stopped sooner. i was so angry that two people had to die in order for someone to believe me. the story begins in a small texas town. but it s not just any town. this is college station, home to texas a&m and in 1999 the home to 21 year old student jamie hart. i was immediately struck with her beauty. chuck crews was her boyfriend at the time. he says jamie was the light of his life. he remembers when he first laid eyes on her. i could barely speak when i saw her, she was so pretty. it was like when the color came on in the wizard of oz. i had been living in a dark world and she showed me a world full of color. and she was a loyal friend, funny, outspoken. she would tell you exactly what was on her mind at all times. it was early one morning in may. jamie s roommates couldn t find her. they called chuck. i got a call asking me if i
assaulted. did you start to think that these could be connected? i didn t think they were connected. and that was primarily because, with jamie there was a boyfriend that may have been involved. it was a romantic relationship that went wrong. it wasn t some random occurrence by a stranger. kristin was now living with overwhelming anxiety and dread, which she says manifested into dangerous behavior. instead of being afraid of everything i became afraid of nothing. i, you know, i just became completely risk seeking. what kind of things would you do? i think i started drinking heavily for a while after that. you know, i d hop on the back of a stranger s motorcycle after he d had three beers and it took a long time to really get out of that hole. just as kristin was starting to turn a corner her attacker was due in court on that misdemeanor charge. but nothing came of it. he didn t even show up. i d done what i needed to do. and part of me just wanted
months since kristin had been assaulted. her attacker had failed to show up to court and seemed to have just disappeared. he just didn t show up? didn t show up. in the next town over, detective kenny elliott continued to work the jamie hart murder case. he d spent the last year casting a wide net for possible suspects. you took dna from 70 people? i think 77, mainly people that were being booked into jail for violent crimes. anyone that was in the area that just didn t want to talk, we took dna from everybody that would give it, practically. but he also had never taken his eye off of her boyfriend chuck cruz. there was just something that was bothering you about chuck cruz? there was a lot bothering me about chuck cruz. so the brazos county sheriffs office kept investigating chuck even
and now he says he could hardly grieve with police breathing down his neck. what s it like waking up every morning and knowing that you re under a cloud of suspicion? incredibly depressing. he left college station moved home to be with his family near dallas who spent money to hire a defense attorney. the biggest thing that was going through my mind the whole time was that i didn t do it, they don t know who did it, and the guy who did it is out walking around and likely to prey on more victims. this monster is walking free while they re wasting their time on me. kelly brown of the eagle newspaper was writing front page stories about the unsolved crime in the college town. and it really shook the community because this is an area that isn t used to seeing this type of crime. and kelly was hearing talk that the police had a suspect. but there was no arrest and that s what kept everybody saying, well, then, okay. was it the boyfriend? was it you know, someone that s
nice guy and now she s a stay at home mom with five kids. a hollywood happy ending? no. sometimes real life is better. that s all for this edition of dateline, i m craig melvin. i m craig melvin. i m natalie morales. this is dateline. . he was a college student student. found on a lonely road in texas. we figured she had been sexually assaulted and dumped here. tough questions for her boyfriend. where was i the night before? what had i been doing? when had i last seen her? i really thought he could be our killer.