his name is tim cherrington. and she? the woman at the center of all that happened, was rachel. rachel hatfield. >> reporter: so rachel. tell me about her. >> oh, [beep]. i'm sorry. we're starting, huh? >> reporter: well. just -- whatever. >> hmm -- start again. >> reporter: what'd that do to you when i said that? >> my heart just went, "boom." >> the subject of rachel, as you can plainly see, is painful for tim cherrington. a pain that might lessen if he'd only learn to forget. but all he can do is remember. like the night they first met. >> it was a july night, a party. and -- she was -- dancing. and i said, "wow, i'm gonna meet that girl." >> reporter: how old were you? >> i was 18 and i think she was 17. >> reporter: oh. wow. >> love-drunk teens. they set up house together. that's tim during those giddy years, rarely serious. looking like a character from the movie "dazed and confused". and there's rachel, unconsciously glamorous. like some movie star in her own romantic comedy, with a plot that was all too familiar. aspiring artists waiting for their break. >> reporter: cou

. >> reporter: tim cherrington, the man who failed to commit and then watched the love of his life gotaking revenge, mostly on himself. kind of a tragic love story from your point of view? >> it is, it is. >> reporter: i mean, this is a woman you could've spent the rest of your life with. >> very, very easily could, yes. i should have pulled the trigger when i had that chance, you know. i blew it. i didn't, you know, give her the ring earlier. >> reporter: well, you're still paying for it, aren't you? >> yeah. yes, i am, yeah. that's a tough one. >> reporter: different kind of thinking across the country, among the friends of that other mrs. winkler, the one whose death on a lonely mountain road, is still officially labelled, "accident." >> i mean, this is a beautiful woman who gave so much, was so nurturing and caring. i don't feel like there's been justice for cathy. >> i think about cathy's death all the time. >> reporter: about whether she could somehow have done more to prevent a second death, the murder of rachel winkler. >> my heart breaks for those children. i wish i could hug