Page 20 - Linking Sam News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Kathy's family said he never stopped by the house while the family was searching for her. he noticed an inconsistency in the account of the days. right before kathy disappeared. >> mary, however, says sam was the one calling her home looking for cathy. he called how many times? >> quite a few times looking for her. >> reporter: mary says sam sounded okay at first, until she told him where cathy was. >> i said she was at the hospital and she wasn't back yet. >> reporter: at the hospital, visiting albert, her boyfriend, who had attempted suicide. sam okay with that? >> no, he got upset. >> repor...

>> reporter: which means they tried very hard to make a case and they couldn't do it? >> they tried very hard. that's right. and they figured, based on their review, that they couldn't do it. >> reporter: and some of the reasons were apparent from the get-go -- >> when you look at it on its face, this case is a real tough one. >> reporter: for one thing, there was so much evidence they didn't have against sam. >> there was no murder weapon here. we had no witness. we had no confession. we had no dna. so you can look at it that way, in a conventional review. and yeah, it looked really tough. >>...

To me. we never really sat down and talked about it. well, you know what? i think she was trying to hide from her problems by smoking out. >> reporter: meaning she was smoking marijuana. cathy's family said that for her, that would be out character. sam told detectives he had last seen cathy the thursday before she disappeared. he said she'd paged him several times that day and when they finally met up -- >> she asked me for some weed, you know? and then she kept on asking me, "so are you going to give it to me or what?" and i go, "you know what?" the minute i said no to her, she blew up. she ...

Cathy's murder. but just the idea spooked tina. so she made up a lie. >> i met him and i told him that i was dating somebody else. >> reporter: which was not true? >> which was not true. >> reporter: you were a little freaked out by that? >> well, yeah. >> reporter: but the spark that drew her to sam was too strong, and though tina had only known him a few short weeks, something in her heart said sam was innocent. >> so i gave him a call. and i started dating him again. >> reporter: okay. i mean, you're an attractive woman. i have trouble believing that there were not guys available who weren'...

That would come into the police department. we go in there. you know, "we just want to let you know that we represent cathy torrez, and we have not forgotten, and we just want to make sure that her case is still being worked on." >> reporter: "we have not forgotten and we want to make sure that you don't either." >> right, right. >> reporter: the city of placentia didn't forget. the community learning center was dedicated in cathy's name. >> the cathy torrez learning center. >> yes. >> reporter: you've got to leave your mark on the world. >> and she did, huh? >> reporter: and a tree was plante...