Tonight on 20/20 ` his wife is missing. We have a daughter together. I mean, we have a life together. Pleading for help, their baby in his arms. We need you. We love you. Please, just come home. Her car turns up at the airport. Her husband believes she may be struggling with post-partum depression. Where is Shelby Wilkie? And I turned around to my husband, and I said, 'She ran out. I know she ran out.' THEME MUSIC Kia ora, I'm Sonya Wilson. So, why would a woman who seemed to have it all ` a new husband and an infant daughter ` just vanish into thin air? It all began with a New Year's Eve party when 38-year-old Shelby Wilkie was quietly celebrating the start of 2012 with her family and husband. So what happened to her on that night? At the stroke of midnight, Shelby is at home with her husband, Michael. That's them sharing a tender moment in this home video. They'd connected on an online dating site. He was tall, dark and handsome. She was excited about this guy. He was a great catch, right? Oh yeah. And I think she called him a Prince Charming at one time. She was, like, 'A Prince Charming. Look at all he does for me. You know, and he's great.' This live in this two-bedroom ranch in a cul-de-sac on Moody St, where Christmas has come early. Baby Sydney is born ` the daughter Shelby had always wanted. Carried her everywhere. Wanted to be with her. Regretted really having to go to work. She missed her so much, and she was just in love with Sydney. She wanted to be married, she wanted a family. That was her whole goal in life. Shelby liked to be in charge. Here she is leading the singing at her own birthday party. # Happy birthday to you. # Your parents describe your sister as the cruise director. Yeah, she kept things organised, kept things on task. She had everything set up, and all we had to do was show up, basically. COMMENTATOR: There's Thomas now. New Year's Day is a Sunday, and the Oregon Ducks are playing the Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl, while Jan Sprowls texts Shelby, checking in on her daughter and the new baby. I texted her and said... And a text came back. It is the last time they will ever hear from her. Sunday and Monday, I was just calling and calling, and I got into a panic of, you know, why she wouldn't pick up. It's just not like her, cos I hear` I hear from her all the time. The swelling anxiety turns the minutes into hours. I couldn't get through to her cell phone any more because it had been turned off. I had a very very bad instinct that something had happened to Shelby. Monday evening ` still no word from Shelby, so Shelby's brother and father head over to the house on Moody St to see what's up. I asked Michael if he knew where Shelby was, cos we haven't heard from her all day, which is strange. But the day started normally, says Michael. He told them she drove to work that morning in her 2012 Ford Escape. So he picked up his cell phone, um, and called her work, saying, 'Yeah, I'm right here with Bill. He's in the driveway looking for you.' Actually, he'd left a series of messages himself on her office voicemail. He also called his buddy Mark McMinn. He just said that she'd run off and left, that, uh, she just went. Went to work and didn't come back home. After two more hours of radio silence, Bill makes a call of his own. WOMAN: BILL: Shelby's car is gone, as is the Tiffany bracelet her mother recently gave her. She never left home without it. Henderson County authorities are searching for a woman who left home early yesterday morning and hasn't been seen since. Of course, the vanishing of Shelby Wilkie causes the cops to consider foul play. That's where Detective Sonya Matthews enters the picture. This was a true missing person's case, and my gut just said, 'No, this is really serious.' The patrol officer came here to check things out. Didn't see anything. Right. Michael Wilkie invites the officers into the house. And then we ask him, 'Do you mind if we look around?' And he was fine with it. He said, 'Absolutely. No problem.' He answers all of their questions. Little Sydney was sitting on a` on the coffee table in her car seat, and he invited us to sit down and talk to him right here in the front room. Um, I remember he took little Sydney out and was holding her. Behaviour in keeping with his reputation as a down to earth mountain man. He didn't drink, he didn't smoke, he didn't swear. A good old country boy... Yeah. ...that had been here his whole life. That's why the Sprowls embraced their new son-in-law. WOMAN: Wow. That's a cool thing. Here's the clan in happier times, opening presents on Christmas Day. Perfect. I love it! Good stuff in here. Family, husband, job, baby ` if Shelby Wilkie has it all right here in Asheville, then where has she gone? Michael now goes on TV, desperate for answers. We have a daughter together. I mean, we have a life together. I mean,... (SOBS) I just want her to come home. We need you. We love you. Please, just come home. Michael suggests the new mom had emotional problems after giving birth. Her husband believes she may be struggling with post-partum depression. As Detective Matthews works the case, she learns that the mystery's first clues are to be found in moments not captured on home video. Police join in. Choppers hunt the skies. Scuba divers comb the riverbanks. I remember tapping every resource we could. State highway police and their helicopter. Cadaver dog. Search and rescue teams were employed. The results ` nothing. They say they need some leads to help find her. 4pm, Wednesday January 4th. Two days after Shelby is reported missing, the black Escape is found in the parking lot of the J & S Cafeteria across the road from the Asheville Regional Airport. 90 miles away, in this woman's head, an alarm bell starts blaring. Shelby's on the run. They said she might have flown out of the airport, so I think, 'Oh, she really got away.' Amanda Casey was Michael Wilkie's wife before Shelby. That marriage had produced a beautiful daughter. It was like Jekyll and Hyde ` two personalities, and you didn't know which one you would get. How nice was the Dr Jekyll? Very nice. And Mr Hyde? Terrible. Not somebody you'd wanna meet. You guys had a pretty big argument when you were pregnant with the daughter you had with him. Mm-hm. The argument escalated, and he was physically abusive. What does that mean? Physically abusive? Um, he grabbed me around my throat and swung me around our bedroom. She never filed charges, and, she says, the psychological abuse left a far bigger dent. So one night she decided to flee even though it meant leaving her 3-year-old daughter behind. The only way that you thought you could actually get away was if you didn't take your daughter. That must have been a gut-wrenching decision. I had determined that I would let the court system take care of that and get her back that way. So was Shelby following in the footsteps of Michael's first wife? Is her disappearance nothing more than a desperate plan to flee an unhappy marriage? Maybe. But then the police and Shelby's family notice something worrying. Take another look at Michael's weepy press conference. I just want her to come home. Do you see what they see? We see what appears to be scratch marks around his eyes and on his cheek. Begin with Ben and get to wholesome meals fast. Mother Nature loves food that's free from artificial colours, flavours and preservatives, and so do I. That's why my Uncle Ben's Express Rice is made with delicious rice, vegetables and herbs and spices. Ready in just two minutes. Begin with Ben and get to wholesome meals fast. Moa Creek? No, I'm not too sure over there. (SIGHS) Blimmin' pig. Dobbie, it's Keith. I was driving along Dundas Lane, and there was a pig in the middle of the road. Anyone over there know anything about it? No, no, mate. You're in a different valley. No one knows a thing. No one? Yeah, you don't know anyone out that way who has pigs? Moa Creek? No, I'm not too sure over there. (SIGHS) Blimmin' pig. Hey, Michael. It's Keith. So, you got the picture? Yeah, it's not mine. You don't know anything about looking after pigs? Not really. I just know they taste all right. (OINKS SOFTLY) (SNUFFLES) DING! I got your email about Sue. Yeah, the pig. (LAUGHS) GENTLE MUSIC (OINKS SOFTLY) Just pop` Pop it down. MUSIC CONTINUES (OINKS) UPLIFTING MUSIC Life's better together, so stay connected on NZ's leading mobile network. Welcome back. He'd seemed gentle at first, but shortly after Shelby's and Michael's wedding, things changed. Only two weeks after marrying, Shelby filed a restraining order with police. In truth, Shelby was far from OK, and six months into the marriage, she called the cops again. The warrant says Shelby had... This time, Michael was charged with assault. He avoided jail time by agreeing to attend anger management classes at Mainstay, a domestic violence prevention agency. Eight months later, they welcomed a new life, their daughter, Sydney ` and, Shelby hoped, a new start. But just 11 days after the birth, another call to police. This time, the tables have turned. It's Michael complaining about Shelby. WOMAN: MICHAEL: SHELBY: MICHAEL: SHELBY: MICHAEL: Is this just a fight? A sign of post-partum depression or some other psychological issue? Would she have panic attacks? Would she`? She, I think, at times, would get nervous and have a panic attack if she was having an issue. In any event, Shelby goes to attorney Greg Newman to draw up a separation agreement. There was a plan to move her to an undisclosed home, and they were going to do this around the 1st of the year. Shelby even rents this secret safe house and prepares to disappear when Michael's at work. Then a couple of months before the vanishing, she makes a cryptic phone call to, of all people, Michael's ex Amanda. And she said, 'I just wanna ask you some things about Michael. Is that OK?' And I said, 'Shelby, if there's anybody that knows what you're going through, it's me.' And I said, 'I can't talk to you right now. I've got an appointment I've gotta get to.' But I said, 'Please call me back.' I literally slept with my cell phone. That next call never comes. The next time Amanda hears Shelby's name, it is on the TV news... 38-year-old Shelby Wilkie is a new mother. ...and her ex-husband's teary plea for Shelby to come on home. We need you. We love you. Please, just come home. And I just sat there and just sat there and looked. Did you think, 'Maybe she got away. Maybe she finally did it'? Amanda is convinced that history has repeated itself. Michael Wilkie's abuse has driven another wife to flee at any cost, even if it means leaving a child behind. And I turned around to my husband, and I said, 'She ran out. I know she ran out.' But Shelby hasn't turned up at that safe house or anywhere else, for that matter. I felt something was really wrong, and I went to Bill, and I said, 'Something's not right. Something is really not right.' That knowing fear had begun back on Sunday, New Year's Day, 24 hours before they reported her missing. And it was all because of those final text messages. I texted her and said, 'Are you OK?' And the text came back, 'Yes.' And I... The blood drained from my body, for some reason. I had... the worst feeling I can ever imagine. Why? Because it was just, 'Yes.' She would never say just, 'Yes.' What would she write? (SNIFFS) She would either say, 'I'll call you in a minute. Love you.' She would tell me more. The Sprowls knew Shelby's marriage to Michael Wilkie was on the rocks. They had even helped Shelby set up that secret safe house. So when her phone went dark, they started to panic. If you felt something was so wrong, why not just go over there? Up until this point, there was not, you know, 'Danger, danger.' So, it was just about noon when you drove down this street for the first time. Yes. Did you see anything suspicious? No. So, you walked up here, he answered the door. He said, 'Sure. Come right on in.' Again, Michael's attitude is that of a bereft husband, the guy who wept on TV, baby Sydney in his arms. I just want her to come home. But the detectives couldn't help but notice what the camera also did ` those scratch marks on Michael's face. We see what appears to be scratch marks around his eyes and on his cheek, and it's just` Indicative of a struggle, maybe. Indicative of a struggle, maybe. Quite possibly. It's just, uh` just too suspicious. So the cops comb the house, looking for anything incriminating. They look in drains for blood or cleaning fluid, in closets, in storage containers. We looked everywhere that a human body could be. We didn't see anything suspicious. But now the detective is starting to think Michael's relationship with the truth is as troubled as his relationship with Shelby. For starters, his story about Shelby going to work on Monday ` that was January 2nd, the New Year's holiday. It did not hold water when we looked into it because that was a holiday. It was a scheduled holiday for Shelby's place of employment. There would have been no reason for Shelby to go into the office. As for the theory that Shelby may have fled to escape her crumbling marriage, well, immediately after leaving the house of Moody St, Matthews checks Shelby's bank and phone records. There had been absolutely no activity on her cell phone since Sunday evening, and there had been no other activity on her bank account. And while it's true that Shelby's Ford Escape is found Wednesday near the airport, police also find this. After we observed what we thought was Shelby's car turn into the parking lot, within approximately a minute's time, we see this figure continue to walk purposefully. That figure is impossible to identify, but it sure isn't Shelby. By Wednesday afternoon, the team is back at the Wilkie home with a search warrant. You sprayed everything with Luminol. What did you see here? About right in here, there was actually the silhouette of a human body slumped against the wall, and you could just` you could see the knees, you could see the hip. And by Thursday, cops still haven't found Shelby Wilkie, but they still have more questions for Michael Wilkie. He had done something with her, and our goal at that point was to try to figure out exactly what he did. When we come back ` I mean, honestly, I don't know. Michael Wilkie in the box and on the hot seat, turning on the waterworks once again. SOBS: I didn't kill her! (SOBS) I first started seeing him socially ` out with friends and that. He was always around, and we'd get together. He was always at parties and hanging out with my flatmates, and now he even comes to work with me. I never dreamed I'd end up with him, but here I am. (EXHALES HEAVILY) He says he might give me cancer one day. He says he might give me cancer one day. (LAUGHS) Yeah. Yep. (SIGHS) We're in it for life. (EXHALES, GROANS) Come on. Welcome back. It's been three days of investigation, and Shelby Wilkie is still missing. Detectives suspect Michael Wilkie murdered her, but there's no body, and they're not ready to yet arrest him. So now it's the moment of truth. At 4.11 in the afternoon Thursday January 5th, Michael Wilkie volunteers to come into the Henderson County sheriff's office and submit to what will be about six hours of questioning from Sgt Andrew Anderson. He's a master interrogator. Up till now, Wilkie has been so cooperative. Maybe he really is innocent. Or is he just convinced he can talk his way out of the quicksand? Detective Sonya Matthews is watching from down the hall as Anderson reveals to Wilkie the cops have pretty much eliminated the runaway theory. They go through New Year's Day hour by hour, drawing where Shelby and Michael were in the house, and slowly Anderson gets Wilkie to abandon that theory that Shelby ran off. Wilkie begins describing an argument in that kitchen that moves to the bathroom and then the bedroom. He admits to a physical altercation. He admitted to that. First, Wilkie says, Shelby hit him. But there's more. For the first time, Wilkie admits he hit Shelby. When people start admitting things, such as, 'She had a bloody nose,' they feel like they're not incriminating themselves, but you know the truth. The closer to the truth, the more emotional Wilkie gets. (SOBS) We weeps and yelps but still denies killing Shelby. He has no idea where she is. This is all strictly a show. So why didn't he call 911? Why didn't he try to help Shelby? His story isn't adding up, especially in light of this Molotov cocktail of a revelation. The cops have discovered that Wilkie set a large bonfire in his backyard. Right about where that bird feeder's at is where they saw this perfect rectangle that had been burned in the yard, about the size of a human body. It really raised our suspicions immediately when we saw it. But they still don't know where Wilkie disposed of the ashes from that fire. But now, 5pm that afternoon, just a few miles from where Wilkie is answering questions at the sheriff's office, the investigation now leads to his parents' house, where Detective Scott Galloway is walking up a winding gravel drive in the Blue Ridge foothills, searching for the remains of Wilkie's bonfire. He's texting Detective Anderson every step of the way, particularly what he sees as he turns the corner. When we come on down the driveway here, we see what appears to us a fresh tyre tracks cutting down the field. The lone tyre tracks lead detectives to a 55-gallon barrel in the woods. Inside the barrel? Uh, someone were dumped out. Ashes, some small fragments of bone. Suspicious, to say the least, but the fire has burned off all DNA traces. There's no way to identify whose bones these were. 9pm Thursday night, four days after his wife, Shelby, vanishes, Michael Wilkie is arrested and cuffed. But this case is no layup. There was no body. We had, uh, yeah, no murder weapon. We really don't know how the homicide occurred. But if the arrest came quickly, the trial did not. Three years passed before Michael Wilkie's day in court arrived in January. The trial of a man accused of killing his wife in Henderson County started today. Greg Newman prosecuted the case. Despite an avalanche of circumstantial evidence, the prosecution lacked concrete proof. There was no body, no murder weapon, no DNA whatsoever. But then Newman presented Shelby's parents with a discovery that changed everything. We were called in shortly before the trial by Greg Newman, and he pulled out a charred bracelet and asked if we recognised it, and right away I did. It's what I gave Shelby. That beloved Tiffany bracelet. Shelby never took it off. And it was the only shred of proof really connecting Shelby to the remains. Yes. Now armed with that proof, Newman lays out the story of what really happened to Shelby Wilkie. January 1st ` Shelby's new year's resolution to leave Michael, taking baby Sydney with her, leads to a physical altercation and those scratches on Wilkie's face. The Luminol test indicates what happened next. Michael Wilkie savagely killed his wife. Baby Sydney was in the next room. As her family tries to reach her later that day, it's actually Michael texting those replies on her phone. That night, he drags his dead wife through the house out to the backyard where he incinerates her body in that suspicious bonfire. To cover up the crime, he scrubs the house spotless and later drives a barrel of charred remains to the back of his parents' property. But he still has to explain Shelby's disappearance, so he concocts the runaway theory by driving Shelby's car to the airport early Monday morning. That's him in the security camera footage. The jury's judgement was swift and short. They returned with a verdict in just 32 minutes, finding Michael Wilkie guilty of first-degree murder. Michael Wilkie was sentenced to life without parole. And then Michael Wilkie does something inexplicable. He gives a thumbs-up sign as he goes off to spend the rest of his life in prison. There was a feeling of joy and, uh,... happiness that` that he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison. CAMERA LENS SNAPS The family has now focused on the welfare of little Sydney. Shelby referred to her as her angel, and we all feel she really is a little angel, because she's kept our family... together and given us reason to smile. Sydney is now 3 years old and is being adopted by Shelby's brother and his wife. Uh, they have no plans to take her to visit her father in prison.