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Physical evidence pointed away from the man they thought was the killer. any defense attorney would ask, if police found javier's dna and fingerprint, why would they charge sam? >> were you surprised you didn't find sam's dna there? >> yes. >> he thought newer better tests might find sam's dna. but it was too late for that. cathy's family had sold the car. the case against sam would have to be entirely circumstantial. murphy felt the key to that was somewhere in the interviews sam gave to police. but here too, there was a problem. >> when you look at the interview, everything that sam lopez sa...

Are going to hold that man accountable for exactly what he did. >> the very first witness matt murphy put on the stand was cathy's mom mary. it seemed a safe way to start. >> there's a cardinal rule, you don't do a hard cross-examination on a mother. >> but matt's mentor broke that rule. >> he really pressed her on some of the details and scored some points. scored big points. i mean, scored big-time points. >> mary initially told the jury sam only responded to one of her pages. but under cross-examination mary revealed he had actually returned three pages. >> they were tryg to paint picture o...

>> once i heard that, then i just -- all i remember is that i held my hands up to my chin like this and i just thanked god. >> reporter: daron wyatt was watching mary in that moment. >> this was everything to her. and i wanted to look in her eyes when they came back and see that she knew that i fulfilled my promise. >> reporter: for sam's ex-wife, the news was devastating. >> i cried. >> reporter: for your daughter? for sam? >> for both. >> reporter: doesn't sound like it shook your faith at all in him. >> it didn't. i still don't believe that he did it. >> reporter: after the verdict, people ...

Disappeared. >> mary, however, says sam was the one calling her house looking for cathy. >> he called how many times? >> quite a few times looking for her. >> she said sam sound okay until she told him where cathy was. >> i said she was at the hospital and she wasn't back yet. >> at the hospital visiting albert, her boyfriend who had attempted suicide. >> sam okay with that? >> no. he got upset. >> sam told police he was just worried about cathy. especially after he spoke with her that week. >> messed up. i told her to calm down. >> remember, this interview happened while cathy was still missi...

>> yeah, she did. we have letters of coworkers, of students she worked with. >> reporter: people you didn't even know. >> people we didn't even know that were able to come back and tell my mom or tell one of us, you know, "we miss her at sav-on. she was always smiling. she'd always help us." so what they did to her, all those stab wounds that she got, multiply those and those are her marks. >> reporter: for 21 years sam denied he inflicted those stab wounds, denied he killed cathy. but at his sentencing sam did something that was unexpected. >> i would like to apologize to the torrez family an...