concerned about was what was the evidence against nick sampson, regardless of whether he did it or not? i just had to know what the evidence was. >> reporter: then quite by chance, this tiny piece of what seemed to be evidence showed up. police missed it the morning after the murder. one sharp-eyed cop just happened to notice it a couple of days later. it was this gold ring on the kitchen floor. >> i thought somebody took it off to wash their hands and fell down and they forgot about it. >> reporter: but at the time it could have belonged to the victim. could have been belonged to anybody. >> it could have. >> reporter: except one thing people should know about the stock house, nothing was ever out of place. so one of the investigators picked up the ring, bagged it and tagged it as evidence. it was a size 10, a man's ring, bearing a message. >> the inscription said "love always, corey and ryan." they wanted to find out who was a ryan and who was cori. >> reporter: who was cori and who was ryan? detectives asked the stocks' children. nobody knew anybody by those