>> on the night of the murders, christine slonaker was eating at the canyon corral, a local country andwo miles from the ryen's home. >> as we were eating in through the backswinging doors of the kitchen come these three guys. i noticed that one of them was covered in blood. not just little spots. this was like someone had taken a paint brush and went like this. it was splattered everywhere. their feet were sticking to the floor. they were so inundated with blood. at the time, we didn't know about the murder and we just thought, well, i don't know what they've been doing, slaughtering pigs or whatever. but we're out of here. >> she never reported the incident because she claimed a uniform sheriff's deputy was at the bar that night and she assumed he would follow up. in 2004, norm hile fought for a new trial in front of u.s. district judge marilyn huff in san diego. in his appeal, hile presented christine's testimony and, to his surprise, the state responded by inadvertently revealing a previously unknown piece of evidence provided by a woman named laurel eppler who lived near the canyon

in his appeal, hile presented christine slonaker's testimony, and to his surprise, the state respondedadvertently revealing a previously unknown piece of evidence provided by a woman named laurel open exemplar who lived near the canyon corral bar. >> here was a log that shows that laurel epler called in to the sheriff's department the day after the murders, saying she had found a short-sleeved blue shirt that she thought had blood on it, on the road near the canyon corral bar. one of the bar employees testified that one of the men in the bar that night might have had on a blue shirt. the criminal bulletin showed that they were looking for three white men and one of them was wearing a blue shirt. >> hile would argue that the neighbor's eyewitness testimony along with the testimony of christine and josh ryan's original account all pointed to three suspects. and in the new documents released by the prosecution, hile was about to discover the name of one of the three suspects. and that man also happened to be a convicted murderer. >>> while he fought for a new trial for kevin cooper in fro