it had been a beautiful california day in orange county. now the sun was setting and, in every sense, darkness was taking over. steve herr, who had gone to look for his son sam, didn t find him. but he did find something. there s a body in my son s apartment. there s a what? a body. a dead body. a dead body? is it someone that you know, sir? no, i have no idea who she is. i don t know what is going on. does your son know who it is? he s not here. jesus, honey. do you know where your son is? no, i don t. reporter: costa mesa police detective ed everette responded to the call. walk into the crime scene and we have a 20-something-year-old female on the bed, and she s in a position that appears that she
he says, steve, before you find out, we just want to let you know sam was dismembered. that s when i just lost it. reporter: the very next day, sam herr would have turned 27 years old. sam s friend, ruben. you know, the night that it was his birthday, his father s praying to find his head. sorry. so it s very upsetting, you know. reporter: when police told you that they thought that julie had been killed essentially to cover up a different murder, sam s murder, what did you think? it s probably the pain is more painful than you re ripping your own body parts, you know, apart to hear that your daughter s being killed.
herr. detective ed everette. he s on the run and he s in the wind. and now it s our job to find him and see where he s at and ask him why. not a whole lot of question of who the suspect was at this point. no. we were pretty confident he was our guy. reporter: steve herr was also eager to find sam but for an entirely different reason. to clear his son s name. so steve began his own investigation. why did you feel the need to do your own police work? i didn t look at it as police work. i looked it as i wanted to find some answers. looking to find sam, first of all. where could sam be? is somebody helping is he running away? did he come up with some foul play? reporter: steve called sam again and again, but sam s cell phone was going straight to voicemail. i love you. let me know what s going on. what what s going on? reporter: then a big break and a puzzle. steve and sam had a joint bank account, so steve pulled the
man was then attacked by more than a dozen others. while some of the attackers were convicted of murder and received life sentences, sam herr was found not guilty. he was innocent, and it was proven that way. you know, he s innocent. reporter: four years later, sam joined the army and put all that behind him, or so his father believed. that s why when i found julie, i knew that sam didn t do this. i knew sam would never do something like that. reporter: and steve tried to tell detectives. you said, sam couldn t do this. and police said, a, he s missing and, b, he was a suspect in a murder case once. correct. reporter: that doesn t buy you a lot of rhythm from law enforcement. no, and i understood that. i m not that naive. i absolutely understood that. that s why it was imperative to start looking immediately. reporter: steve called sam s friend ruben to see if he had talked to sam. and ruben told him a curious story. ruben said he d been trying to get ahold of sam, too,
reporter: miles was stationed in afghanistan with sam. they fought together. miles knew how sam was toward anyone he considered a friend. he wouldn t hurt her? no. not in a million years. i thought it was something in his past that they were trying to do something to him and and try to get him. and the reason why his body wasn t there is because he was off running away from these people. reporter: miles feared sam was in danger. maybe sam s mom and dad, too. i wanted to make sure nothing happened to steve and raquel. so i went to their house and, you know, during the night i spent there, you know, with my gun by my side just to make sure. i slept on their couch by their door. reporter: detectives needed to find sam and fast, says orange county homicide prosecutor matt murphy. you got a dead woman in his apartment. he s missing. and then you factor in afghanistan. and you start thinking, okay, he s a trained killer after he d