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My mother called and said michelle is dead. How is that possible . Reporter a young mother found brutally murdered. Her little girl left to wander in her mothers blood. Police had a suspect and they say he had a motive. But could they prove he was the killer . It was a circle case. Reporter except for that witness. The girl who left those footprints. We will never know what cassidy saw and what she didnt see. Maybe she couldnt tell detectives who the killer was, but maybe, she didnt have to. The fact that cassidy was spared, would that mean anything to the jury . The person that killed the mot...

I thought it was kind of odd because i was expecting her to say yes, i guess. >> reporter: somebody did? >> yeah, somebody did. >> but who? was it the same person who murdered the little girl's mother? on this november day, all they had were questions. rich spivey, then a sergeant with the wake county sheriff's office, probably knows the case better than anyone. >> i mean, this was just a brutal, vicious beating. there was a lot of time and energy invested into this assault. >> reporter: why do you say a lot of time and energy? >> i think the medical examiner told us there was over 30 blows wi...

>> reporter: throughout the investigation, jason steadfastly maintained his silence. and rather than face a legal battle where he'd be asked some tough questions, spivey said, he even gave michelle's family custody of his daughter. >> everyone that we spoke with, all of them talked about how much he loved cassidy and what a great dad he was. to just turn over primary custody, that was -- that was very surprising. >> reporter: investigators had heard enough. they believed they had a case. circumstantial, but a case. and three years after michelle young's body was found on the bedroom floor, jas...

Was filed in december seeking custody of cassidy. >> reporter: prosecutors also called the attorney involved in that custody case over daughter cassidy, and those same allegations were repeated yet again. >> the jury heard several times through these two civil complaints that jason young brutally murdered michelle fisher young. >> reporter: but the headline came when prosecutors played jason young's entire testimony from the first trial -- >> i wanted her to have that. >> reporter: -- and began to rip it apart. >> i don't remember. >> reporter: prosecutors tried to show that jason's call to me...

>> reporter: the facts were stark and ugly. one night in november 2006, while her husband was away on business, michelle young was attacked in her own bedroom and brutally beaten to death. her body discovered the next day by her sister meredith along with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter cassidy, who had been left to wander in her blood. for the investigators who set out to find her killer, no way to get those little footprints out of their minds. sergeant richard spivey, lead investigator. >> those of us that work in law enforcement, this is our profession, but we're also parents. that certainly s...