order to prevent himself from being removed from office. my biggest fear is that there will not be a peaceful transition of power in 2020. >> a stark warning from someone who knows the president well. that does it for us. have a great holiday weekend. o. she was a mom looking for her baby. and her baby hadn't come home. >> her week was nothing but trouble. >> she couldn't tell me what happened. >> it was about to get much worse. >> you didn't want it to be dark. >> she had been stabbed multiple times. she was a targeted victim. >> who killed kathy? >> we had no witness or confession. >> 20 years went by.

>> still had to keep looking for what i had lost. >> kathy had her, she had him. >> i put a lot of faith in god. >> and the killer, he never had a chance. in the small hours of the morning while the world is fast aleve, mary beth is awake, not because she wants to be but because some things stay with you whether you want them to or not, and for mary beth it is the time, 3:40 a.m. >> every day i wake up around that time. it is embedded in my brain. >> that particular time stabbed

her in the heart and pulled her awake, an internal clock permanently set to the worst day of her life that began with a phone call and a knock on the door and news of something that never should have happened to this family and girl. >> when she came inside the house, i'm home. what's for dinner. she would still ask what's for dinner. >> kathy torres grew up in a small town nestled amongst the sprawling cities of california. >> even as a baby, she was a good baby. >> mary beth is her mother. >> always happy and running and always very loud and always smiling. >> that radiant smile shine d everywhere she went. >> kathy was energetic. she was happy. she loves to laugh. >> kathy was one of four

siblings, marty and the baby, debbie. tina was the eldest. she watched as kathy acceled in school. >> kathy was exceptional. kathy made her own way. she did not follow a role model. >> nobody guiding her. nobody pushing her. >> she used to hell her younger sister that she had to leave her mark in this world. >> did you teach her that? >> no. that was just her. >> kathy was different. >> beautiful, smart and social and popular. >> you knew more about her dating life than your mom and dad did. >> yes, i believe to some extent. >> kathy dated a few guys in high school but nobody she was stuck on.

1994 out of high school and a young woman of 20 kathy started to see a boy named albert. a boy she played with as a child and is interested in romantically. >> she said they were seeing each other but wasn't anything serious or formal that i knew of. he was a nice guy. >> kathy's plate was full in february of 1994. honor student at cal st. fullerton, holding down two jobs. one at the local drug store and another as a teacher aide to pay for college. a few days before february 14th kathy told sister tina what she wanted for valentines day. >> she said tina i would like it if someone gave me a dozen red roses for valentines day.

>> she never received a dozen roses from anyone but that year she was hopeful. kathy went off of her job at the drug store. >> how was she that morning? >> fine, routine. >> tina was trying to catch up with kathy that day before she went to work and just missed her at home only to see her minutes later in traffic. >> we saw each other and she gave me the biggest smile that i will always remember. she saw me. we looked at each other. it was a beautiful smile. >> that smile and moment burned into her memory. kathy's shift ended about 8:00 that night. she was supposed to come home but mary did not see her. >> 9:00. 10:00. you are not worried?

>> no. >> probably went out after work. >> yeah. >> sunday morning came and still no kathy. coming up, kathy's family launches a search. >> i drove into the parking lot i said let me just see her car. >> and the fear and the frustration. >> it felt like you were out in this time warp even though there were no days or nights and you didn't want it to be dark because you want to keep looking. e you want to keep looking. advil targets pain at the source... ...while acetaminophen blocks pain signals. the future of pain relief is here. new advil dual action. an extra 15% credit on car and motorcycle policies? >>wow...ok! that's 15% on top of what geico could already save you. so what are you waiting for? idina menzel to sing your own theme song? ♪ tara, tara, look at her go with a fresh cup of joe.

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and the next morning there was still no sign of her. mary called kathy's friends and nobody had seen her and mary got in the car and scoured the streets searching for kathy and her red toyota corolla. >> she was a mom full of pain. she was a mom that was hurting because she was looking for her baby. she would say, just find the car. you find the car. it was like an equation, you find the car, you will find kathy. >> you get any sleep sunday night? >> no. >> you don't want to call the police because it makes it real. >> >> you are still holding on to the hope that she will come running in through the backdoor. >> monday kathy still wasn't home and panic was setting in and mary called the police

department to report her daughter missing. >> and the police said? >> you don't know, maybe she went off. >> she could have met some guy and they are in vegas. you are saying not possible. >> at that point you want to yell and scream at them and say that is not true. you don't know. not my kathy. >> the torres family wasn't going to wait for police to catch up to what they already knew. kathy wasn't someone that just disappeared. they went to reporters. >> this is one thing that nobody should have to go through. >> and took the search into their own hands. >> i told my mom to give me a picture. >> mary worked the phones at home and younger brother marty kept watch.

soon it wasn't just the torres family searching. police jumped on the case. >> we had strangers, people coming to the house asking what we can do and can we have some flyers to pass out flyers. >> tina drove to the school where kathy worked and mary's mantra echoed through her mind. find the car and you will find kathy. >> i said let me just see her car. i knew a lot of things were going on in her life in that week prior. >> a lot of things was an under statement. kathy's family was worried about her state of mind after a strange and terrifying series of events that happened the week before she vanished. she came home the previous saturday in a bizarre state.

>> she didn't get out of the car and my son went out to help her. >> that could not have made you happy. >> no it didn't. i have never seen her come home like that. >> did you smell any alcohol? >> no. she did not smell like alcohol but something was wrong with her. >> mary later realized kathy's underwear was missing. what you are describing is what happens when people come home after they were date raped. they can't remember what happened. they are not wearing all of their clothes and are clearly under the influence of something. >> yes. i was afraid maybe that had happened to her. >> she had no memory. >> she had no memory. >> did you think of calling the

police? >> sadly, no. >> the next morning tina saw kathy's car. >> i remember looking at the tires and saying what happened. how could this be the way they were slashed. >> it was deliberate. >> i just kept saying who slashed your tires. she said she didn't know. >> the worst was yet to come. two days after kathy came home in the strange condition her new boyfriend apparently tried to commit suicide and even left a note that seemed to be in his own handwriting. all of this days before kathy disappeared. albert hanged himself at work but he didn't die and lingered in a coma at the hospital. >> she was so upset and crying. >> now the torres family was left to wonder if and how all of

it connected to her disappearance. >> felt like you were out in this time warp. no days. no nights. you didn't want it to be dark. you wanted to keep looking. >> the next big search was planned for saturday morning, february 19th. a week since she was last seen. >> we just got another box donated of flyers and everything was set. >> around 3:40 a.m. saturday, there was a knock on mary's front door. coming up, police find kathy's car. >> her shoe office the floor board and there was blood in the interior of the car. interior of the car. - [narrator] this is kate.

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>> the torres family planned a major search for kathy on saturday, a week after she disappeared. at 3:40 that morning, mary had a visitor. a police officer that asked for kathy's keys. >> i gave him the keys and asked if it was kathy's car. she didn't look at me but they told him to come and pick up the

key and he left. >> find the car and you'll find kathy. it had become a family motto. when another officer arrived the torres family was waiting for what they dreaded all week. >> my mom asked him what happened. did you find kathy. he looked at my mom and said i'm sorry. all i remember were the flyers on my mom's table in the living room and feeling so much pain. i was yelling not my kathy. >> mary beth had been right all along. kathy's toyota corolla had been spotted in a hospital parking

lot with a plastic bag peeking out the trunk. officers opened it and kathy torres was missing no longer. >> she was stabbed multiple times. there is no way to time the death but it is safe to assume she had been dead since disappearing saturday night on the 12th. >> devastating for the torres family and for all that had been searching so tirelessly for kathy. >> she was a vibrant and intelligent young girl. truly a tragedy. >> detectives went to work. they set up a hotline. >> do have you any information regarding the homicide of kathy torres. >> and scoured for clues. by studying the car and her body investigators got a sense of what happened. first, kathy was completely

clothed. one more thing seemed clear. >> most likely the attack started in the car. pieces of the gear shift and center console were broken and blood in the interior of the car. >> orange county prosecutor matt murphy reviewed the case. the steering wheel, above the glove compartment. driver sidearm rest and the trunk release. one noteworthy place where there was no blood, the driver side seat lever. when police found the car the seat was way back. >> not only operating the car but did it before the murder

took place. that was touched and moved without a transfer of blood at all. the seat was moved back before the killing started. >> if so perhaps because kathy knew her killer and opened the door for him or her and found her right shoe on the floor board and the sock covered in dirt. >> she had fled from the vehicle on foot and likely caught and attacked again before ultimately being placed in the trunk of the car and died. >> she ran for her life. >> to detectives it wasn't a sex crime or a robbery. more than 70 stab wounds suggested something else. >> nothing random about it. >> the most chilling clue a letter in kathy's own

handwriting. she is as in the letter 8:50. just finished my shift. everybody was crazy. buying the v -- she is interrupted mid-sentence. >> who had done that? detectives were not sure. they believe the letter was intended for albert who at the time of the murder was lying in the hospital after a suicide attempt, never woke up and died two years later. >> you have to look at all of that and you have to ask is there something involved in that. >> it was almost too strange to imagine, except to police. >> there were rumors in the community that may have been the motive for her disappearance and motive. you need to look at the family. >> members of the family were angry with kathy, thinking that she might have been the cause of his suicide.

>> because of his relationship with kathy and the fact that she wasn't as serious about him as he was with her. that had to be examined and looked at. >> so the investigation continued as people paid final respects to the friendly cashier they knew from save on. more than 1,000 people attended kathy's funeral. >> impressive. >> the kind of person kathy was. she touched a lot of people. they remembered her. >> kathy hoped for a dozen red roses that february and instead her family remembered her with a head stone and her smile will shine forever. >> i didn't know how long i would have to wait. but i knew that we had to do everything we could to get the answer. >> because?

>> because she was my daughter. someone had taken her away from me and had done something hor toibl her and someone needed to be accountable. >> nobody could have imagined at the time just how long mary's quest for justice would take. coming up, detectives have a few questions for one of kathy's closest friends. >> the minute that i said no to her she blew up. she started cussing me out. she started cussing me out [♪]

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hello i am dara brown. experts are warning labor day could trigger another coronavirus surge. cases are high, businesses are opening up and children are returning to school as the season turns to flu season. joe biden is defending the

military against president trump's disparaging remarks. kamala harris heads to wisconsin and she and mike pence will be campaigning in the battle ground state on monday. now back to dateline. >> kathy torres had been murdered and stuffed into the trunk of her car. police were considering what role her new boyfriend albert and his attempted suicide may have played. but now unanswered questions and a take shaken. >> kathy was a happy person. >> that was armando lopez, kathy's brother-in-law. that was not the only connection between the two families.

kathy had dated armando's younger brother, sam off and on and the families lived down the street from each other. >> you can see one house from the other. >> exactly. >> she is going out with sam. that house wasn't just another on the street. it was family. >> right. right. >> police spoke with members of the lopez family. sam knew kathy the best. >> how long have you known kathy? >> geez, over five years. >> they interviewed him down at the station. >> that person would always have a smile. >> given their friendship detectives were curious about what kathy might have shared with sam about albert? >> i think albert tried to commit suicide. was she confiding in you?

>> the only thing she mentioned about him is that he hung himself and she was sorry for him doing that because she felt like it was her fault. we never set down -- >> she was smoking marijuana. kathy's family said that for her that would be out of character. sam told detectives he had last seen kathy thursday the before she disappeared and paged him several times that day and when they finally -- i said the minute that i said no to her she blew up. she started cussing me out. you know if i don't get it from you i am going to get it from somebody else. kathy got in her car and took

off. >> i can't go chasing after her. i never thought this would happen. >> sam shared his suspicions about what happened to kathy, the same rumors about albert that were circulating. >> but hey, it is a possibility that somebody else from his family. but why the coincidence. after he hung himself this happened. why? police also asked sam where he was when kathy disappeared. >> last saturday? >> sure. we are asking everyone. >> i was helping a friend of mine move. sam said he and javier helped a

friend move. >> from there i went to my girlfriend's store. i was there until they closed. 8:00. >> if we had to contact everyone and get their names, addresses and phone numbers they would confirm? >> sure. >> and sure enough they did. >> javier told investigators he was with sam and that sam had picked him up at his house in anaheim and driven him to another friend's house in fullerton. >> so if you believe sam's alibi he couldn't have been the thing interrupting kathy when she was writing that note. >> right.

>> nevertheless pressed sam for more details. sam gave those clothes to the police and let them search his house too and willingly gave samples of hair and blood. but something about sam's behavior the week kathy went missing bothered her family and mary said she repeatedly paged sam looking for kathy. >> did he call you back? >> not at first. but eventually, yes. >> he hadn't seen her. >> to all appearances that was true. the physical evidence seemed to confirm it. his clothes had no dna of kathy's on him. but that behavior of sam's also

bothered police and they focused on him. but when investigators took suspicions to the d.a. the outcome wasn't what they expected. coming up. sam has a new woman in his life who soon discovers his old life. .

>> police had suspicions about sam lopez's involvement in the neighborhood of his former girlfriend and neighborhood kathy torres but no physical evidence tied him to the murder and he had a solid alibi, sam was with his cousin, javier. >> did you think kathy's disappearance had anything to do with albert? >> no. just two tragedies happening at the same time but not connected. >> even though that bothered them, police were forced to

agree but that left the investigation with nowhere to go. >> whoever killed kathy was out there walking around. >> yes. still out there. enjoying the sup. >> breathing the same air you are breathing. >> yes. >> do you think about that a lot? >> i did. >> sunny days turned dark. seasons changed. still the torres family was left wondering who had killed kathy. what never changed was mary. steadfa steadfast. >> she said remember, mary. the squeaky wheel gets the oil. don't let anyone tell you different. you keep going. that is what i did. >> mary and her family sought the attention of the media,

spoke with the governor about kathy's murder and even contributed to reward funds. >> you were doing everything you could think of. >> yes. yes. you have to. you don't have the same or the resources to do it on your own. you look and you knock on a lot of doors trying to keep it out there. they spent thousands of hours all in the hope that kathy's case would not lie forgotten in a miling department. >> i work -- they would see me sitting at my desk when they walked in to city hall. >> every new police chief would

get a meeting with you -- >> you were a pest? >> i was a squeaky wheel. >> i went with her a couple of times. we just want to let you know we represent kapthy torres. we have not forgotten. >> the community learning center was dedicated in cathy's name. and a tree was planted in cathy's memory across the street. >> they planted it in a way from where my mom could see the tree. >> sam lopez could see it too and was living in the same home

police searched after cathy's murder. a search that turned up nothing. sam was also move pentagon on with his life. in may happened -- >> he walked in with his friend and i just remember thinking that he was cute. >> she was a hostess then. >> i offered him some free food and then we started talking. >> she felt the spark right away. >> i did think i would marry him when i first saw him. >> you were taken with him right away? >> i was. >> sam and tina started dating. but in a small town it wasn't long before tina heard the whisper rumors. >> i found out my sister went to school with him and asked her. that is when she told me that he

was the one they suspected. >> in the murder of cathy torres. >> he hadn't told me that in the first couple of weeks i was dating him. >> sam emphatically denied any involvement in cathy's murder but the idea spooked tina. >> i said i was dating somebody else. >> you were freaked out by that? >> yeah. >> but it was too strong. something in her heart said that sam was isn't. >> i gave him a call. i started to date him again. >> you are an attractive woman. i have trouble believing there were not guys already that were not already suspects in a murder

investigation happen investigation. >> i was ready. this is who i want to be with and have kids with. >> and they did. a year later -- >> he sayed home. >> if sam had anything to do with cathy's murder he didn't act like it living down the street from cathy's mom, mary. >> she would sit outside and stare at us and i felt like she did it to make me uncomfortable and him too but i am sure she didn't want him to be happy if she thought he had anything to do with her daughter.

>> like the hatfield and mccoys? >> there was no communication. no associations with them. they became estranged. >> that made it difficult for tina who was still married to sam's older brother, armando. the fact was police had no solid leads and were not even close to arresting anyone. but then two years after cathy torres was murdered an unexpected meeting put this investigation into the fast lane. coming up an explorer with a familiar last night inspires a renewed search for a killer. >> that is a weird coincidence. >> we don't believe in coincidences. >> a tip that captures one investigator's attention. >> that had to make everybody

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>> it was 1996, two years had passed since the gruesome murder of cathy torres. >> i had been to several places and knocked on many doors and all that i ever wanted was the truth to come out as to what had happened to cathy. >> the case had gone cold, but the memory clung to the breeze in this small town. darren wyatt was a patrol officer back then and one afternoon his shift brought him to the park, across the street from where cathy had grown up and was about to bust a drug suspect when the guy started talking. >> he is playing the game. i will tell you whatever you want to know. ask the right questions and i will tell you and you won't take me to jail.

almost as a flippant remark, i said tell me who killed cathy torres. >> a shot in the dark and a tactic he picked up at a seminar. >> a patrol officer next to me started to kick his foot with an explorer scout riding with him. a young hispanic female. it was debbie torres, cathy's younger sister who just heard you ask that question. you had no idea? >> i had no idea. >> debbie torres, cathy's baby sister was now 14 years old and eager to assist police because of everything that her family had been through. >> she remembered that we needed help. people came to help us. she thought it was her turn to help others. >> that is why debbie was in the park that afternoon and how she heard darren mention cathy's

case. >> that is a weird coincidence. >> we don't believe in coincidences. >> it felt more like fate and months later in january of 1997 his lieutenant suggested darren apply to the homicide unit. >> i ended up putting in for that job and being selected. >> wasn't long before he cracked open the doors that housed the homicide files. i remembered the dinse dent with debbie about a year earlier. i pulled it out on free time. >> the cathy torres case had been cold for a good three years. >> essentially no work had been done on it for the last two years. >> from the beginning police suspected cathy's one-time boyfriend sam lopez had something to do with the murder but nothing connecting him to the crime. no witnesses.

no d.n.a. sam had the solid alibi. tina was still married to sam's brother and the two families intertwined as cathy's family continued to search for answers. >> april 1997 i got a phone call. >> cathy's mom, their first conversation of membership. mary told darren how she had seen reports centered around investigating cold cases and cathy's case had been mentioned. >> she said if they are using my daughter for publicity they are going to work it and it is your job to make sure that happenings. >> it allow period darren to -- >> you have mary and the family

who is persistent. it did give me a lot of leverage. >> darren poured through the files and hunted down new leads. then a tip came in out of nowhere. >> a repossession guy calls the police saying i repoed the car and there is a foal i don't. there are articles in there about this murder from 1994. there are receipts from save on. >> save on. the drug store chain cathy was working at the time she was stabbed to death. >> that had to make everybody sit up straight. >> the guy whose car had been repossessed was released from state prison and now in custody for threatening someone with the knife. >> the first thing you wanted to

know where he was -- >> whatever is going on with the guy he is not the guy. >> he is not pnchlly but is he related to. why is the stuff in the trunk of his car. >> you say why would you have articles about cathy torres' murder. >> that's all my wife's stuff. he separates himself from it raising more suspicion. >> could you tell if he was connected to anyone in the case? >> not initially. really had to dig deep tore see what the connection was. >> darren finally located the convict's wife. >> she was uncooperative. she said she went to high school with cathy and closer examination we saw the receipts

were from a different save on than the one that cathy worked on and it was her keep sake file. >> she saved the articles before she knew someone that got murdered. >> you are back to basically no suspects. >> back to the same. robber at the same time darren had to admit that sam did not fit anyone's profile of a murder suspect. >> no criminal history. there are no indicators he was anything other than a normal 22-year-old kid. >> doesn't sound like a killer. >> absolutely not. >> detectives interviewed sam on two separate days, first on audiotape when cathy went missing. and later this time on the video, after her body was found.

he had always been cooperative. >> he voluntarily gave head hair samples. blood samples. he gave fingerprints. at the end of that he said whatever i can do, i will do. >> as he read the file darren read there were other things sam didn't do. for example sam lived right down the street but cathy's family said he never stopped by during the frantic week they were searching. he did speak extensively with police. >> i don't think anybody thought sam was telling the truth. >> sam told detectives cathy came to him looking for weed. >> there is no indication any of that was true. >> calling into question sam's story. >> it does. >> coming up. as darren digs deeper into the case telling behavior from sam in the old interview tapes.

>> he never shows any emotion about the fact that she has been brutally murdered. >> and he learns cathy and sam's relationship was anything but straightforward. >> she mentioned some guy's name i get pissed off, okay. >> when dateline continues. , oky >> when dateline continues ay it's the faster way to clean as you go just spray, wipe and rinse it cleans grease five times faster dawn powerwash. spray, wipe, rinse.

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homicide cop daron wyatt was deep in the cathy torrez murder case. he was looking closely at the behavior and statements from sam lopez, cathy's neighbor and ex-boyfriend. cathy's family says he never stopped by the house in the days they were searching for her. and daron noticed an inconsistency in sam's account of the days right before cathy disappeared. >> i called her house eight

times in a row. >> mary, however, says sam was the one calling her home looking for cathy. he called how many times? >> quite a few times looking for her. >> reporter: mary says sam sounded okay at first, until she told him where cathy was. >> i said she was at the hospital and she wasn't back yet. >> reporter: at the hospital, visiting albert, her boyfriend, who had attempted suicide. sam okay with that? >> no, he got upset. >> reporter: sam told police he was just worried about cathy, especially after he spoke with her that week. >> she was crying on the phone, saying, you know, i messed up, i never tried getting him hurt and all this stuff. and i told her just calm down, because when you're depressed, you do dumb things. >> reporter: remember, this interview happened while cathy was still missing. sam seemed to be implying she might have hurt herself or that another boyfriend might be involved. >> i mean, look, she, she's had, i know she's had a lot of

problems in the past with boyfriends. >> reporter: then there was the second interview, the day cathy's body was found. detective wyatt studied that tape, too. >> there was one thing that was important that sam didn't display that you would expect to see in a case like this. >> which is? >> emotion. he showed more emotion over the contents of a coke can. he picked it up when they left the room, and he's reading the coke can and the ingredients and the number of calories. and at one point he puts that down and picks up a baseball hat he had been wearing, sees dirt and brushes it off and starts swearing about the fact that there's dirt on his hat. >> oh [ bleep ]. >> but he never shows any emotion about the fact that this gal has been brutally murdered, no emotion whatsoever. >> and that's a big red flag. >> it's huge. >> reporter: daron went deeper into sam and cathy's relationship. >> there were a lot of things that brought them together. they dated in high school. they listened across the street.

cathy's older sister was married to sam's older brother. >> they had this long on again/off again relationship in which, what, he couldn't let go of her or she couldn't let go of him? >> i think a lot of it was mutual. >> reporter: even after cathy started dating albert and sam had another girlfriend, too, they continued to see each other. and daron found evidence that in sam's mind, his relationship with cathy was far from casual. >> mary gave me a shoe box full of letters that were written between sam and cathy, and the content of these letters showed a very jealous guy. a guy who would get angry any time somebody flirted with cathy. >> reporter: sam didn't try to hide the fact that he was prone to jealousy. >> she knows, every time she mentions some guy's name, i get pissed off, okay? >> reporter: that led the detective to take a fresh look at those bizarre events the week before cathy disappeared when she came home impaired and then had her tires slashed.

>> she never regained full memory of what had happened, but she was able to tell everybody who she had been with that night. >> reporter: the person cathy had been with that night? sam lopez. when police asked sam about that night, he remembered something very specific. >> a hickey. >> on her neck? >> on her right here, covered up with her bra. >> you mean way down here on her shoulder? >> right here. right here. >> reporter: sam claimed it was no big deal. >> i didn't want to hit her up, like, tell her, "hey, you know, who were you with last night?" whatever. >> reporter: but that night, police records showed sam received two traffic citations, both while driving cathy's car. one was an open container ticket for drinking alcohol in a parking lot, the other for failing to stop at a stop sign. the cop who pulled sam over for not stopping said sam flew through the intersection, and when he approached the car, the cop said it looked as if sam and cathy had been arguing. but he did say cathy looked

fine. nobody was quite sure what happened after that, except they apparently parted company, sam in his car, cathy in hers. then cathy arrived home, too out of it to realize she'd been driving on slashed tires. tina saw the tires the next day. >> i just kept saying, "what happened to your tires? who slashed your tires?" >> reporter: and she'd say? >> and she'd say she didn't know. she -- she just knew that she had gone out with sam that night. >> reporter: daron wyatt now believed sam drugged cathy, possibly assaulted her, and slashed her tires. the next day, cathy called tina with more details about her strange night with sam. >> he had told her "let's run off, let's get married. let's run off and let's elope." and she told him, "you're joking, this is not --" you know, "what are you talking about, are you serious?" >> reporter: remember, cathy was seeing another guy, albert, who only days later tried to kill himself. tina says cathy thought about

sam's proposal all that week. ultimately, cathy decided, says tina, that she was so broken up about albert she was going to tell sam the answer was no. >> she's crying, and then she said, "i'm going to tell him this saturday that i'm not gonna take off with him, that i will not elope." that was wednesday. home. >> reporter: sam's admitted jealousy, cathy's doting on albert, a rejected proposal. all of it seemed to add up to motive. but motives don't prove murder. there was still no physical evidence tying sam to the crime. all the blood on the car had been tested, and it was all cathy's. but then, while combing the case file, detective daron wyatt learned something shocking. there were blood and hair samples that had never been sent to the crime lab. and when those samples were analyzed, they pointed to a whole new suspect.

coming up, new dna and a new man in the hot seat. >> he sat there and put his fist in front of his mouth to keep himself from talking. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues looks like they picked the wrong getaway driver. they're going to be paying for this for a long time. they will, but with accident forgiveness allstate won't raise your rates just because of an accident, even if it's your fault. cut! sonny. was that good? line! the desert never lies. isn't that what i said? no you were talking about allstate and insurance. i just... when i... let's try again. everybody back to one. accident forgiveness from allstate. click or call for a quote today. accident forgiveness saturpain happens. aleve it. aleve is proven stronger and longer on pain than tylenol. when pain happens, aleve it. all day strong. start your day with secret.

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back in 1994, police suspected sam lopez of killing his sometime girlfriend, cathy torrez, but they couldn't make the case. one big reason, sam's cousin, javier, who told detectives he was with sam the night of the murder. javier was sam's alibi. so he wasn't suspected of being part of the murder, or even being at the crime scene. >> that's right, yeah. they were looking at javier solely as an alibi witness who was lying to cover for sam. >> reporter: that's why, as detective daron wyatt now discovered, even though investigators in 1994 took

blood, hair, and fingerprint samples from javier, they'd never had those tested. >> they had sent all of the evidence related to sam lopez to the crime lab -- his fingerprints, his hair, his blood -- but they hadn't sent anything related to javier lopez to the crime lab. >> reporter: daron sent javier's samples, now three years old, to the crime lab. two months later, the phone rang. >> they had positively identified a fingerprint on the trunk of cathy's car, left there by somebody closing the lid of the trunk. >> reporter: javier's print was on the trunk of cathy's car? >> yes. >> reporter: weeks later, another call from the lab. a bloodstain on the car had tested positive for both cathy's dna and javier's. and the detective found there was something else -- another major piece of evidence investigators had initially overlooked. >> when you look at the crime scene photos, in the trunk of the car, something jumped out at me.

and it just -- it hit me like i got punched in the face. was there was arterial spurt on the sidewall of the trunk panel. >> reporter: meaning only one thing -- cathy was still alive when she was placed in the trunk of the car. so if javier put her there, he could be charged with murder. why not grab javier up that day and say, "okay, your dna and fingerprints were at the scene. we didn't know that until just now. you're going away for murder unless you start talking"? >> well, let's say that we did that and we bring him in and he says, well, yes, my fingerprint was there because i helped her push her car out of the street a week before. or when i was helping her change a tire, i cut my finger and i bled on it. >> reporter: so instead of approaching javier, daron wyatt spent nearly five months carefully watching him and sam. he learned the two cousins were unusually close. >> sam lived in a one-bedroom little bungalow with his wife and his baby at the time, yet javier was there all the time,

sleeping in the same -- essentially the same room. >> reporter: eventually, daron wyatt felt he had enough new information to get a search warrant. >> there was a loud pounding on our door. >> reporter: tina montelongo remembers it clearly. >> when i opened the door, there was about five police officers there. the one in the middle was wyatt. he put us against the wall and patted us down. >> what was sam's demeanor while all that was happening? >> he was calm, you know. he really was. i was freaking out. >> reporter: he wasn't worried? >> no. no. >> reporter: maybe he had no reason to be. police didn't find anything in the house linking sam to cathy's murder. they even sprayed his truck with luminol looking for signs of blood. >> we took the seats out, we did everything we could. and there was nothing. >> reporter: police briefly detained sam, but he was back home by morning. now daron wyatt focused on

javier. >> we really approached it very low key. "we think that you can really provide some great information for us. would you mind coming down with us and talking?" >> reporter: they brought him down to the station and listened patiently as he distanced himself from cathy torrez. >> he'd never been shopping with her, never changed a tire on her car, never carried groceries. we went through the whole litany of things that -- >> and he's all, oh, no, no, that's all true, i'm a million miles away from her. >> right, right, separated himself. >> reporter: but in so doing, javier ruled out any innocent explanation for finding his dna and fingerprint on her car. so when police told him that's exactly what they had found -- >> it was like vapor lock. and then all of a sudden he said, "well, you know, this one time i was at the video store, and i saw sam and cathy there together. and i went and i sat in cathy's car and sat in the backseat and waited for them. and they came out, and then i

left." and that was really his only contact that he can give us with cathy's car. >> but he doesn't fold up like a house of cards and say, "all right, fine, you got me." >> you're right. but josh, you've watched probably thousands of these interviews. and sometimes what people don't say is just as important as what they do say. >> reporter: what javier either would not or could not say were these words -- "i did not kill cathy torrez." >> he says, "i don't know who did." "that's not what i asked, javier. did you kill cathy torrez?" "i don't know who did." and we play that several times to where he'd finally say, "i didn't do it." "you didn't do what, javier?" "i didn't do what you say i did." >> can't say the words "killed cathy"? >> correct. then it moved to, "did you put cathy's body in the trunk of the car?" "i don't know who did." finally he sat there and he put his fist in front of his mouth to keep himself from talking. >> reporter: but javier had already managed to talk his way

into an arrest for murder. nearly four years after cathy's death, he was booked into the orange county jail. cathy's family was stunned when they heard the news, tina included. remember, she was still married to armando, who was sam's brother and javier's cousin. that was a shock. that was a shock to us. >> you can't see that coming and police didn't tell you? >> right. that was part of their investigation, and we had no knowledge of that. >> reporter: but they were relieved. at last, the case was moving forward. daron wyatt was confident he had enough evidence to prove javier lopez had killed cathy torrez. but once again, the orange county district attorney did not agree. the d.a. decided not to charge? >> correct. >> and so, javier's set free. >> javier walks. coming up -- a detective who refuses to quit. >> i said, i have a cold case i need you to take a look at.

>> reporter: now has another good reason not to. >> my first daughter was born. and i remember going to mary shortly after that looking in the eye and saying "i know. i know now how you feel." >> when "dateline" continues. inf fitness. it's every class you can imagine, live. welcome back to the mirror. you've got this john. and on demand. it's boxing... cardio... yoga... and more. it's an interactive, goal crushing...whole family...whole body fitness machine. it's so cool! the future of fitness is at home. the mirror. ♪ you must go and i must bide

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hello. i'm darryl brown. the unemployment rate fell to 8.4%less month, adding 1.4 million jobs in august. jobs report signaling an economic slowdown as an increasing number of americans reported they had been laid off permanently. and president trump under fire after the "atlantic" reported that multiple sources claimed he referred to american soldiers who died in war as, quote, suckers and losers. the president is vehemently denying the report. now back to "dateline." detective daron wyatt never believed javier lopez acted alone. even when he arrested javier in 1997 for the murder of cathy torrez. he thought javier's real role was helping the prime suspect, javier's cousin, sam lopez.

tina montelongo, sam's then-wife and javier's friend, wasn't buying it. can you conceive of javier going through with a murder or being involved in it because of his loyalty to sam? >> no. i don't see that. if sam did it, would javi help him just because they're close family? i don't see that. >> reporter: neither did the d.a., who decided there was not enough evidence to file charges. how do you tell mary bennett, "we had javier, but we had to let him go"? >> it was extremely difficult. there was a lot of crying on both sides. >> reporter: daron knew exactly what releasing javier really meant. what walks out of the jail along with javier is any leverage you had to get him to name sam? >> yeah, absolutely. >> reporter: and now you really are back to square one? >> yes. >> reporter: is that the end? >> to some people.

>> reporter: but not to him. and not to mary. you put a lot of faith in daron. >> i put a lot of faith in god. daron was his tool. >> reporter: but for the time being, it seemed daron's hands were tied. after all, the case had been rejected by the d.a.'s office twice before. this case getting a lot of baggage over the years? >> yeah, it did. >> reporter: and so if you go ahead with it, you're not only going ahead with the case, you're also kind of insulting the d.a.? >> yeah. >> reporter: years went by. the cathy torrez case grew colder by the day. and so did the marriage between cathy's sister tina and sam's brother armando. you and armando got divorced. >> yes. >> reporter: this have something to do with that? >> definitely. it was all intermixed. >> reporter: daron wyatt was promoted to detective sergeant and his caseload shifted to other types of crime. but he never forgot his promise

to mary, in part because of a milestone in his own life. >> my first daughter was born. and i remember going to mary shortly after that and looking her in the eye and saying, "i know -- i know now how you feel. i know it. i can feel it myself. i'm a dad now. you haven't given up. i won't give up." >> reporter: in 2003, nine years after the murder, daron once again approached a friend in the d.a.'s office. >> i said, "i've got a cold case that i need you to take a look at." and he physically stops walking and he says, "if it's the case i'm thinking about, i'm not going to touch it." >> reporter: but daron was persistent. eventually he persuaded his friend to take cathy's case back to the d.a.'s homicide unit, the same unit that had rejected it twice before. this time, though, something different happened. a prosecutor unfamiliar with the case agreed to take a fresh look. his name is matt murphy, and he

noticed one thing right away. >> the first thing you see when you look at the file is a big rejection from really good lawyers who reviewed it individually and as a group. >> reporter: which means they tried very hard to make a case, and they couldn't do it? >> they tried very hard. that's right. and they figured, based on their review, that they couldn't do it. >> reporter: and some of the reasons were apparent from the get-go -- >> when you look at it on its face, this case is a real tough one. >> reporter: for one thing, there was so much evidence they didn't have against sam. >> there was no murder weapon here. we had no witness. we had no confession. we had no dna. so you can look at it that way, in a conventional review. and yeah, it looked really tough. >> reporter: but what really made this case a prosecutor's nightmare was the fact that all the physical evidence pointed away from the man they thought was the killer. any defense attorney would ask, if police found javier's dna and

fingerprint, why would they charge sam? were you surprised you didn't find sam's dna there? >> yes. >> reporter: he thought newer, better tests might find sam's dna, but it was too late for that. cathy's family had sold the car. the case against sam would have to be entirely circumstantial. murphy felt the key to that was somewhere in those interviews sam gave to police. but here, too, there was a problem. >> when you look at the interview, everything that sam lopez said seemed logical at the time. and everything seemed to make sense. >> reporter: picking apart those interviews would be critical. >> this is one of those cases where you have to look at the details. and it's truly one that you have to look at each detail in light of every other detail. >> reporter: and when you rearrange the letters of "little tiny details" it spells "larry montgomery." >> absolutely. >> reporter: larry montgomery.

or as he's known here at "dateline," the evidence whisperer. coming up -- >> she didn't ask you to marry her? >> no. >> a human lie detector goes to work. >> the guilty person knows a lot. all that information is in his brain and it can slip out. >> when "dateline" continues. lozenges. tis cold-eeze® can shorten your cold by 42%. it releases zinc ions that some scientists believe inhibit cold viruses from replicating. try cold-eeze® the number one best-selling zinc lozenge. ...just for us age perfect radiant serum foundation a super hydrating serum enriched with vitamin b3, in a lightweight formula it doesn't settle into your lines life gets better with age by l'oréal paris we are worth it

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prosecutor matt murphy thought daron wyatt's investigation of cathy torrez's murder was compelling. but he knew that making the case against sam lopez wouldn't be easy. the d.a.'s office had declined to try it twice before. so murphy called for help from a detective whose legendary skill with cold cases has earned him a reverential nickname. >> larry montgomery is the real deal.

i mean, guy is the evidence whisperer. another nickname for him is st. larry. >> reporter: larry sees things other people don't see? >> larry sees things that many people don't see, yeah. and he looks at it from a different perspective. >> reporter: they both felt the key to the case lay in sam lopez's own words, his taped interviews with the original detectives. and they thought the perfect man to listen to those interviews was the evidence whisperer. guilty people have tells, just like in a poker game? >> absolutely. they don't have that innocent mindset, and they -- they have other fears. they fear being caught. they can't get their stories straight because there's too many details. >> reporter: montgomery spent months carefully listening and relistening, watching and rewatching, hours of sam's interviews, looking for the tells. >> how long have you guys been dating? >> it's -- it's an off-and-on thing. on-and-off thing. >> okay. >> reporter: tell number one, how sam talked about his relationship with cathy.

>> see, i was going out with somebody. and then she would call me up. and we would just, like -- calling each other, going out to eat, places like that. nothing serious at the time. >> sam definitely was trying to limit his connection with cathy, give the impression that it's not that big of a deal. >> reporter: remember, cathy's sister, tina, had told detectives sam had proposed to cathy just days before she disappeared, but when police asked sam about that, he denied it. >> you didn't ask her to marry you, then? >> no! >> reporter: later, he changed his story but seemed to say that getting married was cathy's idea. >> a lot of people hit me up already. they said that -- that -- that we were supposed to elope, okay? this is what she -- okay, but look. she had a crazy idea to go to mexico, okay? just the two of us. >> reporter: then there was sam's claim that cathy never tried to contact him after she disappeared. >> i thought she was going to page me on friday. she goes somewhere, and she never paged me on friday.

>> we know that cathy's mom paged him 20 or 25 times in a matter of at least a couple of days, trying to get him to contact her because he's so close to cathy and she's missing. >> reporter: montgomery noted a key detail about those pages. mary's home phone and cathy's home phone are the same number. >> they're the same numbers. >> reporter: so seeing that number on his pager, how did sam know it wasn't cathy? >> if he knew she was alive, he would know he got 20 or 25 pages from cathy, or at least think that. if he's guilty and he killed cathy, he knows those 20 or 25 pages were not from cathy. >> reporter: that was tell number two. then montgomery noticed how, in his second interview, sam referred to cathy's murder. >> you know? but then this happened and -- shoot. >> he doesn't use the word "murder," doesn't say anything like that. it's like, "this happened," as if it's small. it's not that big of a deal, it's not horrendous.

he doesn't want it to be horrendous because he did it. >> reporter: tell number three. and then larry caught something else in the interview sam did before cathy's body was found. listen carefully. >> so you went out with her the saturday before the thursday? >> right. >> okay, and where did you go? >> in other words, a week before she was -- she disappeared. >> reporter: before she was, what? dead? murdered? either way, larry thought sam knew more than he was telling. >> the guilty person knows a lot, cannot forget all that he knows. so when he's talking, all that information is in his brain and it can slip out. >> reporter: another reason to think sam knew much more than he was saying? in his second interview after cathy's body was found, police spoke with sam for 90 minutes before he asked them a single question. and when he finally did --

>> so did you -- do you guys know how she was killed? >> uh, yeah, we do. >> reporter: larry noticed a telling statement. >> i thought you were never going to ask. >> well, i didn't want -- because i don't want memories to come back, you know? >> well, that's an interesting statement, "i don't want memories to come back." what memories does he have that he doesn't want to remember? if he's innocent, he has memories of cathy, good times, what they did. >> people would want those memories to come back. >> yeah. if he had a memory that he killed her, that certainly is a memory he doesn't want to relive. >> reporter: after listening to the interviews time and again, the evidence whisperer had no doubt sam killed cathy. but could the team prove it beyond a reasonable doubt? >> ultimately, in cold-case murders, time becomes one of our friends, because technology changes. >> reporter: at the time of the murder, dna tests could only be done on big samples like blood spatter. but in the years since, analysis

became possible for touch-dna, the microscopic calling cards many of us leave behind just by putting our hands on something. if sam and javier did place cathy's body in the car's trunk, maybe, thought larry, there would be touch-dna on her clothes. >> you search for dna in the areas that might be grabbed, especially areas that might be grabbed that don't have blood on them be from cathy. >> so you looked, what, on the ankles and under her arms? >> ankles, arms, i think under the legs. >> daron wyatt sends out the evidence for touch dna. are you optimistic, or are you thinking, shot in the dark? >> no, i was not optimistic. i was not optimistic. >> because what? >> because on this particular case, it seemed like for the beginning phases, everything that could go wrong pretty much went wrong. >> reporter: but he also knew he was working with a cop on a mission. >> daron wyatt was not going to quit until i filed this case or

i died, or he died, i guess. daron was absolutely dedicated to this. >> reporter: the truth was, if murphy declined the case a third time, the cathy torrez file would almost certainly go from cold to dead. what would he decide? no one understood the stakes better than cathy's mom. >> daron had told me that we were going to meet with the d.a. my interpretation of it was that he was going to tell me that there was nothing they could do. coming up -- a key piece of evidence arrives, better late than never. how long had they known that? >> a couple of months at least. >> and they what, forgot to call? but is it the smoking gun? when "dateline" continues. here are a couple answers... lysol disinfectant spray and disinfecting wipes together can be used on over 100 surfaces. and kill up to 99.9% of viruses and bacteria.

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it was an early morning in 2007, 13 years after cathy torrez had breathed her last.

>> i was having coffee at a mcdonald's before work and i was reading my bible. it was a little bit after 7:00 when i saw that i had a call from him. >> reporter: from daron wyatt. mary knew he was scheduled to meet with the d.a. >> my first thought was he was going to tell me that the meeting was canceled, again. >> reporter: but that was not the message, not at all. >> he said, "i'm standing here in front of sam's house and we are making an arrest right now." >> they're making an arrest. >> yes. >> and you thought? >> and i got up, and i think i screamed there at the mcdonald's. >> reporter: years before, daron wyatt had made a promise. now, he felt, he was keeping it. that had to feel pretty good. >> yeah, there were tears of joy this time. >> reporter: sam lopez was arrested and charged with cathy's murder, but he wasn't alone. just as prosecutors now believed he wasn't alone the night he stabbed cathy to death.

sam's cousin javier was also arrested and charged with murder. police also arrested sam's older brother, armando, who was once married to cathy's sister tina, and had helped search for cathy. >> it's just a tragic loss. it hurts. everybody loved cathy. >> reporter: armando was charged with being an accessory after the fact for allegedly helping cover up the murder. >> we believe that he was telling people who had information that could help convict sam not to cooperate with the police. >> reporter: cathy's sister had to ponder what that might mean about her former husband. >> betrayal of the worst kind. >> reporter: betrayal of her, betrayal of you? >> exactly, everything. >> your family? >> my family. trust, betrayal, everything's broken beyond belief. >> reporter: sam and his wife had also separated by this point. she was at work when her sister called her and told her police

had once again come for sam. >> what'd you think when you heard sam was arrested? >> the same that i always had. like, here we go again. >> nothing to it, and he'll be out soon. >> yeah. >> reporter: after all, they'd detained sam once before and had to release him. but as daron wyatt now explained to sam lopez, this time was different. >> i've told you before that we wouldn't give up until we were able to bring resolution to this case, and that's where we're at now. >> reporter: but just when it seemed the case was buttoned up, daron got a surprising call. remember the request for touch-dna daron had submitted months earlier? the crime lab finally called back. and the crime lab says what? >> "hey, did we tell you that we found javier's dna on cathy's body?" "what?" "yeah, we found javier's profile on her sock, on the back of her

knee, and under her right armpit." >> "did we tell you?" no, we didn't tell you. how long had they known that? >> a couple of months, at least. >> and they, what, forgot to call? >> i think the examiner who had been doing it was waiting for additional results and didn't realize that she hadn't notified us. >> so the idea of touch-dna paid off? >> it did. >> reporter: but not quite the way they had all hoped. unbelievable that you would get touch-dna evidence back that long after the fact. >> right. >> but bad news, it doesn't have sam lopez's name on it. >> right. that's right. >> reporter: so the strongest physical evidence was still against javier. but it was sam who had the motive, and he was the first one going on trial, even without a trace of his dna anywhere. it had taken 13 years to arrest sam lopez. it would take another eight to bring him to trial. and just months before that trial began, matt murphy learned that sam had a new defense

>> he is so good, and i would be lying if i said my heart was not in my throat. >> reporter: sam's defense attorney lew rosenblum was the former assistant d.a. who supervised the homicide unit. in fact, he was the original prosecutor who back in 1994 didn't think there was enough evidence to charge sam. not only that, lew was the man who brought matt into the homicide unit. >> lew took me under his wing and trained me how to do homicides. >> what's it like to go up against your mentor? >> well, it's terrifying to go up against your mentor. >> reporter: neither one of them had ever lost a murder case. but someone's winning streak was about to end. february 10th, 2015, 20 years after cathy torrez's murder, sam lopez went on trial. >> at the end of this case, you are going to hold that man

accountable for exactly what he did. >> reporter: the very first witness matt murphy put on the stand was cathy's mom, mary. it seemed a safe way to start. >> there is a cardinal rule that you don't ever do a hard cross-examination on a mother. >> reporter: but matt's mentor broke that rule. >> he really pressed her on some of the details. >> and scored some points. >> scored big points. i mean, scored big-time points. >> reporter: mary initially told the jury sam only responded to one of her pages, but under cross-examination mary revealed he'd actually returned three pages. >> they were trying to paint a picture of sam that he did absolutely nothing, and that is not true. >> it's one of the only cases i've done in my career where i realized, he understands this case as well as i do. >> reporter: it was mentor against pupil, and the stakes couldn't be higher. coming up -- >> it's as cold blooded as you can possibly get.

>> where is the evidence? >> a 20-year search for a killer draws to a close. but as always, the jury gets the last word. when "dateline" continues.

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matt murphy was facing the biggest battle of his career against his former mentor, famed prosecutor turned defense attorney lew rosenblum. >> but you've only heard one side. >> reporter: the same man who back in 1994 felt there was not enough evidence to charge sam lopez was now defending him. it was an epic showdown in a packed courtroom. >> two of the best attorneys in the nation battling one another over a high-stakes murder with absolutely zero physical evidence on the defendant who's being tried. and it was teacher versus student. >> reporter: sam had been a suspect for 20 years.

and during that entire time, his attorney said, police had it all wrong. >> the detectives made up their mind about who did this murder within hours. "we had a bad feeling about you," they said. "we're gonna prove it." and they spent the next 21 years, over and over, trying. >> reporter: the defense argued sam's behavior didn't prove anything. not only was sam in touch with cathy's family the week she disappeared, he also participated in the search, putting up a flyer at his girlfriend's store. and that business about him not showing any emotion in the interview with police? >> it is very easy to sit back and say, "he should have done that. he should answer this way. look, he's stretching. he's yawning. he's reading a coke can. obviously he's a sociopath." where is the evidence? >> reporter: step back from those supposed tells, the defense said, and you'd see the man sitting in that chair was not lying to cover up a murder.

>> he voluntarily gives hair, blood, prints, shoes, clothes, everything they want, not a man who's hiding. that's a man who wants to prove his innocence. >> reporter: and the defense said, after 14 years of tests, not a single forensic link -- not his fingerprints, not his dna -- had ever been found tying sam to cathy's brutal murder. >> everything that they expected to find of my client -- everything -- none of it was there. why? because they're wrong. >> reporter: the fingerprint and dna at the crime scene made it obvious. the wrong man was on trial. >> javier lopez is all over this. prints, dna, because he was the one that did it, not my client. >> reporter: but prosecutor matt murphy argued that javier's dna and fingerprint were really evidence against sam. remember, from the beginning, javier had been sam's alibi. >> he paged me, saying, "you

know what, i need a ride." >> reporter: the prosecutor argued that if they were together and javier's dna put him at scene of the crime, then sam had to be there too. >> his alibi is at the murder scene. and for sam lopez, i think that's just devastating evidence. >> reporter: and he told the jury it was the first of many instances where the most powerful evidence of guilt came from sam's own words. >> it's sam's actions and it's sam's statements. >> reporter: so he gave you the case against him. >> the best evidence that we have in this case, and that we had, was sam lopez himself. >> reporter: sam was the one who told police he had a jealous streak. >> every time she mentions some guy's name, i get pissed off, okay? >> reporter: cathy was seeing another guy -- albert. the prosecution said sam's jealousy was triggered the night he took cathy out and saw that hickey. >> what effect is that going to have on a guy who gets "pissed," his own word, "pissed," if she

even mentions another guy? what is he gonna do when he sees a hickey? >> reporter: what he did, matt said, was slash cathy's tires. >> obviously somebody had -- would have to be very angry at her to slash her tires. if those tires were slashed, ladies and gentlemen, there's only one suspect. there's only person that did it. >> reporter: murphy said sam's anger continued to build as cathy's attention turned to albert -- the same week when sam asked her to elope. a proposal she told her sister tina she was going to reject on saturday, the day she was killed. >> so now it's not just a hickey. it's a denial of a proposal, and it's all because of another guy. >> reporter: the result, the prosecutor said, was an attack so savage -- cathy stabbed more than 70 times -- that it could only be the work of a jealous lover. >> every one of those cuts meant something. every one of those stab wounds meant something. >> reporter: and the finishing blow --

>> she was alive, and sam lopez cut her throat. it's as cold-blooded as you can possibly get. >> reporter: the 21st anniversary of cathy's murder fell during the middle of trial, a day that reminded cathy's family once again of all they had lost. what'd your family do that day? >> we went to the cemetery. as we go every year in february. we take her red roses that she wanted for valentine's day that year. >> reporter: for 21 years the torrez family had demanded answers. two days after deliberations began, the jury reached a verdict. >> i couldn't breathe. i felt just tightness inside. and when the clerk took the folder, i started my prayer. "the lord is my shepherd. i shall not want." >> we the jury find the defendant, samuel agustin lopez, guilty of murder in the first degree.

>> once i heard that, then i just -- all i remember is that i held my hands up to my chin like this and i just thanked god. >> reporter: daron wyatt was watching mary in that moment. >> this was everything to her. and i wanted to look in her eyes when they came back and see that she knew that i fulfilled my promise. >> reporter: for sam's ex-wife, the news was devastating. >> i cried. >> reporter: for your daughter? for sam? >> for both. >> reporter: doesn't sound like it shook your faith at all in him. >> it didn't. >> reporter: after the verdict, people in placentia strung little white hearts on the tree that was planted in cathy's memory. did she leave the mark on the world that she always wanted to leave? >> yeah, she did.

we have letters of coworkers, of students she worked with. >> reporter: people you didn't even know. >> people we didn't even know that were able to come back and tell my mom or tell one of us, you know, "we miss her at sav-on. she was always smiling. she'd always help us." so what they did to her, all those stab wounds that she got, multiply those and those are her marks. >> reporter: for 21 years sam denied he inflicted those stab wounds, denied he killed cathy. but at his sentencing sam did something unexpected. >> i would like to apologize to the torrez family and to everyone for all of the harm and grief that i have caused them. this was a horrible act that never should have happened. it is entirely my fault. i take full responsibility. >> reporter: sam lopez was

sentenced to 26 years to life in prison. javier pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and being an accessory after the fact. he served eight years and is now out of prison. sam's brother armando pleaded guilty to dissuading a witness and was sentenced to one year probation. and mary bennett is still facing the rest of her life without cathy. >> in 1994, i was given a sentence, and there was no parole from it. to live my life without ever seeing cathy again, without ever seeing her beautiful smile or having her come running in through the door and saying, "what's for dinner?" and there's no -- i will never have any kind of parole from that. that is my life sentence. >> reporter: she's serving it one night at a time, because the wee small hours of the morning

still call to mary bennett, reading the bible and waiting for dawn, while the whole wide world is fast asleep. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> it was just chaos. >> a day at the mall deseconds into mayhem. as armed men turn shoppers into prey. >> lots of screaming. lots of gunfire. they had a demeanor like they owned the place. >> panicked moms protecting their kids. >> i just kept telling them to be quiet, like a mouse. >> he's going to cry. this is it. >> kids forced to protect one another. >> you grabbed your brother. >> yeah. and just ran. and from out of the