Buttoned Up Case News Today

im craig melvin. >> and im natalie morales. and this is dateline. >> i just collapsed. shes dead because she was my friend. >> first melissa disappeared. >> wheres melissa? >> thats the million dollar question. >> i knew right then she absolutely never made it into her house. >> left behind in her garage signs of a struggle and a strange orange mist, then her boss went missing too. >> who is he afraid of am. >> he might have been afraid hes next. >> he left behind a bigger mess. >> we ...

>> reporter: a funny thing happened to tony villegas on the way to the courtroom. hed exhibited bizarre behavior and stopped communicating with his attorneys and was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial. still in custody, he was in and out of treatment facilities for years until doctors found him competent again. finally, in the summer of 2016, eight years after the murder, tony went on trial. >> the defendant in this case -- >> reporter: the prosecutor shari tate argued that tony, fuele...

>> the defendant in this case -- >> reporter: the prosecutor shari tate argued that tony, fueled by a jealous rage, waited in the bushes for melissa to come home, followed her into the garage and then launched a brutal attack on his wifes best friend. >> it is a hands on, personal murder. it takes time. it takes premeditation. and, why? because she was a friend. >> reporter: but the residue of pepper spray all over the garage was evidence that melissa had fought back and some had apparently gott...

All told by thursday, the day after the murder, the phone or whoever had it travelled a distance of about 60 miles. >> so obviously, whos with that cell phone, was most likely the last person that was with -- with melissa. >> reporter: detectives also focused on those five hours the phone was stationary in miami gardens. was the killer home in bed? >> we have to identify if melissa knows somebody that lives in this area. >> reporter: does anything come up at that point? >> no. we have no reason ...

>> silent, sir. >> reporter: in closing arguments, prosecutor tate said all the evidence pointed to tony. the pepper spray, cell phone records, and the dna. >> there is not one other person on the planet earth that could leave the dna on this jacket. >> reporter: the defense reminded jurors that the pepper spray evidence was weak, and that both phone records and dna results could be manipulated. >> the pieces of the puzzle do not fall into place, because reasonable doubt prevents them from falli...

>> this is scott rothstein, november 16th, monday, 1:43 p.m. >> reporter: he wore a wire and helped convict 26 people involved in his ponzi scheme. and despite his cooperation, in 2010, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison. but one big question emerged, speculation about that woman in the firm whod been killed. >> whether melissa knew about the ponzi scheme is one of those great mysteries. >> reporter: scott had started his ponzi scheme three years before melissa was murdered. >> is it time to...

Sterling silver ring, diamond earrings and a $5,000 watch. she also had an expensive prada handbag and an iphone. could very well be a target of some opportunistic grab and run. >> at the point we find her vehicle, we have no clues, no leads, and we dont have any suspects identified. >> reporter: police did find a tiny drop of melissas blood in her car and on a tile in her house. but there were no fingerprints other than melissas in either place. dna testing would take longer. now the question i...

Prosecutors were confident they had a solid case against tony villegas, but something happened that threw the whole investigation into freefall. thats because new crimes were about to be revealed. and new questions were about to be raised about who really killed melissa. and in the midst of it all, scott rothstein, like melissa, would disappear. >> coming up -- were melissa and scott rothsteins disappearances connected? >> we three kings be stealing the gold. >> the dark secret buried beneath al...

Mad at melissa about this? >> yeah. he was mad about the whole situation. >> reporter: oh, and there was one more thing. remember melissas jacket, the one found in her suv? tests showed tonys dna on the jacket. prosecutors believe tony wiped his nose with it after being pepper sprayed. >> odds of finding an unrelated individual with that profile are rarer than one in 30 billion. >> reporter: you couldnt have had better evidence if you had a movie of him killing her. >> right. >> reporter: the de...

Ruled him out yet? >> not yet. >> reporter: with the list of possible suspects shrinking, detectives shifted their focus to something that might provide their first break in the case. with melissas iphone missing, detectives put in an emergency request to the phone company to see if it could help track her cell. when he got the report, detective kendall couldnt believe what he saw. melissas iphone had been active after the murder and someone had actually gone into her voicemail and played back m...