one of the first things that russ said to detective bratton was the reason i didn t say anything was because i was on parole and i was scared to have police contact me. and he was gonna get jammed up if he correct. reporter: the bouncer had served time for receiving stolen property. he didn t want any trouble, he told the detective. but he did want to help. here was the truth, he said: he was driving dana home, nearing a corner, when suddenly he heard the engine rev louder and his car door close. next thing he knew dana was out of the vehicle. it would be such a simple explanation, if true. dana s massive head wound had been the result of an unlucky fall from a moving car, an accident. but that wasn t what was written on dana s death certificate. what did your coroner, back in the day, find? he found that she had, in fact, died from skull fracture. but he couldn t answer why she had died. he he ruled her death as undetermined. reporter: undetermined meant
she was the love of my life. reporter: it was painful for both father and daughter to read the coroner s report when it finally came. three long months after dana s exhumation, the coroner changed the manner of dana s death to homicide. i was ecstatic, i was sad, you know, it s just the mixed emotions because it was like everything i had dreamt or thought or said or anything, it was like, i was right. reporter: now that the case was officially declared a homicide, investigators were working it hard. and their focus wasn t toby. it was the bouncer. investigator kinder had always thought there was something off about adkins statement to detective bratton. one of the things that he said was, we weren t even fighting or anything. i ve talked to a lot of people over the years, and that just kind of struck me as odd of reporter: introduce that thought, huh? you introduce that thought, she falls out of your car, but
detective bratton told jurors about adkins story version number one: that he d been a good samaritan who d stopped to help dana. he stated that he was driving south and seen something in the roadway. reporter: then came adkins story number two, the detective testified. dana had been in his car, but had fallen out. the detective told the jury he didn t buy it he d checked out that car for himself. and what did you observe in doing that? i didn t observe any problems. reporter: finally there was adkins story number three, prosecutors argued, when he came up with that new detail the mailbox. how did the back of her head get caved in? that pipe from the mailbox that was there. reporter: but if adkins was lying about it being an accident, prosecutors needed to tell the jury what really happened. what evidence was there of murder? and here was the heart of the prosecution s case the
yet you ve got to interject, we weren t fighting or anything. reporter: the investigator also wondered why dana would have suddenly fallen out of the bouncer s car. there was talk back in the day that the car had a defective door. but detective bratton told the new investigator he didn t think so. he d taken a look for himself. i know i got in the car and i checked it because i had pushed up against it. and i m a pretty good size guy. my weight should maybe tell us. reporter: if the door s bum, it would have popped, yeah. i felt comfortable that i didn t see anything wrong with the door. reporter: you didn t feel you needed to get a search warrant or call to have this thing towed? no, not at that point. looking back, probably an error. reporter: there was another problem. there was no note of the detective checking the car in the police report. and no way for investigator kinder to look himself. was the vehicle gone? is it in the junkyard now? we believe that s in the
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 said 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.