Page 4 - Buttoned Up Case News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

He had been released from prison -- in the past. >> reporter: so you haven't ruled him out yet? >> not yet. >> reporter: with the list of possible suspects shrinking, detectives shifted their focus to something that might provide their first break in the case. with melissa's iphone missing, detectives put in an emergency request to the phone company to see if it could help track her cell. when he got the report, detective kendall couldn't believe what he saw. melissa's iphone had been active after the murder and someone had actually gone into her voicemail and played back messages, read texts....

Tony went on trial. >> the defendant in this case -- >> reporter: the prosecutor shari tate argued that tony, fueled by a jealous rage, waited in the bushes for melissa to come home, followed her into the garage and then launched a brutal attack on his wife's best friend. >> it is a hands on, personal murder. it takes time. it takes premeditation. and, why? because she was a friend. >> reporter: but the residue of pepper spray all over the garage was evidence that melissa had fought back and some had apparently gotten on the killer. tony's housemate testified the night of the murder, he saw hi...

>> reporter: tony's attorney is bruce fleisher. >> they sought the death penalty. >> reporter: police and prosecutors were confident they had a solid case against tony villegas, but something happened that threw the whole investigation into freefall. that's because new crimes were about to be revealed. and new questions were about to be raised about who really killed melissa. and in the midst of it all, scott rothstein, like melissa, would disappear. >> coming up -- were melissa and scott rothstein's disappearances connected? >> we three kings be stealing the gold. >> the dark secret buried be...

Is this woman, melissa, killed because she knew too much? >> after we think we had this solid, buttoned-up case, "we do have the whole scott rothstein ponzi scheme comes into play?" >> reporter: the fbi combed through the detectives files looking into a melissa-rothstein-ponzi link. >> they spent a week going through every inch of that case to find out if there was a connection to scott rothstein. >> reporter: with all these messy complications, tony's defense attorney, bruce fleisher, thought about two words, reasonable doubt. >> a lot of people thought that because of the rothstein ponzi sch...

Tony went on trial. >> the defendant in this case -- >> reporter: the prosecutor shari tate argued that tony, fueled by a jealous rage, waited in the bushes for melissa to come home, followed her into the garage and then launched a brutal attack on his wife's best friend. >> it is a hands on, personal murder. it takes time. it takes premeditation. and, why? because she was a friend. >> reporter: but the residue of pepper spray all over the garage was evidence that melissa had fought back and some had apparently gotten on the killer. tony's housemate testified the night of the murder, he saw hi...