♪ ♪ ♪ >> i was just in hysterics crying, there is blood on the pillow. somebody was stalking the women

of reno. there is obviously something really bad >> i just want to say to my daughter rihanna that i love you, i miss you and nobody's ever giving up. >> no one was giving up, but no one was any closer to solving the mystery. where was breonna? >> within a three mile radius there were hundreds of registered sex offenders. then a tip about a woman who had found something odd in her boyfriend's truck. women's underwear. when she asked him for the truth, she discovered something even stranger. >> ♪ ♪ ♪

hello and delta and dateline. reno nevada tells itself the biggest little city in the world, and this is one of the biggest cases it has ever seen. a local girl, a college student name breonna had disappeared on a winters night. what had happened, no one knew. where it would lead, no one would predict. but this entire city would soon galvanize for a single mission, to get to justice for one of its own. here is just michael wet with the night that breonna vanished. >> sunday, january 20th, 2008. in a neighborhood just up the hill from reno silver plated hard. college play -- jessica beale and katie hunter were waking up after a long night of music in party, with her friend venice and. breonna, back home had slept on the living room couch. but when jessica beale woke up -- >> we went up the kitchen,

started making breakfast, the kitchen was right in front of the couch. and breonna was not sleeping there anymore. >> at first, they were not concerned. >> we figured that maybe she was upstairs and one of the empty brooms. >> katie went upstairs to the bedroom, to see if he was sleeping there. >> i knocked on the door and said hey, try to get up. >> about 9:45, katy tried to wake breonna. once again, she got no response. >> i am just pounding on the door and things start entering my mind. so then i start pounding on my other roommate's door. it was just, all of these things were running through my mind. like what is going on, what is very. >> only then did hit katie that breonna was not in the house. what scared katie was what brittani had left behind. >> herself phone, her shoes, preserves, all her clothes that she had broad, everything was at my house. >> so she could not have left? >> no. >> especially since it was

wintertime and freezing cold that night. katie called brianna's mom, brigitte. >> she called around ten. >> and your thought first thought was? >> not good. >> so you are worried right away? >> well yeah, because herself home was there and she had no car. i knew that she was not out walking around with no shoes on. so i said i will be right there. >> back at the house, katie made another discovery. a terrible one. >> i called her mom right back and was like, in hysterics crying. there is blood on the pillow, so then i called 9-1-1. >> breonna's mom, brigitte could not get to katie's mouths fast enough.

>> so your mind's gonna be working overtime? >> yeah, i was really freaked out. it was something really bad. blood and my child without her cell phone. i mean, what cages without their cell phone? >> soon, police were everywhere. veteran homicide detectives dave jenkins and his partner adam, we're investigating the scene at mckay court. their combined 53 years of police work told them the same thing. >> it was pretty apparent that this was not a voluntary missing person. >> family and friends gathered at bridge house. >> i said, i need this in the media. and they went with it, and it did not stop. >> denison was described is five foot tall, 98 pounds, and was last seen wearing sweats in a white tank top. >> majority campbell covered the story for. tv >> police officers are searching everywhere through garbage cans, searching through stores, pulling up manhole covers, seeing if she had been

placed inside the sewer. >> where was breonna? her pillow told a frightening story. france had seen blood on it. detectives sent it to the crime. loud >> they identified some stains of mascara and a pattern between the stains. >> patterns that looked like bite marks. >> it suggested that pillow had been pressed hard against the face of miss dennison. >> days later, tests confirm that the blood on the pillow was breonna's. >> reno is a casino town that is not easily shocked, but this case hit everyone heard. even viktor reporter victoria campbell. >> she was one of ours, and we are not let gonna let her go without a fight. >> breonna denison was a dazzling beauty, with 1000 watt smile, a straight arrow kid with a huge heart who had to hate tough start in life. her dad passed away suddenly

when she was just six years old. her younger brother, just an infant. her brother mother infant -- her mother brigitte said the family got even closer. >> we have to team up and the kids all had to help. i had a baby. she became very protective of me. >> as she got older, she stayed close. that is not up to a lot of kids. >> she stayed close and she followed the rules, and the more to follow the rules more freedom she had. >> breonna decided to on college in california, i was in her sophomore year in santa barbara city college. she had a steady boyfriend, was studying psychology, and wanted to work with kids. then came winter break, embryonic came back to visit her hometown friends. >> you thought, great, home, safe? >> i never really felt like she was unsafe, because she was responsible. >> so detectives want to know, how did this responsible girl

end up missing? we began to retrace breonna steps the day before she disappeared. saturday, january 19th, 2008 started with breonna at her mom's house doing laundry and putting a round in sweats. breonna had plans to join her reno friends at a concert that night. but, 9 pm, breonna went into her mom's bedroom, gave her a hug goodbye, and asked her if she wanted a check-in call at the end of the night? >> and you said? >> i said no, because i knew where she was staying. >> by 10 pm, brie and our friend from high school, katie hunter, where at the concert. >> she wanted to enjoy it, so she pushed our way to our front. we started dancing. >> at some point between 12:30 am 1 am, detectives determined that ktm brie met up with a another girlfriend, jessica beale. all three left to contour together on a shuttle bus.

>> i actually got a picture of her while we were driving, what we are on the boss. >> they were dropped off at the sands regency hotel, the center of the college power crowd that weekend. as katie recalls, nothing felt out of place. >> during that time, need anybody new? anybody that might later seems suspicious? >> there is nobody that we met that might seem specific suspicious. >> about 2 am, one of breonna's friends, jessica, decided to leave the party and head back to katie's to crash. she later told police that she told said goodnight to her friends and went outside, and then flagged down a guy driving an suv in the parking lot. a total stranger, to get a drive home. >> i could've probably walked, but it was freezing, so i just got a ride from the parking lot. somebody who is leaving. it was a bad, bad idea. >> coming up, and there was something else bad happening in

the area. >> previously in the month there had been a sexual stalled in the area. >> with was a rapist stalking the young women of reno? when dateline continues. when dateline continues. we protected that progressive home & auto bundle day and night. we were all of us dazzling... like knights sworn to protect our kingdom. we knew it wouldn't last forever, but... that's what made it special -- you know we'll be back tomorrow, right? yeah, but it'll never be today again. -[ groaning ] -just get on the bus, flo! moderate to severe eczema still disrupts my skin. despite treatment it disrupts my skin with itch. it disrupts my skin with rash. but now, i can disrupt eczema with rinvoq. rinvoq is not a steroid, topical, or injection. it's one pill, once a day, that's effective without topical steroids. many taking rinvoq

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breonna dennison before she disappeared. after breakfast, a friend drop them off at katie's home at mackie fort. it is about 3:30 am. at the house, breonna made a faithful decision. she decided to sleep on the living room couch. >> she wanted to text her boyfriend anyways, maybe even call them because they were fighting at the time. >> the couch was a few feet from the front door. the front door was glass paned, giving anyone on the street an easy view of the couch. that night, the door was unlocked, which was not unusual. >> it was kind of like a hotel, we would all walk or individual doors but the living room was like a lobby that we've kept on lock in case anybody lost their keys. >> around 4 am, katie said goodnight to her friend, went into her bedroom right next to the living room. >> her last words were, if you need anything to come a room. >> detectives looked at her cell phone records. at 4:23 am, brianna text

message to her boyfriend in oregon. exactly what happened after that, in the predawn hours of a 24-hour town, was a mystery. because, by 9 am the couch was empty and breonna denison had vanished. now with the evidence they had before them, homicide detectives adam moon and ski and dave jenkins thought brianna had been objected. >> we suspected that she might have been taken out the back door. >> besides breonna's blood and teeth marks on the pillow, crime lab technicians found another important piece of evidence on the back door. >> we were able to get a touch dna profile of the rear doorknob of the residents. >> touch dna meaning, someone who just grabs the doorknob with her bare hand? >> there had been sufficient skin cells transferred just on

the mere grabbing an opening up the door to allow a dna profile to be maintained. >> but whose dna was it? where would the evidence lead? and what they find breonna in time? her mother was in a living hell. >> that night, what are you thinking? i am thinking what any parent would think. everything goes through my mind, and it is just -- you know, it is easy enough to imagine. >> breonna dennison had disappeared. detectives believed that she had been objected from this house, her attacker taking her out the back door in the middle of the night. the crime lab found a trace sample on the dna the door handle -- it did not match anyone in the house, so detectives were pretty sure that that dna had been left, but by whoever had taken brianna. reporter victoria campbell was

on the air almost nonstop. >> we learned early on that breonna's favorite color was blue. blue ribbons covered every inch of the city, every car antenna, since post-, mailbox, telephone pole. >> breonna's picture was everywhere. people gathered to pray for her safe return. we are the biggest little city in the world. and we are the ones to find. her >> this family set up a command post in the casino. every morning hundreds of people showed up to help with the search. some, after working all night. >> you would see people still in their work clothes, in the black pants and white shirt of a slot machine repairman. they would put a park over their closed to stand in line and search all day. >> it would not take long for police to identify a suspect. >> there is a person of interest, somebody we need to talk to. >> remember the man who drove just go back to katie's home,

the night of the objection? the total stranger she flag down? investigators released this picture of his suv and urged him to come forward. detective robert mcdonald. >> we had a strange that was unknown to these women and drove them to the residents. he could've come back and abducted them. >> within days the man contacted police, his dna was tested and he was cleared. but now detectives had another lead that would take this to case to a different level. it would no longer be a case of one missing young woman. >> the previous month, there had been a stranger sexual assault abduction in that same neighborhood. >> immediately you are thinking sexual assault? >> when you get down to it, very few motives to abduct a young woman. >> back in mid december, 2008, a little more than a month before breonna was taken, a 22-year-old foreign exchange student had been attacked in

the early morning hours in this parking lot of the university of nevada, reno, campus. it is just a few blocks from the house. the attacker came at his victim from behind. >> one arm across the chest, and the other hand kept her mow nose and mouth. she went unconscious shortly after that, most likely from being smothered. she remembers coming to an vehicle. >> the woman was driven a short distanced, and then sexually assaulted inside the car. >> during the assault she was looking at the suspect. when it was over, she was brought back to her suss residents, and told to not look back. >> she had not looked at his face, but she saw a lot. >> she was absolutely certain that the defender was caucasian. she also described the suspect as having a noticeably thick and meaty fingers. he spoke a clear in saying

english without a discernible accent. >> from the words the man used, a behavioral analyst gave the detectives a. profile >> the offender was not well educated, probably alone, are likely employed in the construction drug. >> as well, the victim described the vehicle so well that the detectives figured out a make or model. >> it was most likely a 2005 to 2016 toyota tacoma extended cab pickup. >> the victim also gave the police other crucial clues. she saw a baby shoe on the floor of the car, and there's something else that made the suspect stand out. when he was done, she said, the man took her underwear and kept him. but, even more important, the police were able to obtain a sample of the attackers dna, and when the crime loud compared that sample with when they took off the back door of mackey court, it was a match.

>> that is when they knew that there was someone out there who is making this a habit, and it could become a deadly habit. for breonna's family, that news was devastating. but it also gave her mother some hope. >> you just hope that she lets her go, like the last one. you know, all through the process, i had hope that we would find her. no one else did, though. >> there is nothing else you can do. >> the alternative is hard to think about. >> police released the description of the attacker, and of historical. suddenly, it seemed like everyone in reno was looking suspiciously at white guys driving extended cab pickup trucks. the third victim was about to come forward, and she would fill in a big piece of the puzzle because she had information that no one else in this case had. she had seen her attacker's face. >> coming up, a valentine's day

appeal, straight from a mother's heart. >> i just want to say to my daughter, breonna, i love you and miss you, and nobody ever is giving up. >> when dateline continues. line continues of items for your home. shop area rugs up to 80% off. tv stands & storage up to 40%. and kitchen must-haves up to 50% off. plus, get bonus savings with a wayfair credit card and free shipping on everything! shop way day this october 26th and 27th. only at wayfair. ♪ wayfair, you've got just what i need ♪ covid-19 moves fast, and now you can too by asking your healthcare provider if an oral treatment is right for you. oral treatments can be taken at home and must be taken within 5 days from when symptoms first appear. if you have symptoms of covid-19, even if they are mild, don't wait,

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disappeared, police released a description of a man who police knew they had struck before. a sexual predator who had committed two crimes. >> he is a white male, somewhere between the ages of 28 in 40 years old, between five foot six and six feet tall. he throws an end as tv or an extended cab pickup. >> as it became'd ingrained in the collective mind of reno, another woman came to police saying she had been attacked back in october of 2008, three months before breonna's abduction. >> she did not want to subject herself to the inevitable indignities that come from a woman reporting a sex crime. >> but when she heard about breonna, she knew that she had to tell the police her story. she said she was attacked in this parking garage, on the university of nevada, reno campus. just a few blocks from the house where breonna would later be taken. she said her attacker grabbed her from behind, lieutenant

robert mcdonald. >> he put an arm around her, doctor to the ground, told her not to scream. >> he held a gun to her head, and raped her. there is no dna, but the victim gave police something almost as valuable. >> what did that victim tell you that you didn't already know? >> she had an opportunity to see the offenders face. >> and from her description, a police artist made this sketch that was released to the public. >> one more thing, like the attack on that foreign exchange student months later, the man made her and over her underwear. the police were now convinced that he was keeping his victims underwear as some sort of trophy. they did not release that information, not yet. it was now the biggest man hunt in the city's history. trying to find a rapist and kidnap or before he strikes again. >> we had three linked, serious violent felonies by the same individual in a 400 yard areas area. in the same neighborhood.

>> in a pretty short period of time? >> it was a pretty chilling thing for a community, and people are rightfully scared to death. >> parents starting pulling their daughters out of the university of nevada reno. those who stayed for on high alert. the owners have gone and specialty stores size spike in their business selling guns, weapons, and pepper spray, and even tasers. police knew that dna would be the key to breaking the plea case. the county crime lab tested 3000 dna samples that had been sitting on the shelf, but there was no match. no match in any national database, either. detectives looked hard at the hundreds of registered sex offenders in the area. >> we began doing face to face interviews with any individual who did not already have a dna profile in the system. >> investigators gathered 700 new dna samples from then they questions. and from others that had just

volunteered. >> they came down and said, hey, i match the description by want to give my dna to see you don't have to worry about me. >> we were pretty confident that that individual would likely not be a suspect. >> and when you did find a guy, he would know? >> we were pretty certain that the defender would not be too excited about giving up his dna. >> the surge dragged into february. 25 days since breonna disappeared. the posters and ribbons around town are fading a bit, but her family still held hope that she was alive. brees mother, brigitte made a valentine's day appeal on tv. i >> just lost my daughter, breonna, i love you, i miss you, and nobody's ever giving up. there are thousands of people looking for you. >> the next day, the weather had turned warm and the snow had started to melt in reno.

at lunchtime, a man was taking a shortcut across this field in an industrial park south of town. he stumbled across something he thought might be a body. then, he called police. >> this is breaking news. >> a grim discovery in south reno today. >> initially, we are told that it is a young caucasian appearing female. >> the field is about nine miles from the house on mackay court. >> we know that police -- >> krnv, victoria campbell was there. >> we started walking up, pulling over, coming over. is that breonna? i was on the search team. i was looking for her. i hope it's not her. >> on the other side of the yellow tape, the detective lemanski could see what was coming. >> this is not what we wanted to be. this was not the outcome. i knew deep in my stomach that it was her. >> but for a seasoned homicide to active, that horrible site is not the worst part. >> what bothers me is that

other victims like family, who are 24/7 wanting to know what happened to their loved one, and we have to be the bearer of that news. and it hurts. >> we'll manned guys next stop was brutus. >> the police tell you that first conversation that they thought it was her? >> yeah. and i kept asking about could -- she does not have pierced ears. if they could tell if there is no pierced ears? the scar on her ankle, and they just said the elements they were not able to tell. so we had to wait for dna. >> the next day, after an all nighter by the crime lab, police made it official. >> an autopsy today has determined that the remains of that female, discovered in the sealed, are those of 19 year

old brianna dennison. the official cause and manner of death was strangulation. it is a sexually motivated crime. >> all i can say to that is at least i am not waiting for years later. wondering. that is about the only positive i can get out of it. >> back at that field, detectives found something that looked like the killers calling card. >> there were two sets of panties that were on her right side, that were tucked underneath her right side. >> thong underwear, one pink and one black, with the image of the pink panther cartoon character. crime detectors -- they determined that neither pair of underwear belong to

breonna. the pink panther had dna from another person, but the pink pair were >> identified as one of the remade that denison game. from they belong to katie hunter. >> there was more dna on that pink song, some of them from the suspect, some of it from breonna. >> that hip strap matched to the ligature marks on breonna's neck. so she was dangled with the stolen under. >> even though brigitte knew that the killer could not hurt her daughter anymore, she still could not stop worrying. >> i went from being fearful for breonna's life, to being fearful for whoever he was going to get next time. >> you are not just thinking about the last victim, i what you are thinking about the next

one? >> i was. >> where police encouraging to you? they make it sound like they thought it was going to be solved? >> yes. one of the detectives actually promised me that they would find him. which i thought, wow, that is being pretty confident. >> now investigators were not just looking for a rapist and kidnapper, they were looking for a killer. reno had a murderer in its midst, and the whole town was on edge. but weeks passed with no arrest. more than 40 detectives chased thousands of leaks, but all the public heard with silence. >> from the outside there was a perception that you guys were not getting anywhere. was that frustrating? >> very. >> every day we come to work, and we -- knew >> we were a phone call away. >> but with that phone call ever come? hoping to shake out a lead, police finally released the inter information about the

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homicide detectives remained ski and jenkins were met soon with the hunt for the killer for brianna dennison. >> i did not have a single day of, and i do not think that i was at home for more than five or six hours on any day from january 20th until the middle of june. >> they had the killer's dna, and they were looking for a white male who drove an extended cab pickup truck. >> you are looking at every extended cab pickup you pass? >> the physical description, when you're in a grocery store, a parking lot, license plate numbers i would see i would make a note and we would follow them down. >> but there was nothing. we >> feared the worst, nothing happens. >> there have been some promising leads, thinking that the killer would strangle his killer with underwear might also visit prostitutes, police

started canvassing some of the brothels. the moonlight bunny ranch was about 30 miles south of reno, the owner is denis huff. >> police asked me for help, and i said let's talk to the girls. let's talk to the girls and see if we can fit that profile that comes into the ranch. >> one of the women who worked at the bunny ranch told police about a regular client who seemed to -- >> she was scared, he tried to choke her a few times at the party. >> you mean during? accession >> during a session. >> police asked the woman to entice the man back to the ranch. >> when he came back, she kept a condom and kept the glass that he drank from. >> the dna was rushed to the crime lab, but it did not match the killer. an investigation that started off so well, with so many clues about the killer, his habits, his truck, his dna, had now

gone almost cold. detectives pressed on, following more than 4000 leads. all of them, dead ends. but one day of in november of 2008, ten months into 2008, -- one of them caught his eye. >> one thing to struck me as odd, because they are talking about underwear. the anonymous tip was about a woman who had found someone else's thong underwear in her boyfriend's truck. >> do they have a name? >> they said the last name was beulah, and had a first name that started with aj. >> a drivers license search produced a name. >> about the right age. >> physical description. >> you look at his photo? >> when we looked at that photograph, and the initial sketch that we had from the forensic sketch artist, it was

eerily similar. >> it seemed an interesting lead, with man ski drove straight to buhle's house, no one was home, so he left his card. >> i wrote on the back of my business card, which obviously identifies me as a detective. i said, please call me at your convenience. about 40 >> about 45 minutes later, he called, but he sounded a little uncomfortable, but who wouldn't be. >> you have detectives who leaves a card on your door, you expect people to be a little nervous. >> the detectives told you let that he would like to talk to him about investigation. do you agree to meet with man ski after work the next day. >> i sat back down and my wife looked at me and said, what's wrong? and i said, the guy never asked me what i was investigating. >> when you leave a car that says homicide, most decent people call and say oh my god what's happened. who do i know that's been

harmed? >> nothing like that. >> pretty unusual response. >> you've been looking for a long time? >> this was ten months of terror. >> when nancy look to meet james below, his instincts told him that below was different then hundreds of others he talked to. >> he had recently on the right kind of? truck >> absolutely. it match perfectly. a four by four extended cab toyota pick up truck. >> but he did not want to get its hopes up. thousands of guys drive pickup trucks in reno. what were the chances this would be the right guy? >> it was like a common practice. hey, we are just going to go talk to the guy, get dna swabs, and move on to the next one. >> but it would turn out to be anything but common. >> a detective comes face to face with a potential discuss backed. will they crack under questioning? coming up. >> i sauté, i'm investigating the murder, and his move just

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that i would recommend. reno homicide detective adam was sitting in this wendy's parking lot waiting for james b la, who is a potential suspect in the murder of beer on a dennison. it had been ten months in free anna had been killed, but man

city was willing to take the ten minutes for be law to drive up. >> he shows up? >> he shows up in his truck, parked the right of me. >> the law got into nancy's car. >> it was weird, i shook his hand and when the witnesses said he had needy fingers. >> at first the detective kept a casual. we talked about the cobbs, see if he was a white sox fan, me being a cubs fan, and then i told him. i said >> i said hey i'm investigating the murder of breonna dennison, and then his mood changed. i got to see this what poorer. he was very very nervous. i said look, all i need is a simple dna swab, and that is it. we will submitted to the lab and that is it. and he says, no i'm not gonna give it to. you >> remember, detectives had suspected that one person in one person only would refuse to give them a dna sample. that killer of breonna dennison. >> he's like, you can call my girlfriend, she'll be my alibi.

>> they would speak to his girlfriend, but far from giving him an alibi, she confirmed for us today detectives that she had found another woman's underwear in his truck. >> she suspected at that time that he was having some kind of affair. >> knowing that one of the victims had seen a baby shoe in the truck, they asked because girlfriend if they had a child. and she told him he asked, if they had a four-year-old boy, and that james bailout was the father. she agreed to give him a sample of their son's dna. >> the police knew that if the boy was the son of the suspect, they would have similar dna. >> adam and i were very aware that they would share half the profile of each other. >> it would take a couple of weeks for an overworked crime lab to process the sample. >> police kept an eye on the law and began digging into his background. they are aware that the law had lived a couple of blocks from where the crimes have been committed, and that he was a

regular at the sports bar in the same neighborhood. villa worked in construction as a pipe fitter. he had only a high school education, and had been a bnc student. all of that fit the profile that police have been working with. >> we were trying to find things to eliminate him, and we could not. >> detectives brought the list girlfriend in for more questioning. remember that field where they found breonna's body? >> we learned that his body that his girlfriend actually worked in the building. >> she told him that bill actually drove her to work, and then on that day in 2008 she was looking out her was office window, and watched as breonna dennison's body was being discovered. >> she called b la to tell him that be loved hardly said a word on the phone, but within minutes after he hung up, police found out that the law had found told his boss that he

was quoting. but >> he told his girlfriend that he had been laid off. detectives told out the very next day, be loved told him and later sold his extended cab pickup. eight months later, he returned to reno in a new truck. that is when his girlfriend discovered that underwear. now, finally, the dna results came back on james dealers son, and confirmed what detectives already felt in their got. >> the child was 99% certain to have been a biological son of the unidentified suspect. >> the following day, when the law went to pickup his son at a daycare center, detectives arrested him. >> i placed my car, and said to him james you are under arrest for the murder of breonna thompson. it was a good feeling. >> coming up, the suspect's girlfriend asked questions.

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natalie morales. detectives have their suspect, james dealer in custody, but in the interrogation room, some of the toughest questions would

come from villa's girlfriend. here again is josh nikkhah wets with the conclusion of the night breonna vanished. >> back at the police station, mueller would not talk. he was charged with kidnapping, three counts of sexual assault, and with the murder of breonna. now detectives were finally able to make that phone call they had promised they would make to breonna's mother, brigitte. >> adam called me, i was at home. he said, we have him, can you come down. >> and you are feeling what then, pity, anger? >> relief. that he would be off the streets now. >> detectives had made another promise, this one to be less girlfriend. they said that they would let her know the results of her son's dna test, and when they told her that her son's dna was a close match of the killer, she came to the police station to speak to be law.

there, police cameras captured an incredible moment as horrible as it is remarkable. >> down the hall, detectives were glued to the monitor. >> she begs him to convince her that it is not him. and he never does not. >> in fact, i think that he acknowledges that he is in fact the murderer, although he does not admit it directly. >> she does not want to believe

that the father of her child could be a killer >> later, detectives got a sample of below siena, and it matched the suspect's dna from all of the crime scenes. at last, detectives were sure that the man they knew so much about, but i've been unable to find, the killer who terrorized reno, was finally in custody. below was facing the death penalty. he would later plead not guilty. prosecutors played that extraordinary tape for the jury. if that was not enough, prosecutors had rock solid dna evidence. more than two years after breonna was murdered, and after three weeks of testimony, it took the jury just six hours to

reach a verdict. >> we the jury in this matter find the defendant, james michael bella, guilty of count one sexual assault, count to, guilty of count three sexual assault, guilty of count for -- >> guilty on all counts. and the jury gave below the death penalty. that meant the end of a long difficult ordeal for the city of reno, but especially for her mother brigitte. for her, this is also the beginning of something. we spoke again just after the trial. >> the first interview i did, you were coming apart at the scenes. you have come a long way. >> i have. it has been two and a half years, you have to make a choice. you can be miserable and let it control your life, or you can move on and hopefully try to

not let this happen to anyone else. >> for that reason, brigitte set up the brain and breach estes foundation. advocating for a new outlawed change, for anyone arrested for a felony to be given a dna sample. known as breonna's law, it passed in 2013. >> it is not like it brings breonna back to me, i guess i can just move on and do other things. >> it has not brought you her back but is kind of brought you back. >> yeah, kind of. kind of. >> that is all for this edition of dateline, i'm natalie morales, thank you for watching. . yeah