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Focused on him. however, when investigators took their suspicions to the orange county d.a., the outcome was not what they expected. >> coming up, sam has a new woman in his life who soon discovers his old life. you were a little freaked out by that? >> well, yeah. they're all going in the same direction but in very different ways
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't already suspec...
Remember, she was still married to armando, who was sam's brother and javier's cousin. >> yes. that -- that was a shock. that was a shock. >> reporter: you didn't see that coming and police didn't tell you? >> right. that was part of their investigation, and we had no knowledge of that. >> reporter: but they were relieved. at last the case was moving forward. daron wyatt was confident he had enough evidence to prove javier lopez had killed cathy torrez. but once again, the orange county district attorney did not agree. the d.a. decided not to charge? >> correct. >> reporter: and so javier's se...
About him was that he hung himself and she was sorry for him doing that, because she thought it was his -- her fault, okay? that's -- that's how she said it 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...
When police asked sam about that night, he remembered something very specific. >> a hickey. >> on her neck? >> on her -- right here. covered up with her bra. >> you mean way down here on her shoulder? >> right here. right here. >> reporter: sam claimed it was no big deal. >> i didn't want to hit her up, like, tell her, "hey, you know, who were you with last night?" whatever. >> reporter: but that night, police records showed sam received two traffic citations, both while driving cathy's car. one was an open container ticket for drinking alcohol in a parking lot. the other for failing to stop a...