Lester Holt

And in the background, you can actually see the fire from the car.

Correct.

We wanted to let her know that there's been a crash.

But when we get there, we don't find Ashley.

She hadn't shown up for work that day.

And very out of character, she missed a 9 o'clock meeting.

Very much so.

So James wasn't at home.

Ashley didn't show up for work.

And then we went to Walker's.

He's there.

We asked to speak to him in private in the back and leave the floor area to a smaller room.

James became emotional and he was crying.

His face was running, his eyes were running, his nose was running.

That's right.

There was no doubt in my mind or his mind at that time that that was Ashley in that car.

We had no evidence of anything afoul happening, but it felt weird.

There was no braking, there was no steering, there was no skid marks in the snow, and it really looked like it was pointed right there, intentionally driven off.

He didn't have his phone with him.

So when he got back about an hour and 15 minutes later, he had a text from Ashley saying, hey, I went for a hike.