>> the dna spatter, the shell casings, and the fingerprints are all what really wrap up this case and take it from a circumstantial case to a case that's proven by forensic evidence. an unidentified woman was found dead, and police wanted answers. but everything they needed was in the dirt at the crime scene. and it told the story from the beginning to the tragic end. as the sun rose on the farmlands outside delano, california, a farm worker saw something he never expected. that his farm had become a crime scene. >> the scene indicated what was a very violent crime. there was obviously strong evidence initially to indicate there was a sexual assault.

>> the victim was a young teenaged girl. she was nude and had been beaten and stabbed to death. >> no one would have been around to hear any screams. and it was the kind of place where there wouldn't have been just someone driving by, certainly on a dirt road off of the main road. >> she had no identification and she didn't match any missing person's reports. police found a pair of jeans near her body. in the pocket was a key chain with the initial "f." and there was some broken jewelry. >> in the clothing up around her neck, there are pieces of a gold link chain. they're in the clothing, and they're on her skin. >> crime scene technicians processed an area close to 700 square feet and photographed the shoe and tire impressions found in the soft dirt. interestingly, there was only one set of shoe prints.

>> presence of only one set of footprints at the scene when you obviously know there's been two people is an indicator that the victim very well may have been dragged from the vehicle. >> also in the dirt near the tire impressions were handprints, presumably those of the victim. >> she had put up a struggle. you could actually see imprints of her buttocks marks in almost a half circle where she had put up a struggle and was fighting. >> the only way to identify the victim was to somehow trace the keys found in her jeans. >> it seemed pretty bleak that we were going to be successful in finding the apartment that that mailbox key would open. and that the house key would open. because people are often murdered and then transported long distances. >> the town closest to the crime scene was delano. around noon, starting at the north end of town, detectives tested the key in every apartment building mailbox they could find.

being careful not to miss a single apartment complex. they tested hundreds of mailboxes. >> in the back of your mind you're hoping that it will work. but anyone that's a betting person must have known, i knew, that the odds were probably pretty slim that we were going to be successful in finding the right mailbox. >> we were at this for several hours, enough to get a blister on my thumb. >> they continued to move south and never gave up since it was the only real lead they had. finally, they got a break. the key fit mailbox number 3 in an apartment building in a working class neighborhood in delano. >> that gave me a pretty good idea that i was in the right place. >> it was kind of exhilarating because now we're moving on to another leg of this case. where we have an opportunity to identify the victim. >> the next step was to test the other key.

and it worked in the front door of apartment 3. although, no one was home. >> it is absolutely classic shoe leather detective work. they had no idea which apartment complex they were dealing with. and they just had to go to one after another. >> the apartment belonged to christine hildreth, a registered nurse who worked at the local hospital. when investigators spoke with her, she was able to identify the victim as her 17-year-old daughter florence. >> it is rough. it's one of the hardest things to do in the job. but it's a -- it's a necessary thing to do sometimes. you have to get this identification so you can proceed backwards, backtracking this victim to track down the individual that's responsible, the suspect. >> what i can remember being is shocked. i was shocked that something like that had happened to her.

and i was shocked that something like that had happened in delano. >> florence was a high school senior, president of the student union, and member of the honor roll. her dream was to study medicine. >> this was not one of those juvenile delinquents. she was a cheerleader. and she was well-liked. she had everything going for her in the world. everything. and she was not involved with any type of drugs that we ever found out about. everything became very clear that she was just a really good kid. the beautiful sound of customers making the most of their united flight.

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17-year-old florence hildreth was found murdered in the farmlands outside delano, california. investigators had clues, but no suspects. the medical examiner identified the cause of death as multiple stab wounds to her neck. and there was evidence of sexual assault. toxicology tests found no alcohol or drugs in her system. >> she was such a quiet person.

she kept to herself. she didn't really bother anybody. you would think, why would anybody want to hurt her? >> when forensic experts analyzed the evidence found at the crime scene, they were astounded by the quality of what they saw. it looked as though the perpetrator was wearing a new pair of brooks brand athletic shoes, size 12. >> i can't believe it. it's very unusual to have that kind of detail where you can actually make out the name brand of the shoe and the fine detail even down to the characteristics of the shoe. >> and the tire tracks were also telling. the right front tire had left its impression on the side of a small mound of dirt. it showed the letters d, s, and v, on the lower side wall near the tread. they were probably from the words limited service, which was

printed on the side of spare tires. >> that's extremely unusual. i've never had a situation where you actually had words imprinted like that from the side of the tire that you could see. >> the last time anyone saw florence was the previous evening around 10:30. she was walking home from her cousin's house, a distance of less than a quarter of a mile. >> the two possible scenarios detectives had at that point was either somebody that she knew came along and had offered her a ride and she had accepted, or she had been physically pulled off the road by a stranger. >> if florence was abducted by a stranger, this was not good news for investigators. >> if you're dealing with a pure stranger situation, it's often very difficult to find a connection or a link between the victim and the killer. >> her friends and family were convinced she would never get into the car of someone she didn't know. >> i think she felt like she could trust him and that he was going to take her wherever she

needed to go. that he wasn't going to take her anywhere to harm. i don't think she would have put herself in harm's way, no. >> in the course of an investigation, police usually withhold certain information from the public. but in a small town, that's not always easy. and in this case, the gossip actually helped. >> things about this case were already starting to circulate in the community. even though we were keeping a lid on stuff, the community knew where her body had been discovered because they probably saw the law enforcement vehicles out there. >> and because of this information, a neighbor called police with a tip. she said she was driving on cecil avenue, not far from the crime scene, around midnight, and saw a red pickup truck parked along the side of the road. it was distinctive because it had ski racks. >> delano is just a farming town in the middle of the central valley. we don't even have snow in the winter.

most pickup trucks are working vehicles. ski racks on a pickup truck is very unusual. >> florence's family knew immediately who owned that truck. it belonged to rodney berryman, an unemployed young man who was living with florence's uncle. berryman also had a criminal past, with several arrests in los angeles for drug-related crimes. when investigators questioned berryman, he wasn't much help. >> he denied anything more than just knowing florence. he denied having her in his vehicle. he just denied everything related to this homicide. he denied that his truck was at the scene and in fact, he denied he had ever been on cecil avenue, which is hard to do if you're in delano for any length of time. it's the main drag. >> when police looked at his truck, they didn't see a spare tire like one that left prints at the crime scene. and there was no blood inside the vehicle or any other signs of violence.

the case was beginning to look like it would never be solved. i am totally blind. and sometimes i struggle to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. this is called non-24. learn more by calling 844-824-2424. or visit your24info.com.

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>> he had not been in the area -- the delano area very long. he had come from los angeles. he was staying with ms. hildreth's cousin and residing at that residence and had a relationship with one of her female cousins. >> at first, investigators found no evidence in berryman's truck that could place the vehicle at the scene. but under the front seat was a clue that could have easily been overlooked. investigators found several links to a gold piece of jewelry which was sent to supervising criminalist greg laskowski. >> i received some individual links that looked like cut horseshoes or crimped horseshoes. and it appeared to be, they weren't heavy, so it was cheap jewelry, some kind of brass type jewelry. >> to make the chain, the manufacturer would have cut each link with a tiny tool. then attach it to the end by

crimping the edges back together. under a microscope, laskowski saw the highly distinctive marks from the tool used to cut these links. >> i'm looking for striations that run across the length of the cut surfaces. >> the striations on each tool are different. they're created when the tool is made and by normal wear and tear. laskowski compared the striations on the links from rodney berryman's truck to the links on the jewelry found with florence hildreth's body. at 50 times magnification, the results were clear. >> i have links from the victim's body. they have markings on them that are of the same type, made by the same tool that made the markings that made up the necklace. it certainly indicates that the suspect would have some explaining to do.

>> but if rodney berryman was the killer, what happened to the spare tire? when investigators searched further, they found one in berryman's backyard leaning up against the house. they confiscated the tire and greg laskowski made an impression in material similar to the soil at the crime scene. he also took an impression of the side walls. the comparison was remarkably clear. the impressions forming the letters "v," "s" and "d" at the crime scene were identical to the letters on the side of rodney berryman's spare tire. and numerous scratches on the tire known as accidental markings matched the both samples, as well. rodney berryman was not told about this evidence.

during his formal interrogation, he was asked if anyone else ever drove his truck. he said, "absolutely not." >> when rodney berryman says that no one ever, under any circumstances, drives his vehicle, well, that points pretty strongly towards him being in the vehicle. >> he was making negative -- what we call negative statements. he was lying to me. and when somebody does that, you let them keep going with that because the more they lie, the deeper they dig their hole. >> berryman looked like he had been in a fight. >> i did see a scratch on his face also. i did recall seeing a scratch on his face, and i asked him when he got that scratch. and he stated that he had gotten it during a basketball game with a friend of his. >> and investigators noticed he was wearing a brand-new pair of brooks brand athletic shoes similar to the impressions found at the crime scene. and on those shoes was even more

evidence. >> when i was talking to him, i had just looked down at his shoes. and i seen some spots on them that looked like blood. why, naturally, i am very pleased with this. >> once again, greg liskowski made impressions of berryman's sneakers in the same material he used for the tire. again, the impressions were clear. the size, make, and model were identical to the impressions at the crime scene. the accidental characteristics were also identical. and the blood? this was before dna testing. so analysts turned to a process called electrophoresis. they passed an electrical current through the blood sample which revealed a unique combination of enzymes. this showed the blood on berryman's sneakers was almost

surely florence hildreth's. >> it was consistent with having come from 0.068% of the african-american population, and miss hildreth was included within that group. so for pre-dna testing-type evidence, it was pretty strong. pretty strong indicator that it was her blood. >> rodney berryman unwittingly left a generous array of evidence at the crime scene which enabled investigators to charge him for florence's murder within 24 hours of the crime.

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he was a violent individual, was characterized as a sociopath with anti-personality disorder, an individual who believes that basically, they have the right to do whatever they want and they don't have to follow any rules. so they can do whatever they want at any point in time even if it harms another person. >> one last bit of evidence sealed the case against rodney berryman. he denied florence was ever in his truck. but a thumbprint was found on the passenger side dashboard. it matched florence's print. >> that was another one of the things that really ensnared him. he denied that she had ever been in the vehicle, and yet her thumbprint was there. that obviously can't have been there in she wasn't in the truck.

>> police believe that when florence walked home that night, she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. rodney saw her walking home. they knew one another casually, and rodney offered her a ride. >> come on in. i'll give you a ride. >> when she got into his truck, she left her thumbprint on the dashboard. instead of taking her home, rodney drove 12 miles away to a deserted farm. >> get out of my car. >> i'm not getting out of the car. >> the evidence clearly shows a confrontation. when berryman dragged her from the truck, her necklace broke, leaving several links underneath the driver's seat.

after the sexual assault, berryman stabbed florence to death, and drops of her blood fell onto his sneakers. during this time, a witness saw his truck in the vicinity and later reported it to police. the next morning berryman removed the spare tire from his truck, but left it in the backyard. not realizing its forensic importance. the distinctive tire impression, the shoes. the necklace, the fingerprint and blood evidence left little doubt as to the perpetrator. >> she was young, a good student with her whole future ahead of her. and the loss of someone like that with their whole life ahead of them and a lot to accomplish -- any loss of human life is tragic. but that's a particularly tragic situation.

>> she took a ride from a person that she thought she knew that she thought she could trust, and he turned on her, you know. he turned on her. it was awful. >> rodney berryman was convicted of first-degree murder. he now sits on death row in san quentin prison. >> the various items of forensic evidence essentially created a web that mr. berryman became ensnared in. forensic evidence was so strong that the jury convicted very quickly, and there really was just no way to explain away all the different forensic evidence. >> the amount of evidence and the quality of that evidence, i think that's what made it easy for the jury to come to the conclusion that mr. berryman was guilty and deserved the highest penalty. >> if it wasn't for the crime lab on the other side taking what we found during that almost 24-hour period where we were running to find this guy, i don't know that we would have been successful in the prosecution. >> i still have to say that at

that time and at that place, the scientific and forensic work that was done was excellent. and it was correct. the medical examiner ruled the death an accident. but a forensic detective disagreed. the final resolution took three long years and raised questions about the accuracy of an autopsy. paterson, new jersey, is an industrial suburb outside new york city which has its share of violent crime. one of the town's most unusual cases happened in 1980. >> i would personally rank it as being one of the most interesting, challenging cases i ever had. >> 29-year-old frankie pullian was found dead on a deserted