response and then entered the room. i saw her feet and she wasn t moving. so i turned on the light, and said hey, shelley, are you okay? she wasn t moving? so i went in and i shook her in her bed was she covered up? originally the blanket was on her and you shake her with her blanket over her. yes, sir. and you shake her and she don t wake up. you pull the cover off of her and you shake her again? i saw the blood and and i touched her arm and she was cold. and [ crying ] as soon as you seen that, what happened? i yelled her name i don t know how many times. reporter: ashley told the detective it was all just an innocent mistake when she told the art institute she d seen shelley alive and well the night before when, in fact, shelley was dead by then, which didn t make sent to detective ellzey, any more than did the next thing ashley said, that it was not
lethargy and lack of appetite. see your vet for more information on flea and tick protection you and your dog will love. nexgard. the vet s #1 choice. when ashley went home, she found her. and she wasn t all right. no, she was not. reporter: the school called shelley s parents yet again. we re on the highway and about 200 miles from our destination in the mountains. and phone reception was really bad. reporter: so, through the static, she couldn t tell. was she hearing or imagining the words? and she said, your daughter s been found in blood and then the phone went dead and i d lost rtion at that point.
you have to make sure that no stone is left unturned. reporter: and then, they strategized we spent i would say half of or more of our time actually working it the other way, saying, okay, well, let s say that the other person did it. nathan. nathan. let s say nathan did it. or let s say ashley did it, and and let s look at the evidence, and does that bear fruit or is that something where you look at at them, and it just it just doesn t work? because we wanted to make sure we got the right person. could you have prosecuted nathan? absolutely. absolutely. i mean, it would ve been it would ve been an easy case. really? to say absolutely. to come in and say, he did it, he s the boyfriend, any time you have a stabbing, you immediately look to whoever that person is romantically involved with. reporter: so they called in nathan yet again tested his answers. multiple times. ashley, too?
she took nathan away from you, that much, that she caused you so much problems in your personal relationship, that the only answer was to kill her. that s it? reporter: two days after that interview, it was, once again, ashley s turn to talk. and she also revealed something she had not said before. remember, it was quite apparent that whoever killed shelley must have had a key to her apartment. there was no sign of forced entry. well, now ashley told the detectives that a month before the murder, daniel borrowed her car. which would have been neither here nor there, except the key to her apartment was attached to her car keys. you know if he made a copy of it? no, but now that my it s a possibility that he it s the only time i remember i ever loaned my keys to somebody. because i always have my keys. reporter: daniel may or may not have copied the key. but as much as the detectives wanted to make an arrest, they
highly tuned to the subtle reactions of his interviewees, was still seeing in his head the image of that intensely personal murder scene. could ashley have been so full of rage? reporter: one of the things that can make a roommate situation between two girls deadly is if there s a romantic attachment. absolutely reporter: did you did you go down that path with her? you know, i went down two directions. i went down the part that maybe they were seein the same guy. i also because you have to explore the fact that maybe they were romantically involved, shelley and ashley, because the degree of injury that that poor girl suffered, as i stated, it s personal, which is a lot of pent up rage. reporter: somethin like a lover would do. a spurned lover absolutely. yes, sir. that s correct. reporter: and she could well have been that spurned lover? oh yes. yes. she sure could have. without a doubt. reporter: ashley told the detective she discovered the murder after the