Latest / History Dark / Killer_s Sick Fantasy Exposed His Brutal Murder of a Texas Woman _ Homicide_ Hours To Kill

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Killer_s Sick Fantasy Exposed His Brutal Murder of a Texas Woman _ Homicide_ Hours To Kill · History Dark

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: There was a lot of horrible things he did to her.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: He was a sicko. Just evil.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: A brutal killing.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Diane was wonderful. She'd do anything in this world for you.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: It just rattled me all the way to my bones.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: A dark mystery with multiple suspects.
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: We started getting phone calls from women that had encountered
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: this man.
• 0:33
  Speaker 5: He had a crush on Diane. He would send her
• 0:36
  Speaker 5: flowers and give her gifts.
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: It had the telltale signs of a serial killer.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: The truth will be revealed.
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: He had this fantasy. Just came a time where he
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: couldn't resist any longer, and he had to act it out.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Every day in North America, dozens of people are murdered.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: The key to solving the toughest of these homicides lies
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: in the final 24 hours of the victim's life. To
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: crack the case, detectives must reconstruct that critical timeline. The
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: minutes and hours containing evidence that can help unlock the
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: mystery and catch the killer. November 15th, A massive storm
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: rips through Austin, Texas.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: It was one of the worst storms that had ever
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: hit Austin in, you know, like 100 years or so.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: We had about 15 tornadoes come through that day.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: The morning after, one resident is unaccounted for.
• 2:05
  Speaker 6: Diane Hollick was with IBM.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: She was.
• 2:12
  Speaker 7: A project manager. Most of her stuff was teleconferencing.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: The storm blew in Thursday afternoon.
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: She was supposed to get back online by Friday at
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: 10 o'clock.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: They had a big conference call.
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: When she didn't make that conference call, everybody got concerned
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: that maybe something had happened to her in the storm.
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: That was very out of character for her to not
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: make a teleconference call. They became concerned enough.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: To call the police.
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: When officers first arrived at the house, they looked in
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: through the windows. They checked around the back and all
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: the doors were secure. There's no signs of forced entry anywhere.
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: They rang the doorbell and nobody came to the door.
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: They noticed that Diane had a for sale sign out
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: in front of her house.
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: A neighbor who had a key saw that there was
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: police cars over at the property, so she walked down
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: and offered to let them in.
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: When the officers entered the house, they checked all the rooms.
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: Couldn't find anything.
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: It was immaculate. They cleaned everything in its place. But
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: one officer, as he was leaving, thought about a room
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: that he had gone into and reflected he didn't go
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: all the way to the back of the room. So
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: he returned to that room. And on the other side
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: of the bed, furthest away from the door, he saw
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: that the bedspread had been pulled over something.
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: When he rounded the corner, he noticed that there was
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: a body halfway stuffed underneath a day bed that was
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: in that bedroom. He immediately noticed that she had a
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: deep furrow in her neck, which suggested strangulation.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: We knew that we were dealing with a homicide.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Lead investigator Detective Tracy Garish and Detective Eric De Los
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Santos are now responsible for finding Diane's killer. Their first
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: task is to notify friends and family.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: I got a call.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: It was Detective Garish from Austin PD. She goes, well,
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry to tell you that someone had come into
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: Diane's house and that she had been killed there. It
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: just rattled me all the way to my bones. I
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: just busted into tears at that point. Diane was wonderful.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: She'd do anything in this world for you. Anytime anybody
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: came up to Diane, they were like an instant friend.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: She was like a sister.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: And to die the way that I was imagining at
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: that time was devastating.
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: We learned through Diane's friends that she was a very vivacious,
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: wonderful woman, a true innocent victim. I was in charge
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: of the case, and everything fell upon my shoulders. At
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: the end of the day, that can weigh on your
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: mind heavily.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: To catch Diane's killer, detectives must unearth all the details
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: of her final day.
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: Establishing a victim's timeline up to her death is key
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: in any investigation. You want to go back even just
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: 24 hours, find out what she was doing every hour
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: of that day, up until the time where, of course,
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: the murder happens.
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: We knew that the last time she had been on
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: the computer was approximately 3.59. That's when she shut it
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: down to prepare for the storm coming in. And then
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: the following morning, she missed her early morning conference call,
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: which would have been about 10 o'clock. We estimated that
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: she probably was murdered sometime between Thursday after.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: 4 and Friday morning at 10.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: They focus on Diane's body, looking for further clues.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: She was fully clothed. She still had jewelry on. She
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: had a watch on.
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: She still had some money sticking out of the pocket
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: of her pants. When you're being strangled, your basic instinct
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: would be that your hands would go up to try
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: to pull that ligature off of you.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: But we didn't see any broken nails.
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: We noticed that she had these pattern that is similar
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: to flexi-cuffs on her wrists. We didn't find the ligature
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: that was used to strangle her. that were used to
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: bind her hands.
• 8:20
  Speaker 8: The color of the wrist being red suggests that her
• 8:24
  Speaker 8: heart was beating when the bindings were applied. She was
• 8:30
  Speaker 8: either struggling against the bindings, causing abrasions, or the bindings
• 8:34
  Speaker 8: were applied tightly, or both.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: So we knew that the suspect killed her.
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: Took her by surprise, had to bind her because she
• 8:43
  Speaker 5: would be fighting, and then strangled her.
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: As we went through the crime scene and searched the room,
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: we observed that there was some makeup on the rug
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: in the room that Diane was found.
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: So we felt like maybe that's where she had been
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: taken down and basically subdued. We examined the entire house
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: to look for some type of big struggle.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: We didn't find anything. Her car was still there. Her
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: wallet was still there.
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: And she still had a significant amount of jewelry that
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: was left over.
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: As we continued to process it, we found that it
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: appeared to have been cleaned.
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: It was the most pristine crime scene we've ever seen.
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: We didn't even find really Diane's fingerprints in her own house.
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: And that's very unusual when you live there. We used
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: a UV light to check all the carpeting and all
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: the toilet areas. and we're basically looking for a seminal fluid.
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: We were not able to find any.
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: In the house.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: The evidence points to a well-planned, premeditated attack.
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: Initially, you know, we always look at the people that
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: are closest to you, a boyfriend, a jilted lover, or
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: a friend, a co-worker that maybe you didn't feel the
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: same way for. We learned through Diane's friends that she'd
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: been married before but was divorced, and I think she
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: wanted to get married again. And she met a man, Dennis,
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: through an agency called It's Just Lunch. Apparently, they hit
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: it off right away. And within six months, he proposed
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: to her. He used to live in Austin, and he
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: moved to Houston. And so that's why she decided to
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: go ahead and sell her house and move to Houston
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: to be with Dennis.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: But friends say Diane's fairy tale romance had begun to falter.
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: We had heard that he had a short fuse and
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: that he gets mad at the simplest things.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Diane liked to go and come as she pleased.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: Dennis wanted to know where she was every second. She
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: didn't like the fact that he was possessive or jealous
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: because she was so free and outgoing. They had had
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: a lot of on again, off again over the past
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: six months, and things seemed to be continually going downhill.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Some of her friends said that maybe they'd broken off
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: the engagement.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: You know, I asked her, so you're still She goes, yeah,
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: even if I don't move to Houston, I'm still gonna sell.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: This house is just too big for me and two dogs.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: I wanna downsize.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: An item absent from the crime scene raises suspicion even further.
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: She had a engagement ring that Dennis had given her.
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: That was one thing that we knew was missing. If
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: you were gonna take a $ 20, 000 ring, why wouldn't you
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: take the watch that was on her wrist? or the
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: money that was actually sticking out of her pocket. So
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: things were taken, but they almost appeared to be as
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: if they might have been tokens.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: As questions swirl around Dennis, police receive another incriminating clue.
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: One of Diane's friends knew a lot about Diane's personal life.
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: And she had told us that she believed Diane had
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: made a date for Thursday night.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Online with some man, and she didn't know who it was.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: Dennis was very jealous of Diane. If he had found
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: out that Diane was dating other people, yeah, he had
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: been absolutely furious.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Furious.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: A broken engagement has made Dennis Conley the first suspect
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: in Diane Hollick's murder.
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: Because he was so prone to anger and because Houston's
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: only two and a half hours away, obviously we focused
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: in on him. It was completely within the realm of
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: possibility that he could come down to Austin, got into.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: An argument with her, strangled her, and then drove back
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: to Houston.
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: Dennis actually left a bunch of phone calls on her
• 13:40
  Speaker 5: answering machine right after the murder occurred.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: They seemed a little bit on the angry.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: Side, Making contact with.
• 14:16
  Speaker 7: A deceased person after the murder is one of the
• 14:19
  Speaker 7: ways that a murderer will try to throw the police
• 14:21
  Speaker 7: off the scent and get the police to believe that
• 14:25
  Speaker 7: you're calling because you did not know the victim had died.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Detective Garish brings Dennis in for questioning.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: He did seem a little bit on the aggressive side.
• 14:40
  Speaker 9: If you run into problems again with somebody wanting to
• 14:43
  Speaker 9: come down, you're like, that's just telling them it's a
• 14:45
  Speaker 9: private room and there's nobody around, because that's what I
• 14:47
  Speaker 9: didn't want.
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: Right, OK.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: How long have you known Diane?
• 14:53
  Speaker 6: We met about 13 months ago.
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: Dennis told us that there were problems between them, but
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: they were trying to work it out.
• 15:01
  Speaker 6: You know, everybody carries baggage into your relationships at this age,
• 15:06
  Speaker 6: and our baggage was clashing, and we were working on it,
• 15:10
  Speaker 6: but we decided not to be engaged anymore.
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 15:13
  Speaker 6: And, you know, she was working like a crazy maniac,
• 15:17
  Speaker 6: and on trying to get settled in a new job,
• 15:19
  Speaker 6: there was just a lot of stress points.
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: You know?
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: She's so goddamn stubborn.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: Detective Garish attempts to establish Dennis' whereabouts in the hours
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: before the murder.
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: Diane did speak with Dennis around noon on Thursday via
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: instant messenger. He said he was in Houston preparing a
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: presentation Thursday night for a big meeting he had on
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: Friday morning at his place of business.
• 15:50
  Speaker 9: I've got a front stand with me, so you can
• 15:53
  Speaker 9: vouch for me if that comes to that. Okay.
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: Through eyewitness testimony from his roommate, cell phone records. We
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: were able to disqualify him as a suspect. Also, when
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: we forensically analyzed her computer, we found no.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Evidence of that date.
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: We were never able to confirm that she ever had
• 16:14
  Speaker 5: a date with anybody on Thursday night.
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: Dennis had some anger issues, but he couldn't have done this.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: Dennis is soon pointing the finger at another regular presence
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: in Diane's daily life.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: Has anybody gotten a hold of Ray?
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: No, we're trying to figure out who Ray is. What's
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: the deal with Ray? I mean, I don't want to
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: be vindictive, but he's the one that... You're here to
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: hear it all.
• 16:42
  Speaker 9: Yeah, so, I mean, Ray, every time I've met him,
• 16:46
  Speaker 9: he's definitely out there on the edge.
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: Diane had actually hired Ray to be one of her employees,
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: so she worked for her. Dennis said that Ray really,
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: really had a crush on Diane.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: He would send her flowers and give her gifts.
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: Dennis thought that that was a little odd.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: The way Diane described it to me, he.
• 17:10
  Speaker 9: Seemed to.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Worship the ground she walks on.
• 17:15
  Speaker 6: He seems to be attracted to women that are not
• 17:20
  Speaker 6: attracted to him.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: It's a strong accusation, so police speak to others to
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: back it up.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: Ray was pretty devoted to her. He's the one that
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: took care of her dogs when she would go traveling
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: or go out of town. He'd come over, he'd take
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: the dogs home with him, or he'd sit there at
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: her house and take care of them. He was always there.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Ray even appears at the house while police are processing
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: the scene.
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: The woman who lives up the street called us and said, hey,
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: Ray's over at Diane's house if you want to talk
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: to him. Ray was a little flippant about everything, kind
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: of joking and just odd. I mean, he was almost
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: too enthusiastic about helping us with the investigation.
• 18:12
  Speaker 10: I knew Diane probably better than most people in the town.
• 18:15
  Speaker 10: I watched her house for the last couple of years,
• 18:16
  Speaker 10: her dogs.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: I can tell you most anything you need to know about.
• 18:20
  Speaker 9: The house, or what she does, or anything about it.
• 18:21
  Speaker 8: OK.
• 18:22
  Speaker 10: We could be here for a long time if you want.
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: You think that I can help you out?
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I kind of want to know her schedule.
• 18:29
  Speaker 7: Police, they've got a nose for things that aren't normal.
• 18:34
  Speaker 7: And so if you're really forthcoming, and you're really cooperative
• 18:39
  Speaker 7: to a level that just doesn't correspond to what people
• 18:45
  Speaker 7: believe is normal, then it can kind of lead to
• 18:48
  Speaker 7: a creep factor.
• 18:50
  Speaker 10: Not to bug into your business, but did you find
• 18:51
  Speaker 10: any signs of forced entry at all?
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: Like, any doors, nothing?
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Nope.
• 18:57
  Speaker 10: She locked everything, so.
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: These are her keys to our house, too. She needs
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: copies of them.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: To your house?
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: No, to her house.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: No, I'm gonna take those keys.
• 19:05
  Speaker 8: Okay.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: She's deceased, and there's.
• 19:07
  Speaker 10: Really no need for you to be in.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: The house anymore. Who do you know that has keys
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: to the house?
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: Just me. As far as I know, I think I'm
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: the only person that I know that has keys.
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: I think he liked her so much that he had
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: hope that one day she would like him or grow
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: to have feelings for him.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I'll say you might have had a little crush on her.
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: Diane? Oh, hell yeah.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: For sure.
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: I always had a crush on Diane.
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: And Diane didn't reciprocate your feelings?
• 19:34
  Speaker 6: No.
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: And that could have angered him. Said, Ray, there's definitely
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: a potential in this.
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: It could have been out of jealousy for her being
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: engaged to Dennis and leaving Austin. or he may have
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: made some type of an advance towards her that wasn't reciprocated,
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: and he got upset with her and.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Strangled her.
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: The fact that she's covered up, there's remorse. Ray could
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: have had remorse after the murder.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Ray must now account for his whereabouts during the time
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: frame police believe Diane was murdered.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: He told us he was at work.
• 20:15
  Speaker 7: So it's all documented every time he comes in and
• 20:18
  Speaker 7: out of the IBM facility.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: So we were able to eliminate him through those records.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Ray was an odd character, but he wasn't our guy.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Ray continues with his helpful behavior.
• 20:47
  Speaker 9: There's probably a question I would like to ask you,
• 20:51
  Speaker 9: but I'm not sure you'll be able to tell me
• 20:52
  Speaker 9: right now. Go ahead and ask it, and I'll let
• 20:55
  Speaker 9: you know if I can tell you.
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: Did they know where they found her? Was it in
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: the living room or the bedroom?
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she was in the upstairs bedroom.
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: She never goes upstairs.
• 21:07
  Speaker 10: I would guess that she was showing somebody the house.
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: And they went upstairs to look at the house.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: In an effort to confirm Ray's theory, they speak to
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Diane's friends and colleagues.
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: We found out that, yes, in fact, she had had
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: someone come see the house.
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: Cynthia was a friend of Diane's, and she knew that
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: Diane was selling her home. Diane had actually contacted her
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: on Thursday And then she told her, hey, this guy
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: just came to the house. He's moving to town with
• 21:41
  Speaker 5: his wife and kids, but he's going to be paying cash.
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: Diane was really excited that this was a potential buyer
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: for the home. She said he was going to be returning.
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: And I think Cynthia was a little upset with Diane
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: because she allowed a stranger into her home. And she
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: told her, hey, Diane, you need to be careful about
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: letting people into your house.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: She wasn't really... able to give us a description of
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: the person.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: Police turn to the nearby community, hoping for a lead
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: on Diane's mystery buyer.
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: When I first started canvassing the neighborhood, I spoke with
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: the immediate neighbors, and no one had seen anything. And
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: so that was a little discouraging. As I went to
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: the different homes, I was told by some residents that
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: also had their homes for sale that a male had
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: come by interested in buying the property. One of the
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: residents that I spoke to described the vehicle that this
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: man had been driving as a metallic minivan. These people
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: were telling me that the guy made them nervous, that
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: he was kind of domineering.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: Detective De Los Santos comes to a man who says
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: he saw a metallic van parked in Diane's driveway around
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: 5 p.m., the day before her body is discovered.
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: So that definitely threw up a red flag for us.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: Police learn of a suspicious man seen near Diane's house
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: on the day of her murder.
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: I became quite optimistic at that point, thinking, wow, we
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: had a really good lead here on someone that was
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: coming around the neighborhood. Given this exact same story, he
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: said that he had cash to pay and that he
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: was kind of previewing the homes before he brought his
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: wife over to look at the homes. Residents described the
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: stranger as a white male with brown hair, kind of
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: a large nose, possibly about 5'10, 200 plus pounds.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: They find a woman nearby who is visited by the
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: same man at 3 p.m. the day before Diane's body
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: was discovered.
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: She definitely got a creepy vibe from him. he had
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: left her a name, Walter Miller, and gave her the
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: telephone number and said that he would be coming back
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: with his wife. When I searched the name Walter Miller
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: through the Austin Police database, we only came up with two.
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: And one was in his 90s, so it obviously wasn't him.
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: And the other one didn't fit the description. So we
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: were able to pretty much rule that name out as
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: being fictitious.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: They trace the phone number to Bastrop County, around 35
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: miles from Diane's home.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: It came back to a gentleman by the name of
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Matthew Sapolsky.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: A background check reveals a criminal history.
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: When we actually located Matthew, he did not fit the
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: physical description of our suspect, and he had also been
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: injured severely in this car accident. and he had a
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: crash collar around his neck, and he was paralyzed in
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: both of his arms.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: For investigators, it's clear he could not have physically attacked
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: Diane on the day of the murder.
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: We were disappointed, but obviously we knew we were on
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: to somebody who was pretty smart.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Smart enough to leave fictitious names and numbers.
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: However, they weren't smart in the fact that they way
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: overexposed themselves in that neighborhood that day. But when you're
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: looking for a stranger, the odds of you actually solving
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: that become astronomical.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: I kept asking them, who could have done this? Because
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: it seemed totally random. Totally random.
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: Diane's father was actually a homicide detective in New York.
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: And so I felt a lot of pressure to make
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: sure that we turned every stone on this case to
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: get justice for that family.
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: It just hit a little closer to home because I
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: was a homicide detective and had a daughter. That would
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: be my worst nightmare. So I felt this sense of
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: urgency to solve it.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Using eyewitness accounts, they create a composite sketch of the
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: man and release it to the media.
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: Within minutes, we started getting multiple phone calls from women
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: that had encountered this man, and they had their homes
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: for sale.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: The incidents go back as far as six months, all
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: across the Austin area.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: It appears that he went to homes during the day,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: and he went to affluent neighborhoods.
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: He was targeting a specific time frame to target a
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: specific type of person.
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: Most of these women were stay-at-home moms, and their husbands
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: were not there. During basically the depression in the real
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: estate market, I think he felt like these women were
• 27:41
  Speaker 5: so eager to sell their homes that they would be
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: more willing to let him in.
• 27:48
  Speaker 7: So it might be that he just went through all
• 27:50
  Speaker 7: these women because he was looking for the perfect victim.
• 27:54
  Speaker 7: Or it might be that he was building up his
• 27:57
  Speaker 7: courage to finally go through with it.
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: It was a pattern. It had the telltale signs of
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: a serial killer or someone who could potentially do this again.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: They receive a call from someone who encountered the man
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: just two weeks before Diane's murder.
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: A woman called in and said, the same guy that
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: you guys have put on TV came to my house.
• 28:32
  Speaker 5: She said that he grabbed a flyer from the advertised real.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Estate sign from the front of the house. During the visit,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: our suspect followed her into the master bedroom. And she
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: knew in.
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: Her heart that something really bad was about to happen.
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: He just had this look in his eye. And then
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: her baby cried. I think he got spooked. And when
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: he got spooked, I think he left the house not
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: realizing that he left the flyer behind. So we immediately
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: sent a crime scene unit out there to retrieve the flyer.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: While waiting for the analysis, yet another woman comes forward.
• 29:11
  Speaker 5: She claimed that the man came up and was kind
• 29:13
  Speaker 5: of demanding to get into the house to look at it.
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: And she said that he was just so aggressive with
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: her that it made her nervous.
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: It concerned her enough that she decided to peek out
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: and get his license plate.
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: The description of the vehicle he was driving was a
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: metallic colored minivan.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: This description matches the vehicle spotted in Diane's driveway.
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: We ran it through our records, and it popped up
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: the name Anthony Russo. And he lived in Cedar Creek,
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: which is out in Bastrop County.
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: Research on Russo showed that he had a history, a
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: violent history. especially with women.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: Police believe they've uncovered the identity of the mystery home
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: buyer spotted in Diane's neighborhood, 38-year-old Anthony Russo.
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: Mr.
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: Russo had recently been let go from prison after being
• 30:23
  Speaker 5: incarcerated for an aggravated kidnapping. And in this particular aggravated kidnapping,
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: he tied a woman up, basically held her hostage in
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: her office for several hours.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: He spent over eight years in prison.
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: During that time, he found God. So now he's out
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: of prison, and he's gone to work at this small
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: church in Cedar Creek as a music minister.
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: After you've done this job for just a, you learn
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: that anyone is capable of anything.
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: So our initial plan to approach Russo was we basically
• 31:10
  Speaker 5: were gonna knock on his door in the middle of
• 31:11
  Speaker 5: the night.
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: We didn't really know what to expect with this guy
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: considering his history of violence. So we got to his
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: house at about 4 in the morning. It's a very
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: dark area. There's no street lights. It's out in the country.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: We actually saw a metallic-colored minivan. He opened the door.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: He never asked us why we were there.
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: Russo didn't seem too terribly surprised. We asked if he
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: would come in and speak to him, and he did.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: He basically told his wife.
• 31:55
  Speaker 5: You know, I'm on parole. These things are going to
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: happen from time to time. I'm going to go ahead
• 31:58
  Speaker 5: and go with them, and I'll be back later.
• 32:03
  Speaker 10: Detectives come right.
• 32:05
  Speaker 8: To the point.
• 32:23
  Speaker 5: We had a picture of Diane, and we basically threw
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: it on the table in front of them and asked
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: him point blank, do you know this person?
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: I want you to be as honest as you can.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Do you remember ever talking to her?
• 32:39
  Speaker 8: No, sir.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: You never talked to her?
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: No. I don't remember seeing her.
• 32:44
  Speaker 10: Or talking to her ever.
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: Her name is Diane.
• 32:45
  Speaker 10: Do you know any Dianes?
• 32:48
  Speaker 5: No, sir.
• 32:49
  Speaker 10: So you're saying you've never seen this woman, never been
• 32:51
  Speaker 10: to her house, never been invited to look around?
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: And he immediately said, is somebody accusing me of robbing
• 33:00
  Speaker 5: them or stealing from them?
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: Because if that's the case, that's not me.
• 33:05
  Speaker 10: I don't know what to say, but I haven't stolen
• 33:07
  Speaker 10: anything from anybody.
• 33:09
  Speaker 5: And we basically told him, you know, she's dead. And
• 33:13
  Speaker 5: he said, well, I have nothing to do with that.
• 33:15
  Speaker 6: I don't know if you noticed when you walked in here,
• 33:17
  Speaker 6: this is the homicide unit.
• 33:19
  Speaker 10: I don't know if you've seen TV tonight, a composite
• 33:22
  Speaker 10: drawing of what looks like you. I've done a lot
• 33:26
  Speaker 10: of things wrong in my life, I'm telling you. As
• 33:29
  Speaker 10: badly as I feel for this woman here, I'm sorry,
• 33:33
  Speaker 10: but you guys are barking up the wrong tree, and
• 33:35
  Speaker 10: I don't care how hard you dig, you're not going
• 33:38
  Speaker 10: to find me committing any crime like that.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: Their next step is to place Russo on the timeline
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: to determine if he could have killed Diane.
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: He told us that he was in the Austin area
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: because he was going to a Christian radio station to
• 33:55
  Speaker 4: talk to them about his website.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: About what time was that?
• 34:00
  Speaker 10: So that would have been about 4 o'clock, I believe.
• 34:04
  Speaker 10: Sometimes they answer the door, sometimes they don't. When no
• 34:07
  Speaker 10: one came to the door, I went ahead and left.
• 34:12
  Speaker 5: The storm blows in, and he ended up getting lost
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: He said, I was lost, I didn't know how to
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: get out of the neighborhood.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: He said, but I really didn't know what neighborhood I
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: was in.
• 34:23
  Speaker 5: He called his wife in a panic and she stayed
• 34:26
  Speaker 5: on the phone with him basically until she directed him out.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: Of Austin and got him on his way back to Bastrop.
• 34:33
  Speaker 10: I know I was on the phone with my wife
• 34:34
  Speaker 10: the entire time going all the way home. I have
• 34:37
  Speaker 10: no idea where I was at.
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: Do you think it's a little coincidental that several people
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: said that they saw you.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: In the neighborhood?
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: Well, it has to be coincidental because I haven't been
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: in any neighborhood.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: When police dig deeper, his story doesn't hold up.
• 34:55
  Speaker 5: Everybody in the radio station was preparing for this storm.
• 34:59
  Speaker 5: And part of their tornado protocol is to get everybody
• 35:03
  Speaker 5: that works in the building into the lobby and open
• 35:06
  Speaker 5: the front doors to equalize the pressure if a tornado
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: came through.
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: So if he had been there, they would have seen him.
• 35:15
  Speaker 11: If you get questioned, you shouldn't provide false alibis and
• 35:18
  Speaker 11: false evidence because what you're doing is creating a constellation
• 35:23
  Speaker 11: of facts that are building up against you.
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: His phone records also indicated that he was still in
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: Austin during the storm.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: The phone records indicate he was there around 5 p.m.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: on Thursday.
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: We were able to really put him right in the
• 35:44
  Speaker 5: middle of Diane's neighborhood. We were pretty excited because we
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: knew that we were on the right track. We specifically
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: asked him point blank if he was out looking for
• 35:57
  Speaker 5: homes in Austin, if he was in the neighborhood to
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: buy a home, and he flat out adamantly denied that
• 36:04
  Speaker 5: it was not him, he wasn't in the market to
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: look for a home, they couldn't afford that kind of home,
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: and it wasn't him.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: Police obtained Russo's fingerprints for comparison.
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: When they processed the flyer that had been obtained from
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: one of the residents, it had Russo's fingerprints on it
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: that showed that he had been at that residence and
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: that he had given that story to that particular resident.
• 36:31
  Speaker 5: As homicide detectives, that's the one thing that you're looking
• 36:35
  Speaker 5: for is that one mistake that opens the case for you.
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: It proved that he had been the one that was
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: going from house to house that was for sale. He
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: was lying.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: Police have Diane Hollick's suspected killer, Anthony Russo, cornered. But
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: there isn't enough evidence to justify his arrest.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: All we had was a very circumstantial case.
• 37:04
  Speaker 5: So now comes the hard work to make a case
• 37:07
  Speaker 5: against him to keep him in jail and prove that
• 37:09
  Speaker 5: he was there. When we got the fingerprint hit on
• 37:13
  Speaker 5: the flyer, we were able to prove that he lied
• 37:16
  Speaker 5: to us, and that that in and of itself is
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: a parole violation, which was enough to revoke him and
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: put him back in jail for making a false report
• 37:26
  Speaker 5: to a police officer. And so this really was a
• 37:30
  Speaker 5: strategy to give us that.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: Extra time we needed.
• 37:35
  Speaker 5: We went to Tony's house to execute the search warrant,
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: to photograph the van, and collect any evidence that we
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: might get from that van.
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: I was a bit disappointed when we didn't find anything.
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: And then as we were starting to go down the driveway,
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: I found where he had some wire rolled up. And
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: it was held in place by his white tie.
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: They appeared to be exactly the same size as what
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: was used to bind her wrists. The thing that really
• 38:12
  Speaker 5: threw it over the top for us was we seized
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: a computer from his home.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: He was a.
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: Member of a group that you have to sign on
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: to called NecroBabes.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: And it is a kind of a fantasy website.
• 38:28
  Speaker 5: Basically, these are vignettes, little stories of women who have
• 38:33
  Speaker 5: been strangled and bound. And there's photographs either of or
• 38:41
  Speaker 5: staged crime scenes that go along with these little vignettes.
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: It became very clear to us that Tony Russo had
• 38:49
  Speaker 5: an affinity for bondage and strangulation.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Police look through Russo's search history and discover he was
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: looking at the site only hours before Diane's murder.
• 39:02
  Speaker 5: One of the stories had to do with a woman
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: being strangled in.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: Her home that was for sale.
• 39:08
  Speaker 5: And that the ruse would be that you make it
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: look like it's a robbery. That was pretty much what
• 39:14
  Speaker 5: he did. He emulated that story almost to a T.
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: That piece of the puzzle was pretty much the last
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: piece we needed.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: We knew without a doubt it was him.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: On May 29, 2002, Anthony Russo is indicted.
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: He had this fantasy of strangling women. And I guess
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: it just came a time where he couldn't resist any longer,
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: and he had to act it out.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: With Russo still claiming innocence, police use the reconstructed timeline
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: to help prove his guilt.
• 40:00
  Speaker 5: The day of Diane's murder, I think that Tony had
• 40:04
  Speaker 5: been sharking around in neighborhoods looking for a victim.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: He came upon Diane's house around noon.
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: I'm sure he surmised she's single. No one else appears
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: to live in the house. She's a potential. Russo leaves.
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: Diane carries on about her day. As the day progresses,
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: perhaps he went to other locations, other houses, and didn't
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: find what he was looking for.
• 40:37
  Speaker 5: I think when the storm hit, he felt like that
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: was his opportunity.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: Under the cloak of bad weather.
• 40:52
  Speaker 5: That he could go back to that house and commit
• 40:56
  Speaker 5: his crime without anybody ever hearing her scream.
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: He knocks on the door. Diane lets him in, excited
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: a potential buyer was returning.
• 41:16
  Speaker 5: He waited until they got to that upstairs bedroom, and
• 41:19
  Speaker 5: that's when he took the opportunity to basically grab her
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: from behind, bind her, and then strangle her.
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: He comes back down. He's wiped maybe whatever he touched,
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: made sure that he didn't leave anything behind.
• 41:41
  Speaker 8: He gets.
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: In his minivan and he leaves.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: Tony Russo is a sexual sadist.
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: There were several that were victims of his that came forward.
• 41:56
  Speaker 5: We're lucky that they weren't murdered.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: The jury finds Anthony Russo guilty of murdering Diane Holick.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: He's sentenced to life in prison.
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: He was a sicko, just evil. I keep tabs on
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: Russo because I don't want that.
• 42:23
  Speaker 5: Tony Russo will never victimize another woman again. He will
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: be in prison until the day he dies. I couldn't
• 42:31
  Speaker 5: have asked for a more challenging case or a more
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: gratifying case at the end of it. I think we're
• 42:36
  Speaker 5: all in this for the justice of the victims and
• 42:39
  Speaker 5: the families that are left behind.
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: Diane was one of the sweetest persons you could ever meet.
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: She just.
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: Loved everything, everybody, life. I know she's not hurting, but
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: I still miss her a lot.
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: Thank you.