>> you all right? >> yeah. >> you discover you are stronger than you thought you were? >> yeah. >> reporter: pegye's mother and sister ended up raising her kids. and one more person stronger than she taught? tina new. >> you are leading a different life these days. >> completely different. >> reporter: she gave up drugs, married a nice guy. and now she is a stay at home mom with five kids. a hollywood happy ending? no. sometimes real life is better. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." she was a college student, found on a lonely road in texas. >> we figured she had been sexually assaulted and dumped

here. >> tough questions for her boyfriend. >> where was i the night before? what was i doing? when did i last seen her? >> i thought he would be our killer. >> but while police tried to prove it, another attack. >> he has me by the throat and he's shaking me and yelling at me not to say a word. >> you're a prisoner in this apartment now. >> yes. >> her body had been propped up on to the bed. >> even law enforcement thought, what do we have on our hands here? >> there was growing danger. police are looking if the wrong place. >> i lived to tell and nobody believed me. >> this monster is walking free while they are wasting their time. >> can the killer be caught before he kills again? >> it makes you realize how fragile your life is. and that anybody can take it.

welcome to "dateline," a killer was on the loose in a texas college town leaving students and parents terrified. with the shocking discovery of jamie hart's body, investigators were desperately trying to piece together clues. was the young woman connected to her killer or did police have an active predator on their hands? here's andrea canning with the face of evil. >> looking back now, this woman almost didn't make it. >> i said, if you keep doing this, you're going to kill me. he said, do you think i care about that? >> is that when you feel like you're looking in the face of evil? >> i knew completely that he intended on killing me. >> little did she know, in this college town, she wasn't the only one. >> he said he would go to jail for murder before he would go to jail for rape. >> what was going through your mind? >> i wish i told the people

that i loved them. >> what is going on in this community? it had people asking, what is going to happen next? >> more women connected by tragedy and by questions. could a killer have been stopped sooner? >> i was so angry that two people had to die in order for someone to believe me. >> the story begins in a small texas town. but it's not just any town. this is college station, home to texas a&m. and in 1999, home to 21-year- old student, jamie hart. >> i was immediately struck with her beauty. >> chuck cruz was her boyfriend at the time. he says jamie was the light of his life. he remembers when he first layed eyes on her. >> i could barely speak when i saw her, she was so pretty. it was like, when the color came on in the wizard of oz. i've been living in a dark world and she showed me a world

full of color. >> she was a loyal friend, funny, out spoken. >> she would tell you exactly what was on her mind at all times. >> it it was early one morning in may, jamie's roommates couldn't find her, they called chuck. >> i got a call asking where she was. i said no, she didn't come over here last night, i don't know where she was. i hadn't talked to her the night before and i went to work. >> that same morning, detective kenny elliot of the sheriff's office was summoned to the scene of a disturbing discovery. >> there was a young female, appeared to be in her early 20s. she was nude. had extensive road rash, and obviously deceased. >> a jogger spotted the victim in a ditch nine feet from the side of the road. >> i arrived there was a half a dozen officers here and they taped off the area, blocked traffic. at that point, we started conducting a search of the

area. we figured she had been sexually assaulted and dumped here. >> less than a mile away, deputies discovered what was presumed to be the woman's clothing strewn across the entrance to an oil field. another nine miles from there, an abandoned vehicle. its engine still running. >> there was blood on the car and that raised suspicion. we sent a team over there to process the car. >> inside the car, a driver's license that belonged to jamie hart. when detectives showed up at chuck's workplace that afternoon, he said his heart sank. >> when they told me she had been found dead, it felt like i had been hit by a truck. >> wow. >> so your sense of dread was coming true. >> yup. realized, fully realized. >> did fear spread throughout the campus? >> oh yes. i mean, it was front page news.

>> kristen lancaster was a 19- year-old freshman. >> my brother actually worked with jamie at the time. i'll never forget him coming home, devastated. >> a killer in a college town is terrifying. >> very much so, yes. >> this is something that happens in chicago. it's something that happens in houston. it's not something that happens in college station, in aggieland. >> kelly brown is the editor of the local newspaper. >> i think at the time, people were hoping this is a drifter that kept on going. because the location of her body. >> sheriff deputies canvassed the crime scene. searched jamie's car, and looked for eyewitnesses. >> talked to several hundred people and no one has seen anything. >> turns out, there were no fingerprints inside the car. during an autopsy, the medical examiner did recover dna from jamie's body. dna, which likely came from her rapist and killer. >> did you put the dna into a data base? >> we put it in codus.

>> any hits? >> none. >> no eyewitnesses, no fingerprints, no dna matches. the investigation wasn't off to a good start. >> that's when we started contacting people, her place of employment, friends, roommates. >> did she have any enemies? >> everybody seemed to love her. >> detective elliot began to retrace jamie's steps on the night of the murder. she was working at a pizza parlor. her shift had ended around midnight. >> we contacted everybody she delivered pizzas to. >> after work, she headed over to a friend's house. >> he said they were there watching movies and she left his house around 4:30 in the morning. >> what time did you think she was killed? >> we got the call at 7:15 a.m. so, between 4:30 a.m. and 7:00. >> the male friend, a college student, was the last known person to see jamie alive. the detective paid him a visit.

>> he was upset, obviously. they were friends and had been for some time. >> the friend's grief seemed genuine, but something was peculiar. when investigators asked for a dna sample. >> he said no. >> no? >> of course we wanted to know why. was he the killer or was he not? >> the detective was determined to answer that question. so, he put the young man under surveillance, followed him to a local restaurant. >> and are you hidden somewhere in the restaurant? >> i'm back there a corner, yeah. >> he watched the student have a few drinks and when he left, the detective snagged the dirty beer mugs and sent them out for dna testing. the results would take weeks, leaving a town of young ones on edge. >> go with people when you go out. don't be alone. that's a frightening order to give anybody.

>> frightening, but sound advice. in this case, connecting the dots wouldn't be so easy. >> detectives have a second possible suspect in their sight. jamie's boyfriend, is invited so sit down for a polygraph test. >> coming up. >> failed the test. >> that's a bad sign for you. >> bad sign for him. >> when "dateline" continues. o. manage your diabetes with more confidence and lower your a1c. try it for free at freestylelibre.us. how long have you been tracking the value of our car? try it for free at should we sell it? we hold... our low mileage is paying off. you think we should... hold... hoooold!!! hooold! now!!!! i'm on it. i'm, on it.

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andrea canning: 21-year-old jamie hart but shingrix protects. had been sexually assaulted and left to die

on the side of a busy roadway. nc21-year-old jamie hart ha been sexually assaulted and left to die on the side of a busy roadway. >> i could barely function. all i could think about was loss. that she is gone from my life for ever. >> jamie's boyfriend, chuck cruz, then 24, says right after the murder, he took off to baytown, texas. jamie's hometown. >> about the only thing i remember her father asking me is, when are you coming down? so, i got some stuff together and drove down as soon as i could and i spent most of the next week with them, mourning with the family and then acting as a pallbearer for her funeral. >> detective kenny elliot was walking the case. >> any time you have a killer

out on the run, it is frustrating. >> one possible suspect, that male friend jamie visited the night of her murder. he refused to give police a dna sample for testing. >> that's kind of odd, if he had nothing to hide. >> a lot of people will not give up dna. too much tv. >> the detective had snagged a sample from a beer mug and when the dna finally came back, he was not a match. >> you felt confident that you could rule him out based on the dna not matching? >> yes. >> but even before the dna test cleared jamie's friend, the detective was already looking for other suspects. and his attention quickly landed on someone very close to the victim. her boyfriend. >> the questions that they asked focused on where was i the night before, what have i been doing? >> looking at you as a possible suspect? >> it didn't really occur to me that is what they were doing. i just thought they were asking

for information. >> chuck told the detective that before jamie was killed, he hadn't seen her for two days. on the night of the murder, he said he was at home. >> i was playing computer games like a good nerd. >> did you have anyone there to corroborate your alibi? >> i think my roommates were there, but they were both asleep. i had nobody sitting there with me. >> so the boyfriend's alibi wasn't solid. and as they spoke, the detective was looking carefully for signs he might be hiding something. >> he is cooperative. apprehensive. he said everything was fine in their relationship. >> the detective asked chuck for dna and he said yes. and when they asked him for a polygraph, he agreed to that, too, but here's the thing with the last part. the polygraph. >> he failed the test. >> that's a bad sign for him, yes. doesn't tell you that he is guilty, but he was a very

strong person of interest. >> what's more, the detective had been speaking with jamie's friends who said the relationship wasn't fine. in fact, the couple had a fight and were on the verge of a breakup. all of which just led to more questions. >> he went over every aspect of their relationship. question him on his where abouts, try to get him to confess. >> and if a failed polygraph wasn't suspicious enough, then listen to what the detective says chuck told him next. >> he said he had done some bad things, and wouldn't tell us what. >> did you look him in the eyes and say is one of those bad things killing jamie hart? >> i did. he denied it. i thought he could be our killer. >> the more you started to think he was the killer, how does he react to that? >> he is very nervous. he acted guilty. >> chuck was free to go, but as authorities waited for his dna to be processed, the detective

developed a theory of the crime that made sense to him. >> he was in love with her. he didn't want to lose her. they were having issues in their relationship. >> so the boyfriend, a likely suspect, was in the cross hairs, but when the dna results came back. >> the dna was not a match. >> were you able to rule out chuck cruz then once you got that dna? >> i didn't rule him out completely. >> that was enough with you with the friend who she was with the night before. you ruled him out after you got the dna. the other guy hadn't flunked polygraphs. he wasn't in a bad relationship with her. chuck was. >> but they didn't arrest chuck. months went by, and the detective kept investigating him. authorities seized his computer, searched his car, all the while chuck was saying they were looking at the wrong guy. >> there's a lot of people that won't confess to a murder, for obvious reasons. at that point, he was a strong

person of interest, but i still didn't know if he was my killer, so we continued the search. >> the information dragged on. life for the students on campus began to go back to normal. when police were called to the scene of one house party, it wasn't because of noise or under age drinking. another woman was in a fight for her life. >> coming up, a student at party ends up a prisoner in a stranger's apartment. >> immediately, he grabs me and starts choking me again. >> when "dateline" continues.

andrea canning: when chuck crews's girlfriend was murdered, he was immediately considered a person of interest. when chuck cruz's girlfriend was murdered, he was immediately considered a person of interest. >> they said that you were acting nervous. that you were acting like you had something to hide. >> they interpreted all these things as signs of my guilt. rather than a distraught boyfriend. at the time, i had long hair and this was a cowboy town. that was considered to be weird and unusual. >> as for those bad things, he told the detective he had done. he explained to us he was referring to a petty argument they had days before jamie's murder, and the guilty felt from not being with her the night she died. >> do you remember what you were arguing about? >> a loaf of bread.

the grocery sacker put a cantaloupe on the loaf of bread. she was upset the sacker had squished the bread, and i told her it wasn't that big of a deal, and we had picked our sides and we argued about something as stupid as a loaf of bread. >> now he could hardly grieve with police breathing down his neck. >> what's it like waking up every morning and knowing you're under a cloud of suspicion? >> incredibly depressing. >> he moved home to be by his family in that's, who spent money to buy a defense attorney. >> the biggest thing going through my head the whole time was that i didn't do it. they don't know who did it. and the guy who did it is out walking around and likely to prey on more victims. this monster is walking free

while they are wasting their time on me. >> kelly brown of the eagle newspaper was writing front page stories about the unsolved crime in the college town. >> it really shook the community. this is an area that isn't used to seeing this type of crime. >> and kelly was hearing talk that the police had a suspect. >> but there was no arrest and that is what kept everybody saying well then okay, was it the boyfriend? was it, you know, someone that is still out there? is he going to strike again? >> it was scary, of course, and students like kristen lancaster followed the investigation. >> did people change their behavior patterns because of this crime? >> to a certain degree, but i think it was short lived. people went back to their classes and their business. you start rationalizing that she trusted the wrong person. >> this doesn't happen to you. >> exactly. yeah. >> it was late october, half a year since the murder of jamie hart. kristen didn't know it yet, she was about to become part of a

chain of events that only deepened the mystery. >> i think maybe i went to classes that day. the evening time rolled around. i think it was a friday. >> a friend invited kristen to a party. >> and she said, well, i'm having a little get together at my house. why don't you come by. >> kristen drove over to the apartment complex in brian, texas. that's the town next to college station. >> the doors open. there's a few people inside. there's some music playing and people having some drinks. >> she struck up a conversation with her friends upstairs neighbor. he was 24, hadn't been to college, but mixed in easily with the students. >> was he a likable guy? >> yeah, very likable. he was personable, seemed very nice. >> in fact, he had no problem sharing intimate details with kristen about his personal life. >> he had been married and he had found god and i made a lot of mistake, i wasn't a great husband. >> you guys got into the personal conversation for

having just met. >> i was young and i think that was normal and he was drunk. >> not long after the party started, it abruptly ended. kristen's friend got into a fight with her boyfriend. >> there was alcohol involved, so worrying it would get out of hand. >> everyone left, but not kristen. she was concerned about her friend and stuck around talking to the upstairs neighbor. >> so you were feeling protective. >> he said to me, you're worried about your friend? i said yes, i am. he said we can go to my apartment and you can be close to a phone and call. >> she and the neighbor walked up the staircase to her apartment. >> it was directly above her apartment. he opens the door and i was barely a step into the door and he just sort of pushes me in, slams the door shut. he locks the door, immediately, grabs a remote that was right there and turns the stereo to this deafening volume. he pushes me back, and that's

when he starts making demands. all of a sudden, it's serious and aggressive. i almost thought he was joking. >> he was serious, demanded she undress. >> i kept arguing with him. i'm not going to do that. he's like, you're going to do it. that's when he runs over and he grabs me by the throat. he's choking me and choking me. i scream as loud as i can. immediately he grabs me and starts choking me again. this time he picks me up and pulls me back into the bedroom. >> you're a prisoner in this apartment now. >> yes. he puts me on the mattress. this is the first time i black out. i wondered if this was it. >> i could die? >> he started shaking me. >> kristen couldn't fight him off physically, so she tried to talk her way out of a sexual assault. >> i said you don't want do this. he stops and he looks at me and he says, why don't want to do this? he said, because i have hiv. you can tell he is thinking

about it for a second. he says, guess what? so do i. the lie didn't work. she tried something else. i thought what about finding god and trying to work on yourself? i was able to stall him for quite some time. i must have gotten off the bed and standing, talking. i remember that's when i started to stomp my foot. i was trying to make it look like i was making a point and stomping me foot. he grew angry again. >> he threw her back on the bed. his grip on her neck tighter as he sexually assaulted her. >> he is squeezing so hard at this point in time that it felt like the bones in my throat were cracking. i said, if you keep doing this, you're going to kill me. and he sort of looked at me and it was this half smile and he looked at me for a second and said, do you think i actually care about that? >> is that when you thought you were looking in the face of evil? >> i knew he intended on

killing me. >> coming up. a knock at the door. >> this is like a miracle. >> and doubt. >> i couldn't believe, nobody believed me. >> when "dateline" continues. everybody wants super straight, super white teeth. they want that hollywood white smile. new sensodyne clinical white provides 2 shades whiter teeth and 24/7 sensitivity protection. i think it's a great product. it's going to help a lot of patients. icy hot. ice works fast. ♪♪ heat makes it last.

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i'm jessica with a look at the hours top stories. two russian strikes killed eight civilians and injured ten early saturday. ukraine's national police said the attack was launched by drones while regional officials say russians used missiles and bombs. and mexico's government ended diplomatic ties with ecuador. police broke into the mexican embassy late friday to arrest a vice president. the man who was arrested was seeking political asylum after he was indicted on corruption charges. and now back to "dateline." just months after one woman was raped and killed in a texas college town, a second woman was under attack welcome back. i'm craig melvin. months after one woman was

raped and killed in a texas college town, a second woman was under attack in a nearby community. kristen lancaster was certain the man meant to kill her. but what seemed like an end turned out to be the beginning of a fierce fight for the truth. back with the face of evil, here is andrea. >> reporter: 19-year-old kristen lancaster was preparing to die. >> when you're possibly in the last moments of your life, when you think that someone is going to kill you, what is going through your mind? >> i had a moment where i thought, i wish i told all the people i loved that i love them. >> she was in a stranger's apartment being sexually assaulted, drifting in and out of conscienceness. >> i black out, i start to come to again. the scenes in the movies where the bombs explode and everything is really fuzzy. you can't hear. everything is like coming

through this fog. >> suddenly, the man stood up and left the room. ordered her to remain quiet. >> i scream as loud as i can, call the police. call the police. >> turns out, the police were at the door. >> so my friend had heard me screaming and stomping and called the police. >> this is like a miracle. >> it was -- yeah. >> in the nick of time, police show up. that only happens on tv. >> i know. believe me, i know. they ran in, i was curled in a fetal position shaking. shaking uncontrollably. and i remember them asking me what happened and the words were just coming out so fast. >> the cops took the man away in handcuffs and kristen slept on her friend's couch that night. the friend called the police to see what would happen next. >> she found out they didn't book him for sexual assault charges. >> in fact, kristen's attacker, the man she said almost killed her had been released.

>> that must have been a tough pill to swallow. >> it was terrifying. >> down at the police station, the man had given a wildly different version of events. eric is the current bryan police chief. he wasn't with the department back then, but says the suspect told investigators that he and kristen had a fight over drugs. >> she got angry when he substituted aspirin for cocaine and she went off in a rage when that occurred. >> i think he told them some story about it had been a drug deal gone bad and so then i was crying rape. >> after the attack, police charged him with unlawful restraint. a misdemeanor. the next day, kristen and her dad went to the bryan police department to find out why her attacker wasn't charged with something more serious. >> i was furious. i had thought in this moment that i survived. i survived, like this is it. this guy is going down. >> she met with a detective who asked her questions. lots of them.

>> i had bruises up and down my throat. i couldn't swallow. the detective asked me to place my hands on my own throat and which even then, psychologically, that was traumatizing. >> why would he want you to do that? >> he said, those could have been self-inflicted. >> what did you say to the detective? >> i was hysterically crying. this man tried to kill me. he said, that's not what he says. of course that's not what he says. >> despite her bruises, police treated it like a he said, she said story. >> how angry were you getting? >> i was furious. i just couldn't believe nobody believed me. >> chef busky maintains the detective was doing a thorough investigation. >> everything i've raerd the detectives did believe her. sometimes when you are conducting an investigation, your job is to get to the truth as a detective. you'll have to ask some hard questions. >> they interviewed her attacker again. a few months later, did charge

him with sexual assault. >> the unlawful restraint was in place. we booked him on second-degree sexual assault. >> the grand jury decided not to indict him. >> the sexual assault charges were dropped, because they felt there was insufficient evidence. >> that must have been tough to hear that. >> it was very tough to hear that. and it was at point in time when i found that out, i didn't feel like i had any recourse. >> she did talk about the case later with reporter, kelly brown. >> it bothered me at the time, because i wondered why didn't the grand jury indict him for at least attempted sexual assault. but it seemed a little troubling to me that what were we missing >> what part of the story did we not have? did the detectives say something that made them think maybe it was consensual? >> he was still facing the misdemeanor charge of unlawful restraint, scheduled to go to court down the road.

in the meantime, he was a free man. >> he's out walking around. >> he's out walking around. >> in the next town over, detectives at the sheriff's office were working the jamie hart murder case. in addition to keeping an eye on jamie's boyfriend, chuck, they say they followed up on hundreds of other leads and tips. but no one in that department looked at kristen's case for a possible connection. >> you were sexually assaulted, jamie hart was sexually assaulted. did you start to think these could be connected? >> i didn't think they were connected. that was primarily because jamie, there was a boyfriend that may have been involved. it was a romantic relationship that went wrong. it wasn't some random occurrence by a stranger. >> kristen was now living with overwelming anxiety and dread, which she says manifested into dangerous behavior. >> instead of being afraid of everything, i became afraid of nothing. i just became completely risk

seeking. >> what kind of things would you do? >> i think i started drinking heavily. for awhile after that. you know, i would hop on the back of a stranger's motorcycle after he had three beers. it took a long time to really get out of that hole. >> as kristen was starting to turn a corner, her attacker was due in court on that misdemeanor charge. he didn't even show up. >> part of me wanted to forget it ever happened. >> but she couldn't, kristen was about to walk right into another crime scene in college station. coming up. a shockingly brutal murder and the suspect makes a big mistake. >> the clothing he was wearing was different than what he just told us. >> when "dateline" continues. lobsterfest is ending soon, so hurry in.

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was may of 2000, six months since kristin had been assaulted. it was may of 2000, six months since kristen had been assaulted. her attacker had failed to show up in court and seemed to have just disappeared. >> didn't show up. >> didn't show up. >> in the next town over, detective kenny elliot continued to work the jamie hart murder case. he spent the last year casting a wide net for possible suspects. >> you took dna from 70 people? >> i think 77. people being booked into jail for violent crimes. anyone that was in the area that just didn't want to talk. we took dna from everybody that would give it, practically. >> he also had never taken his

eye off her boyfriend, chuck cruz. >> there was something bothering you. >> there was a lot bothering me about chuck cruz. >> even communicated with the da about possibly convening a grand jury. chuck and his lawyer spoke to the detective on many occasions. and the detective continued to think chuck's behavior was suspicious. and that he still seemed nervous. >> did you ever think that maybe the reason that chuck cruz was acting this way was that you guys were coming down pretty hard on him, and he lost his girlfriend. i mean, is there a way to act? >> i don't know, but he had several things going against him, and we just couldn't walk away from him. we either had to prove that he did it or prove that he didn't do it. >> but chuck says he should have been cleared almost right away. >> so even though the dna didn't match. >> there was no match, but they

insisted on targeting me as the prime suspect. they were trying to build a case that wasn't there. >> while chuck's life had been on hold for a year, kristen was starting to feel like her old self again. in the six months since her attack, she had taken up running, had a new boyfriend, and kristen hoped the pain of that horrible night was behind her for good, it wasn't. >> there is police tape everywhere. >> may 28, 2000. kristen had just arrived to visit friends at an apartment complex. there was no reason, not then anyway, to think her case was connected to the scene unfolding there. >> police cars and ambulances and all kinds of vehicles. emergency response vehicles everywhere. >> now the sight of police tape sent memories rushing back. >> it was fear. >> firefighter, leon moore, arrived at the apartment complex early that morning after a neighbor reported smoke in one of the units. >> the bedroom door was open

and we could see some flames on the carpet. so, we had a water extinguisher we used and put the small fire out. >> there on the floor, a body. >> we made sure we preserved as much evidence as we could. >> he sensed foul play, and called for detective of the college station police department. >> it looked like her body had been propped up on to the bed. she was nude from the waste down. >> this is really disturbing. >> it was. >> the victim was 21-year-old, carolyn casey. a daycare worker. her parents, anita and larry, so proud of their eldest daughter. >> she was wonderful with kids. all the kids loved her. everyone loved her. >> never could they have prepared themselves for the dreadful phone call they received. >> is your daughter carolyn casey? i said yes. i think he said, there's been an accident and your daughter

is dead. a fire. >> when carolyn's younger sister, amanda, learned the news, she collapsed with grief. >> i just screamed really loud. made my ears ring from my screaming. >> they got this wrong? >> yeah, something is wrong. she didn't die. i said no, she's not dead. >> what was the turning point? >> i called her apartment. she didn't answer. a detective did say it was homicide. >> i think we had a strong feeling that possibly there was some type of sexual assault that occurred and that somebody was trying to cover up some evidence. >> kelly brown of the eagle newspaper had another story to write. >> this is a community that is not used to a lot of murders. he's not used to violent crimes like this. and it certainly wasn't used to having a murder victim be set

on fire. even law enforcement, they thought, what do we have on our hands here? >> on the night of carolyn's murder, there had been a small party in one of the apartments. and now the detective was canvassing the complex, looking for leads. >> so you're literally knocking on doors? >> yes. >> in one unit, two men answered. one of them had been to the party. his name was unobe matthews. >> he mentioned he did attend this party. she was there. >> like many people who attended, he agreed to an interview. his down at the police department. he was friendly and cooperative, said carolyn left the party before he had. >> he left the party, went with another female that was at the party over to a convenience store that was close by. bought some cigarettes. >> he gave the detective a dna sample. to verify his alibi, the detective pulled surveillance video from the convenience

store and noticed something. >> the clothing he was wearing was different than what he just told us. why is he not telling us the truth? >> he said he forgotten and handed the detective the proper clothing. no forensic evidence found on clothes connected him to the crime scene. >> sotsdz wasn't your big moment? >> no, it wasn't. >> the big moment did come, though, just a few nights later when the pieces of this puzz finally came together. >> coming up. an arrest of a familiar suspect. >> i didn't think he would do it again. >> when "dateline" continues. a. feel the power of contrast therapy. ♪♪ so you can rise from pain. icy hot. ♪you're the one that i want!♪ nexgard® plus helps you protect your dog from fleas, ticks, heartworm disease and more... all in one delicious, monthly soft chew.

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plus ask how to get up to an $800 prepaid card. don't wait- call today. as carolyn casey's family grieved their loss, detectives struggled to make sense of the crime scene. welcome back. as carolyn casey's family grieved their loss, detectives struggled to make sense of the crime scene. as they canvas the area looking for leads, a possible suspect emerged. here's andrea canning with the final chapter of the face of evil. >> it was two nights after the murder and fire. detective caps made a discovery. one that would finally connect the dots in this series of crimes that terrorized this college town. >> i spent that evening basically reading through all these reports. >> the detective had ordered background checks on some of the people who attended the

party in carolyn's apartment complex, including unobe matthews. it turns out, there were several police reports in the file accusing him of a number of crimes. >> mr. matthews had a tendency to try to sexually assault females and in the process, he would choke them if they were not willing to have sex with them. >> how did caroline die? >> her death was ruled a strangulation. >> unobe had never been convicted of sexual assault. in the files, the detective read the account of one particularly brutal attack. the case ended up being charged as a misdemeanor, unlawful restraint. it was kristen's. unobe was the man she says almost killed her. >> i was certain he had done this before. but at the same time, i didn't think he would do it again. >> the detective called unobe matthews back down to the station and telling him he was

about to get dna results from the crime scene. >> were you really about to get it that quickly? >> we weren't going to get it that quickly, but trying to get him to believe we had that information, that we had everything we needed. i had contacted my supervisor earlier. i told him if he would page me, just say, type in the words that said dna matches. >> and right on cue, the detectives pager went off. and i showed it to mr. matthews and i said, dna matches. >> what was his face like? >> he became emotional and he said, it was an accident, but he had killed her. >> the detective called carolyn's parents and gave them the news of the confession. >> they said, i think we got him. i said, well how sure? he said, i'll bet the farm on it. >> it was the next morning when kristen lancaster opened up the newspaper and learned her

attacker had been charged with murder. >> i felt overwelming guilt. just overwelming guilt knowing that he had killed someone and that you know, perhaps i hadn't tried hard enough to make people believe me. >> did you feel like a life could have been saved if you had been taken more seriously? >> yes, carolyn would still be here. there's no doubt. >> what about the woman at the start of our story? jamie hart's case had been handled by the brazo's county sheriff's office. after unobe was arrested, it didn't take long for the college station police department and the sheriff's office to compare the dna. what they found, unobe was also jamie's killer. >> i remember the feeling of wanting to feel relieved, but all i could think was, this is exactly what i knew was going

to happen. he struck again. another girl is dead. and another family has lost their precious daughter. >> chuck says to this day, he misses jamie. and has never gotten over being viewed as a suspect. >> having to spend such a long time under investigation for the death of a loved one, it hurts. >> it's like a scar. >> very much so. very much so. >> do you feel bad about that at all? that he was put through that? >> i'm sorry he had to go through that, yes. if i had to do the investigation over, i wouldn't change anything. i'm sorry he lost the love of his life, but we had a job do and we had to arrest him for murder or clear him. we cleared him. >> but, before jamie, before kristen, before carolyn, there was another victim who soon learned she was also connected to this horrifying series of

events. her name is misty johnson. >> if i didn't let him rape me, he would have killed me. >> like kristen, misty reported her attack to the bryan police department, but unobe denied it, claiming it was consensual, and misty was too traumatized to help police with the investigation. >> i quit my job and left town. i was scared. >> she now regrets that decision. her attack happened first. months before jamie was murdered. >> i feel like if i would have stayed and fought him through the police department, that possibly he wouldn't have been able to go on to hurt anyone else. >> and kristen is left with the memory of an assault that according to the law, never really happened. >> i was so angry that two people had to die in order for someone to believe me. >> did the system fail? >> it failed me. it failed carolyn. it failed jamie.

>> you think about them a lot? they were total strangers to you. >> but they are my alternative future. they are what could have happened to me. i mean, they are what could have happened to any of us. >> a jury convicted him of carolyn's murder and sentenced him to death. he also pleaded guilty to jamie's murder. kristen faced him in court during the penalty phase. >> it was terrifying. and i had to testify and i met carolyn's family, and jamie's family. they all came out afterwards and gave me a hug. it helped me realize their families didn't hold any grudge against me. >> it's not her fault that my sister died. kristen should have no guilt of that. >> with the casey family as witnesses, unobe matthews was executed three years later. if there is a lesson to take from this story, it is one that comes directly from a survivor

herself. someone who has learned the hard way to cherish life's moments each and every one. >> it makes you realize how fragile your life is. you know, and that anybody can take it. in a moment's notice. the story for them, that's it. that's their life story. the final chapter has been written. for me, i get to keep going on. >> what would you call yourself? >> people have called me a survivor. i would call myself lucky. that's all for this edition of dateline, i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. man 1: you actually think that they read the wrong verdict. man 2: you feel so alone and hopeless. man 1: it's like a shot in your chest. craig melvin: despair to hope, darkness to light--