Statement from Steve Capus, President, NBC News
"On behalf of Dateline, and all of us at NBC News, I want to extend my thanks and appreciation to Stone for all he has contributed to NBC News during his tenure here. His work on Dateline over the past 15 years has been remarkable, as evidenced by the unprecedented awards Stone and the program have won, including 39 Emmys and four Peabodys. He is a first rate journalist and a dedicated professional whose legacy here will live on with the program he established and cares so much about."

Statement from Stone Phillips
"It's been a wonderful 15 years. I'm profoundly appreciative of the many friends and colleagues, past and present, who have been a part of the Dateline family. This is a great news division with a bright future. I wish the people of NBC News all the best."

Statement from David Corvo, Executive Producer, Dateline
"Viewers know Stone as a great reporter and anchor. But his co-workers also know him as a loyal leader and patient mentor. At Dateline, we'll miss the passion he brought to his work, and will do our best to live up to the standard he has set."

Click here to read Stone's bio, in his own words (including of some photos from him at work). Click here for Stone's official bio, including his latest assignments and achievements. Share your messages  for Stone, below.

With more than 235 million copies of his books in print, John Grisham is one of the best-selling storytellers of all time. And what a story he's about to tell tonight: "The Innocent Man" is John Grisham's 19th book, but it's no novel... this story is real life.

It's about murder, mystery, and a small town where the innocent end up behind bars.

First, two innocent men were convicted of murder. Now, Grisham says, two more men, tried and convicted in the same small town, may also be innocent. Are they?

Hoda Kotb brings us John Grisham's first true-crime mystery.

Join us for Dateline NBC, tonight at 8 p.m./7 c.

In a rare television interview, Angelina Jolie sits down exclusively with NBC News' Ann Curry to discuss her upcoming movie, "A Mighty Heart," in which she plays Mariane Pearl, the wife of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was murdered by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. Click here for a transcript.

In a separate interview, Brad Pitt talks to Curry about his behind-the-scenes role as a producer in "A Mighty Heart," which is produced by his Plan B shingle in conjunction with Revolution films.  Dede Gardner and Andrew Eaton, two producers of the movie, will also join Pitt in the interview.

 

The interviews will air on NBC News' "Today" and "Dateline NBC" Wednesday, May 23.

As a nurse, she was known for her kind and generous nature -- adored by her patients. And as a wife and mother, she seemed to have the perfect life. In fact, she and her husband had just realized their dream of buying a home of their own. But behind that perfect picture, there were secrets. 

One night, she said her husband walked out on her. And a few days later, a suitcase surfaced in a bay hundreds of miles away.  Inside was a horrifying discovery.
 
Was this nurse a compassionate caregiver, or was she a heartless killer? Were there two sides to Melanie McGuire?

Sara James unlocks "The Suitcase Murder."

Click here to watch the report. Click here for a transcript of this report. 

It's one of the most remarkable stories we've ever done here at Dateline - a baby is literally blown out of its mother's arms by a tornado, and then, discovered, unharmed, under a pile of rubble.

Also tonight, some of the most amazing video we've ever seen - the hand of a five-month-old fetus being held by the surgeon attempting a rare and risky operation to save its life, through the mother's womb.

And another mother - a 911 operator - helps save her child's life when he's critically injured, and she takes the call.

Plus, Matt Lauer's exclusive interview with Governor Jon Corzine about his stunning recovery from a near-fatal crash.

Join us for Dateline Sunday, 7 p.m./6 C. Parts of the broadcast may be truncated due to a sporting event.

by Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent

It's an uncommonly attractive mobile home park - the one across the highway from the Florence, South Carolina, airport.  The whole place is shaded by tall evergreens, the atmosphere beneath is more akin to a state park campground than low income rental housing. 

We caused quite a stir when we came with our cameras and lights to interview public officials about an event almost nobody in the whole park had ever heard of, certainly not the swarms of little girls who gathered in the street to practice their dance moves.  Of course, they weren't born then.  Weren't even imagined.

The event, as our story describes, happened back in 1994: Jennifer Morgan, 23 years old, funny, pretty, full of life, was murdered in trailer number 9.  Whoever killed her tried to hide the crime by torching the place, having sloshed gasoline around the bed where she lay smothered (or strangled, or hit on the head..nobody knows for sure).

It was a terrible thing, an obscene waste of a wonderful young life.

But it was the effect of Jennifer's death -- the investigation of it -- which is still tearing through private and public lives in the Carolinas and now as far away as Detroit, Michigan.

Watch the show and you'll see that the question of what happened to Jennifer Morgan has become enmeshed in suspicion, betrayal, professional jealousy, and a remarkable feature of 21^st century life: the public airing of once private behaviors.  In this case, they even made their own movies! Dueling versions of history.

So who was right about what happened? Was it the county sheriff, Kenny Boone, still working after all these years toward a solution?  Was it Tom Morgan, the devoted brother, who labored for more than a decade to finger the perpetrator?  Or was it Pat Moag, the Michigan cop, who put his reputation on the line with an allegation so shocking you'll have to see it to believe?

I must also confess to a real regret.  A central figure in the story of Jennifer Morgan's death was a young man who once offered her (far too frequently, by most accounts) his undying love.  That young man became a suspect, and the subject of one of the movies.  In fact, he still has not been removed from the list of suspects.  I very much wanted to talk to him, to ask for his view of the whole business (surely as useful and legitimate as anyone else's opinion), but he has, again and again, declined.

With that piece unhappily missing, we've laid out the puzzle in as much detail as time has allowed.  Perhaps Sheriff Kenny Boone will finally get his man.  Or maybe you will figure it out...

NBC News celebrated Ann Curry's 10-year anniversary with the TODAY Show on the broadcast this morning. (In addition to her TODAY new anchor duties, Ann is also co-anchor of Dateline.)

If you missed it, here's the video of her career highlights,  Click here to read the blog post on our sister blog, allDay. You can also send her congratulations there.

They are parents, sons, daughters, friends:  More than 50,000 American adults are missing.

It can begin in such an ordinary way -- someone fails to show up for work, or dinner or a date. Just a glitch in life's routine, until hours turn into days, and a family realizes that a loved one has disappeared.

Tonight, we're asking a veteran FBI investigator to take a closer look at some hard-to-crack cases involving missing women. Three different stories, three different mysteries. Will he spot something others have missed? And can -you- help?

Follow the clues to unlock the mysteries of... "The Missing."

Join us tonight, Tuesday, for Dateline NBC at 8, 7 Central.       

For tips and leads, see below -- or write on the space on the blog. Video of the broadcast, a transcript of the report, and more photos will be posted shortly.

Becky Kraemer Marzo:
Milwaukee Police Department:
Detective Vicky Hall OR  Detective Sarah Blomme
(414) 935-7403
http://findbeckykraemer.com/
Discuss the case on our message boards.

Debbie Hawk:
Hanford Police Department
(559)585-2540
http://www.debbiehawk.com/
Discus the case on our message boards.

Ali Gilmore:
Big Bend Crime Stoppers
850-891-HELP
http://www.whereisaligilmore.com/
Discuss the case on our message boards.

Dateline brings you 3 stories with a central question: Can a single moment solve a mystery? Sara James has a story of a wife who disappeared into the night.

by Sara James, Dateline correspondent

The signs in the New York City buses and subways are simple, clear, arresting:  "If you see something, say something."

It's obvious, of course.  In the fight against terrorism, every voice counts.  But this isn't just a big city matter.   In the fight against crime -- any crime, every crime  -- everyone needs to speak out.  Because that is how crimes are solved.

And yet, of course, it's never that simple.  How many people don't say something?   Because the "something" is small, seemingly  insignificant? Or  embarrassing?  Or because the person it concerns is a friend, a family member, or someone who is intimidating?  Or because they're busy, or it's a bad time, or any of a host of myriad other reasons?

Well here's what I would like to say: Saying something matters.  And not just in high-profile cases of terrorism.  It matters here In New York. Or, as in this case, it matters in Texas.  Because, let's be honest, most of the time, someone saw SOMETHING.  Or heard something. Or put some blocks together and came up with an uncomfortable realization, a shiver, a sense of foreboding. 

In my story "The Coldest Case,"  someone saw, or heard, or knows -- something. 

So say something.  Please.

It matters.  A woman is missing.  Her family believes -- knows, but there's no proof, so they have to settle for believing -- that she is probably dead.  That is horrific enough.  Kathy Stobaugh.  A mother.  A daughter.  A sister.  A friend. A teacher.   A woman with a big smile, ready to leap at a second chance at happiness after her marriage ended.  But she never got the chance.  Chances are, someone out there cut her life short.   Chances are, someone knows who did it.  Her brother Chris, a police officer, struggles with this every day.  He's supposed to solve crimes, but he can't solve the crime of what happened to his sister.  Her parents are devastated.   Surely someone, somewhere knows something about what happened to Kathy Stobaugh.  I feel it in my bones.  So let me add my plea to that of the family.

If you know something, say something.  For her family, the answer may be difficult.  But waiting, speculating, endlessly because you have no answer is the most difficult of all. 

Click here if YOU have any information about Kathy Stobaugh. The "Coldest Case" airs Dateline Sunday, 7 p.m.

A programming note: Coming up tonight on a special two-hour Dateline NBC -- it's the crime that has everything -- wealth, beauty, ambition, adultery -- and murder.

The woman at the center of the story tonight, Cynthia George, is a former beauty contestant, a glamorous wife and a mother. And talk about a juggling act: she had one husband, seven children, and two lovers on the side.

Then one of her boyfriends was found dead. And when the police came calling, with fingers started pointing at her.

It's a legal thriller with an ending that even the judge never saw coming.

Victoria Corderi brings us a deadly tale of "Dangerous Liaisons," Friday, May 4, 8 p.m. Video and a transcript of the broadcast will be available later this weekend.

Use the space, below, to share your thoughts about this case.

by Susan Leibowitz, Dateline producer

It was crowded on the 9th floor of the downtown criminal courts building on a hot Wednesday morning in Los Angeles.  The crowd was media from around the country and around the world gathering to cover a trial of a little man  famous for big sound. Phillip Spector, the musical genius behind the Crystals, the Ronettes, Darlene Love…. the man who turned the the Beatles' Let It Be into a symphony and changed rock and roll with his orchestrations and manipulations was on trial for the murder of a sometime actress Lana Clarkson.

It's been four years and nearly  three months since Clarkson was killed by a single bullet lodged in the back of her neck. She died nearly instantly, the prosecutor said in his opening statement, killed says the prosecutor by Phil Spector … accidental suicide say Spector's attorneys.  Now it's up to each side to prove their theory of Lana Clarkson's death. The trial is expected to take three-four months.

This trial is the first gavel to gavel broadcast live from that downtown courthouse in Los Angeles since OJ Simpson's criminal trial back in 1995. Back during OJ, a media room was set up on the 12th floor of the courthouse.  A few weeks ago, that media room was re-opened. A KNBC technician says when they came in, "it was like the OJ trial had just ended." The room was strewn with 1995 calendars and notes on the OJ trial and no doubt dust. It was a time capsule of another big trial. The time capsule is gone now, the 12th floor media room cleaned up and back in use to cover the murder of another beautiful blonde from Southern California.  Our NBC affiliate in LA is streaming the trial live on its Web site.

 

a guest blog entry by Tom Yates, father of Amy Yates

My name is Tom Yates, I am the father of two daughters, Amy and Danielle. On April 26, 2004, Amy was led into the woods of the mobile home park where we lived, by a 16-year-old boy that she knew and considered to be a friend. The boy told her that he wanted her to come listen to the birds with him. After entering the woods and walking far enough so that no one could see what he was going to do, he tried to rape her, and when she screamed for help he strangled her and then dumped her body further in the woods. The events that have unfolded that day seem like they could only happen in a movie, a horror movie for my family. (Tom, pictured with Amy on the right, and Danielle, left)

April 26 was like any other Monday. Sometime around 4:20 p.m. my girls got off the school bus and walked down to the house. Both girls had homework to do but because Amy had been doing so well at school we told her that she could play first and then do her homework later. Amy's 9th birthday was just nine days away. We had bought her a pack of Hello Kitty invitations to give to her friends. After she had watched a little T.V., she wanted me to help her with the invitations so we worked on them together.  She asked me if she could go over to her friend's house to give an invitation and play. I told her that it was fine but that I was starting on dinner and she had to come home at 7 p.m. I was standing at the front door when Amy got on her bike and rode across the street to her friend's house. The girl wasn't allowed to go out and play, so Amy came back home to ask if she could go to another friend who lived just three trailers over from us. Again, I said that was fine and to be home at 7 p.m.

Then I watched as she rode her bike in between two trailers, never imagining that I would never again see my daughter alive.

At 7:05 p.m. Amy had not come home so my wife,