there was a loud pounding on our door. reporter: tina montelongo remembers it clearly. when i opened the door, there was about five police officers there. the one in the middle was wyatt. he put us against the wall and patted us down. reporter: what was sam s demeanor while all that was happening? he was calm, you know. he really was. i was freaking out. reporter: he wasn t worried? no. no. reporter: maybe he had no reason to be. police didn t find anything in the house linking sam to cathy s murder. they even sprayed his truck with luminol looking for signs of blood. we took the seats out, we did everything we could. and there was nothing. reporter: police briefly detained sam, but he was back home by morning. now daron wyatt focused on javier. and we really approached it very low key. we think that you can really provide some great information for us. would you mind coming down with
suspect javier s cousin sam lopez. tina montelongo, sam s then-wife and javier s friend, wasn t buying it. can you conceive of javier going through with a murder or being involved in it because of his loyalty to sam? no. i don t see that. if sam did it, would xavi help him just because they re close family? i don t see that. reporter: neither did the d.a. who decided there was not enough evidence to file charges. how do you tell mary bennett, we had javier, but we had to let him go ? it was extremely difficult. there was a lot of crying on both sides. reporter: daron knew exactly what releasing javier really meant. what walks out of the jail along with javier is any leverage you had to get him to name sam? yes, absolutely.
and sam was also moving on with his life. in may 1994, just months after cathy s murder, sam walked into a local restaurant. he walked in with his friend. and i just remember thinking that he was cute. reporter: tina montelongo was a hostess then. so, i offered him some free food. and then we started talking. reporter: she felt the spark right away. i did think i would marry him when i first saw him. that was, like, the words that came out of my mouth. i m going to marry that guy. reporter: you were taken with him right away? i was. uh-huh. reporter: sam and tina started dating. but in a small town like placentia, it wasn t long before tina heard the whispered rumors. i found out that my sister went to school with him and i asked her what she knew about him, what she thought about him. and that s when she told me that he they were he was the one that they suspected. reporter: in the murder of cathy torrez? yes.
it too. he was still living in the same home police had searched after cathy s murder. a search that had turned up nothing. and sam was also moving on with his life. in may 1994, just months after cathy s murder, sam walked into a local restaurant. he walked in with his friend. and i just remember thinking that he was cute. reporter: tina montelongo was a hostess then. so, i offered him some free food. and then we started talking. reporter: she felt the spark right away. i did think i would marry him when i first saw him. that was, like, the words that came out of my mouth. i m going to marry that guy. reporter: you were taken with him right away? i was. uh-huh. reporter: sam and tina started dating. but in a small town like placentia, it wasn t long before tina heard the whispered rumors. i found out that my sister went to school with him and i
alone. even when he arrested javier in 1997 for the murder of cathy torrez, he thought javier s real role was helping the prime suspect javier s cousin sam lopez. tina montelongo, sam s then-wife and javier s friend, wasn t buying it. can you conceive of javier going through with a murder or being involved in it because of his loyalty to sam? no. i don t see that. if sam did it, would xavi help him just because they re close family? i don t see that. reporter: neither did the d.a. who decided there was not enough evidence to file charges. how do you tell mary bennett, we had javier, but we had to let him go ? it was extremely difficult. there was a lot of crying on both sides. reporter: daron knew exactly what releasing javier really meant.