dateline" continues. Wendy Ratte was 47-years-old when she disappeared while shopping in downtown Prince George in August of 1997. how as a teenager she ran away from home, experimented with drugs. >> you know, i don't want to speak badly about my sister. i know she'd spent some time in new mexico when she was getting her teaching degree, and she loved it. but "dateline nbc" reviewed an rcmp summary of the mission. >> absolutely not. maybe then she could speak to me. >> the next day, denis and the kids filed a report with the rcmp, the royal canadian mounted police. they're unsure of the procedure. >> i knew when he was talking about mom's murder that it was true. >> the rcmp have conducted over 350 of these investigations. suspects police had already eliminated, the jones family. progressive is always here for you with round-the-clock service. and also past the sights of unsolved mysteries -- >> you say there are six active investigations -- cbc news -- >> more missing women on the highway of tears. that's when she became convinced. that's shawna. >> and i'm natalie morales. -sorry. she was driving a very fast, very expensive car. there is the gamblers/desperate hand, the voice, the presence summoned from beyond, and the audacious undercover caper, all to solve an 11-year-old mystery and put under the light of intense personal scrutiny a most unlikely villain, who depending on who you choose to believe may not be a villain at all. >> there's no one else in the room at the time. >> translator: i have never said that, that i killed her, first of all. because mom was never late. how do you talk about the woman you married -- if you didn't do it, could you really tell that story? >> were denis' two confessions evidence enough? >> i can't imagine how it --. >> he was a proud man who didn't like his dirty laundry aired, and she just had to everyone they knew. >> i just kept making phone calls, and no one had seen her, no one knew what i was talking about. >> it's not unusual for us to over that kind of time frame because of animal activity and things of that nature not to find either any remains or very few remains. he was left high and dry without being able to work anymore. >> oh, my gosh! i'm craig melvin. with a rifle, one shot, you know, nice and easy. stress less and live more. the way they talked to each other, the way they behaved, you know, it almost didn't feel like husband and wife. >> then a knock on the door. >> he said that day that she disappeared, friends of his saw the family from down the street that she had had kicked out. she wanted to be centered would be the word. he lost the house, he lost kids had, he lost his whole life. >> where do you start? until the day in late 2007 when anna met reporter frank peebles at a downtown cafe. didn't get that at all. >> that's true, but isn't the truth more important? the highway of tears. finally in 2007, a decade now since wendy vanished, thomas decided that if she wanted to get closer to denis to find out what he knew once and for all, she would need some help. Ratte case to air on Dateline NBC. hello. separating rumor from fact, that's another matter altogether as detective judy thomas discovered. forward-thinking enterprises deserve forward-thinking solutions. i didn't know she did this. >> it was. inside everything looked normal, so anna drove the van home. he wants very much to think that your father's not guilty. we put wendy on a canada-wide data base. [ chuckles ] no one looks ridiculous, bob. so please be honest. she wasn't responding in the way my mother usually does. >> then one day after a month of rumors and unsubstantiated theories followed one after the other, there was a break. they all felt i should have been with him more, siding with him more. (upbeat music) i got this mountain bike for only $11. 43:49. and it makes it difficult. >> and as they continued searching the area -- >> oh, my gosh. they said they had never heard of her. >> did she bring up the idea that wendy may have had some sort of mental breakdown? >> the polygraph operator rereads his charts. >> but she was sliding. and forcibly took her and put her in the hospital. Following. >> was wendy another victim, or could she have been targeted by neighbors she tangled with? but karen said they didn't have time to make an official diagnosis. >> and he didn't. >> i thought, well, maybe -- maybe she's there. there was no evidence, said denis' sister. 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. anybody could see how close they were. >> you shot her where? oops. you live it. i guess, around here. >> all i remember is the glint in his eye when he told me he was working again and how proud he looked. >> it was hard for me not to tell anna. >> anguish like that couldn't stay hidden for long. this early in the investigation, any lead was welcome. >> she was the breadwinner. on November 14, 2020. with us as always. >> yeah. >> denis did not listen to his sister. >> i'm going, wait a minute. >> and there was one last moment of melodrama. finally, i was tired of this file shuffle. >> but when anna kept pushing, her dad snapped back, said that he was conducting his own investigation. >> and i hear this story and think for crying out loud, she's done it again. wipe. but her brother, gabriel? and also past the sights of unsolved >> so he threw everything into the pot. >> translator: there was mud, right? you win." but then police showed him the video. >> okay. >> she came in carrying this folder of news clippings and possible leads that were connected to her mother. >> but anna had a sense, she said, a nagging feeling that it wasn't just grief that kept denis from being the strong, dedicated father she had known. there's no evidence. how her parents sent her to a psychiatric hospital back in connecticut. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. his father in prison has met his little girl now, but when we last spoke with anna, she had not. dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. it turned out they hadn't found anything. he was still my -- my hero, my childhood hero was still there. >> wendy wanted her children to have the emotional stability she couldn't seem to manage even in her solid middle-class upbringing. >> were you a daddy's girl? >> it was hard. >> the first inkling of something wrong, something off, when was phone rang after lunch. my job is to help new homeowners who have turned into their parents. healthmarkets is the number one ranked health insurance agency in america. [phone rings] "sore throat pain? are you kidding? we sold an ipad worth $505 for less than $24. save the little girl. View the profiles of people named Gabriel Ratt. >> first, mr. big told denis he'd have to come clean about his past. she said, yes, very certainly. the honest truth. available over the counter. >> i didn't give it a lot of, thought, to the point where i tried to remember her face and i couldn't. >> it wasn't just, how's anna, what's gab doing now, it was always anna and gab. someone cashed in her unemployment checks at an atm. >> i would trust him to do the right thing and keep me safe. and not -- especially not with his kids in the house. >> once he lost his job, i think it was up to her to figure out, okay, like how do we make everything work. it's impossible to get around. all of us, i think, saw him as someone who would die to protect his family. i say i always felt i connected with my father more. helps you brush in vital minerals to actively repair and strengthen enamel. >> why don't you want to see something, some kind of evidence to back up what you've seen on tape? a jury was about to decide. >> when i called the police to say i don't know where she is, can you help, their only question was has it been 24 hours. was it someone who had done her harm? all auctions start at $0 and everything must go. and they're described as right out of hollywood. december, 2010. 4 likes and all of a sudden she was very cold and very abrupt with them. there's no way he would have taken that kind of chance. i just didn't want to believe it. the vice president won the state by more than 14,000 votes. "I want to know everything," she said, "So we can put my mom to rest.". after about an hour of conversation, she finally just shook her head and said, i'm very sure that it was dad. because 99% of the time, the husband did it. >> but given the continued absence of any physical evidence, that second confession still wasn't enough to convince gabriel his father killed his mother. every one of them read to be deceptive. a 4k television for under $2. and i've also had anxiety, headaches, insomnia, and panic attacks. mr. big will only accept the truth. i called every number in the directory that she had. i was heaving. president-elect joe biden is the apparent winner in georgia, hooking the state for the first time since 1992 as north carolina was called for president trump. Enable push notifications on your device. we looked at that angle. dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. >> his failings had been put on display. you know, i think no loved one really wants to believe that someone they know and care about could be responsible for somebody's murder. some said wendy had a history of emotional troubles. and that's why i love healthmarkets, your insurance marketplace. >> denis told mr. big he drove back to prince george, got rid of the gun and his wife's i.d. that's one of the examples of her community activism. i can be swayed by the evidence whether it is going to be for or against my dad. >> right. when wendy ratte disappeared, there was a hint, i would say even a strong whiff of suspicion that this was another highway of tears case. >> then with a heavy heart, gabriel called wendy's family in the states. i saw him at the food banks. >> i cannot see him the way he left her doing that. and help heal your skin from within with dupixent. i don't believe in twice. the goal -- to lure denis ratte into their midst and gain his trust so as to find out what he really knew about his wife's disappearance. >> tonight they have brought me out to kil, MSNBC November 14, 2020 12:00am-2:00am PST. i'm going to tell you honestly what happened. the real police showed up again in denis' life, told him the investigation had been reopened, he was the prime suspect. Wendy Ratte, a free-spirited mother of two, was missing. don't do it. what about the jones family, the neighbors who wendy helped evict from their property? humira can lower your ability to fight infections. >> you would have heard that surely. and at that point, it was the only sense of pride he had left. a horrifying surprise for passersby. his comment was, "better." when it came time for him to leave, she said "take me with you." >> thomas interviewed several of wendy's closest friends. Skip to main content Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. Or, did danger lurk closer to home? this is her little brother, gabriel. wendy and i met in a parking lot somewhere just to say hi. >> they always promised me it wasn't. i still love her even. he had found a newfound family that respected him, that thought he was intelligent. have been okay. and against all odds, said denis' sister, deanne, the wayward marriage of the preacher's daughter and illiterate dropout worked. but that's in a person's youth which is much different than when you're married with children. it cleans grease five times faster on easy messes, just spray, wipe, and rinse. of those, i just -- my heart fills with optimism. >> mom was very vocal. Dateline Latest Episodes NEW S31 E19 | 02/26/23 The Window NEW S28 E29 | 02/24/23 Before Daylight S31 E18 | 02/17/23 Footprints in the Snow S31 E17 | 02/10/23 Who Killed Mindy Morgenstern? >> i was terrified. with less eczema, you can show more skin. >> she waved a quick good-bye, walked down the stairs and out the door. >> and this is "dateline." i got these three suitcases for less than $40. he said, "when she does that, she's shawna." the truth is all that matters. >> just disappeared from her life. that phone call was happiness with a lot of relief in it. but this case wasn't only the crown versus denis ratte. they put me in a room with a camera, and that's when they broke it to me. and waited to see what the machine would say. >> well, that was really hard for him, as you can imagine. >> no. >> he says, i'm earning some money. Advertisement In 2003, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, residents were shocked by the news of a heinous crime inflicted upon a 22-year-old New Mexico State University . the number of coronavirus cases has climbed upward to 170,000, pushing the peak ahead of the thanksgiving holiday. >> translator: in the face. >> translator: i'm going to tell you. that's because wendy turned 18, checked herself out, and disappeared again. >> i didn't know what else to do. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! she talked about how much she loved dad but was so angry with him, wasn't sure she could forgive him. but -- >> i met shawna. Skip to main content Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. >> denis, of course, had proclaimed his innocence. there was a swamp there. >> especially when you saw the dysfunction in families around you. >> prince george detective judy thomas was leading the police inquiry into wendy's disappearance. >> a phone call from dad asking if we'd seen mom because she hasn't shown up where they were supposed to meet. s. a month into the investigation, police thought they were a big step closer to solving the mystery surrounding wendy's disappearance. and money they didn't have. >> but there was something anna didn't know. >> the truth? and you know, he didn't have much of an answer. >> oh, and there was no question, said gabriel, his mom did feel threatened by the joneses. but the results were inconclusive. so much so that fiction is often difficult to differentiate from reality. >> this is karen crieder, wendy's sister, who told how wendy vanished the first time when she was 17 years old. >> wendy was the good mother, conservative, hard worker, wanted to save the world. no one knew what i was talking about. she wanted to have a good time. >> the case of the disappearance of wendy ratte was at a dead end. -no, no. no wendy. did he have an explanation that made any sense? CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices. But Ratte's son Gabriel Pelletier, who also made a victim's impact statement, instead asked the judge for leniency, saying he's still "conflicted about whether" his father is guilty. -you smell like fish. >> shortly after wendy disappeared, anna was looking through her papers searching for clues and found an application for a teacher's job in california. >> we love each other very much. Whether the main players in the drama will agree to interviews will be a prime factor. >> a confession is the strongest evidence anybody ever gets, and, you know, it generally does the deed. >> denis bonded with his crime buddies over meals in fancy restaurants and evenings in strip clubs. we'll get through it. he didn't want to lose that. he changed so much. he had such a miserable, lonely life that i believe he -- at that point would have said almost anything. >> in fact, the mr. big undercover technique has been repeatedly upheld by canada's supreme court. when he tried to return to work, tough as he was, he just couldn't. if you're honest, things will be great. 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. everything worked perfect. coming up -- a missing persons case like no other because who actually disappeared? it does happen. >> translator: you know, it's hard. Harpaz is willing to travel to some far off places in search of a story. >> oh, yeah. i ain't happy about it, but i did it. the fake blood is truly phenomenal. that's cold to talk about let alone cold to do. which left wendy's husband, denis. and it turned out that he died of natural causes. he skpaifr he exchanged stolen diamonds. they're waiting for satellite results from the u.s. >> satellite results? >> eerie. >> translator: in the head. >> what would he know? she was bragging about how much money she made, and she said "i'm not wendy anymore." Keith Morrison reports. gabriel was putting up a missing persons poster there. >> cory keenan, a criminologist at vancouver's simon frazer university, has studied these operations and written a book about them. >> it became sickening to hear that another girl had gone missing. >> correct. disappeared, he volunteered to take the test. >> it was all too much for anna. >> when "dateline" continues. how she was constantly seeking something missing. >> mm-hmm. >> this is the difficulty with missing person files. >> translator: it still hurts. it's what she yearns for most these days. but anna had another word for it. that might have been the whole story really except, well, every drama needs a catalyst, right? that is, of course, if he knew anything about it. >> it struck me odd right at the beginning. Currently, Gabriel Ratt works as a Candidat La Profession d'Ingnieur at BBA. and she said, "i'm not wendy anymore." >> and you know how people are they talk. >> that's the part of me that is the dreamy, hopeful, optimistic side. She then turned to her father and asked why he chose to murder his wife and her mother instead of getting a divorce. >> frustrated is what he was, denis told his sister. Or, did danger lurk closer to home? a body occasionally turning up beside the road. and he needed to pay the bills. >> an undercover operation? i said, "where's this coming from? >> the rcmp would not discuss the specifics of the undercover operation that targeted denis ratte. they would have had the motive to hurt her. >> and he hardly knew a word of english and she hardly knew a word of french. but not today. it's truly phenomenal. don't have much left. -[narrator] we are boomer natur. we checked the airlines, the border crossings, there was just nothing. e networks of news, good night it was like being in a nightmare. >> i always thought of my family and my parents as being perfect. >> a canadian news magazine show profiled the group and found it had several branches in the u.s. >> i helped police look into that and gave them every information i could. for years, women had been going missing out here. >> more than $2,000, in fact, money he'd gotten in advance for an odd job, which he asked wendy to return when he couldn't complete it. >> a technique's ingenuity is also an achilles' heel. advanced technology. yes, three wendys. she didn't just disappear. >> $2,000, exactly. well, that was a different story altogether. so it's not just there to try to find a person guilty. like a play or a movie with at its dark heart something quite unspeakable. wendy found work off and on as a substitute teacher at the local high school. >> translator: i had no choice. the undercover detectives had him just where they wanted him. she had done it before. >> did he seem nervous, upset? >> when "dateline" continues. >> you look at the full circumstances of it. that's what he had done. >> she survived a harrowing ordeal in one of the most dangerous places on earth. >> as their friend lois cook could plainly see, denis was fiercely protective of all of them. >> what did you think when you heard that? >> you expected that to happen? 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