On June 3rd, 2014, Maxx Porter frantically attempts to contact his sister Lea, but she remains unresponsive. Eight days later, the family discovers a bizarre TV interview featuring a man with a disturbing story about Lea's disappearance. Dissatisfied with the police investigation, Maxx takes matters into his own hands, uncovering a dangerous killer who meticulously planned the perfect crime.
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00:00 I don't really have very many friends, but the friends I do have, I'm very loyal to.
00:04 So even losing one is a heavy blow for me.
00:07 This man was the last person to see 19-year-old Lee Porter before she disappeared.
00:13 He claims he's a worried friend, and he goes on TV to plead for her safe return.
00:18 But he's also the prime suspect.
00:20 She said she was tired and she just wanted to crash, so I said okay.
00:24 And she... we were... shortly afterwards, she took off.
00:31 I want her to be safe, and I want her to know that I want the best for her.
00:35 You lying son of a b****.
00:37 Desperate to find Lee, her family decides to take matters into their own hands.
00:43 What really happened to her would remain a mystery,
00:46 unless her own brother could take down the man responsible for her disappearance.
00:50 I would give up my own life to find her.
00:53 I started making him believe that he was helping us look for her.
00:56 The whole time, Max was recording this on his phone.
01:00 Just start letting it out, man. I know it's hard. You've got to let it out right now.
01:03 I need my sister back.
01:05 Where is she?
01:06 This is it.
01:06 This is it.
01:07 You think I'm just going to let you walk away and drive away?
01:09 You piece of s***.
01:10 Piece of s***.
01:10 It's 2005.
01:14 Lee Porter lives with her brother Max, her mom Renee Jackson,
01:17 and her stepdad Michael in Agua Dulce, California, about 45 miles north of Los Angeles.
01:23 Renee went through a messy divorce with the kid's biological father when they were really young,
01:28 and now they don't have contact with him.
01:30 Growing up, Lee's brother Max helps give her stability and support, and they're very close.
01:35 She followed him everywhere, and she just wanted to be like him.
01:38 We did everything together, listened to the same music,
01:40 did the same things, fought like brother and sister all the time.
01:45 In 2006, they move to Cotopaxi, Colorado, a very small town about three hours away from Denver.
01:51 They can see mountains from their house, and it's a beautiful place to raise a family.
01:55 What they didn't know before they moved is that it's part of what's known as Prison Valley,
01:59 which has over 10 prisons.
02:01 It concerns Renee when she learns about it,
02:04 but the family has a peaceful start in their new home, and the kids make new friends at school.
02:08 In 2013, Lee graduates from high school, and Max graduates from Trinidad State College
02:13 with a degree in massage therapy.
02:15 He moves to California, working to start a massage therapy business.
02:19 Lee hopes to follow in his footsteps at Trinidad State and get the same degree
02:23 so they can eventually run the business together.
02:25 But after Max moves away, she struggles being alone at school.
02:29 Max texts and calls his little sister whenever he can,
02:32 hoping to help her adjust to college life.
02:34 At first, her responses were quite positive, but over time,
02:38 she texted me saying that she was having a hard time, she was depressed.
02:42 She missed us, she missed her family, she missed her brother a lot.
02:46 It's June 3rd, 2014.
02:50 Renee gets a text message from Lee.
02:52 She texted me and she told me that she loved me,
02:55 and that she hoped that I was doing okay,
02:59 and that she was trying to get her life together.
03:01 And I texted her back and I told her I loved her.
03:04 Renee tries to support her daughter however she can,
03:07 but Lee often doesn't tell her what's going on.
03:10 June 5th, two days later, Renee gets a phone call from her son Max.
03:14 He was frantic.
03:15 He said, "I have been trying to get a hold of Lee, she won't respond."
03:20 I knew there was something wrong right away because I couldn't get a hold of her.
03:23 It was just days of calling back and calling, calling, calling, calling.
03:26 Lee always answers her brother, and her family starts to panic.
03:31 They do everything they can to look for her right away.
03:34 Renee pays for Lee's phone bill, so she has access to her phone records.
03:37 She looks at the most recent numbers and starts calling them,
03:40 hoping for answers about where she might be.
03:43 One of the numbers belongs to a hotel.
03:45 She calls and finds out that Lee stayed there with a man named Jesse on June 2nd.
03:49 The last time Lee's family heard from her was on June 3rd,
03:52 and they worry something bad might have happened to her after her stay at the hotel.
03:56 We needed to find Lee.
03:57 We needed to spread the word that she was missing.
04:01 Max flew in from California.
04:04 Some of Lee's friends started making missing persons posters.
04:08 Lee's mom calls the police and files a missing persons report.
04:12 She tells them what she learned about Lee staying at a hotel with a man named Jesse.
04:16 The police bring him in for questioning right away,
04:18 but he claims he said goodbye to Lee at the hotel, and he didn't see her again after that.
04:23 They don't find any evidence against him, and it's a dead end.
04:26 Police still don't even know if there was a crime committed, and Lee's family needs answers.
04:31 Renee knows Lee is really close with her brother Max, so she turns to him,
04:34 hoping he might know more about what was going on with her leading up to her disappearance.
04:39 Max reveals that Jesse, the man Lee stayed with at the hotel on June 2nd, was her boyfriend.
04:44 She told me Jesse was an amazing tattoo artist.
04:47 But he lied about his age at first, and then later, after they clicked, then told her.
04:52 She told me very specifically not to tell my mom anything.
04:57 Jesse was already 38 years old when 18-year-old Lee met him.
05:01 Max was worried about his sister.
05:03 Away from her family and struggling with depression,
05:05 Lee was skipping classes and spending more and more time with her much older boyfriend.
05:10 The relationship went downhill quickly,
05:12 and Lee told Max that she was scared of Jesse and his short temper.
05:15 He also used drugs, and with all the pressure weighing down on her, Lee started using too.
05:21 Lee didn't want to tell us what was happening.
05:23 I think she was just really having a bad time.
05:25 I felt very conflicted about it because she didn't want me to tell my mom.
05:29 I didn't want to push her away.
05:30 Lee confided in Max, and he wanted to do all he could to keep her safe.
05:35 But he knew if he told other people about it, she might view it as a betrayal.
05:39 It could have broken her trust in him and pushed her even further down a destructive path.
05:44 He continued to offer love and support to his sister,
05:46 hoping to show he would always be there for her.
05:49 She told him that she and Jesse broke up,
05:51 and she was trying to find a job and start her recovery process.
05:54 On June 3rd, Max texted her offering to send money to help, but she never responded.
05:59 After her disappearance, Max tells his mom all that he knows.
06:03 Renee is shattered to hear about everything her daughter was going through.
06:07 It broke my heart.
06:08 Not Lee.
06:09 You know, she's so against all that stuff.
06:13 Max said that she was so afraid.
06:16 If I knew that I would hate her, I wouldn't have hated her.
06:19 I love her.
06:22 Max and his mom find out from one of Lee's friends that she'd been getting clean and
06:25 turning her life around before her disappearance.
06:28 Her family knows she wouldn't have just run away without calling Max.
06:31 They continue to do their own investigating,
06:33 and Renee notices a recurring number in Lee's phone records.
06:37 It's also the last number on the call log.
06:39 The number was in Westminster, Colorado.
06:43 It's a little town outside of Denver.
06:45 When I called that number, a man answered.
06:49 I said, "This is Renee Jackson.
06:51 I'm Lee Porter's mother, and I am looking for my daughter."
06:56 And he told me his name was Chris Wade.
06:59 Chris Wade explains that he went to high school in Cotopaxi with Lee.
07:04 He said he was her accountability partner for her recovery process.
07:07 Lee posted on Facebook about needing a place to stay after she and Jesse broke up.
07:12 After he saw the post, Chris reached out and invited her to his apartment.
07:16 He tells Renee that on June 3rd, they met up and spent the day together,
07:19 but Lee decided not to stay overnight,
07:21 because even though they went to high school together, they weren't close friends.
07:25 He said that she had got a message from her telephone, and all of a sudden left.
07:33 He was polite, and he was friendly, and he sounded concerned.
07:38 He said he didn't know she was missing.
07:41 As soon as he hears that Lee is missing,
07:44 Chris joins a search and posts on Facebook looking for help.
07:47 He even goes on TV to talk about what happened that day and plead for her safe return.
07:52 While on TV, he says when Lee came over, he found drugs that she had with her,
07:56 and he confronted her about them before she left.
07:59 But as Renee watches the interview, she can't help but have doubts about Chris and his story.
08:04 He seems flustered, and his eyes are constantly shifting.
08:07 He also seems to try to gain sympathy for himself and shift blame on her,
08:11 while still acting like he's a close friend.
08:13 I thought she was just angry at me because I was playing the part of a concerned friend.
08:19 I don't really have very many friends, but the friends I do have,
08:22 I'm very loyal to. Even losing one is a heavy blow for me.
08:26 I want her to be safe, and I want her to know that I want the best for her.
08:30 I was shaking my head, thinking he wasn't a friend of hers. They weren't friends.
08:38 Lee's family knows the more time that passes,
08:42 the less likely it becomes that they'll find her alive.
08:44 They have to take action, and they focus on Chris, the last person to see Lee.
08:49 Max has his suspicions, but he doesn't want to scare Chris away,
08:53 so instead, he works on gaining his trust.
08:55 Max reaches out, pretending to be sympathetic to him.
08:59 He was getting upset because he was starting to become investigated by the police.
09:03 He was saying that we were blaming him.
09:06 I started making him believe that he was helping us look for her.
09:10 We spoke to him on an offer about a week. I talked to him very nicely, really subtly.
09:15 While Max tries to get Chris to open up to him, police seek answers from Chris too.
09:20 Just like when he talked to Renee, he acts very helpful.
09:23 He offers to give investigators all the details he can to help with their search.
09:27 He tells them that Lee came to his apartment around noon on June 3rd.
09:31 They got lunch at Boston Market and then played video games.
09:34 Then, she got a text and suddenly said she had to leave.
09:38 A man in a truck pulled up, and she got in and left with him.
09:41 When Lee's mom hears from detectives what he told them, that detail catches her attention.
09:46 When she asked Chris earlier about the last day he saw Lee,
09:49 he didn't mention anything about a man in a truck picking her up.
09:52 Wade told the police department a different story than he told me,
09:56 and that made me very suspicious of him.
09:58 June 10th, seven days after Lee was last seen, detectives search Chris Wade's apartment.
10:05 There's old food and garbage all over the floor.
10:08 While picking through the trash, they find a knife next to his mattress.
10:11 As they look closer, they notice it has bleach stains on it.
10:14 When they ask why, he says he recently cut his hand, so he cleaned it.
10:18 Investigators find a receipt for bleach and rubber gloves bought on June 4th,
10:22 the day after she disappeared.
10:24 They also notice that the sheets and pillowcases have been removed from Chris' bed.
10:29 Now, he claims that the day Lee was there, she got a nosebleed,
10:32 so he took the sheets off and put them in the hamper.
10:35 But when police ask to see the sheets, he changes his story again,
10:39 this time saying Lee took them with her when she left.
10:42 With all the inconsistencies in his explanations, suspicion grows that he was involved.
10:47 Investigators take him to the police station for more questioning.
10:50 They pressure him for answers about what happened the day he was with her,
10:53 and what his intentions were when he invited her over, trying to see if he'll slip up.
10:58 In no way did I make any advances on her whatsoever.
11:02 She had just gotten out of a bad relationship,
11:04 and she wasn't looking for a relationship or anything like that,
11:07 and I told her straight up, "That's fine by me."
11:10 He keeps pushing his claim that he was just trying to be a good friend,
11:14 and offer her help while she was struggling.
11:16 Without any witnesses or evidence, police need answers from him for any hope of finding her,
11:21 but he continues to evade their questions.
11:24 Do you know where Lee is?
11:25 Honestly, I have no idea where she is.
11:28 And I'm being accused of something.
11:30 What do you think?
11:31 It sounds to me like yes.
11:33 I maintain my innocence, but I would like a lawyer.
11:40 They have to let him go, but they know something seems off about him.
11:44 Police put him under surveillance, but the investigation stalls.
11:47 Desperate to find Lee, her family decides to take matters into their own hands.
11:52 I want her found more than anything else in this world.
11:56 I would give up my own life to find her.
11:59 Max doesn't know how dangerous Chris Wade could be or what he's capable of,
12:05 but he knows he's the only one who can give them answers,
12:08 and he's willing to do anything for his sister.
12:10 He's been messaging with Chris, slowly earning his trust.
12:14 Max wants to meet, but he doesn't want him to think he's going to accuse him of anything.
12:18 After pretending to be on his side,
12:20 Max is able to convince him to meet under a gazebo at a park.
12:24 It's June 12th, nine days after Lee's disappearance.
12:28 Chris thinks he's meeting with Max and a few of Max's friends
12:30 so he can do a tarot card reading about Lee, but Max has a different plan.
12:34 When he started the tarot card reading,
12:37 I put my phone on record and just put it down on the table without him realizing.
12:43 I don't see any indication of anything or anyone who would want to harm her.
12:48 There's every chance she'll, once she's found, it'll be safe and sound.
12:52 Max doesn't believe a word he's saying, but he continues to play along,
12:57 hoping to make him feel comfortable talking and opening up to him.
13:00 He gently pushes Chris toward talking about what really happened on June 3rd.
13:04 Max knows he has to be very careful approaching the subject,
13:07 otherwise Chris might uncover his true intentions and quit talking to him.
13:11 Max continues to act like they're friends, putting pressure on him for answers,
13:15 but still encouraging him that he'll be understanding no matter what.
13:19 Chris, we just really need to know, man. You know what happened.
13:23 Chris, please. They're gonna find out eventually. It's gonna eat you up.
13:27 I won't hold grudges. You tell me right now what happened to my sister.
13:30 Start talking, please.
13:33 Chris is still hesitant to reveal his story, but Max can see he's considering telling him.
13:39 He knows he did something to his sister, but Max is still the one to comfort Chris,
13:44 because he can tell showing sympathy will get him to talk.
13:47 I totally just told him what he wanted to hear. Eventually, he cracked.
13:51 Just start letting it out, man. I know it's hard. You gotta let it out right now.
13:55 I just need to know.
13:56 Okay. I know you guys are probably not going to believe a word of this.
14:00 Finally, he starts to tell Max about what he claims happened that day.
14:06 He says that he offered Lee a place to stay, and he went out to lunch with her.
14:10 Then they went back to his apartment, but he tells a new story of what happened after they got there.
14:15 He said that she tried to ask him for money. He wouldn't give it to her,
14:22 so supposedly she grabbed a knife and tried to stab him.
14:27 She grabbed the knife that I keep by my bed and tried to attack me,
14:33 saying that she would stop attacking me if I agreed to buy drugs for her.
14:39 She wouldn't do that, dude. She wouldn't do that. Chris, stop lying.
14:41 She wouldn't do that. I'm not lying.
14:42 Keep going. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm just over- I'm not lying.
14:44 Okay.
14:45 Max is growing increasingly angry, but he tries to stay calm,
14:50 knowing that he needs to keep Chris talking. He even apologizes for questioning his story,
14:55 because at any moment, Chris could decide to stop talking to him,
14:58 and he would never get the answers he's been trying so hard to find.
15:02 Chris continues, saying Lee tried to stab him multiple times, but he dodged and grabbed her
15:07 instead. Then, he put his hand on her throat and started to choke her.
15:11 He said that he grabbed onto her neck and he held onto it, and the knife was in between them,
15:20 and all of a sudden she went limp, and then he noticed that he stabbed her through the sternum.
15:31 I should not have done it, but I covered everything up.
15:35 Where's your body? I'll get to that. Just please let me finish from-
15:38 Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
15:39 Max has just learned from Chris Wade himself that he killed his sister. It takes an incredible
15:46 amount of strength to keep his composure, but he's so close to hearing what he did afterwards.
15:51 Max even calls Chris "sir", so he'll still think Max respects him,
15:54 and so he'll feel like he can tell him the rest of the story.
15:57 I did the only thing I could think of, and God help me, I put her in the dumpster.
16:01 I know you won't believe me, but I will be turning myself in to the police.
16:06 It'll be within the week, I swear to you.
16:08 No, you're going to jail right now. Where do you think you're going, man?
16:11 You think I'm just going to let you walk away and drive away? You killed my sister.
16:14 I freaked out, and I jumped over the table, and I started attacking him,
16:21 and my friend tore me off. That's him.
16:25 Get my f***ing phone, it has all this recorded. Call the cops.
16:28 Max reveals to Chris that he's been recording everything, and he finally lets out some of
16:34 the anger he's been holding in for so long. Chris Wade lied to everyone, and he pretended to join in
16:40 the search for Lee after he was the one who killed her. He even told her own brother that he thought
16:45 she would be safe and sound. Max has had enough of his lies, and he knows if he leaves, he could
16:51 just run off and never come back. He won't let him get away, and he makes him call the police to
16:55 confess to them. 911? Yes, I'd like to confess to a murder. Okay. The case is for the, is into the
17:08 disappearance of Lee Porter. They don't have to wait long before Chris Wade is arrested. Police
17:14 had him under surveillance, so they watched the whole meeting take place. No one knew that they
17:19 were under surveillance, including Max Porter. It's extremely rare that a family member would
17:23 come in contact with a suspect while he was under surveillance. Max got a confession from the prime
17:29 suspect, but his worst fears were also confirmed. Now, he has to call his mom to tell her what
17:35 happened to Lee. He was hysterical. He said, "Mom, Lee's dead. Christopher killed her."
17:45 What's this 911? Where's your emergency? My baby, my little baby. That guy just admitted
17:50 he killed my daughter. Christopher Wade just admitted he killed her.
17:55 Christopher Wade has finally confessed and has given his account of what happened that night,
18:02 but after all of his lying and changing stories, Lee's family doesn't believe he told the full
18:07 truth. He claims he killed Lee in self-defense, but police quickly learn he's not the innocent
18:12 man he pretends to be. He joined the army after high school and he practiced jiu-jitsu for
18:16 self-defense, but after two years in the army, he was discharged after telling psychiatrists he had
18:21 fantasies of raping and killing women. Honestly, my fantasy life is private. I keep that completely
18:31 separate from my normal life. You lying son of a b****, you killed my daughter.
18:41 His argument that he keeps his fantasies separate from real life crumbles even more with the
18:45 discovery that he tried to kidnap a girl when he was in high school. He intended to kill her,
18:50 but he was scared off by a dog and ran away. After he was discharged from the army,
18:55 he started pursuing a degree in criminal justice, saying he hoped to become a police officer,
19:00 but for years, he's been dreaming of killing a woman and his claim of self-defense is falling
19:05 apart. I believe that he lured her there to kill her. This was a cold, calculated murder.
19:11 Without the body, we can't put together what happened in that apartment.
19:15 Chris Wade claims he put Lee's body in the dumpster, so the police go to the landfill.
19:21 They search for weeks. On the 19th day, there's a breakthrough. Police find Lee's phone, along with
19:27 her purse, wallet, and clothes. The search continues, lasting 45 days in total, but they
19:33 still can't find her body. Without her body, it's hard for prosecutors to refute Wade's claim that
19:38 it was self-defense. They offer a plea deal, second-degree murder in exchange for the location
19:43 of her body. He accepts. However, after the paperwork is signed, he just tells them the
19:48 same story from earlier, that he put her body in the dumpster. We could not go to a judge and say,
19:55 "We can prove that this man's lying to us. We want you to reject this plea bargain."
19:59 There's no way we can prove that. We feel wholeheartedly that he lied,
20:04 and she was not in that dump, and he did not do with her what he told the police he did with her.
20:09 They can't prove that he hid her body somewhere else, so the plea deal stands. On November 6,
20:16 2015, Christopher Wade is sentenced to 48 years in prison for second-degree murder.
20:21 He will have to serve 75% of his sentence before he's eligible for parole. Lee's family still
20:28 doesn't know the full story of what happened to her, but without their efforts, Christopher Wade
20:33 likely would have gotten away with murder. They continue to think of Lee and honor her memory
20:38 every day, and they won't give up hope that someday they might find her body and bring her home.
20:43 I look forward to the day that I get to meet my daughter, but in the meantime,
20:48 I'm going to try and find her. She needs to come home with us. She needs to be
20:52 somewhere near her family. It took an incredible amount of courage for Max to not only face the man
20:59 who killed his sister, but to put all his pain and anger aside while he pretended to befriend him,
21:04 in order to get answers. Today, he hopes to help others in similar situations,
21:09 showing how you can turn tragedy into purpose. I was so proud of my son. Max was a hero,
21:16 and he did that for his sister because he loved her so much. It was an amazing scenario that I'd
21:23 never seen in 25 years of being a prosecutor where a family member confronts a suspect and
21:28 gets a confession out of the suspect. If it was my sister, I might have done the same thing.
21:32 Throughout everything, Max has always loved and looked out for Lee. It was his bond with his
21:39 little sister that helped him see through her killer's lies and bring him to justice.
21:43 In a post on Facebook, Max writes, "I miss you Lee. Your friends and family will always be here
21:49 for you, and we will never give up on finding you and helping others that are stuck in the
21:53 same predicament. I love you more than my own life. Forever and always. You will never be
21:59 forgotten. You are a beautiful soul. You will always be my best friend, sister, and support."
22:05 [Music]
22:14 Hello? Hello. I keep getting calls from Lelana, and she wants to know where her mother is.
22:21 She pulled a gun on you. You took it off her and shot her, right? Yeah, that's one story.