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house. >> do you know if -- >> i don't believe that she did. >> detectives followed up every lead. canine units were called. and as police -- the whole zip code which turned upside down. but experience told the detectives that any news they received about theresa was unlikely to be good news. >> we were just waiting for the call. >> that someone had found her body? >> yes. >> days dragged by. >> i remember going to church every day, and saying, please let us find her. i don't know what i was hoping for. but i just wanted us to find her. >> and then, nearly a week after detectives believe theresa insana was killed came the news police were waiting for, and that theresa's family and friends were dreading. >> a painful discovery's about to end one mystery, but launch another. who could possibly be behind this? coming up -- "dateline"'s unsolved case
and ended in divorce. he left theresa just weeks before their wedding, anomalous was pregnant and wanted to get married. what woman wouldn't worry? but when melissa talked to police, they felt her demeanor was not that of someone who was shocked by the apparent random and senseless killing of her coworker. >> did you and this theresa have some sort of argument or words exchanged on monday at work? >> never -- >> -- here is a woman that she sees every day at work, and she's unconcerned, generally, at all. >> generally people are pretty upset? >> yes. you can't imagine the number of people from the rio that called and wondered if it was someone -- >> and she wasn't worried about that? >> she wasn't worried about anything. >> four months later, jeff and -- would return to vegas homicide for a polygraph tests. although the tests are not
insana had died by strangulation, and possibly, she had been sexually assaulted, though the medical examiner said the -- was not conclusive. >> -- an act of anger by someone that was mad at theresa? was it staged? >> with somebody trying to make it look like a rape -- when it was something else. >> it's a very good possibility. >> and with the discovery of theresa's body, three things were immediately clear to detectives. first, that's tiny piece of metal found on the stairs of theresa's apartment? it was apparently torn from the camisole she was wearing at the time of her murder. secondly, the blankets around her body came from her home. but police believe the rope and duct tape used to bind her body did not. it had been brought to her house by her killer. and finally, that blood in the bathroom matched a new spot of blood found on theresa's
admissible in court and do not prove someone committed a crime, here are the findings. when asked if they caused, theresa's death, and if they knew theresa was dead before her body was found, the examiner found both jeff and melissa showed deception. but, just as interesting was what melissa did towards the end of the test. >> she got upset and grabbed her stuff. and she was crying and was out there. >> how many people have you seen get up in the middle of a polygraph and run out of the room? >> most people stay. it's unusual to do what she did. >> tell me if i'm wrong. but generally, innocent people want to stay and answer every question. >> they want to clear up all the -- >> whatever takes to convince, you i didn't do it. >> though, melissa did at one point, seemed to sympathize with theresa's having been jilted by jeff. >> i know how i reacted when -- after a couple of months. and i couldn't imagine what she
A woman from a small town moves to the big city of Las Vegas, where she finds a new career and a new love, then she vanishes, and her body is found within a...
dancer. and, coupled with its size, she was barely five feet tall. that skill made her perfect for another of her -- >> we tried out for the cheerleading team together. and theresa those are bad that she made the team and i didn't, she told me she was not going to partake in the team. >> she was a loyal friend. >> yes, she was. >> volunteering to give up something like that. >> yes. she wasn't going to be a cheerleader, because i couldn't be one. >> -- and a postgraduate life of leisure. >> she was home. and she was living with me. but she was going out at night, coming home relate, sleeping until noon. . i say, honey, that's not going to happen. you are going to do something. >> so, theresa did she packed her bags and headed for las vegas. and along with her went melissa, who had grown up next door to
unusual position. >> the seat was pushed all the way to the back. >> and she was barely five feet tall. >> she's a very small woman. >> based on this evidence, a theory was beginning to take shape, a theory that involved the attacker entering the home, possibly in through the -- a struggle that then spilled into that half bathroom, where a towel rack was torn from the wall, and where theresa's attacker lost blood. but no matter what exactly had happened in the bathroom, detectives believed the struggle had ended with theresa's murder. then, the loading of theresa's body into the trunk of her own car, the bodies disposal somewhere. and then, in a bizarre twist, the killer returning theresa's car to her own house. it's extremely unusual, is it not, for a killer to return to a crime scene like that? >> yes. >> because usually people
and i say, calmly back, what's happening? >> -- finally going to theresa's house to check on her, and found teresa's dog, cell phone, purse and car. and that frightening spot of blood on the bumper of theresa's car. you've known her all her life. and you show up and she's gone, but all her stuff is still there. >> i think at that point i was in complete shock. where was she? >> las vegas metro police responded, and patrol quickly made a call that reached vegas homicide. a squad that included detective marty wild men, and detective sergeant mike mcgrath was soon on the scene. >> we looked at the blood smear on the rear bumper of the car. and then we said, everybody out. we are taking this. and we started going on the -- emphatically. processing it as a homicide, basically. >> it looked to detectives as
A woman from a small town moves to the big city of Las Vegas, where she finds a new career and a new love, then she vanishes, and her body is found within a...
occurred? detectives learned that theresa had last been seen at work at the rio on tuesday, two days before friends had gone looking for her. a good citizen, she had been to vote at this church just a few blocks from her house at 5:30 p m, then made some calls, speaking to her mom back in niagara falls, about 6:30 pm. and what did she say to you in that conversation? >> i'm tired, and i'm going to have my macaroni and cheese and i'm going to rest. and i will talk to you tomorrow. >> but an hour later, at 7:30 pm, when theresa's cousin angela called, her phone went unanswered. >> so, we had, basically, an hour window between the mother's phone call and angela trying to call her and not getting her. so, there really wasn't an explanation other than, she had already been attacked, for why angela's phone calls were not being answered. >> so, police believe theresa