After 25-year-old Chantay Blankinship’s remains are found at an abandoned building that locals call the Haunted House, investigators sort through dead-end leads until a stunning confession during a church service changes everything. Blayne Alexander reports.Blayne Alexander and Josh Mankiewicz go behind the scenes of the making of this episode in ‘Talking Dateline’Listen on Apple: https://apple.co/41I0HEoListen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4aB3Ue5KHHP1bVfYkgj1D4
Chapter 1: What is 'The Haunted House Confession' about?
Tonight on Dateline.
She would show up sometimes before the pastor. She loved the love we gave her.
I got a phone call that she didn't come home. She went missing on Friday the 13th.
I heard sirens and my heart kind of dropped. Kids would call it a haunted house.
You couldn't imagine a scarier place for a body to be found.
were trying to identify potential suspects. John Adams was Chante's boyfriend.
He said, I'm your boyfriend. I have a rhyme.
She said, move it up.
Colin's name had been mentioned multiple times.
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Chapter 2: Who was Chantay Blankinship and what happened to her?
Take me to that Wednesday night church service.
He starts talking about demon thoughts. That's when it just exploded.
I grabbed the pew, and I was like, ow.
Ow. Church is a place where we expect confessions, but not one like this. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Blaine Alexander with The Haunted House Confession.
Down this back country road is an isolated stretch of land, a place where hunters come looking for prey. Behind the fence, just through the overgrown grass, sits an abandoned farmhouse. The few people who know it's here call it the haunted house.
This place is truly creepy. Straight out of a horror movie.
But one night, the horror became real. This was the scene of a crime so evil it haunted an entire community and made neighbor doubt neighbor. Everybody was a suspect.
In the very beginning, absolutely.
The search for justice would lead to a different house, a house of worship. Had evil made its way there too? For the congregation of North Lake Community Church, this simple building was a refuge, a place to sing and worship in peace, a haven for people like Shantae Blankenship.
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Chapter 3: How did the investigation into Chantay's murder begin?
She says, I'm walking. And that's all she said.
Her grandfather confirmed to police that call was at 8.48 p.m.
That's about the dose.
Caitlin said after that, she and Shantae said goodbye. She was laughing and just took off running.
Down the road?
Yeah, down the road. And then within minutes after, she and her friend split.
She goes missing.
And where she and her friend parted ways, how far was she from her home? Quarter mile. When you think about that small window, does it mean that the killer was maybe following her, waiting for her?
He could have been. He may have been waiting for her and watching for her and waited for that time to where she was by herself to take his chance.
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