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the results of that serial number restoration test he did on the gun recovered from the river. >> i wound up pulling up all but one of the digits. it wound up matching the bill of sale for ms. delgado's purchase of the revolver. >> is that like a bingo moment for you, when you put this stuff to the test and it works? >> finding out that the number i restored was basically the exact same one that was on her bill of laden, that was awesome. >> and mills had something else to tell the jury. remember, he'd done a test firing like this one through the barrel of the recovered gun. >> and what happened when you testified those bullets and compared them to the bullets from the crime scene? >> when we did a comparison from the victim and we identified those three bullets as having been fired from that revolver that was recovered from the creek. >> the prosecutors introduced that interrogation video of maliek kearney. >> i love this woman. i loved her. i love her to death. >> we did that so that the jury

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evidence that we had compiled against her at that point in time. >> after the arrests came a new lead. a tip to detective harding from an ex-boyfriend of dolores's in florida. >> he called me and said hey, one night i was hanging out with dolores and we got rid of a gun. and he said, "i think that was your murder weapon. " >> i mean, do you get calls like that every day? this is pretty remarkable. >> i wish. but we don't. >> investigators met with a tipster in merritt island, florida. he said that not long after karlyn's murder he and dolores delgado had burned some clothing and sneakers here. and that wasn't all. he told them he destroyed a revolver for her, dismantled it, and that the two of them threw the pieces of the gun off this pier. an fbi dive team out of miami was soon on the scene. the water was gin clear that day, and divers

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soulless executioner who took karlyn's life because she wanted to divorce him and endangered his baby daughter by leaving her in her dead mother's arms. >> he was used to getting what he wanted. relationships could end with maliek kearney, but they had to end on his terms. >> the government showed jurors their digital evidence. >> there was a tremendous amount of electronic data including text messages and photo messages that she shared with mr. kearney. >> including photos dolores had sent maliek of her car's odometer to demonstrate its driving range. and critical correspondence about what they said was the murder weapon. >> one particular text message was very important. he's test-firing the gun, and he texts her saying, "this gun is so darn loud. " >> this was part of the prosecutors'plan to put dolores's gun in maliek's hands. fbi firearms expert brett mills told jurors about

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told them she and maliek hooked up when they were both serving in kuwait years earlier. then, when harding and meyers examined dolores's phone data, they learned she also lied. about owning a gun. >> she told me that she was almost ignorant about firearms. but in her phone i could see that she was looking for a very particular firearm. >> on her phone there was a text that read "my last. 357 i paid 400. so i want to stay in that range. " detective meyers dove deeper into dolores's life. >> my data guy here starts going through her facebook. >> there were some things going on with firearms, some information about where she purchased firearms previously -- >> this is the woman who had no knowledge of firearms. >> right. >> the posts led meyers here. to a gun shop near dolores's home. the shop had a sales receipt and a federal firearms transaction record for a taurus. 357 revolver. both forms were made out to dolores

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number. >> he demonstrated the process on a gun from the fbi collection. >> once you've polished it, you go in and you literally start peeling the layers back with the acid until the number actually is visible. >> it's amazing how it just reappears, the serial number. >> sometimes it does. other times you might not be able to restore any type of number at all. >> there was another way to determine if they had found the murder weapon. mills would try to match the telltale markings on the bullets that killed karlin to the gun from the river. >> these fine striations that you see are the equivalent of a human fingerprint. >> but there was no way the recovered weapon would ever fire again. so mills removed its barrel, gently cleaned it, and attached it to a working revolver for a test firing. he demonstrated that process with a similar revolver. mills was able to do sex test firings

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delgado. the revolver dolores bought matched the caliber of gun that had killed karlyn. >> we saw that this gun was one of the ones on the list. >> of itself this purchase of a gun wasn't a smoking gun. but the detectives had to wonder why dolores would lie to them about owning a weapon. and there was something else. meyers soon learned that dolores had put a box of. 38-caliber ammunition up for sale on facebook. >> now, that's obviously you can't say it's the same bullets, but it matched all the characteristics. >> all this sleuthing took months. and while the detectives were working, dolores moved to san antonio, texas, into an apartment not far from maliek kearney. 150 miles west. karlyn's mom knew nothing about this new person of interest despite staying on the detectives.

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found forensic sunken treasure. there on the bottom, rusted, covered with seaweed and entrusted with barnacles, were the pieces of a handgun. the parts were rushed to the fbi crime lab in quantico, virginia. "dateline" was given rare access to the fbi's world-renowned crime lab. in his first ever interview firearms expert brett mills told us how he examined and reconstructed the weapon. first, he carefully cleaned the frame of the gun. >> when i finished cleaning it, there was no serial number there. from our reference collection i knew where the serial number should be. >> it was gone because delgado's ex-boyfriend had ground it away, totally obliterated it. or so he thought. mills had a plan. >> we call it serial number restoration. there are still compressed layers underneath that still has that impression of the serial number. using acid, we can restore that

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>> it's me again. i just don't want you to forget my daughter because she was very much loved. >> the investigation now encompassed a half dozen states. but maryland detectives and fbi agents were homing in on dolores delgado. >> what were you all learning about the relationship between maliek kearney and dolores delgado? >> just how, for lack of a better term, weird it was. they were friends. they were friends with benefits. they were lovers but not really romantically involved. they were just sort of best friends with romantic bent. >> there was another weird thing. dolores delgado's phone was full of texts between her and maliek kearney that weren't on his phone. and what a twisted story those texts would tell. >> coming up -- a tip from a complete stranger could blow the case open. >> he said one night we got rid of a gun. i think that was your murder weapon. >> i mean, do you get calls like this every day? this is pretty remarkable. >> i wish. but we don't.

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jim warwick and ken clark met with dolores and maliek. >> i introduced myself to mr. kearney. >> and you also got a chance to speak with miss delgado. >> we presented to her the facts that we had and the evidence that we had compiled against her at that point in time. >> after the arrests came a new lead. a tip to detective harding from an ex-boyfriend of dolores's in florida. >> he called me and said hey, one night i was hanging out with dolores and we got rid of a gun. and he said, "i think that was your murder weapon. " >> i mean, do you get calls like that every day? this is pretty remarkable. >> i wish. but we don't. >> investigators met with a tipster in merritt island, florida. he said that not long after karlyn's murder he and dolores delgado had burned some clothing and sneakers here. and that wasn't all. he told them he destroyed a revolver for her, dismantled it, and that the two of them threw the pieces of the

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and maliek kearney that weren't on his phone. and what a twisted story those texts would tell. >> coming up -- a tip from a complete stranger could blow the case open. >> he said one night we got rid of a gun. i think that was your murder weapon. >> the investigation now encompassed a half dozen states. but maryland detectives and fbi agents were homing in on dolores delgado. >> what were you all learning about the relationship between maliek kearney and dolores delgado? >> just how, for lack of a better term, weird it was. they were friends. they were friends with benefits. they were lovers

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