like, she s dead, she s dead! and i was so confused. i was like, what s going on? what happened? a small texas town, two super close friends, and a summer night in the park. they have this lookout, and you could see the harbor bridge lit up. it s really pretty when the stars are out. it was the next morning that they found them. i could see two girls laying there. it was horrifying. there was duct tape on their mouths, on their hands. a mystifying scene. the only thing we have are cigarette butts and suspicion. dna would point one way. he s like, serge, you ve got to take a look at this. a bombshell message would point another. i read the letter and immediately knew this was something very important. a twisted trail leading to a sinister suspect. it takes a special kind of mind that wants to do something like that. to crack a case this convoluted, it might just take a miracle. that was extraordinary. i just couldn t believe it. welcome to dateli
close friends, and, a summer night in the park. they had this look out, and you can see the harbor bridge that up. it s really pretty when the stars are out. it was the next morning that they found it. i could see the two girls laying. there it was horrifying. there was duct tape on their mouse, on their hands. a mystifying scene. the only thing we have our cigarette beds and suspicion. dna would 0.1 way. it was like star you gotta take a look at. this a bombshell message would point another. i read a letter, and immediately knew this was something very important. a twisted trail leading to a sinister suspect. take some special kind of mind that wants to do something like that. to crack a case this kind of alluded, it might just take a miracle. that was extraordinary. i just couldn t believe it. welcome to dateline, two young women were discovered in a park bound and gagged both were sexually assaulted and shot in the head. one died, but th
in his interrogation strickland said he had no issues with the gay community. whether or not that was the truth, prosecutors decided not to charge him with a hate crime. after five days of testimony, the jury began deliberations. it took six hours to reach a verdict. guilty. david strickland is appealing that conviction based on the fact, his lawyer says, the evidence presented was legally insufficient to convict him. strickland was sentenced to life in prison. for mollie s family and friends, that guilty verdict, as it often does, provided hollow satisfaction. we re waiting for justice, and then now it s here but we don t get her back. we have had so many huge, major life moments and she hasn t been there. what would have been our anniversary, her birthday, the anniversary of us getting shot, those days are the hardest. kristene still wonders how she escaped death and sometimes why. i do have survivor s guilt. i mean hopefully it will go away in time. kristene would tell
after the murder. remember that tip about a white car seen speeding from the park the night of the murder? the tipster was david strickland. he came in as a good samaritan wanting to provide information. back then, david strickland lived just blocks from the park where the shootings took place. and now here he is being mentioned in connection with a guy who s been mysteriously fingered for the murder. that s right. 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 sheft charge and was released soon after, but the charges were still pending, and volaman wondered,
california at the time of the muferd. 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 cristobal 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 immediately recognized the photo. he knew when and where it was taken. plus, he said, the original photograph was of two people. the missing man, he said, was his former roommate, david strickland. if the snapshot was a surprise to melchor, the name david strickland was an even bigger one for detective volaman. turns out, he had crossed paths with david strickland before. i had interviewed david strickland in 2012, just days