soon skipped off to embrace some fresher outrage, overloaded detectives were called to new crime scenes, and the christie fleming case, yesterday's news, faded from view. weeks passed, months, years. >> the more time that goes by, the more you feel like it's never going to happen. it's just hopeless, and you're going to just have to live with not knowing. >> and it wasn't made any easier when the lead detective retired. he hated leaving without solving the case, especially this case. >> he told me one day, he said, "i've got this old case that i'd like for you to be responsible with because i'd like to see this case solved." so that's how i got interested in it. and once i got interested in it, i was hooked. >> davis pored over it all, all the obsessive habits, the staged crime scene, cigarette butts, the secret return of the old boyfriend, art gutierrez. the solution seemed tantalizingly possible, yet just out of reach.