Sav On News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Look, i need time to concentrate specifically on this case." >> reporter: daron pored through the files and hunted down new leads. and then a tip came in, seemingly out of nowhere. >> so a guy from a repossession company calls the police and says, "hey i repo'd this car earlier today, and there was a folio in the trunk of the car. and as i'm going through the folio, there are articles in there about this murder in placentia from 1994 and there are receipts from sav-on. >> reporter: sav-on. the drugstore chain where cathy was working at the time she was stabbed to death. that had to make everyb...

>> reporter: so whatever's going on with this guy, he's not your guy. >> he -- well, he's not personally. but is he related to -- does he know? what's the connection? why is this stuff in the trunk of his car? >> reporter: when you say to him, "why would you have articles about cathy torrez's murder and receipts from sav-on in the trunk of your car," his answer's what? >> "that's all my wife's stuff." he disowns it. he separates himself from it, which now raises a little bit more suspicion. >> reporter: could you tell if he was connected to anyone in the case? >> not initially. i really had to...

With cathy and the fact that she wasn't as serious about him as he was with her. so that had to be examined, it had to be looked at. >> reporter: so the investigation continued, as people in placentia paid final respects to the friendly cashier they knew from sav-on. more than a thousand people attended cathy's funeral. pretty impressive. >> the kind of person cathy was. she touched a lot of people, and they remembered her. >> reporter: she left her mark. >> she did. >> reporter: cathy had hoped for a dozen red roses that february. instead her family remembered her with a headstone. "your smil...

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...

Came home after her shift at sav-on ended. and the next morning, there was still no sign of her. mary called cathy's friends and no one had seen her. so mary got in the car and scoured the streets of placentia, searching for cathy and her red toyota corolla. cathy's sister tina saw the wrenching worry in their mother's face. >> she was a mom full of pain. she was a mom who -- who was hurting because she was looking for her baby. she would say, "just find the car." if you find the car, it was like an equation. find the car, you'll find cathy. >> reporter: you get any sleep sunday night? >> no. ...