Detailed text transcripts for TV channel - MSNBC - 20181118:07:39:45 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
reporter: you were a pest? i was a squeaky wheel. reporter: your mom was relentless with the police. yes, she was. i went with her a couple times to meet the the new chief that would come into the police department. we go in there. you know, we just want to let you know that we represent cathy torrez, and we have not forgotten, and we just want to make sure that her case is still being worked on. reporter: we have not forgotten and we want to make sure that you don t either. right, right. reporter: the city of placentia didn t forget. the community learning center was dedicated in cathy s name. the cathy torrez learning center. yes. reporter: you ve got to leave your mark on the world. and she did, huh? reporter: and a tree was planted in cathy s memory across the street. they planted it in a way where from my mom s kitchen, she could see the tree. reporter: sam lopez could see it too. he was still living in the same home police had searched after cathy
cathy torrez? yes. reporter: he hadn t told you that? he hadn t told me that. that was in the first couple of weeks that i was dating him. reporter: sam emphatically denied any involvement in cathy s murder. but just the idea spooked tina. so she made up a lie. i met him and i told him that i was dating somebody else. reporter: which was not true? which was not true. reporter: you were a little freaked out by that? well, yeah. reporter: but the spark that drew her to sam was too strong, and though tina had only known him a few short weeks, something in her heart said sam was innocent. so i gave him a call. and i started dating him again. reporter: okay. i mean, you re an attractive woman. i have trouble believing that there were not guys available who weren t already suspects in a murder investigation. i m sure there probably were. but there they didn t have my attention. reporter: they dated for a year, and then married.
a plastic bag was peeking out of the trunk. officers opened it, and cathy torrez was missing no longer. she had been stabbed multiple times. all about the upper chest and neck. reporter: detective sergeant daron wyatt. you know, there s no way to time the death. but i think it s pretty safe to assume that she had been dead since she disappeared on that saturday night on the 12th. reporter: it was devastating not just for the torrez family but for all those in placentia who d been searching so tirelessly for cathy. she was a vibrant, very intelligent young girl. this is truly a tragedy. reporter: detectives went to work trying to find cathy s killer. they set up a hotline. if you have any information regarding the homicide of cathy torrez reporter: and scoured placentia for clues. by studying her car and her body, investigators got a sense of what happened. first, cathy was completely clothed.
police had their suspicions about sam lopez s involvement in the murder of his neighbor and former girlfriend, cathy torrez. but there was no physical evidence tying him to the murder. and he had a solid alibi on the night cathy was killed. sam was with his cousin, javier. which is why when police took their case to the d.a. s office, the d.a. refused to file charges against sam. police pursued other leads too, like a possible connection to the suicide of cathy s boyfriend, albert. did you think that cathy s disappearance had anything to do with albert? no. reporter: coincidence. yeah, just two tragedies happening at the same time. reporter: but not connected. but not connected, no. reporter: even though that coincidence continued to bother them, police were forced to agree. but that left the investigation with nowhere to go.