Page 14 - Linking Sam News Today

Detective whose legendary skill with cold cases has earned him a reverential nickname. >> larry montgomery is the real deal. i mean, the guy is -- the evidence whisperer. another nickname for him is st. larry. >> reporter: larry sees things other people dont see? >> larry sees things that many people dont see, yeah. and he looks at it from a different perspective. >> reporter: they both felt the key to the case lay in sam lopezs own words, his taped interviews with the original detectives. and t...

>> whered you go from there? >> from there i went to my girlfriends store. and i was there till, shoot, till they closed, which was around 8:00, a little bit after 8:00. then let me see, what did i do that day? somebody paged me, i think. oh, i picked my cousin up again. >> so if we had to contact everyone that you mentioned, you know, you could get the names and addresses, phone numbers. >> sure. >> they could confirm where you were on saturday night? >> reporter: and sure enough, they did. pol...

A year later came a baby girl. and sam embraced his role as dad. >> he was like mr. mom, you know. he stayed home and took care of the baby while i worked. >> reporter: if sam had anything to do with cathys murder, he certainly didnt act like it. he stayed put. living with his wife and baby right down the street from cathys mom, mary. >> she would sit outside and stare at us, and i felt like she was doing it to make me uncomfortable, and probably him, too. but im sure she didnt want him to be ha...

>> whatd you think when you heard sam was arrested? >> the same that i always had. like, here we go again. >> nothing to it, and hell be out soon. >> yeah. >> reporter: after all, theyd detained sam once before and had to release him. but as daron wyatt now explained to sam lopez, this time was different. >> "ive told you before that we wouldnt give up until -- until we were able to bring resolution to this case, and thats where were at now." >> reporter: but just when it seemed the case was but...

This saturday that im not gonna take off with him, that i will not elope." that was wednesday. and then saturday she never came home. >> reporter: sams admitted jealousy, cathys doting on albert, a rejected proposal. all of it seemed to add up to motive. but motives dont prove murder. there was still no physical evidence tying sam to the crime. all the blood on the car had been tested, and it was all cathys. but then, while combing the case file, detective daron wyatt learned something shocking....

Of the car. so, if javier put her there, he could be charged with murder. why not grab javier up that day and say, "okay, your dna and fingerprints were at the scene. we didnt know that until just now. youre going away for murder unless you start talking"? >> well, lets say that we did that and we bring him in and he says, well, yes, my fingerprint was there because i helped her push her car out of the street a week before. or when i was helping her change a tire. i cut my finger and i bled on i...

Tina montelongo, sams then-wife and javiers friend, wasnt buying it. can you conceive of javier going through with a murder or being involved in it because of his loyalty to sam? >> no. i dont see that. if sam did it, would javi help him just because theyre close family? i dont see that. >> reporter: neither did the d.a. who decided there was not enough evidence to file charges. how do you tell mary bennett, "we had javier, but we had to let him go"? >> it was extremely difficult. there was a lo...

Homicide unit. >> so i ended up putting in for that job and being selected. >> reporter: it wasnt long before he cracked open the doors that housed the homicide files. >> and i open the cabinet and i see the torrez case. and i remembered the incident with debbie from about a year earlier. so i pulled it out and i started reading just on free time, just reading it a little bit. >> reporter: by then, the cathy torrez case had been cold for a good three years. >> and essentially no work had been do...

See in a case like this. >> reporter: which is? >> emotion. he showed more emotion over the contents of a coke can. he picked it up when they left the room and reading the coke can and the ingredients and the number of calories. and at one point he puts that down and picks up a baseball hat he had been wearing, sees dirt and brushes it off and starts swearing about the fact that theres dirt on his hat. >> oh [ bleep ]. >> but he never shows any emotion about the fact that this gal has been bruta...

But then this happened and -- shoot. >> he doesnt use the word "murder," doesnt say anything like that. its like, "this happened," as if its small. its not that big of a deal, its not horrendous. he doesnt want it to be horrendous because he did it. >> reporter: tell number three. and then larry caught something else in the interview sam did before cathys body was found. listen carefully. >> so you went out with her the saturday before the thursday? >> right. >> okay on, and where did you go? >>...