cemetery, where she is surrounded by her ancestors. sandra, so home sick when away from this island that she loved, is now forever a part of it. >> for this edition of "dateline. " i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. >> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline". >> i just can't see someone why we knew would want to hurt her. >> how could this happen? how could this happen to someone that we knew? it's been very long 13 years. >> homecoming queen, hannah hill, was just 18 when she disappeared. everybody sweetheart. >> this is it happened to people like her. what? why? where?

when? >> and who? was it her boyfriend? they had fought before? >> did you verbally abuse her? >> yes. >> did you physically abuse her? >> yes. >> or was a another man in her life? they had been together the night she died. >> we kissed and stuff. >> did you have sex with hannah? >> no, i did not. >> more than 13 years would go by as hannah's family fought for that justice. two possible suspects. >> did you kill hannah hill? ? >> absolutely art. >> did your kid kill hannah hill? >> two trials. >> i was a wreck. it was just very intense. >> were 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.

then suddenly, hannah went missing. when her body was found a week later, police zeroed in on two potential suspects. her boyfriend and another young man who caught hannah's eye. but to crack this case, detectives would have to unravel the clues held in a mysterious black bag. one that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. here's dennis murphy with "the night hannah hill disappeared". >> she was a girl who made big entrances. >> she could walk in the room and light up the place. she'd make a whole room smile. >> she was always happy. just wanted to have fun. >> but it was her exit, her sudden disappearance. proof, gone from her house just like that. that enshrouded young hannah hill in mystery. >> miss hill was last seen last

wednesday. we're asking anyone to contact the protective bureau. >> she was 18 years old. just days from turning 19. and it seemed to be in for the night. a former homecoming queen in her pjs, phoning a few friends from the basement bedroom at her mom and dads in akron, ohio. it's too late now, but you wished you could just ask just one question. why did you leave the house so suddenly that night? her brother justin doesn't know. >> she got dressed and said, i'm going to go off for a little bit. i'll be back. i love you. >> and that was it? >> we've never seen her again. >> the thing was, the next morning, thursday in may of 1999, was going to be a red letter day for hannah. she drives her geo prizm, the

used car she was proud to be paying for, to her first day of full-time secretary work at diebold. the company that makes atms. her boyfriend of more than a year, brad, expected her to swing by her place in the morning to pick him up. he says, she was a no-show. >> i remember waking up with this eerie, gut feeling that something wasn't right. i paged her. no answer. she'd always call me back. always. and she didn't. >> the kids relied on pagers back then. cellphones and text messaging were off in the future for hannah's circle of friends. her mom, kim, was a homemaker. and dad was scratching out work as a boiler maker in the smoke stacks of the rust belt. dad loved his girl. >> she was a very bubbly kid. she would always love everybody. >> she liked the spice girls and signed her letters with tiny pink hearts. a nice kid. these friends of hannah thought so. >> she was a very easygoing

person. definitely someone you could be friends it very easily. >> she was a great friend. she was a great girl. >> tara ferguson was the best friend for ever. >> she's so fun and silly and funny. >> there was no doubt she was a very brilliant girl? >> yes. she was a hopeless romantic. and she was bound to try to find that prince charming. >> now, not every teenage girl has the same definition of prince charming. hannah's boyfriend brad for instance, was a high school dropout with more than a few offenses. but by all accounts, hannah was smitten. >> definitely her one true love. she just really loved him and was really happy. >> and brad? they he remembers like yesterday being captivated by the girl at the party with a lively brown eyes. they quickly became a couple. did you think, i'm really lucky to have this girl? >> i did. and we still get compliments. people would say, you guys look so cute together. >> but by late spring, 1999, hannah's friends and family thought she was going distant. they worried that brad was

tugging her into a world where she didn't belong. >> she trusted everybody. >> saw the best in everybody? >> yes. >> and did it have a radar up? >> no. that's where we differed. >> and now hannah hill had vanished into the night. out there, some were, but where? thursday turned to friday. close friends were frantic. >> brad and i are calling each other, back-and-forth. i'm calling the hills. i'm paging her. she's not calling. that just wasn't like her. >> we were freaking out. so, we make up a thousands of fliers and we're passing them out. have you seen my sister? has anyone seen my sister? >> you are hearing, no, no, no. >> nothing. >> brad, the boyfriend, took a step further. he went down to the police station on that friday. the first to several visits to the cops. >> my girlfriend is missing. it is a scene like the police are doing very much. >> long days became longer nights. with no word from hannah. by tuesday evening, she was missing nearly a week. the police finally turned to

the media. >> an 18 year old girl has vanished and tonight, police are asking for your help. >> when i came across the tv that she was missing, i thought, i got really real. >> the very next morning, a breakthrough. news that police had located hannah's car. it was parked on a quiet dead end street called keen road. jerry hughes, then with the akron pd, raced to the scene. detectives pop to the trunk. it was worse than he'd expected. you've seen a lot of stuff in a lot of years. how does this fit? and the awful things that cops encounter? >> it's something you can't even see. you'll see that for the rest of your life. >> the body of hannah hill had been found naked from the waist down. posed. her shirt pulled up. >> approximately 7:30 this morning, the missing person hannah hill had been seen parked on cane road >> pictures of her car being totally made the evening news. >> devastated. how could this happen? >> i just totally got blacked

out. every emotion just hit me all at once. >> what has happened to hannah? and why? >> and the even bigger question, who? who had killed hannah? police quickly focused on one man. hannah's boyfriend, brad. coming up -- >> he was a drug dealer and he likes to chase other girls. >> when "dateline" continues. announcer: type 2 diabetes? discover the power of 3 in the ozempic® tri-zone. in my ozempic® tri-zone, i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. announcer: ozempic® provides powerful a1c reduction. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. and you may lose weight. adults lost up to 14 pounds. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles.

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when you're ready we'll come to you pay you on the spot and pick up your car that's it so ditch the old way of selling your car and say hello to the new way at carvana >> hannah hill was buried in a family plot in kentucky, the day after what would have been her 19th birthday. for her friends back in akron, cane road, the quite residential street where her car had been found, became a police to honor her all too brief life. >> we took ribbons around the

nearby tree. and in remembrance. >> for detectives, the heat was on to find her killer. the akron police department was already facing intense scrutiny for taking a full week to find hannah's car. there it headset, abandoned in the night on cain road. we're just hours after hannah first disappeared, residents began calling police to come take a look. >> at least five neighbors called police, we have a car in our neighborhood that is totally unexplained. and you need to come out here. >> ed meier was a reporter for the akron akron beacon journal. he says the neighbor saw car keys keys on the dashboard and had his name written into places. and a black eye for the department, police came and ticketed the car but failed to make a connection. >> major, how could this car have sat there since wednesday and not be connected with miss

hill? >> well, i think that entirely possible for a car to be part for many days many anywhere. >> did somebody drop the ball here, captain? >> well again, like aca, that's under investigation. >> was the investigation compromise horribly because of that delay? the condition of the body? the forensic results? >> very possible. it gave time for whoever did this to cover his tracks. >> who did do it? in the week after hannah had vanished, all the while her body in the trunk of the car, undetected. the police were trying to make sense of her boyfriend, brad. when detectives checked him out with hannah's family, they got an earful. >> mister hill was never a fan of bread. >> they knew very well who he was? >> yes, mr. hell didn't like him. and mr. hill made no bones about it. >> i try to take her away from bread. and you know, when kids get something in their head, the more you try, the father they

get away from you. >> hannah's friend saw things they didn't like about brad, to. >> i probably told her she was better than that and she could do better. and he wasn't good for her. >> and when they met him, the police rice struck by brad's demeanor. before's car had been found, washington lacy, -- when they again into the station walk a fuming teenager demanding to know what was being done to find his missing girlfriend. >> first impression, didn't like him. he was abrasive. >> brad's attitude was the only thing to catch of the officers i. >> right away i noticed some scratches on him. it kind of raise our eyebrows at that. >> lieutenant hughes was on duty that we can, to. he made no of the angry boyfriend with the scratches. >> he's got physical injuries. he he's coming in like a house on fire. >> right. he was completely instruct innocent, concerned about his girlfriend, really loved her. or he had done something and was going to use us as a tool. >> could've followed either way? >> right. right. >> the detective said brad was visibly upset and told him he'd

been a bad boyfriend. jealous, controlling. >> we found out he was a drug dealer. and he liked to chase other growth. >> it takes a pretty closely into means an opportunity. country hughes had tough questions for boyfriend bread. >> take off your shirt. do full fingerprints, palm prints. >> so is he saying, slow down? >> no, absolutely not. here's the thing, he never once said anything about attorney, his rights. just, find my girlfriend. whatever you need, find my girlfriend. >> and then came the awful day they discovered hannah's body. >> and i were hammering him. we're peppering, if not you, who? basically? >> you think he's good for this crime. >> that's true, but i want more information. give me something to go on. >> to detectives brad was a puzzle. angry and abrasive on one hand. and yet, cooperative and seemingly distraught about hannah's death on the other.

>> it just didn't click. >> questions still scrolled swirled around brad in the hours after hannah's body was discovered. but now, the case was about to spin off in a whole new direction. investigators had obtained hannah's's phone logs and learned she'd made phone calls in her last night. one to a girlfriend. two to brad. and another to a boy named denny ross. denny ross does it mean anything to anybody? >> it doesn't mean anything to me. detectives learned that this denny ross lived in a three bedroom apartment next to an adult shop. they drove over a knock on the door. >> denny ross, he's got a phone in his hand. i said hey, i'm a detective. i'd like to talk to you about this. >> he said, well i've got my turn on the phone. >> attorney? >> yes. i said, well that smells different. >> coming up -- >> one thing led to another. and then we kissed and stuff. >> but did that lead to murder? when "dateline" continues.

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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 hunt funhouse and crash pride. where do you surprise hannah was hanging around with that

crowd? >> no. i mean, we hung out with people that didn't do some great stuff. but i guess we just kind of thought it was -- not that it was okay but we were doing it, so i guess we were pretty naive, to. >> denny was days into probation on a drug charge and asked to have his lawyers present when detectives arrive for a conversation. once the lawyers showed up, detectives took out a tape recorder and began an interview. >> would you say your full name, sir? >> denny, frederik cross. >> then he told it attempt if he stayed in the night hannah disappeared. but then volunteered and a stall issuing bit of information. >> was there anybody here at the house with you? >> had a stopover for a little bit. >> hannah stopped over wednesday evening? >> yes. >> that makes him in police terms, the last known person to

see her life. >> absolutely. >> yes. >> her and i were conversant -ing. and you know, then one thing led to another. and then we kissed and stuff. >> did you have sex with hannah? >> no, i did not. >> denny offered up a tit for the cops. take a look at hanna's boyfriend, brad. >> why would he do it? do you know? >> jealousy? fear that maybe she sin somebody else? i recall many occasions that he would basically have hanna basically under control. so she could not go anywhere. >> but denny, not brad, was suddenly the person cops wanted to know a lot more about. at 3 am, they returned to denny's with a search warrant. the officers charging up these exterior stairs said they heard a thud. it wasn't long before one of them found a garbage bag beneath denny's window. in a? hannah's missing clothes. is that case closed? >> it's not case closed. but it's a big factor. >> i've always called that bag of evidence the key factor in this whole case.

the magic bag. >> critics of the police work in the case, like local journalist admire, 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 did not toss the bag out the window. his fingerprints weren't found on it. and it didn't match any of the garbage bags he had at home. the officers didn't take the temperature of the bag and couldn't see it had been outside four minutes or four days. still, the next day, was denny charged with hannah's rape and murder. >> breaking news at this hour. unrest 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 just can't see why someone we you knew would want to hurt her. >> denny's father, alan ross, says he was son stunned to. early air you telling me your boy was -- >> danny was a young kid who got himself in a situation by telling the truth. >> the father says, denny was an average, carefree kid. excited about a new job in internet marketing.

not a killer. personality, demeanor, if you walked in the door who he would be? >> he drew a person who just as a stop smiling. it is a matter who you are, you'll feel at home when you're around him. because he just got that personality. >> the medical examiner ruled hanna's death a homicide by asphyxiation. saying she was strangled to death. but little else was color. for instance, the emmy found semen inside hannah's body during the autopsy, but said the sample was useful because it had degraded so much during the week her body lay in the trunk of her car. and then there were what critics saw as investigative lapses. police never checked boyfriend brad brad's alibi the night hanna disappeared. never checked her pager records. and never performed a key chemical test in denny's apartment. a luminol test. >> the police investigators can spray a chemical on this alleged evidence and it will luminous and show us blood. and therefore, it can be tested. that was never done. >> visible blood spots were

found on denny's apartment walls, but in the dozens of samples of blood and fiber cement for testing, and then came back to hannah. no dna. no blood. you theorize that she was killed there? >> right. >> ability homicide. and yet there's no trace of her. >> yes. >> nor was they are trace of denny on oren hanna's car. >> good morning ladies and gentlemen -- >> despite the ambiguous evidence, in october, 2000, 21-year-old denny ross stood trial for the rape and murder of hannah hill. he pleaded not guilty and faced the death penalty if convicted. >> he beat her into submission so that he could rape her. >> two young prosecutors argued their theory of the case. that inside the apartment, denny had raped and killed hannah. they faced off against what the papers were calling 1 million dollar defense dream team hired by denny's father. the league defense attorney was david from las vegas. >> the police rushed to denny

and ignored everything else. >> the girl's mother was called to the stand but not videoed. >> those were her favorite pants. >> it all came down to the contents of the trash bag found beneath the window. of all the dna test bra on hannah's clothing spotted with blood, only one came back to denny. a small semen stain on the girls underwear. >> their kids. they're fooling around. that doesn't mean he raped her. >> the case went to the jury. and in the midst of the deliberations came a stunning turn. the judge, quite unexpectedly, walked into the jury room and declared a mistrial. she said she took that drastic measure because she was getting a report that one of the jurors was talking about a lie detector tests not in evidence. light a tech protests brad, hannah's boyfriend, had taken and passed. well, 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 was not a good day. >> nor was it a good day for the defense. >> everybody was broken hearted, included denny. >> danny's team was even more heartbroken to learn that when the judge interrupted the jurors, they had already reached a decision on the major counts. dateline spoke with four jurors after the trial. and they said they had already signed and sealed the ballots on all of the charges, except the lesser charge of manslaughter. rape? >> not guilty. not guilty. >> murder? >> i voted not guilty. >> not guilty. >> denny had come also close to being acquitted in hannah's murder. because jurors had voted in his favor, his lawyers went back to the courts to contest his being tried again, a grounds of double jeopardy. >> how does one get tried again for a crime that he was found not guilty of? >> danny waited in jail for over a year while the courts tried to sort out what to do with him. in september of 2001, he was

released on a 1 million dollar bond. >> it's great to be finally be out of here. >> but denny's freedom would be short lived. you'll hear more about that later. for hanna's friends and family, the shock of her violent death, followed by the inconclusive trial, took an enormous toll. brad now lived under a shadow of suspicion. with people still wondering if he had killed hannah. he tumbled deeper into drugs and even daytime for robbing a bank. maybe hardest hit of all was hannah's mother, kim. >> she went into a shell. i mean, it ripped our family apart. >> several years after hanna's murder, the figure of an angel appeared in a tree near where her car had been found. a small shrine to hannah's memory. and for hanna's best friend, tara, it was that she ever stop thinking about her sweet friend. but found she couldn't talk about it. emotions all bottled up. hannah, frozen forever at 18.

so you went on with your life and you have babies? >> yes. >> she never got to do that, did she? >> no. >> the case, meanwhile, was mostly in the deep freeze. making a glacial precision through the courts. seasons passed, 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 and was it denny ross? >> he was choking me from behind and just squeezing me. >> or hanna's boyfriend? >> did you believe yourself are hanna's murder? >> yes. >> when "dateline" continues. from over 200 indoor and outdoor allergens, day after day. feel the clarity and make today the most wonderful time of the year. live claritin clear. kids, one year they want all dinosaurs stuff

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53 crashed her car in los angeles last friday. the convention says u.s. department of justice is investigating sexual abuse allegations against the organization, they released its own report, hundreds of pastors and church leaders tied to sexual assault claims. 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, after posting a 1 million dollar bond the defendant was released from prison. at least to temporarily. soon, prosecutors would have a second chance to make their case. this time, they'd be armed with crucial new evidence and a bombshell witness. but could they prove denny ross

was the killer? here again is dennis murphy with "the night hannah hill disappeared" me. >> the trial of denny ross for rape and murder had collapsed. years past when the akron police department getting kicked in the teeth for losing the conviction that so many people called sloppy police work. people remember the case and it goes down as an akron pd fumble. >> unfortunately that's probably the weights remembered by most. but defending ourselves is not what we're concerned with. the cases what we're concerned with. >> with a team of detectives and prosecutors, jerry hughes, now lieutenant hughes, so all the way in hopes at a second chance of convicting denny ross. >> the case went careening in two years of appeals. and 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 mother was writing it, said best friend her. >> she said i, have to be here every day. and i know that was probably hard for her. but just what she felt she had to do. >> the evidence will show that on that fateful day of may 19th, 1999, hannah hill -- >> anna faraglia, matthew meyer where the prosecutors were laid out the theory of a crime. that hannah hill was lured over to denny ross's bachelet pride for what would be a -- >> nearly 70 witnesses were called. some of them testified off camera two things had denny told them over the years about hannah's death. >> then he had made a comment to me that he was going to -- hannah. >> he said we were all having sex and i was having sex with this girl and ended up choking her.

excuse my language. and she died. >> this woman, was a stripper back then and irregular at denny's place. for 12 years, she denied being there the night hannah died. but just months before the second trial, she changed her story. saying now she was there that night and hadn't spoken up earlier because she had been afraid. >> while you were there, what did you observe? what did you hear? what did you see? >> denny and hannah in the bedroom. >> did you know what was going on in that bedroom? >> i had kind of a good idea. i knew they were -- around. and then when i heard her making sounds i just said (bleep) i, don't want to be part of any crime scene and left. >> would you believe this kids if they told you the sun was gonna come up in the east, you get a second opinion. >> you know what, ten, 13 years later, i think you look at somebody for who they are when they come before you. the jury can believe some of what these people testify to. >> those are swabs -- >> and then there were expert witnesses like this who

pathologist said that dna testing had advance so much in the year since hanna's death, that now they could detect denny's dna and blood droplets on hanna's plants, discarded in that trans bag. and even on the t-shirt found on that body in the car. >> the dna profile from provided 9. 5, which is one of the cuttings inside the pockets is inconsistent with denny ross. >> the new evidence, his blood on the victim's clothing, seemed to belie his account of two teenagers making out. kissing and stuff. >> and relationship doesn't involve our exchange of blood. alyssa violent exchange. >> one of the most electrifying prosecution witnesses was this woman, who says she first met denny at a bar in 2004. five years after hanna's death. was denny out on bond at the time. she said she invited him back to her place where she says, he violently attacked her. >> how were his hands fixated on your head? >> from behind. he was choking me from behind

and just squeezing until i couldn't breathe. i couldn't breathe all. i know i passed out a few times. >> and what are you doing enough at this point? >> pretending i'm dead, hoping he can't see me breathe. >> choked during sex. battered and left for dead. the prosecutions implication was clear. is this what happened to hannah hill years before? >> people develop patterns of behavior. it's what we do. we form habits. i killers are no different. >> the prosecutors knew that denny's lawyer would offer the jury an alternative killer in this trial. who would that be? why, brad o'born, discredit boyfriend. to preempt the defense team, prosecutors put bread on the stand. it was a risky strategy. >> i was a heroin at it attic for quite some time. >> the story brad told that of his relationship with this nice girl hannah, was for sure, a presentation.

>> i was not a good boyfriend. >> can you explain to us why not a good phone boyfriend means? >> i was abusive. >> did you verbally abuse her? >> yes. >> did you physically abuse her? >> you need to answer out loud. >> yes. >> but testified that just days before hanna disappeared, they'd had a big fight about him cheating on her and said that's when she scratched him. >> does that picture fairly and accurately represent the scratches that are on your arms?

>> yes. >> most painful, he said, was the fact that he had introduced hannah to denny in the first place. >> so, if not for you, hannah hill would never have met denny ross. is that what you're saying mr. o'born? >> yes. >> did you believe blame yourself for hannah's murder? >> yes. >> do you still blame yourself for hanna's murder? >> yes. >> did you kill hannah hill? >> absolutely not. >> the prosecutors had had the chance to show brad as someone clearly not a killer. but now defense attorneys would have their crack at him in an all or nothing cross-examination. >> coming up -- did brad have a motive for killing hannah? maybe something he had read in her secret diary. >> she wrote that she had gone to denny's. did you read that? >> when "dateline" continues.

kids don't always take the best care of school supplies. so save money shopping back to school on amazon. while they... 0oh... uh... figure their stuff out. >> for 13 years of hearings, appeals and trials, denny ross always had one little person in his court, his father, allen. >> did your kid kill hannah hill? >> no. >> in a moment of rough sex that went bad? oh my god, she is dead? put the body in the car, ditch the car, walk home. >> and then 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 that night looking for a shoulder to cry on. the teenager, upset that her boyfriend, brad, the guy she recently scratched up had cheated on her. the father says the night unfolded just as denny had told the cops. they fooled around a little bit, kissed and stuff and hannah left a few hours later. had someone been waiting below for her to leave the notorious party house? >> so denny ross was framed by the true killer? that is what you are saying? >> that is pretty obvious. >> that means the theory, defense attorney -- and dominic -- took to court. preparing for denny's trial number two is a daunting task. >> it turned out to be a 13 year investigation, so there was an awful lot of data. >> they assisted denny was innocent. the followed victim of all of that came down on the akron pd,

when they feel defined hannah's car. >> once they found the bag of her, clearly outside the window, the case turned from an investigation into the death of hannah hill, into an investigation of denny ross. >> denny's lawyers told the police on all the things they feel to do, like chuck hanna's pager records, or do a luminol test at denny's place. they question how denny possibly could've killed hannah in his apartment and left no trace of the murder. >> no blood? no excrement? nothing that belonged to hannah hill, yet that is where they say she was murdered. >> as for the so-called new blood evidence, then his attorneys told evidence those spots were so hunting they did not prove anything. and also challenge the notion that bleeding necessarily proved a violent encounter. >> we all get paper cuts, don't mean? >> correct. >> we get mosquito bites, don't we? >> yes. >> the defense team challenge the credibility of prosecution

witnesses, in denny's circle back west. for instance, the former stripper, who 12 years along had changed her story, now testifying that you heard danny hurting hannah the night she died, the defense got her to admit she had smoked a lot of pot that night, and had a pattern of lying, even lying in a formal pre-trial interview with jenny's lawyer. >> you decided it was better to lie to me, correct? >> yes. >> it was in your best interest to lie to me? >> yes. >> is that right? >> and when it came to this woman, who had electrified the court by saying danny had attacked and choker, defense attorneys had lost the pre-trial battle to keep her off of the stand. they insisted that no matter what she had to say, she could not tell the jurors anything about what had happened to hannah. >> do you know where hannah hill was, between may 19th, 1999 that night at 9 pm, to may 20th, 1999 at 2 am? >> absolutely not! >> thank you, no further questions. >> defense attorney said the

focus on those other witnesses was the prosecutor's attempt to shift attention away from the true color. >> the person who we still, to this day, believe killed hanna was her boyfriend, brad o'born 's alibi to where he was that night was that he was home, watching television with his room mates, and we never interviewed the roommates. >> and now danny's attorneys would have a shot at the one man who could create reasonable doubt in their case. brad o'born. they began by attacking his depiction of himself as a bad boyfriend. >> so you are a bad boyfriend, but also innocent? >> correct. >> you hit this young girl? >> no i did not. >> you slapped her? >> no i did not. >> kicked? >> no, i did not. >> denny's lawyer tried to trip brought up on dates and times. >> you told us earlier today, that you are -- >> you're not trying to get it straight, you are trying to confuse me. >> but, did brad have a motive for killing hannah? for an answer to that question, denny's attorneys were turned to hannah's diaries, reported

on the trial. >> page after page of entries, in her own handwriting. you could argue that she was fed up with brad o'born, and was reaching out on the very night she disappeared. >> that has got to be something for a jury to think about. >> it would be, if i was sitting on the panel. >> the diary entrance speaking from her grave, hannah's own words telling jurors who she was thinking about, danny. here on november 11th. again, on december 2nd, and then again on december 16th. in hannah's handwriting, denny. once more, the defense attorney got brad to admit he had read the diary, and catalogued hanna's visits to denny. >> do you recognize, in the 19th, words as brad hurt me, it hurt really bad, it never love someone so much. >> i recognize the fact that she recognized that i read the book. >> she wrote that she had gone to denny's. did you read that when you read the book?

>> i do not remember. >> was it jealousy? was that the motive? >> you are concerned that denny might be there? >> yes. >> and you are concerned that he was potentially going to mess up your relationship with hannah, correct. >> denny's lawyer closed forcing the states case could possibly add up to a conviction. inconclusive dna, a long string of sketchy witnesses, and most of all, an angry, abusive, jealous boyfriend. >> in your deliberations, ask yourself, against who is the evidence stronger? and if there is any kind of evidence against brad o'born, we have reasonable doubt, then. >> how did the defense made a persuasive case? for hanna's family and friends, there was just one hope, justice for hannah. >> the truth always comes out, no matter what it is. >> coming up. >> all rise. >> we had two families out there and they had to make that right decision. >> when dateline continues.

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by the state to pass judgment on another human being. >> we had two families out there, we had to take our time and make that right decision. >> what would they make of the weeks of testimony? why a murder defendant did not even look like one?

>> the first day i thought he was a lawyer. >> he had this boyish look. it was as if to say, why am i here? i did not do this? >> seven jurors in the case spoke to dateline, and all this initially they were not evenly divided panel of 12. as they talked, it became apparent they regarded some of the prosecution witnesses as literally unbelievable. >> and you as a juror, hard to make this decision, do i believe this story they are telling? >> that is hard, especially when they tell you how many drugs they put in their system. >> when it came to this woman, the one who testified about denny attacking and choking her, jurors said they believed her story about being assaulted. but nonetheless, her testimony was not a deciding factor in their final decision. >> you still would've gotten to where you got? >> yes.

>> once again, 13 years later, even in the early days of hanna's disappearance, still the devil that the case. the jurors said the police work left them with so many unanswered questions. >> they said they did not look at her pager, and she was a major pager user. >> i was not convinced he dropped the bag. >> no, we could not figure out why they did not luminol the first time they went there. >> monday, tuesday, wednesday passed. and for those outside the jury room, the weight was excruciating. >> it took a long time? >> yes. >> october 6th, 2000 -- ten >> the jurors say they wait brad o'born's testimony carefully. >> did you believe his story? >> looking at his body language, making contact with the jury, i believed him. >> none of us felt it was him, none of his dna was there. >> so on friday, just after lunch, came word of a decision. lawyers, friends, family all assembled out the court. hannah's brother stayed away, shaking. >> i was at a friends house, waiting by the phone. i was terrified. >> all rise, please. >> in just moments, there was no more need for guesswork. >> count one, is it your determination that the defendant committed murder in this count, in that he did

purposefully cause the death of hannah hill? is that your decision? >> yes. >> danny ross, guilty on all five counts. in the back courtroom, hannah's friend tara was visibly shaken. >> it was very intense. >> i remember thinking, thank you god, a sense of relief, in one fell swoop. >> those long years of work for prosecutors, detectives, had paid off. jurors told us that in the end, it all came down to the blood evidence on hannah's clothes. >> well, the dna outweighed a lot of unknowns for us. >> it said that denny ross was their. >> as a result of the hannah hill, case, lieutenant hughes says the akron police

department made many changes throughout the years, especially in the communications department, to make sure mistakes like the failure to locate hannah's car never happened again. >> 13 years on, can akron residents be sure that the screw up has been rectified? >> i believe so. there's been a lot of changes. >> denny ross was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison for hanna's death. he will not serve that time for years to come, but the jurors did not know is that he is already serving a 25 year sentence for the rape and attempted murder of this woman between the two trials. he will be 67 years old before he is eligible for parole. >> we are disappointed, we had hoped for different results. >> his lawyers filed a request for a new trial, which was denied. after the trial, reporter ed myers says he was still suspicious about how the bag of evidence appeared beneath his window? >> skeptic scans to wonder,

they can absolutely still wonder. >> despite the favorite venues defense had always said that brad killed hannah, o'born was never regarded as a serious suspect by the authorities, or hanna's friends and family. brad said he loved hannah, and had been living under a cloud of suspicion, had taken its toll. >> do you feel like this clears your name? >> the only thing i'm guilty of is being a bad boyfriend. and i can't change that. i wish that 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 little messages for the last girl. her brother. >> i am just glad it is over with. now, i can start morning. >> her father. >> [inaudible] >> the best friend. >> fly high, my bright star, from tara. >> and then, after a brief prayer, they stood by the pond, and the brisk wind carried away their goodbyes. >> farewell to hannah hill,

never forgotten by her family and friends. or as it turned out, by the criminal justice system. >> and that is all for this edition of dateline, i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. one common thing trump and his allies have used to attack fbi search this week, is to accuse president biden and general garland -- there's no evidence of that, and, as is often the case with the gop in, trump republicans were more or less silenced. when trump was doing what he's accusing biden of doing. >> i have said, i will stay away from the justice department until it's completed. it does not mean i have to, -- i'm allowed to be totally involved. i'm acal,