was released. they should not have closed the case. should have been looked at to see if there s additional information as to whether or not he was out of yale. reporter: in 2006, jocelyn started hunting online for her father s alleged killer. delving in to websites like background.com. what did you find? i didn t know i had so much stuff. reporter: after years of searching i m like i think i have something. i said, oh my god. but this i had the person in the background check right at the top. reporter: she took what she found here to the 34th precinct in november. november is the anniversary of my father s death and i get upset. reporter: police say it s only because of her efforts they were able to capture santos. it s what she did, obviously, she made a concerted effort and it paid off. i don t believe it. my daughter has accomplished this. reporter: a police source
they didn t get back to me or something. november of 2012 i get a meeting to go to the 34th precinct, and they very nicely said we ll do anything to help you. and from the information you gave them, you got from the online checking that was in january of 2013 when they get the file and give it to me. i wanted it, i think my intention was to go get it, i m going to solve it. not really. but i get the e-mail of one of the sergeants that was in, and i said, thank you very much. and he told me, if you have any other information, you can let us know. how quickly that the police found the guy? very quickly. very quickly. but all from the information you gave them? i guess. i don t think so, because i think they were looking, but they can t tell me. i want to tell you what ray
people s names, right? yes. i did a couple of other background checkks, but they have a lot of information, you can t found on that information. but it was strange, because that name has a variation, like a middle initial. and i thought wow, look at the h., it would be. but that s just too obvious. no. no. and then there was another one that also was a criminal that had a similar name. and eventually you began to piece it together and went to the police again? no, i just put that away. what was the moment you went to the police? november of 2012 well, first 2011 i wrote to a show and they didn t get back to me or something. november of 2012 i get a meeting to go to the 34th precinct, and they very nicely said we ll do anything to help you.
information as to whether or not he was out of jail. reporter: in 2006 she started hunting online for her father s alleged ki8 killer delving into websites like background.com. what did you find? i didn t know i found so much stuff. reporter: after years of searching let me look. i had this background check. it was right at the top. reporter: she took what she found here to the 34th precinct in november. because november is the anniversary of my father s death, and i get upset. reporter: police say it is because of her efforts they were able to capture santos. it is admirable what she did. obviously she made a concerted effort, and it paid off. reporter: a police source tells cnn after santos was arrested in miami thursday he confessed to murdering jose martinez. all i wanted was to figure
i didn t know i found so much stuff. reporter: after years of searching let me look. i had this background check. it was right at the top. reporter: she took what she found here to the 34th precinct in november. because november is the anniversary of my father s death, and i get upset. reporter: police say it is because of her efforts they were able to capture santos. it is admirable what she did. obviously she made a concerted effort, and it paid off. reporter: a police source tells cnn after santos was arrested in miami thursday he confessed to murdering jose martinez. all i wanted was to figure out what happened. reporter: what do you think your dad would say? i think he would just hug me and smile. he would smile a lot. reporter: nypd detectives are in miami and plan to bring santos back to new york friday.