A twisted trail of betrayal and greed. Where would it lead? I'm Lester Holt and this is

Dateline.

Jake had disappeared. They didn't know what had happened to him. Friends described him

as someone who was very disciplined, who cared about his martial arts.

His dad stated that he's been known in the past to take off.

Witness the last time you heard from him. Way back in May. Yeah.

This needs to be reported to the police.

Everybody's kept it a big dark secret.

It was always pretty tense at the ranch. If the wrong thing was said or was done,

there was fire in our eyes.

We're all scratching our heads asking why, how, but still no arrests.

The river that runs through all of this is green with money.

Very much so. I just kind of froze and I said, is that what I think it is?

She just looked at me and said, you know, you can't ever leave now.

Right?

Here's Josh Mankowicz with Trouble at the 7-Eleven Ranch.

Home on the Range. Sometimes here in Western Colorado, it's so quiet

that all you can hear is the wind.

Beautiful hay meadows that wave in the breeze and it's just a lovely part of the valley.

It is beautiful, no doubt. At the same time, that lovely, lonely valley

can be an unforgiving place to live. It can drive some people to extremes.

No one understood that. Better than rancher Jake Melosom.

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