i think back and i go, this was such a senseless murder. and why diane? why when she was ready to start a brand-new life? i'll never know that answer. >> the calls kept coming. >> i'm diane. it's 2:00. wanted to check and make sure you're okay bi. >> by 2:00, it was too late. >> someone had killed her. >> we had her body, we had the scene, and that was all. >> she had a fiance. >> they argued a lot. >> we had our ups and downs, no question. >> and a co-worker with a crush. >> he was an odd character. >> i always was very spoily to her and very affectionate and she didn't like it. >> everybody was suspect. >> then, a break. tips from other women who had

>> he wanted to get me in there, and i didn't budge. all the bells were going off. >> i jumped in my car and took off. i felt i dodged a bullet. >> the who was frightening, but the why was much worse. >> in my wildest dreams i never imagined that this could even exist. >> you certainly had your motive. >> yes, we did. >> women banding together in a desperate search for a killer with a strange passion. i'm lester holt and this is the season premiere of "dateline." here's keith morrison with "after the storm." >> reporter: it was the afternoon of november 15th, austin, texas, 4:00 p.m. there was something ominous in the air. suddenly the smell of it, the familiar feel of it against the skin. a storm coming. something big. >> they did tell us on the news, if you don't have to go out tonight, don't.

overhead turned dark like midnight in the afternoon. >> and when it gets like that, it's pitch black out, and you have the fear for tornadoes. >> reporter: sure enough, said the announcers on tv, twisters had been spotted headed towards parts of the city including the northwest. >> and diane lived in the northwest. and i called her and i said, hey, girl, you know, they just said that there was a tornado heading in your direction. and she's like, my direction? and she's like, i don't know what to do. i've never been in a tornado. >> reporte >> she was very freaked out. >> reporter: but then the ferocious rain and hellish wind and fickle funnel clouds dipped and swirled around the city. the next morning, a friday, it was all over. friends checked on friends. but no one could reach diane, the freaked-out one. diane holik worked from home, worked for ibm. that friday morning, so unlike her, she missed a conference

it's 2:00. just worried about you. wanted to check and make sure you're okay. >> reporter: all day phone calls from ibm and from friends went to voicemail. >> diane, hey, this is sharon. i was calling to see if you were going to show up tonight or not. >> reporter: she didn't. >> i got to the club, and i was waiting, and she didn't come, she didn't come. i spent all my time wondering when she was going to show up. >> reporter: had she been caught in the storm? was her house hit? a co-worker called the police, exclusive neighborhood and found her fine, big house unscathed. they peered through windows, saw no one. they secured a key. they went upstairs, and there, all but hidden behind a guest room bed, they found diane. >> someone had killed her. i actually had a scream of some sort, just like oh! it's not true.

>> reporter: but of course, it was. diane holik, 43 years old, suddenly the unlikely center of a strange and disturbing mystery and a most unlikely victim of murder. >> absolutely lived her life with gusto. she was a vivacious, beautiful woman. >> reporter: lynn had known diane since the '90s when they started working together at ibm. >> she loved her friends, she loved her family. we'd had so much fun and just laugh and laugh and laugh. >> a lot of things we liked to do all together was we hit the clubs a lot. >> lots of dancing. >> lots of dancing. >> reporter: diane met anita and sharon cooper in the ladies room of an austin bar. >> she was in there. she said, know, you've got on cowwoi boots, you must know where a country bar is. yeah, i do. my best friend's coming, we're

and she said, cool, i'm going to go with you all. the first time i ever met her, ever seen her before. she'd only been in town three weeks. >> diane said, well, i'm not dressed for the club, so she gets in the trunk of her car and starts putting out something western and putting it on in the parking lot. >> so we all went dancing all night long. she was just having a blast. she was so happy that she had met the two of us because she said, now i have me some dancing buddies. >> reporter: so magnetic. which, said her colleague, lynn, helped make her a fine recruiter for ibm. >> i would send her off to colleges, and these kids, they would just gravitate to her. she had a personality that just stood out. >> reporter: and her attitude,

>> i sent her off to do a recruiting trip. they were doing a balloon. she called me and said, i need half the day off. i'm getting in a balloon and going. >> reporter: would she test the edges? >> she would throw parties and inslight everybody she knows. >> reporter: so they may not know each other, but everybody knew her. >> yes. and she was great. she just loved having all of these wonderful people around her. >> reporter: in any room, any crowd, diane was the lure, especially to men. >> it was never a problem going out with her because she like a magnet for all of us. >> yeah, there was always men around whenever diane was there. always. >> yeah. >> reporter: so there were. and now she was dead. and the one thing that seemed obvious there in that second floor bedroom, what happened to

>> a killer as calm and cool as he is cold-hearted. when we return -- >> you commit the act of murder, and then you leave. you don't want to get caught. this person didn't do that. that in itself was odd. >> and a suspect emerges, someone close to diane. >> an interesting thing happened when she hit 40. she decided i need a partner, i want a marriage. get to kohl's now through sunday and get $10 off your women's fall fashion purchase of $50 or more! plus

everyone gets kohl's cash too! nothing but the best savings! now that's the good stuff. kohl's. ziploc presents: cafeteria chaos. school lunch can be difficult. one little struggle... can lead to one monumental mishap. not with ziploc easy open tabs. because life needs ziploc. sc johnson. what do you call deliciously smooth, creamy yogurt that comes in over 25 amazing flavors and packs 6 grams of protein per serving? the family favorite. yoplait. the enamel on my teeth was akening. the whiteness wasn't there as much, my teeth didn't look as healthy as others. my dentist said that pronamel would help protect my teeth. pronamel is giving me the confidence to know that i'm doing the right thing

? lots of vitamins a&c, and, only 50 calories a serving... good morning, indeed. v8. veggies for all. well she loves to say, "well, fantastic!" a lot. i do say that, you see... i study psychobiology. i'm a fine arts major. nobody really believes that i take notes this way, i try to balance my studying with the typical college experience. this windows pc is a life saver! being able to pull up different articles to different parts of the screen is so convenient.

i got a page from the supervisor in homicide saying that a woman had been found deceased in her home in northwest austin. >> reporter: detectives tracy gerrish and eric de los santos learned that if the call-out didn't tell them much, the crime scene probably would. but when diane holik was murdered -- >> we had her body, we had the scene. and that was all in the

evidence of forced entry. there was none. >> the doors were locked and the windows were all intact. >> reporter: so either the killer knew her and had a key to the house or she let the person in. in any event, it certainly didn't look like a robbery turned deadly. >> because she still had her watch on. she still had a tennis bracelet on. and she had a charm that was stuck in her hair that had obviously been on a necklace that was not around her neck. she also had some money that was sticking out of her pocket. body would tell them the story of what happened to her. the killer had hidden her under a bedspread. >> it appeared that she'd been strangled. a ligature mark around her neck. >> it could have been a rope, it could have been one of those flex bands that she used to exercise. >> reporter: but clearly not somebody's hands. >> clearly. >> no. >> there were no fingermarks. >> no. >> reporter: what about her eyes and her face? was there any sign there? >> she definitely had petechia

she appeared to have a bruise on her cheek. it looked like a rubbing type of a bruise on her cheek and then she had four of them on her stomach. >> reporter: rubbing type of a bruise? >> like if you were being dragged across the carpet and it was a rug burn. >> reporter: they discovered smudges of lipstick and mascara on the carpet in the bedroom. >> we also found a spot of urine where her body would have been had she been strangled. so we knew something bad happened there at that particular spot. the bed where they found her body. was there any indication that she had been sexually assaulted in any way? >> no. >> her clothes weren't messed up. there was no indication that she had been fighting, there were no scratch mark on her neck. why didn't she try to defend herself, why didn't she try to move the ligature. as we continue to lock at the b

faint marks on her wrists. you don't usually see that. there were no ties, no rope, no tape around her in the room. >> reporter: just red marks? >> yeah, just red marks. >> reporter: little red marks that looked somehow familiar. >> i looked like two parallel lines, and then perpendicular to those lines were little lines that were probably a 16th of an inch apart. i've seen these before sometimes on the flex ties that we use to make arrests. >> reporter: or zip ties. >> oh, wow, he used zip ties to bind her. >> reporter: he cut them off afterwards. >> he obviously cut them off afterwards. and we knew that immediately. >> reporter: his mind went to the darkest places. diane must have been restrained with those zip ties, helpless and terrified as she watched her killer prepare the ligature and put it around her neck. >> what kind of horror did she go through? what was going through her head? >> reporter: after she was dead, the killer must have stayed for

>> so that in itself was odd. that doesn't happen a lot. you commit the act of murder and then you leave. you're scared. you want to get out of there. you don't you want to get caught. this person didn't do that. >> reporter: who was this person so deliberate, so cold-blooded? this was no straightforward case, nothing simple about it. >> i probably didn't sleep for 72 hours. >> reporter: as they chased down theien so what does that leave you with? was it a targeted killing, somebody who was angry with her? >> those were all possibilities. most of the time you're going to be killed by someone you know. >> reporter: yep. >> sometimes it's someone you know very well. and of course we're all familiar with domestic violence and such. we want to see who is in the immediate inner circle of her life. >> reporter: from diane's friends they learned she'd been married years before, but had

until she changed her mind. >> she loved her single life, and she loved her independence. but an interesting thing happened when she hit 40. she decided i need a partner. i need somebody like my friends have. i want a marriage. i want the things they have. >> reporter: so diane set out to find a mate with the help of the dating service it's just lunch. and pretty soon she met a divorced father of two named dennis conley. >> i immediately had a chemistry. i think they were in love. he was a successful businessman. he was handsome. he took her everywhere. and that's what she was looking for. >> reporter: just two months later, dennis presented diane with the bauble of a lifetime. a $20,000 engagement ring. >> he loved her. he put her on a pedestal and treated her like a queen. >> she liked his daughter. she cared very much for his daughters and that was a good strong point.

dennis had moved from austin to houston. the idea was diane could sell her big house and move down there, too. it was a down market then, but diane told her friends she'd met at least one potential buyer. but now diane was dead. and there were all those questions. not a robbery and yet, as the detectives soon discovered, something was missing. that $20,000 engagement ring. so police wondered, where was fiance dennis during the violent storm? and did he know something? coming up -- a storm outside and in. >> they argued a. >> we had our ups and downs, no question. . >> we had our ups and downs, no question. l. >> we had our ups and downs, no question. o. >> we had our ups and downs, no question. t. >> we had our ups and downs, no question. r ups and downs, no question. t one insp-b.

and oral-b crossaction delivers a clinically proven superior clean vs. sonicare diamondclean. my mouth feels super clean! oral-b. know you're getting a superior clean. i'm never going back to a manual brush. what a lovely home you have. is this your family? yea, that's my daughter, my son, and that's my... hey, kool-aid man! ...husband. oh yeah!!! [ crashing ] electricity crackles ] hey at least you got your homeowners insurance through progressive. by bundling it with your car insurance you saved a ton! yeah. do you want to see the rest of the house? -i can actually see a lot of it. -oh. i was infected with hpv. maybe my parents didn't know how widespread hpv is. while hpv clears up for most, that wasn't the case for me. maybe they didn't know i would end up with cancer

when i was 11 or 12. maybe my parents just didn't know. right, mom? dad? what will you say? don't wait. talk to your child's doctor today.

>> knew it. diane holik was in love with the man she met through the dating service. smitten like a teenaged girl. but the road of love, as we all know, isn't always smooth. they were engaged so quickly. too quickly? before long they encountered some serious issues, said her friends anita and sharon. >> they argued a lot. >> reporter: about, one example, her dogs, who were like children

didn't want any dogs in their new house in houston. they fought, said her friends, about what he seemed to want her to be. >> she's always talking about he didn't want her to do this or didn't want her to do that, and that would cause arguments. >> reporter: she would not go along with it? >> right, no. she wouldn't, uh-uh. >> reporter: she was independent. >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: what was he? >> controlling. >> reporter: oh. >> very controlling. >> reporter: that can be a difficult combination. >> reporter: so it was confusing. she proudly wore the spectacular ring, but the engagement was off and then maybe on again. and yet that very week, said her friends, diane told them she still didn't know what to do. so she'd gone back and forth? >> oh, yes. >> emotionally, like a roller coaster for her because she just couldn't see how it was going to work.

told sharon she made a date with another man. >> we kept telling her if you're still wanting to do these things, you're not ready for that. >> reporter: but she had her house for sale, right? >> yeah, she was going to downsize. if she didn't get married to dennis, she was going to downsize anyway. because this house was just way too big. >> reporter: waffling on her plans with dennis, a date with another man? anita said she had seen dennis angry. so after diane was murdered, she wondered. >> maybe he had just lost control this time and killed her. that was my first thought. >> reporter: detective gerrish asked dennis to come into the station where he agreed to speak to them without the aid of a lawyer. >> you developed some information. >> reporter: the detectives focused on the timeline. they believed diane had been killed that stormy thursday afternoon or evening. her body was discovered about 5:30 p.m. on friday. >> we were definitely interested in, you know, where he had been

verify his alibi to us. >> reporter: at the station, dennis seemed upset but composed as he told investigators he was in his office in houston the night of the big storm. but exchanged online messages with diane back in austin that afternoon. >> it was just, you know, like, hey, i'm working late. i'm getting ready to go home. and she sent me a, you know, i love you. an >> mm-hmm. >> whent she sent that to you? >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: dennis said he was late at work and was back at the office early friday. >> we looked at the timeframe, could he have driven down to austin and murdered diane and theoretically driven back for work, yes, he probably could have. >> reporter: they checked diane's answering machine and found messages from him. this was left on friday the day after the big storm. she was dead by then.

from you in about an hour, i'm calling the freaking police. and have them go by your house, okay? >> reporter: another message saturday morning. >> diane, what is going on? give me a call. you have me worried to death. bye. >> reporter: which have been some sort of cover-up, of course. dennis admitted their relationship was iffy. >> we ran into some rough spots. we were going to build a house in houston. an given the fact that we weren't getting along together very long, there was no fight. we don't fight. it's just everybody carries baggage into your relationships at this age. and our baggage was clashing. and we were working on it but we decided not to be engaged anymore. >> okay. >> and stopped building a house. >> reporter: but he said they were going to therapy, which was helping. >> i mean, we were really, really making breakthroughs, you know?

the fact that, you know, her dogs were going to be in the house. >> reporter: and not long before diane was killed -- >> i remember her saying, you know, that she would -- she loved me and that she would jump at the chance to be in a relationship and marry me and, you know, no matter how long it took. yeah, we had our ups and downs, no question. but it wasn't like -- >> no physical fight? >> nothing, never. it was just -- it's stupid, you know. she thought i should be more of a like handyman kind of guy like her dad, right? and i thought she should be more appreciative. >> was she faithful to you? >> i would be shocked if she wasn't. i would be stunned. >> reporter: everyone has his or her version of the truth, of course. dennis' story not at all what

>> i wanted so many times to just say, dude, you're just so stupid because she didn't want to marry you. >> yeah. >> reporter: detective gerrish took fingerprints, collected dennis' dna, made plans to check his alibi. and dennis? before he left, dennis brought up another name. >> has anybody gotten ahold of ray? >> no. we were trying to figure out who ray is. >> reporter: ray was a colleague of diane's at ibm. >> he seemed to worship the ground she walks on. he seems to be attracted to women that are not attracted to him. honestly, if -- if i was a woman, i -- he would give me the creeps. >> reporter: and according to dennis, ray and diane were not on good terms. >> now, they'd had a falling out about a month or so ago. don't know the exact nature of

with ray. coming up -- a co-worker with a crush, but did he want something more? >> i always was very spoily to her and very affectionate and she didn't like it. man, i'm glad aflac pays cash. aflac! no! who's gonna' help cover the holes in their plans? aflac! like rising co-pays and deductibles... aflac! or help pay the mortgage? or child care? aflaaac! and everyday expenses? aflac! learn about one day pay at aflac.com/boat blurlbrlblrlbr!!!

what if one piece of kale could protect you from diabetes? (crunch) what if one sit-up could prevent heart disease? one. wishful thinking, right? but there is one step you can take to help prevent another serious disease, pneumococcal pneumonia. if you are 50 or older, one dose an illness that can cause coughing, chest pain, difficulty breathing, and may even put you in the hospital. even if you've already been vaccinated with another pneumonia vaccine, prevnar 13? may help provide additional protection. prevnar 13? is used in adults 18 and older to help prevent infections from 13 strains of the bacteria that cause pneumococcal pneumonia. you should not receive prevnar 13? if you've had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine or its ingredients. if you have a weakened immune system, you may have a lower response to the vaccine.

limited arm movement, fatigue, headache, vomiting, muscle or joint pain, less appetite, chills, or rash. get this one done. ask your doctor or pharmacist about prevnar 13? today. [?diggy? by spencer ludwig] ? ? my mother passed 2003, but she always told me i don't care if you turn out you need to make sure you get your college degree. sometimes i call the house, just to hear her voice. (phone ringing) answering machine: hi, leave a message after the beep. (beep) hey mom, this is larry. i just want to let you know that uh, i fulfilled the promise that you held me to. love you.

suspicion. there was lots of it to go around after diane holik was choked to death in her own guest bedroom. at least one of diane's friends directed her suspicion at dennis, the man who said he was her fiance. but was he anymore?

what about this guy, he asked. what about ray? >> there was a man that she worked with by the name of raphael chauncey. and she had actually hired him at ibm, so she was kind of his boss. >> reporter: maybe more than his boss? here's what diane's friends told the police and us about ray. >> he was johnny on the spot every time she needed something. you always call ray and ray was there. he d h loved her and would have married her. >> reporter: if she would have him. >> yeah, if she would have him. >> reporter: it seemed off to dennis, ray's relationship with diane, he told the police. it was a little too cozy, obsessive maybe? >> he always felt that ray kind of took a liking to her and was very infatuated with her. he would offer to take care of her dogs when she was out of town, always wanted to be kind of close to her.

much of an interest in diane. >> reporter: what's more, ray had his own personal key to di diane's house and remember there was no forced entry, the killer was either invited in or had a key. so detective gerrish asked ray to come into the station to answer a few questions, except it was ray who seemed to be full of questions. >> do you have any idea what she -- what happened? >> well, we're working on it. unfortunately, i didn't know anything about i went to her house last night. so -- >> i know a lot about her. >> reporter: he seemed excited to share what he knew. >> i haven't spoken to her. >> how long have you known diane? >> two years. >> he was an odd character, supereager to help us. almost too eager to the point where it just threw us off a little bit. >> diane did a favor for me. so my payment was always to take care of her dogs when she was

i changed my schedule so i could watch her house while she was gone. >> maybe you had a little crush on her? >> diane, hell, for sure. man, i can't believe that. i always had a crush on her. >> diane didn't reciprocate your feelings? >> no, ma'am, she's just friends. >> that ever cause problems between you? >> no, never. in the beginning -- >> arguments and stuff? >> no, in the beginning i was always very spoily to her, very affect et, she didn't like it. cop. another detective came in and pressed ray. >> did you have a relationship with her? >> no. she asked me that, too. >> no sexual relationship. >> never even kissed her. >> did you want to? >> i always wanted to, never did. no, our friendship was a little bit more than that, i guess. >> you never had a sexual relationship with her? >> nope, never. >> so your dna shouldn't be found on her? >> nope. >> you mind giving us a sample?

>> he agreed he did have a key to her house, but he also had an al alibi. he was at work the day she was murdered. >> did you punch in at work? >> yeah. that's a record you can use. there's cameras all over the place in the parking lot. there's a scan card. you can ask some people for the records. >> reporter: that day ray said he stayed late at work then drove home through that terrible traffic created by the storm. didn't get home till 10:30 p.m. and after that stayed home. >> last night i staid home and didn't go anywhere. i don't know what time i went to sleep. washed a load of clothes. got to work i guess 8:00 or so. >> reporter: and of course they needed to verify all that. but when they asked ray about dennis, the fiance -- >> how do her and dennis get along? >> that's a load question. >> is it? >> yep. >> i want the truth. if there were some problems. >> they were very uncomfortable. they were going to get married this november but they didn't do it because they were having some problems.

complicated relationships with dennis and with ray. so just as they had done with dennis, police fingerprinted ray and took a dna swab. and went on looking. sharon told the detectives diane had a date with a man the very night she was killed. they couldn't figure out who that man was, but they tracked down every man she'd met from the dating service, it's just lunch. >> i interviewed every single date she had through that service. >> reporter: too many options. police wondered if diane been strangled by man she met through the dating service or a man she knew well, even loved? and yet, something seemed to be missing. but what? this wasn't going to be easy. coming up -- a funeral and a wedding, and what some say was a former fiance's extremely strange behavior. >> oh, god. he did a morbid thing.

>> and finally, a clue. >> was this one of his mistakes? why let someone else have all the fun? that's no fun. buy one take one is back at olive garden choose one delicious entr?e at our place and another for yours

? ? take on any road with intuitive all-wheel drive. the nissan rogue, murano and pathfinder.

it is an affluent neighborhood. it is not normally where you find murder victims. >> darla davis was worried. diane holik's body was barely

encountered the problem. >> the fact that she lives by herself. >> reporter: there were men who wanted to change that single status. and there was certainly reason to look at them carefully. but the prosecutor worried, too, about another possibility. >> we might have a stranger on stranger offense, which is way harder to solve. >> reporter: so essentially dead body, not much evidence around. >> right. >> reporter: and no idea who did it. >> exactly. i decided thatwe monday morning quarterback the crime scene right away. >> reporter: that sment she and the investigators went back to diane's house and took a more in depth look. >> and went over it with the alternate light source. you have to do it in the dark. you just take it and put it like on carpeting or any kind of fabric or the wall or anything, and certain things will fluoresce.

fluid. >> reporter: it didn't look like diane had been sexually assaulted, but they had to know for sure. and when they tested -- >> there was no indications that there was any semen anywhere in that room or different parts of the house that we checked. >> reporter: nothing. no semen, no blood, no evidence of sexual assault. apart from her missing engagement ring, nothing in diane's house seemed out of place except in the middle of the otherwise pristine living room. nd this towel that's just thrown over there. >> reporter: weird. >> yeah. >> this is definitely out of place. >> yes. >> reporter: as if maybe it was left behind by the killer? was this one of his mistakes? was there anything found on that towel? >> there were some hairs, later on. >> reporter: her hairs? >> no. >> there were seven hairs on that towel. >> reporter: they sent the hairs to the dna lab and waited. while her friends planned the excruciating details for diane's

and a lady to do the makeup and everything. we went in with them and helped them pick out her casket. >> reporter: and her dress for an open casket. >> i need to make sure that whatever we got looked right and covered the appropriate parts of her. seeing where the wounds were, seeing where the ligature marks were was probably just as difficult as the day i found out that she passed. >> reporter: dennis came to the service, as expected. but -- which i found somewhat strange for a man who was so in love with diane. >> reporter: he didn't come sit front and center. >> no, he did not sit front and center, which somewhat surprised me. >> reporter: they watched him through a haze of grief and suspicion. when diane's parents flew her body from austin to their family home in new york for the funeral, diane's friends went along. as did dennis. but there, as diane lay in her open casket, something very

he did a morbid thing that just infuriated her parents. i mean, beyond belief. >> reporter: dennis had brought a minister with him to the funeral. >> to actually say the marriage vows to him as she was laying in the coffin. and then took her hand and put that gold band on. i thought i wa >> reporter: diane's parents removed the ring, said her friends. although her family was appalled and her friends were deeply suspicious, back in austin investigators were looking at all kinds of possibilities. dennis, ray, and other men diane had known remain ped on the lis their statements reviewed, their alibis checked and rechecked. it wouldn't be the first time love turned to murder. but that worry prosecutor davis talked about, is that really what happened? was the killer some random

know that you're going to have to expand out into the possibility that this was somebody who was a stranger to her because that makes it so much harder. >> reporter: that second more intense search of the crime scene confirmed everything the detectives found the first time. including that this killer, whether lover or stranger, had been chillingly kale and clearly had prepared for what he or she was going to do. this person who is trying to avoid being captured. >> yes. >> reporter: so he's not leaving any evidence. >> so he cut the zip tie off of her and took it with him. >> reporter: and thus removed the evidence. but there was this one other thing, just a passing comment. they heard it from anita, who, remember, was on the phone with diane, that that huge storm was about to roll through austin. >> she said she had somebody that had come by earlier and had looked at the house and was very impressed with it. i said, that's good.

sell this thing. >> reporter: could that visitor be connected to diane's murder or that discarded wet towel with those seven tiny strands of hair? coming up -- a stranger knocking on doors. what happened next still haunts the women who answered. >> jumped in my car, locked the car, and took off. i felt i dodged a bullet. >> he wanted to get me in there. and i didn't budge. i stood there and all the bells were going off. cine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. breo won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. breo opens up airways to help improve breathing for a full 24 hours. breo contains a type of medicine that increases the risk of death from asthma problems

breo is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. once your asthma is well controlled, your doctor will decide if you can stop breo and prescribe a different asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. do not take breo more than prescribed. see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. ask your doctor if 24-hour breo could be a missing piece for you. see if you're eligible for 12 months free at mybreo.com. ? feel warm inside. feel our big beautiful candle. feel glade. sc johnson. marie starts her fettucini with chicken and broccoli with tender white meat chicken and freshly-made pasta mixed in an alfredo sauce made-from-scratch. because she knows that the most comforting thing about comfort food, is who you're sharing it with. marie callender's.

red 97! set! red 97! did you say 97? yes. you know, that reminds me of geico's 97% customer satisfaction rating. 97%? helped by geico's fast and friendly claims service. huh... oh yeah, baby. geico's as fast and friendly as it gets. woo!

the detectives investigating the death of diane holik were all too aware that stranger killings were among the hardest to solve. at the point that you driving around talking to people here, did you have any idea what you were looking for even?

stranger is as careful as diane's killer appeared to have been. >> it was true who done it. >> reporter: the medical examiner looked carefully for evidence of sexual assault, semen, the killer's saliva, dna under her fingernails, that sort of thing. and there was none. none at all. so police 101, maybe one of the neighbors saw something or someone suspicious. and sure enough, not b several neighbors had seen a stranger, a potential home buyer who was a welcome visitor, frankly, in the difficult housing market that year. they all agreed he was tall, had dark slicked-back hair and a big nose. and that he said he wanted to pay cash for a nice house. so was he the man who toured diane's house the day of the storm? >> you always try to find the last person that saw the victim alive. and we thought well this man

>> reporter: 40 was this phantom home buyer? did anybody get a name? >> we did get one name. walter miller, and a number. >> reporter: walter miller? of course, they looked up the walter millers around austin and found two of them. neither one fit that description, though. and the phone number the man left? >> it ended up being a fax machine. it belonged to the wife of a guy by the name of matth about? >> he did have a background that involved some drug addiction, some assaults. he'd had a restraining order put against him. then we eventually tracked down matthew. >> reporter: and they realize right away he could not be the killer. >> he was in a neck brace. he'd been in a bad accident, and he had some paralysis in his arms. so we knew it couldn't be him. >> reporter: meaning this visitor, whoever he was, had left a fake name and a fake phone number.

who had talked to the guy, heard his story. got a good enough look at him to help with a composite sketch. >> and we aired it on the 10:00 news. >> austin police have asked for help in solving a murder. police want to question a man seen in the area a few days before the murder. white between the ages of 35 and 45, he's about 6 feet tall and neatly dressed. >> we were hoping to get tips. >> reporter: what do you know? before long, women started wanted to buy a house. what were you hearing from people who may have had a visitor? was it the same story they were hearing or what? >> pretty much. >> oh, yeah. hey, we're getting this story about this guy that sold his ranch in south austin, he wants to pay cash. him and his wife are look do this quick. the physical description was all the same. >> reporter: some callers like tammy added curious details.

too long. >> reporter: it was the kind of strange thing you remember, said real estate agent tammy. >> he had on a shirt, a striped shirt that had wrinkles in it, i mean, folds. >> reporter: just came out of the box. >> he just bought clothe, i'm sure of it. he had suspenders on, which nobody wears suspenders. and it wasn't like his pants were falling off. >> reporter: but it's when she showed him into the house that her nerves went on alert. >> he says, after you, after you, and it was a standoff at i wouldn't go. my stomach is tight inside. >> reporter: tammy was wary. years earlier she'd been raped by an armed customer at a store she managed. >> i knew that my instincts and all that i had learned and all that i had been through were the reason that i was nervous about him. >> reporter: he said his name was jim sage. he kept trying to get her into upstairs rooms. >> he wanted to get me in there. and i didn't budge. i stood there and all the bells

>> reporter: the next day tammy called the police to report this jim sage. >> did he hurt you? did he threaten you? did he put his hands on you? and i had to say no to all of that. he said, i'm sorry, there's nothing we can do. >> reporter: but now diane holik had been murdered, strangled, and with a shudder, tammy remembered the man's odd suspenders. did he use them on diane holik's neck? when did that hit you? >> after. strangled. >> reporter: the calls kept coming in. women with stories of a strange man posing as a home buyer, some truly hair-raising stories. like what happened to exreal estate agent melanie blount six months before diane was murdered. a man had called her about one of her houses. >> it was a vacant listing. and i asked him if he had been prequalified by a lender and i

so i drove over to meet him at the house. i go to the door to greet him. and immediately he was behind me. he would never walk in front of me. >> reporter: which made melody uncomfortable. especially because he only wanted to see vacant houses. and -- >> the whole time that i'm showing him the homes, he was never looking at any rooms. he seemed to be more interested in looking out windows than he did the actual room. >> reporter: she said something else seemed off about him. >> he has a tick in his neck. he's constantly cracking and popping his neck and breathing very heavy. >> reporter: melody wanted to leave, but then the man noticed the detached garage. >> he was adamant about getting in the garage. he said, i really want to see

that neck popping. >> reporter: her hands shook as she tried to work the key in the door. >> i didn't open. i just turned to him, said, i'm leaving, jumped in my car, locked the car and took off. and i left him. >> reporter: she drove home still shaking. >> i have never cried nor prayed so hard in my whole life because i felt i dodged a bullet. >> reporter: melody called the policeto got the same message as tammy. >> they did not believe me. did he touch you? did he hurt you? no, he did not. >> reporter: but when she saw the story about diane and the sketch -- >> i looked at it and immediately knew that it was the same man. >> reporter: scary stories. who was this man? and how were they going the find

man. >> she immediately greep feeling from him. >> and the break detectives have been waiting for. >> she actually wrote down his license plate and called the police. chance to live longer with opdivo, nivolumab. cribed immunotherapy for these patients. opdivo significantly increased the chance of living longer versus chemotherapy. no biomarker testing is required with opdivo, though physicians may choose to do so. opdivo works with your immune system. opdivo can cause your immune system to attack normal organs and tissues in your body and affect how they work. this may happen any time during or after treatment has ended, and may become serious and lead to death.

in; shortness of breath; diarrhea; severe stomach pain or tenderness; severe nausea or vomiting; extreme fatigue; constipation; excessive thirst or urine; swollen ankles; loss of appetite; rash; itching; headache; confusion; hallucinations; muscle or joint pain; or flushing as this may keep these problems from becoming more serious. these are not all the possible side effects of opdivo. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions, including immune system problems, or if you've had an organ transplant, or lung, breathing, or liver problems. octor about opdivo. bristol-myers squibb thanks the patients, nurses, and physicians

the search for the killer of a beautiful and successful businesswoman has taken an abrupt turn. detectives had first focused on those closest to her, a fiance and a co-worker, but after a series of tips, police have a new theory. was a man who claimed to be looking for a new home actually shopping around for someg here again is keith morrison. >> reporter: the idea that the murder of diane holik had something to do with her attempt to sell her house was gaining some traction. even the friend who remained so suspicious of diane's fiance wondered about that. >> i just had a fleeting moment that maybe it was somebody dealing with the realty and selling of the house because there were quite a few people that came in, husbands and wives and stuff. i thought, well, you know, maybe

made a move. and she didn't go for it. >> reporter: meanwhile, the police and prosecutor were working every angle they could think op but -- >> we were just coming up zero. >> reporter: whoever this killer was knew what he or she was doing and was very careful about doing it just so? >> that's the impression that we were getting and that's what was increasing our anxiety. >> reporter: they waited for dna results from the tiny hairs found on the towel in diane's living room. called in to tell about being frightened by a mysterious would-be home buyer. but who was he? then one more call and they knew this could be their breakthrough. >> she said that she had seen the news and she thinks that that man had come to her house, and she possibly had a flyer that he had handled that he left behind. we were really excited about

maybe there might be fingerprints. she saved this thing? >> by accident. >> reporter: she didn't just throw it away? >> no, she actually picked it up and put it in the back of the stack. >> reporter: what happened before that to her was a story that to this time sounded altogether too familiar. >> she was excited to sell her house. s he was going to pay cash. he wanted to bring his wife back to look at the house. he asked if he could look around. she kind of followed him into one of the bedrooms. turned around on her. and she said there was this awkward silence and he just stared at her. she became so uncomfortable she thought something bad was going do happen. >> reporter: in the nearby room, the woman's baby cried. >> it gave her the opportunity to break the encounter with him and get the baby. he followed her into the room and was standing behind her when

in her arms and it must have spooked him. >> reporter: he left behind the flyer. they brought in a latent fingerprint expert. those prints might belong to their killer, except remember they found no prints in diane's house to compare them to. in fact, this was strange, even diane's own prints were hard to find. as if the killer may have wiped them clean. >> there was really not even a fingerprint that you would think was occupied. >> reporter: that's very rare. >> yes, it was very rare and scary. >> reporter: scary because he couldn't know who he was. scary because if he was a stranger just looking for a convenient target he'd probably seen the stories on tv and knew they were looking for him. he could have changed appearances or left the area. then there was just one more phone call from a woman who said

with a male home buyer and this caller just might lead them to an actual person. >> and she basically had told us that months earlier, that this man, with the same story, had come to her home, been in a different neighborhood. >> so very affluent, so it kind of matched. >> he was very insistent about wanting to go in and see that house. she immediately got a creepy feeling from him and told him no. comes back, you need to call the police or get his license plate because it really scared her. and about six months later he came back and was very insistent on going in to see her house. and she told him no, she was not going to allow him to come in. so she called the police. >> reporter: nothing happened then. the reaction she got was like those other women. the police could hardly arrest

she wrote down the name and phone number the man gave her, but more important, his license plate number. stuck it on her fridge. instinct? luck? maybe both. >> she didn't know if he would come back again. she thought it was concerning enough that she would just leave it on her refrigerator just in case. and she gave us the original piece of paper that she wrote his license plate down with. >> reporter: and -- >>im license plate, and it was a minivan, and it was registered to patrick russo and his wife janet russo. >> reporter: patrick russo? could he be the guy who creeped out all those women? could he also be the killer? his last known dress was in a rural area outside austin. so before dawn, unannounced, they paid a visit.

patrick russo seems an unlikely killer. >> i studied for theology to become a minister. >> but an odd coincidence. he was in diane's area the day she was killed. >> do you remember ever talking to her? take on any road with intuitive all-wheel drive. the nissan rogue, murano and pathfinder. now get 0% apr for 72 months, plus $500 bonus cash. what do you call deliciously smooth, creamy yogurt that comes in over 25 amazing flavors and packs 6 grams of protein per serving? yoplait original.

it's a pretty drive from austin through the gently rolling greenery, the live oaks, cypress trees. but at 4:00 al detectives gerrish and de los santos were taking in the views as they drove to the home of a guy named russo hoping this was a lead that could shed some light on the murder of diane holik although all they had, remember, was stories about a creepy guy looking for housing for sale. was patrick anthony russo that guy? maybe. dawn was hours away when they knocked at his door. the man, who woke up to answer it, looked like the composite sketch. >> we told him that his name had come up in an investigation in austin, and he basically just told his wife that these things will happen from time to time because he's a convict and out on parole and not to worry, that he'd be back in a couple hours. and we left. >> reporter: on the ride to the police station, he said he went by his nickname, tony, and he

talk to him. >> thing goes wrong in your town or something, it's a possibility that people will look at you. and that's okay. i understand that. >> reporter: he seemed eager to help. and wanted detectives to know he'd turned his life around when he was in prison. >> i spent my entire eight years in prison doing nothing but engulfing myself in a better life. i got my g.e.d., i went to college. i studied for theology to become a minister. >> reporter: it was behind bars where tony met his wife janet. she a church volunteer. since his release, he said, he published an autobiography about his tough childhood, his battle with drugs and his redemption. >> i have a ministry that i go into prisons with.

can deal with, you know, youth or whatever they're headed in the wrong direction. >> reporter: at his local church, he said, he'd become the minister of music. >> what is your job at the church, what they pay you for? >> my job is to make sure that the music for the praise team or any kind of music that's being done for church services is handled, whether i play it or have someone play it. >> reporter: and in his spare time, he fronted a christian rock band. >> what's the name of your band? >> broken silence. >> broken silence. good name. >> reporter: again, said tony russo, he was more than willing to cooperate with the investigation any way he could. >> i will be happy to do whatever it takes to do whatever you guys need. so i'm not -- i don't have any problem with it at all. >> reporter: so they asked him, where was he when diane was murdered. did he have an alibi?

that was a big storm day, wasn't it? thursday i spent some time in the church again. i went to go to knle here in rausen. >> reporter: knle is a christian radio station. tony said they were helping him create a website for his christian rock band. >> okay. about what time was that? i talked to my wife. i was pulling in the parking lot. so that would have been about 4:00, i believe. when no one came to the door, i went ahead and left. >> so you made the trip up there for nothing, basically? >> pretty much. >> reporter: then, of course, he got caught in that awful storm. >> i got lost for probably a good hour or so. i got on the phone with my wife. she stayed on the phone with me.

started coming, and the tornadoes, i guess. >> what time did you get home finally? >> my wife's better at the timing on this than i am. 5:30, i guess or 6:00, i'm not really sure exactly the time frame. >> reporter: thing was the house where she was killed was not far from the radio station. >> do you remember ever talking to her? >> uh-uh. no, sir. >> reporter: tony was adamant he'd never seen diane. >> you never talked to her? >> no. >> reporter: interesting. then detectives asked had he been doing some house hunting. >> is there any reason why you'd be in a neighborhood looking for a house? >> no. >> none whatsoever? >> uh-uh. >> reporter: of course, they

so the detectives leaned on him a little. >> do you want me to tell you how serious this is. >> i would appreciate it because i feel like i'm getting pretty banged here and i don't even know what it's for. >> she's dead. i don't know if you noticed when you walked in here, this is a homicide unit. >> i've done a lot of things wrong in my life, and i don't care what anybody is saying about me. i'm telling you that, as badly as i feel for this woman here, i'm sorry, but you guys are barking up the wrong tree. >> reporter: go ahead, he said. search my house, my car. he even offered to take a polygraph. >> and i don't care how hard you dig, you're not going to find me committing any crime like that. any crime, period. >> reporter: tony's wife janet was very helpful, too. and her story about that day was just about the same as his. >> yeah. i was telling him where the

scared. he doesn't know his way around austin all that well especially that direction. next thing you knew he'd actually circled back around and gone west because he was back on -- he said, well, there's candle again. >> reporter: candle is a nickname for knle, the christian radio station. when the interviews ended, tony asked to see janet. >> i promise you, i never did anything to anybody. i promise. and all i think about is how this affects you and our church and everything we worked so hard for. i know. >> reporter: tony and janet russo had answered all their questions, had been cooperative, and tony even gave them a swab of his dna and his fingerprints. so the police thanked him and

the interview, part two. this one a little tougher. >> is there any reason why somebody might have seen your van over there? >> surely i don't have the only pewter ford minivan in this entire town. >> you have the only pewter ford minivan that has that license plate on it. >> that's true. that is is true. i was 11 or 12, way before i would even be exposed to it? did you know, mom? dad? i was infected with hpv. maybe my parents didn't know how widespread hpv is. while hpv clears up for most, that wasn't the case for me.

maybe if they had known there was a vaccine to help protect me when i was 11 or 12. maybe my parents just didn't know. right, mom? dad? what will you say? don't wait. talk to your child's doctor today.

the day after police interviewed tony russo and his wife, they brought him back in, and again he was cooperative. said he was surprised to be a suspect in, of all things, a murder. >> two years i've done everything i can to make the best life for my family and myself. being caught up in this whole thing is such a mind-boggler that i feel like i'm in a nightmare state right now. >> reporter: but bits of

looked a lot like him were stacking up. detectives asked him about the upscale neighborhoods where several women had reported seeing him. often driving his minivan. >> is there any reason why somebody might have seen your van over there? >> surely i don't have the only pewter ford minivan in this entire town. >> you have the only pewter ford minivan in this entire town or in the entire state of texas that has that license plate on it. >> that's true. that is true. >> reporter: by the time the detectives interviewed tony, they'd already checked for priors and, guess what? that conviction, the one he was on parole for was for kidnapping. with a very particular twist. >> he had gone into an office where a woman was alone, and tied her up with zip ties the and choked her. did not kill her, but did choke her. >> reporter: disturbingly

back then, a decade before diane's murder tony confessed to kidnapping and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. it was there he met and married janet and soon after was paroled after serving only one-third of his sentence. but the kidnapping charge, it wasn't all they found in tony's record. even earlier, years earlier, there was her. >> it had actually been a quiet day. >> reporter: donna schenk who encountered tony when she was a 21-year-old apartment manager in lake jackson, texas. all alone late one afternoon in her building's rental office when a man walked in. >> and he wanted to look at a two-bedroom apartment for himself and his girlfriend. he says. >> reporter: donna showed him an available apartment. >> we're walking down the hallway, we get back to what would be the master bedroom.

and in a split second he had me by the throat. >> reporter: she struck out at him, tried scratching and slapping at him to get away, but he took her down. >> before i knew it, i was on the floor face up and he was straddling me with both of his hands around my throat. just squeezing. >> reporter: tight. >> very tight. i wasn't able to speak. i wasn't able to breathe. i was thrashing and -- >> bucking, everything i could do until he grabbed his hands and pinned them i guess under his knees. but i couldn't move my hands. it just dawned on me, okay, well, this is it. this is the end. >> reporter: is this absolute terror or is it sort of -- >> it is absolute terror to where your life flashes before your eyes and -- >> reporter: you think i'm going to die? >> and this is it. >> reporter: then she thought, no, this would not be it.

>> and i put my hands on his forearms trying to pull him away. i had sort of a high-necked sweater on, he kept pulling my sweater down to look at my neck. and his eyes are very different. very scary. and it was completely different. it was like flipping a switch. like a very scary, crazed look. >> reporter: then donna, in a panic said all she could think of saying. >> i've been gone too long. they know what apartment i'm in. they'll come looking for me. you better not be lying to me. and would call me profanities and would strike me. >> reporter: he's still holding on to you, your throat? >> yes. >> reporter: but he seemed to realize, yes, there was a possibility somebody would be coming to look for her, and as quickly as he had become a monster -- >> his expression changed again and his eyes went softer, then he completely took his hands off of me and just went like this

then sat back up and he said, i can't believe i did this. are you okay? >> reporter: like he's a different person now. >> yes. to the point that he was apologizing profusely for doing it, asked me if i was hurt, asked me if i was okay, helped me up off of the floor, helped me collect my necklace that was, you know, torn off and thrown about. >> reporter: he begged donna not to call the police, but she did. and he confessed. he was convict of misdemeanor assault and was put on probation. but as the years went by, he attacked five other women in similar ways including his kidnapping victims. and now he's being questioned by austin police about a murder involving zip ties the and choking and was denying he knew anything about it saying the similarities with earlier incidents were merely coincidence.

being such a devout christian and how much you've turned your life around when one point after another this whole thing goes back to similarities that i'm sure coincidental back in 1989, 1990, '91, '92, you know, but you're in reborn christian? and you're going to sit here and lie about it? >> reporter: the truth was at that point police could only prove patterns of behavior. patterns tony insisted he broke christian. but really? so the detectives set up a little trap and asked him if his fingerprints could possibly be found on a real estate flyer. >> have you ever handled a real estate flier for a house for sale in west austin? >> no. >> then your fingerprints shouldn't be on there? >> correct. >> reporter: even as tony insisted otherwise, they had

flier saved by that woman. >> thank you, lord, tony russo's fingerprints were positively on that flier. >> reporter: what happens in the gut? >> we knew it was him. we weren't able to put him anywhere. now we had him dead to rights. >> reporter: true, they had him recently in the home of a woman who had been terrified by his behavior, but they didn't have him in diane holik's house. to get that evidence, they needed time. and they worried would he run? and then the prosecutor had a canny idea. when tony russo said he didn't touch the real estate flier, that was a lie. and lying to the police was a parole violation. >> so the d.a.'s office cleverly came up with this charge that allowed us the time we needed to send off all the dna and physical evidence to see if we could actually put him at her house. >> put your right hand back. >> reporter: so into jail went

coming up -- showtime with a script as his victims come face-to-face with tony russo. >> repeat the following phrase. do you have any information about the floor plan of the house? >> do you have any information about the floor plan of the house? >> i did not expect him to be right in front of me. that was extremely frightening. ? trintellix (vortioxetine) is a prescription medicine for depression. trintellix may start to untangle or help improve the multiple symptoms of depression. for me, trintellix made a difference. tell your healthcare professional right away if your depression worsens, or you have unusual changes in mood,

teens, and young adults. trintellix has not been studied in children. do not take with maois. tell your healthcare professional about your medications, including migraine, psychiatric and depression medications to avoid a potentially life-threatening condition. increased risk of bleeding or bruising may occur especially if taken with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners. manic episodes or vision problems may occur in some people. may cause low sodium levels. the most common side effects are nausea, constipation and vomiting. trintellix did not have significant impact on weight. ask your healthcare professional if trintellix

? ? ? one smart choice leads to the next. ? the new 2017 ford fusion is here. it's the beauty of a well-made choice. ? y! you're the- - i used to ask if you could hear me now, but i switched to sprint!

is panicking. people are switching to sprint! all these networks are great now, people are tired of overpaying. sprint cut my rates by 50%! sprint's network covers nearly 300 million people and their network reliability is within 1% of verizon. [ dog barks ] can you hear that? switch to sprint and save 50% on most current verizon, at&t and t-mobile rates. for people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay.com it was a bit of a reach, frankly. jailing tony russo for lying

still, tony was on parole, after all, and his lie was technically a parole violation. but mainly detectives wanted him safely behind bars where they look for evidence to tie him to the murder of diane holik. mind you, they'd already noticed something. like the fact that tony changed the look of his van after he became a suspect. >> he took all the pinstriping off of his van, which several of the women noticed. >> reporter: trouble to make his car look different. >> yes. >> he even changed the symbol of the christian fish that was a sticker on the back windshield. he took that off. >> reporter: of course, they searched tony's van top to bottom, but they didn't find diane's engagement ring or anything else that belonged to her in the van. and a search of tony's house came up empty, too, though some rolled up wire fencing outside the house they found zip ties. which appeared to match the

they tracked down his alibi, too, of course. asked employees at the christian radio station if tony could have knocked on the door without being seen that afternoon in the big storm. and the radio people said, no, not possible. because -- >> as part of their tornado protocol, everybody in the building had to go to the front lobby of the radio station. there's no way that he could have shown up there with them not knowing because there's probably 20 people sitting in the lobby and they would have seen him. >> reporter: yet his cell phone pingeded in the area which happened to be near diane's neighborhood. and those women calling in that described a big man with big nose and beer belly, could they make a case against tony? >> we had so many women that had let him into their homes in different neighborhoods all over austin, south austin, north austin, even real estate agents that he had called when he

>> reporter: but could any of those women actually identify tony russo as their guy? >> we felt like we needed to do a live lineup because the phrasing in his ruse that he used was so specific and the women remembered his voice and they remembered his story. >> reporter: so they rounded up some austin police officers who looked like tony and put him and them in a lineup and brought the women in. >> there were five guys standing like on a -- like a theater setting. >> number one, take one step forward. >> a couple of feet above me, and we're down below. >> number two, repeat the following phrase, you have a beautiful house. >> you have a beautiful house. >> we had a script that each person had to step forward and exactly repeat what the detective was telling them to say.

>> i'm going to pay cash for a house. >> it was everything that was said to each one of these women when he went into their homes. >> i came to this house before, didn't i? >> i came to this house before, didn't it? >> repeat the following phrase. do you have any information about the floor plan of the house? >> do you have any information about the floor plan of the house? >> he was number one right in front of me. i did not expect him to be right in front of me. so that was extremely frightening. >> i picked him out of a lineup immediately. i was feeling a lot of guilt. i don't know why. you know, you just feel what could i have done? somebody's dead. and this man was with me. >> reporter: how many of those witnesses picked out the right guy? >> i believe it was 15 women. >> reporter: out of the total of how many? >> i think it was 30.

great and often doesn't carry much weight in the trial so you needed something more, right? >> yes. >> reporter: what they needed was something definishtive to put tony russo in diane holik's house. we sent in samples from where her ring had been yanked off to that towel from the couch. finally the results. what did the dna tell you? >> the swab on her hand was a mixture that was consistent with a combination of diane holik and russo. >> reporter: was it enough to say for sure, though -- >> yeah. >> reporter: because dna -- >> no, we can't exclude him. it's consistent with him. but it's not the kind of dna that you can eliminate the rest of the world. >> reporter: right. just really increased suspicion is all. >> yes. it was helpful. it was not positive. >> reporter: and the hairs found on that wet towel left on diane's couch?

lab, and they did a mitochondrial dna test on the hair, and again we could not exclude mr. russo. >> reporter: you couldn't say for sure it was him. >> couldn't say for sure, no. >> reporter: so close, just not quite the absolute proof they'd been hoping for. but the dna did provide one very helpful service. police had confirmed the alibis of diane's fiance dennis and her ibm friend ray, these tests definitively eliminated them as suspects. >> we could not eliminate mr. russo. >> reporter: finally six months after diane's death, tony russo was charged with murder. a risk? maybe. they'd only get one shot. and the evidence they were going to take to court did not absolutely link him to the murder of diane holik. then when the trial was almost upon them, they found something.

>> in my wildest dreams, i never imagined that a website like this could even exist. coming up -- the dark side of the web, and tony russo. >> you certainly had your motive. >> yes, we did. ves. for some, lyrica can significantly relieve fibromyalgia pain and improve function, so i feel better. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior. or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness,

e or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. with less pain, i can be more active.

these pants always smelled like yoga-aroma. i'd wash them, and it'd be back before i even got to class. finally, i discovered new tide odor defense. so i can breathe easy hummmmm. don't just mask odors. eliminate them with new tide odor defense.

her personality was like this giant bubble that just kept getting bigger and she put as many people around to be in this bubble of fun of life. she lived life to be having a good time. >> reporter: two years after diane holik's happy, vibrant life was so suddenly asphyxiated, her friends gathered again for a murder trial. friends and a whole group of women who had never met each other or diane holik but -- >> you could see they were all attractive women. looked like he had a type. >> it was obvious what this man was looking for. everyone had the same look.

determination to testify against tony russo, music minister, born-again christian, happily married man. but the case against him, not so easy. >> the most complex murder case, definitely the most complex murder case i've ever tried. >> reporter: that's because without hard evidence linking tony to the murder or even putting him in diane's house, she'd have to assemble all the jagged puzzle pieces of coincidence into a coherent pattern for the jury. >> when you're getting ready trial, you put it together almost like a play. you know, what are you going to tell them first? so you script it out. >> reporter: there were the zip ties the on his property that seemed to match marks on diane's wrists. his cell phone pings near her house. the radio station alibi was a lie. the dna, though it wasn't absolutely definitive, could not eliminate him. and all those women could

claiming he wanted to buy a house with cash, cash which he certainly did not have. but then -- >> he really wasn't looking for houses. he was looking for victims. >> reporter: like realtor melody blount who cried and prayed afford her encounter with tony russo. she found it so terrifying to testify, but did. >> i did not expect for patrick anthony russo to be sitting across from me within 10 to 12 feet man looking at me, it was petrifying. >> reporter: and most unsettling when she noticed something all too familiar. >> now i'm glaring at russo, and what does he do? he starts that tick in his neck, starts that popping. and i raised my hand up and said, there he goes, he's doing it right now.

his victims from earlier years including donna, the young apartment manager he attacked in jackson, texas. >> this phone call out of the blue after all of that time. >> reporter: she was not only surprised, she was angry. very angry. >> why did that have to happen? why does someone have to be killed before this man was stopped? >> reporter: and the emotions of that whole ugly ordeal flooded right back. >> my heart started racing. it was just being terrified all over again. >> reporter: but some of the compelling evidence came courtesy of tony's first wife. as he'd been married once before. >> the first wife said that he could not get aroused sexually unless he was choking her. and that he choked her when they had sex. >> reporter: and the second wife? >> second wife confirmed that he also choked her while she had sex. >> i mean,ly say that he does tend to put his hand on my neck.

getting restricted, you know, then -- and he always lets go. >> reporter: so the strange and potentially dangerous fetish, but was that all it was? isn't it possible though that he didn't really want to kill diane holik? >> it's my belief that he did. that just choking and not killing, it was no longer enough. it wasn't enough anymore. sure? because of what turned up during a forensic analysis of tony russo's computer. the itt people landed on it just as the trial was about to begin. disturbing is perhaps too bland a word to describe what was in there. >> he was a member of a website, one that you had to pay money to see. it's described as tastefully erotic death scenes. and mr. russo had chosen the sub

>> mm-hmm. in my wildest dreams, i never imagined that a website like this could even exist or that anybody would want to look at it. >> reporter: you certainly had your motive. >> yes, we did. it's called sexual sadism. >> reporter: so he felt a compulsion to go and choke people? >> yes. and that he was sexually aroused by women being choked. >> reporter: oh, boy, that gets into pretty dark territory, doesn't it? >> yes. >> they nailed him big time. r anita was in the courtroom when the state rested. and she waited to hear tony's defense. >> we were all thinking, okay, well, here we go. we're really going to hear a whole bunch of stuff. and the room was packed solid with people. and so his attorney just stood up and said, defense rests. and there was like a huge gasp in the room.

>> reporter: diane's friend lynn arrived just in time to hear the closing argument from the co-prosecutor. >> he kind of stood quiet for a minute, then went over to the jury and looked them all in the face and said, i need you to understand what happened to her that night. he put his hands up in the air like that and he put his thumbs down and he shook his hands like this as though he was choking someone. >> then he said, imagine, it minutes for her to die. >> reporter: as he's holding on to her. >> yeah. stood there and looked at his watch and just waited. and for at least 2 1/2 minutes nothing moved in that courtroom. >> and it was silent and he held that position with shaking hands until enough time had passed that a person would have died from being choked. >> all of a sudden slams his hand down on the table.

it took for her to die. and the whole courtroom just -- we all broke down at that point. to think that that's how long it took for her to die. how long she suffered. >> reporter: the defense which did not call a single witness instead made its case in the closing argument. for all the drama, the state, they said, failed to prove because it couldn't prove, that holik's home, couldn't prove he killed her. tony did not testify, but he did talk to us. coming up -- the verdict. >> when the jury walked back into the jury box, i can't even

once you take that leap, that's where the magic happens. nighty night. when are they leaving? grilled cheese and campbell's tomato soup go together like grandchildren and chaos. made for real, real life. feel a cold sore coming on? only abreva can heal it in as few as two and a half days when used at the first sign. it penetrates deep and starts to work immediately to block the virus and protect healthy cells.. don't tough it out, knock it out, fast. abreva.

you never dreamed greek could be like this. the family favorite. yoplait. ziploc presents: cafeteria chaos. school lunch can be difficult. one little struggle... can lead to one monumental mishap. not with ziploc easy open tabs. because life needs ziploc. sc johnson. get to kohl's now through sunday plus everyone gets an extra 15% off! plus everyone gets kohl's cash too! nothing but the best savings! now that's the good stuff.

donna davis had put everything she had into the case against tony russo. >> when, not if. sexually sadistic predator. >> reporter: she believed he was a dangerous man whsh be let loose to victimize another woman. her circumstantial case was powerful, overwhelming, but not even the tiny bits of recovered dna could absolutely prove beyond a doubt that tony russo killed diane holik. so prosecutors, investigators, friends and family were anything but calm as the hours passed and they waited for the jury. then, after 11 hours -- >> when the jury walked back into the jury box, i can't even

just looked down at the table and i wait for the judge to read. >> reporter: and then. >> we the jury, find the defendant, patrick anthony russo, guilty of the offense of capital murder. >> it was great. we really worked for this one. >> reporter: so they did. and won a case which remains as relevant a cautionary tale as it did back in 2004 when the jury pronounced its verdict. seller beware. >> that was quite eye opening, friends but the community as a whole and the real estate business. >> people need to see this and be aware so maybe this will stop that from happening. >> reporter: and tony russo? his hair has gone silver now. he's in prison for life. and here one recent friday morning he brought his bible to the barrier that separates his world from ours. his holy stamp of assurance that what he was about to tell us

diane holik would be god's truth. that jury comes back and says guilty. what's that like? >> devastating. when you're innocent, it's devastating. >> reporter: innocent? yes. and -- so i hear from the warden that you have -- you got your bachelor's in divinity. >> yes, sir. if i had to spend the rest of my life in here, i want the use it for christ. >> reporter: throughout our talk, he wore his christianity like a badge. >> i notice that in the media they love to sensationalize any christians or people who claim to be christians that somehow they just got some hidden secrets in their life. and -- >> reporter: but your victims were christians, too. >> saying you're a christian and being a christian are two different things. >> reporter: you are saying you have to be totally honest to be

honest but there are things in your life that you'll exhibit whether christ is in your life or not. >> reporter: the evidence against him? he had answers for everything. like why he lied to the police when he said he wasn't looking at houses when in fact he was. >> i did deny in the interview because i felt like i was going to incriminate myself in the original interrogation. i did, however, share with my attorneys -- >> reporter: right. >> -- what had been going on. >> reporter: which was, he said, perfectly innocent research. >> looking at the different designs and things. for a long time we had talked about building a house. one of my friends from church had lived in a mobile home while he built a whole house on the back of his property. >> reporter: so we wondered, why did he behave in a way that terrified all those women who testified in court against him. you got to admit it was a pretty creepy thing to do.

it is to look at houses -- >> reporter: to tell people a whole shaggy dog tale, a bunch of lies about why you're there, to follow them around the house, to make them nervous. >> well, actually, i preferred not to follow anybody through a house. they're the ones that want to show you the house. so they tend to lead you. >> reporter: the rental agent he attacked and half strangled back in 1989. what do you have to say to a woman like her? >> okay. i don't remember her at all. >> reporter: and yet he actually confessed to attacking that woman back in 1989. and what about the witness so frightened by his visit to her house that she and her husband saved his license plate number. and they kept it because they were so freaked out by you. >> they actually kept about four license plate numbers of people that looked at their house and wanted to look at their house without a realtor. >> reporter: not true said darla davis. his license number was the only one they saved.

off his van just then. he said that wasn't because police were looking for it but because it had been vandalized. >> i was going to redo the pinstriping since i had originally put it on there. >> reporter: the zip ties police found wrapped around fencing on his property? they belonged to a friend, he said. and the statement by his wife, janet, who, by the way, still married to him, still standing by him, that he would sometimes choke her during sex. does tend to put his hand on my neck. >> reporter: i never c. >> i never choked anybody. >> reporter: you choked your wife. >> no, i did not. >> reporter: she said you did. you did that as part af the sex act. that's how you had sex. >> no, that's not true. that's a manipulation on what she's saying. >> reporter: by whom? >> i'm just telling you that's not what she said. >> reporter: but rereminded tony

but your ex-wife says you choked her. and that's how you got sexual arousal. >> okay. >> reporter: the only way you can get sexual arousal. >> well, i'm not going to go into detail to embarrass her, so i'd rather not say anything about her. >> reporter: you know that's a tactic, don't you? i've seen this done a thousand times. >> you can call it a tactic. >> reporter: if you've got something to say about the woman, say it. but don't do that where i'm not good to say a bad thing about her bee >> under the world standards, yeah, that would be b.s., but as a christian, it's not. >> reporter: we asked about the pornographic website purported to show asphyxiation of women. the one he had to register and pay for before he could access it on his computer. >> i cannot help that porn sites pop up on my computer. >> reporter: they don't pop up unless you look at some porn site or whatever. there's an explanation for everything. >> well, there's a truth to

had an answer for everything. >> i am absolutely innocent. and it disgusts me that every time you try to say you're innocent, everybody says, isn't that what everybody says? >> reporter: and you confessed the ultimate sin to god? >> what's the ultimate sin that you're talking about? >> reporter: murder. >> if i had murdered someone, i would definitely have. >> reporter: you say with your hand on your bible. >> i will die proclaiming my innocence. people will believe it or not believe it. i am absolutely innocent. i don't care how guilty i look. i'm innocent. >> reporter: he couldn't convince any courts of that, though. all his appeals failed. so here he will stay. outside this institution several women still struggle with the anxieties and fears in prisons of their own created by him. >> it comes back any time i get a call from a man who wants to

i could have been a victim. >> reporter: absolutely. >> i was an intended victim. that's why he called me. so that's a hard thing to think about. >> reporter: and they told us, the trauma lives on. though -- >> it's comforting to know that he's in there, that he can't hurt anyone else. >> reporter: they are sorority sisters of a sort. who, unwilling to live their lives as silent victims, came together to help get tony russo off the street for good. him convicted. >> reporter: so they did, this sisterhood. for the sake of a woman whose fate might have been theirs, diane holik, whose friends came together to remember how they miss her even after all these years. >> she was a constant friend. she was in my life every day. and all of a sudden she was gone out of my life. in an instant like blowing a candle out. >> reporter: you see the smile in all these photographs.

she had a magic smile. it was infectious. if she was smiling, everybody else had to. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." we'll see you again next friday at 9:00, 8:00 central. monday night i hope you'll join us for the first presidential debate. i'll be moderating from hofstra i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, good night. two major incidents should down i-25 in the north and south metro in the evening rush hour. >> in the high country the first signs of winter on the second day of fall, how low

>> the endorsement some figured wasn't going to happen as ted cruz throws his support behind trump. >> what we hear from contractors is we can't hire enough people. >> and one problem you may not have realized is contributing to the housing problems here. 9news starts now. we developing story now out of washington state. four people have been killed inside a mall 65 miles north of seattle, very few details released about what has taken place inside the cascade mall in burlington. a member of the state patrol says the gunman is on the loose and the mall is currently being cleared. we don't know where this took place in the mall and if anyone else was injured inside or what may have been the motivation. the changing weather conditions this evening have rescuers concerned about a lost