a small shrine to hannah s memory. and for hannah s best friend, tara, it wasn t that she ever stopped thinking about her sweet friend but found she couldn t talk about it. emotions all bottled up. hannah frozen forever at 18. so you went on with your life. mm-hmm. then you had babies. yes. she never got to do that, did she? no. the case, meanwhile, was mostly in the deep freeze, making a glacial procession through the courts. seasons passed with no resolution. but that was about to change in startling fashion. coming up, a second trial, but at times it was hard to know exactly who was the defendant? was it denny ross? he was choking me from behind and just squeezing. or hannah s boyfriend? did you blame yourself for hannah s murder? yes. when dateline continues.
major, how could this car have sat there since wednesday and not be connected with ms. hill? well, i think that s entirely possible for a car to be parked for many days anywhere in the city. did somebody drop the ball here, captain? well, again, like i say, that s under investigation. was the investigation compromised horribly because of that delay? the condition of the body, the forensic results? very possible. it gave time for whoever did this to cover his tracks. who did do it? in the week after hannah had vanished, all the while her body in the trunk of her car undetected, the police were trying to make sense of her boyfriend, brad oborn. when detectives checked him out with hannah s family, they got an earful. mr. hill was never a fan of brad oborn. they knew who he was. oh, yes. mr. hill didn t like him. mr. hill made no bones about it.
of them would be to change that. i can t. on a rainy sunday after the verdict, hannah s friends and family gathered for a balloon release in her memory. they passed around sharpies and wrote little messages for the lost girl. her brother. i m just so glad it s over with, finally. now i can start mourning. father. dad will always love you. the best friend. fly high, my bright star. love tara. and then after a brief prayer, they stood by the pond and the brisk wind carried away their goodbyes. let go. farewell to hannah hill. never forgotten by her family and friends, or as it turned out, by the criminal justice system. that s all for this edition
had attacked and joked her years after hannah hill s murder. the defense said hannah s boyfriend, not denny, was the one who should have been on trial. hannah s family waited 13 years for justice, and their wait was almost over. here with the conclusion of our story is dennis murphy. jurors deliberating, asked by the state to pass judgment on another human being. we have two families out there. we had to take our time and make that right decision. what would they make of the weeks of testimony? why a murder defendant who didn t even look like one? the first day i thought he was a lawyer. he had this boyish look as if to say, why am i here? i didn t do this. seven jurors in the case spoke to dateline and told us initially they were an evenly divided panel of 12. as they talked, it became apparent they regarded some of the prosecution witnesses as literally unbelievable. and you as a juror have to make a decision, do i believe
brad oborn s testimony carefully. doubid you believe him? none of us felt it was him, and none of his dman was there. so, on friday just after lunch came word of a decision. lawyers, friends, family all assembled at the court. hannah s brother stayed away shaking. i was at a friend s house waiting by the phone. i was terrified. in just moments, there was no more need for guess work. count one, is it your determination that defendant committed murder in this count in that he did purposely cause the death of hannah hill? is that your decision? yes, your honor. denny ross guilty on all five counts. in the back of the courtroom, hannah s friend tara was visibly shaken. i was a wreck. it was just very intense.