. i'm craig melvin. and i'm natalie morales. and this is "dateline." i just can't see why someone we knew would want to hurt her. >> how could this happen? how can it happen to someone that we knew? >> it has been a very long 13 years. >> homecoming queen hannah hill was just 18 when she disappeared. everybody's sweetheart. >> this does not happen to people like her. what, why, where, when? >> who? it was her boyfriend? they had fought before.

>> did you verbally abuse her? >> yes. >> did you physically abuse her? >> yes. >> was it another man in her life? they had been together the night she died. >> more than 13 years would go by as hannah's family fought for justice. two possible suspects. >> did you kill hannah hill? >> absolutely not. >> did your kid hannah hill? >> no. >> two trials. >> i was a wreck. it was very intense. >> would there ever be justice for hannah hill? >> the truth always comes out. >> hello and welcome to dateline. hannah hill was an outgoing teenager with a future as bright as her smile. suddenly hannah went missing. when her body was found a week

later, police zeroed in on two potential suspects. her boyfriend and another man that caught hannah's eye. to crack the case detectives would need to unravel the clues held in a mysterious black bag, one that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. >> she was a girl that made big entrances. >> she could walk in the room and light up a place and make the whole room smile. >> she was always happy and just wanted to have fun. >> it was her exit and sudden disappearance, gone from her house just like that which enshrouded young hannah hill in mystery. >> miss hill was last seen on wednesday. have the police department, the detective bureau. >> she was 18 years old, days from turning 19 and seemed to be in for the night. a former homecoming queen in the

pjs phoning a few friends from the basement of her moms and dads. it is too late now but you wish she could answer one question. why did you leave the house so suddenly that night. her brother, justin, does not know. >> she got dressed and said i am going to be out for a little bit. i love you. >> that it was? >> never saw her again. >> a thursday in may of 1999 was going to be a red letter day for hannah. she would drive her gold geo prism to her first day of full time secretary work at diebold, the company that makes atms. her boyfriend of more than a year expected her to swing by his place in the morning to pick him up and he says she was a no show. >> i remember waking up with a gut feeling that something wasn't right and paged her, no answer. she always called me back.

always. she didn't. >> the kids relied on pagers back then. cell phones and text messages were often the future for hannah's circle of friends. her mom, kim, was a home maker. >> she always loved everybody. >> she liked the spice girls and signed letters with tiny pink hearts. these friends of hannah thought so. >> she was a very easygoing person. someone you can tell she would be friends with. >> she was a great friend and girl. >> tara ferguson was a best friend forever. >> she is so fun and silly and funny. >> she was a hopeless romantic.

>> not every teenage girl has the same definition of prince charming. hannah's boyfriend was a high school drop out with a few rough edges. >> definitely her one true love. she really loved him and was really happy. >> and brad, he remembers like yesterday being captivated by the girl at the party with the lively brown eyes and they quickly became a couple. >> did you think i am lucky to have this girl? >> people would say that you guys look so cute together. >> by late spring 1999 hannah's friends and family thought she was growing distant and was worried brad was tugging her in a world she did not belong. >> she trusted everybody. >> yes. >> saw the trust in everybody. >> yes. >> didn't have a radar up? >> right. that is where we differed. >> thursday turned to friday,

the close friends were frantic. >> brad and i were calling each other back and forth. i am calling the hills. i am paging her. she is not calling. that wasn't like her. >> we are freaking out now. we make out thousands of flyers. we are passing them out. have you seen my sister. >> you are hearing no, no, no. >> nothing. >> the boyfriend took it a step further going down to the police station on that friday. the first of several visits. >> my girlfriend is missing. it does not seem like the police are doing much. >> long days became longer nights with no word from hannah. by tuesday evening she was missing nearly a week. police turned to the media. >> an 18-year-old girl has vanished and police are asking for your help. >> it came across the tv that she was missing and it got really real. >> a break through, news that

police located hannah's car, parked on a quiet dead end street. jerry hughes with the akron p.d. raced to the scene and detectives popped the trunk. it was worse than he expected. >> you have seen a lot of stuff in a lot of years. how does this fit? >> in the awful things cops encounter, it is sickening. it is something you can't unsee. you will see that for the rest of your life. >> the body of hannah hill was naked from the waist down, posed, her shirt pulled up. >> 7:30 this morning the auto belonging to hannah hill had been seen parked. >> her car being towed away made the evening news. >> devastated. how can it happen. >> i totally blacked out. every emotion hit me at once. >> and the even bigger question,

who? who had killed hannah? police quickly focused on one man, hannah's boyfriend, brad. coming up. >> found out he was a drug dealer and that he liked to chase other girls. >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues when eye allergens attack, the itch can last 24 hours. but with pataday once daily relief extra strength you get fast, 24-hour relief in one drop. make it a pataday with the drop that's right for you. now without a prescription. everywhere.

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after what would have been her 19th birthday. for her friends back in akron, the street became a place to honor her all too brief life. >> we put ribbons on a nearby tree in remembrance. >> for detectives the heat was on to find the killer. the police department was already taking scrutiny for taking a full week to find hannah's car. there it was hours where after hannah disappeared residents began to call police to take a look. >> at least five people called saying we have a car in our neighborhood totally unexplained. >> a reporter for the akron beacon journal. the neighbors saw car keys on the dash board and hannah's name written. police came and ticketed the car and failed to make the connection. >> major, how can the car have

sat there since wednesday and not be connected with this? >> well, i think that is entirely possible for a car to be parked for many days in the city. >> did somebody drop the ball here? >> that is under investigation. >> was the investigation compromised because of the delay, the condition of the body and forensic results? >> very possible and gave time for whoever did it to cover their tracks. >> who did do it? in the meantime police were trying to make sense of his boyfriends. >> mr. hill was never a fan of brad. >> they knew very well who he was. >> yes. >> mr. hill did not like him? and he made no bones about it. >> i tried to pull her away from

brad. when kids get something in your head the more you try, the further they get away from you. >> i probably told her that she was better than that. she could do better. that he wasn't good for her. >> police were struck by brad's demeanor. before hannah's car was found, washington lacy, a police officer, was pulling weekend duty and again into the station walked a fuming teenager demanding to know what was being done to find his missing girlfriend. >> i didn't like him. he was abrabrasive. >> brad, noticed some scratches on him. that kind of raised our eyebrows. >> lieutenant hughes was on duty. he made note of the angry boyfriend with the scratches. >> physical energies and comes on like a house of fire.

he was completely innocent and concerned and really loved her or had done something and he was going to use united states as a tool. >> could have fallen either way. >> right. >> they told him he had been a bad boyfriend. >> said that he was a drug dealer and that he liked to chase other girls. >> takes you closely into means, motive and opportunity country. >> you would think. >> hughes had tough questions for boyfriend brad. >> we want full fingerprints and palmprints, you know. >> is he saying slow down. >> no. absolutely not. this is the thing. never once said anything about an attorney, his rights. just find my girlfriend, whatever you need. find my girlfriend. >> then the awful day they discovered hannah's body. >> now we are hammering him and peppering him. if not you, who.

>> you think he is good for the crime? >> i am not sure but give me something to go on. >> to detectives brad was a puzzle. angry and abrasive but cooperative and seemingly distraught about hannah's death. >> didn't click. >> now, the case was about to spin off in a whole new direction. investigators obtained hannah's phone logs. one to a girlfriend. two to brad. and another to a boy named denny ross. >> denny ross, does it mean anything to anybody? >> doesn't mean anything to me. >> detectives learned denny ross lived in a three bedroom apartment next to a porn shop. >> he answers the door with a phone in his hand. i say hey, detective hughes. i would like to talk to you about this and said i have got

my attorney on the phone. >> attorney? >> yes. that is a little different. >> coming up. >> but did that lead to murder when dateline continues. that lr when dateline continues. (burke) phone it in to 1-800-farmers and you could get all sorts of home policy perks like the claim-free discount. go three years without a claim and get a discount. (neighbor) just by phoning it in? (burke) just phone it in. (painter 1) yeah, just phone it in and save money for being claim-free. (neighbor) even if i switch to farmers today?! (painter 2) yep, three years claim-free with any home insurance.

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♪ ♪ >> investigators looking into the murder of hannah hill had followed her phone logs to the

doorstep of 20-year-old denny ross. denny, it turned out, was a friend of hannah's boyfriend, brad. the kids knew denny as a host at a nonstop fun house and crash pad. >> were you surprised hannah was hanging around with that crowd? >> no. we hung out with people that didn't do some great stuff. i guess we kind of thought it was -- not that it was okay but we were not doing it so i guess we were pretty naiive too. >> denny was days into probation on a drug charge and asked for his lawyer present when detectives arrived for a conversation. detectives took out a tape recorder and began an interview. denny told the detectives he stayed in the night hannah disappeared.

>> that makes him in police jargon the last known person to see him alive. >> absolutely. >> denny offered up a tip for the cops. take a look at hannah's boyfriend. >> he would basically have hannah there not to -- >> but denny, not brad, was suddenly the person cops wanted to know a lot more about. at 3:00 a.m. they turned to denny's in force with a search warrant. the officers charging up the stairs said they heard a thud and not long before one found a garbage bag beneath the window.

>> is that case closed? >> not case closed but a big factor. >> i called that bag of evidence, the key factor. >> critics of the police work in the case like ed meyer were skeptical. >> we didn't buy it. why would he keep a potential bag of evidence that could hang him inside his apartment for a full week. >> denny insisted he didn't toss the bag out the window and his fingerprints were not found on it and it did not match the garbage bags. the officers didn't check the temperature and couldn't say if it were outside for minutes or days but denny was found with hannah's rape and murder. >> an arrest has been made in the murder of 18-year-old hannah hill. >> the arrest of good time denny was incomprehensible to hannah's friends. >> i can't see why someone we knew her would want to hurt her.

>> denny's father was stunned. >> you tell me who your boy is. >> a young kid who got himself in a situation by telling the truth. >> the father says that denny was an average care-free kid, excited about a new job in internet marketing, not a killer. >> if you walked in the door who would you meet? >> a person that does not stop smiling. it does not matter who you are. you will feel at home because he has got the personality. >> the medical examiner ruled hannah's death a homicide by affixiation, saying that she was strangled to death. semen was found inside hannah's body but said the sample wasn't useful because it degraded so much in the week her body lay in the trunk of her car and there were investigative lapses. police never checked boyfriend brad's alibi.

never checked her pager records or performed a key chemical test of the carpet in denny's apartment. >> the police investigators can spray a chemical on the alleged evidence and it will show us blood and there it can be tested. that was never, never done. >> visible bloodspots were found on denny's apartments walls, but in the dozens of samples none came back. >> no dna or blood. theorized she was killed there in a bloody homicide and there is no trace of her. >> yeah. >> no was there a trace of denny on or in hannah's car. >> good morning ladies and gentlemen. >> despite the ambitious evidence 21-year-old denny ross stood trial for the rape and the murder of hannah hill and pleaded not guilty. >> he beat her into submission so that he could rape her. >> two young prosecutors argued

their theory. inside the apartment denny raped and killed hannah. they faced off against what the papers were calling a million dollar defense dream team. the lead defense attorney was from las vegas. >> the police rushed to denny and ignored everything else. >> the girl's mother was called to the stand but wasn't videoed. >> those were her favorite pants. >> it all came down to the contents of the trash bag beneath the window. of all of the tests run on hannah's clothes spotted with blood, only one came back to denny. a small semen stain on the girl's underwear. >> they are kids and they are fooling around. that does not mean he raped her. >> the case went to the jury, and in the midst of deliberations came a stunning turn. the judge, quite unexpectedly walked into the jury room and declared a mistrial. she said she took the drastic

measure because she got a report one of the jurors was talking about a lie detector test not in evidence, a lie detector test hannah's boyfriend had taken and passed and that, said the judge, was jury misconduct. >> the court finds that the jury is unable to fulfill the obligations required by law. >> the prosecution team was stunned. >> it wasn't a good day. >> everybody was broken-hearted, including denny. >> they were more heart broken to learn that they had already reached a decision on the major counts. dateline spoke with four jurors after the trial and they said they signed and sealed the ballots on all of the charges but the lesser charge of manslaughter. >> rape, not guilty. >> not guilty. >> murder. >> not guilty. >> not guilty. >> denny had come so close to be acquitted in hannah's murder. because jurors voted in his

favor, his lawyers went back to the courts to contest his being tried again. >> how does one get tried again for a crime he was found not guilty of. >> denny waited in jail for over a year. in september of 2001, he was released on a $1 million bond. but denny's freedom would be short-lived. you will hear more about that later. hannah's friends and family, the shock of her violent death followed by her trial took an enormous toll. brad now lived under a shadow of suspicion with people wondering if he killed hannah. maybe hardest hit of all was hannah's mother, kim. >> she went into a shell.

the figure of an anchlle appeared in a tree. a small shrine to hannah's memory it. wasn't that she ever stopped to think of her sweet friend but found she couldn't talk about it. emotions all frozen up. >> you went on at your life. and you have babies. >> yes. >> she never got to do that. >> no. >> the case meanwhile was mostly in the deep freeze, making the glacial procession through the courts. seasons passed with no resolution. but that was about to change in startling fashion. coming up, a second trial. but at times it was hard to know exactly who was the defendant. was it denny ross. >> he was choking me from behind just squeezing. >> or hannah's boyfriend. >> did you blame yourself for hannah's murder? >> yes. >> when dateline continues. mur? >> yes

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i am darra brown. the trial of derek chauvin resumes in about ten hours from now. the city's police chief is expected to testify against his former colleague on monday. last week two minneapolis officers testified against chauvin. market futures are pointing towards a rally after friday's strong jobs report. the economy added over 900,000 jobs and the unemployment rate ticked down to 6%. now back to dateline. >> welcome back to dateline. i'm craig melvin. jurors in the denny ross murder trial were deliberating when in a stunning twist the judge declared a mistrial. soon prosecutors would have a

second chance to make their case and would be armed with crucial new evidence and a bombshell witness. but could they prove denny ross was the killer? here is denny murphy with the night hannah hill disappeared. >> the trial of denny ross for rape and murder had collapsed. years passed with the akron police department getting ticked in the teeth for losing the conviction with what so many people called sloppy police work. >> goes down as an akron p.d. fumble. >> unfortunately that is probably the way it was remembered by most. >> jerry hughes, now lieutenant hughes, toiled away in hopes of a second chance of convicting denny ross.

>> the state, federal, and the ohio supreme court. >> finally the ohio supreme court overturned lower court decisions and ruled that denny ross could be retried for hannah's murder. 13 years after hannah's death, the second trial began. hannah's murder was dreading it. >> said i have to be here every day. i know that was probably hard for her. but that is what she felt that she had to do. >> the prosecutors laid out the theory of the crime, that hannah hill was lured over to denny ross' bachelor pad for what would be a fatal encounter. nearly 70 witnesses were called. some of them testifying off camera to things denny said over

the years. >> denny made a comment to me that he was -- >> he said we were all having sex and i was having sex with this girl and ended up choking her. excuse my language. she died. >> this woman was a stripper and a regular at denny's place. for 12 years she denied being there the night hannah died and months before the second trial she said she was there that night and had not spoken up earlier because she was afraid. >> while you were there what did you observe or hear or see? >> denny hannah were in the bedroom. >> did you know what was going on in the bedroom? >> i had a good idea. i knew they were [ bleep ] around and i heard her make weird sounds i said i don't want to be in front of any crime scene and left. >> would you believe this?

>> 10 to 13 years later you look at somebody. the jury can believe some, all or none. >> and then there were expert witnesses like the patholgist who said dna testing advanced so much in the years since hannah's death now they could detect denny's dna in blood droplets on hannah's pants. >> the dna profile from item 9.5 is consistent with denny ross. >> the new evidence, his blood on the victims' clothing seemed to belie his account of two teenagers making out, kissing and stuff. >> there is not an exchange of blood nonetheless it is a violent exchange. this woman said she first met denny when he was out on bond.

>> how were his hands on your neck? from behind and just squeezing until i couldn't breathe. i know i passed out a few times. >> what are you doing at this point? >> pretending i am dead, hoping he can't see me breathe. >> choked during sex, battered and left for dead. the prosecution's implication was clear. is this what happened to hannah hill years before. >> people develop patterns of behaviors, form habits and killers are no different. >> prosecutors knew that denny's lawyer would offer the jury an alternative killer in the trial. who would that be, brad, the scratched up boyfriend. to preempt the defense team the prosecutors put brad in the

stand. the story brad told was a warts and all presentation. >> i was not a good boyfriend. >> can you explain to us what not a good boyfriend means? >> i was abusive. i abused her. >> did you verbally abuse her? >> yes. >> did you physically abuse her? >> yes. >> brad testified days before they had a big fight about him cheating on her. >> does that picture fairly and

accurately represent the scratches on your arms? >> yes. >> most painful the fact that he had introduced hannah to denny in the first place. >> but for you hannah hill would never have met denny ross. is that what you are saying? >> yeah. >> did you blame yourself for hannah's murder? >> yes. >> do you still blame yourself for hannah's murder? >> yes. >> did you kill hannah hill? >> absolutely not. >> the prosecutors had their chance to show brad as someone clearly not the killer and now defense attorneys would have their crack at him, an all or nothing cross-examination. >> coming up, did brad have a motive for killing hannah. >> she wrote she had gone to denny's. had gone to denny's.

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>> for 13 years of hearings, appeals and trials, denny ross always had one loyal person in his corner. his father. >> did your kid kill hannah hill in a moment of rough sex that went bad. my god, she is dead. put the body in the car. >> and make yourself a suspect by telling the police she was

there. no. no. my son did not do this. >> allen sees hannah showing up at denny's apartment looking for a shoulder to cry on. the father said the night unfolded, fooled around, kissed and stuff and hannah left. had someone been waiting below for her to leave the party house? >> denny ross was framed by the true killers? >> turned out to be a 13-year investigation.

>> once they found the bag of clothing, the case turned from an investigation into the death of hannah hill into an investigation of denny ross. they questioned how denny could have killed hannah in his apartment and left no trace of the murder. >> no blood. nothing that belonged to hannah hill and yet that is where they say she was murdered. >> as for the new blood evidence, denny said the spots were show tiny they did not prove anything. >> we all get paper cuts. correct. >> the defense team challenged the credibility of prosecution

witnesses in denny's circle way back when. the former stripper who had changed her story now testifying that she heard denny hurting hannah the night she died. the defense team got her to admit she smoked a lot of pot that night and had a pattern of lying and even lying in a former pretrial interview with denny's lawyer. >> you decided it was better to lie to me. >> yeah. >> when it came to this woman, defense attorneys lost the pretrial battle keeping her off of the stand. >> do you know where hannah hill was. >> absolutely not. >> thank you. i have no further questions.

>> defense attorneys said it was the prosecutor's attempt to shift attention away. >> we believe her boyfriend. now denny's attorneys would have a shot at the one man who could create reasonable doubt in their case. they began attacking his depiction of himself as a bad boyfriend. >> you were a bad boyfriend and also abusive. >> correct. >> you hit this young girl. >> no, i didn't. >> you slapped her. you kicked her. >> no. >> denny's lawyer tried to trip brad up on dates and times. >> you are not trying to get it straight. you are trying to confuse me.

>> page after page of entries in her own handwriting. you can argue she was fed up with brad and reaching out on the night she disappeared. >> that would be something for a jury to think about. >> it would know if i were on the panel. >> diary entry, hannah's own words telling jurors who she was thinking of. denny. the defense attorney got him to admit that. >> you said brad read the book. it hurt really bad. i never hurt someone so much. >> i recognize the fact she recognized i read the book.

>> i don't remember. >> was it jealousy, the motive? >> you were concerned any male was a potential -- >> correct. >> denny's lawyer closed saying the state's case couldn't add up to a conviction, inconclusive dna, a long string of sketchy witnesses and an angry, abusive and jealous boyfriend. >> against who is the evidence stronger? if there is any evidence against brad we have reasonable doubt then. >> had the defense made a persuasive case, for hannah's family and friends? there was now more waiting and one more hope. justice for hannah. >> the truth always comes out. no matter what it is. >> coming up. >> we have two families out there.

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jurors deliberated, asked by the state to pass judgment on another human being. >> we had two families out there and we had to take our time and make the right decision. >> what would they make of the weeks of testimony, why a murdered defendant who didn't even look like one. >> i thought he was a lawyer.

>> he had a boyish look as if to say why am i here. i didn't do this. >> seven jurors in the case said nationally they were evenly divided but thought of some of the jurors as unbelievable. >> that is really hard. >> when it came to this woman, the woman that testify body denny attacking and choking her. jurors said they believed her story about being assaulted but nonetheless her testimony wasn't a deciding factor in the final decision. >> you still would have gotten where you got. >> yes. >> 13 years later, the investigation into the early days still bedevilled the case.

>> i wasn't convinced. >> we couldn't figure why they didn't luminol when they went out there. >> taking a long time? >> yeah. >> the jurors say they weighed brad's testimony carefully. >> did you believe his story? >> yeah. >> i believed him. hannah's brother stayed away, shaking. in just moments there was no more need for guess work. >> is it your determination that

the defendant committed murder in this count in that he did purposely cause the death of hannah hill? is that your decision? >> yes. >> in the back of the courtroom hannah's friend, tara, was visibly shaken. are i remember thinking, thank you god and a sense of relief. jurors told us it all came down to the blood evidence on hannah's clothes. >> the dna outweighed a lot of unknowns for us. >> it said denny ross was there. >> as a result of the hannah hill case, lieutenant hughes said the akron police department has made many changes throughout the years. especially in the communications department. to make sure that mistakes like

the failure to locate hannah's car never happened again. >> 13 years on, can akron residents be assured the screw-up has been rectified? >> i believe so. >> denny ross was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison for hannah's death. he won't serve the time for years to come. what the jurors did not know is that he is already serving a 25-year sentence for the rape and the attempted murder of this woman between the two trials. he will be 67 years old before he is eligible for parole. >> you know, we are disappointed. we had hoped for a different result. >> denny's lawyers filed a request for a new trial which was denied. reporter edmeyer said he was still suspicious about how the bag of evidence appeared. >> skeptics can still wonder. absolutely. >> despite the fact denny's defense was that brad killed hannah, he was never regarded as

a serious suspect by the authorities. brad said that he loved hannah and living under a cloud of suspicion had takens it toll. >> do you feel like the verdict clears your name. >> the only thing i am guilty of is being a bad boyfriend. i can't change that. i wish i could. if i had three wishes all three of them would be to change that and i can't. >> on a rainy sunday after the verdict, hannah's friends and family gathered for a balloon release in her memory. they passed around sharpies and wrote messages for the lost girl. >> blad it is over with. now we can start mourning. the best friend. and then after a brief prayer they stood by the pond and the brisk wind carried away their

good-byes. farewell to hannah hill. never forgotten by her family and friends or the criminal justice system. >> that is all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. >> we were really close. people kept asking where my mom was and i couldn't give an answer. just seemed wrong. that was the real, kind of, stake in the heart. >> it was one of the most baffling cases that brothers had ever seen. >> nobody can believe it happened. >> a single mom and computer whiz who seemed to disappear. >> i started to get text messaging say she quitted her