a murder unsolved for 13 years. a young man shot on the streets of new york. >> police are still looking for clues in the fatal shooting of at a bank early today. >> tonight inside a real-life hunt to catch a killer. >> put it all together and you've got a shooter. >> with a detective still on the trail. >> i've never known him, first time we met he's dead. >> the reporter who's been there since day one. >> i was present with a camera 24/7. >> the victim's family. >> i've replayed that night in my mind millions and millions of times. >> abc news given unprecedented access inside the nypd following the every move of the manhattan south homicide squad.

the search for new clues and their quest for justice. >> every cop got that case, the one case that will make you go back in. this is my case. >> this special edition of "nightline," "a murder on orchard street," will right back.

this is a special edition of "nightline." "a murder on orchard street." >> good evening. thank you for joining us. tonight we take you inside an

unsolved murder with a homicide detective who is still haunted by the case more than a decade later. a young man was shot and killed on the streets of new york. abc news was given unprecedented access to the nypd investigation. to you the detective turned to our reporter in hopes of finding new clues and bringing justice for the victim's family. >> hey, christina. i'm just frustrated the way this whole case has been like forever. anything that needs to get shaken up to get this thing out there and find justice for burke. >> there was a guy that was killed around the corner last week. on orchard street. >> i've replayed that night in my mind millions and millions of times. >> the police department and the o'brien family are requesting the help of the public in apprehending the perpetrators of a homicide.

>> it's the first thing you think about when you wake up and it's the last thing you think about when you go to bed. >> i've never known him in life. the first time me and him ever met, he's dead. >> i was present with a camera 24/7 for every single homicide south of 59th street. >> police! >> every day i was looking for him. and every day that person i was hoping was looking over their shoulder, looking for me. >> good morning. it's 26 degrees at 6:00. i'm lee harris. >> police are still looking for clues in the fatal shooting of a banker earlier today. 25-year-old burke o'brien was talking to his former college roommate after a night out, shot in the chest as he tried to unlock a building's front door. >> it was early morning hours in january. burke o'brien had come to visit friends in new york.

and somebody shot him almost point blank. >> he wasn't quite dead yet. i grabbed his face. tried to kind of shake him up, shake him awake. he wasn't conscious at that point, really, i don't think. and so he took his last breath, at which point i started cpr. >> andy dietz was a sergeant, commanding officer on the scene. he was the kind of gruff, straight-up guy who all the detectives respected. >> he's saying it was a robbery that a male black and a male hispanic robbed him at gunpoint, shot his friend in the chest. we got independent witness, a male black that happened to be walking down the block, sees the shooting, the actual shooting. >> he sees two people standing there.

having a conversation of some sort. he can't tell if it's arguing. he sees the perp, puts his hand up, hears a bang. at that point he walks down the block, makes a 911 call. police then show up. >> he hears a male white talking to the police, telling about how a male black and a male hispanic robbed him at gunpoint, shot his friend in the chest. >> taps another officer on the shoulder, "that's not what happened." >> he says, listen, that guy's lying, i think he shot somebody. we're pretty certain we got the guy but he's not budging on the story. >> burke had said that he's got this friend that he really liked and he was going to be staying at his place. burke actually wasn't supposed to be in new york. he was planning on leaving to go back down to d.c. but stayed to surprise me. he was a really good brother. he was my best friend in the whole world. really fun night, we went out to

go see some music. we danced, we hung out. we split two cabs. i was in one cab, he was in the one right behind me. we were like dancing a half hour earlier. you know, he was supposed to walk in the door two seconds later. >> i got a call there was a homicide. i was going to be the lead detective. the story i got was that burke and his friend got into some sort of altercation, over what we didn't know, and his friend pulled a gun and shot him almost point blank. the only people that we know that we can say for sure is a witness is one guy who seemed really credible. >> does he see them fighting? >> no, he tells me they're talking, when sees these two guys are talking. >> you got to figure there is an

argument for our witness -- >> he didn't just pull out a gun and shoot. >> it seemed wrapped up already. forrest was the one who pulled the trigger and killed his friend. >> right now we have four people here. two males, two females. our possible suspect, his roommate, the victim's sister, the victim's sister's friend. she was going out with the victim at some point. last night she might have hooked up with the alleged perp. >> she tells me that she feels she loves the victim, basically became involved in a relationship, she basically describes as oral sex relationship. they never kissed, anything like that. and she indicates that she met forrest for the first time yesterday. >> the detectives are always looking to tell a story that makes sense. they had what they felt was a clear motive, jealousy.

>> drinking, jealousy, rage, put that all together and you've got a shooting. that's where we're at. >> i just -- had no idea what hit me. my family came as soon as they could. they showed up around 10:00 in the morning. so about six hours later. >> my daughter raurie called me from the hospital and said, dad, burke is dead. i'm not okay, i'm shock the. >> i was 19. i was at colorado state university in my freshman year in college there. i remember that i threw my phone against the wall. i was curled up in a ball in the

bathroom when my uncle and my brother tommy came to get me. i just really needed to get to raurie. so i got to her room. and she was sleeping for the first time in, you know -- since it had happened. i laid with her in bed for a while. she cried. i just tried to hold her. >> the main goal was to find the gun because that was going to be the breakthrough to everything, it would have dna, it would have everything, because they had the bullet from burke. >> steve, are there any dirtballs in this warrant? >> if we find a gun in the

apartment, that's just as good as a confession. >> well, we did this whole entire area. >> doesn't make sense. >> next theory. >> we got an eyewitness that says this guy did it. that's clear-cut. but the gun, again -- just because people lie to us doesn't mean we're wrong. >> i'm outside, i'm outside, 75 orchard. >> burke, burke, burke, burke -- >> isn't it odd he never once said he was shot? >> by somebody? >> by somebody. >> we're going to do this now. >> my role was to really develop a rapport with this guy.

it was something forrest didn't want to tell me. >> he says they're getting ready to go into the building. he happens -- something catches his eye off to his side. he turns around. next thing you know he's got a gun in his face. he clearly says it's a .45. >> most people when they get robbed, especially at gunpoint, they focus on the gun. but they don't focus on the type of gun. they don't focus on the caliber of the gun. >> that bothered me. i'm saying anybody puts a gun in your face, all you see is a battle. >> forrest can give you a detailed description of the weapon but can barely tell you what the guy is wearing. >> doesn't say nothing about the guy. i can't see it. >> a lot of times you have detectives who get into telling a story, they hoff telling stories, figuring out how a story works. several detectives found forrest's story difficult to believe that someone who was robbing them at gunpoint wouldn't take that extra second

to take his expensive watch. >> what are you taking? >> at the time, from what i was watching, i completely believed that forrest was guilty. >> his story is bull [ muted ]. manufactured this whole thing about a robbery that didn't occur. we have an independent witness. there's only two people on the street. those two people, this kid and the dead kid. >> collectively, there was a decision that there was just enough to lock up forrest and charge him with homicide. >> relax your hands, relax. not so anxious that an arrest has to be made right now, i just wish we had something a little bit more one way or the other. >> i've made hundreds of arrests before. and in this case, it just didn't feel right. coming up, the suspect

finally speaks. >> i said this from the very beginning. i'm not the story. i didn't shoot burke. >> and a break in the case is about to prove forrest innocent. >> how close were you? so when you ran, you ran northbound? if you've got a life, you gotta swiffer feel the power of thenew power...smax. ...to fight back theraflu's powerful new formula to defeat 7 cold and flu symptoms... fast. so you can play on. theraflu expressmax. new power.

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>> i said this from the very beginning. i'm not the story. i didn't shoot burke. >> i'll bring your jacket and stuff, okay? >> the hard part was hearing that burke was gone. and not only am i alone, but they're also charging me with something that i didn't do. >> are you sick or injured? any medication? >> put me in a cell. i never have any idea what time it is. i'm just, you know, a guy working every day, i was mugged, now i'm here. why me? >> what he says is the truth, it's 100% different than what the witness says. he says they're getting ready to go into the building, something catches his eye off to his side -- >> before i had a chance to pull

out my keys or actually open the door, next thing i know there's someone with a gun relatively close to my head. i gave him the change from our taxi. i think i remember saying something like, we really don't have anything else, we don't have any more money, we really don't. and burke said, listen, you don't need to do this. then the guy was saying back to him, no, you don't need to do this. burke had taken like a small step toward the gunman, then the guy lifted his gun and fired the weapon. as soon as the shot was fired, they were off. they were gone. >> burke andrew o'brien. >> especially with a homicide, you can't help but personalize this thing. through the investigation i find out who he is, find out about his family, speak to them. he becomes known to me as a person. i don't know him in life.

the first time him and me meet, he's dead. what was the last thing your lawyer told me? >> if there's something you want to tell us, now is the time to tell us. i told them over and over. that's when i started to see, okay, they have some crazy idea that i did this. >> when we left last night, the d.a. last thing he told me was we had enough to charge. came in this morning, the d.a. at this point might decline to prosecute. >> district attorney feels there's certainly enough for an arrest, and an arrest was made, but there's not enough evidence to continue with a prosecution of the case. >> when the detectives found out that the d.a. was not going to prosecute, they felt lost for a moment. because they had felt like they had wrapped this case up. and they had a perp and they were done.

>> then apartment 3, i got no answer. apartment 4 right there. apartment 7 is vacant. >> going to go back over to the block and recanvass apartments and see if we can find any new witnesses. there was a shooting across the street, we're trying to find out if anybody saw anything, heard anything -- >> no, we went to bed early saturday night. >> we were coming up empty everywhere, we weren't finding anybody that gave us any credibility we could use as a witness. it seemed quickly this case was coming to a screeching halt. >> seventh squad, detective sylvia, can i help you? >> suddenly from nowhere a phone call comes in. >> is there any way i can come to your job and speak to you?

>> hey, christina. i'm just frustrated with the way this whole case has been like forever. >> 13 years later when is kenny reached out to me hoping to get attention for this case again. because he felt that was the only way to solve it. i wasn't going to do it and he agreed until raurie agreed to be part of it. >> as it is right now, the two people who killed burke are kind of these faceless, mysterious people who exist out in the ether. >> the bottom line is we're going to need somebody to call us. >> somebody's got to know something at some point, you know? >> somebody always does. >> that was just the beginning of our riveting "nightline" series "a murder on orchard street." to find out how this investigation unfolds and what happens with this close-knit family, watch every episode on

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the story you heard tonight is just one of many thousands of unsolved homicides. over the last two decades, at least 100,000 american families have been left to grieve like the o'briens, without answers. but very often just one tin can help. if you happen to know anything that can solve this case or any other, please do your part to help bring justice to a family in need. watch the full series of "a murder on orchard street" on hulu now and help solve this murder. thanks for watching abc news. as always we're online at really? really? really? really? really? really? see zero in a whole new way. get zero down, zero deposit, zero first month's payment, and zero due at signing on select volkswagen models.

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