reporter: and now you really are back to square one? yes. reporter: is that the end? to some people. reporter: but not to him. and not to mary. you put a lot of faith in daron. i put a lot of faith in god. daron was his tool. reporter: but for the time being, it seemed daron s hands were tied. after all, the case had been rejected by the d.a. s office twice before. this case getting a lot of baggage over the years? yeah, it did. reporter: and so if you go ahead with it, you re not only going ahead with the case, you re also kind of insulting the d.a.? yeah. reporter: years went by. the cathy torrez case grew colder by the day. and so did the marriage between cathy s sister tina and sam s brother armando. you and armando got divorced. yes. reporter: this have something to do with that?
were saturday night, this last saturday? sure. we re asking everyone. no. that s fine, that s fine, i understand. i was up in corona. i was helping my friend, a friend of mine moved. reporter: sam told police how he and his cousin javier helped their friend move in the afternoon, and then he said he dropped javier off at his home. where d you go from there? from there i went to my girlfriend s store. and i was there till, shoot, till they closed, which was around 8:00, a little bit after 8:00. then let me see, what did i do that day? somebody paged me, i think. oh, i picked my cousin up again. so if we had to contact everyone that you mentioned, you know, you could get the names and addresses, phone numbers. sure. they could confirm where you were on saturday night? reporter: and sure enough, they did. police spoke with javier who corroborated sam s story. javier told investigators
cathy s sister tina and sam s brother armando. you and armando got divorced. yes. reporter: this have something to do with that? definitely it was all intermixed. reporter: daron wyatt was promoted to detective sergeant and his caseload shifted to other types of crime. but he never forgot his promise to mary. in part because of a milestone in his own life. my first daughter was born. and i remember going to mary shortly after that and looking her in the eye and saying, i know i know now how you feel. i know it. i can feel it myself. i m a dad now. you haven t given up. i won t give up. reporter: in 2003, nine years after the murder, daron once again approached a friend in the d.a. s office. i said, i ve got a cold case that i need you to take a look at. and he physically stops walking and he says, if it s the case i m thinking about, i m not going to touch it. reporter: but daron was persistent. eventually he persuaded his friend to take cathy s case back to the
but they had nothing connecting him to the crime. no witnesses. no dna. and sam had that solid alibi. tina was still married to sam s brother, armando. the two families intertwined, as cathy s family continued to search for answers. and then in april of 1997, i got a phone call from mary bennett. reporter: cathy s mom. it would be their first conversation of many. mary told daron how she d seen reports about a new program in orange county centered around investigating cold cases. cathy s case had specifically been mentioned. and mary said, if they re going to use my daughter s murder as publicity for their program, by all means they re going to work it. and it s your job to make sure that that happens. reporter: there were no new murders in placentia in 1997, allowing daron to focus his full attention on this old one. and because you have you
8:00. then, shoo shoot, what i d do that day? oh, somebody paged me, i think. oh, i picked my cousin up again. so if we had to contact everyone that you mentioned, you know, you could get the names and addresses, phone numbers. sure. they could confirm where you were on saturday night? reporter: and sure enough, they did. police spoke with javier who corroborated sam s story. javier told investigators that he was with sam, that sam had picked him up at his house in anaheim and driven him to another friend s house in fullerton during the time that we believe cathy was contacted and ultimately murdered. reporter: so if you believe sam s alibi, he couldn t have been the thing that interrupted cathy when she was writing that note. right. reporter: nevertheless, they pressed sam for more details. the clothing you were wearing saturday? i think it was a guess sweatshirt. reporter: sam readily gave