it s it s an off-and-on thing. on-and-off thing. okay. reporter: tell number one, how sam talked about his relationship with cathy. see, i was going out with somebody. and then she would call me up. and we would just, like calling each other, going out to eat, places like that. nothing serious at the time. sam definitely was trying to limit his connection with cathy, give the impression that it s not that big of a deal. reporter: remember cathy s sister tina had told detectives sam had proposed to cathy just days before she disappeared. but when police asked sam about that, he denied it. you didn t ask her to marry you, then? no. reporter: later he changed his story but seemed to say getting married was cathy s idea. a lot of people hit me up already. they said that that that we were supposed to elope, okay? this is what she okay, but look. she had a crazy idea to go to mexico, okay? just the two of us. reporter: then there was
who, only days later tried to kill himself. tina says cathy thought about sam s proposal all that week. ultimately, cathy decided, says tina, that she was so broken up about albert she was going to tell sam the answer was no. she s crying, and then she said, i m going to tell him this saturday that i m not gonna take off with him, that i will not elope. that was wednesday. and then saturday she never came home. reporter: sam s admitted jealousy, cathy s doting on albert, a rejected proposal. all of it seemed to add up to motive. but motives don t prove murder. there was still no physical evidence tying sam to the crime. all the blood on the car had been tested, and it was all
at that point you want to yell and scream at them and tell them, that s not true. you don t know, not my cathy. reporter: the torrez family was not going to wait for police to catch up to what they already knew that cathy was not someone who d just disappear. they went to reporters. mary spoke to knbc in los angeles. this is one thing that nobody should have to go through. reporter: and took the search into their own hands. the police department wasn t receptive. so i told my mom, okay, give me a picture. reporter: tina was in charge of flyers. mary worked the phones at home. and younger brother marty kept watch in front of sav-on. hi, did you guys receive a flyer? reporter: soon it wasn t just the torrez family searching for cathy. we know god s there for you. reporter: police did jump on the case, and it seemed as if all of placentia did too. we had strangers, people coming to the house asking, what can we do? where can we take the flyers?
girl. when she would come inside the house, her favorite thing was, i m home. what s for dinner? even if somebody we just finished cleaning the kitchen, she d still ask, what s for dinner? that was cathy. reporter: cathy torrez grew up in placentia a small town nestled amongst the sprawling cities of southern california. even as a baby she was a good baby. reporter: mary bennett is cathy s mother. she was always happy, always running, and always very loud, and always smiling. reporter: that radiant smile shined everywhere she went, says cathy s sister tina. cathy was energetic. she was happy. she loved to laugh. reporter: cathy was one of four siblings. there was younger brother marty and the baby, debbie. tina was the eldest. she watched as cathy excelled in school. cathy was exceptional. cathy made her own way.
girlfriend? she said that they were, you know, seeing each other, but it wasn t anything serious or formal that i knew of. that s how she explained it to me, you know, he was a nice guy. reporter: cathy s plate was full that february of 1994. she was an honors student at cal state fullerton, holding down two jobs one at the local drugstore and another as a teacher s aide all to pay for college. and now she was also seeing a new guy. just a few days before february 14th, cathy told sister tina what she wanted for valentine s day. she said, tina, i would just like it if somebody gave me a dozen red roses for valentine s day. and i said, yeah, that s all you want? she said i would just like a dozen red roses. reporter: she had never received a dozen roses from anyone, but that year she was hopeful. it was saturday, february 12th, when cathy went off to her job at the drugstore. how was she that morning? she was fine.