DES MOINES, Iowa - Kate Lay had always been skeptical of love at first sight. She's practical. She's a surgical nurse who was born and raised in Iowa. But she says practicality flew out the window the first time she laid eyes on the man she would eventually marry.

 

"He was a Marine. So, he was big and buff, and beautiful. I fell in love with him right away," she said.

After proposing, Brandon finished his second tour of duty in Afghanistan. They married, bought a house and started life on their terms. She said Brandon's job as a delivery driver wasn't fulfilling his ambitious dreams of traveling the world and helping people. She could see that he was bored. Still, she never dreamed that one day he would disappear.

Kate said, "Everything that I thought I knew got torn out from underneath me."

One day, she came home from work and Brandon was gone, along with his Jeep and his dog. Kate called the police. "I didn't even know if he was alive."

Several days later, Brandon finally called. He was in a small town in Montana. The secrets were about to be revealed. Kate explained, "Not a single person knew what was going on."