Sandy Munroe with his wife Heli in Ballater, Scotland in 1997.

On a November day in 2005, Sandy Munroe kissed his wife of more than 40 years, Heli, goodbye. She was leaving their Nova Scotia home to have lunch with her brother who was visiting from England. Sandy would not see Heli again for almost two years.

A public search for Heli Munroe

One year after Heli's disappearance, Sandy launched a publicity campaign, including press conferences, convincing many, even prominent politicians such as Alexa McDonough, that his wife, suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, had been kidnapped by a vengeful family member and that government inaction and red tape prevented him from bringing Heli back home to Nova Scotia. Sympathetic newspaper stories, television and radio interviews, added to the pathos of his claim and won him growing public support. It all seemed so straightforward and clear. But, is that the whole story? What really happened?

Heli lived with her brother Mike Pospieszalski and his wife, after she arrived in England.

Investigation reveals a troubled marriage

Hana Gartner and a fifth estate team tracked down Heli's family in England and spoke to them, including her brother Marek, responsible for spiriting her out of Canada on that day in November, 2005. He claims he only did what Heli wanted. In other interviews, with neighbours of Sandy's and Heli's, a portrait of a troubled marriage emerges; a marriage that their only child, estranged from them for years, describes as "abusive".

Sandy Munroe and his group of advisors and supporters deny that he and Heli had anything other than a loving relationship and affirm that everything Sandy did was to benefit Heli as she slipped deeper into the fog of Alzheimer's.

The Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, wrote that "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way". The Lady Vanishes is the remarkable story of one unhappy family, about a desperate and brazen act and a bitter private feud that erupted in public. It's also the story about the surprising things that emerge when you start digging into a situation that everyone seems to think has all been explained.