performed a key chemical test of the carpet inside denny s apartment. the luminol test. the police investigators can spray a chemical on this alleged evidence and it will luminesce and show as blood and therefore can be tested. that was never done. visible blood spots were found on denny s apartment walls, but in the dozens of samples of blood and fibers sent out for testing none came back to hannah. no dna, no blood. you theorize she was killed there in a bloody homicide and yet there s no trace of her. yep. nor was there a trace of denny on or in hannah s car. good morning, ladies and gentlemen. despite the ambiguous evidence, in october 2000, 21-year-old denny ross stood trial for the rape and murder of hannah hill. he pleaded not guilty and faced the death penalty if convicted. he beat her into submission so he could rape her. two young prosecutors argued their theory of the case, that inside that apartment denny had raped and killed hannah.
for an answer to that question, denny s attorneys would turn to hannah s diaries. reporter ed meyer. page after page of entries in her own handwriting. you could argue she was fed up with brad oborn and was reaching out on the very night she disappeared. that s going to be something for a jury to think about. it would be if i was sitting on a panel. the diary entries. speaking from her grave, hannah s own words telling jurors who she was thinking of. denny. here on november 11th, again on december 2nd, and yet again on december 16th. in hannah s handwriting. denny. what s more, the defense attorney got brad to admit he had read her diary cataloging hannah s visits to denny. did you recognize under the 19th where it said brad read this book. it hurt really bad. i ve never loved someone so much. i recognize the fact that she recognized that i read the book. she wrote she had gone to denny s. did you read that when you read the book? i don t remember.
claimed denny attacked and choked her years after hannah hill s murder. the defense was the one who should have been on trial. hannah s family waited 13 years for justice and their wait was almost over. here with the conclusion of our story is dennis murphy. f our story is dennis murphy jurors deliberating, asked by the state to pass judgment on another human being. we have two families out there. we had to take our time and make that right decision. what would they make of the weeks of testimony? why a murder defendant who didn t even look like one? the first day i thought he was a lawyer. he had this boyish look as if to say, why am i here? i didn t do this. seven jurors in the case spoke to dateline and told us initially they were an evenly divided panel of 12. as they talked, it became apparent they regarded some of the prosecution witnesses as literally unbelievable.
have his lawyer present when detectives arrived for a conversation. once the lawyer showed up, detectives took out a tape recording and began an interview. denny told the detective he stayed in the night hannah disappeared. but then volunteered an astonishing bit of information. that makes him the plast known person to have seen her alife. absolutely. yes. denny offered up a tip for the cops take a look at brad.
1999 matt meyer was the prosecutor who laid out the theater roy of the crime. that hannah hill was lured over to denny ross s bachelor pad for a fatal encounter. nearly 70 witnesses were called. some of them testifying off camera to things denny had told them over the years about hannah s death. denny made a comment to me that he was going to [ bleep ] hann hannah. we were all having sex and i was having sex with this girl and ended up choking her. she died. this woman was a stripper back then and a regular at denny s place. for 12 years she denied being there the night hannah died. just months before the second trial she changed her story saying now she was there that night and hadn t spoken up earlier because she was afraid. while you were there, what did you observe?