in the process of transposing numbers from actual measurements at the scene to the crime scene program, numbers were just transposed wrong. reporter: wallace admits the error but says it was minor, that conrad truman did not deserve a new trial. it s not that significant as they made it out to be. reporter: did those incorrectly entered measurements change your opinion of conrad truman s guilt? should they change anyone s opinion? they didn t change my opinion. reporter: nor did it change the opinion of the deputy d.a., tim taylor, who decided to take on the task himself of prosecuting conrad once again. i think craig had been into the case for a long time, so i wanted fresh eyes. so i went through all the evidence. and even with the medical examiner changing his opinion, i still felt that there was enough to go forward. but we knew going into it, it was going to be tough. reporter: at trial the prosecution s case was familiar. starting with the officers who testified a
and put it inside the door so if somebody stepped in i d see it. baby powder. what else? anything else? i think that did that james bond thing with the paper on the door. paper on the walls. that s about it. by now, the detective was working with his colleague jim wallace and deputy d.a. he specializes in tackling the most difficult of cold cases. do you remember when you saw the results of that interview what you thought? yeah. i thought his memory had grown in areas where it shouldn t and in areas where he should be saying the same story was different and that s the ha hallmark of deception. but the mind plays tricks, the mind invents things and inserts them into your memory and you believe them. that s an interesting theory. i don t think it s really supported. memories can be lost but memories don t increase in details over the years and they
murder of his wife carol but then he refused to talk and the investigation hit a wall. without a body, how could they prove there was a murder at all? the answer would send investigators in an unexpected direction. could facebook help them find out what really happened to carol? here again is keith morrison with secrets in the mist. deputy d.a. and the torrence police department cold case team believed mike killed his wife carol back in 1981. but they had one big problem. they couldn t prove carol was dead. the biggest assumption is going to be well how do you know she s not just out of the country or across the country or changed her identity. kind of an important question with no answer. and then in january 2011, jim wallace got the flu.
Transcripts for MSNBC Dateline Extra 20191209 05:44:15 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.
welcome back. one woman dead, another three missing. detective julissa trapp believed the cases may have been linked, and she was about to get another one of her hunches. if she was right, she might be able to tie one potential suspect to all of the victims. here again is keith morrison. reporter: the autopsy came in. the one for jarrae estepp, the girl on the conveyor belt. it s bad. it was bad. it was bad. reporter: strangled, beaten, sexually assaulted. viciously, according to then deputy d.a. larry yellin. should have been a college girl. should be worrying about grades and boyfriends, and football games and and those things. reporter: one wrong turn, and you never know, huh? yeah. reporter: but almost three weeks in detective julissa trapp