he was very bright, friendly, eager to help anyone out. he you know, he was he was that kinda he was that guy that a lot of people knew. and he would walk into, say, the student lounge, and other everybody would be like, hey, it s daniel, you know. reporter: hmm, nice guy? yeah, very nice guy. a nice guy who was telling detective ellzey he was troubled about nathan. and then, when the detective dug a little deeper among other people who knew nathan, he began to hear a different take on the kid who was supposedly too shy to kiss his girlfriend. some people would describe him as a little bitty, scrawny kid, kind of introverted who just lived and breathed his artwork. other people would say, the guy had a temper. ashley said she d heard the same thing. one of my friends would say just like you know, i would never want to see nathan angry and i asked him, why? and they said, have you ever seen him play a video game? because he just kind of pops if he doesn t
what do you all do? we were sitting there playing video games. you never tried anything sexual with her? she never tried anything sexual with you? did you kiss her? no, never. you never kissed her? she s been your girlfriend two months and you never kissed her? why? it s weird. it was my first girlfriend. reporter: detective ellzey had never heard of a college romantic relationship like that. question was, could he believe it? how many 19 and 20-year-old people proclaim to have a girlfriend or boyfriend who have not kissed them? reporter: nathan also said he hadn t seen or spoken with shelley since several days before the murder. in fact, he said, he spent much of the week back home with his mom and grandmother. was he telling the truth? standard procedure detective ellzey checked out nathan s body for scratches. all right. turn around. okay. come back around again. how did you get those scrapes right here, them scratches?
she just never got into any trouble at all. so that s what makes this so much harder cause nothing like this should ve ever happened to her, you know. reporter: especially to her. especially to her. reporter: what was done to shelley nance, just 20 years old, was viciously ugly. that it was murder was all too obvious. the girl had been attacked as she lay probably asleep in bed. her killer stabbed her again and again and again. over 40 times. in the back. she was stabbed in her back. she was stabbed in her neck, behind her head. i mean this was brutal and this was savage. reporter: overkill, said detective paul ellzey. as will be clearly apparent, detective ellzey has deep roots in old-fashioned police work. starting as a kid, then 36 years with the dallas p.d.
she never said that. boy, you sound like mad. you re a damn psychopath. are you like coo-coo-coo and la la land? does [ expletive ] not register to you? nothing makes sense. i m just i m just waiting to wake up. that s right. you re waiting to wake up. now, what did you do with the knife? i wasn t there. nathan, you i didn t do anything with a knife. yeah, you did. reporter: detective ellzey made no apology for the aggressive tone of his interrogation. there was more to learn about this closed off young man, for whom questions about knives would have an extra special meaning. reporter: coming up someone offers a new and unsettling portrait of nathan s relationship with shelley. i talked to the roommate.
nobody else could have did it, nobody else could have did it. nobody! this looks terrible for you. i know it does. this looks terrible, terrible, terrible for you. reporter: no, detective ellzey did not go easy on shelley s roommate. but there was a murder to solve. and the first day of an investigation is crucial. time to bring in the boyfriend. coming up detectives are digging in on her boyfriend and make a disturbing discovery in his apartment. what a collection he had. he had throwin stars. he had daggers. he had knives. he had swords. who collects that kind of stuff? when infatuation continues. s did the little piggy cry wee wee wee all the way home? weeeeeeeee! we we weeeee! weeeeeeee!