D Torrez News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

And the police said? >> "well, you know, you don't know that. maybe she went off and --" but i knew. >> reporter: that she could have met some guy and they're in vegas right now. and you're saying -- >> no. >> reporter: not possible? >> at that point you want to yell and scream at them and tell them, "that's not true. you don't know, not my cathy." >> reporter: the torrez family was not going to wait for police to catch up to what they already knew -- that cathy was not someone who'd just disappear. they went to reporters. mary spoke to knbc in los angeles. >> this is one thing that nobody sho...

Then-california governor pete wilson about cathy's murder. they even contributed to reward funds, some of it by selling tamales at the local fair. you were doing just about everything you could think of, weren't you? >> yes. yes. well, you have to. you have to, because you don't have the name or the resources to do it on your own. so then you look, then you knock on a lot of doors, trying to keep it out there. >> reporter: the torrez family says they spent thousands of hours knocking on doors, speaking at events, all in the hope that cathy's case would not lie forgotten in a filing cabinet. an...

Cathy torrez." >> reporter: it was a shot in the dark. a tactic he'd picked up at a seminar for cultivating informants. >> and the patrol officer that is next to me starts kind of kicking my foot. and he's got an explorer scout who's riding with him -- a young hispanic female. and i look at her name tag and it was "d. torrez." turned out it was debbie torrez, cathy's youngest sister. >> reporter: who just heard you ask that question. >> correct. >> reporter: you had no idea it was her? >> i had no idea. >> reporter: debbie torrez -- cathy's baby sister -- was now 14 years old. eager, her mom s...

Torrez was missing no longer. >> she had been stabbed multiple times. all about the upper chest and neck. >> reporter: detective sergeant daron wyatt. >> you know, there's no way to time the death. but i think it's pretty safe to assume that she had been dead since she disappeared on that saturday night on the 12th. >> reporter: it was devastating not just for the torrez family but for all those in placentia who'd been searching so tirelessly for cathy. >> she was a vibrant, very intelligent young girl. this is truly a tragedy. >> reporter: detectives went to work trying to find cathy's killer...

You want to know, just you know, ask the right questions and i'll tell you and then you won't take me to jail." so, you know, just almost as a flippant remark, i tell him, "okay, so tell me who killed cathy torrez." >> reporter: it was a shot in the dark. a tactic he'd picked up at a seminar for cultivating informants. >> and the patrol officer that is next to me starts kind of kicking my foot. and he's got an explorer scout who's riding with him -- a young hispanic female. and i look at her name tag and it was "d. torrez." turned out it was debbie torrez, cathy's youngest sister. >> reporter:...