Happening . The details that she gave. It was unbelievable. She said you did it. I said no, you did. Route 66 once stretched across the southwest from one horizon to the next. Going from what america was to what it wanted to be. Cities like albuquerque, new mexico were celebrated stops along the journey. Today buildings that once lined this part of the iconic highway have faded and closed as the Cottonwood Mall became the new downtown. Reporter the mall was kind of the big hangout . I met my husband at the mall, yes. So did i. Its played a pivotal part in our lives. For the marcell sisters, all six of them, along with brother jonathan, the Cottonwood Mall in albuquerque was the center of their social lives. It was people that we went to school with. So everybody kind of knew everybody. Sister number five, 17yearold brittani, worked at a sunglasses kiosk in the atrium. And shes this beautiful, blonde girl with striking blue eyes and a big smile. You were just drawn to her. Life was simple, good. Until wednesday, september 11th, 2008. Brittani, just starting her senior year of high school, made plans to meet her mom, a creditunion teller, at home for lunch. I open the door, and i walk in. And i saw her favorite pair of red sunglasses down on the floor. Reporter did that mean anything to you . I thought, that was really weird. Reporter a seemingly trivial detail now burned into dianes memory because of what she saw next. I see her laying there on the floor. Reporter lying on the floor . On the floor. And shes just bleeding profusely. Reporter then what do you see . I see a person who ive never seen before in my house. And hes holding a shovel. And he walks through my living room, drops the shovel, and walks through the dining room and around to the kitchen. And im looking at him. And he tells me im next while hes reaching for a butcher knife. Reporter hes going to kill you . Yes. Reporter what do you do . I ran out. Im screaming and yelling. Dianes screams got the attention of a passerby who was brave enough to help. He ran into the house. And he yelled back and he said, you need to get those paramedics here real quick. Shes going to die. Diane called 911 but stayed outside. Certain the attacker was still in her home. I just walked in and i saw blood everywhere. Im afraid to go in. I walked in and he had he was coming after me. He ran to the kitchen. Police and the paramedics were there in minutes. Brittani was taken to the hospital as diane called her other children. Someone was calling me, saying, brittani got stabbed. Kat had thought she was yeah, i thought she got stabbed. A car accident. We didnt realize what had happened. Yeah, and so i rushed home to my mom. And she told me what happened. And i truly thought brittani would die. The sisters rushed to the hospital. But once there were met with confused looks. They were like, we dont have a Brittani Marcell here. Minutes later detectives arrived and told the marcell family for her safety brittani was admitted under an assumed name. We still hadnt understood what happened. I mean, shes under an alias. The Police Officers rush us into this private room in the hospital. Reporter putting brittani under an assumed name may have been a smart move. Because the family was later told about a mysterious visitor who was trying to get in to see brittani. While we were in the waiting room, one of the nurses came out and said, do you know that some man just came in to see her . Who was it . We dont know who it was. You never we dont know. The man left before he could be identified. Diane had a terrifying thought. Maybe it was brittanis attacker. I didnt know if this person was watching us from afar. Did he follow the ambulance . I went into the restroom. I would look at every stall on the back of the doors to make sure that nobody was in there or standing on the on the actual commode. Reporter fear took over . Fear. As brittani teetered on the edge of death her family could only guess as to who attacked her and why. We started looking, like, whos in our lives . What strange person . Was it any of the boyfriends . Everybody in our family is a natural problemsolver. And so everybodys trying to formulate ideas of who who it was, right. How, what, when. The marcells were raised to be close and selfsufficient. Their dad, a truck driver, was often away. When he and diane divorced, she had to go to work. The children looked out for each other. How do you think it shaped brittani being number five in this big family . She looked up to kathleen and kristin and alicia. Remind me again whos the oldest . I am. I think i was kind of like her mom too. I mean, thats the way it goes in a big family, right . You the littlest one has the most moms. Like her older sisters, brittani was disciplined and hardworking. She was an excellent student. She had a good circle of friends. I think she kind of set herself apart from the popular crowd, rather than was inside it. And i think most of that is because shes very genuine in everything that she does. Brittani was headed for college and hoped one day to be a local t. V. Reporter covering albuquerque. Very, very driven. She was scheduled to graduate high school early. She wanted to study journalism. But her mom, diane, said brittani hit a rough patch during her junior year in high school. Reporter how was brittani acting . Just rebellious, normal 17yearold, how they, you know, get confrontational if you ask them something. Things got so tense for a while, brittani moved in with her dad. And he wasnt there all the time, so it was perfect for her. Reporter this was her sort of mild way of running away from home . A little bit. Right. But by the start of her senior year, brittani wanted to come back. Thats why she and her mom were meeting for lunch. To discuss brittanis return. Instead, brittani was attacked. Reporter what did the doctors tell you when brittani was brought to the hospital . They didnt think she would survive. Are you able to see her . We can see her, but she doesnt know were there. The moment we all walked into the room, everything stopped. Brittanis head was the size huge. Of a basketball, if not bigger. And i dont think any of us really thought thats brittani. What goes through your mind when you realize you may never have any moments with your sister again . Like this could be it. All the moments you missed. Brittani had a couple nights before asked me to go to a maroon five. And i was like no, im busy. I didnt tell her i loved her enough. I didnt hold her enough. She didnt know how much she meant to me. My sons not going to get to see her again. Youre having a dress rehearsal for a death that hasnt happened. Coming up who was britd nis attacker . This just seemed so personal. This person seemed like they were full of rage. Who is brittani hanging around with . Who might be a suspect . And would he return . The alarm was set constantly. We just never experienced that kind of imminent danger. When dateline continues. When dateline continues youre an original. And your eyes have the power to speak volumes. With voluminous original mascara from loreal. The original brush separates every lash. Our creamy formula builds 5x the volume. Americas 1 mascara. Voluminous original. From loreal paris. Youre worth it. Voluwith acetaminophenction fights pain in two ways. Advil targets pain at the source. While acetaminophen blocks pain signals. The future of pain relief is here. New advil dual action. Robinwithout the commission fees. So, you can start investing today wherever you are even hanging with your dog. So, what are you waiting for . Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. You can go your own way go your own way your wireless. Your rules. Only Xfinity Mobile lets you choose shared data, unlimited or a mix of each. And switch anytime so you only pay for the data you need. Switch and save up to 400 a year on your wireless bill. With the carrier rated 1 in customer satisfaction. Call, click, or visit your local xfinity store today. While the marcells tried to grasp what happened to brittani, the police were trying to find out who did it. Albuquerque Police Detective jason morales, since retired, was the lead investigator. Youve seen a lot of murders in your career. How how brutal was this attack in this house . It was very brutal. Morales said brittani had been hit repeatedly with a shovel, so hard it crushed the left part of her skull. So when i got here, the crime van was already parked out front. They had been here for a little while. They were waiting on the condition of the victim, brittani, to see if she was going to survive or if shes going to die. Morales said the fact brittanis purse and sunglasses were found right in the entryway led him to believe the attacker came up behind her as she entered the house. Did you get the sense that maybe this was a burglary in progress and brittani just happened to come home . Or do you did you feel like the perpetrator was someone that brittani knew . This just seemed so personal. It seemed to me at the time that were looking at somebody that either knew brittani or knew somebody in the family. Or there was something there was more of a connection to there. The brutal nature of the attack, did that tell you anything . I mean, this person seemed like they were full of rage. It does. We started trying to figure out who was brittani hanging around with . Who might be a suspect . Because it really at this point, we had no suspect at all so everybody is. Morales believed the attack had just started when brittanis mom arrived. I dont think he was anticipating diane showing up. The pattern of blood at the scene indicated the attacker actually chased diane when she fled the house, but stopped for some reason. Maybe, morales thought, when diane started screaming. And he panicked. So instead of going out a sliding glass door whether it was locked or unlocked, he jumps out of a dining room window, i mean, not through the screen, he jumps through the glass to get out. Inside the house, morales found a room full of evidence. So once we were able to go inside, you could see it was pretty violent. There was blood on the floor. A shovel. There was duct tape. And then there was also a knife. A lot of clues. Yes, absolutely. Enough, morales thought, to solve the case. That is, until he got the lab results. The fingerprints found on the shovel, knife and tape were incomplete. Dna from a male was found on the shovel and the knife, but it was so intermingled with brittanis blood, it was impossible to develop an individual profile. But on a shard of broken glass, police found a drop of blood that looked promising, because it was pristine. When he jumped out of the window, he cut himself. The blood drop was analyzed and a complete male dna profile was generated, which morales uploaded to the National Criminal data base, called codis. To see if it would match anybody thats already in the database. Did you get a match . No. No match . Morales couldnt believe it. He was convinced brittanis attacker had to be a repeat offender. Youd have to figure that somebody thats done something in that extreme has done done Something Like that before. Brittanis attacker, basically, vanished into thin air. Yes. So now moraless investigation went from the lab to the street. Hed heard brittani was seeing someone, kind of a boyfriend. Was he a potential suspect . Absolutely. Did you do a dna test on her sort of boyfriend . Yes. He was cleared. His dna did not match that. Police didnt have to rely on just hard evidence, though. They had an eyewitness to the attack. I could see his height. Brittanis mom had actually seen the guy. I saw he had jeans on. He had a longsleeved shirt on, and what does he look like . Either a dark caucasian man or a light hispanic with brown hair, kind of spiky. Police created a composite sketch and spread the word across the rio grande valley. There was both billboards, rewards, crimestoppers rewards. Names just start pouring in. So we were talking to a bunch of people. But to no avail. The Billboard Campaign didnt produce any workable suspects, witnesses or leads. Meanwhile, the marcell family was on edge. In the days following the attack, brittani remained on life support, close to death. We really didnt know what to do when they said shes probably not going to make it. Their home, once a safe and sacred place, was now marred by evil. Walking in was like someone died there. Like, it was just morbid. It was just dark. Hard. Very dark. Living there, staying there, we all can say we have a fond memory of that house. And going back there, its that dark feeling you get on the inside. This isnt okay. And you just want to get what you have to get to survive and leave p. Brittanis mom soon found a rental house, but changing addresses didnt help with the lingering unease. Whenever were in the house, the alarm was set constantly. No open windows. No open doors until we go out. Our whole lifestyle changed. The marcells were terrified brittani had been attacked by someone who knew them and their routines, someone who might strike again. We just never experienced that kind of imminent danger. Did you worry about them, that they could be targets, that he could go after one of them or he could try to finish off brittani . Right, because we didnt know if brittani was the original target. And the fact he hadnt been identified. It was unsettling for everybody and i think they had every reason to be worried. They worked out a schedule, taking turns standing vigil at the hospital with brittani. They tried to be hopeful, but they also knew the doctors and the police all thought brittani was going to die. And all the reports at the hospital were looking like, the trajectory was for brittani to pass. But somehow brittani held on and six weeks after the attack, against all odds, she finally opened her eyes. When brittani came to and she woke up, her eyes were blue like the ocean before. And they they were gray. And i kept thinking, he took your light. Oh, my god. He took your light. And in brittanis new gray eyes her family saw something else, fear. Coming up who is this guy that hurt me . Why did he hurt me . Brittani and her family still haunted. Your friends, your teachers, your boyfriend. Everybodys a possible suspect. It sounds crazy. But it could be anybody. When dateline continues. [yawn] you. Look. Stunning. Want the truth to why i wake up feeling. [growls softly]. So darn awesome . 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Because the size of your wallet shouldnt determine whether or not youre in jail. Vote yes on prop 25 to end money bail. Brittanis beating was so horrific, we created sketches of her time in the icu rather than show you the actual photos. Part of her brain was removed. Then she contracted meningitis which nearly killed her. One surgery after another. But brittani held on. And by christmas, three months after the attack, the family was told brittani would survive. But what would her new life be like . We talked to her, and she would blink her eyes and smile, but we knew at that point her there was a lot of paralysis. And thats when they told us her ear canal is crushed, shes going to be deaf. They also told us that her optic nerve is probably atrophied, which its severed, just from the hitting of the head, the jolting of it. Despite her extensive injuries, brittanis family started taking her on short outings. And we put her in the wheelchair and she still couldnt hold her head up. And shes drooling. I was like, please dont let this be it. The family knew this might be all they could hope for. And there was so much dead tissue in the front temporal lobe. They removed pieces of that. And they with the brain they were saying its so unpredictable. That could be any your short term that could be your speech. That could be short term. It could regenerate. When i hear all the wonderful things about her and all the things she wanted to accomplish and now youre describing her like this. Were you angry . Oh, yeah. Absolutely. As they tended to brittani, her sisters continued to wonder who could have done this to her . Its violating because you start questioning relationships you trust. Exactly. Yes. At school, your friends, your teachers, your boyfriend, your circle of influence. Youre like, well, maybe it was you. So everybodys a possible suspect . Even going to the gym, going to the grocery store, you know, standing at the gas station, i mean, its it sounds crazy. But when you dont know who it is it could be anybody. Uhhuh. It was all so personal. The attacker had been in their home. Possibly stalked them. Maybe brittani wasnt even his intended target . Maybe it was one of the other sisters. No one could say for sure. But the family had to put their fears aside when caring for brittani, who now needed all of their help. Its really taking your baby and raising her all over again. So youre raising a child that you already raised. That, i think, was the hardest part, watching mom have to go through that again. You just you wanted to cry for them. Five months after the attack, her condition had stabilized to the point brittani could be released from the hospital. But she was far from healed. She didnt realize why she couldnt walk, why she couldnt eat, why she had to learn all these things over again. As helpless as a child, which meant if the attacker returned, the marcell family was more vulnerable now than ever. So diane fled albuquerque, taking brittani along with the two youngest children to neighboring texas. She found a new home, a new job, and most important a rehabilitation clinic for brittani. Her mom was very, very anxious because we didnt know who the assailant was, and that they were still very concerned for her safety. Doctor lori wright was one of brittanis therapists. What was your First Impression of brittani when you met her . She just didnt know much beyond where she was. And she was very, very confused. Crying a lot. She had to have somebody shower her. She had to have somebody take her to the bathroom. She had to have all those things done for her all over again. Dr. Wright, a neuropsychologist, practices whats known as cognitive behavioral therapy. We believe with practice, practic