saying, there aren't enough people in the world for it to be another person. that's how accurate the testing was. they knew it was andre edwards. guilty. up next, a young boy witnesses a terrible crime. >> she was gagged! she's been tied. her hands were tied and everything. >> the chief suspect virtually turns himself in. >> he appeared exactly like the composite sketch. >> we have him with no alibi. >> but forensic tests failed to tie him to the crime. >> it was not a cheerful day for the prosecution. >> i couldn't believe they were going to let him walk to possibly do this to somebody else. >> could forensics provide the answer? the laural village mobile home park in delaware was home to 32-year-old kaye robinson. a single mother living with her 11-year-old son.

>> laural is a farming town and a regular working class person lives there. >> one night around 2:00 in the morning, kaye was awakened by someone banging on her front door. >> who is there? >> she went to the door, looked out the window and saw this stranger out there. they said they wanted to use the telephone, their name was jack wilson and they needed a ride, could they use the telephone. >> kaye refused to let wilson inside. >> you can't come inside. i think you should leave. you need to go. >> kaye robinson called 911 and the delaware state police did respond, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary, so they cleared the scene without any further investigation. >> thinking everything was all right, kaye went back to bed. a half hour later, she was awakened again by a noise in her kitchen.

that's when she saw the same man she had seen on her porch in her kitchen holding a butcher knife. he chased kaye through the house, grabbed her by the arm, put a knife to her throat and told her to follow his orders. if not, he said he'd kill her son, who was in the adjoining bedroom. >> from that point, there was little she could do. it was just completely three hours of torture. just horrific torture that she endured. >> after sexually assaulting her, the man told kaye that he lived in the same mobile home park and had two children. then he stabbed her almost 30 times and left her for dead. before leaving, the perpetrator checked on kaye's son, who pretended to be asleep. when the man left the house, kaye's son rushed to their neighbor's house for help. >> 911 what's your emergency?

>> it's my next door neighbor. she's been robbed and stabbed. it sounded like he might have raped her. >> police arrived to find kaye near death. >> her neck was cut as bad as anyone's neck i've seen in my life. she was stabbed several times in her back. it was over 25 times. and her neck was cut basically from side to side. >> as kaye was rushed to the hospital, paramedics noticed that her attacker had drawn a smiley face on her back in her own blood. >> the smiley face is one of the chilling details of the crime scene that seems to serve no purpose other than to sort of mock or demean the victim of that attack. >> you have to know that this person's very sick, very violent, and possibly a serial killer. >> miraculously, despite being

stabbed 28 times, kaye survived. >> when i woke up, i didn't want to be there. i was furious that i was on life support. my throat was cut in 10 to 15 different places. i basically felt like he was trying to decapitate me. i felt like i was in a horror movie. >> they didn't sever her carotid artery or her jugular vein or her spinal cord so she would have been paralyzed or anything like that. she's extremely lucky. >> it's just unbelievable, a miracle, in my book. and i think everybody felt that way. >> kaye not only survived, she said she'd be able to identify her attacker if she ever saw him. >> he didn't blindfold me. i was making myself remember every little detail that i could about him. right down to the length of his fingernails. >> all police had to do was find him.

kaye robinson will never forget the look on the man's face who mercilessly stabbed her over and over again. >> kept just asking, "are you dead yet, bitch?"

and when i tried to reply, he continued stabbing me with even more force. i knew right away that i was going to have to pretend to be dead. >> this is a very brutal crime. and the way it happened, the random way it happened and horrific way it happened, then everybody started feeling a little bit uneasy and unsafe. >> the intent was to kill. it was not to wound, it was not to leave a mark, it was to kill. >> the attacker did something that police found highly unusual. he left the bedroom light on throughout the attack. so kaye was able to watch him over an extended period. from her description, police artists created a composite sketch which was released to the media. however, they didn't tell the media about the smiley face drawing the attacker made on kaye's back. >> it was not part of any press

release. therefore, this would be something that would only be known to the attacker or be familiar to the attacker. >> kaye also said she made a mental record of everything he touched. the man took pains to wipe off his fingerprints, but kaye thought he might have overlooked one of the items. a blue glass. >> he drank out of the glass and then he made a point to take his sleeve and wipe the prints off the glass, but then grabbed the glass out of his hand and set it back on the table. >> there were several prints on the glass. >> we thought it may have been some kind of lubricant used by the perpetrator. >> fearful that the prints might smear or even melt, hegman placed the glass in a freezer. >> the idea to put the tumbler in the freezer was actually to set the print, to cause it to

become rigid, so we could apply powder at some point in time, and lift it. >> three full prints were lifted and photographed. two weeks after the attack, police were called again to kaye robinson's home this time by her neighbors. they said a man drove up to kaye's home, lit a candle, and got down on his knees to pray. >> he was very concerned that the person who attacked kaye robinson be apprehended and wanted to pray for that to happen and to assist police in any way that he could. >> the man was 38-year-old doug desilva. in his truck taped to his windshield, he had a newspaper article about the case with a copy of the attacker's composite sketch. >> when he was asked about that, why he had that, he said that so he could drive down the road and

look for the suspect and keep his eye on the composite at the same time to try to find someone that looked just like that. >> but someone did look just like that -- doug desilva. desilva lived 100 miles away, but his ex-wife and daughter both lived in the same mobile home park as kaye robinson. a year earlier, he was the suspect in the murder of a 16-year-old girl at a nearby high school. police brought desilva in for questioning. in the middle of the interrogation, he did something very odd. he asked for a job application because he said he wanted to become a state trooper. >> we thought maybe he might even be taunting us at that point. we were very suspicious of that. >> police put together a photo lineup, and kaye robinson identified desilva as the man who attacked her. >> it was more like an internal reaction.

so with the physical appearance, i was very confident that that was the person that attacked me. >> and kaye's son also identified desilva. >> the man actually came into his room and he was able to see him, but he pretended to be asleep. so he was able to also get a good enough look at the person that he was able to also identify him in a photo lineup. >> when desilva completed his job application to become a policeman, he turned it in. that's when investigators noticed the most bizarre thing they've ever encountered. >> there was a smiley face on the bottom of the document and that had the same chilling effect on the investigators because they knew that on kaye robinson's back, the attacker had drawn a smiley face in blood. >> since this detail hadn't been released to the press, investigators were certain they had their man.

>> doug desilva never did deny that he was involved in the kay robinson case. he'd made several statements that he was sorry for what happened to her, wanted to apologize for what happened. >> but investigators and kaye robinson were in for a big surprise. ♪

what is this place? where are we? this is where we bring together the fastest internet and the best in entertainment. we call it the x1 entertainment operating system. it looks like the future! we must have encountered a temporal vortex. further analytics are necessary. beam us up. ♪ that's my phone. hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. tv and internet together like never before.

just two weeks after kaye robinson's vicious attack, she identified doug desilva as her assailant. >> from the photo lineup, i was very certain. i wanted to hear him say something to be sure that that was him. when i heard him speak, i thought that that was the person that was in my home. >> desilva had no alibi for the night of the crime. >> i've never been so sure in my life as a detective that doug desilva was the right person. >> desilva was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of kaye robinson. >> he said, "tell her i'm sorry. i didn't mean to do it. i remember going there, but i don't remember stabbing her." to me, that's a confession. >> but then came the bad news. desilva's fingerprints did not match the prints taken from the blue plastic glass in kaye's home. >> the fact we didn't get any

fingerprints that matched doug desilva's from the scene never led us to believe that he wasn't the suspect. because a lot of times, we don't find any fingerprints. >> and perhaps the worst piece of news was that desilva's dna profile did not match the evidence collected from kaye robinson's rape kit. >> dna evidence conclusively ruled out doug desilva as being involved in the crime. it was almost like being struck in the head by a 2 x 4. >> we were extremely shocked. it was like someone had punched you in the stomach. >> this was devastating. the investigators, the prosecutors in the case were just flabbergasted. did not know what to do. >> in fact, they ran the dna test twice just to make sure. again, the dna didn't match. >> and at that point you can't go forward with the prosecution of douglas desilva. >> even though the dna report said this wasn't the person that

broke into my home, i was still convinced that it was. i couldn't believe they were going to let him walk to possibly do this to somebody else. >> so kaye decided to take matters into her own hands. >> i bought a gun. i found out where he lived. i went to his house. i sat outside of his home. i wanted to go to the door and knock on the door and just ask him if he remembered me. i just wanted to take care of it myself. >> but kaye thought better of it. >> the primary reason was my son. i wanted to raise my son. i didn't want to be in jail. >> but if desilva wasn't the perpetrator, a violent sexual sadist was walking the streets and police had no new suspects. >> i will never be able to understand why a man who is innocent of a crime allowed himself to get so close to the crime and allowed himself to become so suspect.

>> go back through your investigation, because then you start to doubt yourself a bit. did i miss something? did i overlook something? >> years passed with no solid leads. >> the longer we worked, the colder the case got. >> then nine years later, detective rob hudson got a call from detectives 30 miles away in neighboring maryland. >> they had a case that was very similar to the 1995 case with kaye robinson. >> the maryland victim was a single mother living in a mobile home. >> she said she saw a man in her bedroom and thought she was dreaming. she saw a knife and rolling pin in his hand and he told her he was not going to hurt her if she gave him what he wanted. >> the man tied her up, sexually assaulted her and carried on a lengthy conversation.

when she pleaded for her son's life, the man's demeanor changed. >> he begged her for forgiveness and then he gave her some directions to not get up until a certain time and take a shower. then she was allowed to go to work but not to call the police. >> the man's point of entry, a broken window at the front of the house. 43-year-old mark eskridge was tied to that crime through his fingerprints. >> one mark eskridge's fingerprints were identified to the glass from the point of entry from the crime scene. >> the kaye robinson case was similar in many ways. single mothers in a trailer park with a son. early morning hours, lots of conversation, a knife was used in both. >> and eskridge looked similar to the composite drawing of kaye robinson's attacker nine years earlier. unfortunately, his prints did

not match the prints on the drinking glass found in kaye robinson's home. and kaye robinson said mark eskridge wasn't her attacker. would this be yet another dead end? i must begin my journey,

which will cause me to miss the end of the game. the x1 entertainment operating system lets your watch live tv anywhere. can i watch it in butterfly valley? sure. can i watch it in glimmering lake? yep. here, too. what about the dark castle? you call that defense?! come on! [ female announcer ] watch live tv anywhere. the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. mark eskridge was the prime

suspect in the rape and attempted murder of kaye robinson after he committed a similar crime in maryland. a background check revealed that eskridge who was married and had a small child lived in the same mobile home park as kaye robinson when the attack occurred. >> he lived, in fact, just a few streets away from kaye robinson. he may have had the opportunity to observe her and knew that she resided in that house with her son. >> investigators were sure that eskridge was their man. there was only one problem. kaye robinson was unable to identify mark eskridge as her attacker. >> that was not the man that broke into my home. >> but it had been nine years since her attack. memories change. and so did eskridge's appearance. fortunately, investigators had

the dna of kaye robinson's attacker and when they compared eskridge's dna to the biological sample from kay robinson's rape test kit, investigators finally got the answer they'd been waiting for. >> when i received the call that the dna was a match, i was overjoyed. i couldn't believe it. i couldn't wait to call kay robinson. >> i went through a lot of emotions. i thought, oh, my god, i'm glad i didn't kill desilva, because it would have been the wrong guy. but, i mean, he could have been his twin. they were identical. >> investigators believe mark eskridge targeted kaye robinson since they lived in the same mobile home park and he probably knew she was a single mother living alone with her son. prosecutors think that eskridge knocked on kaye's door claiming he had car trouble because he wanted to make sure no men were in her home.

later that night he broke in and attacked. he told kaye that he lived nearby because he had no intention of letting her live. he attacked her repeatedly with a knife. but kaye robinson's will to survive was too great. >> i still had a life to live. and i wanted my life back. and i was going to take it back a piece at a time. >> eskridge left valuable dna evidence behind. more reliable than any eyewitness. a decade after the crime, mark eskridge went on trial for the sexual assault and attempted murder of kaye robinson. he was convicted and sentenced

to life in prison plus 20 years. authorities cite the case as a reason to be skeptical of eyewitness identifications, especially when the witness is under extreme duress. >> you have an eyewitness identification which is as certain as certain can be, but you have science and dna evidence telling you otherwise. >> doug desilva's bizarre behavior and his equally bizarre resemblance to the actual attacker almost landed him in jail. doug desilva's whereabouts are unknown even to his ex-wife. >> it's still very, very strange and very puzzling as to why doug desilva had ever gotten involved in the case. why he introduced himself into the case. >> you always know somebody's going to get caught or you're going to catch them. you just don't know when sometimes.

>> so i just say, you know, hats off to dna. it's a great tool. and i tell you, in this case, to be able to free one man and convict another, i say that says a lot for justice. happening right now you an historic catastrophic ice storm set to pummel the deep south. this morning, thousands of flights canceled. towns literally shut down as people are warned just stay home. indra petersons is tracking this monster for us. good morning, welcome toer earl. i'm christine romans. >> it's wednesday, february 12th, 5:00 a.m. in the east. you know it's terrible when forecasters are use catastrophic and historic to describe a storm hitting the south at this very moment. millions of