immediately recognized the photo. he knew when and where it was taken. plus, he said, the original photograph was of two people. the missing man, he said, was his former roommate, david strickland. if the snapshot was a surprise to melchor, the name david strickland was an even bigger one for detective veuleman. turns out, he had crossed paths with david strickland before. i had interviewed david strickland in 2012, just days after the murder. remember that tip about a white car seen speeding from the park the night of the murder? the tipster was david strickland. he came in as a good samaritan wanting to provide information. back then, david strickland lived just blocks from the park where the shootings took place. and now here he is being mentioned in connection with a guy who s been mysteriously fingered for the murder. that s right.
bodies of two young women. it just looked like they had both been molested or mauled. we didn t know if they were alive or or or dead. we had no idea. reporter: the seymours ran for help. portland 911, what s the location of your emergency? we ve got two dead bodies down here. are they male or female? two females. reporter: first responder travis weisman had never seen anything like it. it was horrifying. there is blood. i can see that the clothes are off both girls. there was duct tape on on their mouths, on their hands. you could see they were clearly bound. reporter: duct tape also covered their eyes. and each girl had been shot in the back of the head. i went and checked the pulse on the first girl, i could feel her body was cold and didn t feel a pulse. reporter: and then something no one expected. i went to reach for the second girl, and that s when she started to sit up and moan. it looked so hopeless.
photograph was of two people. the missing man, he said, was his former roommate, david strickland. if the snapshot was a surprise to melchor, the name david strickland was an even bigger one for detective veuleman. turns out, he d crossed paths with david strickland before. i d interviewed david strickland in 2012 just days after the murder. reporter: remember that tip about a white car seen speeding from the park the night of the murder? the tipster was david strickland. he came in as a good samaritan, wanting to provide information. reporter: back then, david strickland lived just blocks from the park where the shootings took place. and now here he is being mentioned in connection with a guy who s been mysteriously fingered for the murder. that s right. so just like that, basically, mr. melchor is no longer the focus of this. it s now david strickland. that s right. reporter: chris melchor went
the hand, and then the blinking of the eyes. reporter: so chavez kept his questions simple. the first thing we asked her, of course, is did you know the person that did this? and she said, no. reporter: and how tall was he? she d described him as about 5 8 , 5 9. reporter: within the first two weeks of her recovery, kristene helped police draw this sketch of the man who shot her. she said he smelled of cigarettes, which made chavez think about those cigarette 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. reporter: 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. reporter: but during those sessions with kristene, chavez wasn t the only one asking questions. kristene struggled to
of her own, tough ones. was kristene asking you about mollie? she did. we we did not initially give her any of that information. reporter: 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 got sent to another hospital. reporter: of course, kristene 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 and i told her, you know, i just i need you to stay strong so that you can help us, and we re gonna catch him. and so she did. reporter: as the days passed, kristene s communication skills steadily improved, enabling her to share with police more details of that horrible night.