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Them, from cathy. >> so you looked, what, on the ankles and under her arms? >> ankles, arms, i think under the legs. >> reporter: daron wyatt send out the evidence for touch dna. you optimistic? or are you thinking, shot in the dark? >> no, i was not optimistic. i was not optimistic. >> reporter: because what? >> because on this particular case, it seemed like for the beginning phases, everything that could go wrong pretty much went wrong. >> reporter: but he also knew he was working with a cop on a mission. >> daron wyatt was not going to quit until i filed this case or i died. or he died, i ...

>> that's all for this edition of dateline extra. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. \s \s she was a mom looking for her baby, and her baby hadn't come home. >> reporter: cathy's week had been nothing but trouble. >> she couldn't tell me what happened. >> she was so upset. >> it was about to get much worse. >> my mom would say "if you find the car, you'll find cathy." >> you didn't want it to be dark because you wanted to keep looking. >> she was stabbed multiple times. there was blood within the interior of the car. she was a targeted victim. >> reporter: who killed cathy? >> we had ...

>> and essentially no work had been done on it for at least the last two years. >> reporter: from the beginning, police had suspected cathy's one-time boyfriend sam lopez had something to do with her murder. but they had nothing connecting him to the crime. no witnesses. no dna. and sam had that solid alibi. tina was still married to sam's brother, armando. the two families intertwined, as cathy's family continued to search for answers. >> and then in april of 1997, i got a phone call from mary bennett. >> reporter: cathy's mom. it would be their first conversation of many. mary told daron how...

Other people are. >> if the timeline is wrong, said the defense, the alibis of all the other potential suspects fall apart. the it will tale quesadilla was never found, if the killer ate t his or her dna might be all over the wrapper. >> touch dna, fingerprinting on that skipper asked the lead detective about that. >> you didn't submit that taco bell trash for dna? >> correct. >> you didn't submit it for prints? >> right. >> the defense portrayed the victim of half backed police work. there was another victim, not only lost his mother, could now lose his father, too, in a hushed courtroom. the...

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. >> reporter: for one thing, there was so much evidence they didn't ...