elmen had a close connection to the 10-year-old girl found hanging in the tree near julie's store two months before julie's murder. >> the 10-year-old was a half-sister of elmen. >> investigators now wanted to test the biological evidence collected from julie's rape test kit to see whether james elmen was her killer, but there was a risk. the test would consume all of the evidence. >> unfortunately, sometimes you have to make a choice. you might have to run the entire bit of sample. but at the time, you're thinking this is the best technology available. >> investigators decided the gamble was worth it. >> they consumed all of the semen that was contained in those slides trying to get results, results that, unfortunately, never showed who the killer was. >> this was a devastating setback. >> it's just shocking. it feels like you're hit with a ton of bricks. then you've got to start over. it's like going -- starting from