Page 25 - Torrez Case News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

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...

Are back to square one? >> yes. >> reporter: is that the end? >> to some people. >> reporter: but not to him. and not to mary. you put a lot of faith in daron. >> i put a lot of faith in god. daron was his tool. >> reporter: but for the time being, it seemed daron's hands were tied. after all, the case had been rejected by the d.a.'s office twice before. this case getting a lot of baggage over the years? >> yeah, it did. >> reporter: and so if you go ahead with it, you're not only going ahead with the case, you're also kind of insulting the d.a.? >> yeah. >> reporter: years went by. the cathy ...

About sam lopez's involvement in the murder of his neighbor and former girlfriend, cathy torrez. but there was no physical evidence tying him to the murder. and he had a solid alibi on the night cathy was killed. sam was with his cousin, javier. which is why when police took their case to the d.a.'s office, the d.a. refused to file charges against sam. police pursued other leads too, like a possible connection to the suicide of cathy's boyfriend, albert. did you think that cathy's disappearance had anything to do with albert? >> no. >> reporter: coincidence. >> yeah, just two tragedies happeni...

A prosecutor unfamiliar with the case agreed to take a fresh look. his name is matt murphy, and he noticed one thing right away. >> the first thing you see when you look at the file is a big rejection from really good lawyers who reviewed it individually and as a group. >> reporter: which means they tried very hard to make a case and they couldn't do it? >> they tried very hard. that's right. and they figured, based on their review, that they couldn't do it. >> reporter: and some of the reasons were apparent from the get-go -- >> when you look at it on its face, this case is a real tough one. ...

Or he died, i guess. daron was absolutely dedicated to this. >> reporter: the truth was, if murphy declined the case a third time, the cathy torrez file would almost certainly go from cold to dead. what would he decide? no one understood the stakes better than cathy's mom. >> daron had told me that we were going to meet with the d.a. my interpretation of it was that he was going to tell me that there was nothing they could do. >> reporter: a key piece of evidence arrives, better late than never. how long had they known that? >> a couple of months at least. >> reporter: and they forgot to call?...