it's -- that's the beauty of forensic science is you just don't know what's going to be the most part of your analysis. up next -- a college co-ed vanishes without a trace. >> the television was still on. it was almost as if her activities had been interrupted. >> it's just really scary to think about that it happened here. >> her fellow students prayed for her safe return. police feared her abductor might be among them. >> everybody was a suspect but we had no direction to go. >> eventually, the trail led to a barn fire hundreds of miles away, a senseless murder with no motive. science played a big part in olamide adeyooye's life. ever since she was a little girl, she dreamt of a career in medical research, and she was

halfway there, entering her senior year at illinois state university. >> olamide liked science a lot. i could definitely see her going into the forensic field, going into the laboratory, doing dna analysis. >> olamide worked her way through school as a waitress. friday nights were usually the busiest. so it was unusual when olamide didn't show up one friday when she was scheduled. the next day she didn't answer repeated calls to her apartment and to her cell phone. >> her friends and family began to become more worried about not being able to get a hold of her. >> olamide's car was gone. her apartment locked. when police entered olamide's apartment, they discovered her purse and her wallet were there. her cell phone was on the sofa with more than 60 unanswered messages. the television was on. it looked as if she had just

gotten up and left, until police entered her bedroom. >> the search revealed a large pile of clothing on the bedroom floor. when we systemically went through each piece of clothing, we began to see stains of bleach. the odor of bleach leads all of us to believe someone was trying to cover up or clean up a crime. >> underneath the clothing was a large blood stain. >> the blood was tested at that time and it was ultimately identified back to olamide. >> they also found a blood trail leading outside. >> there were blood drops down the back porch, down the back steps, down across the parking lot, ending about a foot from where the trunk of olamide's car would have been. >> someone could have silently carried her down the stairs and placed her in a vehicle in the

darkness. >> although olamide lived in an apartment off campus, her disappearance struck fear among the students. >> you're a young female walking around campus. i have a night class, so usually when i get out of school, i walk home. and it's just really scary to think about that it happened here. >> missing posters were put all around campus and the surrounding community. days went by, but there was still no sign of olamide. >> i'm trying to do everything i can. i mean, i know she would be doing the same thing for me. >> as the search entered its second week, investigators got a potential break from a small town 700 miles away. >> a police officer in mississippi had heard about olamide and her disappearance by the news media. >> he told illinois police about a body they had found after a recent barn fire they had in mississippi. the fire was an arson, and all they knew was that the victim was a young female.

>> police were able to get the dental records of olamide from her family dentist. the records, along with the remains, were taken to a forensic odontologist, and he was able to positively identify the remains as olamide. >> it's probably the worst feeling i've ever felt. i felt horrible for her mother, i felt horrible for her brother. it blows my mind for someone to think they can kind of play god and take someone else's life. >> investigators now wondered who killed olamide and why he took her to mississippi. h

♪ students and faculty of illinois state university gathered on campus to remember olamide adeyooye. >> she pushed people to be their best. she wanted everyone to be their best, including herself. >> her family was understandably frustrated, not knowing who was responsible or why. >> when you think of olamide, remember the young, beautiful

woman who had a hunger for knowledge, intelligence, and who wanted to help others. >> at the autopsy, the medical examiner concluded that olamide's death occurred long before the fire started. >> the cause of death in the medical examiner's opinion was loss of blood due to penetrating injury. >> investigators began their search for the killer by looking into olamide's friends, associates, any possible enemies, and certainly, anyone who had ties to mississippi. on the night olamide disappeared, friends said she had a date planned with a new boyfriend. >> we had talked about how she was excited to be going out on a date with a man named partiece. >> partiece was a criminal justice major at the university. when interviewed by police, he claimed that olamide canceled their date at the last minute.

>> sometime around 10:00 p.m. he gave her a call. >> yes, exactly. >> where are you when you called her? >> at home. >> you were at home? >> yes. >> at that time she told you she changed her mind? >> yes. >> and she rented some movies and decided to just kind of call it a night and stay at home? >> exactly. >> partiece denied any involvement in the crime. >> the fact that she had canceled a date with the guy on the very night that she's last seen alive is certainly something that's going to jump out. >> another suspect was olamide's former boyfriend, andy folley, a guitar player in a band. the two had recently broken up. >> they definitely loved each other a lot, but it was hard for them to be away from each other for such a long period of time. >> folley provided an airtight alibi. >> he was on tour and on the east coast and other band members of his verified his

whereabouts on the night of her disappearance. >> something else happened on the day she disappeared. olamide told friends about an incident that happened while she was taking a shower in the afternoon. >> hey, ola! >> one of olamide's former roommates, ashley todd martin, had entered olamide's apartment uninvited through the unlocked front door. >> this apparently angered olamide. ashley's attitude was, why don't you have your door locked when you're taking a shower? >> olamide and ashley decided to live separately. >> olamide didn't want to be around this girl anymore. according to olamide's close friends from home, this girl seemed to be a bad influence on olamide, and they were concerned about olamide's relationship with this girl. >> i heard them have a couple of fights sometimes. i'd be on the phone and they'd be fighting with each other. and she wasn't normal when she fought with her. it wasn't the olamide that i

knew. >> ashley todd martin vehemently denied any involvement in olamide's disappearance, but police thought her constant appearances on television newscasts to discuss olamide were suspicious. >> it's like, i feel bad, i feel guilty, but i'm just glad that you don't have to sit here and wonder whether she's being hurt or tortured or, you know, she's just peaceful now. >> it appeared to be more about ashley than about olamide. since there were no signs of

since there were no signs of forced entry into olamide adeyooye's apartment, investigators worked under the assumption that olamide was acquainted with her killer. an informant called police, suggesting olamide's neighbor might have been responsible. >> we were contacted by a woman who had seen the news conference of olamide's disappearance. this woman was concerned that an ex-boyfriend of hers might have been involved in olamide's disappearance. >> the plan was 27-year-old maurice wallace.

he lived in the building about 100 yards from olamide's apartment. though not a college student, wallace had been living on or near campus for years. many students remembered him, and not fondly. >> he would invite himself to parties. people described him as kind of creepy and strange, women especially. >> he wasn't a student. he wasn't a member of the community. he was a bad person. he was a bad person. and myself and 25,000 other 20-somethings in normal will attest to that. >> a background check revealed maurice wallace had served four months in jail shortly before olamide's murder. >> maurice wallace had assaulted and battered someone in a taxicab. it was a situation where he didn't know the victim prior to the assault, and it was another example of his unpredictability and aggressiveness. >> after he was released, wallace had trouble finding

work, and he told a former girlfriend he was planning to commit violence. >> he said some very disturbing things, he was going to make a name for himself or become a martyr by going out and killing someone. >> wallace also expressed his opinions on race. >> he seemed to have a lot of opinions on society and racism and his take on what was wrong with society as a whole. he had indicated that he wanted to marry a nigerian woman. >> witnesses said olamide and wallace met once and that wallace told olamide he objected to her dating white men. >> there was one occasion where he had attended a party and olamide was there, and he was kind of harassing olamide about her boyfriend. >> but was this a possible motive for murder? >> we think he may have been upset with her. you know, she's part of the problem because she's not promoting her race.

she's a sellout, if that's the term that he would use. >> when police went to question him, he was gone. neighbors said he hadn't been around since olamide went missing. >> he did not have a vehicle. and the fact that olamide's vehicle was missing, that pointed even more directly towards wallace. >> nationwide alerts were issued for wallace and for olamide's car. >> when we say that yes, we had reason to believe that he's involved or has knowledge, that does not rule out that there could be other individuals. there very well could be. so, we're still looking at that, because we don't have all the pieces put together yet. >> wallace's credit card activity showed he purchased gasoline in mississippi the day after olamide disappeared. the gas station was near the barn where olamide's body was discovered. >> what we hoped to find out was did he purchase gas or an accelerant there that could be used to start the fire. >> unfortunately, there were no

video surveillance cameras at that gas station. investigators discovered that wallace did have a connection to mississippi. >> wallace had some connection to mississippi in that he had some relatives that were there. >> while investigators searched for wallace, they also had to search for forensic evidence, and they weren't having much luck inside olamide's apartment. >> it's a common misconception that there are hundreds of fingerprints left at every crime scene. and a lot of times, you may only find one, or you may find none. >> since the crime was committed at night, investigators assumed the killer would have turned off the lights after cleaning up the blood, but there were no visible bloodstains on the light switch by the door. >> that whole area was actually brought into the laboratory. they cut out the wall and the light switch and brought in all of that to us.

>> analysts viewed the switch plate with oblique or angled lighting. >> we take various different types of light sources, and we bring them in from the side, from the front to see if we can see anything on the surface itself. >> and that's where they found a single, high-quality fingerprint, and it looked like it was in plasma. >> not all blood is red or brownish like you would think. there are other components in the blood that are clear. the plasma is a clear substance. >> dna testing showed the blood was olamide's, which meant the print probably belonged to whoever harmed her. >> that was key. there's not a whole lot of innocent explanation for that. it's like finding a print of her blood on a murder weapon. >> but where was maurice wallace?

investigators found a fingerprint on the light switch in olamide adeyooye's apartment. the print didn't match olamide's former roommate, ashley todd martin, or any of the other suspects questioned in the case. but police were still searching for their prime suspect, maurice wallace. according to his credit card activity, he was traveling throughout the southern united states. to track him more closely,

investigators focused on his cell phone activity. >> through cellular phone forensic, we were able to locate very specifically where maurice wallace was in realtime. >> when wallace made a call from a shopping mall in atlanta, georgia, police were standing by. >> police! don't move! don't move! >> when police arrested maurice wallace, they found olamide's keys in his possession, which was a big giveaway at that point. >> wallace wasn't driving olamide's car. he was driving a rental car instead. >> there was a gas can that was located in his rental vehicle. we suspected it may have been used to start this fire. >> wallace denied any involvement in olamide's murder. >> i've got to go ahead and read you a couple of things. i'm sure you've, you know -- >> where is my attorney? why am i here without an attorney? you're going to ask me some questions. nine times out of ten, whatever i answer's going to be used against me, so i want an

attorney. >> when police left the room, wallace was alone. unaware he was being recorded, he made what looked like a speech to himself. >> any sort of insurgency or revolution, you just don't go at the oppressor, you go at the people who helped the oppressor, people who aid and abet you. send a message that if you cooperate with these people, they're going to whack you. >> this revealed the potential motive for olamide's murder. >> we think he may have been upset with her for dating a white man. >> when police compared wallace's fingerprint to the bloody fingerprint found in olamide's bedroom, it was a match. ten days after wallace's arrest, police found olamide's car abandoned in a residential area of atlanta.

olamide's blood was discovered in the trunk. they also found bloody fingerprints on the rearview mirror. >> i was able then to powder and lift those impressions and then lift them off of the rearview mirror and then do a comparison. >> one of these was maurice wallace's thumbprint. dna testing identified the blood as olamide's. investigators also found evidence on wallace's jeans. >> to the naked eye, it didn't appear that there was anything unusual about them. however, later forensic testing found there was blood on those pants. >> and that blood was olamide's, definitive proof that wallace was her killer. police believe olamide let wallace into her apartment. she knew him from the neighborhood. once inside, he may have made a

sexual advance and was rejected. he then snapped. he stabbed olamide, getting blood on his jeans. he wrapped her body in a blanket and put olamide's body in the trunk of her car. he tried to clean the blood stains with detergent found in the apartment. but as he turned off the light, he left his fingerprint on the switch plate in plasma and left his bloody thumbprint on the rearview mirror, then drove to mississippi to burn her body. he found an old barn, put olamide's body inside, then set it on fire. the entire barn burned to the ground. forensic odontology identified

her remains, although wallace probably thought no one in mississippi would connect this fire to a girl's disappearance in illinois. in december of 2005, maurice wallace was charged with first-degree murder. his aberrant behavior didn't end with his arrest. >> maurice wallace was very combative during court hearings. one occasion he spit on the floor as he entered the courtroom, talking when he was not supposed to be talking, interrupting the judge. >> because of the evidence against him, wallace pled guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. >> maurice wallace is a sociopath. he's evil. he certainly knew what he was doing every step of the way here. he had a plan. he carried it out. didn't have any regard to his victim. >> he was just an evil man that did what he told his friend on

the phone, he was going to go out and kill somebody and try to make a name for himself. >> when a victim has been murdered or is no longer alive, the only thing that's left to be able to speak for that person is the evidence itself. up next, a woman is brutally attacked. >> is she breathing? >> i don't know. i think she is. she laying on the floor and there's blood everywhere. >> but before she dies, the victim provides a clue. >> written on the wall is the word r-o-c, roc. >> the trail leads investigators to an escort service and a shoot-out between two rivals. >> it's something you would expect out of a hollywood movie, not out of real life. >> but a tiny clue found in an unlikely place exposes the real killer. airline customer service representatives deal with hundreds of complaints each day.