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I'm Ashley, and I'm Lacey, and this is United States of Murder.

This week, we're in Washington discussing a teen that vanished on his way to work.

Then we'll discuss another disappearance, but this one of a child actor.

So buckle up and join us on this dark and twisted ride through the Evergreen State.

In Washington State, in the quiet spanaway area of Pierce County, February mornings are usually still, cold, and slow to wake.

Melanie Verdell wasn't known to wake up early, at least not back then.

But on the morning of February 9th, 2012, she was up with her youngest son, 18-year-old Christopher Verdel.

She made him breakfast, a simple bowl of oatmeal, one more everyday moment she didn't know she would replay for years.

He was getting ready to leave for his shift at Safeway, texting a friend, grabbing his jacket, and then running for the door.

His mom Melanie remembers calling after him.

She said, hey, get your butt back here and give me and your dad a hug and a kiss goodbye.

So he gave her a hug and a kiss, then went over and kissed

his dad on the cheek. Melanie said, and he told us, bye, he loved us and ran out the door. This was the

last time Paul and Melanie ever saw their son.

Christopher was the youngest of three boys.

He was a kid with a plan and a heart everyone seemed to notice.

Melanie told the News Tribune, which has been re-examining Pierce County cold cases,

that he had graduated from high school at 18 and dreamed of becoming a medical flight pilot.

She said he was going to be enlisting in the National Guard to get his pilot's license,

and as a child, all he would play with was helicopters and he wouldn't play with anything else.

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