and did that upset you? very much so. reporter: so weeks later, two men arrived with a trailer. and did you watch them take the mercedes out of your garage? yes, i did. reporter: that, said prosecutor grace, is when they moved the mercedes into reina s storage locker. where, months later, detective labbe noticed one crucial little detail that survived the attempted cover-up. i was looking at the license plate, and i see that it s not there. there should be a california license plate. it s not you d kinda think. it s gone. and i also see that there s one screw missing and one screw screwed back in halfway, and that screw came back positive dna to john creech. reporter: bingo. the unassailable link to pull together all that evidence phone records, chandy s testimony, the friends, the dna, and it all condemned john creech. but a surprise was coming for everyone.
her father knew more. chandy s dad started telling a tale about something his daughter may have seen, and he was distraught and wanted to talk about it. and he said, well, you know reina? i go, yeah, i know the name. reporter: reina lim. she lived with chandy. she took care of chandy s grandmother. chandy s dad said reina knew something, something important. and he goes, i think she knows where the car is. reporter: the elusive mercedes. detective labbe and his partner john o brien drove out to see reina. we just waited till she showed up, and we kind of surprised her. that s what you guys do, right? you know sometimes it works better that way, yeah. she was very nervous and startled and wasn t quite sure what to do. but ultimately she provided us with the paperwork for the storage locker. reporter: reina s storage locker. it was a kbig one. 10 feet by 20. we rolled the door up and the only thing in it was a black mercedes benz with no license plates on it.
in stan s garage. and did that upset you? very much so. reporter: so weeks later, two men arrived with a trailer. and did you watch them take the mercedes out of your garage? yes, i did. reporter: that, said prosecutor grace, is when they moved the mercedes into reina s storage locker. where, months later, detective labbe noticed one crucial little detail that survived the attempted cover-up. i was looking at the license plate, and i see that it s not there. there should be a california license plate. it s not you d kinda think. it s gone. and i also see that there s one screw missing and one screw screwed back in halfway, and that screw came back positive dna to john creech. reporter: bingo. the unassailable link to pull together all that evidence phone records, chandy s testimony, the friends, the dna, and it all condemned john creech. but a surprise was coming for
chandy s dad started telling a tale about something his daughter may have seen, and he was distraught and wanted to talk about it. and he said, well, you know reina? i go, yeah, i know the name. reporter: reina lim? she lived with chandy. she took care of chandy s grandmother. chandy s dad said reina knew something, something important. and he goes, i think she knows where the car is. reporter: the elusive mercedes. detective labbe and his partner john o brien drove out to see reina. we just waited till she showed up, and we kind of surprised her. that s what you guys do, right? you know sometimes it works better that way, yeah. she was very nervous and startled and wasn t quite sure what to do. but ultimately she provided us with the paperwork for the storage locker. reporter: reina s storage locker. it was a big one, ten feet by 20. we rolled the door up and the only thing in it was a black mercedes benz with no license plates on it. wow.