>> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. and i'm looking at him and he tells me i'm next while he's reaching for a butcher knife. terrified. >> i just walked in and i saw blood everywhere. >> her daughter's laying there. a young girl coming home for lunch getting brutally attacked. >> blood on the floor. a shovel. duct tape. also a knife. >> i truly thought brittani would die. >> you wake up from your coma. >> i'm just like trying to communicate. >> i didn't give up. >> it was a struggle. >> you're not only the victim in this. you're the witness. >> it's almost like a nightmare. >> the detective wanted you to do hypnosis? >> mm-hmm. your mind is in a completely different phase. >> you don't know what's

happening? >> the details that she gave. >> it was unbelievable. >> she said you did it. i said no, you did. ♪ route 66 once stretched across the southwest from one horizon to the next. going from what america was to what it wanted to be. cities like albuquerque, new mexico were celebrated stops along the journey. today buildings that once lined this part of the iconic highway have faded and closed as the cottonwood mall became the new downtown. >> reporter: the mall was kind of the big hangout? >> i met my husband at the mall, yes. >> so did i. >> it's played a pivotal part in our lives.

>> for the marcell sisters, all six of them, along with brother jonathan, the cottonwood mall in albuquerque was the center of their social lives. >> it was people that we went to school with. so everybody kind of knew everybody. sister number five, 17-year-old brittani, worked at a sunglasses kiosk in the atrium. >> and she's this beautiful, blonde girl with striking blue eyes and a big smile. >> you were just drawn to her. >> life was simple, good. until wednesday, september 11th, 2008. brittani, just starting her senior year of high school, made plans to meet her mom, a credit-union teller, at home for lunch. >> i open the door, and i walk in. and i saw her favorite pair of red sunglasses down on the floor. >> reporter: did that mean anything to you? >> i thought, that was really weird. >> reporter: a seemingly trivial detail now burned into diane's memory because of what she saw

next. >> i see her laying there on the floor. >> reporter: lying on the floor? >> on the floor. and she's just bleeding profusely. >> reporter: then what do you see? >> i see a person who i've never seen before in my house. and he's holding a shovel. and he walks through my living room, drops the shovel, and walks through the dining room and around to the kitchen. and i'm looking at him. and he tells me i'm next while he's reaching for a butcher knife. >> reporter: he's going to kill you? >> yes. >> reporter: what do you do? >> i ran out. i'm screaming and yelling. >> diane's screams got the attention of a passerby who was brave enough to help. >> he ran into the house. and he yelled back and he said, "you need to get those paramedics here real quick. she's going to die." >> diane called 911 but stayed outside. certain the attacker was still in her home. >> i just walked in and i saw blood everywhere. i'm afraid to go in. i walked in and he had -- he was coming after me. he ran to the kitchen. >> police and the paramedics

were there in minutes. brittani was taken to the hospital as diane called her other children. >> someone was calling me, saying, "brittani got stabbed." kat had thought she was -- >> yeah, i thought she got stabbed. >> a car accident. we didn't realize what had happened. >> yeah, and so i rushed home to my mom. and she told me what happened. and i truly thought brittani would die. >> the sisters rushed to the hospital. but once there were met with confused looks. >> they were like, "we don't have a brittani marcell here." >> minutes later detectives arrived and told the marcell family for her safety brittani was admitted under an assumed name. >> we still hadn't understood what happened. i mean, she's under an alias. the police officers rush us into this private room in the hospital. >> reporter: putting brittani under an assumed name may have been a smart move. because the family was later told about a mysterious visitor who was trying to get in to see brittani. >> while we were in the waiting

room, one of the nurses came out and said, "do you know that some man just came in to see her?" >> who was it? >> we don't know who it was. >> you never -- >> we don't know. >> the man left before he could be identified. diane had a terrifying thought. maybe it was brittani's attacker. >> i didn't know if this person was watching us from afar. did he follow the ambulance? i went into the restroom. i would look at every stall on the back of the doors to make sure that nobody was in there or standing on the -- on the actual commode. >> reporter: fear took over? >> fear. >> as brittani teetered on the edge of death her family could only guess as to who attacked her and why. >> we started looking, like, who's in our lives? what strange person? was it any of the boyfriends? >> everybody in our family is a natural problem-solver. and so everybody's trying to formulate ideas of who -- >> who it was, right. >> how, what, when. >> the marcells were raised to be close and self-sufficient. their dad, a truck driver, was often away. when he and diane divorced, she had to go to work. the children looked out for each

other. >> how do you think it shaped brittani being number five in this big family? >> she looked up to kathleen and kristin and alicia. >> remind me again who's the oldest? >> i am. i think i was kind of like her mom too. i mean, that's the way it goes in a big family, right? you -- the littlest one has the most moms. >> like her older sisters, brittani was disciplined and hard-working. >> she was an excellent student. she had a good circle of friends. >> i think she kind of set herself apart from the popular crowd, rather than was inside it. and i think most of that is because she's very genuine in everything that she does. >> brittani was headed for college and hoped one day to be a local t.v. reporter covering albuquerque. >> very, very driven. she was scheduled to graduate high school early. she wanted to study journalism. >> but her mom, diane, said brittani hit a rough patch during her junior year in high school. >> reporter: how was brittani acting? >> just rebellious, normal 17-year-old, how they, you know, get confrontational if you ask

them something. >> things got so tense for a while, brittani moved in with her dad. >> and he wasn't there all the time, so it was perfect for her. >> reporter: this was her sort of mild way of running away from home? >> a little bit. right. >> but by the start of her senior year, brittani wanted to come back. that's why she and her mom were meeting for lunch. to discuss brittani's return. instead, brittani was attacked. >> reporter: what did the doctors tell you when brittani was brought to the hospital? >> they didn't think she would survive. >> are you able to see her? >> we can see her, but she doesn't know we're there. >> the moment we all walked into the room, everything stopped. brittani's head was the size -- >> huge. >> -- of a basketball, if not bigger. and i don't think any of us really thought that's brittani. >> what goes through your mind when you realize you may never have any moments with your sister again? like this could be it. >> all the moments you missed.

brittani had a couple nights before asked me to go to a maroon five. and i was like no, i'm busy. i didn't tell her i loved her enough. i didn't hold her enough. she didn't know how much she meant to me. my son's not going to get to see her again. >> you're having a dress rehearsal for a death that hasn't happened. >> coming up -- who was britd ni's attacker? >> this just seemed so personal. >> this person seemed like they were full of rage. >> who is brittani hanging around with? who might be a suspect? >> and would he return? >> the alarm was set constantly. >> we just never experienced that kind of imminent danger. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues you're an original. and your eyes have the power to speak volumes. with voluminous original mascara from l'oreal. the original brush separates every lash. our creamy formula builds 5x the volume.

america's #1 mascara. voluminous original. from l'oreal paris. you're worth it. voluwith acetaminophenction fights pain in two ways. advil targets pain at the source... ...while acetaminophen blocks pain signals. the future of pain relief is here. new advil dual action.

robinwithout the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. ♪ you can go your own way ♪ go your own way your wireless. your rules. only xfinity mobile lets you choose shared data, unlimited or a mix of each. and switch anytime so you only pay for the data you need. switch and save up to $400 a year on your wireless bill.

with the carrier rated #1 in customer satisfaction. call, click, or visit your local xfinity store today. while the marcells tried to grasp what happened to brittani, the police were trying to find out who did it. albuquerque police detective jason morales, since retired, was the lead investigator. >> you've seen a lot of murders

in your career. how -- how brutal was this attack in this house? >> it was very brutal. >> morales said brittani had been hit repeatedly with a shovel, so hard it crushed the left part of her skull. >> so when i got here, the crime van was already parked out front. they had been here for a little while. they were waiting on the condition of the victim, brittani, to see if she was going to survive or if she's going to die. >> morales said the fact brittani's purse and sunglasses were found right in the entryway led him to believe the attacker came up behind her as she entered the house. >> did you get the sense that maybe this was a burglary in progress and brittani just happened to come home? or do you -- did you feel like the perpetrator was someone that brittani knew? >> this just seemed so personal. it seemed to me at the time that we're looking at somebody that either knew brittani or knew somebody in the family. or there was something -- there was more of a connection to there. >> the brutal nature of the attack, did that tell you anything? i mean, this person seemed like they were full of rage. >> it does. we started trying to figure out who was brittani hanging around with?

who might be a suspect? because it really -- at this point, we had no suspect at all so everybody is. >> morales believed the attack had just started when brittani's mom arrived. >> i don't think he was anticipating diane showing up. >> the pattern of blood at the scene indicated the attacker actually chased diane when she fled the house, but stopped for some reason. maybe, morales thought, when diane started screaming. >> and he panicked. so instead of going out a sliding glass door whether it was locked or unlocked, he jumps out of a dining room window, i mean, not through the screen, he jumps through the glass to get out. >> inside the house, morales found a room full of evidence. >> so once we were able to go inside, you could see it was pretty violent. there was blood on the floor. a shovel. there was duct tape. and then there was also a knife. >> a lot of clues. >> yes, absolutely. >> enough, morales thought, to solve the case. that is, until he got the lab results. the fingerprints found on the shovel, knife and tape were incomplete.

dna from a male was found on the shovel and the knife, but it was so intermingled with brittani's blood, it was impossible to develop an individual profile. but on a shard of broken glass, police found a drop of blood that looked promising, because it was pristine. >> when he jumped out of the window, he cut himself. >> the blood drop was analyzed and a complete male dna profile was generated, which morales uploaded to the national criminal data base, called codis. >> to see if it would match anybody that's already in the database. >> did you get a match? >> no. >> no match? morales couldn't believe it. he was convinced brittani's attacker had to be a repeat offender. >> you'd have to figure that somebody that's done something in that extreme has done -- done something like that before. >> brittani's attacker, basically, vanished into thin air. >> yes. >> so now morales's

investigation went from the lab to the street. he'd heard brittani was seeing someone, kind of a boyfriend. >> was he a potential suspect? >> absolutely. >> did you do a dna test on her sort of boyfriend? >> yes. he was cleared. his dna did not match that. >> police didn't have to rely on just hard evidence, though. they had an eyewitness to the attack. >> i could see his height. >> brittani's mom had actually seen the guy. >> i saw he had jeans on. he had a long-sleeved shirt on, >> and what does he look like? >> either a dark caucasian man or a light hispanic with brown hair, kind of spiky. >> police created a composite sketch and spread the word across the rio grande valley. >> there was both billboards, rewards, crimestoppers rewards. names just start pouring in. so we were talking to a bunch of people. >> but to no avail. the billboard campaign didn't produce any workable suspects, witnesses or leads. meanwhile, the marcell family was on edge.

in the days following the attack, brittani remained on life support, close to death. >> we really didn't know what to do when they said she's probably not going to make it. >> their home, once a safe and sacred place, was now marred by evil. >> walking in was like someone died there. like, it was just morbid. >> it was just dark. >> hard. >> very dark. >> living there, staying there, we all can say we have a fond memory of that house. and going back there, it's that dark feeling you get on the inside. this isn't okay. and you just want to get what you have to get to survive and leave p. >> brittani's mom soon found a rental house, but changing addresses didn't help with the lingering unease. >> whenever we're in the house, the alarm was set constantly. no open windows. no open doors until we go out. our whole lifestyle changed. >> the marcells were terrified brittani had been attacked by someone who knew them and their routines, someone who might

strike again. >> we just never experienced that kind of imminent danger. >> did you worry about them, that they could be targets, that he could go after one of them or he could try to finish off brittani? >> right, because we didn't know if brittani was the original target. and the fact he hadn't been identified. it was unsettling for everybody and i think they had every reason to be worried. >> they worked out a schedule, taking turns standing vigil at the hospital with brittani. they tried to be hopeful, but they also knew the doctors and the police all thought brittani was going to die. >> and all the reports at the hospital were looking -- like, the trajectory was for brittani to pass. >> but somehow brittani held on and six weeks after the attack, against all odds, she finally opened her eyes. >> when brittani came to and she woke up, her eyes were blue like the ocean before.

and they -- they were gray. and i kept thinking, "he took your light. oh, my god. he took your light." >> and in brittani's new gray eyes her family saw something else, fear. coming up -- >> who is this guy that hurt me? why did he hurt me? >> brittani and her family still haunted. >> your friends, your teachers, your boyfriend. >> everybody's a possible suspect. >> it sounds crazy. but it could be anybody. >> when "dateline" continues. ♪ [yawn] you. look. stunning. want the truth to why i wake up feeling... [growls softly] ...so darn awesome? [makes playful sound] i take care of my skin. not this skin. that skin.

and when you've got incontinence, you sure need to. tena intimates pads lock liquid in, and are now 100% breathable to care for your intimate skin. are you still here? kind to skin. protects like tena. turns out, my body wash was the problem. kind to skin. until i tried olay body. which improves skin 3 times better than the leading body wash. better skin from a body wash? you better believe it. with olay body.

robinwithout the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. the unfair money bail system. he, accused of rape. while he, accused of stealing $5. the stanford rapist could afford bail; got out the same day. the senior citizen could not; forced to wait in jail nearly a year. voting yes on prop 25 ends this failed system, replacing it with one based on public safety. because the size of your wallet shouldn't determine whether or not you're in jail. vote yes on prop 25 to end money bail.

brittani's beating was so horrific, we created sketches of her time in the icu rather than show you the actual photos. part of her brain was removed. then she contracted meningitis which nearly killed her. one surgery after another. but brittani held on. and by christmas, three months after the attack, the family was told brittani would survive. but what would her new life be like? >> we talked to her, and she would blink her eyes and smile, but we knew at that point her -- there was a lot of paralysis. and that's when they told us her ear canal is crushed, she's going to be deaf. they also told us that her optic nerve is probably atrophied, which it's severed, just from the hitting of the head, the jolting of it.

>> despite her extensive injuries, brittani's family started taking her on short outings. >> and we put her in the wheelchair and she still couldn't hold her head up. and she's drooling. i was like, please don't let this be it. >> the family knew this might be all they could hope for. >> and there was so much dead tissue in the front temporal lobe. they removed pieces of that. and they -- with the brain they were saying it's so unpredictable. that could be any -- >> your short term -- >> that could be your speech. that could be short term. it could regenerate. >> when i hear all the wonderful things about her and all the things she wanted to accomplish and now you're describing her like this. were you angry? >> oh, yeah. >> absolutely. >> as they tended to brittani, her sisters continued to wonder who could have done this to her? >> it's violating because you start questioning relationships you trust. >> exactly. yes. >> at school, your friends, your teachers, your boyfriend, your circle of influence. you're like, well, maybe it was you. >> so everybody's a possible suspect? >> even going to the gym, going

to the grocery store, you know, standing at the gas station, i mean, it's -- it sounds crazy. but when you don't know who it is it could be anybody. >> uh-huh. >> it was all so personal. the attacker had been in their home. possibly stalked them. maybe brittani wasn't even his intended target? maybe it was one of the other sisters. no one could say for sure. but the family had to put their fears aside when caring for brittani, who now needed all of their help. >> it's really taking your baby and raising her all over again. so you're raising a child that you already raised. >> that, i think, was the hardest part, watching mom have to go through that again. you just -- you wanted to cry for them. >> five months after the attack, her condition had stabilized to the point brittani could be released from the hospital. but she was far from healed. >> she didn't realize why she couldn't walk, why she couldn't eat, why she had to learn all these things over again.

>> as helpless as a child, which meant if the attacker returned, the marcell family was more vulnerable now than ever. so diane fled albuquerque, taking brittani along with the two youngest children to neighboring texas. she found a new home, a new job, and most important a rehabilitation clinic for brittani. >> her mom was very, very anxious because we didn't know who the assailant was, and that they were still very concerned for her safety. >> doctor lori wright was one of brittani's therapists. what was your first impression of brittani when you met her? >> she just didn't know much beyond where she was. and she was very, very confused. crying a lot. she had to have somebody shower her. she had to have somebody take her to the bathroom. she had to have all those things done for her all over again. >> dr. wright, a neuropsychologist, practices

what's known as cognitive behavioral therapy. >> we believe with practice, practice, practice the brain can heal. >> which means teaching a head trauma patient to do one simple task over and over again until it becomes reflexive. >> because their brain is just not the same brain that used to be. >> is it like rewiring the brain? >> absolutely. it is rewiring the brain. and so what do you do? you sit down and you do it with her until she's able to do it herself. >> brittani's brain injury was so severe much of her therapy was almost like a preschool class. >> she would read her dr. seuss books to me. and that was a rehab. and she would have to read. and i'd read, and she'd read. it's like reading to a toddler all over and teaching a child to read. >> but the attack on brittani was so brutal, dr. wright wasn't sure how far she'd get in her recovery. >> there was 25% of the brain she wasn't able to access that she used to be able to access. >> did you think she'd ever get her memory back?

>> getting that memory back, most people don't ever. especially if it's a traumatic brain injury, if you're -- you don't usually remember. >> if brittani's memory did return, her account of the attack could later be used as evidence. so dr. wright didn't give brittani any of the details out of concern it could create false memories. >> when people come out of this kind of trauma, they're not sure if this is a memory that they're remembering, or this is something that somebody's told them. if her memory were to come back, we wanted it to just be her memory. >> as she slowly learned to talk again, brittani seemed stuck in a loop of fear. >> she would -- just on repeat, you know, "i'm afraid, i'm afraid. who is this guy that hurt me? why did he hurt me?" and, you know, "what am i going to do if he comes to get me?" >> after months of constant, repetitive therapy brittani's brain did start to rewire

itself. and in such a dramatic way it still brings tears to dr. wright's eyes. >> it took a year. a year of intense therapy. and she didn't give up. and it's really hard to explain. brittani's special. she is definitely special. >> she is indeed. as you're about to see for yourself. coming up -- britanni speaks out at last. >> you wake up from your coma. what's the first thing that happens? >> i'm just like trying to communicate. >> and she speaks to investigators, too. >> i put that big x through that one picture. i thought it was this guy. i really did. >> when "dateline" continues. spots? it's not your dishwashers fault. simply add finish jet-dry 3in1 to rinse dry and shine your dishes. solve three problems at once with finish jet dry 3in1.

hey. [ snoring, indistinct talking on tv ] you fell asleep with your sign again. "you fell asleep with your sign again." no, i didn't. okay. switch to progressive and you can save hundreds. you know, like the sign says. because when i get home, we like to play crocodile on the floor. ♪ o-cedar easywring removes over 99% of bacteria, even with just water... and wrings with a press of a pedal. ♪ easywring. easy and truly clean floors. try it, you'll see. also discover, the o-cedar promist max for the fastest, everyday clean. o-cedar. it feels great to feel at home.

(brad(operator) how dgot another vacancycom find at fifth and pine.ickly? (brad) oh, that's good. apartments-dot-com. the most popular place to find a place. she said it was like someone else was controlling her mouth. her doctor said she has tardive dyskinesia, which may be related to important medication she takes for her depression. td can affect different parts of the body. - [narrator] in today's trying times, we're here to help you manage td. visit talkabouttd.com for a doctor discussion guide to prep for your next appointment in person, over the phone, or online. - we were so relieved to learn there are treatments for td.

hello. i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. coronavirus cases continue to surge. at least six states saw new single-day records in cases this week. more than 215,000 people have died from covid-19 in the u.s.

but stimulus talks remain at an impasse. the latest white house offer hit a wall with both democrats and republicans, hopes for a bipartisan zeal. democrats said the nearly $1.9 trillion proposal didn't go far enough while some republicans balked at the price tag. now back to "dateline." there was a time when doctors gave brittani marcell just hours to live. but somehow she held on, almost rising from the dead. through hours upon hours of hard work brittani's mind and body began to heal. she's permanently deaf in her left ear and blind in her left eye. these days she no longer struggles to talk. here, at last, is brittani in her own words. >> you wake up from your coma. what's the first thing that happens that you can tell us about? >> i'm just, like, trying to communicate.

but you can't at that age. i was at that, as you say, newborn stage per se because i couldn't walk. talking was the hard thing, speech in general. i mean, after everything that happened, you're kind of like a toddler. you don't understand the language that you and i are speaking today. and then when i went to rehab, i was more of, like, a teenager, a young teenager. and as time went on, i started becoming more like a better -- like a stronger teenager, like knowing what to do. >> so you were rapidly going through all the phases you'd already done once before. >> right. right. >> and by her side the entire time -- her mom. >> she's been there with me on every medical appointment, every surgery. like she's somebody who i look up to, very much so. she's like my best friend now. >> how well do you remember your high school years? >> like nothing. like, i don't remember that. but i remember my childhood very well. >> oh, that's interesting that you remember childhood but not high school. >> unh-uh.

or middle school, very little of middle school. i remember going to new york in middle school. but when i was in high school, not very much. >> brittani's nerve damage is so extensive, she's unable to shed a tear or control many of her facial muscles and is no longer able to smile. >> how many surgeries have you had so far? >> gosh, i've had, i want to say, up to 20. my mom says, i think you're done with surgeries. i'm like, no, i'm not, mom. i want my smile. that's what i want, my smile. and she's like, well, most people don't notice that. i'm like, no, but i do every day. >> the brittani you see today is not the same person she was before the attack. as her brain rewired itself, her speech patterns and even aspects of her personality changed. she became more reserved, more cautious. not as bubbly and outgoing as she once was. >> did you still have fears even though you had moved to a new state? >> i did. >> did you still feel like he could come find you? >> uh-huh. that's why on my, like, social media i don't put a location as to where i live.

i mean you can put where you live on facebook now. i don't put that. >> despite her fears brittani was improving, dramatically, and police hoped she'd eventually help them find her attacker. >> we asked her to look at the composite sketch and she said it looks like somebody that she knows. but she just couldn't put all the information together. but i was hoping that she could at least give some information that would lead us in a direction whether it be, you know, somebody that she remembered being with at a party or somebody that showed up to work, you know, just give us another clue or a lead that we could follow up. and it didn't. >> another dead end? >> yes. very frustrating. >> meanwhile, the marcell sisters, still working with brittani, did what they could to help with the investigation by going over facebook and old yearbook photos. >> and just flip through to see if she recognized anybody or had any idea who it could be. >> and anything? were you getting anywhere? >> she -- i mean, she would point to some pictures.

but i think she was still processing what we were having her do. >> but there was one picture in what would have been her senior yearbook that got their attention. >> this guy just looks so sketchy, it's like kind of like you get that, that vibe, like he looks kind of guilty almost like a criminal, like somebody who's going to go out there and do something and harm somebody. that's why i put that big "x" thru that one picture. >> she did more than draw an x through it, she drew an inverted pentagram, the mark of the beast, the devil. >> i thought it was this guy. i really did. >> but it wasn't the guy. police investigated him and found out he was just a random classmate who did nothing worse than take a bad picture. so the family kept up their armchair sleuthing. >> were you passing along names of friends -- >> i was -- >> -- co-workers, anybody that would be in brittani's world?

>> right. even people in my kids' world and my world. i mean, i didn't -- at that point i didn't trust anybody not to have done this. they were all suspects. i was a teller at a credit union. and i could see people walk in and walk out. i'm thinking, i wonder if it's that person. >> they were always calling in. like said, they'd see somebody at the bank and it looked like him. they didn't know who it was. but they'd give me a license plate. and we would follow up that information. but still, it didn't lead to the identity of the suspect. >> did you feel like you started to exhaust everyone kind of in brittani's world? >> yes. >> and how many names of potential suspects or people of interest did the family give you? >> i would say somewhere in the area of about 30. the frustrating part is the fact that we have the key right there. it's brittani. >> coming up -- >> you're not only the victim in this, you're the key witness. >> that's the scary part. it's almost like a nightmare. >> enter a new detective.

>> when she got like her hands on the case, she would call my mom almost every day. >> you finally had hope? >> i did. >> could she find a new lead? >> i thought wow, maybe this is the guy. >> when "dateline" continues. [phone rings] "hello, how can i" sore throat pain? try new vicks vapocool drops in honey lemon chill for a fast-acting rush of relief like you've never tasted in... ♪ honey lemon ahh woo vicks vapocool drops now in honey lemon chill

when was the last time your property tawhat?l went down? never. are you kidding me? for years, the residential burden has gone up. while the corporate burden has gone down. prop 15 reverses that. it closes corporate loopholes and invests in schools, small business, and firefighters. and when the big corporations pay more, your tax bill goes down. that's right. a savings of a hundred twenty-one dollars a year for the average home. give homeowners a break. vote yes on 15. everything about the brittani marcell case was inside-out. police had the suspect's dna,

but not his name. fingerprints, but too smeared to read. and two eyewitnesses, who couldn't identify the attacker. >> you're not only the victim in this, you're the key witness. >> right. >> i mean, you know who did this to you. you may not know his name. but you -- you saw him. >> uh-huh. it's like that's -- that's kind of the scary part. it's almost like a nightmare. >> ironically, for investigators the fact that brittani didn't die posed a problem. there's no statute of limitations for murder. but attempted murder is a different story. and two years into the case morales worried he was running out of time. >> i wouldn't want something like that to be the technicality that gets this individual off in the future is the fact that the statute of limitations ran. >> for help, morales turned to cold case prosecutor david waymire. >> even if the defendant was ultimately identified through dna, even if he admitted the crimes, the statute of

limitations, once it hits, it's an absolute bar to prosecution. >> but waymire had an idea as to how they could get around that hard deadline. indict the dna profile as a john doe. a creative legal maneuver, but one that had never been tested in state court. >> although we felt like we were on solid ground to do it, we didn't know for sure that it would be upheld by the new mexico courts. >> with no other options, waymire went ahead with the unusual indictment. a good thing because the investigation was at a standstill. morales was afraid the only way he'd catch brittani's attacker was if he struck again. >> i cannot believe somebody that would commit a crime of this nature would not mess up again. >> brittani's sisters were afraid they might be the next victims. >> i mean over the years, we will all sit around a table and we will go into hours of the night, trying to come up with possibilities of why and who. >> but the marcell family, like

detective morales, had no workable leads. by the fifth anniversary of the attack, the case was no closer to being solved. >> i really hate calling cases cold. it's just that you just haven't found that right person. >> liz thompson, then a sergeant heading up the homicide unit, and detective morales's boss, was optimistic something would break. >> you know, that one person hadn't talked or that one piece of evidence hadn't matched up. and it just took persistence. that's what it needed. >> but that optimism was lost on the marcell family. they were still living in constant fear brittani's attacker would one day return, possibly for them. >> it was a scary thought because we don't know if we were being followed still. and we're all scared. >> and that's when, in 2012, brittani's mom placed an uncomfortable call to sergeant thompson.

>> i finally said, you know what? i think we need new eyes on the case. >> and so we had to have some hard discussions about what are the next steps? how can we move this case forward? >> sergeant thompson decided the best way to accomplish that was to reassign the case. to veteran homicide detective jodi gonterman. >> i read through the case, i briefed with detective morales, i spoke with the family. brittani didn't remember what happened at all. >> describe her for us. your first impression, what you thought of her. >> she's a go-getter. she's stubborn. she doesn't give up. she's just fascinating. she's cute, vivacious. she's a mom. she has kids. >> do you feel like this was a match made in heaven? >> i did. uh-huh. >> what did she tell you that she was going to do? >> she was going to review everything. she had a good relationship with the forensic team there and she had her review all the fingerprints, all the dna. >> when she got like her hands on the case, she would call my mom almost every day.

>> you finally had hope? >> i did. i did. >> that they would find your attacker? >> i did. she goes out and she goes after, like, the evidence she's got. she goes after every tip. >> brittani said that you would always show her that her case was at the top of the pile. >> i told her every time she called me i'm looking at your case. it's right here. i'm not filing it away. i will never put it away. >> did you have an instant connection with brittani? >> i believe so. absolutely. >> gonterman immersed herself in brittani's world prior to the attack. >> who she was friends with, what those relationships were, who was in her phone, who the photos were, who she hung around with, what did she like to do? she was a very social girl. she was a very good girl. >> now, five years after the attack, gonterman worked the case like it happened yesterday, searching for new leads, new witnesses. >> talked to neighbors. i would look at every house to see is there anybody at this

house who has a criminal history that would fit this type of crime. >> because the case had been out of the public eye for so long, gonterman and thomson began drumming up local press coverage hoping it would shake loose a new lead. >> so i did a piece on local media. we reissued the sketch. and then detective gonterman started taking in tips. >> and right off the bat, they got a good one. >> i thought, wow, maybe this is the guy. >> coming up. one name. then two. then three. then four. >> a suspect was developed, and then another suspect would be developed and over and over, they were excluded. >> what is it that we're missing? i didn't give up. we need to get an answer for brittani and her family to give them closure. >> when "dateline" continues.

these are real people, not actors, who've got their eczema under control. with less eczema, you can show more skin. so roll up those sleeves. and help heal your skin from within with dupixent. dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. many people taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin, and, had significantly less itch. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines, don't change or stop them without talking to your doctor.

so help heal your skin from within, and talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent. if your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help. and your eyes have the power to speak volumes. with voluminous original mascara from l'oreal. the original brush separates every lash. our creamy formula builds 5x the volume. america's #1 mascara. voluminous original. from l'oreal paris. you're worth it.

in just a couple of weeks, detective gontderman and sergeant thompson had already scared up a hot lead on a potential suspect who had somehow slipped through the cracks years earlier. >> what was his criminal history? >> stalking his girlfriend. there was duct tape. he lived across the street behind brittani. >> also suspicious, the suspect left new mexico after the attack. where was he? >> i think he was in colorado if i'm not mistaken. >> so gonterman called local police, who tracked him down, and surprisingly convinced the suspect to give them a dna swab. albuquerque police department forensic scientist alana williams took over from there. >> how long does it take to you see if there's a match? is it instant? >> no. so it takes several days to look at the item of evidence, swab the sample, extract the dna, see how much you have, and then once it's placed on the

instrument you get a dna profile. >> at the end of all that did you think it was him? >> i thought it was a possibility. got my hopes up. and then i was very disappointed when it wasn't. >> the dna didn't match. a big letdown. one of many to come. then another tip. gonterman took it seriously because of who it was from. >> a parent saying i think it's my son who did this. >> wow. >> my son would visit the house right across from brittani's home, and he looks like the sketch. and this was considering that this would be very difficult for a parent, i thought, wow, okay. >> but when gonterman got the man's dna sample -- >> he was excluded. >> another letdown? >> yes. >> so gonterman and thompson tried a different strategy, focusing on case that's bore should similarity to brittani's attack. they found one that was eerily similar.

>> oh my gosh, the same part of town. it was at her own home. it was a shovel. they knew her. and i just thought how could it not be? >> but his dna didn't match, either. of he wasn't john doe. the old school approach of working ipz tips, leads, and hunches just wasn't paying off. so she went over the case file again and came across a report about brittani's cell phone. in twas during the initial investigation police didn't have the technology to break into the phone without erasing the data. >> so when it was first processed, there were only so many tools to get in it. and brittani couldn't remember her pin. so years later, i took it down to the forensics laboratory for computers. >> you tried it again? >> tried it again. >> there was advancements in technology? >> yes. >> this time technicians were able to get into brittani's phone and right off the bat gonterman found an intriguing clue.

>> a tech message from a male who texted brittani the day it happened and wanted to meet her for lunch. >> wow. >> i was like, wow, we didn't know about this guy and brittani didn't remember him. >> did it have a name and everything? it was right there for you? >> name, phone number. i figured out who it was. at the time he had gone to high school with brittany. >> so gonterman did an online search and easily found brittani's old high school friend. to her surprise he was a police officer. >> did that kind of rattle you a little bit? >> of course, it did. what better way to just not get caught and, you know, cover it up. >> gonterman contacted the officer, broke the news to him that he was a person of interest in the brittani marcell case. she also collected a sample of his dna. two weeks later the results came back. they were negative. once again it wasn't john doe. >> somewhat relieved it wasn't him? >> was i relieved that it -- i

was. but if it was him and he was a law enforcement officer, then you know, good, we got him. >> about how many men would you say you got your hopes up for that this could be the one? >> i think those four were the most significant. >> but many more were tested. >> a suspect was developed and then the dna profile wouldn't match. and then another suspect would be developed and no match. and every time it seemed like over and over, suspect by suspect, they were excluded. >> we tested and tested and tested and no matches. >> what's that like, up and down, up and down? you get your hopes up and it's not a match? >> oh, it's really hard and we have to remind each other all the time, okay, how do we move forward? what is it that we're missing? >> it's an emotional roller coaster. >> as the years slipped by and you have all these false leads, false hope, are you starting to

wonder if maybe we're never going to solve this and this is -- you know, maybe it's all for nothing, what we're doing? >> i didn't give up. we needed to get an answer for brittani and her family to give them closure. >> her determination gave the marcells strength. >> she's like i will not retire until this case is solved. >> she said that to all of us. >> like detective morales before her, gonterman found herself circling back to brittani. but each visit was as frustrating as the last. >> she didn't have a lot of memory. you know, it was like talking to a little girl. talking to a sweet little girl, trying to remember. >> by 2014, six years after the assault on brittani marcell, detective gonterman was out of leads, suspects, and witnesses. the scientific way of work the case through fingerprints and dna was a bust. and so was gonterman's old school knocking on doors approach. >> did you ever say to jodi, you

know, what maybe we need to stop focusing on this case so much? >> oh, no. >> we're running in all the wrong directions? >> oh, good heavens, no. we just hadn't found this person or this person was deceased and we just needed to figure out who they were and get their dna and solve it that way. but no, we -- yeah. we just had to keep plugging away at it. >> there was no doubt brittani was improving dramatically, but she still had no recollection of the attack. no one knew if her memory of that day was gone forever or would eventually emerge from the haze. detective gonterman and sergeant thompson now believed if they were ever going to solve this case they had to do something radical, possibly even traumatic, to find a way to get brittani to relive at tack thth that nearly killed her. >> we didn't know if brittani had brain damage that was interfering with her ability to remember the attack or if they were repressed memories that

could be recovered from using hypnosis. >> putting a witness under hypnosis is legally controversial. many states won't allow it out of concern the recovered memories could be nothing more than made-up stories. putting brittani, a brain-damaged crime victim, under hypnosis had its own unique set of concerns. >> because then your memories start flying back and i'm afraid if i do get hypnotized more is going to come back than expected. >> if you had the choice to remember the entire incident, would you want to remember it? >> i wouldn't want to remember the beating. that's something i would not want to remember. i'd just want to remember the guy's face. >> just enough to say -- >> this is him. >> coming up -- >> do i have your permission to hypnotize you? >> yes, sir. >> you sure you're ready? >> i believe so. >> okay. >> brittani marcell under a doctor's spell. >> tell me what's happening. >> he's hurting me. he's hurting me. >> can he jog her memory and help solve this mystery?

>> one, two, three. [ snaps fingers ] >> when "dateline" continues. ♪ o-cedar easywring removes over 99% of bacteria, even with just water... and wrings with a press of a pedal. ♪ easywring. easy and truly clean floors. try it, you'll see. also discover, the o-cedar promist max for the fastest, everyday clean. o-cedar. it feels great to feel at home. and your eyes have the power to speak volumes. with voluminous original mascara from l'oreal. the original brush separates every lash. our creamy formula builds 5x the volume. america's #1 mascara. voluminous original. from l'oreal paris. you're worth it. voluminous onooooo . nooooo

quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent, so you can use less. bounty, the quicker picker upper. robinwithout the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are -

even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood.

brittani marcell had defied the odds, surviving a near fatal beating that left her brain damaged, blind in one eye, and partially deaf. now she was about to take an extraordinary step to catch her attacker. despite her fears of reliving the trauma, on august 14, 2014, brittani agreed to go under hypnosis. >> i'm recording. >> okay. >> dr. leon morris was the clinical psychologist chosen to work with brittani. it would be his first criminal case using hypnosis and he was confident there were memories to recover. >> have we met before? >> i don't believe so. >> dr. morris was well aware, though, that what memories brittani did have of the attack could be wrong. >> there is something called

confabulation. a person doesn't remember something, they can fill in the blanks with things that may not be accurate. >> before starting, dr. morris made sure she was still a willing subject. >> if you have any reservations that re-experiencing what happened to you, might be too traumatic for you, i would suggest you not do it. >> part of me wants to get it done. i think it might help a little bit because maybe that little clue could solve the case. >> do i have your permission to hip know nightly news you? >> yes, sir. >> are you sure you're ready? >> i believe so. yes, sir. >> at first the session seemed to be going in slow motion. >> first i want you to hold your hands in front of you like this. >> dr. morris calmly instructs brittani to slowly bring her hands together. brittani will be fully in a trance the moment her hands

touch her forehead. watch the clock in the upper left side of the screen. >> close your eyes. >> it takes brittani almost 10 minutes to go under dr. morris' spell. >> i want you to open that door. what is the door to your memory. >> a passage which led to another time and place. brittani's home on september the 11th, 2008. brittani recalls walking inside. it's empty. >> no, no one. no one. >> then she sees someone. who is he? who is he? no. >> her body shakes as she relives "the beat"ing. >> that hurt. that hurt. >> tell me what's happening? >> he's, he's hurting me. >> eerily, brittani describes this fight for her life in an

almost flat monotone. >> tell me what's happening. >> he's hurting me. he's hurting me. ugly, ugly things. bad, bad. >> can you describe him? >> he's tall, hair, hair, muscle, light skin tone, mexican, hispanic. brown eyes. >> you remember seeing this man? >> did i see him at -- at my work? i don't know. >> did you see him at your work, you said? >> yeah, that may -- maybe -- >> brittani is apparently talking about a possible customer of hers at the cotton

mall sun glass kiosk where she worked. >> he look familiar to you? >> he's tall. >> huh? >> he's tall. square. >> face was square? >> square, a big nose, weird eyes. >> what about his eyes? >> weird eyes. >> weird eyes? >> yeah. >> brittani had been in a trance for just 36 minutes and had apparently provided more details about the attack than had been uncovered over the last six years. according to brittani, her attacker was tall, muscular, with brown eyes, a square jaw, big nose, light skinned, and possibly latino. and this was important. he may have been a customer of hers at the cotton wood mall sunglasses kiosk, someone she knew and whose name hopefully she'd remember. >> i'm going to bring you out of the hypnosis.

>> once she came out of her trance. >> you will remember everything that has occurred. >> would she remember the name of her attacker? >> one, two, three. >> coming up. >> what she told me, i don't know whether it was accurate or not. >> new information from brittani and cutting edge new technology. >> oh, wow. if i was a suspect in a criminal case, this would give me away. >> i think so. >> could it lead to a break in the case? when "dateline" continues. ues.s, cartilage and bones. and unlike big glucosamine chondroitin pills, it's all in one tiny pill. try move free ultra now. feel the difference. ♪

can it help ke $1,399, save $30. fall sale on the sleep number 360 smart bed. plus, free delivery when you add a base. ends monday.

robinwithout the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us.

robinhood. one, two, three. >> as soon as brittani marcelo merged from hypnosis, she had a question for dr. leon morris. >> who is he? who is he? >> brittani was hoping she blurted out her attacker's name

while in a trance. but that didn't happen. the identity of her attacker was still a mystery. >> so it's like, huh, that wasn't really helpful. >> did you get upset during the session? >> um-hmm. i was just like angry, like the look on my face, he can't tell when i'm happy or sad unfortunately, but it's like i was like getting that mad face when i was hypnotized because it's like your feeling of pain of what's happening. >> it wasn't totally in vain, though. >> he had -- hair. >> brittani's mom said the same thing. but brittani was able to provide new details of her attacker's face and physique. >> with those descriptors, we sent her to our sketch artist and had another sketch done with what brittani remembered from those characteristics. >> the two sketches brittani sent her mom six years earlier had some similarities and some differences. while both said the attacker had

brown eyes and light skin, the facial structure, nose and hair didn't match. dr. leon morris had a possible explanation. >> eyewitness identification is wrong. at the end of the hypnosis, i knew what she told me, but i didn't know whether it was accurate or not. >> no one knew if what brittani said while under hypnosis was accurate or not. the composite sketch based on her description failed to produce any usable leads. once again, the job of pushing the case forward fell to detect nfl jodi gaunterman. >> she's probably the best detective i could ask for. >> did you find yourself getting emotionally invested with so many years going by and your connection to brittani and diane? >> i did. >> i went in her office crying once before because i was so disappointed. it's rough. i mean, you know, you try not to get emotionally involved, but you do. >> as the investigation

languished, brittani continued on with her life, and in may of 2016, eight years after being nearly beaten to death, she graduated from college. >> i didn't think i'd be graduating from college right now. i didn't think i'd be doing that. >> to go to college and to come this far, it's just incredible. i mean, how do you do it? >> you have to be strong in yourself. you have to believe in yourself. >> and it was around the time of brittani's graduation that gaunterman got another out of the box ideas. she found a new way to make a sketch, not from a eyewitness account, but a dna sample. >> they do a different type of testing that gives hair color, eye color, skin tone, ancestry. >> this is an incredible tool. >> it's amazing. >> the company behind this new crime-fighting tool is parabon

where they do pheno typing. how does it work in layman's terms? how can you take dna and make a sketch? >> well, you focus on those traits that are passed down from parent to child. so if you think about when you say, oh, you have your mother's eyes. well, you have your mother's eyes because you have your mother's dna. we can figure out this piece of dna we see in blue-eyed people but not in brown eyed people. >> all your features are connected to your dna? >> absolutely. >> parabon started off helping the military create profiles from the makers of insurgent bomb makers from the iraq war. it wasn't long before cold case detectives were sending them work for help as well. >> sometimes they had been cold for decades. in these cold cases, they're cold because there are no leads. and in a lot of cases that's because there's no witness description and we're able to

give them that just with the dna. >> from a single dna sample, parabon can make an estimation of someone's hair color, eye color and complexion. we hired parabon to test a sample of my dna. we didn't tell them it was from me until this interview. >> i sent in my dna as a blind -- >> oh, it was yours. he >> as a blind sample. you did not know whose dna we were sending in. >> no, i did not. >> they built a profile of me as if i were a random suspect. >> we received t 4111 and this is produced from the dna. this is an interesting eye color prediction. we don't see very often. it will come from fairly dark blue greenish eyes or from people who have very light eyes, but with a dark ring, and a gold center. >> okay, so i have the gold center. >> i see it. i see it now. the pigment that's in your eyes

is a yellowish color. that's why as you get more it turns green and then brown. so you've got that pigment, but it's only in the middle, which is pretty interesting. >> that's fascinating. >> your ancestry came out as a mix of northern european and southeast european. >> my grandmother's parents from czechoslovakia and my father's family from london. >> you nailed that perfectly. we said wide cheek bone, larger eyes, narrower chin, fairly petite nose, but wider it is nostrils. the next page is going to include your composite. >> oh, wow. the eyes look very much like mine. >> the light eyes with the golden center. medium blonde hair. >> if i was a suspect in a criminal case, this would give me away. >> i think so. >> putting together a profile like this is labor intensive and

costly. up to $3600. a lot of money for cash-strapped homicide units like albuquerques. but after months of dogged persistence she wrangled up the funds and shipped it to parabon and settled in to wait. the process would take several months. meanwhile gaunterman set the case aside and focused on other cases. in 2016 a name suddenly emerged from brittani's memory. >> she said, the name justin kept coming up. >> i asked my mom, hey, did you know this person? she goes, no. i was like, well, for some reason that name keeps coming back to mind. she's like how often? every day. i don't know why. >> every day? >> every day. >> this was the first time a name had just popped into her head. brittani called her sisters to see if they remembered a guy named justin. >> i'm like, oh, that's hanson.

yeah, justin hanson, that keeps coming to me. >> all of the sisters remembered justin hanson. he was a fixture at the cotton wood mall. >> where did he work at the mall? >> hollister. >> i think that was kind of a big deal. >> right, it was. >> cute guys? >> oh, yeah. >> if you were going to abercrombie, hollister. >> the question was, why was brittani suddenly remembering him now? >> were you getting an erie feeling when you would think of justin or his name was popping in your head? >> just his name. >> nothing more? >> nothing more. >> why does this keep happening? >> right. he worked at hollister and heed come over to my kiosk and he'd sit there and talk. i thought it was a mutual relationship. >> did he seem interested in you? >> i don't remember that at all. i was like -- >> flirty? >> flirty. >> brittani called detective

gaunterman with this latest memory. >> and she says, a name popped in my head, i don't know why, but this guy's name is justin hanson and i worked is he sun glass kiosk and he would come and visit me. it was nothing bad. i remember him hanging out with me for about an hour at a time and it happened maybe about three months before the attack. he would come by and just talk to me. >> gaunterman knew that while under hypnosis, brittani said she may have met her attacker at the sunglasses kiosk. >> did i see him at my work? i don't know. >> did you see him at your work, you said? >> maybe sunglasses. >> over the previous nine years, the marcells asked the police to investigate 75 different men. none turned out to be the attacker. this is the first time brittani had ever come up with a name, so

maybe this new memory was important. on the other hand, maybe it wasn't. coming up. >> hi, how are you? are you justin? >> i am justin. >> detectives pay a visit to justin hanson. he seems helpful. but is his story truthful? >> can i think about this and come back and see you? >> when "dateline" continues. ♪ [yawn] you. look. stunning. want the truth to why i wake up feeling... [growls softly] ...so darn awesome? [makes playful sound] i take care of my skin. not this skin. that skin. and when you've got incontinence, you sure need to. tena intimates pads lock liquid in, and are now 100% breathable to care for your intimate skin.

are you still here? kind to skin. protects like tena. did you know that your clothes can actually attract pet hair? kind to skin. with new bounce pet hair & lint guard, your clothes can repel pet hair. one bounce mega sheet has 3x the hair fighting ingredients of the leading dryer sheet. simply toss into the dryer to bounce out hair & lint. look how the shirt on the left attracts pet hair like a magnet! pet hair is no match for bounce. it's available in fresh scent & unscented. with bounce, you can love your pets, and lint roll less.

hello, i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. the senate you dish dri committee begins its hearings on judge amy coney barrett supreme court nomination on monday. it is believed the senate will confirm her along party lines possibly a week before the election. tuesday marks three weeks until election day. joe biden will travel to ohio on monday and president trump will head to central florida. after the white house physician cleared him to resume an active schedule. now back to "dateline."

>> for sergeant liz thompson and detective jodi gaunterman calling brittani's case cold was an admission of defeat. but eight years after the incident, the investigation stalled. justin hanson didn't look to be a case changer. >> she gave me names of people but nothing was significant to her. all along, justin's name never came up. >> did she have any reason why his name of all people was popping into her head? >> she didn't know. it just popped into her head one day. >> hanson didn't match the description brittani gave while under hypnosis. >> he's hurting me. >> that person was tall, muscular, and had brown eyes. hanson, on the other hand, is average height, thin, and has green eyes.

hanson was also a married father of four with no criminal convictions other than a d.u.i. was this immediate for you, i have to run this down right now? or was it like, okay, i'll get to it? >> i said, okay, i'm going to set it aside, i'm going to wait to contact him. because the more i had, the more information i have behind me is more helpful. >> justin hanson just didn't seem like a high priority until three months later, january 3rd, 2017, when detective gaunterman and sergeant thompson finally got the parabon dna report. >> this is the dna from the person who attacked brittani. >> yes. this is from blood that was found at the crime scene, so we find that this person has fairly fair skin. >> so this is a white male. >> it's a fair-skinned male. fairly confident in that. the person has light brown hair,

blonde to brown, fairly equally blonde to brown, on the lighter brown side. and most likely does president have a lot of freckles. >> there was one detail in john doe's profile that turned out to be crucial information. the color of his eyes. remember brittani's description of john doe? >> brown eyes. >> well, it turns out she was wrong. john doe's eyes weren't brown. >> i found this person has green to hazel eyes. >> which is unique. >> very unusual, yes. >> green eyes, the same color as justin hanson's. and the sketch itself, here it is. >> when we saw that composite, i was like, oh, my god. >> it was that close. >> yes, it was. >> justin. >> yeah, yeah. >> but i still didn't want to get my hopes up because i didn't want to get disappointed again. >> still not convinced this man was the guy she'd spent years hunting, gaunterman along with a fellow detective wearing a body cam paid justin a visit. >> hi, are you justin?

>> i'm justin. >> cool, i'm jodi. we're detectives from the p.d. >> right from the start justin was calm and cooperative. >> i'm investigating a case that's an older case and visiting friends of people that knew brittani marcell. >> okay. >> hanson invited detectives in his home. where gaunterman started off with the basics. >> did you stop by her sun glass place? >> i walked by, hey, what's new, how are your family, your sisters, that kind of stuff. >> on a regular basis or did you -- >> no, no, just when i was -- i think when i was working at the mall. i just happened to walk by and say hi. it wasn't like a hang out regular basis. >> because she -- brittani actually remembers you coming in and visiting her, hanging out and talking with her like twice a week. >> no, no. >> after a few minutes of this, gaunterman told hanson what she

was really after, a dna sample. >> and then just to compare with the dna at the scene so we can exclude everyone because it narrows down the field. >> expecting or hoping hanson would agree. gaunterman put on a pair of latex gloves as she continued to talk. >> not that you're a suspect anyway. >> can i think about this and come back and see you? it seems kind of -- >> what's your concern? >> what's your concern? >> i don't know. me and my wife watch a bunch of shows and we hear people, you know, oh, i've been in trouble or i got in trouble for something that i never did and then 10, 15 years later they come back and oh, it wasn't you or that kind of thing. they've been in trouble for it a long time. can i get your card, though, and come back and just so i can talk to my mom or whatever and if they're like, yeah, this is what they normally do type thing and come and see you guys? >> absolutely. >> is that okay?

>> what did you make of his demeanor that first time you went to go see him? >> well, i mean, he was friendly. he was, you know, he was acting like he was concerned, but it was almost an act. >> but then he wouldn't give his dna. >> and we all thought how odd for a man of that age to say they wanted to talk to their mom. his wife is right there. he's, what, in his 30s and suddenly he's wanting to talk to his mom. sort of like, is his mom a lawyer? the whole thing seemed suddenly very odd and a big red flag. >> he seemed like a bad actor. >> yeah. >> when i spoke with him. but seemed like he was putting on an act. it wasn't genuine to me. >> before she left hanson's house, gaunterman decided to rattle his cage to tell him brittani's memory was starting to return. >> your statement doesn't match what she remembers. she remembers very well that you used to visit her when she was bored. you would come in twice a week,

you used to wear tight abercrombie shirts and your hair hanging down. >> he said he would come by her office after speaking with his mom but she never showed up. gaunterman gave him a call to see what was going on. >> hello? >> hi, justin. >> it's detective gaunterman with p.d. how are you? >> good. >> the call started off well enough but quickly changed. he said he felt targeted and didn't want to give a dna sample. >> you were coming after me. i was the person you were looking for. no one wants to be that. >> hanson ended the call demanding an apology. >> i'd appreciate a call you're sorry. >> i'll apologize after i get your direct dna. >> detective gaunterman had been investigating justin hanson for five months now, yet there was still a question mark next to

his name. so time again, for gaunterman to get creative. >> coming up, an under cover mission to mcdonald's? >> we found him and they watched him eat. >> a hunt for treasure in the trash. >> i said, i can't believe this. >> when "dateline" continues. power to speak volumes. with voluminous original mascara from l'oreal. the original brush separates every lash. our creamy formula builds 5x the volume. america's #1 mascara. voluminous original. from l'oreal paris. you're worth it. anna could only imagine a comfortable night's sleep without frequent heartburn waking her up. now, that dream... . ...is her reality. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts, for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn?

♪ i got it all from you ♪ i'm always pushing through ♪ i know we'll make it to the finish line ♪ ♪ i know you're waiting on the other side ♪ ♪ i'm like you on-demand glucose monitoring. because they're always on. another life-changing technology from abbott. so you don't wait for life. you live it.

if justin hanson really was the guy who had assaulted brittani marcell, he'd done a masterful job getting away with it. over the course of a nine-year investigation, not once had police considered him a suspect. >> it's pretty unique that his name had never been mentioned by any of the family, the friends. >> and now that he'd come to the attention of prosecutor david waymeyer and detective jodi gaunterman after brittani

remembered his name, hanson was able to keep them at bay by refusing a dna test. >> so our district attorney suggested having him followed and getting his dna. >> one of the main ways that can be done is through things that a subject throws away. >> on april 3rd, 2017, six months after brittani told police about hanson. detective gaunterman requested a couple of under cover officers to tail him. but by the time the request was approved, two months later, hanson had both moved and quit his job. police didn't know where he was. two more months passed before the surveillance team tracked hanson to his new job at this body shop in north albuquerque. >> they followed him to mcdonald's and they watched him eat. he took the lid off of his mcdonald's cup and he drank it directly out of the cup. and when he walked out, the trash was pretty full like to the top. and he wrapped his own meal, his

own trash nicely in the place matt that com mat on the tray so it was separated from everything else. the under cover detective walked behind him and picked it up. >> the detectives took that trash to police criminalist elana williams. >> i did not have high hopes this would be the individual that might match to our unknown person. >> she'd already processed the dna of 17 potential suspects without a match. no reason to think number 18 would be any different. >> what was the result from this suspect, justin hanson? >> it was a complete match. >> after a nine-year investigation and 18 dna tests, john doe had finally been identified. it was justin hanson. >> did you keep checking it over and over again just like a lottery ticket? is >> i actually checked it twice. i did it once and then i went

back through and i checked it again, and i said, i can't believe this. >> williams wanted to deliver news this big in person. >> and elana told her, and i wish i had it on video because jodi -- >> i think she jumped about 4 feet off the ground. >> threw my keys. >> yeah, it was very, very exciting. it was such good news. >> and then i broke down and cried. >> all just in tears and we all started crying. i said i can't believe it, i can't believe it. i have to call diane. >> i'm at work. she says, hey, diane, how are you doing? i'm fine. i'm thinking, great, more bad news. every phone call, that's not him. she goes, we've got a match. i'm like, just blown over and i'm overwhelmed and i could hear the emotions in her voice. and she says, yeah, we've got a match. this is how it happened. i'm like, just like on tv, huh?

she goes, yeah, it does happen. >> diane then called brittani who was in boston with sister jennifer. >> i had said jodi called and they got a match. >> they know the guy? what? it's a dna match 100%. i'm like, who is it? she goes, justin hanson who you remember giving that tip to her? yeah. she says, it's 100% match. i'm like, holy crap. i was like, it's my answer. i called jodi. you don't know how thankful i am for you solving this, jodi. she says, you did it. no, you gave me the name. >> hanson was arrested while out shopping. for the marcell sisters, it was hard to believe the monster who haunted them the past nine years may have been just a guy they knew from the mall. >> i thought, this guy? this little skinny guy? he's charming, but how could he have done something so horrible?

>> this guy looks great. it messes with your mind. >> it's so frustrating. >> it's not black and white because we want to put our criminals or violent offenders in this -- and they look like this. and he doesn't look like that. >> he's the cute guy who worked at the clothing store in the mall. >> yeah. people liked him and wanted to date him. like, you did that? >> the next hurdle would be the trial. brittani would have to testify and re-live the emotional trauma of the attack. normally people don't look forward to trials like this. are you actually looking forward to it to get it done and to see justice? >> very much so. i can finally kind of close that chapter finally, after nine years. >> what brittani didn't know at the time of this interview was that there were problems with the case. believe it or not, there were serious doubts justin hanson would ever go on trial. coming up, a stunning

setback. the case against justin hanson takes another dramatic turn. >> there's a lot of evidence it doesn't make sense. it's hard to try to prove your innocence after a certain amount of time. >> when "dateline" continues. ess who have turned into their parents. i'm having a big lunch and then just a snack for dinner. so we're using a speakerphone in the store. is that a good idea? one of the ways i do that is to get them out of the home. you're looking for a grout brush, this is -- garth, did he ask for your help? -no, no. -no. we all see it. we all see it. he has blue hair. -okay. -blue. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. -keep it coming. -you don't know him. when you bundle with us. (brad(operator) how dgot another vacancycom find at fifth and pine.ickly? (brad) oh, that's good. apartments-dot-com. the most popular place to find a place.

♪when you have nausea, ♪upset stomach, diarrheaon,♪ pepto bismol coats and soothes your stomach for fast relief and now, get the same fast relief in a delightful chew with new pepto bismol chews. because when i get home, we like to play crocodile on the floor. ♪ o-cedar easywring removes over 99% of bacteria, even with just water... and wrings with a press of a pedal. ♪ easywring. easy and truly clean floors.

try it, you'll see. also discover, the o-cedar promist max for the fastest, everyday clean. o-cedar. it feels great to feel at home.

police found a mountain of evidence at the marcell house following the attack on brittani. there was the shovel. the knife. the duct tape. even the clothes brittani was wearing. all collected and carefully stored away. and, of course, when detective gaunterman started investigating brittani's case, she wanted to see it firsthand. >> when i went to pull evidence, it wasn't there. >> where was it? >> it had been destroyed. >> all of it gone due to a simple clerical error. >> when anyone retires you get a list of evidence on cases. there's a box. you either check dispose or retain, and the box was checked dispose for this case.

>> what's that moment like when you're trying to solve this case, only to find out that physical evidence has been destroyed by your own police department? >> well, i was pretty upset. i was pretty mad, okay, to be honest. i was really mad. >> the most important piece of evidence, though, was that blood drop which was stored separately. the defense would want their own experts to test it so if it was missing, too, the case against hanson might well be over. >> was that kind of an oh, my gosh, what if this has been destroyed, too? >> yes. >> because then you're kind of done. >> i was stressed. i met with elana williams, the forensic scientist. she went to look for it and she found it. it was in the freezer. so thank god. >> still, prosecutor david waymeyer knew the case had taken a serious hit. >> proving a case beyond all reasonable doubt to unanimously to 12 jurors would be difficult

when we had evidentiary problems. >> justin hanson's defense attorney could now claim the albuquerque police department had mishandled evidence, evidence that may have pointed to another suspect. >> a judge and a jury might very well hold that against us and that could make it more difficult to get a conviction. >> while awaiting trial, the judge allowed hanson to be placed under house arrest. we tried for months to get him to sit down with "dateline," but he put us off. he finally agreed to talk when we dropped in on the farm house where he was living outside of albuquerque. overcome with emotion, justin hanson fought back tears as his family looked on. >> this case, it's unreal, all the twists and turns that have happened. what do you make of everything? i mean, you're at the center of it. >> it's hard. it's hard to try to take everything in. lots of nights of not sleeping, lots of nights of trying to figure things out. >> what do you say to people who

say that there is irrefutable evidence in this case that you did this? >> i've kind of realized who counts and who matters, and those people, they don't matter. >> they're looking at the evidence that they feel points to you. >> um-hmm. >> and there's no way to get around that. >> i don't -- i don't have a way to convince them otherwise. that's not for me to try to do. >> do you think about what brittani's lost? >> of course. she's lost a lot. and i'm glad she has a good support system, you know, her mom and her sisters and everybody standing by her side. that's great that she has that, and i'm glad that she has that. >> they see you as a monster. >> they do. they see me as what the p.d. put me in there to be, they see me as what the media put me in there to be. >> how do you explain the drop of blood at the scene? >> i don't. i don't. >> that's the one thing i think

people have a hard time getting around. >> they do, and there's a lot of evidence that doesn't make sense. >> did you attack brittani marcell? >> no. >> besides the missing evidence, hanson's lawyer had another plan to get the case tossed out. simply put, the statute of limitations had run out. sure, prosecutor waymeyer filed an indictment in 2010, but the name on that indictment was john doe, not justin hanson. >> you know, they have a statute of limitations set up for a reason. it's not to let people get away with things. it's w it's because it's hard to try to prove your innocence after a certain amount of time. like phone records, go back seven years. bank statements i think are six or seven years. so like you can't even try to go back to try to, you know, prove your innocence or to prove things differently, and that's hard. >> hanson's lawyer argued the john doe indictment should be

dismissed. and the judge ruled an appellate court could hear that motion before the trial even got underway. a huge victory for justin hanson, and a major setback for prosecutor david waymeyer, who knew that john doe indictment was uncharted legal territory. >> although that had been done once before in new mexico in a different case. it had never actually gone up and been reviewed by the appellate courts to ensure that it was legally allowed. >> waymeyer had been concerned about the strength of the case all along. he'd even offered hanson a plea deal, but now apparently emboldened by the judge's ruling, hanson rejected the plea offer, hoping instead to have the entire case against him tossed out. coming up. >> brittani was robbed of the life that we all have. we want him to pay dearly. >> would he? the final scene in this nine-year mystery is about to play out in court.

when "dateline" continues.

justin hanson insisted to us he was an innocent family man, accused of a crime he didn't commit. but the marcell family wasn't buying any of it. they were certain hanson was the one who attacked brittani, and they wanted justice. >> you know, brittani has to deal with this for her whole entire life. she was robbed of the life that it appears that we all have. she doesn't get that. and everything that she has today, she's worked hard for with the support of my mom, they sacrifice daily. and i think it's kind of the same way. we want him to pay dearly. >> but their might not be a trial, let alone a conviction if hanson's attorney could get the john doe indictment that was filed in 2010 tossed out. it was a tense time for both families.

the marcells and the hansons as they waited weeks on the appellate court's decision. just 12 days before the start of the trial, the court issued its ruling. hanson's motion was denied. the john doe indictment was upheld, and the case was going to trial. that's when prosecutor david waymeyer got a very unexpected phone call from hanson's attorney. >> they wanted to revisit plea negotiations. >> wanting to spare brittani the stress and anxiety of a trial, the marcell family gave their blessing to waymeyer's decision to move ahead with a plea offer of no contest to attempted murder in the first degree. which hanson accepted and, just like that, it all came to an end. the alternate suspects, the john doe indictment, the hypnosis, the parabon sketch, the dna tests, over, a case that took nine years to get to court was resolved in a matter of hours.

you had a really tough decision to make in this case, to go to trial or to take this deal. how did you ultimately come up with your decision? >> i mean, i want to go to trial. i wanted to clear my name, but i just felt like the odds were against me and i didn't want to chance, you know, 58 to 60 years away from my kids, and that was kind of what pushed me into the plea. >> so the plea was not about an admission of guilty necessarily, but for you it was more about being there someday for your children. >> exactly what it was for. it was like 60 years or 18 years with a chance of being out in nine or less. my youngest will only be 11 and i think still be there for her and try to help guide her through stuff. it's like i'm dying, like i'm not coming back and it's hard. and i know it's good-bye because

we don't know what the outcome is going to be, but at the same time, it still feels like i'm not going to be here any more and you don't know what to say. >> the day after our interview, hanson went to court for sentencing. and the stakes were high. under the terms of the plea agreement, he could be released on probation or sent to prison for up to 18 years. prosecutor david waymeyer argued for the longest possible sentence, telling the judge three other women in the past had accused hanson of assault. >> the alleged victim, the girlfriend was 17 at the time and was four months pregnant. >> next, for two pain-filled hours, the marcells testified about what the attack did to brittani and their family. >> her life is a mere flicker of what it had the potential to be. she struggles with friendships, creating social circles, reading social ques and understanding her motions. her life is a shell of what it

had the potential to be. i want my sister back. i miss her so much, and i'm starting to forget who she was before the attack. >> last to speak was brittani who, with her back to justin hanson, faced the judge and told her about the severity of her wounds. the 22 surgeries she'd endured. and of the injuries that may never heal. >> on september 11, my dreams and goals were beaten out of me. or ten years i've been struggling to rebuild the semblance of a life i once planned. i am fearful that i won't get married. i'm worried that i won't have children. i'm worried that i'll never be able to live alone again. >> afterwards, it was justin hanson's turn to speak. >> first of all, your honor, i want to apologize to brittani and the family for everything they've been through. >> but that was all he had to say to the marcells. he spent the rest of his time telling his children how much he

loved them. then everyone waited for judge cindy lios to tell hanson how long he'd be away from the children. >> i am going to impose the full 18 years in the department of corrections. i think that is the only sentence that makes sense under the circumstances of this case. thank you. >> and with those words, justin hanson was handcuffed and led away to prison while brittani, her mom and siblings, hugged and wept. detective gaunterman and sergeant thompson were there as well. how did it feel hearing justin hanson get the maximum 18 years as part of this plea deal? >> it felt amazing. i was so happy -- i mean, overwhelmed with emotion, just so relieved, so happy for the family. >> it was truly one of the highlights of my career. >> did you get justice today? >> yes, justice, 100% justice. >> yes. >> he finally got caught. he played with fire and he messed with the wrong ladies. >> for the siblings, there was

more than anything an overwhelming sense of relief and gratitude. >> i looked at my sisters before it started. i said no matter what happens today, it's over. we have to let this be over today. and this whaz a goas a good ways to be over. i feel grateful for the judge and more immensely grateful for detective gaunterman. >> five months after his sentencing, justin hanson filed an appeal, while thompson, gaunterman and the marcells got justice, what they didn't get wan an explanation. >> one of the big mysteries in this was the motive. what is your working theory? >> so many people describe justin as being very friendly and social and they think he's good looking and charming and he's that older guy that i don't think he was ever turned down. it's possible that maybe brittani was just the one person that said no and turned him down. >> brittani agrees. >> i think i was attacked because justin hanson had some

jealousy because he had probably asked me out to go on a date, be his girlfriend, and i had a different boyfriend at the time and it wasn't him at all. so i think it was struck out of jealousy. since he didn't have me, nobody else could. >> when we last spoke, brittani was living in rural texas and spending much of her time tending to the animals. she had one college degree, but said she would like to return to campus to get the degree she's wanted since high school. >> i am definitely thinking about going back to school for journalism. my major was communication. i can communicate quite well. >> however, she had one more big hurdle to get over. another surgery. her 23rd, an operation that took hours with a recovery period of months. brittani could have opted to not go through such torment. but for her, there was no choice. the surgery was to get her smile back. >> i had the biggest smile you

could dream of. it was like -- that's what i want back. i'm going to go for it. >> this peril. >> i think this was the blessing from god that i caught it. this was a blessing in disguise. >> president trump's poll numbers continue to sink after a disastrous debate performance -- >> because nobody will show up. >> people who -- >> it's true. nobody shows up to his rallies. >> growing disdain over his handling of the coronavirus. >> it's going to disappear. it is disappearing. >> including the infection of many connected to the white house. >> we had a superspreader event in the white house. >> and his erratic behavior towards his political enemies. >> this was the greatest political crime in the history of our country, and that includes obama, and it includes biden. >> with three weeks to go, how does president trump change the trajectory of this race? my guests this morning, democratic senator dick durbin