Dateline NBC “Bethany Vanished” May 9 2026
Dateline NBC’s Weekend Mystery continues Saturday, May 9, 2026, at 9/8c with Bethany Vanished, a haunting case that remained unsolved for more than a decade before a shocking confession finally revealed what happened to 21-year-old Bethany Decker.
Reported by Keith Morrison, the episode revisits the January 2011 disappearance of Bethany, a pregnant George Mason University student from Ashburn, Virginia. Bethany vanished shortly after returning from a trip to Hawaii with her husband, Army National Guardsman Emile Decker. At the time, the young mother was five months pregnant and balancing college classes, work, and caring for her young son.
Investigators soon learned that Bethany had been living separately from her husband and involved in a turbulent relationship with her boyfriend, Ronald Roldan. Friends and family later described Roldan as controlling and abusive, saying Bethany had been trying to escape the relationship before she disappeared.
Bethany was last seen on January 29, 2011, after returning to her apartment in Ashburn. Roldan claimed he saw her there later that day, but no one else ever reported seeing her alive again. In the weeks that followed, suspicious Facebook messages continued appearing from Bethany’s account, delaying concerns about her disappearance. When family members eventually checked on her apartment, they found her car abandoned outside, covered in dust with a flat tire.
The investigation stretched on for years with few answers. Detectives searched fields, reviewed electronic evidence, and examined conflicting statements from Roldan, but Bethany’s body was never found. Authorities also uncovered Roldan’s criminal history and growing allegations of violence against women.
A major breakthrough came years later after another woman, Vickey Willoughby, survived a violent shooting involving Roldan in North Carolina. She later told investigators and national television audiences that Roldan had made chilling comments suggesting he could “make people disappear.” That information helped revive the cold case.
In 2020, Ronald Roldan was finally charged in Bethany’s disappearance. Two years later, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. As part of the plea agreement, Roldan admitted that he killed Bethany during an argument inside their apartment and later disposed of her body in a trash compactor. Despite the confession, Bethany’s remains have never been recovered.
Bethany Vanished explores the years of heartbreak endured by Bethany’s family, the frustrations investigators faced while chasing leads, and the persistence that eventually brought partial justice in one of Virginia’s most disturbing missing persons cases. Keith Morrison reports Saturday night on NBC, with streaming available on Peacock.
