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terror. i just heard, help, someone is in trouble. i was scared. i was scared. a husband found murdered in a closet. a wife, tied up in another. they found her on the ground with her hands behind him back. she had bruising on her arms and on her face. inconsolable. screaming, crying. who could be behind this? it s me up inside their only daughter, desperate for justice for her dead. be careful what you wish for. everybody gasped. nobody could believe it. this terrifies me because this could happen to anybody. hello, and welcome to dateline. she was his teenage crush, then, puppy love turned into a lifelong love affair. eventually, high school sweethearts jamie melgar and sandra melgar got married and raised a daughter. they were celebrating a remarkable 32 years together when jamie was brutally murdered. to crack the case, investigators would have to uncover an illusion worthy of the great houdini. here is dennis murphy with unspeakable . ....
Trace of blood on their way out of the house. but crime scene techs did not find any. when the rest of the forensics came back, the findings had limitations. reporter, amanda orr. although you have the murder weapon, it s been washed and in water for several hours. kitchen knife? kitchen knife, a large kitchen knife. it was found in the bathtub. so, any dna that could have been on it from the murderer, was gone. it was washed away. what s more, no blood was detected on sandra. in fact, no dna or fingerprints linked sandra to jamie somebody. or jamie to sandra s. and while detectives had a hunch about sandra, the evidence did seen didn t seem quite there yet for an indictment. as more time went by, it became clear to members of sandra s family, like her cousin diana, that law enforcement was eyeing her. okay, it s okay for you to think that. investigate her and then you ll see that there is nothing there and move on. reporter: but as the investigation dragged into july of 20 ....
Remember who tied them up or who hurt her husband. reporter: and neighbor started offering up crime stopper tips. one of them check out a guy scene looking around the police tape. the houston chronicle s legal affairs reporter covered the murder. you got information right away kind of the sketchy neighborhood. no one to the pond and maybe at the scene that night. that s right, a neighbor who had just gotten out of jail who was suspicious. liz thought, add him to the list of potential suspects. did you have ideas for them? i did. she also suggested they talk to one of her parents tenants. someone who had disputes with her dad. and it was a coworker of jayme she got a bad vibe from. and, again, liz says she urged detectives to look at her ex. he had a record of drug arrests. if not him, what about people in a circle? months dragged by without word on the investigation. he blew someone out there ....
an xbox console. could this have been the killer s loot, dropped in a panic as he ran from the scene? louise-caused called investigators. they returned to the house, snapped even more voters, and collected the backpack as potential evidence. they would later find beneath that xbox, some of sandra s jewelry. beneat liz realized she had an idea for detectives as well, a possible suspect. is it true, liz, that you even suggested they took a look at your acts at that point? yes. i tried to give them as much information turns out during the rocky last days of his marriage to liz, the melgars suspected he anybody lifted some of sandra s medication, the same sort now believed to be missing. the melgars never reported their suspicions to authorities. but now liz told detectives, talk to the ex. by now, the murder break-in story was all over the news. deputies say he melgar can t ....
Evidence and did a thorough job. it was now up to a harris county jury to decide sandra s feet. the first day of deliberations ended with no decision. the jury said you have to go back to your office and how to go back and protect work? you can t work. you try to do other stuff, but you really can t. finally, on day two, there was a verdict. we were all saying is going to be fine. this is a joke. no worries. surely the jury will see it with the family see it? exactly. sandra melgar stood to learn her fate. we the jury find the defendant sandra jean melgar, guilty as charged with the indictment. sandra collapse into her chair, sobbing. liz, the on devastated, grasped for her mother as she was led away. it sucked the life out of me. i just felt the room spin. and i just felt like my world was collapsing. we just could not believe. it could not believe it was happening to her. ....