Page 6 - Linking Sam News Today

>> cathy had so much to live for and was a very happy person, a peoples person. >> reporter: that was armando lopez speaking back in 1994. armando was cathys brother-in-law, tinas then husband. but that wasnt the only connection between the two families. it turned out cathy had dated armandos younger brother, sam, off and on. and the families lived right down the street from each other. you can see one house from the other. >> exactly. >> reporter: and shes going out with sam. >> uh-huh. >> repo...

Lot. cannot forget all that he knows. so when hes talking, all that information is in -- is in his brain, and it can slip out. >> reporter: another reason to think sam knew much more than he was saying? in his second interview after cathys body was found, police spoke with sam for 90 minutes before he asked them a single question. and when he finally did -- >> so did you -- do you guys know how she was killed? >> uh, yeah, we do. >> reporter: larry noticed a telling statement. >> thought you wer...

Police had their suspicions about sam lopezs involvement in the murder of his neighbor and former girlfriend, cathy torrez. but there was no physical evidence tying him to the murder. and he had a solid alibi on the night cathy was killed. sam was with his cousin, javier. which is why when police took their case to the d.a.s office, the d.a. refused to file charges against sam. police pursued other leads too, like a possible connection to the suicide of cathys boyfriend, albert. did you think th...

>> reporter: sam and his wife had also separated by this point. she was at work when her sister called her and told her police had once again come for sam. >> 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 would...

The same unit that had rejected it twice before. this time though, something different happened. a prosecutor unfamiliar with the case agreed to take a fresh look. his name is matt murphy, and he noticed one thing right away. >> the first thing you see when you look at the file is a big rejection from really good lawyers who reviewed it individually and as a group. >> reporter: which means they tried very hard to make a case and they couldnt do it? >> they tried very hard. thats right. and they ...

But they had nothing connecting him to the crime. no witnesses. no dna. and sam had that solid alibi. tina was still married to sams brother, armando. the two families intertwined, as cathys family continued to search for answers. >> and then in april of 1997, i got a phone call from mary bennett. >> reporter: cathys mom. it would be their first conversation of many. mary told daron how shed seen reports about a new program in orange county centered around investigating cold cases. cathys case h...

Asked her what she knew about him, what she thought about him. and thats when she told me that he -- they were -- he was the one that they suspected. >> reporter: in the murder of cathy torrez? >> yes. >> reporter: he hadnt told you that? >> he hadnt told me that. that was in the first couple of weeks that i was dating him. >> reporter: sam emphatically denied any involvement in cathys murder. but just the idea spooked tina. so she made up a lie. >> i met him and i told him that i was dating som...

Parking lot. the other for failing to stop at a stop sign. the cop who pulled sam over for not stopping said sam flew through the intersection, and when he approached the car, the cop said it looked as if sam and cathy had been arguing. but he did say cathy looked fine. nobody was quite sure what happened after that, except they apparently parted company. sam in his car, cathy in hers. then cathy arrived home, too out of it to realize shed been driving on slashed tires. tina saw the tires the ne...

>> its -- its an off-and-on thing. on-and-off thing. >> okay. >> reporter: tell number one, how sam talked about his relationship with cathy. >> see, i was going out with somebody. and then she would call me up. and we would just, like -- calling each other, going out to eat, places like that. nothing serious at the time. >> sam definitely was trying to limit his connection with cathy, give the impression that its not that big of a deal. >> reporter: remember cathys sister tina had told detectiv...

Who, only days later tried to kill himself. tina says cathy thought about sams proposal all that week. ultimately, cathy decided, says tina, that she was so broken up about albert she was going to tell sam the answer was no. >> shes crying, and then she said, "im going to tell him 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. a...