Hey everyone. I'm Ashley Banfield, and this is Drop Dead Serious. There are some stories that never

leave you as a journalist. No matter how many years go by, no matter how many cases you cover,

they just sort of like live somewhere back here in your mind.

For me, this one is right up there at the top of the list.

I covered it when it first broke in 2005, and I still remember the ache in my chest,

watching the search teams, the candlelight vigils. I remember doing

interviews with the grieving father. It was a case that horrified the entire country, and it

broke the heart of every parent who heard about it. A little girl, nine years old, vanished from

her own bed in a quiet Florida town, and when police finally put

all of the pieces together and solved the mystery, they themselves were broken. Seasoned detectives

became shadows of their former selves. And if you've never heard of this story before, I bet it's

going to change you too. The little girl was Jessica Lunsford. And if you were around back in 2005,

you'll probably remember her picture, her smile and her bangs and her bright, curious eyes.

Jessica lived in Homo Sasa, Florida, a sleepy coastal town north of Tampa, the kind of place

where people still left their doors unlocked and waved to everybody who drove by.

She lived with her dad, Mark Lunsford, a single dad, working the night shift and living with his parents to make ends

meet and care for Jessica. But on the morning of February 24, 2005, Mark Lunsford opened her

bedroom door and Jessica wasn't there. She was gone, just an empty bed, and the beginning of one of the darkest

true crime stories this country's ever seen. It all began the evening before, Wednesday, February

23rd, 2005, when everything in the Lunsford home was perfectly normal. Jessica's dad, Mark, returned home from

a 15-hour shift. He played with Jessica, and then he made some plans to spend the night

at his girlfriend's house. The evening was a busy one. Jessica had dinner with her grandma, ran

...