Page 5 - Linking Sam News Today

Alone. even when he arrested javier in 1997 for the murder of cathy torrez, he thought javiers real role was helping the prime suspect -- javiers cousin sam lopez. 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 xavi help him just because theyre close family? i dont see that. >> reporter: neither did the d.a. who decided t...

The minute i said no to her, she blew up. she started cussing me out. you know, and, "if i dont get it through you, im going to get it through somebody else." >> reporter: and then, sam said, cathy got in her car and took off. >> so im like, you know, i mean, what can i do now? i mean, shoot, a girl cusses you out, i mean i cant go chasing after her. you know, cause i never thought she was going to -- i mean, this was going to happen. >> reporter: sam shared his suspicions about what had happene...

Arrested and charged with cathys murder, but he wasnt alone. just as prosecutors now believed he wasnt alone the night he stabbed cathy to death. sams cousin javier was also arrested and charged with murder. police also arrested sams older brother, armando, who was once married to cathys sister tina, and had helped search for cathy. >> its just a tragic loss. it hurts. everybody loved cathy. >> reporter: armando was charged with being an accessory after the fact for allegedly helping cover up th...

And the detective found there was something else -- another major piece of evidence investigators had initially overlooked. >> when you look at the crime scene photos in the trunk of the car, something jumped out at me. and it just -- it hit me like i got punched in the face, was there was arterial spurt on the sidewall of the trunk panel. >> reporter: meaning only one thing -- cathy was still alive when she was placed in the trunk of the car. so, if javier put her there, he could be charged wit...

"i dont know who did." finally he sat there and he put his fist in front of his mouth to keep himself from talking. >> reporter: but javier had already managed to talk his way into an arrest for murder. nearly four years after cathys death, he was booked into the orange county jail. cathys family was stunned when they heard the news. tina included. remember, she was still married to armando, who was sams brother and javiers cousin. >> yes. that -- that was a shock. that was a shock. >> reporter:...

>> reporter: that led the detective to take a fresh look at those bizarre events the week before cathy disappeared when she came home impaired and then had her tires slashed. >> she never regained full memory of what had happened, but she was able to tell everybody who she had been with that night. >> reporter: the person cathy had been with that night? sam lopez. when police asked sam about that night, he remembered something very specific. >> a hickey. >> on her neck? >> on her -- right here. ...

>> reporter: at the time of the murder, dna tests could only be done on big samples like blood spatter. but in the years since, analysis became possible for touch-dna, the microscopic calling cards the microscopic calling card many of us leave behind just by putting our hands on something. if sam and javier did place cathys body in the cars trunk, maybe, thought larry, there would be touch-dna on her clothes. >> search for dna in the areas that might be grabbed. especially areas that might be gr...

So murphy called for help from a 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 wi...

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? >>...

But at the same time, daron had to admit that sam certainly did not fit anyones profile of a murder suspect. >> no criminal history. there was no indicators that he was anything other than, you know, a normal 22-year-old kid. >> he didnt sound like a killer. >> no, absolutely not. >> reporter: detectives had interviewed sam on two separate days, first on audiotape when cathy went missing. >> he voluntarily gave head hair samples, he gave a blood sample, he gave fingerprints. and at the end of th...