i wanna know what happened to my mom. and he just said you know, you need to keep pushing and that s all he d say. reporter: so she did. brittany says she began calling the prosecutor s investigator every week like clockwork. and amazingly he started showing some interest in the case. and he d say, you know, nothin new, or you re looking for a killer? right. is he looking for a killer or just trying to find out what happened? i think at that point at first he was just trying to put the pieces together. reporter: it wasn t going to be easy. what brittany didn t know was that detective bratton had done a fair bit back in the day, chasing down leads, trying to make sense of it all, but interview tapes, crime scene photos, evidence most of that was missing. not to beat people up, but what happened to all those boxes, the interviews, the pictures, the measurements it seems like it disappeared, just vanished. to the average person that s probably unnexcusable a
started to get concerned. reporter: after they d been out for more than five hours, the jurors filed back into court with discouraging news. they could not reach a decision. all this work you ve put into it, and you don t have a resolution one way or the other. the judge gave them what what we generally term the dynamite charge, which is, you re the best jury. now, go back in there try and come up with a determination. and they went back for about an hour. an hour, yeah. for an hour, and they came back and they said there s just no way. with that said, i will declare a hung jury. you had pushed this thing for so long. did you think that s all there s ever going to be? right then in that right second, i just kept thinking, oh my gosh. is he getting out? is it over? reporter: fear. disappointment. exhaustion. brittany wondered what would happen next. only the prosecutor could decide. his team sat down with some of the jurors hoping to understand where the case h
reporter: adkin s defense attorney neil mcelroy couldn t agree more. my first instinct when i got the case was, it s a 1982 case, there must ve been a dna hit. something has been discovered, some dna match. and of course, there was nothing. reporter: a point he emphasized in his opening argument at russell adkins trial. law enforcement lost or destroyed several pieces of evidence. reporter: neil mcelroy and his partner, ronnie wingate, drilled into the prosecution witnesses, challenging their 30-year-old memories. but you didn t remember where it was found? no, i couldn t tell you the exact spot. i don t remember. i mean it was 30-some years ago. reporter: as for the original detective, bob bratton? the defense got him to concede just how much evidence was missing. as it relates to the clothes, the pool cue, any photos, the map of the scene that was made that night, all that information
there was only one person she wanted to tell. the first thing that came to my mind was, i need to get my dad. and i just said, they got him. and he said, what do you mean, they got him? and i said, he s been indicted and they ve he s in custody. and my dad just crumbled. he just kept saying, thank you, god, thank you. like this is what i ve wanted my entire life. reporter: but brittany knew her fight for justice was far from over. you have to steel yourself for this trial? uh-huh. and i will be there every second of it, because, you know, nobody s else has ever been there for her. and you know it is a cold case file, it s still mostly circumstantial. it s a tough case to make. right. but i feel in my heart if people listen to the facts, i mean, there s facts, you know. but if the jury doesn t see it that way and he walks, are you okay with that? i m not. but i m not going to stop my
she says she marched into the police department that had first handled her mom s case and demanded to see the police chief. you re just cold walking in on these people? uh-uh. and i basically said, i either want someone to investigate what happened to her, or i want her file and i m gonna take it somewhere else. reporter: a detective promised to see what he could find out but apart from the odd phone call, brittany says it felt like her mom s case went nowhere. and before she knew it months turned into years. brittany s life moved on. married now, she had another baby. she was a dance teacher. then one day she ran into the original detective who d worked her mom s case . i m at a restaurant with my wife eating, and this lady comes up to me. and i i didn t know her, didn t recognize her. and she says, mr. bratton, i d like to talk to you. well, sure, sit down. and i said, i m dana rosendale s daughter and all three of their mouths about dropped to the table and i sai