Page 12 - Torrez Case News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> reporter: the very first witness matt murphy put on the stand was cathy's mom, mary. it seemed a safe way to start. >> there is a cardinal rule that you don't ever do a hard cross-examination on a mother. >> reporter: but matt's mentor broke that rule. >> he really pressed her on some of the details. >> and scored some points. >> scored big points. i mean, scored big-time points. >> reporter: mary initially told the jury sam only responded to one of her pages, but under cross-examination mary revealed he'd actually returned three pages. >> they were trying to paint a picture of sam that he ...

Still married to sam's older brother, armando. police continued to work the case, but the fact was, they had no solid leads. they weren't even close to arresting anyone. but then two years after cathy torrez was murdered, an unexpected meeting put this investigation in the fast lane. an explorer scout with a familiar last name inspires a renewed search for a killer. >> that is a weird convince coincidence. >> we don't believe in coincidences. hi, i need a thriller for my wife. political or psychological? psychological. small town or big city? small town. methodists...or mules? mules. how's thi...

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 dig a little bit deeper to see what the connection was. >> reporter: daron finally located th...

Back in 1994, police suspected sam lopez of killing his sometime girlfriend, cathy torrez, but they couldn't make the case. one big reason -- sam's cousin, javier, who told detectives he was with sam the night of the murder. javier was sam's alibi. so he wasn't suspected of being part of the murder, or even being at the crime scene. >> that's right, yeah. they were looking at javier solely as an alibi witness who was lying to cover for sam. >> reporter: that's why, as detective daron wyatt now discovered, even though investigators in 1994 took blood, hair and fingerprint samples from javier, t...

But he never forgot his promise to mary. in part because of a milestone in his own life. >> my first daughter was born. and i remember going to mary shortly after that and looking her in the eye and saying, "i know -- i know now how you feel. i know it. i can feel it myself. i'm a dad now. you haven't given up. i won't give up." >> reporter: in 2003, nine years after the murder, daron once again approached a friend in the d.a.'s office. >> i said, "i've got a cold case that i need you to take a look at." and he physically stops walking and he says, "if it's the case i'm thinking about, i'm not...