she tried to get off the bed and get out of there. i was not there. and you caught her and started pounding her with your fist. no, sir. stomach and all. no, sir. did you kick her? no, sir. i wasn t there. that s all i have to ask you. in his closing argument to the jury, willie t. portrayed elmore as a sadistic killer who tortured his victim before beating her to death. but diana thought that the depiction of elmore was highly prejudicial and the evidence riddled with holes. she also thought elmore had done well under the circumstances. even under withering prosecution by brilliant willie t., mr. elmore said what he always said, i didn t do it. in order to solve the mystery of who did murder dorothy edwards, diana began looking for alternate suspects and she found one in the neighbor who discovered the body, james holloway.
decomposition. but when the state medical examiner was asked, why did you recommend the time of death be 65 hours prior to the time of discovery, given all the evidence of the rigor mortis, the lack of decomposition, she said under oath, because that s when they told me. the police told me that s when they thought it happened. but even with all the evidence in elmore s favor, diana and jensen knew the biggest hurdle would be explaining the blood on elmore s pants to the court. blood that was supposedly found on pants and shoes matched the blood type of mrs. edwards. and this was very difficult testimony to rebut. as jensen cross-examined the state s blood evidence, diana went through the testimony and made a key discovery. evidence lists showed elmore s pants had passed through eight different people before the trial. i jumped out of my chair. i start whispering to chris jensen, ask him what this means and who these people are and
as diana dug deep entire the case, a new suspect began to emerge. she thought the next door neighbor who discovered dorothy s body had acted suspiciously. really? he put his gloves on before he went to open the door? that grabbed me right away. i fd the right snack [ female announcer ] fiber one.
be. he told law enforcement, you know, there was a boy here a couple weeks back who washed her windows. and if you get me her checkbook, i can get his name for you. and that was edward lee elmore. that boy. even more surprising was that the police allowed holloway, a possible suspect, to clean the crime scene the day after dorothy s body was found. law enforcement turned the crime scene over to jimmy holloway to clean up. he could do whatever he wanted in there. there was no law enforcement presence watching what happened. there was no preservation of the crime scene. diana needed answers so she drove 90 miles to greenwood, south carolina, and showed up unannounced at james holloway s front door. mrs. holloway answered the door. she led me into the den and he was sitting on his big overstuffed recliner. so i introduced myself, and he proceeded to tell me, well, you know, really, the only one who could kill her and get away with it was me, the way she trusted
elmore was guilty on the same day the victim s body was found. the focus was always on what how to make the evidence fit. such that it was pointed to mr. elmore. edward, you spent 30 years in prison, incarcerated. what kept you going? what did what gave you hope? well, like i say, mrs. holt, i knew some day the truth will come out, right? hang on to that. good lawyers like mrs. holt. i made it. you certainly seem to be an optimist. there are a lot of people on death row, many of them don t have hope. but diana, you found holes in the case. but there was also a suspect, a potential suspect. just take a look quickly. in order to solve the mystery