The mysterious dna found under carol s fingernails after she was murdered. one thing for sure, it was not steve. we exhausted so many man hours and looked at any and all alternatives. reporter: and then it was during the long months of waiting for a new trial to begin, the prosecution had an idea. what if that 603 sample was a simple mistake. what if something just got mixed up in the lab? so investigator mike sechez looked up the autopsy done just before carol s. and submitted a sample from that for re-testing. and? nearly three years after carol s murder, a call from the crime lab. the sample dna that we sent had matched the dna under carol kennedy s fingernails. we finally were able to discover and verify who mr. 603 is.
Sechez took another look, a much harder look at the money trail. not only was the insurance paid out, but it was paid to the two daughters who then transferred it to several accounts, including wire transfers to mr. democker s parents account in new york, who then wire transferred it back to mr. democker s defense team. reporter: remember steve democker was a highly-paid financial adviser. the prosecutors now believed he was using that expertise to try to get away with murder. here is a person that murdered his ex-wife then collected her life insurance of over 750 thousand dollars and is using that life insurance to pay his defense team in the murder prosecution. so then prosecutors added fraud
reporter: mornings dawned cooler in the arizona mountains, the summer flags in the town square were stored away for another year. and the murder trial of steve democker ticked into its fifth, fitful month. the prosecution had amounted to circumstantial bits and pieces to that point. and investigator mike sechez knew that steve was likely to mount a strong defense. mr. democker is a very intelligent individual. mm-hm. but he s also a very narcissistic personality. you put those together and you can make it difficult to solve a crime. narcissistic? that s what it seemed like to the detective. also seemed to him like steve s girlfriend, renee girard, was protecting him. knew more than she was telling. then renee broke it off with steve. and sechez interviewed her one more time. and remember the anonymous e-mail that claimed carol s murder was linked to an illegal drug ring?
The tires on steve s bike. the tread on this tire is similar to the tread we observed of this tire track. and did you find any discernible differences between them? no i did not. reporter: and those shoe prints. they brought in an expert from the fbi. did you find any shoes that seemed to be comparable to the impressions that you observed in these photos from the crime scene? yes. i found one shoe that could have made those impressions. reporter: a la sportiva pike s peak. records showed that steve bought a pair of those shoes two years before the murder. but when detectives searched his house, they didn t find any such shoes. so, intriguing, but hardly proof. prosecutors knew they had a big problem. that anonymous e-mail linking the murder, not to steve, but to jim knapp and illegal drugs. so, even as the trial went on, investigator mike sechez was interviewing and re-interviewing witnesses. including steve s girlfriend,
The story out, and investigated. the death penalty was still on the table. so, steve was terrified. we were terrified. i can certainly appreciate when you re terrified, maybe you do some stupid things. well, it s when you start making mistakes, and that was a doozy of a mistake. uh-huh. reporter: and uncovering that fraud led investigators to what they thought was another, even bigger one. remember carol s life insurance money? $750,000 worth. steve s defense attorney talked about it during his opening statement. he disclaimed, he signed over any interest to the girls and the money was paid out to the girls. that s what happened in this case. reporter: that statement caught investigator mike sechez by surprise. we had made contact with the life insurance company several times throughout the investigation and we had been informed that the life insurance had not been paid out to anyone. reporter: so, had the insurance paid out or hadn t it?