>> come on. >> hey, man. we started this thing four years ago. four years ago we started this thing. we've gone from [ bleep ]. we have. we've done it together. man, here we are. the last game man. we don't know what's going to happen. what we do know is what we fwot to do today, man. that's come out and play the 49er way. offense, defense, special teams, man. play together man, and whatever happens, it's [ bleep ]. let's go. let's go. one, two, three. >> all right. entering today the worst kept secret in sports. this would be jim harbough's last fwam with the ers. the question was how would his swan song end? the answer was favorable. season finale. harbough and york before the game and _#awkward. first quarter colin kaepernick. swrim fwot him pumped up and he played pretty well. bolden, 76 yards for the touchdown. bolden over 1,000 yards for the season. seventh time that's happened in history. 7-7 after one quarter. into the half. ryan lindley to michael nowed floyd. 41 yard pats. 17-13. we go to the third quarter. kaepernick to bruce miller. this guy used to be a defensive lineman. now he is doing a little tack tic tack toe with his teet. he is a red head lick that guy. he is intelligent. that seals it. dahl will give the job to jim harbough. jim harbough also gets a gatorade shower. 49ers are winners. 20-17. >> it's bitter wheat. happy we got the win. happy we are able to get frank and antoine to their milestones and get this win. he is the coach that stood behind me through everything. >> my best years have been with him. that's a team. that's a winner. he was here we won. i just wish him the best you know? i know whatever team you go to nfl, college, he is going to be fine. he is going to -- he is going to get it done wherever he at. >> stree straight championship games. >> jim had a connection. i just like the way that he goes about his business. playing the way i do no nonsense type guy. love to win. love to compete. you see it in the way that he comes to work every day. the guy loves the game of football. i believe if he still could play, he would probably be out there. you can see that. they had a lot to do with getting back here. >> a lot of us have been with coach harbough since he has been here, and the players that were here before him saw how he turned things around. he turned this organization back into a winning one. it's tough to let that go but at the same time we have to keep moving forward as players because our careers keep going on. >> >>. >> you're there more than any of us, what did you feel his relationship was like with the players? >> i think that it probably wasn't too much worse than any other coach in the league. i think every coach has a pocket of players who are with him. players i have heard that haven't been able to confirm it through those people. all those players all said the right things publicly but i do think that there were some issues in the locker room where players thought maybe it was more about jim as the years went on. you know the first year he preached the team the team the team and then you started to see the entire organization players included and i think in the minds of some players that is getting away from the team and it's becoming more about him just as it was getting to be more about the individual players in a lot of cases, including a couple of players. alex boon and vernon davis, who stayed away from the team in the offseason to try to get contracts and, jim, even said well, i don't envision that being the 49er way. i think it was kind of symbolic of some greater issues with that 49ers organization. >> dennis as a player you said you didn't like half your coaches anyway. >> i can't think of -- i enjoyed coach seifert, but other than that, i didn't even like my position coaches. it wasn't important. it's a different type of player than when i played. you always wanted someone kind of on your back. you always kind of had to fear for your job. kind of like your parents. you thought if you were to let your coach down or let your position coach down, that there was an opportunity for you to lose your job. that was always the going factor. always want to compete. you always want to go off and push for a reason. that was to keep your job and get approve from your coach. i guess it's changed a little bit. you know we talked about it. this is the kind of coach i would love to play for. always making you accountable for what you do on the football field on and off the football field. >> ray, do you think his style is suited more to college or pro, or do you think it doesn't matter? >> it could be. again, it could be better suited to college. it's a certain extent at stanford. jim is not used to a football team where a lot of players ask why are we doing that and want an answer. i mean he grew up in a different era as dennis did, and he grew and he played under two coaches at least in mike ditka and bo shembekler, and they weren't interested in answering questions. there's a disconnect there with him that he is will have to come to grips with because even at michigan it's not the way it used to be. you are used to players dealing with answer -- we're not used to being asked when he was there. he is going to have to change not only the messages he gives, but the way he gives them and i think to mattie's point, he has to make this about the university of michigan rather than university of michigan featuring jim harbough? >>. >> the 49ers not the only bay area making a coaching decision looming. we'll check in with the silver and black, and this is xfinity sports sunday. >> raid werz one last shot to win a game this season. davis, chatham and jack del-rio. 3-0 broncos. former cal bears c.j. anderson runs up the middle. 11 yards for the score. broncos take a 10-0 lead. later in the quarter, peyton manning's pass is tipped by justin tuck. picked up and returned for a touchdown by keith. the refs review the play and rule it a fumble. mcgill's first of his career. peyton threw a touchdown pass for the second time in four weeks. 1 for 51 done sective games. broncos up 13 in the third. omar bolden from the end zone. finds a huge huge scene and an edge. here's a sideline. 76 yards to the raiders' 30. returns the kick. then that leads to this. anned son running 25 yards into the end zone. third touchdown of the game. broncos win 47-14. coach, did you do enough to return next season? >> i think that the body of work that's here right now, okay my answer to that okay with this body of work that we've put together and i'm talking about the total body of work from where it was to where it is right now my answer is yes. mark davis and by reggie mckenzie and i'm totally prepared for that but, you know i just know that the body of work of where we were a long time ago and where we are right now are two totally different places, and i think that's fairly obvious right now. i mean, i don't know that you could judge that on one game. >> top of the red zone brought to you by your local toyota dealer. toyota, let's go places. the first five picks of the 2013 nfl draft are set. raiders on the fourth overall selection opened linebacker. fifth overall last draft. he is a top candidate for rookie of the year. they should get a great player. you would think maybe. with number four. who is the next head coach for the 49ers? that is a question looming ahead. our esteemed panel weighs in next. ♪ at kaiser permanente everything you need is under one roof. another way care and coverage together makes life easier. okay, a little easier. become a member of kaiser permanente. because together, we thrive. ♪ >> welcome back. xfinity sports sunday. insider matt and ray. our 49ers insider dennis. i'll start with you. who do you want to be the 49ers' next coach? >> i don't know but i think whoever comes in here, first of all, has to be a young guy because he has to deal with them. he has to be a figure that can deal with a quartersback like colin kaepernick. >> ray. >> first of all, tell me who you think they might look at and who do you think they should get? >> i think they're probably leaning towards jim tomsula who they made the interim coach when they got rid of mike singletary. that creates its own set of problems including about do you do do about -- i think the part of the team that's got to be fixed most is the offense. if it's not beveragel and -- maybe josh mcdaniels ready for a second go around. had he make things hum, and they'll have to face the fact that frank gore has a real short shelf life now. >> i think what ray just said i think they feel comfortable with tom. they know him. he has been in that organization for eight years. they know what kind of personality they're getting with him. they know that he is a motivator. what they don't know is what kind of offensive staff he can put together. that's the key. if you have tom in your back pocket, then you can take your time in the interview process and if a guy like josh mcdaniels comes in and says hey, i was a disaster in denver this is why i was a disaster this is how i can be a better coach next time a lot of times teams like to hire guys who can kind of on the rebound. no every now they know you're not bringing in a first year guy -- first-time guy who is going to be experiencing those same mistakes for the first time. you're getting a guy who has already made the mistakes and theoretically has already learned from them. >> real quickly, we have 30 seconds. whether do you k37 them to name a head coach or would he be an interim head coach? >>. >> they don't have to name an interim anything. i think it could be three, four weeks. i think they may not really get involved until right before the super bowl. that's the one guy that leaps out at you. everybody else will be a play by then. >> the guys -- seattle, for instance, dan quinn, beveragel, they can interview them this week. the coaches who are on teams of first round byes they can interview. >> good discussion gentlemen. a heavy day at levi stadium. thank you for watching. also been sexual assaulted just before she had been stabbed to death. her friend sheila. >> i found out she had been raped and i can't think of anything else. it was overwhelming. emotionally. >> narrator: it was hard for annie's friends to hear, but the rape did help law enforcement, because they now had the perpetrators dna file. but back in the '80s, that wasn't the help it would be today. >> back in 1984 they could have at least done a type of blood testing to determine what the individual is a see secreter or a nonsecreter. >> narrator: 80% of americans are secreters, which means their bodily fluids contain blood types. it couldn't van lance. angie told friends that lance had threatened her with a knife. the dna test shows that lance was a secreter. he was 70 miles away on the night of the murder. >> he was staying with his parents in amarillo so they were satisfied that he was not in town when this took place. >> so he was eliminated based on that? >> narrator: and what about dan, angie's boyfriend who acted strangely on the night of the murder. >> they checked to see whether there were scratches or bruises on him, they checked his apartment for any type of bloody clothes or anything like that. >> nothing? >> nothing. >> narrator: and tests showed ben was also a secreter. whoever had raped and killed angie was not. so cross ben off the list. which leaves russell. >> he was a nonsecreter so he could not be eliminated. >> his alibi was that he was at home in bed. but nobody could confirm that? >> no one can confirm where he was after he dropped off anita. >> narrator: and russell said, there was nothing romantic about the evening, it was just a night out for three ying people. >> he continued to insist that he didn't have any feelings for angie, that he didn't perceive that evening as a date and that he wasn't romantically interested in her. >> yes. >> narrator: soon police were questioning russell's friend anita the about him. >> did i think he was row machbticallymachbt ically romantically interested in angie. so maybe he had some romantic interests in her and she rebuffed him and maybe he had committed the crime. >> narrator: what anita didn't know was the stay after the crime, russell left town for about 24 hours. it seemed suspicious. when he returned police paid him a visit. he told them he didn't know anything about angie's murder even though it was in the headlines and all over local news. it seemed hard to believe, police saw both motive and opportunity. and while there was no witness placing russell at the crime scene, there was also no one to back up his alibi. >> angie's friend sheila met with the lead detective, who laid out for her the police theory. >> russell snapped is the word used. and then he grabbed a knife, took her into the room and proceeded to rape her. this is probably the one and only murder he will do that it was just a passionate moment and he snapped, and he's going to be back to his old, calm self. >> narrator: investigators asked sheila to have dinner with russell and ask him about his whereabouts the night of the murder. she agreed. >> it was so uncomfortable, here i am sitting across from this man thinking i'm eating dinner with a murder. i'm getting into a car with a murder. this guy murdered my roommate. >> narrator: but even to sheila russell stuck to his story, just as he had a couple of weeks after the murder, when police asked him to take a lie detector test. in fact russell was found to be truthful when he was asked questions about angie's murder. but about three months later, dallas police took a second look. >> and they looked at the polygraph again and came to the conclusion that he was deceptive deceptive. >> that's different from the way the original polygraph? >> it was. >> i did >> did you think police were going to charge russell? >> oh, yes, absolutely. >> narrator: but they didn't russell hired an attorney and stopped talking with police. >> they told me that he had lawyered up and they couldn't touch him. they also said that russell was leaving the country, so of course, he was leaving to the country, he lawyered up he is hiding, it's done. he's going to get away with murder. >> narrator: not so fast russell buchanan is about to tell us a story that will make you re-evaluate everything you just heard. >> reporter: coming up russell answers the tough questions. >> the police theory was that you attacked her you had sex with her and then you stabbed her to death? >> and then will investigators finally have a way to know if he's telling the truth? >> they did have a sample that in today's technology could be tested to find a dna match. >> narrator: russell refused to speak with police. and a few weeks before that he left the country. and without evidence to arrest russell, police could not stop him. russell was not arrested or charged with angie's murder. he went on to become a successful architect. now 28 years after angie samota was murdered russell is talking once again about what happened that night and about angie. >> her friends describe her as the kind of girl that guys get crushes on. >> possibly so. >> is it possible that you had a crush on her? >> no i hardly knew her. >> but after questioning angie's friend anita about that shared night out. investigators wrote that she told them that the evening centered around russell and angie and that anita felt that she were along for appearances sake only. >> it certainly didn't appear to me that it was angie and russ i remember anita and i sitting at the table visiting while angie was out on the dance for dancing. >> russell says that angie and anita dropped him off and for him that was the end of the night. >> you were home in bed? >> yes, and there was no way to prove it unfortunately. >> the police theory was that after you were dropped off, walked back to angie's house, knocked on the door she let you in because she knew you, you already had a thing for her, something went wrong, you attacked her. you had sex with her. you raped her. and then since he knew you and she could identify you, you stabbed her to death. >> that's what they thought. >> >> narrator: and so in the days after the murder police started picking up russell after work and bringing him down to the station for questioning. >> it seemed like two or three times a month for six months. as they got toward the -- >> the tenor of the interview got more intense. i remember the detective sitting back in his chair, with an envelope photographs of the crime scene, and they were absolutely horrific he would hold them up in front of me and his questions were russell, this looks familiar, doesn't it? you remember this don't you? because you did this. >> we think you did this? >> no it wasn't we think, it is you did this. you had sex with her, you killed her. you stabbed her 18 times. >> but russell continued to deny it. that steady drum beat of accusation and denial ended only when russell hired the attorney and refused any further free trips downtown. and the murder of angie samota then went cold for years. then in 2004 20 years after the crime, angie's friend sheila by then living in nashville decided to act on something she thought about for a while. >> i i actually had felt angie around me for a while. and then i was doing home work for a bible study class, and all of a sudden i woke up and as you're sitting there, there was angie. and then i thought, it's time. and i called the police. >> and said? >> i wanted to know about the angela samota case who was working on it if they were working on it and if they weren't, would they reopen it. they at that point told me that nobody in 20 years had called not one single phone call. >> narrator: that prompted sheila to take a big step she decided to get a private investigators license to see if she could learn enough about crime and criminals to actually help solve angie's murder. she wanted dallas police to take her seriously. she earned her license in 2006, and called the police again. >> i said e i am a private investigator, you need to send me all the information on angela scam samota's case, i need to talk to the detective, to know what has been done, what hasn't been done where's the information wrrks where's the evidence. >> but they met with you to talk about the case? >> no. >> they gave you evidence? >> no. >> they gave your updates. >> no. >> it doesn't sound like it helped to get an investigators license. >> i started making phone calls to them and the first 50 phone calls went to the lead detective, who had been moved to traffic. got nowhere with him. and finally one day six months into it, i talked to a receptionist, who said he's in retirement. he's not even working traffic. >> wait a minute. you left 50 messages in one month? >> yes. i'm a little on sayses obsessive. >> sheila's persistence paid off. the woman dusting off the old angela samota files found some evidence. >> she went over to the lab and realized that they did have a rape kit. they did have a sample that in today's technology could be tested to try and find a dna standard standard. >> by 2006 of course dna testing had evolved. it was sheila who eventually made more than 700 phone calls over the years, trying to move angie's case forward. she evening offered to pay for the dna testing herself. i said okay i'll send you a check, i'll overnight it, who do i send it to? they said you can't do that. >> that's something police departments pay for. >> angela samota's dna was entered into the -- the fright onned coed turned mom, turned private i. >> you still focused on the theory that russell buchanan got away with murder? >> absolutely, absolutely found out he was still in dallas that, he was actually a professional and i kept thinking why is this man having a good life after he had murdered angie? it was going to be solved and russell was going to go to jail. >> narrator: well, just a minute, if it were that easy do you think this story would be on date line? >> coming up. the case is cracked. >> the detective said we got him. my mind immediately went to russell. who else could have done it. >> reporter: good question but the last thing she was prepared 36% of all teachers in the u.s. have been teaching for more than 20 years. what does that mean? do the math. we need more teachers to lead future generations. the more you know. >> narrator: march 2008 the dna from angela samota's killer was enter into the dna database. >> we got the breakaekeak we were looking for, we got a match. >> i received a call and it was the detective. she said we got him. my mind immediately went to russell. who else could have done it? >> and then she says to you, it's not russell. >> it's not russell? >> it's not russell. you could not have shocked me any more. everything i had known my whole life was just gone. the whole time i thought, this guy had done it and it wasn't him. it wasn't him. >> narrator: dna as we now know does not lie. the sample taken from angie samota's body did not match russell buchanan? >> do you feel guilty for having done everything -- >> to put somebody behind bars? >> done everything you could to put someone behind bars and to death row? >> of course i did. i thought this guy was it and i was going to get him. and he wasn't the guy. so everything i thought was truth was not truth anymore. and yes, i felt very guilty. still do. >> narrator: she felt guilty, russell felt anything but. all those years, he had been unaware of how hard sheila had worked to convict him. all he had known was the intense heat police had applied. but even now, russell just can't seem to get the words i told you so out of his mouth. >> it doesn't change anything angie's life hasn't been resurrected, but my role or lack of role in this case was put to rest. i no longer had to wonder anymore about who perpetrated this horrible crime. i no longer had to live with the idea that there were people in the police department who thought i had perpetrated the crime. >> narrator: the police sergeant from the dallas police department called to apologize. >> he said i want to apologize for anything that we may have done to have accused you of a crime in this case. and we wish you well. it didn't hurt my feelings at all. >> and you were okay with that? that's all it took? >> you bet. >> how many interrogations? >> i have no idea. >> holding the crime scene photos out in front of you? >> not a happy experience. >> and then they apologized and you're like that's all right? >> i harbor no ill feelings towards the dallas police department, never have. i happen to be an innocent bystander falsely accused, and life goes on. in fact i was thrilled that they called me to offer an apology. >> but you do think about what might have happened? >> what if i had said i could not go out that friday evening? i wouldn't i wouldn't be here i would not have even been considered a suspect. so the fate of that one decision to go out one evening cast a very long shadow not only for me but for everyone else involved. >> narrator: and there was an even bigger question for russell, what if he hadn't been able to hire a lawyer? he was, as investigators say, an eyelash away from being arrested for angie's murder. >> he had motive he had opportunity, he didn't have an alibi. now you add failing a polygraph. >> all the evidence pointed towards him. >> it was all circumstantial? >> yes. >> in the mid 80s, that was the kind of thing that got you locked up. >> got a lot of people locked up. >> narrator: so who was the man behind the dna match and what story would he tell? >> reporter: up next a killer revealed. >> i remember to the air being sucked out of the room and the feeling that i'm in the presence of >> narrator: more than 23 years after the rape and murder of angie samota was peoplely solved. it was not lance the ex-boyfriend, and it was not ben, the boyfriend who never asked police how angie dieded. the man whose d nrksna was found inside angie samota's body was donald andrew bess. >> not a name you had heard before? >> never hit the radar of the dallas police department. >> not someone she knew? >> no. >> why was mr. bess's file on record at the national database? >> he had previously been arrested and convicted of two different rapes. >> donald bess had been out on parole only seven months on a rape charge when angie was raped and killed. prosecutors say she clearly had no idea of his history when he came knocking on her door. >> angie let him in the house, why would she do that? >> a different time. a little more innocent 1984 they said hey, can i use the bathroom? can you u give me directions? she was the type of individual that would help. she wouldn't have thought twice about it. >> he has never admitted to it? >> has not. >> he hasn't even admitted that he had sexual relations with her. >> narrator: in may 2008 donald bess was charged with angie's rape and murder. the trial took place two years later, his dna was fresh, but everything else in the case was more than 20 years old and the murder weapon was never found. by now, donald bess was 61. angie would have been 45. her college friend sheila walked in the courtroom on the first day of trial. >> and i just remember feeling shaky all over. >> narrator: she got a close look for the first time at the man accused of robbing angie of most of her life. >> and he walks in the door. and i remember the air being sucked out of the room. and the feeling that i'm in the presence of pure evil. >> narrator: anita and russell, the friends with whom angie spent her last night both testified, both found it emotional. >> we just keep reliving the situation that is just difficult. it was just the flood of emotion, of how could you do something like that? >> it was tough. it was very tough. >> did you look at the defendant while you were there? >> yeah yeah that was scary. >> and think to yourself -- >> that was scary. >> you're the reason that i was under suspicion for so long. >> no that was not what was going through my mind at all. what was going through my mind was, dude, do not come after me. >> narrator: prosecutors had dna on their side which sounds like a slam dunk but nothing ever is in a jury trial. >> the mere fact that his dna is found in her doesn't necessarily put him at the crime scene, doesn't necessarily make him her murder. >> narrator: the defense team went on to the attack. >> all you can asooumsume from dna is that he had sex with her. you can't tell from the evidence whether it was consensual or unconsensual. >> do you think that angie chose to have sex with donald bess? >> no one can tell you, no one was there except angie samota and donald bess. >> a very intelligence young lady is going to throw the door open to some stranger to come into her apartment to use the bathroom but then is so afraid of this person that she picks u up the phone and calls her boyfriend and then hangs up the phone willingly and yet this is supposed to be the assailant that kills her? i doesn't make sense. >> you find ben's actions suspicious suspicious? >> extremely suspicious. >> narrator: the lawyers on the defense team didn't only point their finger at van but also to russell and ben. >> someone in close proximity. >> or someone holding a knife and she was terrified. >> it still could be someone she knew or someone other than donald bess. >> someone like ben, the defense suggested and they put the blame on angie herself for possibly making him jealous. >> a bouncer at the club where she had been that night talked about the way she was dressed, the way she was acting, that she was extremely flirt today justice flirtatious with him and that's how she got into the club. >> you're making her out to be sort of trampy. >> trampy seems to be a harsh word. what i'm saying is that things weren't exactly as they seemed. that there may have been some reckless behavior maybe a little bit more flirtatious than certain people would have liked and maybe someone found out about it. >> you u think he was angrier than he let on? >> he was much angrier. >> even though he stayed calm. >> there's a lot of suspects out there that appear calm when they need to be calm. >> they put on a defense of anything they could that would stick. and the best way to do that is to attack the victim and the victim's reputation and credibility. she wasn't there because he had murdered her to defend herself and so that's what they did. and shame on them. >> and it didn't work? >> it didn't work. >> narrator: despite to the defense's attack on angie, and it's suggestions about the men in her life the jury deliberated for less than an hour. the verdict was guilty. the same jury sentenced donald bess to the death penalty. he has appealed his conviction and his sentence. for angie's friends, this was the end of a very long and very sad trail. >> i can only guess that angie would have been probably overwhelmed to know that so many of you were still thinking about her all those years later? >> angie was really special. and i mean she never left our hearts and minds. >> you still think about her? >> i do. >> you fought pretty hard to find out who killed her? >> i did. i did. >> you should feel some accomplishment at that. >> i feel that maybe she can rest in peace. she died such a horrific death that she deserves to rest in peace. >> reporter: that's all for now i'm lester holt, thank you for joining us. nbc bay area news starts now. >> you work at the pleasure of the organization. >> right now at 11:00, parting ways. after four seasons and a trip to the super bowl jim harbaugh is out as the coach of the san francisco 49ers. good evening, everyone. i'm terry mcsweeney. peggy bunker is off tonight. when this started, expectations were high for the team and their head coach jim harbaugh. now the 49ers are looking for a new leader. we have live team coverage. comcast sportsnet kelli johnson has highlights and reaction from players. but first, let's go live to nbc bay area's marianne favro at levi's stadium. and the fans you talked to not happy about this? >> reporter: