Transcripts for CNN Forensic Files 20140713 07:37:30 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
i think forensic science is amazing. that s what solved the case. it just puts that much more of my faith in the system. i m glad it s progressed to where it has and i hope it continues to do so. forensic science in this particular case is 110%. it s the reason wilson saintil is in prison, and without it, he would be a free man today. up next, the murder of a convenience store employee goes unsolved for years. the case always bugged me. we wanted to find the clown that did that. police couldn t understand why the victim s husband didn t report her missing. every time i hear i didn t call it in because we had an argument, i always wonder how could anybody believe this? could new forensic testing solve a 20-year-old case? you ve got to treat every single case like it s the crime of the century. when rod and julie estes started their life together in
elmen probably wanted to keep julie s car, but it got stuck in the mud and he had to escape on foot. authorities had plenty of suspicion, but no evidence, to charge elmen with his half-sister s murder. but after 17 years, there was plenty of dna evidence to charge him with julie estes rape and murder. it just was unbelievable that it would be the socks that would hold the true identity of her killer. faced with a possible death penalty, elmen decided to plead no contest to julie estes rape and murder. in return, he was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. how do you feel about everything? how do i feel? mm-hmm. the overall picture? i think this sucks. the lesson for criminals would be no matter how long ago you did the crime, the forensics has the capability of solving it. if it wasn t forensics in
julie s husband said he had an alibi, one police had heard dozens of times over the years. rod estes had explained that he was by himself all evening, had watched a football game and had fallen asleep. and no one was with him all night. not the best alibi in the world if a policeman thinks you might be responsible for your wife s disappearance, but that s all he had. and investigators had another problem. they suspected julie had been murdered elsewhere. this summer trade in your razor for up to 28 days of smooth veet skin.
investigators wondered whether julie estes murder might be connected to several other crimes committed in the area. unfortunately, investigators had no evidence to link them. right now, by today s standard, physical evidence is one of your top factors in reviewing a case. it s very significant, very important. they make the case. with no leads, no evidence and no suspects, the trail of julie estes killer turned cold. julie s family started to believe her murder would never be solved. after a couple of years, we just gave up. i said, well, we re up here and they re down there. nobody cares. the case always bugged me. she went missing on my watch, and it bugged me. i mean, every time i drove by that store, i thought of her. after a few years, patrolman frank mackesy was promoted to chief of detectives with the power to recommend cases to the