shift was hurt last she was lying face down, a pool of blood under one side. just one tiny clue. a piece of foam rubber. there was a suspect, but he had an alibi, until this revelation. i said, i have something that you need to know. welcome to dateline, it hello, and welcome to dateline. it sometimes take especially to look at a crime scene and spot the one thing that is out of place, the clue that will crack the case. in this story, that thing appeared so inconsequential, that no one even knew what it was, let alone what it meant. it took almost two decades, a team of determined investigators, and a detective with an unusual background find out. here s keith morrison with the night before halloween. it was the night before halloween, october 30th midnight approaching. it happened in one of the middle class suburbs that s roll across the los angeles basin. inside a fast food franchise, closed for the night, a frantic scrambling, running feet, and then, sile
vanished. obviously, there was, you know, something really bad. her name, brianna. she was just 19 years old. just wanted to say to my daughter, breonna, that i love you. i miss you, and nobody s ever giving up. nobody was giving up, but nobody was any closer to solving the mystery. where it was breonna? within a three mile radius, they were hundreds of registered sex offenders. then, a tip but a woman who had found something odd in her boyfriends truck women s underwear. and when she asked him for the truth, she discovered something even stranger. did you do? this oh my god, did you? hello, and welcome to dateline. reno, nevada calls itself the biggest little city in the world, and this was one of the biggest cases it had ever seen. a local girl, a college student named breonna had disappeared on a winters night. what had happened, no one knew. where it would lead, nobody could predict. but this entire city would soon galvanize for a single mission, t
Altered. they can t down and set, i matched the description, i want to get my dna so that you don t to worry about me. but there was no match there either. we were pretty confident that that individual would likely not be our suspect. and when you do find a guy, he would say no. we were certain that the offender are probably not be too excited about giving up his dna. the search dragged into february, 25 days since breonna disappeared. the posters and ribbons around town or fading a bit. her family still out our hope that she was alive. brees mother brigitte made a valentine s day appeal on tv. i just want to say to my daughter, breonna, that i love you and i miss you, and nobody s ever giving up. there are thousands of people looking for you. the next day, the weather had turned warm, and the snow at started to melt in reno. at lunchtime, a man was taking
Infant. her mom brigitte says that made their family even closer. we had to team up. and the kids all had to help. you know, i had a little baby. and she became very protective of me. as she got older, she stayed close? that does not happen a lot. she stayed close, and he followed the rules. the more she followed the rules, the more freedom she had. she decided on college in california, and was in her sophomore year ad santa barbara city college. she had a steady boyfriend, while studying psychology, and wanted to work with kids. then came winter break, and brianna came back to visit her hometown friends. so you thought great, home, safe? never felt like she was unsafe, because she was so responsible. so the detectives wanted to know, how do this responsible girl end up missing? they began to retrace her steps, the day before she disappeared.
Reach a verdict. we the jury, find the defendant james michael biehle guilty of count five of sexual assault, guilty of count to kidnapping in the first degree, guilty of count three sexual assault, guilty of thought for, murdering to the first degree of brianna dennison. guilty on all counts. the jury gave james billet the death penalty that verdict meant the end of a long and difficult ordeal for the city of reno, especially for breonna s mother brigitte. for her, this is also the beginning of something. we spoke again just after the trial. the first interview i did, you are coming apart at the seams. you ve come a long way. i have. it s been two and a half years. you have to make a choice. you can be miserable and let it control your life, or you can move on and hopefully try to