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What Hurts More Than Realizing the Suspect Was Someone You Loved_ · NO FILTER

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  Speaker 1: Brettani marcell was the kind of girl people loved to
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  Speaker 1: be around. Bright, out going, full of life. She grew
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  Speaker 1: up in a happy household alongside five siblings. From a
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  Speaker 1: young age, she showed a fierce sense of independence. Instead
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  Speaker 1: of asking for allowance, she saved up whatever she could
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  Speaker 1: to buy the things she wanted herself. At seventeen, Brettani
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  Speaker 1: was admired by her peers for managing to hold down
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  Speaker 1: a part time job at a sunglasses store in the mall,
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  Speaker 1: all while juggling her senior year of high school. September eleventh,
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  Speaker 1: two thousand eight, started off like any other day. After school,
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  Speaker 1: Brittani was planning to head home to alba Querke, New Mexico.
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  Speaker 1: Some of her friends invited her to hang out, but
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  Speaker 1: she told them she'd be having dinner with her mom
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  Speaker 1: and left early to get back. When Brettani arrived home,
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  Speaker 1: she realized she had beaten her mom, Diane back. She
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  Speaker 1: gave her a quick call, telling her to take her time,
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  Speaker 1: she'd start dinner while waiting. After hanging up, Brittani walked
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  Speaker 1: straight into the kitchen and began cooking. Meanwhile, Diane was
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  Speaker 1: already on her way. She had left work a little early,
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  Speaker 1: hoping to cook with her daughter and enjoy the evening together.
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  Speaker 1: When she got home, she parked in the garage and
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  Speaker 1: rang the doorbell, expecting Brittani to answer, but no one
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  Speaker 1: came to the door. She rang again, still nothing. Puzzled,
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  Speaker 1: she pulled out her key and unlocked the front door.
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  Speaker 1: The moment she stepped inside, Diane sais something was off.
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  Speaker 1: Her eyes went straight to Brittani's favorite pair of sunglasses
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  Speaker 1: lying on the floor. Heart racing, Diane called out for
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  Speaker 1: her daughter and slowly made her way toward the living room.
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  Speaker 1: That's when she saw her. Brettani was lying unconscious on
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  Speaker 1: the floor, and standing next to her was a man,
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  Speaker 1: face covered, holding a shovel in his hands. The moment
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  Speaker 1: Diane entered the room, the attacker turned and locked eyes
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  Speaker 1: with her. Without saying a word, he dropped the shovel,
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  Speaker 1: bolted into the kitchen and grabbed the kitchen knife. He
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  Speaker 1: pointed the knife at Diane and shouted, you're next. Panic
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  Speaker 1: set in. Diane screamed she ran. The attacker chased her
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  Speaker 1: through the house, but Diane managed to get outside just
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  Speaker 1: in time. She slammed the front door shut, locking him
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  Speaker 1: inside and rushed to a neighbor's house for help. Trapped,
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  Speaker 1: the attacker had no choice. He smashed a kitchen window
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  Speaker 1: with his elbow, climbed out, and fled the scene, vanishing
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  Speaker 1: before police arrived. Not knowing if he was still in
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  Speaker 1: the house, Diane made the impossible choice to go back
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  Speaker 1: inside to try to save her daughter. Inside, Brettani, her vibrant,
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  Speaker 1: joyful teenage girl, was lying in a pool of blood,
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  Speaker 1: fighting for her life. Diane stayed on the phone with
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  Speaker 1: nine one one, begging her daughter to hold on until
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  Speaker 1: help arrived. A short while later, police and paramedics arrived
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  Speaker 1: at the scene. Brettani was rushed to the hospital. The
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  Speaker 1: paramedic who first responded pulled Diane aside. He didn't sugarcoat it.
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  Speaker 1: Brittani was in critical condition and Diane needed to prepare
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  Speaker 1: herself for the worst. Sitting outside the a Diane cried.
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  Speaker 1: Part of her couldn't stop thinking what if this wasn't random?
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  Speaker 1: What if she was the intended target. I went through
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  Speaker 1: a violent divorce, Diane later said, my ex husband used
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  Speaker 1: to be aggressive and he stayed bitter after we separated.
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  Speaker 1: What if he hired someone to do this? Police couldn't
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  Speaker 1: confirm anything. At that point, they had to rely on
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  Speaker 1: hard evidence to find answers, but very quickly the investigation began.
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  Speaker 1: At the scene, officers recovered a bloody shovel, a sharp object,
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  Speaker 1: and a roll of duct tape, which they believed had
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  Speaker 1: been used to try and restrain Brittani. Detectives theorized that
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  Speaker 1: the masked man had snuck into the house and attacked
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  Speaker 1: Brittani from behind. The duct tape suggested he may have
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  Speaker 1: planned the kidnap her. Early evidence pointed to a well
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  Speaker 1: prepared attacker who left little to no trace behind, But
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  Speaker 1: then police found something a single drop of blood near
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  Speaker 1: the kitchen. It turned out that when Diane ran outside
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  Speaker 1: and locked the door, the attacker had broken through the
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  Speaker 1: kitchen window to escape. While climbing out, he cut himself
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  Speaker 1: on the vial broken glass. That's how he left behind
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  Speaker 1: the blood. Investigators quickly collected the sample and uploaded the
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  Speaker 1: DNA to the FBI's national database, but there was no match. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: Brittani was placed in intensive care fighting for her life.
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  Speaker 1: She slipped into a coma that lasted ten days. Against
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  Speaker 1: all odds, she eventually woke up. She had survived. When
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  Speaker 1: Diane spoke to her daughter for the first time after
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  Speaker 1: the attack. Brettani blinked and smiled as if she understood
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  Speaker 1: every word, but her body was paralyzed. She couldn't move.
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  Speaker 1: Fearing the attacker might come back to finish what he started,
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  Speaker 1: the family admitted Brittani under a fake name. Her treatment
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  Speaker 1: continued under this alias for months. Though she had survived
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  Speaker 1: the unimaginable, Bertani's life was changed forever. She had undergone
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  Speaker 1: emergency brain surgery while in the ICU. As a result,
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  Speaker 1: she lost large portions of her memory. She couldn't remember
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  Speaker 1: her closest friends, her time in high school, or even
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  Speaker 1: anything about the man who had attacked her. Even worse,
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  Speaker 1: she had lost sight in one eye and hearing in
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  Speaker 1: one ear. Doctor said it was a miracle she was
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  Speaker 1: still alive at all. Brittani was released from the hospital
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  Speaker 1: five months after the attack. Her family, fearing for her safety,
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  Speaker 1: made the decision to leave New Mexico behind and relocate
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  Speaker 1: to Texas. There, Brittani began a long, painful road to recovery.
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  Speaker 1: She entered an intensive physical therapy program to relearn how
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  Speaker 1: to move, walk, and function on her own. For years,
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  Speaker 1: investigators kept digging. They expanded the suspect pool to include
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  Speaker 1: former classmates and interviewed employees at the mall where Brettani worked.
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  Speaker 1: Still nothing, no fingerprints, no DNA match, no usable leads.
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  Speaker 1: Brittani's family lived in constant fear with no answers. Detectives
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  Speaker 1: admitted they were stuck. In twenty fourteen, six years after
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  Speaker 1: the attack, investigators made an unusual suggestion. They asked Brittani
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  Speaker 1: if she'd be willing to undergo hypnosis. They were hoping
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  Speaker 1: that somewhere, buried deep in her mind a memory might
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  Speaker 1: still be there. While under hypnosis, Brittani described her attacker
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  Speaker 1: as a tall, white male with spiked up hair. She
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  Speaker 1: said she couldn't remember his name, but something about him
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  Speaker 1: felt familiar. She thought she might have seen him before,
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  Speaker 1: possibly while working at the mall. Investigators started to speculate
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  Speaker 1: could the man have been a former co worker, a customer,
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  Speaker 1: someone who frequented the sunglasses store. Still the lead was weak,
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  Speaker 1: They didn't have a name, and time kept slipping by
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  Speaker 1: year after year with no answers. Then, in twenty sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: eight years after the attack and two years after the hypnosis,
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  Speaker 1: something changed. Brittani's memories started to come back in fragments,
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  Speaker 1: one name kept surfacing in her mind, Justin Hansen. She
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  Speaker 1: told her mother that for some reason, the name Justin
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't go away. Diane passed that detail on to investigators.
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  Speaker 1: At first, no one thought much of it, but slowly
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  Speaker 1: the pieces began to fall into place. The name Justin
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  Speaker 1: Hansen wasn't just a name, It was the key. When
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  Speaker 1: Brittani's sisters heard the name, they immediately recognized it. Justin
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  Speaker 1: Hanson had worked at the same mall where Brittani had
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  Speaker 1: a part time job. He was well known in the
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  Speaker 1: neighborhood for his good looks. People remembered him. Apparently, he
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  Speaker 1: had shown interest in Brittani around the time of the attack.
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  Speaker 1: They worked on the same floor, and multiple witnesses recalled
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  Speaker 1: them interacting, possibly even having a personal connection. Still, her
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  Speaker 1: sisters found it hard to believe Justin had always come
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  Speaker 1: across as polite and charming. Later, Brittani remembered more years earlier,
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  Speaker 1: in middle school, she used to visit her best friend Abby.
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  Speaker 1: Abby's older sister Lauren had been dating Justin back then,
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  Speaker 1: Brittani often saw him at their house. Years went by.
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  Speaker 1: In high school, Brittani landed a job at the same
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  Speaker 1: mall where Justin worked. Because they already knew each other,
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  Speaker 1: Justin would stop by her store frequently during breaks. He
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  Speaker 1: told her he and Lauren had broken up and made
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  Speaker 1: it clear he liked her. That's where Brittani's memory ended.
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  Speaker 1: Her family passed the name Justin Hansen to the police.
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  Speaker 1: At first, investigators didn't prioritize it, but the more they
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  Speaker 1: heard from Brittani and her fad family, the more it
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  Speaker 1: seemed worth looking into. Still, there was no motive, no confession,
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  Speaker 1: and no physical evidence except for that one drop of blood.
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  Speaker 1: Justin denied everything. He claimed he didn't know anyone named
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  Speaker 1: Britanni Mysel. To make progress, investigators needed more than suspicion.
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  Speaker 1: They decided to pay Justin a visit, framing it as
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  Speaker 1: a follow up to an unrelated workplace matter. By that time,
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  Speaker 1: Justin was married with four children. When officers showed up
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  Speaker 1: at his home and asked about Brittani, Justin said he
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  Speaker 1: had no idea who she was. Investigators turned to Para
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  Speaker 1: Bonnano Labs, a company specializing in DNA based facial reconstructions.
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  Speaker 1: Using the drop of blood from the crime scene, they
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  Speaker 1: built a three decomposite image of the suspect's face. The
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  Speaker 1: result was shocking. The digital face looked almost exactly like
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  Speaker 1: Justin Hansen. Detectives returned to Justin's home, this time requesting
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  Speaker 1: a d and his sample for comparison. Justin was furious.
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  Speaker 1: He insisted he didn't know Brittany and refused to comply.
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  Speaker 1: Without a court order, they couldn't force him, so they waited.
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  Speaker 1: One day, Justin left his house and stopped by a
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  Speaker 1: local McDonald's. He ordered a burger and a coke. When
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  Speaker 1: he threw his cup away, Investigators watching from a distance,
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  Speaker 1: retrieved it from the trash. That discarded cup gave them
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  Speaker 1: what they needed. They tested the DNA on the straw
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  Speaker 1: and compared it to the blood from two thousand and eight.
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  Speaker 1: It was a match, nearly a one hundred percent genetic match.
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  Speaker 1: Nine years after Britani's attack, on July tenth, twenty seventeen,
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  Speaker 1: Justin Hansen was arrested. He was thirty three years old
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  Speaker 1: and now facing multiple charges attempted murder, aggravated battery, and burglary.
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  Speaker 1: Investigators soon uncovered more. Justin had a history. He had
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  Speaker 1: previously been accused of assault and sexual Harris meant in
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  Speaker 1: two thousand and four and two thousand and seven before
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  Speaker 1: the attack on Brittani. Even more disturbing, after Brittani's case,
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  Speaker 1: he was banned from a gym for harassing teenage girls.
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  Speaker 1: Former classmates said they remembered Justin being violent toward women
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  Speaker 1: even as a kid, so maybe it wasn't a surprise
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  Speaker 1: after all. On July twenty fifth, twenty eighteen, almost ten
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  Speaker 1: years to the day after Brittani's near death experience, Justin
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  Speaker 1: Hansen was sentenced to eighteen years in prison. He'll be
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  Speaker 1: eligible for release in twenty thirty six at age fifty five.
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  Speaker 1: Justin appealed, arguing that he was a father of four
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  Speaker 1: and deserved leniency. The court denied his request. To this day,
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  Speaker 1: Justin claims he's innocent. He says he never met Brittani.
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  Speaker 1: As for Brittani, the only thing she remembers is that
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  Speaker 1: Justin once asked her out shortly before the attack and
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  Speaker 1: she declined. She still doesn't know why he did it.
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  Speaker 1: The rest of that night remains a blank. In the end,
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  Speaker 1: even after justice was served, one question still lingers why
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  Speaker 1: what made him do it? Was it rejection, obsession or
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  Speaker 1: something darker. Since the attack, Brettani has undergone twenty two
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  Speaker 1: surgeries in the span of ten years. She's still in
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  Speaker 1: physical therapy despite everything. Brittani once said in an interview
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  Speaker 1: that she wants to go back to school, study law,
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  Speaker 1: and one day help other survivors of violent crime.