so, just like that, basically, mr. melchor is no longer the focus of this. it s now david strickland. that s right. chris melchor went on to explain that he and strickland were no longer on good terms. melchor believed strickland had stolen several of his guns, so he had strickland arrested. yeah, the gun robbery put a damper on their relationship. strickland pleaded not guilty to the gun theft charge and was released soon after, but the charges were still pending, and veuleman wondered, could strickland have written that letter as some kind of elaborate payback for melchor having strickland arrested? i know there was bad blood between david strickland and christobal melchor, but to accuse someone of murder? if you think that letter was written by david strickland and you think the letter includes things that only the killer would know well, i think the logical inference was that strickland had something to do with the murder. finding david strickland was now veulem
welcome back. a mysterious letter had identified cristobal mel cher as the man who shot two people. after police spoke with him, they turned their attention to his former roommate, david strickland. police wanted to hear what he had to say. they were not the only ones. here josh mankiewicz with the conclusion of a texas twist. first came spell mman, clead by police and by his height. then chris mel cher, cleared by suspicion and geography. now the detective was on the trail of another man, david strickland. the detective learn that he was a hometown boy. his dad is a successful businessman.
an implied threat to her safety, and so we moved very quickly to make sure that she was safe, that she was protected. and they re like, okay, you know what, you need to leave town. like, no one could know where i was at. only my family knew where i was at. with kristene in a safe place, veuleman went straight to layton, utah. with the help of the local pd, he was soon sitting across from his new person of interest. christobal melchor said he was on a training exercise in california at the time of the murder. not only was he not in texas, he was on the other side of the country. he was. was there anything to suggest that he had some kind of vendetta against the chapa family? we were not able to find any connection between christobal melchor and the chapa family or the olgin family. he then showed melchor the letter, and melchor was stunned. but he was even more surprised when he saw his picture on the last page of the letter. that was because melchor
what the report said is that the two shell casings found at the scene and the two shell casings from the test fire were linked to the same weapon. for the detective, that report was the missing piece of the puzzle which he believed now directly linked david strickland to the shootings. the day that i looked at that ballistics report is the day we arrested him. aggravated assault, aggravated sexual assault and capital murder were the charges. while in custody, david strickland agreed to sit down for a police interview. have a seat for me. the prosecutor, sam smith, watched the interview through a one-way mirror. he would claim to have committed the murder. you re saying that you did this? sure. i did it. and then in the next sentence with a smile on his face say, but that s what you wanted me to
according to melchor, strickland left utah after his arrest and returned to texas, so detective veuleman did the same, hoping this man would turn out to be the investigation s third and final person of interest. coming up a suspect not acting at all like you might expect. he was enjoying this interview. maybe police have the wrong guy again. to point at him in court and say that s the guy that did it. when dateline continues. r. skivvies. gadgets or skivvies? boxed set? perfect! nobody knows young readers like we do. barnes & noble have a skincare routine. but what about a lip care routine? pay your lips some attention. the chapstick total hydration collection. exfoliate nourish naturally enhance your lips. chapstick. put your lips first.