i'm andrea canning, thank you for watching. this is the most terrifying crime scene i've ever seen. >> the suspect knew the victim. >> she just was the last person who should have ever died like that. >> she loved skiing, sailing, and her friends. >> she was extremely outgoing. >> a wonderful life that came to a tragic and on one warm summer night. >> i hear a very weird scream. >> her life had ended, but our story was just beginning. her killer hadn't been caught.

>> i remember one detective saying to me, you just have to wait till because again. >> but the trail grew cold. the file forgotten, until decades later, someone dusted it off. >> the whole goal of these cases was to try and see the thing that's hiding in plain sight. >> there were clues. a mysterious weapon made of wire, the wedding invitation, a midnight sale to know where. where they enough to catch a killer?

>> i was 100 percent confident that it was our guy. >> now, the showdown a determined prosecutor against a famed defense lawyer, who helped set ogs in free. >> i'm on the right side. >> after 35 years, it was finally time for justice. >> it's been a long journey. >> he was alone in his makeshift workshop. had to be, for what he intended. carefully he -- two of them, just a few inches each, sanded them down and drilled a hole in each one. and a piece of wire between them. too thin, he doubled it for strength. his perfect weapon for his perfect crime. warm outside in the brilliant sunshine, it was the summer of 1979. aides hadn't happened to us yet, nor the internet, nor cellphones, nor a way to read dna. all those things were still years away. everyone worried about three mile island that summer. the arabian hostage crisis was still months away. and in southern california, in the summer of 79, in the beach town that cling to the coast near l. a., twentysomethings

came from all over to work, play, practice on art as old as human. and as new as last night. mating. >> the area had a ski area, snow skiing, water skiing, volleyball, all sorts of outdoor activities. >> richard frank was 32 that summer, published an independent community news letter. but on weekends? >> we do bashir ups, guys are trying to meet girls and hit on people. it was a lot of fun. [laughs] >>reporter: one woman in particular caught richards eye. >> we had a thing called snow queen and she was running for snow queen. she didn't win but she was a very outgoing, gregarious almost tomboy kind of person, attractive. >> her name was lynn knight, a

neonatal nurse, who like so many here came from somewhere else. in her place, a pretty place called stratford, not far from toronto, canada. >> she was a beautiful person. >> this is her sister donna. >> she was jim carrey before jim carrey. she did the goofy stuff, everywhere people would be in stitches. >> nurses were in great demand in the seventies. lynn could have gone anywhere or stayed close to home, like her sister donna, also a nurse, chose to do. >> i had such difficulty when she was going to go to california. i did not want her to go. >> but she did. moved into a tiny studio dip apartment tacked on to someone 's garage in torrents. and she signed up with a hospital called little company of mary, where she went to work with the smallest patients of all, the most vulnerable, premature babies. >> those were her babies, she took her job very seriously. she would arrive early, do

double shifts. >>reporter: worked hard and played hard. >> she would work midnight shift, then sleep for three or four hours, and then she begun and scuba diving, marathon running, you name it. lynn was the most incredible tomboy ever. [laughs] >> one more thing, she loved the company of men. many of them, perhaps most, were just friends, some more than that. >> a number of them were ball players or skiers or whatever so she had a lot of male friends. because she was competitive in racquetball. >> so they were more friends than romantic partners. >> she hung out really with, professionals. [laughs] and good-looking professionals and then of course she met richard frank. >> we hit it off pretty quickly, we dated pretty heavily for couple of months. >> could be confusing for

richard. not many young women with as many male friends as the crowd that hovered around liz. her sweethearts, as she called them. >> one of the things was trying to find out where i fit in her life. >> but with richard, i it was romance, was she perhaps a little too intense? which are the perhaps she was. >> it was too much in the beginning. even her sister said that. >> so she was going a little too fast, is that it? >> yeah, yeah. >> but love has a way of circling back, by the end of that summer of 1979, they ran into each other again. on a waterskiing trip. >> i saw her and we started talking. and we decided, you know, okay, let's go out. and for me, it was like, is this the one that got away? >> it was august 29th, a warm summer evening outside lynn's little studio apartment outside in the avenue.

lynn was cooking chinese food. she had company, a male friend who had come for dinner, a male friend who is not richard frank. no, this was an ex-boyfriend names joe giarrusso. after dinner, lynn and joe drink some wine, talked about what, we cannot know. and at 11:30 pm or so, he left, and lynn went to bed. early shift at the hospital. wednesday ticked into thursday, the silence. that's when the neighbors heard it, a high pitched scream. and it came from lynn knights little apartment. coming up -- >> my whole world crashed in.

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um, it's called commitment. could you turn down the volume? here, you can try. get way more into what your into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. the scream was almost beyond human-- shrill, harrowing, echoing through the quiet neighborhood on anza avenue. the man next door called 911.

keith morrison (voiceover): when torrance police arrived minutes later, the little apartment was quiet again. and lynne knight was dead, lying on her bed in a pool of blood. detective emillo paerels had never seen anything quite like it. just terrible, bloody and-- i can't find other words to describe it other than horrific. lead detective gary hilton, keith morrison (voiceover): so horrific, said lead detective gary hilton, that even now, 35 years later, talking about it was difficult. that even now, talking about it, 35 years later, is difficult. >> you'll have to excuse me. >> yeah. >> out of all the ones i worked, it was toughest. >> no wonder, the victim had

been stabbed more than a dozen times. >> pointing toward what? >> rage, the desire to see this particular individual dead. >> but there was another set of wounds that the detectives couldn't figure out, deep cuts on her neck, which may have explained the horrifying sound that woke up lynn's neighbors. >> how would you describe that screaming? >> a squeal. a loud squeal. >> after he heard that, said a neighbor, he caught a glimpse of the man who may have been the killer. a slender young man with dark, curly hair. not much to go on. >> he looked at the back of the suspect as he ran down the driveway, into the street. >> carrying something? >> a small satchel. >> there couldn't have been much inside that little black bag, because very little was taken from lynn's apartment. only her wallet, keys and one particular piece of jewelry.

>> she had a necklace on with a pendant. at the scene we found a broken clasp and the pendant. >> but no chain? >> no chain. >> but the killer left something of his own behind, something detectives didn't notice. until the coroner moved lynn's body. >> it appeared to be a homemade device used to strangle the victim. it was cut-off portions of what appeared to be a broom, or a mop handle. and a piece of wire. >> going between the two? >> yes. >> so there was some planning involved? >> a great deal of planning. it's a homemade garrote. >> a garrote? >> detective gary hilton had not seen one of those since he served in vietnam. and certainly never at the crime scene. but now he understood why lynn 's neck was cut so deeply.

>> did he actually put it around her neck? >> yes. >> overkill, and that would be an understatement. >> now for what was most difficult, making the phone call to lynn's family, here in little stratford, ontario. a family which, until that moment, had assumed that their precocious daughter was perfectly safe, saving babies in los angeles. >> lynn's sister, donna, was just getting offer shift in toronto. >> i got a call from my brother in law, he was gulping for air, and yelping practically out of his skin. he said that i hate to have to tell you, but lynn has been stabbed to death. and it was like... it was such a sad day.

>> it's not something you would expect to hear, no matter what. >> no. it was like my whole world crashed in and that was it. it was completely life altering. my life has never, ever been the same since. >> donna was 26, only recently out of nursing school. 35 years later, the pain lingers. >> how do you take a thing like that in? >> you don't, it's totally out of body. you go into shock. it's complete shock. it's like, also, a great big hole in your chest. >> who would have done such a thing to lynne, the kind and compassionate nurse? not an enemy in the world? but then, before dawn, a concrete lead. police saw someone suspicious running in lynne's neighborhood, the same guy the neighbor saw? >> the suspect was seen in this location, carrying a black bag.

they picked him up, and by the look of it, with blood, literally, on his hands. coming up -- a clue found in the strangest place. >> i saw this wedding invitation that was crumpled up in the trash. >>reporter: when "dateline" continues.

>> sometimes cops get lucky.

this was recorded in the predawn hours of august 30th, 1979. just after the brutal murder of lynne knight. >> 23, possible suspect, dark curly hair, last seen running eastbound. >> a patrol unit detained and arrested an individual who was acting strangely nearby. >> it looked like he had blood on him? >> he did. >> his name was girardeau juarez and he appeared to match the description of the man running away from lynne's apartment. they had to finish processing the crime scene at the apartment. >> i saw these blood smears in the house that looked like it was caused by gloves. >> and there was no dna of course? >> back then we didn't have dna. all the blood we found was consistent with the victim. >> remember, this was 1979,

years before the advent of dna. fingerprints were the gold standard then. but the other prints could not be traced back to the murder. and that apparent murder weapon? the garrote? it was clean of prints. so there was planning. a lot of it. and immense brutality. but burglary? no, only small personal items were taken. but detectives capt. emilio paerels and gary hilton were certain it could mean one thing. >> the suspect knew the victim. she had been targeted, i say that because the location was quite removed from the street, not a place where there were passers by. someone would have to know to go back there in order to reach the door. >>reporter: so, the detectives went back to the torrance pd to talk to the possible suspect gerardo juarez. he insisted he didn't know lynne and had never even seen her. had no reason to kill her.

>> a search of his home turned up nothing. and the blood on his hands? >> it proved not to be blood. >> what was it? >> it could have been paint, dirt, mud. we couldn't tie him to the crime scene. >>reporter: so much for that break, gerardo juarez was released and for the moment, at least, they were nowhere. a few days after the murder, a small funeral was held in stratford, ontario. they were planning to have a wedding. donna's wedding. lynne was supposed to be alive, as her sister's maid of honor. >> they dressed her in her maid of honor dress. i remember feeling such anger! at whoever did that to my sister. and my parents. watching my parents grieve. what have they done to my baby?

>>reporter: the coroners report answered some questions. an autopsy determined that the garrote did not kill lynne. she died of stab wounds. the report revealed something else. traces of two semen samples. again, dna testing was not available back then. so they could not attach identities to the semen samples. >> so you began to talk to -- >> that's where we started the circle of friends, acquaintances, her job. >>reporter: including all her current and former boyfriends. racquetball partners, ski buddies, work colleagues. >> we needed the time to develop some background on all the players, so that we would have some idea what questions to ask. >> anyone of whom could have been the one. >> anyone. >>reporter: mind you, richard frank had already called the police to offer his help and was pretty quickly eliminated. he had an alibi.

but how about that old flame, joe giarrusso? he was, without a doubt, in lynne's apartment just hours before he she was killed. joe told the detectives that lynne was fine when he left at midnight. >> did it make you think that he might be a suspect? >> oh, yeah. he was somebody we had to investigate immediately. >>reporter: so they brought joe in for questioning. he seemed forthcoming. and if he wasn't deeply upset, he was putting on a good act. still, the detectives noticed something strange on his fingers. several cuts. he insisted they happened at work, in a lab, where he dropped a test tube. he would never hurt lynne, he told them. had no reason for jealous rage. >> he was in a relationship with another woman and was still visiting our victim. and apparently were friends. >>reporter: by the time lynne

was murdered, said joe, he was in bed with his girlfriend. what to make of the story? until his alibi could be checked out, joe giarrusso remained the only possible suspect. by this time, when the investigation had been underway for almost two weeks, the knight family flew to l. a. to collect lynne's personal belongings. they kept her mementos, even her financial records. which said a lot about lynne. >> the sum of her bank was all of $18. because she paid for scuba diving lessons and you name it, she just did it, she was packing in every activity she could possibly pack in. so, she really lived a lot in those 28 years. >> but there was one thing donna didn't find. something quite special to both sisters. the invitation to her upcoming wedding. and then detective hilton

remembered, he spotted it, in a wastebasket. although, he didn't collect it as evidence. >> i saw this wedding invitation. it was crumpled up. >> didn't seem like a big deal at the time? >> no, just a wedding invitation. had her name on it and it was crumpled up in the trash. >> that's when we went, lynne wouldn't do that. my grandparents picture was right there, their wedding pictures. so we knew something wasn't right. and also, if it was crumpled up, who else would have the motive to crumple it up? someone who was ticked off that they weren't coming to this wedding. >>reporter: ticked off enough to actually kill lynne knight? who was it who was left off the guest list? coming up, an old boyfriend tells a startling story. was it also a valuable clue? >> it's almost surreal knowing the incident happened and maybe

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here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. three other children were

hospitalized as well. and in the atlantic sunday, post-tropical cyclone lee continue to weaken after hitting the northeast with heavy rain and winds. the storm system is believed to be responsible for the death of a 51 year old man in maine, saturday. now, back to dateline. >> this was home. lovely little stratford, ontario. where lynne knight grew up, the play she intended to return for her sister donna's wedding. no wedding now. >> we had to cancel the wedding. and it was just so horrible. a wedding is supposed to be a

happy time. and -- >> nothing happy about those days. >> nope. >> but the wedding did offer an odd clue of sorts. lynne's invitation, which had been found crumpled up in her wastebasket. >> the question was, would she have wrinkled it up and thrown it in the trash? or did the suspect do it? >> the detectives were convinced that the killer knew lynne and hated her, maybe wanted revenge for something. >> who would slaughter someone to that degree if they didn't have a motive. a hatred? something. >> two weeks into the investigation, the only potential suspect was joe giarrusso, who was with her hours before he died. he had cuts on his fingers.

and then the detectives discovered something else. >> he had a physical altercation with lynne, at some point? >> there was a situation where she was beaten up. >> so, they brought joe back in, grilled him again. he swore it wasn't a beating it all, a slap during an argument. afterward, he and lynne remained close friends. besides, said joe and his girlfriend, they were in bed together when the murder happened. they volunteered to take a polygraph. and -- >> they both passed. >> soon after that, joe giarrusso, who didn't look anything like the man the neighbor saw, was eliminated as a suspect. in fact, one by one just about all of lynne's male friends came up clean. and seemed to want to do whatever they could to help find her killer. >> they all had good things to say.

i thought that was unusual. to talk to 12 men who dated her or knew her and nobody had a bad word. >>reporter: that of course included her athletic new beau frank, who had rekindled his romance with lynne a week before the murder. >> it's devastating, almost surreal, knowing that the incident happened and maybe it related somehow to the crime. >> the incident? richard told police about a bizarre encounter they had at her apartment. a guy she wonce dated stopped by to drop off a lamp he had borrowed. >> he had words to the effect of, excuse me, thank you, and he left. >>reporter: but minutes later, he was back. >> he comes in and starts yelling at her, calls her a bleep, and took the lamp and threw it over our heads. and was pretty violent with all of this. and then left.

you could hear the tires squeal. >> what was that all about? >> she explained that it's somebody she was trying to cut it off with. >>reporter: lynne told richard that the guy's name was doug. they had dated a few months but just before richard came, she broke it off. doug didn't take it so well. >> that particular night, do you remember her reaction then? >> she was scared. >> was it scary to you too? >> i was concerned, concerned for lynne. >>reporter: in the days that followed, the incident seemed to be forgotten. >> she had this calming way of taking big things and making small things out of them. she was in control. later on, she explained that she calmed him down on the phone a couple of times. >> after that incident? >> yeah. and she thought it was kind of taken care of. >>reporter: detectives were intrigued. they found lynne's address book

in her purse. only one doug. doug bradford. they asked donna about him and she vaguely remembered something lynne mentioned in a letter. >> saying that doug was no longer coming to the wedding. >> okay. >> and he was on the backburner. i put it out of my mind because i had all this wedding to organize. i knew -- obviously, he didn't light her fire too much. >>reporter: this was the first bit of heat on a cold trail. they gave doug a call. he lived with his parents. he sounded shy but agreed to meet at the house where, it turned out, doug bradford had a lot to say. coming up -- it's the kind of tricks cops always use in a movie. >> they are not going to tell him that she's dead. when'dateline'continues. skip the rinse and load your dishes. 24 hours later when your dishwasher is full, let finish quantum clean your dishes.

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>> it was a less congested drive in those days, back in 1979. the cruise down the freeway from torrance to costa mesa, california. detectives parked in front of a modest house where 27-year-old engineering student doug bradford lived with his parents. >> he seemed somewhat meek. somewhat softspoken.

kind of a neat nick. sort of a guy. >> nerdy kind of character? >> you could say that. an engineering type of person. >> nothing about doug bradford made him look or sound like a potential suspect. he was clearly a smart and pretty civilized guy. but the only cool thing about douglas was his car, a bright orange 280z, lust worthy back in 1979. according to richard frank, this same doug had engaged in a very uncivilized tantrum in lynne's apartment. besides, lynne was something of a big deal in doug's life. >> she had spent easter at his home with his family. they were fairly close. the fact that he would have introduced lynne to his family somewhat telling. >> this is a serious relationship. >> i think he wanted it to be. >>reporter: lynne too,

apparently. why else would she have invited him to tag along to her sister's wedding in canada? so, knowing that much, wait, back on the freeway again, something else you need to know. gary hilton's mind was oddly creative, sometimes in ways that other cops didn't quite get. hilton, knowing it hadn't got much news coverage, hatched a plan on the way to the interview. >> we are not going to tell him that she's dead. and that we were there investigating a missing person. >>reporter: just a funny chat about a missing woman, a missing ex girlfriend. if he was involved, how would he react? give something away, maybe? >> there was no giving of miranda rights, he was in his own home, voluntarily cooperating. he could've stopped the interview at any time but he opted not to do that. he wanted to speak and he did.

>>reporter: so, asked the detectives, what did they do? >> we'd go out to dinner quite a bit. we went flying, took her sailing. we went skiing, locally, here. go out and go dancing. >>reporter: as for the relationship, it was exclusive, said doug, more or less. >> did she go out with other men? >> well, not to the best of my knowledge. at least when i was dating her. she used to kid me about it and say no, you don't have anything to worry about. but yeah, i guess she might have gone out with some men. >>reporter: with lynne it was just fun, said doug, active, lots of laughs. but he never did consider lynne to be the love of his life. sure enough, he said, she wasn't. >> could you say which one of the two of you was more decisive about breaking off the

relationship? >> i think that lynne was more decisive, i was just going along with it. and i kind of saw that the relationship was gonna come to an end. that became very obvious out in palm springs, one weekend a few months into the relationship, said doug. they just didn't the seem to be clicking anymore. >> and we decided that we should go our own ways. and that was it. >> that was the last time you saw her? >> mhm. >>reporter: but wait, unless richard frank was lying, doug showed up at lynne's place the next day to return a lamp, saw richard, and flew into a rage, throwing the lamp across the room. what about that, they asked doug? there was no rage at all, he said. disappointment, maybe. >> i don't know if i was really

mad. i was more upset about it. she was more jumping from one relationship to the next. so i left. that's the last i saw of her. and then, doug said something kind of strange. remember, detective hilton had decided not to tell him that lynne was dead, rather that she was missing. listen to this. >> i don't have any reason to see her again, i don't want to see her again. you know, she's just dead and something i want to put out of my mind. >>reporter: she's dead? why would he say that? the cops didn't follow up, worried that he may clam up. then, as reporters were going to question him about his whereabouts, and unfortunate surprise. . >> the tape recorder started making some strange sounds. >> oh, boy. >> when it failed we had to stop. >>reporter: so they waited a

few days, did some research on doug bradford. discovered he like to play jazz on the piano, was an expert sailor, in addition to his engineering studies. he like to make things. he was accomplished. donna, however, didn't like him much. not a good fit for lynne. >> i can see why she would have not wanted to go out with bradford, it was not her usual type, it was a rebound relationship. >>reporter: what mattered now was doug's alibi, if he had one. so detectives drove down to costa mesa again, worried he would refuse to see them or demand a lawyer. but he didn't. instead, doug bradford told them a story of his own, which put him miles and miles from the murder of lynne knight. coming up, doug bradford's odd alibi. >> you didn't get much sleep last night, no?

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and is 2x more absorbent so you can use less. here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. >>torrance police detectives were a little surprised doug bradford agreed to talk to them a second time. here they were bac in costa

mesa again. doug described how he and lynne were close, how he liked her presents. well, actually, i didn't give it to her. i helped her buy it. she picked it out. >>that caught the cops attention, a necklace, which happened to be the one piece of jewelry that happened to be missing from the apartment. pendant and class were collected but no chain. interesting. but now the real reason they were here, to find out where doug was the night that lynne was murdered. >> i was here most of the evening. and i went up to long beach for a little bit. i went sailing and i came back, right back here, a little before three. >> sailing in the wee hours of the morning in the dark? alone? on the pacific ocean? odd, maybe, but after all, doug

belonged to a local sailing club. so he had access to a sailboat anytime he wanted one. that night, said doug, he took out a 30 foot sloop, a special type of racing boat known as a shield. >> did you go sailing that night? >> i started off under the sail but i ended up coming up underpowered a battle power. >> there was no auxiliary power? and i got there without any wind. >> and then you arrived back what time? >> by the time i got the boat put away, it could have been 1:30, 2:00. >> right around the time lynne was murdered. >> you didn't get much sleep that night? >> no, i was sore in my shoulders, everything, from paddling. it was quite a night. >> this going out by himself, with no motor, right? >> no motor. no auxiliary power, as he put it. >> mind you, doug was an expert

skipper, said he knew how to paddle the shields. but the detectives didn't like it, this too perfect, too weird alibi. >> it didn't make sense to me then and it doesn't make sense to me now. >>reporter: so they paid a visit to the boat club, where doug claimed to have set sail that night. >> we obtained one of the records showing he had signed out for the boat. >> they asked another skipper, was a 30 foot shield a boat that a skilled sailor could handle alone? >> oh yeah, you could. >>reporter: so that was the alibi. doug's claim that he sailed alone that night and a mark in a pencil book. >> he never had anyone see him take the boat out? >> no, he said he was the only one there. >> no one saw doug sailing.

but there were reports he was seen driving in front of lynne's apartment just days before the murder. that was interesting. because remember, doug told detectives he cut off all contact with lynne after their breakup. so they checked with lynn e's neighbors and showed them the photo of doug. >> i got a witness to identify mr. bradford as the person who had been seen driving back and forth in front of a residence, looking up the driveway. >> he wouldn't leave her alone? >> he wouldn't leave her alone. as a matter of fact, he stalked her. >> stalked her? >> yes, before the murder. >> which might explain, said her sister donna, why lynne stayed with a number of male friends for several nights before the murder. >> i know that the last week of her life, it looks like she slept with a lot of men. and that's not true. when i look at the pattern, my sister was afraid. she was scared.

>>reporter: so maybe doug's 280z would would yield a clue. >> it was clean as a whistle. >> no evidence in it at all? >> none we were able to recover. there was no blood found, no sign of anything. >> and whoever attacked her would have been covered with blood? >> you would conclude that, yes. >> but the cops couldn't help but notice the smell in that 280z. >> when we opened it up, it was an overwhelming smell of armor all. >> it had just been cleaned? >> it was a clean car. >>reporter: after that, there was no talking to doug bradford anymore. >> i received a phone call from an attorney, said he was representing doug bradford. and told me, don't do anything with regard to my client unless you call me first. >> it seemed pretty clear you

are after him. >> he was number one, as i put it. >>reporter: so the detectives took their case to the da, with a request to charge doug bradford with murder. but -- >> all the district attorney said was there just wasn't enough. >> yeah? >> they needed that, they call it the smoking gun. >> we were sent back and told to do additional investigation and bring it back. >>reporter: which they did, but always the answer was the same. >> that hurt, it hurt. >> well, you couldn't put that guy in that room on that night. >> true, it was heavily circumstantial. >> it wasn't just the detectives who were disappointed. donna was convinced that doug bradford killed her sister. but she wasn't holding her breath for justice to be done. >> i said to my mom, there is not going to be an arrest for 20, 25 years or more.

i just know it, mom. get used to it, it's not going to happen. >>reporter: she was certainly right about that. after three years, in 1982, the investigation into the murder of lynne knight was classified as inactive. a nice way of saying it was over. and no one saw the tantalizing clue hiding in plain sight. it's a terrible thing when a murder goes unsolved. justice undone. especially a murder as vicious and intentional as what happened to lynne knight in her tiny torrance apartment in the summer of 1979. lynne's family up in canada could scarcely stand it. >> every time you think about it, you shudder, and it's like niagara falls. you are at the bottom. and it's all coming at you. a terrible, horrible, horrible experience.

she just was the last person who should have ever died like that. >>reporter: as the eighties rolled out their own catalog of horrors, aids, drugs, urban decay, crime, donna fought to keep the memory of her sister from sinking under the troubles. she wrote letters, lots of them. and enlisted lynne to help. i got that nice picture of lynne. >> i pasted it here and said, sell yourself lynne. here goes, i'm going to send it. >>reporter: you sent them where? >> the governor, the fbi. >> you even wrote to who, ronald reagan? >> yes, i had to go to key decision makers. >>reporter: but she was shouting in the wind. detectives hilton and paerels retired, not happy about what they left behind. >> this one weighed on me for quite a long time. in the back of your head.

you don't want to leave a homicide case undone. that's just, just wrong. >>reporter: lead detective gary hilton second guessed himself endlessly. >> i could have been a little bit more, done a little bit more. i just got to know lynne knight just a little personally. too bad i didn't know her in life. [laughs] [crying] >>reporter: occasionally, a new set of detectives would dust off the file, tell donna they were optimistic about tracking it. >> it was just like, oh, here we go again. but i remember one detective saying to me, oh, we just have to wait until he kills again. and i went... no, no, this is not going to happen. this is not going to happen.

there has got to be an answer. >> coming up -- a cold case but not a closed case, thanks to that mysterious weapon found at the crime scene. >> let's just take a look and see. when "dateline" continues. the years at ticked by, and keith morrison (voiceover): the years had ticked by. and doug bradford, the man cops long suspected of murdering doug bradford, the man cops long suspected of murdering lynne knight, did quite well for himself. owned a successful high tech company, a nice house in california, and a young wife. and richard frank, remember him? the man lynne started seeing again just days before her death? he too had moved on, got married, raised a family, on the successful newspaper

business but occasionally thought about what happened. >> i drove by the neighborhood a lot because i worked in that area, so that would be a constant reminder. >> you just wondered? >> i called the detectives once in a while, anything new? >> nearly two decades went by. it was 1997. someone found a little extra money for the torrance police department to open the cold case unit. >> when we first opened this detail, we started looking at about 30 cases. this was one of the first ones we did. >> that's when detective jim wallace heard about lynne, from her sister donna. wallace likes to work crimes with his brain, his cerebral. what he saw at that file, at the base level. >> the cases i have worked, this is the most horrific, powerful, terrifying crime scene i've ever seen. there's something about the horror that lynne went through that was still evident in the

crime scene. that ghost of the scene was still there. >> a ghost, maybe, but virtually no hard evidence. so wallace went back to the beginning and took a good look at lynne and the company she kept. wallace re-interviewed all of lynne's surviving boyfriends. >> except for two, about whom they couldn't know. joe giarusso, the man she invited for dinner the last night of her life had since died. and then there was doug bradford, the ex-boyfriend who threw the lamp and was seen driving through the apartment -- and had offered that odd alibi about sailing and paddling a 30 -foot sloop in the middle of the night. >> i think there's always a rational element in these

cases. this case was one of those where you really have to ask, is it possible that somebody would go out on a boat at 10:30 at night? oh, absolutely. is that reasonable? no. >> wallace could see why the initial investigation focused on bradford, but this wouldn't be easy. which he knew was catnip for a deputy district attorney, john lewin. >> the cases that i enjoy are lots of little pieces and if i get too big of a piece, it's not as challenging, you know, to work. >> so, he read the file too. right away, it looked to him that joe could've been the killer. then, he listen to those original 1979 interviews with doug bradford. >> you know, she's dead. something i want to put out of my mind. >> i was 100 percent confident that he was our guy. it wasn't just the fact that his statement was so creepy, and so incriminating, it was

when you mix that with his alibi. it was absurd. the fact that he was the only person in her life that had motive. >> but proving it creepy and absurd are not exactly legal terms. >> his boss, the district attorney, would laugh him out of his office if he didn't come up with something new to connect bradford to the crime. bit by bit, over years, him and wallace, and his partner, worked a case like a big jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces. but one wouldn't quite fit. so it's a brutal crime committed by a nerdy engineer. >> one of the big problems that i had was when you looked at doug bradford, he looked like a normal, regular guy, who could live next door. >> sure. >> this is a guy who builds a weapon to go over to murder and then mutilate someone after

they're dead. >> in my 20 years of doing this, one of the worst scenes i've ever encountered. >> that weapon, the homemade wire and wood garrote had been a mute resident in the evidence locker for a long time. wallace couldn't stop looking at it, as if it could talk. >> the whole goal of these cases, right, is to see if it's hiding in plain sight. >> so, the killer's garrote was made with wooden dows, connected by a very thin piece of wire, a double strand, wait, double? >> why would you double it? so why not just use thicker wire? well, that make sense to me that you're using something that's available to you, it's not ideal, but you have been to have it on hand. >> same thing with the handles. like the killer cut pieces from a household broom.

>> we can see, forensically, blue specks of paint that have almost been sanded off. i'm just thinking, this looks like something you're making from available materials. that's what give us the idea. wow, maybe these materials are just junk that is lying round. >> doug bradford moved out of the house years earlier, but his elderly mother still lived there. >> is it possible that some of the simple building materials used to build a garrote might still be tucked away in some old drawer, stuck inside the garage. it's worth a look. >> wallace and his partner ran the idea by deputy da, who liked it. >> best-case scenario, can we actually find, you know, the same wire, the same -- >> but, really? by then, nearly three decades had passed.

so what in the world would they find in this little house in costa mesa? >> coming up, something old? >> what are the odds of anyone keeping it that long? and something new. >> it might be a number of things she could tell us, she would know about his relationship with lynne. >> when dateline continues. keeping kids together, here, at places like the lunch table. where they can share who they truly are. [boy] chicken nugget man. because when kids are together, they thrive. lysol. here for healthy schools. [sneeze] (♪♪) astepro allergy, steroid free allergy relief that starts working in 30 minutes, while other allergy sprays take hours. with astepro's unbeatably fast allergy relief

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taking a hint.

you know the type? won't take no for an answer? by the time the christmas lights went up in torrance, california at the end of 2007, lynne knight had been lying in the cold, canadian ground for 28 years. a renewed murder investigation had gone in empty circles for a decade. though neither da jon lieu, ordered active jim wallace seem capable of giving up on it, they couldn't charg doug bradford with murder, based on mere suspicion. so, one last effort. they got a warrant, two warrants actually. first, wallace and his partner went to pay a surprise visit to doug bradford's current house, with a hidden microphone. they asked him about lynne's case. >> i would've guessed that that was solved. >> i was wondering if we could have a few moments about what you remember from 79. >> well, i've been advised by

counsel not to have any further discussions about that. >> oh, really? >> which was just the reaction the detectives expected. they showed him their search warrant and set about poking around. they snapped a few pictures of the place, including one of doug, sitting and steaming in his living room. they found several firearms, all legal and, in a file cabinet, two articles on polygraph tests. odd. back in'79, doug initially agreed to take one and then changed his mind. >> and then right next to that file was another file that had a brochure on a crossbow and, then, even more disturbing, literally a manual on how to home make, how to build a crossbow. again, that was -- >> interesting, but he didn't make a crossbow. >> it showed that, whether he made the crossbow or not, i'm

pretty confident if i came to your house right now, i would not find manuals on how to make exotic weapons. >> but, there was nothing in dougs house related to that other exotic weapon, the garrote. what little optimism the detective brought with him began to evaporate. they had a second warrant. remember? for the very place doug lived when lynne was murdered. >> what's the problem? >> an old 1979 murder case that we are revisiting. >> norma bradford was no slouch. she could see this might be trouble for doug. a woman doesn't stop being a mother just because her son is 56. >> he is the straightest straight arrow person you ever want to know. >> there might be a number of things she could tell us. she would know about his relationship with lynne. >> had you met this nurse? >> yeah she came in here. doug brought her in.

>> she was really something. >> now, that was interesting. >> we had two stories, in essence. a story from doug, in 1979, that really this was not a relationship he cared about -- she really thought she had something special with him, and he was attracted to her in that way. >> then, as they filed that nugget away, they looked around and couldn't help but see the veritable gallery of oil paintings hung around the house. norma revealed that the artist was her. she loved to paint, and both her late husband and doug took pride in framing, hanging them. >> she had one room that was basically a small museum of her paintings. >> could the paintings hold a clue? wallace turned art collector and decided to take a few of them to the police station.

and then they went out to norma's garage. all kinds of old stuff flying around. looks like nobody had thrown anything away for quite a while. and tucked away in the corner, there they were. >> we found a number of wooden dowls, and none of them were painted. a broom handle. we collected it. >> who would've believed it? almost 30 years later, it seemed pretty obvious that the broom handle used to make the garrote was still there. the garage handles had been sanded down but stacks of paint still clung to them. >> oh, my gosh. we were so excited. that's why we got a warrant, but we don't expect those expectations to be met with the actual wood dowel that was used to build. i mean, what are the odds of anyone keeping it that long? >> we thought this was going to

be a pretty good piece of evidence. we were that excited. >> all wallace needed was a testing lab to confirm it, and prosecutor john lewin would finally have the evidence he needed to file the case. >> we were thinking, okay, and you looked at it, is blue paint, it's a dowel. there's a cut one in the garage. it looked like the same. >> lowin was excited, but also disturbed by what he saw. when you compare the two dowel samples, he noticed that one from the garage had been sanded. >> why would he take the time to sand it down? the answer is just horrible? >> horrifying, how? >> the killer made this weapon, because he's enjoying the process of making this weapon then i'm going to use to wrap around her neck and kill her. >> now, here it was.

the evidence that could put doug bradford at the crime scene. they sent the samples to a specialized lab outside chicago for comparison testing. >> we are expecting that we're going to get a match. >> but -- >> we didn't. >> the lab report was unequivocal. these were two distinctly different dowels. they did not match and now, suddenly, there was no case. >> it was, you know, it was like getting kicked in the stomach. i can tell you, we were deflated beyond words. the expectations we had then, we had no match. this case was dead. >> coming up -- >> what i really needed was some piece of new evidence that would help. >> maybe the wood wasn't a match, but was it something else? >> i thought about it, i wonder how rare that wire really is. so, i went down to the local

hardware store. i said, gee, let's see if i could find a picture anywhere. >> when dateline continues. what's that? you need another four inches? do you work here? nope, i just saw you there and i thought i'd save you the trouble. nana! she's a human measuring tape. and she knows allstate is the right fit for her. it's not gonna fit. that's not gonna fit. what? steven? some people just know. well played. well played, my friend. those are the people who know you're in good hands with allstate. (geri) i have copd. because i smoked. so i have to pace myself. my tip is, if you're having people over for thanksgiving, start cooking in october. (announcer) you can quit. for free help, call 1-800-quit now. looking for a bladder leak pad that keeps you dry? all of the things that you're looking for in a pad, that is always discreet. look at how it absorbs all of the liquid. and locking it right on in! you feel no wetness. - oh my gosh! - totally absorbed!

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they were right back to square one. at which point, it would've made perfect sense for them to give it up. stuff the lynne knight file back into the purgatory of unsolved cases. or not.

>> i started to kind of look at the case to say, what do we have? >> jim wallace picked himself up from his disappointment and poked around at the bits and pieces he might be able to build into a case, like the bit that never makes sense to him. doug's alibi. who sails a 30-foot racing sloop alone at night? her alibi checked out in 79, but still. some alibis can be faked, can't they? was this one? wallace took a crash course in boating to find out and sought any skipper he could find to find out about sailing, back in 1979. >> i called every one of them. i interviewed and asked them, >> one of his teachers was charlie abbott. once an officer in the very same sailing club that doug

used to belong to, where the shields racing vote was docked. the shields is hard to sail, to begin with. if you are going out in southern california in the southern time, there will not be wind at all or a very little bit. >> sailors have an expression for that. >> no blow, no go, means that if there is not enough wind, we are not going sailing. >> doug was an expert, after all, if anybody could sail after sunset, he could. listen again to his version of what happened that night out on the dark pacific. >> well, i started off on the sale but ended up coming back in a paddle. there was no -- >> a little after 10:30. >> if it is not windy at 10:30 and you are standing at that dock asking yourself, is there enough wind for me to sail?

i can maybe barely get out? do you expect it to be better when you get out there? everyone i talked to said, that is crazy. as a matter of fact, that is the one thing that was a consistent statement from every sailor. would you do this? no. >> not to mention, paddling a to ten vote with one or, who could do that on the ocean and the dark? yet, there it was, doug's name on the reservation for. but clear record that he booked the boat the night lynn was killed. >> so, next question. could he have faked his ceiling reservation that night? as a club member, doug did have access to the reservation book, so he could have inserted his name even a couple of days after the murder. doesn't mean he did, but he could have. but then, they discovered something with doug's name all over it. very intriguing. all the reservations from 1979. >> so, it was serendipitous.

we had them and we found them. >> because when wallace reviewed his sailboat bookings, what do you know? there was a very distinctive pattern. >> doug consistently reserved the vote on weekends. the first week that he began to change his reservation pattern is the week of the murder. the fact that there is nobody who ever reserves the boat for a post sunset sail except for one person, doug bradford, on the night of the murder. >> now, that could be useful evidence. certainly it weekend doug's alibi. but conviction material? no. as for possible dna, there was all that blood around the apartment and to cement symbols recovered from flint. with dna testing now available, could they connect something at the crime scene to doug bradford? >> detectives went out and got samples from all the boyfriends. >> including of course, doug, who was served with another

search warrant at his house, this time seeking a swap of his saliva. >> it's just an opportunity for us to say, hey, if you are not the guy, let's just move on. >> i thought that had already been determined. >> one by one, the dna results came in from all of linda's old lovers, and male friends, and none of them matched the dna from the crime scene, including doug bradford. >> it was problematic because unfortunately, the more testing we were doing, we were getting dna, so, there was dna in the seamen belong to two males, it just wasn't him. so yeah, it was definitely disappointing, and i knew that what i really needed was some piece of new evidence that would help. >> something physical, something forensic they could take to the l.a. county district attorney. >> you have to sell this thing, though, to your bosses, right? >> yeah, i do. i do. >> but still, wallace could not

get his mind off that rot. he must have missed something. >> wallace now went to his own workshop and started tinkering, made a go rot. then made another, and another. to understand the mindset of the killer and the materials he used. he examined the wire very closely. fanned, he looks again at the pictures dubbed mothers painted. the wire dug used to hang them. and both wires were the same type, something called great number 18 strand rated wire. >> that is the kind of wire used in the garrote, and also the kind of wire that doug's mom was using to hang many of her paintings. >> an exciting discovery, maybe. but, like the dabbles, it could also be pure coincidence. >> i thought about it and said, i wonder how rare that wire

really is, so i went down to the local hardware store and i said, let me see if i can find a picture. i found some, but not number one rated. i could not find it anywhere, and started calling those manufacturers to ask them, do you sell a center wire? >> very uncommon. >> very uncommon. >> so uncommon that of all the picture hunger whilst souls, this particular wire only accounts for one to 6% of sales. >> it is that rare, yet that is what is being used to build a garrote, and also what doug had access to because of his mom's painting. >> unlike dna of course, but what they call a class match. was it enough, along with everything else, to get lewin to take the case to court? >> when i got done with that work, with the work on the alibi, the wire, the garrote, i felt we had a file-able case. i brought it in. >> at this point, a more conservative prosecutor might have told him, forget it. but lewin? lewin likes tough, circumstantial cases.

he said, yes. he took the case to his boss at the district attorney's office. >> the decision to file the case was based on everything. >> and so, in may 2009, almost 30 years after linda's murder, a warrant was issued for the arrest of douglas gordon bradford. we're traveled fast and canada. >> there was a message, call detective wallace, and i will tell you, it was electric. there was so much electricity in the air, and the church wind chimes on my back veranda weren't ringing away like crazy. and it was just, wow. the arrest was like, yes. thank god, they finally got him. >> well, maybe. quite possibly, lewin had bitten off more than he could shoot, this time. doug bradford had hired one of the most prominent and

experienced defense attorneys and the land, eight man who had won more than his share of high profile cases, clearing celebrity clients who faced much steeper odds than a middle aged engineer named doug bradford. coming up, -- >> i asked him, do you have an attorney? yep. does he have a name? yeah. what's his name? bob. >> bob who? you will know. when dateline continues. you want what's best for them. ♪ ohh, ohh, ohh! ♪ so ask your vet about new nexgard plus. it's one-and-done monthly protection from fleas and ticks, plus heartworm disease, roundworms, and hookworms... all in a delicious, beef-flavored, soft chew. use with caution in dogs with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. from the maker of #1 vet-recommended heartgard plus. nexgard plus: the one you want for one-and-done protection. did you know most dish soaps don't remove all the grease,

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was top stories. zelenskyy will meet with senators at the u.s. capitol on thursday. zelenskyy is also expected to meet with president biden after both attended this week's un general assembly and new york. for drew we are more announced sunday that the season premiere of her top show will be postponed until the ongoing writers strike and. it's very more received backlash from actors and writers after announcing last week that her show would return to the air. now, back to dateline. for 30 years, he built a life, started an engineering business, made it successful, got married, obeyed the law and maintained with absolute consistency that he had nothing to do with the brutal murder of his ex girlfriend, the canadian nurse, lynne knight.

now, doug bradford was in the back of a squad car, facing a charge of first degree murder. >> you know, he was calm the whole way. he was defiant the whole way. he never wanted to talk to us. >> although, he did say one thing which certainly got detective wallace's attention. >> i asked him, do you have an attorney? yeah. does he have a name? >> yeah. what's his name? bob. i said, okay. does he have a last name? i have this card. sure enough, i get the card. it's robert shapiro. >> yes, that robert shapiro. the lawyer who represented oj simpson. the man who founded legal zoom. here was a true courtroom celebrity, robert shapiro, who had been practicing law for nearly 50 years, and represented scores of hollywood's rich and famous, including, of course, oj

simpson. >> oj will do everything he can to cooperate with them, to help solve this horrible murder. >> almost 20 years now since he helped engineer simpson's acquittal in the infamous trial. lynne's sister, donna, was well aware of shapiro's reputation. >> i certainly wasn't going to be intimidated. >> maybe she should have been. once shapiro stepped in, doug bradford was out on bail within hours. >> the outlook for the trial, well, if there was a mountain of evidence against oj, the circumstantial bits and pieces piled up against doug bradford amounted to a foothill. >> it would be nice if we had a piece of physical evidence. it's completely circumstantial. >> lewin was eager to get to trial, but the defense, not so

much. robert shapiro thought the evidence, insufficient, to charge doug bradford. so he papered the court with motions, seeking to have the case dismissed, given his age and the lack of new physical evidence. a year went by, then two, then five. doug bradford remained free on bail, as the case crept slowly toward trial. more than 2000 miles north, across the border, donna waited patiently in canada, bracing for a trial over three decades in the making. >> it wasn't cold. it was never cold to me. >> then, finally, july 2014, it had taken 35 years to get here.

l. a. county courtroom department 103. story defense attorney, robert shapiro, versus the da who liked circumstancial cases, john lewin. shapiro had already announced, this would be his very last criminal case. it was also the very last one of detective jim wallace's long career. >> good morning. >> so they all assembled. in the very court room where robert shapiro helped acquit oj. sitting in the gallery, what was left of lynne knight's family, though donna's mother, dead almost nine years, was certainly on donna's mind. >> we had a lot of mother daughter talks, and she grabbed

my hand and she goes, you've got it kid! so, my mom died knowing -- she knew. >> here for the very first time, lynne's family got a look at the man accused of killing her. the man once invited to donna's wedding. >> i really felt i was able to look him in the eye and say a lot of things in my head that he wasn't hearing that were in polite. >> prosecutor john lewin had to ssell what was, perhaps, the most circumstantial case of his career. >> with cases like this, cold cases, you never have one witness. you have a whole bunch of pieces and, on the surface, they don't appear to be connected. it's our job to connect them all together. >> so, no smoking gun? but there aren't any? >> the whole thing is a smoking gun. >> lewin fired the opening shot.

>> the evidence will show, ladies and gentlemen, beyond any reasonable doubt, that this man, douglas bradford, on august 30th, 1979, in the middle of the night, crept in there, with that handmade garrote got her while she was sleeping and brutally murdered her. >> then, more than 20 witnesses paraded by. each to recount a memory, or offer an opinion, one tiny piece of the whole. >> we call detective gary hilton. >> gary hilton was 72, and still tormented by his inability to close the case. so, in a way, he was trying to clear his conscience. >> i saw lynne's body. i've never seen anybody so bad off. she was sliced, diced and butchered.

>> i wanted to be there for lynne. they were all these people talking about her, how great she was, and i knew her. i knew her. >> donna testified about her sister lynne, and 35 years of deep suspicion beginning with what doug bradford didn't do. >> at the time, did you notice that one acknowledgment of condolence was conspicuously absent. >> yes, absolutely nothing. not a phone call. not a card from doug bradford. >> richard frank, lynne's last love interest, testified about the day he said he saw doug bradford fly into a rage just after lynne dropped him. >> nobody had ever really seen him violent. and i had. >> he came to the sliding glass

door, he tore off the screen, opened up the door, shouted, ranted. i think he broke a lamp. he was incredibly upset. it was scary. >> it was jealous rage, said the prosecution. rage that inspired doug to make a garrote, using materials found in his mother's garage. his alibi, a story that he went sailing at night, paddled a racing boat, couldn't have killed lynne. lewin called several stilling experts from local marinas, who testified that the alibi was wildly improbable. >> it was so absurd that they would almost recoil, in essence, going, this is stupid, why are you asking this? >> all the while, doug bradford's watched quietly, listening intently, seemed almost aloof, except, perhaps, when it came to donna.

>> we had some stare down competitions. i wanted to look at his eyes, but i really wanted to see, in his eyes, and his body language, whether he killed my sister. >> did you see that? >> yes. i've got shapiro. >> if that's what he was trying to say. it was not without good cause. because, robert shapiro had a defense strategy ready, featuring a very special video tape thatjust might help him. coming up -- >> the famed attorney in the spotlight, and the jury gets the last word. >> when they walked out, i studied their faces, and i went, oh, no. >> when dateline continues. it provides 3x stress sweat protection. danielle? [♪♪] secret works. [♪♪]

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turn. his last criminal case in the same courtroom where he won. his greatest legal battle, against what was labeled then as a mountain of physical evidence. 71 now, still sharp. a formidable presence in the courtroom. in this case there were implications, accusations, opinions. but almost no physical evidence at all. that glaring truth is where robert shapiro began to fashion what he hoped would be his final victory. >> at least six fingerprints

were found. no match to doug. blood, no match to doug. dna, the holy grail. no match to doug. >> the wire used in the garage the prosecution said, they couldn't prove it was an exact match with the wire found on the back of his mother's paintings. >> you can't match it. why? because wire cannot can be matched. >> above all, said shapiro. doug bradford wasn't there at lynne's apartment the night she was murdered. his alibi was solid. he was sailing that night, and then paddling his 30 foot shield. >> we're going to prove to you to an absolute certainty, that not only can we prove that >> his proof? this video, produced by the

shapiro office, showing the boat being paddled by 1 person just as doug bradford did. >> but what's shapiro, didn't reveal to the jury was that it was shot on the harbor. not the ocean. and even the skipper he hired to perform the paddling, admitted to them that no one sails at night. and then, came another stumble. shapiro, famous for tripping up prosecution witnesses on the stand, called his own weather expert, who testified that there was enough wind to sail that night. but da lewin had done his homework. and discovered that some of the locations cited were nowhere near the area where doug set sail. >> the 22 north, 1. 17 west.

do you know how far that was? >> eight point 86 miles. ? >> baja, mexico. >> mexico. >> it was the right continent? >> it was a careless estimate that i made. because i did not look at it carefully enough. >> a careless mistake? maybe. but, shapiro told the jury it did not change the fact that the prosecution could not and did not prove that he killed lynne knight. >> justice delayed has been justice denied. . do not judge a man until you walk a mile in his shoes. >> the prosecution gets the last word, of course. here is the co-counsel ethan. >> made it from, handheld. it crafted it. fantasized about putting her out of his mind, by ending her

life. finally, john lewin, 35 years of getting away with murder had two and. >> he has had his trial. it is time. it is time that he is held accountable for what he did. he is a murderous monster. he needs to be held accountable. thank you. >> we look forward to the jury verdict. >> out of the courtroom, a friend of bradford stop to answer one question. >> are you an innocent man? >> absolutely. >> donna looked forward to, with considerable anxiety. i hope we get some peace of mind, lynn gets her soul, has a

chance to rest, and when others as well. we can go on and our lives without a big stone sitting on our chests. >> one day passed. nothing from the jury. then to. still nothing. then finally, on day number three, a decision. >> when they walked out, i studied their faces and i went, oh no. oh no. we have lost, we have lost. >> people of the state of california versus -- >> and then, the verdict was read. >> we the jury find the defendant douglas bradford guilty of the crime of first degree murder of lint might, a felon he -- a felony. >> doug bradford submitted to pan crafts, took a last look at

freedom, and was led away. no family here too we pork right out or say goodbye. even his attorney robert shapiro was conspicuously absent on vacation. >> what was it like to see that guy after all those years finally be led away? >> very satisfying. very satisfying. he was a cocky, arrogance guy. i believe that until the time he heard the verdict, he thought he won. some people will dilute themselves and, have the capacity to lie to themselves to a degree that we cannot understand. this is one of those guys. >> it was almost 35 years to the day after the murder of lynne knight. >> as he goes to jail, we are let out of jail, and this team did the most amazing job that could ever be done. it is a wonderful day, it is a wonderful, wonderful day. thank you, people of los

angeles, for being such good angels. >> packing away his last and most difficult case. >> i felt grateful. you don't work for your agency, you don't even work for personal pride and these things. you will work for victims families. in the end, those are the people who come up and give you a hug. those are the people who never get closure. >> garrett hilton, long into his own retirement, feels finally liberated, free of the case that had tortured him for so long. >> i was thankful. [laughter] it sort of allowed me to start putting the case away. >> why not. you have been carrying around that baggage all those years? >> i want to put it back on that shelf. >> now, time for someone else to carry that burden.

the man who caused so much misery in the first place. it december 2014, douglas bradford was back in court one more time to be sentenced for the murder of linda knight. now, wearing a yellow jail suit, not his business suit, but still defiant as ever as he indignantly addressed the court. >> i want you to hear me speak, now. very clearly and unambiguously, both my family and friends already know. i did not murder lynn night. i am an innocent man, wrongly convicted. i am mad as hell that i am paying for someone else's crime. this is a horrendous, horrendous miscarriage of justice. thank you. >> bradford's words rank hollow with the judge, who, moments later, and posed a stiff sentence. >> the court imposes the

statutory sentence of 25 years to life over the murder of lynne knight. >> which, all things considered, isn't such a bad deal for doug bradford. >> in the end, what happened and this case was, the defendant got his parole 35 years early. he lived a life that he never should have had. the right thing happened, he is in prison today, i don't think he will ever get out, and sometimes that is the best we can do. , >> it has been a long journey. it has been a long journey. for 35 years, it has always

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