Page 9 - Linking Sam News Today

"i did not kill cathy torrez." >> he says, "i dont know who did." "thats not what i asked, javier. did you kill cathy torrez?" "i dont know who did." and we play that several times to where hed finally say, "i didnt do it." "you didnt do what, javier?" "i didnt do what you say i did." >> reporter: cant say the words, "killed cathy"? >> correct. then it moved to, "did you put cathys body in the trunk of the car?" "i dont know who did." finally he sat there and he put his fist in front of his mout...

Those clothes to the police. he let them search his house too. and he willingly gave samples of his hair and blood. but something about sams behavior the week cathy was missing bothered her family. mary said shed repeatedly paged sam looking for cathy, but he was slow to respond. he call you back? >> not at first. >> reporter: but eventually he did? >> eventually, yes. >> reporter: and he said what, he hadnt seen her? >> he hadnt seen her. >> reporter: to all appearances, that was true. and the ...

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 it. >> reporter: so instead of approaching javier, daron wyatt spent nearly...

Weed? but. >> there was no indication that any of that was true. >> which calls into question his story. >> it does. as detective digs deeper into the case. he spots some telling behavior from sam in those old interview tapes. coming up. >> he never shows any emotion about the fact this girl is brutally murdered. no emotion whatsoever. >> thats a big red flag. >> huge. >> he learns that kathy and sams relationship was anything but straightforward. when the promise continues. julie! hey... ...

>> reporter: people would want those memories to come back. >> yeah. if he had a memory that he killed her, that certainly is a memory he doesnt want to relive. >> reporter: after listening to the interviews time and again, the evidence whisperer had no doubt sam killed cathy. but could the team prove it beyond a reasonable doubt? >> ultimately in cold case murders, time becomes one of our friends, because technology changes. >> reporter: at the time of the murder, dna tests could only be done o...

Of things that -- >> reporter: and hes all, "oh no, no, thats --" >> would -- >> reporter: thats all true. "im a million miles away from her"? >> right, right separated himself. >> reporter: but in so doing, javier ruled out any innocent explanation for finding his dna and fingerprint on her car. so when police told him thats exactly what they had found -- >> it was like vapor lock. and then all of a sudden he said, "well, you know, this one time i was at the video store, and i saw sam and cathy...

Back in 1994, police suspected sam lopez of killing his sometime girlfriend, cathy torrez, but they couldnt make the case. one big reason -- sams cousin, javier, who told detectives he was with sam the night of the murder. javier was sams alibi. so he wasnt suspected of being part of the murder, or even being at the crime scene. >> thats right, yeah. they were looking at javier solely as an alibi witness who was lying to cover for sam. >> reporter: thats why, as detective daron wyatt now discove...

But when police asked sam about that, he denied it. >> you didnt ask her to marry you, then? >> no. >> reporter: later he changed his story but seemed to say getting married was cathys idea. >> a lot of people hit me up already. they said that -- that -- that we were supposed to elope, okay? this is what she -- okay, but look. she had a crazy idea to go to mexico, okay? just the two of us. >> reporter: then there was sams claim that cathy never tried to contact him after she disappeared. >> i th...

>> he didnt sound like a killer. >> were here about kathy. >> later on video. after her body was found. he had always been cooperative. >> he voluntary gave hair samples. blood sample. and fingerprints. and said whatever i can do, ill do. >> as he read the file, he learned there were other things sam didnt do. >> for example. sam lived right down the street. he never stopped by during the whole frantic week when they were searching. he did speak with police. >> i dont think anybody thought he wa...

Would know he got 20 or 25 pages from cathy, or at least think that. if hes guilty and he killed cathy, he knows those 20 or 25 pages were not from cathy. >> reporter: that was tell number two. then montgomery noticed how, in his second interview, sam referred to cathys murder. >> you know? 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 wa...