>> building a better bay away area. this is abc 7 news. >> you're watching getting answers live on abc 7, hulu live and wherever you scream. we're asking experts your questions every day at 3:00. today, dr. patel will be here to answer your questions about covid-19, including whether a new variant is serious enough to warrant its own greek letter. buff first, a 26-year-old bay area code case murder solved with new d.n.a. technology by investigators who refused to give up. >> the family was obviously relieved and it's a prime example of how we don't forget about the victims.

every families -- family deserves answers and this is a way of us doing it. >> in week, the is a moment -- sonoma county sheriff's office say they nine limb identified who killed the 32-year-old union city mother of three in 1996. michelle's nude body was found on the side in road in sonoma counsel. in the era of hitchhiking. today we're joined by award-winning investigative journalist grace kaun and in the first tv supervise interviews on the stung news, the two violent crimes investigates central to the case. detective aniya who solve it would mystery and detective barr. thank you all for being here. grace, some of us are old enough to remember that hitchhiker murders back in the 1970's.

who was michelle veal? >> michelle was a vibe brandt, magnet quick, incredibly popular union city woman, the mother of three beautiful beautiful girls, aged 10, and 7. she was loved and raced in a loving bay area family and he were disappearance and horrible brutal murder has scared all of them for life. >> can you give us details on the crime? we saw the picture of jack bokin who has been identified. how did she meet up with him and tell us about the scene? >> you know, on a bigger scale, this is similar to a 1,000-piece jigsaw pusle. you know,over time, you try to

put a puzzle together and in the end there's a good chance you're going to be left with peels us don't know and that comes to play here where in the end we don't know exactly how they came in contact. we just know that unfortunately michelle came across this character. >> but the body, what you were able to tell, the way she fought. there was d.n.a. evidence to talk to us about what kind of d.n.a. evidence was left, how you came to discover it and then how you ultimately used it to link her to the killer. >> sure, by the courage of michelle, she gave us clues to help solve her murder and tell her story. i began. relieving this "cold case" file early last year and i think it was logical to attack the evidence and see what viable evidence we still had than be

used to solve the case with current technology regarding d.n.a. there was good evidence. there was a great detail of collecting and retaining evidence for this case and fortunately i was able to cement case everyday to a lab. >> yeah, a little bit more about this d.n.a. technology. it's relatively new and weren't you down to your last scrap of evidence? >> yeah, it came down to case evidence where the analyst let me know, this is going to exhaust some evidence and talking it over with my fellow detects in the office, we determined it's coming up on 25, 26 years, now is the time we try to tell this story and solve this case. >> detective, who was jack boken. he died in prison last year. talk to us about what he was in prison for, what he had been

convicted of. >> he did die in prison roughly a month or so before we got this d.n.a. hit. he was in prison roughly october of 1997 for a series of horrendous violent sexual acts that occurred within the san francisco area. >> ok. you had to tell both families about this stover -- discovery. it was very difficult because she was the mother of three young girls when she was can i feeled. they are, of course, now middle-aged women. what was their reaction when after all this time you could now tell them who their mother's killer was? >> you know, i would really -- to really get to grasp that, i can only empathize for the tragedy within their family.

i met with the mother and two daughters. i have can only empathize and assume that's great so i've but the least we can do is tell you what happened to your mother, your family member. but i would imagine a mixed amount of emotions. >> what about bokin's family. i-same you also had to talk to them. what was their reaction? >> we did and in in case i came across a lot of different situations for the first time and that's one of them. it's a very unusual conversation but once again i think -- i can only imagine what they went through at that time. this guy was a horrific character. he held a family but yet committed needs horrendous crimes so you can imagine that the confusion and all the

emotions that they must have felt. >> talk to us a little bit about bokin. you said he had a family. you know, detective barr, i think you look at the profile of serial killers very closely. he was nota typical, was he? talk to us about how he grew up. he seemed smart and accomplished. who was he? >> well, he's -- when we look at his background, which we did once we got the hit. we started diving into his background and looking at how his criminal history and we notice had in it. went back to the 1960's when he was a young man and then we started digging in talking to family member and is learning some things and it is nota typical -- his background is similar to other backgrounds that we are investigating currently on some of the other cases we have only persons of interest. >> in fact, ufc, the hitchhiker

killings, i think most of them, you know, so many kim women. how many were there and how many still unsolved? >> the him hiker killings over the years, tons of detectives throughout our agent and agencies in northern california have looked at them and it goes even beyond that but i think in ours we have several that are unsolved. similar. young ladies were known to be hitchhiking and were -- their deceased bodies were were found in rural locations throughout sonoma county and throughout the years, detectives have continued to investigate persons of interest but we haven't i've -- identified a subject. when bokin came up -- sorry. >> it's ok, my apologies.

i am wonders, since bokin has been tied to michelle, does this mean he's going to be linked to some of those other victims who cases are -- whose cases are still unsolved? >> absolutely, we're going to look at it. you know, just based on aidian's investigation and now going back on bokin's history, now that he's come you have -- he was in the paroxysmity of sonoma counsel during those dimes -- times so he's definitely somebody we'll look at and investigate. >> grace, chark you tell us? because i know you've spent so much time looking into these cases. it's really been a driving passion for you to bring justice to them. talk about the significance of this case solved 26 years later and what that might do for the others. >> i think what's important torches here is there was an

etch academic of kill in northern california. michelle veal is one dale case. there are 66 unsolved cold cases and they are all young women. the beginning of the hitchhiker killings began in 1972 with two medical school killings. imagine that in present day if a 12 and 13-year-old were walking away from a roller rink and just finished and then nine days after christmas in 19 2, their bodies were found naked, just dumped like garbage. stripped of all clothing and left on an embankment not that far from where my chill veal's body was. look, these cases are decades old and the work that snowa counsel is doing is critical. as you can say, adrian was -- jack bokin was not just a san

francisco cyril rapist. he held these women in the basement of his home while his family was at home and struck them in the back of a head with a hmm ha -- hammer. the thing that finally sent him to prison. was after he had sexual assaulted assaulted and brutalized. he built them so hard they will thought their tongues were going to fall off. there was one 19-year-old woman he picked up who was the single woman of a 2-year-old. he beat he were over the head of a hammer. she played dead. she wiped her blood on the inside of the trunk of boki ins's car and he dumped he were into the bay off the embarcadero near the ferry building and she swam to shore somehow, untied. he's and got to safety and it was based on that, on amber's

bravery and survival that we were finally able to putt him in jail. so what we know now is that guy, jack bokin, who, like many of the society path -- sober path killers we investigate, he was incredibly smart and lived a double life. a detective i talked to said he was strong as a bull and smart as hell and incredible dive cent and those three things made him a dangerous predator. >> we have to take a short back. when we come back we'll talk more about both michelle veal's case and also breaking news because we understand you've also made a connection to

>> welcome back. we are talking about the breaking news this week. a 26-yard "cold case" killing solved in nomada county. so back with the detectives and the journalist who helped break the case. also, the work of the stanford killer, who's now in prison. tell us about that. >> first of all, i didn't work on the michelle veal case. that was all sonoma county so props to them. but i have been working on other cases and john gertrud, the guy who killed a san francisco formed football daughter and it was following him that led me-up to snowa county. the thing about he has predators that you learn, plus the golden

state killer, they have a long career of killing. they get you have every day like the rest of us get up every day to do a job and they are killing, killing, killing. and that's why you see so many of these colds cases revealing what otherwise would have been noll -- normal grand fathers who decades ago were killing women. about the revelation? >> yes, you found a 15-year-old have im? >> in, so john, we're following everything cases in momoa, marin that he did. and in ohio -- since 1908, this poor cubbable -- couple has had zero answers about their 15-year-old daughter frillsa smith. teresa smith was like any other medical school school. she was on the pep team and she disappeared off -- middle

schooler. she was on the prep team and she disappeared like for eight days. if you read the investigative files about teresa's case. when her body turned you have seven days later like three counties away, there was awful kinds of rumor and speculation that she was ainge hanging out with the wrong crowd. that was completely incorrect. hemp parents said she always came home for dinner. yes, she did have a boyfriend at 15 and she was on birth control but that was the responsible thing to do but they used easy to -- those things against he were but it turnsout that two blocks from her house, guess who lived there? john getreau. >> detective barr, if you can solve a case like veal's 16 --

26 years later, i assume there's more evidence on other unsolved cases that are sitting in boxes in police departments everywhere across the country. what do you think needs to happen so that more families can get closure? >> obviously these cases are hard because they've been sitting around and like in our unit, we all carry a case load. to work these case, you have to put in extra time and i think for budgedry reasons, there's a lot of stuff that comes into play but once you get into them, you can't help but work them. when you get some like ai said, the closure with the veal family, the reward at the end is kind of what keeps you bjork keep doing it.

the families ask because they're still thinking about it every day. unfortunately it comes down to manpower and money just like everything else. >> there is a very, very grateful out there for your tenacity and hard work and for folks who want to find out more information, including if you have tips, send them in to hitchhikerkill early.com. again, that's hitchhike hitchhikerkiller.com. grace, detectives, thank you all so much. >> thank you. >> thanks. >> a

>> good news/bad news regarding covid covid. a new model shows nearly thirdss of americans may be immune to omicron but a new variant may be

coming. dr. patel, i know you have some information ready for us to go. >> everyone knows how this game works. tell us which one of these is not true. is it a, governor newsom's smarter plan stands for shocks, masks, awareness, tracing and awareness. or is it b? a report showed an increase in mental illness and heart disease. or c, san francisco officials will revisit the mask mandate on february 24th. these are all important but one is slightly not true. which one is it? >> i think i know in one but i'm going to give our viewers a few seconds. come on. first three viewers watching on facebook lie. rocket says b is the lie.

let's see if we get anymore. o salley is going with a. anyone for c? dr. patel, you certainly got tricky. ericka also weigh this is with a. because our time is short, i'm going to join the folks saying a because i think tracing is not the t word, it is testing. >> ding, ding, ding, correct. testing is part of the smarter plan and b was the study of over 150,000 patients in the veterans affairs electronic system and all it does is add to the information we know about covid. a lot of these patients suffer from other things so it's something we have to take into account and c, a lot of parents are waiting to see what's going to happen at the end of february when california revisits the mask mandate but that doesn't necessarily mean that local

districts and local districts have to follow that but when in doubt, you could still wear a mask. >> on february 28, they will be making that announcement about the mask requirement. they're hoping the numbers will be good. do you see signs that they will be good? >> i do. i see with the direct trajectory we're going in right now, it does look like we should be revisiting these mask mandates a little later on but i think it's going to be tricky, especially now that we know that those vaccine, for kids under the age of 5 are going to be delayed so i don't see this being uniform across the state but being done in a more staggered fashion. >> so masks are being

but we also say concerts, restaurants not requiring vaccines any more. i wonder what you think about that and whether it's a decent active for new vaccinations? >> anyone who was incentivized to get a shot to get back to normal life, i agree with you, i think it does remove some of the molestation but i think at this point we've reached a critical number of people who are going to get the vaccine. not very optimistic that we're going to see a lot more people get their boosters, although i will push it. i don't understand the limiting of mandates and proof of advantages nation especially ruin while cases are still high. >> you were talking about the vaccinations and a new study shows about 73% of americans may now be immune to omicron. what does that mean if true?

does that mean we won't have any more surges or maybe we still will but maybe not as many hospitalizations or illness? >> i hope it's the latter, that we have more -- in the community. this mohammed is looking at a little over 200 americans who are fully vaccinated and of that, 40% have been boosted and out of that, 80 million have been documented in the knights -- united states and probably a lot more not documented. so there is some level of vaccine and natural immunity out there. that creates a cushion but a new variant could july set all of this and anyone out there who still doesn't have a form of protection is still at risk. >> a new study out of japan suggests a new variant is something to worry on and

perhaps could get a new greek letter of its own. >> it could. it's a pre-print study, meaning it hasn't been removed by a panel -- panel of experts and was done in animals. before a.2 of the sub variant omicron looked to be able to bind stronger to some of the cells that cause infection and potentially could cause more severe illness. again, this is very early. it's a minority of cases in the united states and where it's popular in south africa and the u.k., hospitalizations are going do

>> thank you, dr. patel, have a great weekend.

>> happy friday, thank you. >> thank you so much for joining us today on this interactive show, getting answers. tonight, breaking news as we come on the air -- president biden a short time ago on vladimir putin and russia. the president saying he believes putin has made his decision and that he will invade ukraine. the president saying there is still room for diplomacy, but that given u.s. intelligence and what they're seeing that putin has decided to invade and that the u.s. warnings for days that there could be a false flag attack, a manufactured incident that could ignite something much larger, tonight authorities believe russian separatists might have staged a car explosion in eastern ukraine today. evacuation of seniors and children there. the images now playing out on russian television. and russia claiming it's ukraine about to take military action. tonight what president biden