butts found at the crime scene. he asked that the dna tests on those be put on the fast track. one of the things that kristene was also able to give us was that the assailant wore gloves and under armour gloves specifically. she saw the logo? yes. and she was a softball player, so she s saying under armour gloves, then under armour gloves is probably exactly what we re looking for. but during those sessions with kristene, chavez wasn t the only one asking questions. kristene struggled to ask a few of her own, tough ones. was kristene asking you about mollie? she did. we did not initially give her any of that information. both chavez and kristene s parents were afraid that the truth about mollie would upset kristene and maybe jeopardize her recovery. i would just tell her, mollie s got sent to another hospital. of course, kristene
while detective aaron volaman continued trying to strengthen his case against dylan spellman, investigators in neighboring sinton, texas, received a mysterious letter addressed to kristene chapa s dad. immediately i knew this was something very, very big and very important. the letter-writer described himself as a hit man hired by the person who shot mollie and kristene. he wrote, the gunman had sought his services to finish the job and make the only witness to mollie s murder disappear. what he s saying is, i was hired to kill kristene, but i m not going to do it. instead, i m warning you. that s right. he s telling kristene chapa s father, i m going to tell you who the murderer is, and then you can go do something about it. the letter contained details police had never mentioned in public. that he forced the girls to duct tape themselves, the fact
persisted, and eventually, everyone decided she deserved to know mollie s fate. family and doctors assembled in kristene s room. when detective chavez revealed the truth. she was distraught and crying and we told her, you know, just i need you to stay strong so that you can help us and we re going to catch him. and so, she did. as the days passed, kristene s communication skills steadily improved, enabling her to share with police more details of that horrible night. it s supposed to be peaceful and safe. we wanted to hear her story, too. you look great, and it s great to see you. thank you. kristene began by describing her relationship with mollie. i met mollie at the mall. was there some chemistry right from the beginning? oh there was. we re both like very sarcastic and we would just amuse each other and make each other laugh a lot. six months later, the two had
become a serious couple. then came that june night in the park. why d you go to the park that night? well, because we had missed our movie, and so we re kind of driving around and just trying to figure out what to do. when they got there, kristene said, she and mollie walked to one of the overlooks. and we weren t even there for five minutes when we ended up seeing, like, this guy walk by. i got this weird feeling, and we wanted to hurry up and get out of there. and the next thing you know, he s right there on mollie s side with a gun. she said the man then forced the two girls down a steep embankment and into the tall beach grass below. and she recalled the odd way he referred to them both. he called mollie girl number one and i was girl number two. and he referred to you that way, by numbers, all the way through it? he did. what d you say to him? i asked him if he was going to take us anywhere, and he just told me, like no, this will be quick and easy. i can feel,
for the day we met. this is not a painful place to return to? it s not painful. i guess i just kind of feel closer to her, i guess, because it s the last place i saw her at. rehab helped distract kristene from her sadness. so did working with police to find mollie s killer. kristene was kind of our inspiration. seeing how hard she was working just made us continue to work even that much harder for her. it wasn t for lack of hard work, but police had to face the truth. the investigation had stalled. at this point, sounds like you re kind of nowhere. yeah. and then the dna tests of the cigarette butts and the drink can came back from the lab. and that changes everything? yes. coming up a mysterious message rocks the case. the letter is written from the perspective of the hit man who has been hired to kill the surviving victim in this case, kristene chapa. when dateline continues.