him with killing a prison halfway across the country from her co-conspirator john diamond . now these former lovers shared only one thing, a life without parole. his supporters are heartfelt in their certainty that she was the bad one, that she did it all, that he didn't do anything. >> and her supporters say he did it without her knowledge because she was breaking up with him. >> michelle theer rolled the dice. a deal would have released her before long, instead, the woman who followed her dissatisfaction to an internet romance went on trial, and as a result, will die in prison. >> that's all for this edition

>> hello, i am andrea canning, and this is dateline. somebody was stalking the young women of reno are now, one of them has vanished. her name, breanna. she was just 19 years old. >> just want to say to my daughter that i love you and miss you and nobody is ever giving up. >> nobody was giving up but nobody was any closer to solving the mystery. where was breanna? >> within the three-mile radius, there were hundreds of registered sex offenders. >> that, and someone who has found something odd in her truck, women's underwear and when asked for the truth, she discovered something even stranger. .

>> hello, and welcome to dateline. reno, nevada calls itself the biggest little city in the world and this is one of the biggest cases it has ever seen. a local girl disappeared on the winters night and where it would lead, no one could predict but this entire city would soon galvanize to get justice for one of its own. here is josh mankiewicz with the night brianna vanished. >> college students jessica diehl and katie hunter were waking up after a long night of music and partying with their friend, brianna dennison.

brianna, back home visiting her friends, had slept on the living room couch but when jessica woke up -- >> we went out to the kitchen, started making breakfast. the kitchen was right in front of the couch and brianna was not sleeping there anymore. >> at first, they weren't concerned. >> we figured maybe she was upstairs and one of the empty rooms. >> katie went upstairs to the bedroom to see if bree was sleeping there. >> i want and knocked on the door. >> i just him pounding on the door, and things started entering my mind so i start pounding on my other roommates door. only then did it hit kt that

brianna was not in the house. what scared her was what brianna had left behind. >> her shoes, per purse, all the clothes she had brought, everything was at my house. >> so she could not have left. especially since it was winter time and freezing cold that night. kt called brianna's mom, bridget. and your first thought was --? >> not good. >> you were worried right away? >> yes, because her cell phone was there and she had no car. i know she was not out walking around with no shoes on source that i will be right there. >> back at the house, kt made another discovery, a terrible one. >> i call her mom right back and i was just in hysterics crime, like there is blood on the pillow, so then i called 911.

>> brianna's mom, bridget, could not get to kt's house fast enough. >> so, your mind has got to be working overtime. >> i was really freaked out, it was something really bad. blood, and my child without her cell phone. i mean, what kid is without their cell phone? >> soon, police were everywhere. veteran homicide detectives dave jenkins and his partner, adam, both since retired, were investigating the scene. their combined 53 years of police work told them the same thing. >> it was pretty apparent that this was not a volunteer missing person. >> family and friends gathered at bridget's house. >> i said i need this in the media and they went with it and they did not stop. >> dennison is described as five foot pounds, 98 pounds, last seen wearing pink sweats

and a tank top. >> police officers everywhere searching through garbage cans, searching the sewers, pulling up manhole covers, checking to see if she had been placed inside a sewer. >> was brianna? her hello told the frightening story. >> they identified some stains of mascara and the pattern between the stains. patterns that look like bite mark suggested that the pillow had been pressed hard against the face of miss dennison. >> days later, tests confirmed the blood on the pillow was brianna's. reno is a casino town that is not easily shocked but this case hit everyone hard, even reporter victoria campbell. >> she was one of ours and we were not going to let her go without a fight. >> brianna denison was a dazzling beauty with a 1000

watt smile, a straight-arrow kid with a huge heart who had a tough start in life. her dad passed away suddenly when she was just six years old, and her younger brother, an infant, her mom, bridget, says that made their family even closer. >> we had to team up and the kids all had to help you know, i had a little baby, and she became very protective of me. >> she stated close. that doesn't happen with a lot of kids. >> she stayed close and she followed the rules and the more she followed the rules, the more freedom she had. >> brianna decided on college in california and was in her sophomore year at santa barbara city college. she had a steady boyfriend, was studying psychology, and wanted to work with kids. >> then came winter break and brianna came back to visit her hometown friends . >> and you thought great, all

safe. >> never really felt like she was unsafe because she was so responsible. >> so, detectives wanted to go -- now, how did this responsible girl end up missing? they began to retrace brianna steps the day before she disappeared. saturday, january 19, 2008, starting with brianna at her mom's house doing laundry and puttering around in sweats. brianna had plans to join her reno friends at a concert that night about 9:00 p.m. brianna went into her mom's bedroom, gave her a hug goodbye and asked if she wanted a check and call at the end of the night. >> and you said? >> i said no because i knew where she was staying. >> by 10:00 p.m., she and her friend from high school, kt hunter, were at the concert. >> we sat in the front. she wanted to enjoy it so we pushed our way to the front. we had so much fun dancing and staff.

>> at some point between 12:30 and 1:00 a.m. detectives determined kt embry met up with another friend, jessica diehl. all three left the concert together on the shuttle bus. >> i got a picture of her when we were driving. we were riding the bus. >> bree and her friends were dropped off at the sands regency center hotel, the center of the party crowd that we can. as kt recalls, nothing felt out of place. during that time, meet anybody new, anybody that later seem suspicious to you? >> there was nothing that seem suspicious. >> about 2:00 a.m., jessica decided to leave the party and head back to take key's to crash. she later told police she said good night to her friends, then went outside and flagged down a guy driving an suv in the parking lot, a total stranger, to get a ride home. >> i could've probably easily walked but i was freezing so i

just got a ride in the parking lot. someone was leaving. it was a bad idea. >> coming up, there was something else bad happening in the area. >> the previous month, there had been a strange sexual assault, a reduction in the same neighborhood. >> when dateline continues. wh ! mucinex dm gives you 12 hours of relief from chest congestion and any type of cough, day or night. mucinex dm. it's comeback season. why just give a gift, when you can give a gift with meaning? shutterfly, make something that means something. enjoy 40% off your order with code gifts40. order now for holiday delivery. when you sleep more deeply, you wake up more energized. introducing purple's new mattresses. our unique gel flex grid draws away heat, helping you fall asleep faster. it relieves pressure for less "ow", and more "ahh".

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>> kt embry had breakfast at a casino diner. these are the last pictures of brianna denison before she disappeared. after breakfast a friend dropped them off at about 3:30 a.m. at the house, brianna made a fateful decision. she decided to sleep in the living room couch. the couch was a few feet from the front door, and the front door was glass-pained, giving anyone on the street an easy view of the couch, and that night, the door was unlocked, which was not unusual. >> it was kind of like a hotel. we all could lock our individual doors but the living room was kind of like a lobby that we left unlocked.

>> around 4:00 a.m., kt said good night to her friend and went into her bedroom, right next to the living room. >> i said if you need anything, just come in my room. >> detectives looks at her cell phone records. at four and 23 a.m., brianna text messaged her boyfriend in oregon. exactly what happened after that in the predawn hours of the 24-hour town, was a mystery because by 9:00 a.m., the couch was empty, and brianna denison had vanished. now, with the evidence they had before them, homicide detectives adam wood jansky and jenkins that brianna had been abducted. >> we suspected she might well have been taken out the back door. >> besides brianna'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 off the rear door knob of the residence.

>> touch dna meaning someone had just grabbed the doorknob with their bare hand? >> there had been sufficient skin cells transferred on just the mere grabbing and opening of the door, to allow a dna profile to be obtained, but his day and he was it? >> for with the evidence lead and what they find brianna in time? >> that night, what are you thinking? >> i'm thinking what any parent would think. everything goes through my mind, and it is just you know, it is easy enough to imagine. >> brianna denison had disappeared. detectives believed she had been abducted from this house, her attacker taking her out the back door in the middle of the night. the crime lab found a trace sample of dna on the door handle. it did not match anyone in the

house, so detectives were pretty sure that dna had been left by whoever had taken brianna. rick porter victoria campbell was on the air almost nonstop. >> we learned early on that brianna's favorite color was blue. blue ribbons covered every inch of the city, every car antenna, fence box, telephone pole. >> brianna's picture was everywhere. people gathered to pray for her safe return. >> we are the biggest city in the world and we are the ones to find her. >> the family set up a command post at the casino and hundreds of people set up to help in the search, some after working all night. you can see people still in their uniform from work, they would put on a parka and go search all day. >> it would not take long for place to go identify a suspect.

remember the main -- man who drove jessica back to kt's home the night of the objection, the total stranger she flagged them? investigators released this image of his suv, and urged him to come forward. forward -- former lieutenant robert mcdonald. >> we had an individual who driven the women home to the residence. he could have come back and abducted brianna. >> within days, the man contacted police. his dna was tested and he was cleared, a dead-end, but now, detectives had another lead that would take this case to another 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 your thinking sexual assault.

>> when you get down to it, very few motives to abduct a young woman. >> back in mid december, 2008, about a month before brianna was taken, a 22-year-old foreign exchange student had been attacked and the early morning hours in this parking lot on the university of nevada, reno campus just a few blocks from the house on mackay court. the attacker came at his victim from behind. >> arm across the chest from one arm, then the other arm cupped her nose and her mouth. she went unconscious shortly after that, most likely from being smothered. the next thing she remembers is coming to in a vehicle. >> the woman was driven a short distance, then sexually assaulted inside the car. >> during the assault she was told not to look at the suspect. when the assault was over, she was brought back to her residence, told to get out of the car and not look back. >> she had not looked at his face, but she had seen a lot. >> she was absolutely certain that the offender was caucasian. she described the suspect as

having noticeably thick and meaty fingers. he spoke clear english without a noticeable or discernible accent. >> and, from the words the men used, a behavioral analyst gave detectives a profile. >> the offender was not well- educated, was kind of a loner, likely employed in construction. >> even better, the victim described his vehicle so well that detectives figured out the make and model. >> it was most likely a 2005 to 2006 toyota tacoma extended cab four-wheel-drive pickup. >> and, the victim gave police other crucial clues. she saw a baby shoe on the floor of the car and there was something else that made the suspect stand out. when he was done, she said, the man took her underwear and kept it, but even more important, police were able to obtain a

sample of her attackers dna and when the crime lab compared that simple -- sample with one that took off the back door at mackay court, it was a match. >> that is when we knew there was someone out there who is making this a habit. >> for brianna's family, that ms. was devastating, but it also gave her mother some hope. >> you just hope that he lets her go like the last one. you know, all through the process i pretty much had hope that we would find her. i didn't know what else to do. >> there is nothing else you can do. >> the alternative is hard to think about. >> police released a description of the attacker and his vehicle. suddenly, it seemed everyone in reno was looking suspiciously at white guys driving extended cab pickup trucks. a third victim was about to come forward, and she would fill in a big piece of the puzzle, because she had

information on else in this case had. she had seen her attackers face. >> coming up, a valentine's day appeal straight from a mother's heart. >> i just wanted to say to my daughter, brianna, that i love you and miss you and nobody is ever giving up. >> when dateline continues. .

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>> four days after brianna disappeared, police released a description of a man they now knew had struck before, a sexual predator linked to two other crimes. >> a white male somewhere between the ages of 28 and 40 years old, between 5'6" and six feet tall. he drove an suv or an extended cab pickup. >> as that became ingrained in the collective mind of reno, another woman came to the police saying she had been attacked back in october, 2008, three months before brianna subduction. >> 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 brianna she knew 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 for rihanna would later be taken. she said her attacker grabbed her from behind. lieutenant robert mcdonald. >> he put his arm around her knocked her to the ground, told her not to scream. >> he held a gun to her head and raped her. there was no dna but the victim gave police something almost as valuable. what that victim tell you that you did not already know? >> she had an opportunity to see the offenders face, and from her description, the police artists made a sketch that was released to the public. >> like the attack on a foreign exchange student, the man made her hand over her underwear. the police were not convinced he was keeping the underwear some sort of trophy but they did not release that information. it is now the biggest manhunt in the city's history, trying to find a and kidnapper before

the city struck again. >> we had three linked to serious violent felonies by the same individual. it was very chilling thing for our community and people were rightfully scared to death. >> people were probably pulling their daughters out of the university of nevada, reno. those who stayed were on high alert. owners of gun and specialty stores saw a spike in the business selling weapons, pepper spray and even tasers. police knew that dna would be the key for breaking the case. the county crime lab tested thousands of criminal dna samples that have been tested -- sitting on the shelf but there was no match. no match in any national database, either. detectives looked hard at the hundreds of registered 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 men the question, and from others who just volunteered. >> they came down and said hey, i think i matched the description. i want to give my dna just you don't have to worry about me. >> but, there was no match there either. >> we were pretty comfortable that such individual would not be our suspect. we were pretty certain that the offender would probably not be too excited about giving up his dna. >> the search dragged into february. 25 days since brianna disappeared , posters and ribbons around town were fading a bit, but her family still held out hope that she was alive. ray's mother, bridgette, i

just want to say to my daughter that i love you and i miss you and nobody is giving up. we are still looking for you. >> the next day the weather turned warm and the snow had melted in reno. at lunchtime, a man was taking a shortcut across his field in an industrial park south of town. he stumbled onto something he thought might be a body, then he called police. >> we raced to the scene. initially we were told that it is a young caucasian-appearing female. >> the field is about nine miles from the house on mackay court. reporting for krnv, victoria campbell was there. >> people started walking up, pulling over, is that brianna? is that rihanna? i was on the search team. i've been looking for her. i hope it's not her.

>> on the other side of the tape, detective adam wygnanski could see what was coming. >> this is not the outcome we wanted. i knew deep in my stomach that it was her. >> but, but for a seasoned homicide detective, that horrible site is not the worst part. >> what bothers you is that other victims, like family, who were 24/7 wanting to know what happened to their loved one, and we have to be the bearer of that news. and it just -- it hurts. >> wygnanski's next stop was bridgette's house. did police tell you in that conversation that they thought it was probably her? >> yes, and then i kept asking about her nose stone. because she does not have pierced ears. asked if they could tell there were no pierced ears and 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- later by the crime lab, police made it official. >> an autopsy today has

determined that the remains of the female discovered in the field are those of 19-year-old brianna denison. 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'm not waiting four 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 an image of the pink panther cartoon character. crime lab technicians tested everything and determined that

neither pair of underwear belong to brianna. the pink panther dna had -- had dna from an unknown person but the other underwear -- >> were identified as having belong to one of the other residents of the residence she was abducted from. >> they belonged to kt hunter, the friend of brianna's who lived at mackay court court. there was more dna on the phone, some of it from the suspect, some of it from brianna. >> that hip scrap matched to the ligature marks one brianna's neck. she was strangled with the stolen underwear. >> even though bridgette knew that the killer could not hurt her daughter anymore, she still could not stop worrying. >> i went from being fearful for brianna's life to being fearful for whoever he was

going to get next time. >> you are not just thinking about the last victim. you are thinking about the next one. or police encouraging to you? do they make it sound like they thought this 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 murder in its midst in the whole town was on edge, but weeks passed with no arrests. more than 40 detectives chased thousands of leads but all the public heard was silence. >> from the outside there was this perception that you guys were not getting anywhere. was that frustrating? >> yes. every day we would 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 information about the underwear found with brianna. they had guessed right. that one tawdry detail would break this case. >> coming up, closing in on a killer. >> when we obtain that photograph in the initial sketch we had from the sketch artist, it was eerily similar. >> and dateline continues. ily . >> and dateline continues. boop! friends. let's go, let's go, friends! hold onto your dice. woohoo!! -nice frosting, pratt. -thank you! how we doin', keke? tastes like money to me. i can't go back to jail! wait, did you rob my bank? -hehe. -are we winning!? -ha ha ha! -oh boy! yeah! money, power, friendship. let's go!

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hi, i am richard lui with the news update. cucumbers and more than 26 states have been recalled over concerns that could've been contaminated with salmonella. they were distributed by sun fed to others who redistribute produce. some were sold to retailers like walmart and wegmans. an organization of retail organizations banded together to sue chabad gpt. they accused the ai company of illegally using their content. it is the first lawsuit of this type in canada.

open ai saying they are reviewing those allegations. for now, back to dateline. >> homicide detectives wygnanski and jenkins were consumed with the hunt for the killer of brianna denison. >> i did not have a single day off and i don't think i was home for more than five or six hours on any day from january 20th until sometime in the middle of june. >> they had the killers dna, and they were looking for a white male who drove an extended cab pickup truck. >> are you looking at every extended cab pickup you pass? >> i went through parking lots. license plate numbers that i would see in the community and make a note to follow them down. >> but, there was nothing. >> we fear the worst, you know, that we sure hope nothing else happens.

>> there had been some promising leads, thinking that a killer who strangled his victim with underwear might also visit prostitutes, police started canvassing some of the legal brothels. the moonlight bunny ranch is about 30 miles south of reno. the owner is dennis hoff. >> 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 find somebody who fits 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 fit the profile. >> she was scared. he had tried to choke her a few times in a party. >> you mean during the session? >> during the session. >> police asked the woman to entice the man back to the ranch. >> when the customer came back the next session, the girl kept the , . she kept the glass that he drank out of and we turned it over to the police. >> the dna was rushed to the

crime lab but did not match the killer. an investigation that it 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 to dead ends. then one day in november 2008, 10 months into the investigation , wygnanski was thumbing through yet another stack of tips, and one of them caught his eye. >> it struck me as odd because they were talking about the underwear. >> the anonymous tip was about a woman who had found someone else's thong underwear in her boyfriends truck. did they have a name? >> they said that the last name was biela and they had a first name that started with a j. >> a drivers license search produced a name. >> james biela. about the right age, physical description. >> you look at his drivers

license photo and -- >> the eerie part when i obtain that photograph, and our initial sketch that we had from the forensic sketch artist, it was eerily similar. >> it seemed an interesting lead. wygnanski drove straight to biela'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 robbery homicide detective, please call me at your convenience. >> about 45 minutes later, biela called wygnanski. he sounded a little uncomfortable but who wouldn't be. >> you have a detective that leaves a card on your door you expect these people to be nervous. >> the detective told biela he would like to talk to him about an investigation. biela agreed to meet wygnanski after work the next day. >> i hung the phone up and i just 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.

>> with an investigation card that says homicide, most decent people call and say oh my god, what happened? who do i note that is been harmed? he did nothing like that. >> you had been looking for a long time. >> this is 10 months of terror. >> the next day is wygnanski drove to meet james biela, his instincts told him james biela was different than the hundreds of others he had spoken to, right down to the truck biela used to drive. >> it recently own the right kind of truck. >> absolutely, matched perfectly. >> but, he didn't want to get his hopes up. thousands of guys drive pickup trucks in reno. what were the chances this would be the right guy? >> it was a common practice to say hey, were just going to go

talk to guy, get a dna swab and move onto the next one. >> but, it would turn out to be anything but common. >> a detective comes face-to- face with a potential suspect. will he crack in the questioning? coming up -- >> i said hey, i'm investigating the murder of brianna denison and his mood just totally changed and i could see beads of sweat forming on him. >> when dateline continues. on >> when dateline continues. bil. grandma: generating offer... carvana can pick it up tomorrow! billy: that's an amazing offer. announcer: sell your car the easy way with carvana. - bye, bye cough. - later chest congestion. hello 12 hours of relief. 12 hours!! not coughing? hashtag still not coughing?! mucinex dm gives you 12 hours of relief from chest congestion and any type of cough, day or night. mucinex dm. it's comeback season.

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with wegovy®,... ...i'm losing weight,... ...i'm keeping it off,... ...and i'm lowering my cv risk. check your coverage before talking to your prescriber about wegovy®. >> reno homicide detective adam wygnanski was sitting in this wendy's parking lot waiting for james biela, potential suspect in the murder of brianna denison. it had been 10 months since

she heard been killed. wygnanski was willing to wait the 10 minutes it took for biela to drive up. it was weird, one of the witnesses and said he had meaty fingers and it was exactly what it looked like. he told me he was from chicago, we talked about the cubs and being a white sox fan and him being a cubs fan. i said hey, i'm investigating the murder of brianna denison and his mood just totally changed and i could just see beads of sweat forming so he was very nervous, very nervous. i said look, all i need is a simple dna swab and that's good . submit it to the lab and that's what we do. he goes no, i'm not going to

give it to you. >> remember, detectives had expected one person and one person only would refuse to give them a dna sample, the killer of brianna denison. >> he goes look, you can, girlfriend. she will be my alibi. >> detectives went to speak to biela's girlfriend but far from giving him an alibi she confirmed for detectives that she had found another woman's underwear and biela's truck. >> she suspected at that time that he was having some sort of affair. >> knowing that one of the victims had seen a baby shield in his truck, they asked if she had a child. she told him yes, she had a four-year-old boy and that james biela was the father. she agreed to give them a sample of her sons dna. police know that if the boy was the sum of the suspect, the two of them would have similar dna. >> adam and i were very aware that they would share half of the profile with each other. >> it would take a couple of weeks for an over-worked crime lab to process the sample. police kept an eye on biela and detectives started digging into his background.

they learned that biela lived a couple of blocks from where the crimes had been committed and that he was a regular at the sports bar in the same neighborhood. he worked in construction as a pipefitter. he had only a high school education and had been a b and c student. all of that fit the profile police had been working with. >> we are trying to find things to eliminate him, and we could not. >> detectives brought biela's girlfriend and from more questioning. remember that field for they found brianna's body? >> we learned that his girlfriend actually worked in that building. >> she told them biela is to drive her to work and on that day she was looking out her window and watched as brianna denison's body was been discovered and called james biela from that window as she was watching, and let him know that i think they found the girl they were looking for. >> she told detectives biela hardly said a word on the phone then, but within minutes after

hanging up, police found out biela had told his bus he was quitting. >> he told his girlfriend he had been laid off. >> detectives found out that the next day, biela left town and later sold his extended cab pickup truck. 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 biela's son and confirmed what detectives already felt in their gut . >> the child was 99% certain to of been the biological son of the unidentified suspect. >> the following day when biela went to pick up his son at a day care center, detectives arrested him. >> replaced him in my car and i said james, you are under arrest for the murder of brianna denison. and it was a good feeling. >> coming up, the suspects a

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>> welcome back to dateline. i am andrea canning. detectives had their suspect, james biela, and custody and in the interrogation room, some of the toughest questions would come from biela's girlfriend. here again is josh mankiewicz with the conclusion of "the night brianna vanished." >> back at the police station, biela would not talk. he was charged with the murder of brianna and three counts of sexual assault. now detectives were finally able to make the phone call they had promised they would make to brianna's mother, bridgette. >> adam called me and said we have him, can you come down? >> you're feeling what then? >> relief that he was off the streets now. >> detectives had made another promise, this one to biela's girlfriend. they said they would let her know the results of her sons dna test. and, when they told her that her sons dna was a close match to the dna of the killer, she

came to the police station to speak to biela. there, police cameras captured an incredible moment as horrible as it is remarkable. >> did you do this? oh my god, did you? did you? i don't know if i should hit your hug you. did you? did you? look me in the face. did you? did you? >> now was not the time. well, i don't know what the time is. >> down the hall, detectives were glued to the monitor. >> it's gut wrenching. she begs him to convince her that it's not him. >> he never does? >> in fact i think he acknowledges that he is, in fact, the murder, although he doesn't admit it directly.

>> tell me the truth, please. >> i can't right now. >> she does not want to believe that the father of her child could be a killer. >> because if you didn't do it i will fight to prove your innocence. >> with what? dna? they have dna. and then you get an attorney. oh yeah, that will work. >> later, detectives got a sample of biela's dna and it matched to the suspects dna from all the crime scenes. at last, detectives were sure that the man they knew so much about how [ inaudible ] but had been unable to find, the killer [ inaudible ] if that

wasn't enough, prosecutors [ inaudible ] >> it took the jury just six hours to reach a verdict. >> we find james biela guilty of sexual assault, kidnapping of kidnapping in the first degree, guilty of murder in the first degree. >> guilty on all counts and the jury gave james biela the death penalty. that meant a long and -- the end of a long and difficult ordeal for the city of reno but especially for brianna's mother, bridgette. we spoke again just after the trial. >> the first interview i did, you are coming apart at the seams. you have come a long way. >> i have. it's been 2 1/2 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, bridgette set up the justice foundation that would require nevada law to take a dna sample for anyone arrested to add to police databases. known as brianna's law, is passed in 2013. >> it's not like it brings brianna back to me. i guess i can just move on and do other things. >> it did not bring her back but it kind of brought you back. >> yes, kind of. kind of. >> that is all for this edition of dateline. i am andrea canning.