i walk in and my sister's not there. her door is open. her lights are on. her bed's undone. everything was horrible. and i felt it. she'd been fearless on the front lines in iraq. >> pretty amazing. i saw her as like a really strong soldier. >> but something had her terrified at home. >> i'm just scared. i don't feel safe. >> a desperate call to police. and then she vanished. something made her pretty scared. >> yes. >> there's nothing that says what that was. >> right. >> what had happened to this beautiful army sergeant? that question would launch a spell binding mystery. >> you got a roommate.

you got a boyfriend who she's maybe about to dump. you got an ex-boyfriend who is suddenly back in her life. >> there were a number of potential suspects absolutely. >> was a killer out there? >> she was in danger. >> could police catch him? they'd hatch a plan of virtual genius. >> one of the detectives said you're not going to believe this. >> i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." here's "mystery in orange county". orange county california. on tv it's a place of sun, fun and privilege. it's where the real housewives first aired their dirty laundry. >> what's wrong? >> nothing's wrong with me. it's you. >> it's where the kids from the o.c. showed us all what temperature cool really was. around here you get the sense that everyone's rich and white and lives in a mansion with a view of

the pacific. but step back from the coast and you'll see the orange county that isn't on tv. not as wealthy, not as white, full of those who came here from somewhere else chasing a better life and finding it in places like santa ana, a mostly working class immigrant community in the shadow of disneyland. it's the part of the o.c. where people know that to survive they'll have to work hard. maribel ramos arrived here as a baby leaving mexico behind. she would not only survive here but thrive. to tell you the truth this should be the story of a woman who worked hard to change her life. and in doing so carved a path for others to follow. >> hello? >> but this story is going to end differently. >> why are you crying? >> because i was raped. >> some parts of life

hard work just can't fix. >> i'm just scared. >> i'm calling to to tell you if something happened i did it because i was trying to save myself. honestly i will fight for my life. i swear i will kill him. >> all of this should have never reached that point of no return. so maybe it's a story of simple bad luck. of two lives that should never have come together. tell me about growing up with maribel. what was she like? >> troublemaker. mom wanted her to stay at home and she wanted to go play baseball. >> tomboy? >> yes. >> her sister lucy says tomboy maribel also had a spark. >> make friends. people were drawn to

her. easy to talk to. >> you saw boys interested in her? >> oh definitely. yeah. >> from an early age. >> from an early age. >> and that never ended, did it? >> no. no. >> little sister lucy remembers how maribel was also in charge of watching out for her while their single mother often worked two jobs to make ends meet. you were how much younger? >> seven years younger. >> a lot of girls wouldn't want their little sister tagging along. >> no she didn't want to but she had to. >> yet even as a child maribel figured out that a different world existed. and she wanted to live there. >> oh she knew at a young age that there was a lot more to life than what we had around us. there's things you can do and go to school and have opportunities and live in a nicer house. >> she saw all of that? >> yeah yeah definitely. >> maribel ramos knew she'd have to work hard to get what and where she wanted. after high school she worked in security at k-mart and hatched a

long-term plan to become a cop. but she'd need a college degree and that meant money. so maribel ramos became private first class ramos. she joined the army hoping to use the g.i. bill. her first day was august 8, 2001. and just 34 days later the whole world changed. >> we all sort of recoiled in horror but you probably also thought that's going to effect my sister. >> yeah. i turn on the tv and the towers are crumbling. first thing i thought was, oh my gosh m sister's going to war. how do you wrap your mind around that? >> lucy worried. their mother worried. but maribel was like a rock. what did maribel say about going overseas? >> she didn't express her feelings about it. she said well this is what's happening, sister. you need to talk to mom. >> maribel went to war

in iraq. what was it like to see her in uniform? >> it was pretty amazing. >> lucy's daughter, maribel's niece. >> i saw her as a brave strong soldier. i was just like whoa you're going out there to save everybody. >> you're proud of her? >> yes. >> maribel learned to jump out of airplanes and she manned the guns for armed convoys. she saw more than her share of combat. she also made sergeant. and when her tour in iraq ended, she re-enlisted for another. she seemed fearless. she could very easily have become a casualty. >> yes. and other people did die. other friends of hers. >> in 2009, after two tours in iraq maribel left the army and set part two of her plan into action enrolling in college. but adjusting back to civilian life wasn't as easy as maribel had

expected. like a lot of war veterans she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder or ptsd. she'd seen some terrible things. she ever talk about that? >> not with me. >> instead she focused on school work and family especially her niece giselle. she kind of adopted you as this project. >> yes. >> why did she do that? >> i think it was because she wanted me to have the best. >> as giselle grew older, the self-improvement message sometimes came complete with push-ups. after all, maribel was all army. >> when i would get in trouble she would make me do exercise in order to like work off the punishment. >> and all this time maribel was hammering away at giselle, you're going to finish school you're going to study hard. >> oh yes, uh-huh. >> you're going to

have a career. >> yes. this is the way you're going to do me huh, she would tell her. okay giselle? yes. >> she got a two-bedroom apartment in the city of orange. which she shared with a roommate a quiet chemist named casey joy who also had a dog. >> i thought it was a perfect match. she has a dog, he has a dog, he seems quiet. not going to have all these people coming over. >> by may 2013 everything seemed great. maribel was leading by example finishing up her degree at cal state fullerton. giselle was following in her strong footsteps. >> and he was dropping off money at my house because i had gotten good grades. and she had just got her hair done dyed and styled for her graduation. >> she looked great? >> yeah. >> and she was happy? >> yeah she was. >> and that's why it made no sense when just days later

maribel ramos, soldier, student, loving aunt simply disappeared. >> what had happened to maribel ramos? when we come back -- >> i'm freaking out. her door is open her lights are on her bed's undone. everything was horrible and i felt it. >> the mystery was about to deepen. >> nobody'd heard from ♪ ♪ ♪

may 3, 2013, was a friday a day that should have been easy for maribel ramos. school was nearly over graduation was so close. but that morning things weren't right. >> got a text from kc at 10:00 a.m. and he said your sister didn't come

home. >> they'd been roommates for more than a year now. kc felt protective of maribel. he told lucy he'd already called police to report her missing. >> orange police dispatcher rose. >> this is not an emergency. my roommate didn't come home last night. >> i texted her and said happy friday. we usually text each other anyways. that was my way of connecting. and she didn't text me back. >> unusual? >> yes. >> lucy still wasn't worried. she knew her combat-hardened sister could take care of herself. but then evening came. and for maribel friday night was softball night. she loved to play and never missed a game. but this friday night she didn't show. now lucy's phone was ringing. maribel's teammates on the line. >> they told me go to the house, the police are there, do not take giselle. i am freaking out.

and i walk in and my sister's not there. her door is open. her lights are on. her bed's undone. my head started spinning. everything was horrible. and i felt it. >> detective joey ramirez was the orange police department got the call that evening. and he also had a bad feeling about everything. it sounds like you were taking this pretty seriously from the get-go. >> absolutely. >> why couldn't she just be off by herself or with some of her friends and maybe lost her phone or forgot to call? >> that was our hope that she was just missing and that she would come walking through the door. but the family and friends expressed she was very responsible. >> and nobody'd heard from her? >> nobody. >> so ramirez and his team went into action. they quickly figured out that if she left on her own accord it didn't look like maribel had planned to be out long. she left her car at

home. >> her car was there. her keys were gone. her phone was gone. >> but her toothbrush was there. so was her big purse she used when she had a lot to carry. kc returned home hours after police first got there. he again told the cops what he'd told them that morning, that maribel was missing. lucy and the softball team went to the police station hoping for answers. but morning came and there weren't any. so channelling her big sister lucy decided to stop waiting and make her own luck. >> i woke up on saturday and i thought, wow, this is seriously happening. so i posted a picture of her on facebook. and it was immediate. people went into action. >> friends from the university got together family members, her roommate lots of people who maribel had touched wanted to help. they hung flyers in english and spanish. they reached out to

reporters. >> it's very not like her after eight years of service in the army to just disappear. >> when next day friday morning she was not here. >> i helped my mom pass out flyers around school pretty much anything i could do. >> did you think they'd find her? >> yes. i did. >> giselle was 14 at the time but detective ramirez who's been a cop for more years than giselle's been alive, was not as hopeful. she's not using her cell phone. she's not taking any money out. no one's heard from her. when you picked up no trace of her after a couple of days you still think you're looking for a living person? >> the percentages are starting to drop not in our favor. >> because by then you've called all the hospitals. >> all hospitals, jails. >> there's an alert out that any police officer what in southern california sees her. >> correct. and the media was also helping. >> and nothing? >> nothing. >> no maribel on security tape from any nearby store. police checked all of

them. they found only this image from the security camera outside the manager's office for her apartment complex. it's maribel paying the rent. it's may 2nd at:00nd at 8:18 p.m. the night before anyone realized she had disappeared. maribel seems to be alone. so what the cops needed to do was talk to everyone who was anyone in maribel's life. turns out there were a lot of people they suddenly needed to get to know. including a current boyfriend, an ex-boyfriend and someone maribel had just met, a guy she'd made a date with online. a guy whose name maribel had apparently kept completely to herself. >> coming up the man in maribel's life suddenly under scrutiny. >> you're not under arrest anything like that.

>> and that haunting phone call. >> i'm just scared. >> something had to happen to make her pretty scared. >> yes. >> there's nobody to

this is the city of orange california in the county of orange california. much of it is a small

town stuck in time. there's a university a zoo, cute local businesses and a police department that doesn't have to deal with a lot of violent crime. after all the happiest place on earth is just down the street. but in may 2013 detective joey ramirez was far from happy. he had a lot of ground to cover and a strong sense that time was against him as he tried to figure out what had happened to maribel ramos. >> she just vanished? >> yes. >> how often that kind of thing happen? >> it doesn't happen often. >> ramirez started by investigating the men in maribel's life. it turned out there were a few of them. did you know she was doing all that online dating? did she talk about that? >> yeah she did. >> maribel sometimes met guys through a website called that's how she found paul lopez. they'd been dating for a few months and paul had even joined her weekly softball game.

lopez was the last person maribel talked to on the phone. now police wanted to talk to him. >> you know you're not under arrest anything like that. >> okay. >> ramirez sat across from paul and asked about his relationship with maribel. >> nothing's been exclusive, it's just been you know dating. >> you date other people too? >> yeah. >> okay. you don't know if she dates other people or not? >> i don't ask, don't tell. >> and he asked lopez where he was on the night maribel disappeared. >> did you come into orange at all on thursday? >> no. >> police also had to consider this maribel had told lucy that things weren't working out with paul lopez. >> she wasn't a match with paul. so she was online talking to people. >> it wasn't clear if paul knew even if they kept dating but maribel was back on plenty of fish and met a new man. he was a photographer who worked a lot with

the military. it was a connection for both of them. how did she describe that guy? >> she said oh i met someone, he's very interesting. we have a lot in common. >> and you thought what? good? >> i thought great. >> they planned a date for sin koe decinco de mayo. but two days before that was to happen she vanished. >> you're saying you never met her in person? >> no. >> so he said anyway. there was also an ex-boyfriend who'd been calling. police needed to check him out. and there was this lead. >> there was a person at cal state fullerton that was in the veterans association with her that had given her a bad feeling he may have wanted to pursue some sort of dating relationship. >> but it gave her a bad feeling how? >> she wasn't interested in him and she didn't give him any attention, yet he didn't go away. >> so he made her feel

uncomfortable? >> correct. >> and by now detective ramirez had learned something else. just a little over a week before she vanished, maribel ramos had called 911. >> hi orange police. >> hi it's not an emergency, but i just is there a recording? >> is there a what? >> is this conversation recording? >> yes. every conversation is recorded. >> maribel wanted it on the record. she wanted police to know that she was very afraid of someone. >> i'm just like calling to let you guys know that if something happens, i did it because i was trying to defend myself. >> she might have been afraid but this army-strong woman who'd always taken care of herself feared she might be the one putting the hurt on her attacker. >> all i'm trying to say is that i'm warning. honestly i will fight for my life and i swear i will kill him. >> something had happened to make her pretty scared.

>> yes. >> there's nobody to call to say what that was. >> right. >> what was she afraid of? not clear. who was she afraid of? that was another story entirely. >> coming up another man in maribel's life sits down with police and he seems eager to help with the case. >> you were doing your own surveillance? >> yes. >> did her roommate know something that police didn't?

it should have been her proudest moment. maribel ramos had joined the army to put herself through college, but just days away from her graduation ceremony she'd vanished. earlier maribel had called police to say she was in danger and afraid for her life. what was it or who was it that had her so terrified? here again josh. >> by now posters blanketed the city of orange. maribel was missing and her family was frantic. >> as soon as i got a call she didn't show up to her baseball game i got the worst feeling in the world. >> putting himself out there with all the rest was maribel's roommate kc joy. >> she's my only family i have. she's my best friend.

>> kc had moved from tennessee to southern california for a job. he had no family and few friends here. so he turned to maribel and she was happy to include him. she even arranged for kc to tutor her niece in math. >> he seemed nice respectful. he liked to be involved with the family and my aunt. >> no family of his own so he kind of attached himself to yours. >> yeah. >> but they weren't boyfriend and girlfriend? >> no. >> even in photos maribel and kc seem to be having a great time. they even went on a cruise together. soon police would be talking with kc joy. >> kept track of names straight and -- >> yeah that's a good idea. >> the formalities are over detective ramirez started asking about maribel. >> as you know right now there's some people some family

and friends that are worried about maribel, your roommate. >> right. i care about her very much. >> but he said he had no idea what happened to her. >> so when was the last time you saw her? >> about 9:00 p.m. that's when i talk -- at 9:00 and i went up. >> that's thursday may 2nd. the next night when cops were called to maribel's house kc wasn't there. he explained he'd been so worried that he did his own investigation. watching his own front door from his car parked out front. >> ordered some movies and detective movies crime scene or whatever always come back to the door park the car in front, take my notebook had binocular in there. >> so you were doing your own surveillance? >> yes. >> it sounded a little odd. maybe kc had just seen too many crime movies. but if he had, then he'd probably know

cops don't miss little details like well like this. >> he's sitting across the table from me he's wearing a short sleeve shirt, he had his jeans on and sandals. and instantly i can see scratches on both his arms. he's got a scratch across his forehead from his hairline to his eye. >> how'd you get all these scratches on you? >> we go to eisenhower park all the time. we picked up fishing line all around the pond. >> pardon me? >> fishing line. >> those are from fishing lines -- >> no no. i'm going to explain. >> kc explained he was walking the dogs when he saw a fishing line in the bush worried about the ducks in the park getting caught on the line he reached in to remove it and got all those scratches. >> you've been around long enough you can tell the difference between scratches that a person might get,

you know reaching into a bush or from an animal than scratches somebody would get during an actual fight with another person. >> right. and some of the scratches on his arms did look like scratches that would be from something other than fingernails. but there was one particular set of scratches on his right bicep that to me clearly looked like scratches from a hand. >> and that says to you he was in a fight? >> it does. when was the last time you guys had any sort of an argument? >> actually this thursday. >> this thursday? >> that was the last night anyone saw maribel, the night she was caught on camera paying the rent. which kc said was what they were arguing about. >> well what happened? tell me about that. >> i'm supposed to move out. >> it turned out kc had recently lost his

job and could no longer pay his share of the rent. maribel had asked him to move out. that was reason for concern of course. and so was this. detective ramirez had learned about the 911 call maribel had made 11 days before she disappeared. and he knew that in that call the man maribel said she might have to kill was kc joy. >> his full name is qoii -- joy. >> weren't the police out to your house recently because you had an argument? >> we'd been drinking quite a bit and she started hitting me. >> kc said it was all just a drunken misunderstanding. >> i'm not attracted to you, i'm not attracted she started screaming and yelling, what was the problem? >> what was the problem?

detective ramirez heard from maribel's family something very interesting. kc joy had wanted to be more than just roommates with maribel ramos ramos. lucy told us the same thing. when did it become apparent to you that kc sort of had a crush on your sister? >> he called me and then he just says i'm like in love with your sister. i'm like great. >> because you knew your sister wasn't in love with him? >> yes. and that's a bad situation. so at that point i'm like okay kc you know you're a good man and i'm sure you'll find somebody out there for you, but -- >> but it's not going to be her? >> yeah. >> now the woman kc had told lucy he wanted had told him that not only did she not love him, but he had to basically get out of her life. despite that kc continued talking with police. mr. joy was being cooperative? >> he was. >> talking to

officers. let you guys take stuff out of the house. >> he did. >> and never showed up with a lawyer? >> he did not. >> doesn't sound that did a lot to set aside your suspicions? >> no it didn't. >> suspicions sure. but no proof a crime had even occurred. maribel ramos was missing. that's all anyone knew. and so kc joy walked out of that police station like all the other men in maribel's life a free man. >> coming up -- >> he knew a lot more than he was telling us. >> finally, the clue they'd been waiting for. and you won't believe how they got it. >> no one had searched there? >> no.

the days were ticking by and still no maribel. forensic results were coming in, dna, fingerprints fingerprints, cell phone data. none of it adding up to anything that told the cops what had happened to her. so police were looking at the usual suspects like her boyfriend paul lopez. lopez worked for the gas company and goes from call to call in a company truck. the gps on that truck puts him nowhere near the city of orange on the night maribel was seen on that security video.

that is until about midnight. lopez told police that's when he went home. he said he was alone and could prove it. >> my parking spot is actually right by a surveillance camera. >> so the surveillance camera would show you parking? >> that was enough to get lopez off the list. there was that ex-boyfriend who'd been calling. maribel had never mentioned he'd been a problem. and police didn't think he was involved. there was the photographer from the website plenty of fish. his cell phone data placed him in san diego, out of the area at the time in question. and the veteran from cal state who'd come onto strong he was in japan. none of them could be connected to maribel's disappearance. so in the end there was just one person the cops couldn't stop looking at the first person to report maribel missing, her roommate kc joy. >> police dispatcher

rose. >> this is not an emergency. my roommate is 36 years old and she didn't come home last night. >> he was also the last to see her alive. >> i felt she most likely was dead. i felt that there was a high probability mr. joy was responsible for it. and he knew a lot more than he was telling us. >> so detective ramirez became kc joy's shadow appearing in the morning and then later by moonlight. hours after kc's first police interview, a cheerful joey ramirez showed up at his house. >> hey, kc how are you? can we come in? >> he brought a voice recorder and a few more questions. >> how are you this morning? good good. >> detective ramirez already knew the answers to some of them. >> so when you say work she works at -- >> cafe fullerton. >> cafe fullerton? >> and to some he

didn't. >> did you have any marks on your leg or anything? let me just ask you do you have any injuries on your leg? >> no. >> you have no injuries on your leg whatsoever? >> no i don't have any. >> then ramirez showed up again that night. >> kc joey kind of quick question and i'll get out of here. how are you doing? are you okay? >> pretty quiet. >> how many times did you talk to him? >> i believe i talked to him at least nine times. >> ramirez tried scaring kc about potential evidence found in his car. >> why would there be blood in the red versa? >> blood? yeah right. tell me there's blood i don't know anything about it. >> what blood? >> you tell me. >> he tried backing kc into a corner about what might be found on kc's hard drive. >> well the good thing is if there's anything that you ever deleted that you wish you hadn't we should

be able to help you out with that. >> you're hoping he's going to think to himself, okay everything i've deleted they're going to see? >> right. >> didn't work? >> didn't work. we were swinging and missing regularly. on a daily basis. >> kc joy was willing to talk repeatedly without an attorney. >> kc he's been very cooperative with us. >> he says to you, i've seen this movie and now you're going to take my fingerprints. like a pro. he's seen it all. >> he's being very relaxed. i felt that he was very confident that we weren't going to figure it out. >> what mr. joy apparently didn't know was that other officers were watching him 24/7. the surveillance teams noticed he was spending a lot of time at the public library. and he was using the

computers there. probably because police had taken away his phone, and maribel's computer which was the one kc normally used. >> initially we would have under cover policemen going to the library, walk around him, see what he's doing. and at one point he's seen googleing will can a cell phone be tracked if it's turned off. >> that's certainly suspicious. >> it is. >> detective ramirez was consulting daily with orange county deputy district attorney scott simmons. >> there are things that can be called into question, but they're not immediately proof of anything? >> exactly. that's why we didn't arrest him right away. >> police needed to see exactly what kc joy was doing on those library computers. that would require a very unusual plan. they obtained a search warrant allowing them to watch in realtime every move made on the computer.

this is a recording of kc's actual computer key strokes and mouse clicks. that's kc checking his e-mail. that's kc applying for a job. that's kc typing in how long does it take a body to decay. suspicious maybe, but not enough. and then he did this. >> he pulled up a facebook page that showed there was going to be an awareness walk in the near future. >> a walk to help find maribel? >> it was. he google mapped that park and zoomed in onto it. he then panned out, navigated over about eight to ten miles. >> this area that he was zeroing in on was it an area that had crossed your field of vision at all? >> no. >> here kc is google mapping a place that no one had searched. watch as he zooms in to that area with the

tree. that tree didn't figure into the investigation in any way? >> not in any stretch of the imagination. >> no one had searched there no reason to be in the paper or anywhere else? >> no. it's in a remote canyon location. >> but he's looking at it? >> yes. >> by the time kc was walking out of the library that afternoon, police were already headed to that tree. >> coming up another startling discovery. >> it's way off the beaten path. we didn't know what to think. >> and the suspect speaks. hear from kc joy himself. are you dangerous? >> me? i'm the most honest guy there is. ♪

♪ ♪

as he dug deeper into kc joy's

background detective joey ramirez found more and more evidence that kc was infatuated even obsessed with maribel ramos. for instance the time maribel told kc he was too old for her and he responded by getting plastic surgery. $12,000 later you got a difference face? >> correct. >> and he says the reason he got it was because of the woman who's missing? >> correct. >> now here was kc at the public library google mapping a remote wilderness area. since the don of detective novels killers have returned to the scene of the crime. but these days there's no need for the bad guy to even get in his car. now it can be done with the click of a mouse. the good guys still have to do it the old fashioned way. detective shawn hayden got the call on the radio, drive out to

rustic modjeska canyon southeast of the city of orange. >> we didn't know what to think. this is rural area way off the beaten path. >> at the other end of the two-way radio detective brian stanley was re re-watching kc's google search. kc focused on an intersection and then moved over to the tree. >> in the center of the shot there's one tree that looks like a bush out in the middle. so told him to look for that tree and then in the wash for that area. >> hayden and his partner found the tree then moved off the road and past the barbed wire fence and then they knew they were close. >> as we were kind of trekking through this brush here first and foremost thing we found was a smell of like a decaying body or something dead. and my partner and i kind of turned our head and we looked over and saw this kind of shallow grave site. >> at long last there she was. >> one of the detectives called and

said joey you're not going to believe this. we found her. >> maribel ramos had been left alone in that dusty canyon since before anyone knew she was missing. now ramirez knew it was time for one last meeting with kc joy. >> well thanks for coming down here voluntarily. i really appreciate it. >> you're going to give me right back to the library then i'll have to walk. >> ramirez didn't tell kc that maribel had been found. he just tried for the final time to get kc to be the one who would say what had happened. >> kc i think that you have the answers in your heart. you do and you should share them. >> no. >> so once again kc joy walked out of the interview room. he didn't get far. this time he was arrested and charged with the murder of maribel ramos. the woman he had loved who had not loved him. when he was taken into custody kc joy was

wearing maribel's dog tags. kc joy pleaded not guilty. and in july 2014 a year after maribel vanished he went on trial for her murder. >> maribel ramos, maribel is no longer with us. >> the prosecution laid out the evidence against kc. the unrequited love the scratches, the 911 call and finally the computer searches. >> he's wondering how close is maribel's body to where they're doing that awareness search. that's why he goes to google maps. >> the defense pointed out there was no dna, fingerprints cell phone info or standard forensic evidence that tied kc joy to maribel's murder or to the crime scene. >> we don't know what happened. what kind of force was used? nobody knows. who used it first? nobody knows. was there a weapon used? was it used by maribel or was it used by kc joy? nobody knows.

>> all true. but the computer searches were enough for the jury. >> we the jury in the above action find the defendant guilty of the crime of felony to wit. >> kc joy was convicted of second-degree murder, after which he told me the jury got it wrong. are you dangerous? >> me? i'm the perfect most honest guy there is. and most trustworthy. i'm a gentleman. >> kc says he wants a new trial to prove he couldn't have killed maribel. his, quote, best friend. you had a crush on her? >> nope. absolutely not. we always maintained that. we are plu tonic friends. >> you never told lucy you had a crush on her? >> nope. >> you never said you were in love with her? >> nope never said that either. >> you weren't obsessed with her? >> nope i was not obsessed with her. >> the plastic surgery, his choice he says not done for maribel. and the computer

search of the area where maribel's body was found, kc says he didn't do it. someone else did by remotely accessing the same computer right after he had used it. you don't think that's quite a coincidence? >> it maybe a coincidence but i didn't do it. >> you're being framed here? >> i say yes. if i had a paid attorney somebody like o.j. simpson had i wouldn't be here right now. i'd be out. >> so the problem here is not that you're guilty it's that you don't have enough money. >> exactly. seems like money talks. if i had money i will not be here. >> kc joy was sentenced to 15 years to life for killing maribel ramos. what do you think happened? >> i think she went to bed. i think what he did is he got a pillow and smothered her. and as he's got this pillow over her face she struggles a little bit. and i believe that's where he got the scratches on his right

tricep. >> if he hasn't done that google map search essentially leading you to the body would he be a free man? >> if no other evidence came up yes. >> he'd be a person of interest in a cold case? >> correct. >> maribel ramos graduated from college post hue -- her niece ended up walking the path meant for her aunt. >> i received her diploma and i got to sit in her seat and walk up stage and receive everything. >> it was so difficult to be there. it's difficult to see my daughter in such pain walking for her aunt. >> maribel ramos, we lost a few years ago. she was an army veteran. >> every wednesday in the city of orange they lower the flag

for the fallen who served. but maribel has a legacy giselle, now 16 seems well on her way to becoming a successful woman maribel had hoped for. your mom says that you sort of have been the rock. >> yeah. >> that they wouldn't have made it through this without you. >> yes. >> where'd you get that toughness? >> from her. >> from maribel? >> yeah. >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. next at 11:00 a missing sacramento girl found dead a man who knew her well held without bail. wet weather on the way, where and when, the news is next.

she was like my granddaughter. she was just like a grandchild to me. >> a tragic end in the search for this missing girl from the sacramento area. her burned body found a long way from home. >> good evening, everyone. i'm terry mcsweeney. >> i'm peggy bunker. a neighborhood is reeling from