Page 4 - Linking Sam News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

I mean, the guy is -- the evidence whisperer. another nickname for him is st. larry. >> reporter: larry sees things other people don't see? >> larry sees things that many people don't see, yeah. and he looks at it from a different perspective. >> reporter: they both felt the key to the case lay in sam lopez's own words, his taped interviews with the original detectives. and they thought the perfect man to listen to those interviews was the evidence whisperer. guilty people have tells, just like in a poker game? >> absolutely. they don't have that innocent mindset, and they -- they have other f...

And sam was also moving on with his life. in may 1994, just months after cathy's murder, sam walked into a local restaurant. >> he walked in with his friend. and i just remember thinking that he was cute. >> reporter: tina montelongo was a hostess then. >> so, i offered him some free food. and then we started talking. >> reporter: she felt the spark right away. >> i did think i would marry him when i first saw him. that was, like, the words that came out of my mouth. "i'm going to marry that guy." >> reporter: you were taken with him right away? >> i was. uh-huh. >> reporter: sam and tina star...

Cathy had been arguing. but he did say cathy looked fine. nobody was quite sure what happened after that, except they apparently parted company. sam in his car, cathy in hers. then cathy arrived home, too out of it to realize she'd been driving on slashed tires. tina saw the tires the next day. >> i just kept saying, "who -- what happened to your tires? who slashed your tires?" >> reporter: and she'd say? >> and she'd say she didn't know. she -- she just knew that she had gone out with sam that night. >> reporter: daron wyatt now believed sam drugged cathy, possibly assaulted her, and slashed ...

And the families lived right down the street from each other. you can see one house from the other. >> exactly. >> reporter: and she's going out with sam. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: you marry his older brother. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: so that house wasn't just another house on the street. >> right. >> reporter: it was family. >> right. right. >> reporter: police spoke with members of the lopez family. sam knew cathy the best. >> how long have you known cathy? >> jeez, i've known her for over five years. >> reporter: they interviewed him down at the station. >> yeah, i really had fun with her. lik...

Cathy's family was stunned when they heard the news. tina included. 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...