Tonight on Dateline, we lived in a.

Fairy tale where everything was perfect.

First day of school.

Then all of a sudden, there's that demon, that black spirit, that darkness.

He just points the gun at my forehead. The first thing I started thinking of was my children.

At first I was like, what does kidnapped mean? My dad was stolen by bad guys.

I lost everything that I knew. Just like that. Gone.

It was such a mystery who was behind this? It was just terrible.

I was suffering so much.

I justNo, it didn't. Eduardo had been kidnapped. And then, as guys, the police and the government and all of that, they will never call me back. And they didn't care about it. I totally lost hope.And then out of the blue, total fluke. Something amazing happened, all because of one nervous cab driver and a severed finger and a harrowing tail.Coming up.And since they grabbed a very dangerous kidnapper, then we really seriously think there is the same guy that grabbed you.After all these years. An arrest? And could it be, was this his prison?Wow.It really, really looks like this is the place.When DATELINE continues.The news from San Miguel de Allende had been dramatic, remarkable. Here it was, from the state attorney general. A months long kidnapping solved with an arrest. The kidnappers demanded large ransoms that must.Be paid in us dollars.But was this the revolutionary group Eduardo had been told about again and again? No. This was a chilean national. A resident of Sandhya Miguel and his kidnapping business appeared to be freelance for the money. The kidnapper had been charged with abducting this resident of San Miguel. Her finger was cut off during her ordeal. Eduardo, now living in a Washington DC suburb, heard of the arrest from a mexican newspaper reporter.He says, I work for reformer and I don't know if you aware, they grabbed in San Miguel a very dangerous kidnapper. Then we really seriously think there is the same guy that grabbed you.Wait, his kidnapper. Now, Eduardo had to know, and so did we. Was it true? So November 2019, more than a decade since he'd been taken. We took him with us to San Miguel to find an answer that suddenly mattered a great deal indeed. Reporters Veronica Espinosa and Anna Luz Solis report extensively on the kidnappings in San Miguel. How many kidnappings were there in San Miguel in the last ten years?Ten kidnappings that I know of.And in every case, naked in a box, the starvation, extortion methods, all were the same. And bit by bit, this peaceful and prosperous colonial town became fearful.The people don't have the same trust they once had in this paradise.But now, by all appearances, they got him, the person behind it all.There were a series of statements made.By federal authorities and from the state.Attorney general's office that said that he was in fact, the leader of all these kidnappings, including Eduardo's. And after he was caught, the kidnapping stopped. Anna Luce took us to the place the kidnapper was apprehended, told the story of the cabbie who was paid ten times the fare to deliver a package that felt disturbing.And when he filled the package, it was like something really strange to inside.Was the finger of the kidnapped woman and a ransom letter. But the cabbie could see the man who gave him the package and the money was tailing him. Taxi came along and parked. What, just stopped up here or something?Right where you see that car coming? Yeah, that's where he came.The cabbie was terrified. Hurry. He begged the police.The police told him, just pull up like you were putting gas in the. In the cardinal. And that's when they came in.The cops arrested the man, but had no idea yet who he was. And while they figured it out, that man made a phone call to this modern suburban apartment on the outskirts of San Miguel.Nancy was kept three months in his house.Right. In a resident. I mean, a very suburban looking place.Right, right.Where for months, the kidnapper and his confederates had been holding that french american woman naked, starving. A wooden box for a cell. The details, so similar to Eduardo's case.So they had the wood around and they had sort of like plastic that kills the sound. Sort of like in a. How do you call that?Like a soundproofing material. She could scream and not be heard.That's right.And the kidnapper's phone call from the gas station was to his confederate in there.So he said, the criminal said, tell Carlos to clean the box. So 1 hour later, after that call, Nancy was totally walking by herself.They just let her go.They just let her go.Deraulous took us farther out beyond the suburbs to this brightly colored country house surrounded by acres and acres of privacy. Here, she said, was where the kidnapper lived a solidly middle class life.And if I close my eyes when we were coming on the car right now, the way here, it's very similar what I felt. The cobblestone, the cobblestones and all that.As we approached, Eduardo was tense. Was this where he was held all those seven and a half months more than a decade ago?She's certain then when the time I was captured, he owned this house and nobody else was living here. So that's a great possibility that kept me here. I can recognize. Wow, it really, really looks like this is the place, my friend. This is incredible.The property derelict has been long abandoned. Eduardo scoured the floorplan based on sounds he heard in captivity. What's it like to be in here, knowing that it could be the place.It will feel like finding a treasure, because just knowing that these guys kept me here and all that opens another level in my mind that this is the place. But, you know, I'm not 100% sure. And I'm gonna tell you why. Because after a few months, they changed me to another box. And what I remember very clearly is that we walk in the same second floor for a while.So this is pretty small.This is very small.Wow. And then we saw it.Look at this.Lying in the dust of this abandoned place.Look at this. It's a picture of him and his wife.This is a picture of the kidnapper.That's right. That's the main guy we found on the floor. The electric bill with his name on. And that's him and his wife kissing her.The words that go with these grainy pictures, the name, the identity, the person, were like a knife in the heart. A betrayal like no other.Coming up.I don't even want to look at their faces.I don't want anything to do with them.A heart stopping realization. The man who kidnapped Eduardo was very close to home.That's too much to digest.There's always more to the story. To go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, listen to our talking Dateline series with Josh and Keith, available Wednesday.This is like a laundry room.There are some shocks, some betrayals almost beyond describing that can suck out faith in humanity, in trust.Look at him.Look at him like this photo of what looks like a loving husband. His name is Raul Escobar, and he is a kidnapper.That was really incredible.The man who tortured, starved, shot, cut off his victim's finger was said many who knew him. Charming, a good friend, a willing helper the life of any party, got married in the beach house of his last victim.I was in shock.And the connection between Escobar and Eduardo may be even more painful. Three years before Eduardo's kidnapping, Escobar enrolled his son in the Waldorf school, eventually became a school trustee. It was the very school Jane Valseka built on their ranch. And there he had access finally settling into it. I feel like.Yeah, the lovely ranch house outside San Miguel is owned by developers. Now they're digging away on 16 new home sites here. What's it like to see your place carved up this way and changed in these significant ways?A lot of emotions, for sure. I don't see myself back in here again at all. So I try not to be emotional about it and not to think so much about it because it's just painful.And so is this. The Waldorf school has left the Valsecco ranch. The classrooms and playgrounds, Jane's dream, are abandoned, derelict.It took forever to do these things. Slowly, little by little, I planted those big trees. Now, you know, and now they're big. So that tells me, wow, I'm really getting all, yeah, beautiful memories. I can't just feel sadness in my heart, you know, life is too short.So don't let the sadness in.No. You have to find excuses for being happy every day instead of bringing excuses not to be happy.That might be the secret of life.Yeah.That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next Friday at nine, eight central. And, of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.There are lots of reasons you might need to return online shopping, like getting your great Dane a Chihuahua sized bed, the pink power suit turning you into a walking highlighter, or your mom getting three identical presents from all her kids. You can sort your returns quickly and easily with onpust. Book your return@onpust.com drop at your local post office or arrange for us to collect from your door. Online shopping returns made easy on pust for your world. T's and C's apply.

No, it didn't. Eduardo had been kidnapped. And then, as guys, the police and the government and all of that, they will never call me back. And they didn't care about it. I totally lost hope.And then out of the blue, total fluke. Something amazing happened, all because of one nervous cab driver and a severed finger and a harrowing tail.Coming up.And since they grabbed a very dangerous kidnapper, then we really seriously think there is the same guy that grabbed you.After all these years. An arrest? And could it be, was this his prison?Wow.It really, really looks like this is the place.When DATELINE continues.The news from San Miguel de Allende had been dramatic, remarkable. Here it was, from the state attorney general. A months long kidnapping solved with an arrest. The kidnappers demanded large ransoms that must.Be paid in us dollars.But was this the revolutionary group Eduardo had been told about again and again? No. This was a chilean national. A resident of Sandhya Miguel and his kidnapping business appeared to be freelance for the money. The kidnapper had been charged with abducting this resident of San Miguel. Her finger was cut off during her ordeal. Eduardo, now living in a Washington DC suburb, heard of the arrest from a mexican newspaper reporter.He says, I work for reformer and I don't know if you aware, they grabbed in San Miguel a very dangerous kidnapper. Then we really seriously think there is the same guy that grabbed you.Wait, his kidnapper. Now, Eduardo had to know, and so did we. Was it true? So November 2019, more than a decade since he'd been taken. We took him with us to San Miguel to find an answer that suddenly mattered a great deal indeed. Reporters Veronica Espinosa and Anna Luz Solis report extensively on the kidnappings in San Miguel. How many kidnappings were there in San Miguel in the last ten years?Ten kidnappings that I know of.And in every case, naked in a box, the starvation, extortion methods, all were the same. And bit by bit, this peaceful and prosperous colonial town became fearful.The people don't have the same trust they once had in this paradise.But now, by all appearances, they got him, the person behind it all.There were a series of statements made.By federal authorities and from the state.Attorney general's office that said that he was in fact, the leader of all these kidnappings, including Eduardo's. And after he was caught, the kidnapping stopped. Anna Luce took us to the place the kidnapper was apprehended, told the story of the cabbie who was paid ten times the fare to deliver a package that felt disturbing.And when he filled the package, it was like something really strange to inside.Was the finger of the kidnapped woman and a ransom letter. But the cabbie could see the man who gave him the package and the money was tailing him. Taxi came along and parked. What, just stopped up here or something?Right where you see that car coming? Yeah, that's where he came.The cabbie was terrified. Hurry. He begged the police.The police told him, just pull up like you were putting gas in the. In the cardinal. And that's when they came in.The cops arrested the man, but had no idea yet who he was. And while they figured it out, that man made a phone call to this modern suburban apartment on the outskirts of San Miguel.Nancy was kept three months in his house.Right. In a resident. I mean, a very suburban looking place.Right, right.Where for months, the kidnapper and his confederates had been holding that french american woman naked, starving. A wooden box for a cell. The details, so similar to Eduardo's case.So they had the wood around and they had sort of like plastic that kills the sound. Sort of like in a. How do you call that?Like a soundproofing material. She could scream and not be heard.That's right.And the kidnapper's phone call from the gas station was to his confederate in there.So he said, the criminal said, tell Carlos to clean the box. So 1 hour later, after that call, Nancy was totally walking by herself.They just let her go.They just let her go.Deraulous took us farther out beyond the suburbs to this brightly colored country house surrounded by acres and acres of privacy. Here, she said, was where the kidnapper lived a solidly middle class life.And if I close my eyes when we were coming on the car right now, the way here, it's very similar what I felt. The cobblestone, the cobblestones and all that.As we approached, Eduardo was tense. Was this where he was held all those seven and a half months more than a decade ago?She's certain then when the time I was captured, he owned this house and nobody else was living here. So that's a great possibility that kept me here. I can recognize. Wow, it really, really looks like this is the place, my friend. This is incredible.The property derelict has been long abandoned. Eduardo scoured the floorplan based on sounds he heard in captivity. What's it like to be in here, knowing that it could be the place.It will feel like finding a treasure, because just knowing that these guys kept me here and all that opens another level in my mind that this is the place. But, you know, I'm not 100% sure. And I'm gonna tell you why. Because after a few months, they changed me to another box. And what I remember very clearly is that we walk in the same second floor for a while.So this is pretty small.This is very small.Wow. And then we saw it.Look at this.Lying in the dust of this abandoned place.Look at this. It's a picture of him and his wife.This is a picture of the kidnapper.That's right. That's the main guy we found on the floor. The electric bill with his name on. And that's him and his wife kissing her.The words that go with these grainy pictures, the name, the identity, the person, were like a knife in the heart. A betrayal like no other.Coming up.I don't even want to look at their faces.I don't want anything to do with them.A heart stopping realization. The man who kidnapped Eduardo was very close to home.That's too much to digest.There's always more to the story. To go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, listen to our talking Dateline series with Josh and Keith, available Wednesday.This is like a laundry room.There are some shocks, some betrayals almost beyond describing that can suck out faith in humanity, in trust.Look at him.Look at him like this photo of what looks like a loving husband. His name is Raul Escobar, and he is a kidnapper.That was really incredible.The man who tortured, starved, shot, cut off his victim's finger was said many who knew him. Charming, a good friend, a willing helper the life of any party, got married in the beach house of his last victim.I was in shock.And the connection between Escobar and Eduardo may be even more painful. Three years before Eduardo's kidnapping, Escobar enrolled his son in the Waldorf school, eventually became a school trustee. It was the very school Jane Valseka built on their ranch. And there he had access finally settling into it. I feel like.Yeah, the lovely ranch house outside San Miguel is owned by developers. Now they're digging away on 16 new home sites here. What's it like to see your place carved up this way and changed in these significant ways?A lot of emotions, for sure. I don't see myself back in here again at all. So I try not to be emotional about it and not to think so much about it because it's just painful.And so is this. The Waldorf school has left the Valsecco ranch. The classrooms and playgrounds, Jane's dream, are abandoned, derelict.It took forever to do these things. Slowly, little by little, I planted those big trees. Now, you know, and now they're big. So that tells me, wow, I'm really getting all, yeah, beautiful memories. I can't just feel sadness in my heart, you know, life is too short.So don't let the sadness in.No. You have to find excuses for being happy every day instead of bringing excuses not to be happy.That might be the secret of life.Yeah.That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next Friday at nine, eight central. And, of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.There are lots of reasons you might need to return online shopping, like getting your great Dane a Chihuahua sized bed, the pink power suit turning you into a walking highlighter, or your mom getting three identical presents from all her kids. You can sort your returns quickly and easily with onpust. Book your return@onpust.com drop at your local post office or arrange for us to collect from your door. Online shopping returns made easy on pust for your world. T's and C's apply.

guys, the police and the government and all of that, they will never call me back. And they didn't care about it. I totally lost hope.

And then out of the blue, total fluke. Something amazing happened, all because of one nervous cab driver and a severed finger and a harrowing tail.

Coming up.

And since they grabbed a very dangerous kidnapper, then we really seriously think there is the same guy that grabbed you.

After all these years. An arrest? And could it be, was this his prison?

Wow.

It really, really looks like this is the place.

When DATELINE continues.

The news from San Miguel de Allende had been dramatic, remarkable. Here it was, from the state attorney general. A months long kidnapping solved with an arrest. The kidnappers demanded large ransoms that must.

Be paid in us dollars.

But was this the revolutionary group Eduardo had been told about again and again? No. This was a chilean national. A resident of Sandhya Miguel and his kidnapping business appeared to be freelance for the money. The kidnapper had been charged with abducting this resident of San Miguel. Her finger was cut off during her ordeal. Eduardo, now living in a Washington DC suburb, heard of the arrest from a mexican newspaper reporter.

He says, I work for reformer and I don't know if you aware, they grabbed in San Miguel a very dangerous kidnapper. Then we really seriously think there is the same guy that grabbed you.

Wait, his kidnapper. Now, Eduardo had to know, and so did we. Was it true? So November 2019, more than a decade since he'd been taken. We took him with us to San Miguel to find an answer that suddenly mattered a great deal indeed. Reporters Veronica Espinosa and Anna Luz Solis report extensively on the kidnappings in San Miguel. How many kidnappings were there in San Miguel in the last ten years?

Ten kidnappings that I know of.

And in every case, naked in a box, the starvation, extortion methods, all were the same. And bit by bit, this peaceful and prosperous colonial town became fearful.

The people don't have the same trust they once had in this paradise.

But now, by all appearances, they got him, the person behind it all.

There were a series of statements made.

By federal authorities and from the state.

Attorney general's office that said that he was in fact, the leader of all these kidnappings, including Eduardo's. And after he was caught, the kidnapping stopped. Anna Luce took us to the place the kidnapper was apprehended, told the story of the cabbie who was paid ten times the fare to deliver a package that felt disturbing.

And when he filled the package, it was like something really strange to inside.

Was the finger of the kidnapped woman and a ransom letter. But the cabbie could see the man who gave him the package and the money was tailing him. Taxi came along and parked. What, just stopped up here or something?

Right where you see that car coming? Yeah, that's where he came.

The cabbie was terrified. Hurry. He begged the police.

The police told him, just pull up like you were putting gas in the. In the cardinal. And that's when they came in.

The cops arrested the man, but had no idea yet who he was. And while they figured it out, that man made a phone call to this modern suburban apartment on the outskirts of San Miguel.

Nancy was kept three months in his house.

Right. In a resident. I mean, a very suburban looking place.

Right, right.

Where for months, the kidnapper and his confederates had been holding that french american woman naked, starving. A wooden box for a cell. The details, so similar to Eduardo's case.

So they had the wood around and they had sort of like plastic that kills the sound. Sort of like in a. How do you call that?

Like a soundproofing material. She could scream and not be heard.

That's right.

And the kidnapper's phone call from the gas station was to his confederate in there.

So he said, the criminal said, tell Carlos to clean the box. So 1 hour later, after that call, Nancy was totally walking by herself.

They just let her go.

They just let her go.

Deraulous took us farther out beyond the suburbs to this brightly colored country house surrounded by acres and acres of privacy. Here, she said, was where the kidnapper lived a solidly middle class life.

And if I close my eyes when we were coming on the car right now, the way here, it's very similar what I felt. The cobblestone, the cobblestones and all that.

As we approached, Eduardo was tense. Was this where he was held all those seven and a half months more than a decade ago?

She's certain then when the time I was captured, he owned this house and nobody else was living here. So that's a great possibility that kept me here. I can recognize. Wow, it really, really looks like this is the place, my friend. This is incredible.

The property derelict has been long abandoned. Eduardo scoured the floorplan based on sounds he heard in captivity. What's it like to be in here, knowing that it could be the place.

It will feel like finding a treasure, because just knowing that these guys kept me here and all that opens another level in my mind that this is the place. But, you know, I'm not 100% sure. And I'm gonna tell you why. Because after a few months, they changed me to another box. And what I remember very clearly is that we walk in the same second floor for a while.

So this is pretty small.

This is very small.

Wow. And then we saw it.

Look at this.

Lying in the dust of this abandoned place.

Look at this. It's a picture of him and his wife.

This is a picture of the kidnapper.

That's right. That's the main guy we found on the floor. The electric bill with his name on. And that's him and his wife kissing her.

The words that go with these grainy pictures, the name, the identity, the person, were like a knife in the heart. A betrayal like no other.

Coming up.

I don't even want to look at their faces.

I don't want anything to do with them.

A heart stopping realization. The man who kidnapped Eduardo was very close to home.

That's too much to digest.

There's always more to the story. To go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, listen to our talking Dateline series with Josh and Keith, available Wednesday.

This is like a laundry room.

There are some shocks, some betrayals almost beyond describing that can suck out faith in humanity, in trust.

Look at him.

Look at him like this photo of what looks like a loving husband. His name is Raul Escobar, and he is a kidnapper.

That was really incredible.

The man who tortured, starved, shot, cut off his victim's finger was said many who knew him. Charming, a good friend, a willing helper the life of any party, got married in the beach house of his last victim.

I was in shock.

And the connection between Escobar and Eduardo may be even more painful. Three years before Eduardo's kidnapping, Escobar enrolled his son in the Waldorf school, eventually became a school trustee. It was the very school Jane Valseka built on their ranch. And there he had access finally settling into it. I feel like.Yeah, the lovely ranch house outside San Miguel is owned by developers. Now they're digging away on 16 new home sites here. What's it like to see your place carved up this way and changed in these significant ways?A lot of emotions, for sure. I don't see myself back in here again at all. So I try not to be emotional about it and not to think so much about it because it's just painful.And so is this. The Waldorf school has left the Valsecco ranch. The classrooms and playgrounds, Jane's dream, are abandoned, derelict.It took forever to do these things. Slowly, little by little, I planted those big trees. Now, you know, and now they're big. So that tells me, wow, I'm really getting all, yeah, beautiful memories. I can't just feel sadness in my heart, you know, life is too short.So don't let the sadness in.No. You have to find excuses for being happy every day instead of bringing excuses not to be happy.That might be the secret of life.Yeah.That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next Friday at nine, eight central. And, of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.There are lots of reasons you might need to return online shopping, like getting your great Dane a Chihuahua sized bed, the pink power suit turning you into a walking highlighter, or your mom getting three identical presents from all her kids. You can sort your returns quickly and easily with onpust. Book your return@onpust.com drop at your local post office or arrange for us to collect from your door. Online shopping returns made easy on pust for your world. T's and C's apply.

finally settling into it. I feel like.

Yeah, the lovely ranch house outside San Miguel is owned by developers. Now they're digging away on 16 new home sites here. What's it like to see your place carved up this way and changed in these significant ways?

A lot of emotions, for sure. I don't see myself back in here again at all. So I try not to be emotional about it and not to think so much about it because it's just painful.

And so is this. The Waldorf school has left the Valsecco ranch. The classrooms and playgrounds, Jane's dream, are abandoned, derelict.

It took forever to do these things. Slowly, little by little, I planted those big trees. Now, you know, and now they're big. So that tells me, wow, I'm really getting all, yeah, beautiful memories. I can't just feel sadness in my heart, you know, life is too short.

So don't let the sadness in.

No. You have to find excuses for being happy every day instead of bringing excuses not to be happy.

That might be the secret of life.

Yeah.

That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next Friday at nine, eight central. And, of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.

There are lots of reasons you might need to return online shopping, like getting your great Dane a Chihuahua sized bed, the pink power suit turning you into a walking highlighter, or your mom getting three identical presents from all her kids. You can sort your returns quickly and easily with onpust. Book your return@onpust.com drop at your local post office or arrange for us to collect from your door. Online shopping returns made easy on pust for your world. T's and C's apply.