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 this case, with the dna and everything, i don t think that they would ever solve it. we always talked about if he ever got out, we d be counting bodies.
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 jacksonville, florida, as husband and wife, they had to figure out, like most couples, how to support themselves. rod drove a truck for a plastics
collected from julie s rape test kit to see whether james elmen was her killer, but there was a risk. the test would consume all of the evidence. unfortunately, sometimes you have to make a choice. you might have to run the entire bit of sample. but at the time, you re thinking this is the best technology available. investigators decided the gamble was worth it. they consumed all of the semen that was contained in those slides trying to get results, results that, unfortunately, never showed who the killer was. this was a devastating setback. it s just shocking. it feels like you re hit with a ton of bricks. then you ve got to start over. it s like going starting from scratch again. but investigators refused to give up. elmen has a rough history, and people around james elmen tend to die. unfortunately, if elmen was
julie s killer, there was no longer any dna to prove it. want to survive a crazy busy day? start with a positive attitude. and positively radiant skin. aveeno® positively radiant moisturizer. with active naturals® soy. one of nature s most effective skin tone correctors. to help reduce the look of brown spots in just four weeks. it s positively brilliant. aveeno®. naturally beautiful results®.
store, police found julie s car in the woods stuck in mud. the key was still in the ignition. one of our helicopters spotted that blue camaro, not a long distance away, but in a wooded area that s known for vehicles dumped or parked, whatever, out there. they saw what they perceived to be drag marks leading away from the vehicle. and then they followed the drag marks. a few hundred feet from the car, under some cardboard, was julie s body. julie s body was found with her arms tied behind her back with her very own shoelaces. her shirt was pulled up with her breasts exposed. her pants and panties were pulled down to her socks. the details of the crime just really go right through you. they make you realize how, you know, how much she really went through. julie s husband said he had