first wild goose chase. he had carter s address. so, wee hours of saturday morning, he drove over there and what do you know? i saw a black infiniti backed in, right in front of their apartment. reporter: but he didn t knock on her door. i was going to go ahead and basically sit here and watch the vehicle to see if it moved. reporter: for more than four hours, he sat in his car, cold but patient. then about 8:00 a.m. saturday morning, he saw the lights of the infiniti flash as if someone was unlocking it remotely. i see the male enter the driver s seat of the vehicle. i then see a female enter the passenger side of the black infiniti. reporter: they drove off. the detective followed. and after a few minutes the infiniti pulled into, of all places, the hulen mall. there they are. they re going back to the place where ashlea worked, where the american eagle was. yes, sir. reporter: but what would they be doing there? well, that was the that
car. cedillo called his partner, ernie pate asked him to check up on the guy. when i approached the car, then the person identified themself as david mallory. reporter: david mallory was carter s live-in boyfriend. he too was a former employee of american eagle. i ask him, what are you doing here at the mall? he said that he had dropped his girlfriend off to pick up some papers at aeropostale where she was a manager. reporter: so perhaps it was just that. david giving carter a ride to pick up some paperwork at her new job at aeropostale. cedillo decided to go inside. the mall was open but the stores were still closed. and i happened to go up to aeropostale and there is a manager that s actually in there working. and i was able to confirm that carter cervantez did not work for him and he doesn t even know
and ashlea harris was the one who discovered the money missing. and when ashlea came in to open the store, she found the safe open. reporter: ashlea knew that it was carter who closed the night before. and when she showed her boss the security video view of the burglary. she pointed at the monitor and she said, that s david mallory. and i said, who s david mallory? and they said, it s carter s boyfriend. reporter: the math was easy, ashlea figured carter set up the burglary and david carried it out. carter got fired. david sort of disappeared. and both heard that it was ashlea who identified them. they hadn t been charged. not yet but the case was basically actively being investigated when this happened. reporter: and now three months later, here was carter talking to the police who were growing suspicious that she and her boyfriend were connected to ashlea s murder. why am i here? reporter: cedillo started off
reporter: her name, he said, was carter. carter cervantez, that businesslike assistant manager who worked with ashlea so then i ask him, you know, what color is the g35 that she drove? and he mentions that it s a black one. reporter: what was that like, to hear that? well, it beats hearing the color red or white. reporter: and, by the way, chris told detective cedillo, carter left american eagle because she was fired. cedillo filed that away and sorted through the crime scene and talked to witnesses. and a day that began at 8:30 that morning didn t end until 1:00 am. did you get any sleep? no, sir, i didn t. reporter: the story about carter cervantez and her black infiniti was just bugging him. well, i m thinkin about the case and i m thinking, where do i go from here? reporter: might have tossed and turned all night thinking about that. but something inside him said, nope. i m not gonna be able to get any sleep. i might as well go back out there and see wh
alarm started goin off. water started comin down into his apartment. reporter: and that s when the neighbor saw a black infiniti g-35 driving away. armed with this new information, cedillo went back to alexis torres. i asked her if she knew anyone or if ashlea knew anyone that drove a infiniti g-35. i never gave her a color. i simply asked her about a g-35. alexis said, no. after he was done asking the questions, i walked outside and sat down on the brick. and i believe it was chris that was there. reporter: that would be chris cravey, ashlea s boss at american eagle. alexis told him that police were asking about an infiniti sedan. and chris made a beeline for detective cedillo. i approached him. and i said, i know whose car y all are asking about. and he says, i just wanna make you aware that i have a former employee that did drive a infiniti g35.