We didn't have a body yet but we assumed after a few years she was deceased because she wouldn't have just abandoned her kids that way. I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff.

I'm Anaseika Lazi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of investigation

discoveries true conviction. And this is anatomy of murder.

The pain caused by the loss of a loved one to violent crime is almost unimaginable.

I can think of almost nothing that compares except maybe this,

when a loved one disappears without a trace.

Left with no clue if he or she is alive dead or suffering the uncertainty must be

agonizing and the lack of resolution paralyzing. When someone we love

suddenly disappears it shatters our worlds in an instant, but the loss of a

missing person can bring on a whole new level of grief that could last for months, years, and even sometimes for decades.

Statistically, there are about 6.5 missing persons for every 100,000 people in the U.S.

With the help of law enforcement, dedicated families, and vigilant communities, 75% of those

go missing are found alive.

But that isn't always the case.

Tragically, approximately 10% meet a violent end and the majority of those

victims are female.

Which brings us to the case of 30-year-old Desiree Thompson, a single mom living in California,

who on one evening back in 2012 left her home to pick up some groceries and never

returned.

She was a mother of kids just trying to make it.

I mean, she had had a couple little bumps in her life.

She was going to school and straighten her life out.

...