20/20 - What The Killer Left Behind

Episode Date: January 31, 2026

A mother's unwavering crusade for justice after her daughter's murder and the hidden clue that helped catch a killer living in plain sight.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On game day, pain can hit hard and fast, like the headache you get when your favorite team and your fantasy team both lose. When pain comes to play, call an audible with Advil plus acetaminopin and get long-lasting dual-action pain relief for up to eight hours. Tackle your tough pain two ways with Advil plus acetaminopin. Advil, the official pain relief partner of the NFL. Ask your pharmacist at this product's rate for you. Always read and follow the label. It was almost like Amanda talking from the grave. Is it a crime of passion? Is it a crime of revenge?

What's going on? When you walk in this apartment, you see Amanda Plas lying there on the floor. She spread out on her back and there's blood all around her. There is no doubt that she was already dead. It wasn't even like she needs help. It was she's dead. My worst enemy, I wouldn't want to have to go through that. It's just horrible. Horrible.

Not knowing how to even comprehend what had happened, but then still knowing that, okay, I need to put my child to rest. Every single person in her life was a suspect. Everybody. She said she had a lot of bad relationships in the past. Oh my god. You know what? You know what? Mom ain't playing around no more.

Somebody knew something. Our story begins here in Chiquipee, Massachusetts. A small city nestled alongside the Connecticut River. Chickapie is a suburb of Springfield Mass. It's about 90 miles outside of Boston. Here on bustling Memorial Drive is this busy, friendly's restaurant. It's a place for ice cream celebrations and familiar faces. One of those familiar faces, 20-year-old Amanda Plas, more than a waitress, really.

Those who knew her said she was the heart of this place. Amanda really connected with the customers there. She had a child that used to come in and only liked red gummy bears on his Sunday. So she made his Sunday with just the red gummy bears. That's just how Amanda was. Everybody loved her. We would come here and we would ask for her because she just brightened our day. It was just a sweetheart. It was a warm evening in August, right around 5 o'clock,

and Maline Holmes sat right here in this friendlies, waiting for Amanda. Maline was a customer, and she and Amanda had become friends. They were supposed to meet right before Amanda's shift for dinner. She used to come here and have dinner with us before she'd start her shift. We had been waiting for her, and then she didn't show. Everybody was concerned.

They were trying to call her, and they there was no response. Everybody was like, where is she? It was just very strange. It was very, very strange. Even more strange was when minutes turned to hours. And the ever reliable Amanda Plas never arrived for her shift at Friendlies.

Not long after Amanda fails to show up for work, a frantic 911 call comes into the Chippee Police Department. The caller is a 22-year-old named Seth Green. And Seth tells dispatchers that when he went to visit his girlfriend Amanda, he stepped into a scene of unimaginable horror. She was lying on the kitchen floor right when I opened the door. It's in a pool of blood. Stabbed to death.

Called 911, I didn't, I was still holding her when I called 911. There was no doubt that she was already dead. It wasn't even like she needs help. It was, she's dead. She was slit, throat was slit, you know, multiple stab wounds to the chest. straight in the heart. I was the on-call state police detective for that particular day. I got a call to say that there was a homicide occurred in Chikabee.

Ronald Gibbons, who at the time was a detective with the Massachusetts state police raced to the crime scene. What's the scene like? You arrive? What are you taking in? This is the building itself. The Chikibb Police officers had a cordon off this area, had put the yellow tape around it to block anyone from going to the back.

When the first detectives arrived at the scene, Lieutenant Gibbon says Seth was in distress and sitting on the back porch. He was frantic. He was erratic. He was just a range of emotions. What was that like for you to see her on the floor? It's just something that I would never wish upon anybody. Like, you know, my worst enemy, I wouldn't want to have to go through that. Honestly, it's just horrible. When you walk in this apartment, you see Amanda Plas lying there on the floor.

Describe the position she was in and what you're taking in as you see her. She's like spread out on her back and there's blood all around her. Death by stabbing is very often a personal attack on behalf of the perpetrator. You have to be up on top of somebody when you plunge that knife into them. It was almost like Amanda talking from the grave. Is it a crime of passion? Is it a crime of revenge? There's a lot of slashes here.

This was very violent. It looked like she fought. I knelt down right next to her. I wanted to, you know, imagine or think that she was, you know, breathing or something. And I literally, I tried to give her CPR, like, blow into her mouth. And it literally blew out of her. She was pretty butchered up. And, yeah, it's just horrible.

She's lying on the floor in a pool of blood with multiple wounds, partially dressed, and very dead. It's around the same time that Amanda's sister, Amy Lee, receives an unexpected visit from her aunt. And she told me, you know, your sister's dead. Your sister's been murdered. And I remember just crying instantly. I remember screaming.

And my aunt is like, we need to find out who did this. We need to find out right now. And as we're in route to go tell her, my mom's calling me. And she's saying, Amy, what's going on? My mom's begging me to tell her on the phone what's wrong. So I went outside and there were, she could be detectives and the state, my daughter, my husband, to let me know that she had been stabbed to death. So in real time, you're learning that your daughter was stabbed to death.

How difficult is it to process all of this that's going on in that moment? Oh my gosh, how am I going to bury this kid? or what, you know, 19, 20-year-old has a life insurance policy. Where do you get the money? Just that whole process of not knowing how to even comprehend what had happened, but then still knowing that, okay, I need to put my child to rest. It's something you can never be prepared for. No, never in a million years.

You see your friend and they're happy, they're vibrant, they're excited for life, and then all of a sudden, they're gone. And it didn't make sense. It still doesn't make sense. I had this heavy gut feeling that something really bad was going to happen to Amanda. I was like, oh my God, did I manifest this? Like, did I put that thought out there and it came true? Nobody could understand why it happened,

because Amanda was just friends with everybody. everybody. I don't remember Amanda having any enemies. Every single person in her life was a suspect. Everybody. Any detective or a criminologist is going to tell you that our money is on Seth Green, the most recent boyfriend. My captain is now saying head to the station, they got a possible suspect, he's down at the station, they're going to interview him, need you there right now. It's a race against time. I think my knife may have been in her house.

So you have a knife at her house? That knife was not found. Seth was the perfect suspect. To truly understand Amanda Plas, all you needed to do was look into her eyes. She can see her soul, the love that she had for everybody and anybody. Her eyes changed colors. When she was really happy, her eyes would literally turn green.

What stands out to you when you think about her? Her spirit, yeah, her energy. Amanda grew up in Chikopee, once a bustling mill town, now a quiet working-class community known for the rambling Chiquipee River. Chigby is a small place. Everybody knows everybody. The neighborhood itself is a very close-knit neighborhood. The houses are pretty adjacent to each other. Very urban residential neighborhood.

How often does it happen that you have a random murder? A lot of times you have a gang murder, and this is different because this is truly a victim in her own apartment, a young girl, 20 years old, brutally murdered. Amanda was the middle child, raised by her mom, Michelle. She attended a local high school, but left before graduating and instead earned her GED. She was a hippie child, but often finding her school. I often find her barefooted outside, painting or taking pictures of the neighbor's dog, playing her guitar. Growing up, we were like best friends. My mom used to dress us up like we were twins.

My mom was a single mother for most of our childhood, and we moved around a lot. I've always raised my children to be, you know, independent, and you get what you earn. I used to call Amanda the bigger sister. She had a job, an apartment. Her work ethic was nonstop. Amanda was always dancing around and painting and splashing colors everywhere. Anything that had to do with being artsy,

she would make feather earrings. When you see a sunflower, you think of Amanda. It became her trademark. When she found the music festival scene that really is where she started to blossom. She's in our early 20s, and she just found herself right before she passed. A butterfly coming out of a cocoon.

Just the brightness. That was her. On that tragic Friday in Chiquipe, Amanda's boyfriend Seth, whom she had only been dating for about a week, tells police he stopped by Amanda's apartment and immediately noticed a broken window. I pounded down the door for him.

And then you could try it all this. apartment door? Yeah, turned the handle in the huts. I went to her door and let myself in, and she was laid on the floor and a pull of blood. You got up immediately, you have the rights remain silent. Do you understand that? Seth had only been dating Amanda for the week. He said he had moved his things in, and it was a serious relationship.

Right, been hanging up every single day for a week now. And the relationship was moving fast, right? Yeah, I was moving fast. You know, she had that go-getter attitude and just a fun, caring person. What were you doing for a living at the time? I'm a carpenter, but roofing is where the money's at. So roofing was my main go-to, usually for the construction field. Seth tells police he spent the night at Amanda's, left for work around 9 a.m., and returned

to find her dead. He also tells investigators he was working on a roof that day and left the job site multiple times to purchase supplies. What time did you leave to get the materials? They had left like three lines. It was later in the day, three to four. Like three to four. Seth says he and Amanda had kind of fallen into a routine.

Every day after he finished working, Seth would drive Amanda to her job at Friendlies. However, the day she was murdered, Seth tells detectives that routine was broken because he had to work late. He was there every day. that week to take her to work, but this is the one day that he had to work late.

That kind of was suspicious to us. How important was Seth's timeline? His timeline is very important. He leaves his job site several times, and he's on his own. So where exactly did he go or where exactly did he do? Texted her, I said, where are you? She didn't answer.

My first thought was, like, oh, she stayed home, maybe she couldn't find a ride. So you weren't, like, concerned or anything at that point? No, not at all. I went, I drove straight to her house, expecting to see her there waiting for me, you know. Oh my God, here we go. She deserves so much. I think we can give it all to her.

These range of motions does not add up. He's a rising to the occasion of being a suspect. The interrogators zone in immediately on the fact that Seth Green is a carpet. and a roofer. In other words, he uses sharp objects and utility knives all the time. Then comes a chilling detail that ratchets up the suspicion on Seth. He tells detectives the knife he used at work, a sharp M-Tech blade, has gone missing. But I think my knife might have been at the house. So you have a knife at our house?

Yeah, I think it might be at her house. I'd be in my car as well, I'm sure. He was missing his M-Tek knife that he didn't take to work that day. that day. That knife was not found. Seth was a perfect suspect. My girlfriend just got murdered and you're blaming me for it. Dude, are you kidding me? And now police want to know it's a telltale piece of evidence left behind in the crime scene will implicate or exonerate Seth Green. The NBA is happening now on ABC and the ESPN app. And right now, this season is unpredictable. We know this rookie class is special.

This MVP race is tight And this crew is the best So for inside, prime time, showcase, finals, And everywhere in between There's one place to call home The NBA on ESPN presented by State Farm All season long on ESPN and ABC FX is the beauty

Imagine the hottest new super drug That makes you effortlessly beautiful From executive president. producer, Ryan Murphy. This is the closest to the fountain of youth any is ever going to get. Are there side effects? I just went in,

woke up, and it looked like this. I would like the first poke. FX is the beauty. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Michelle Pena will never forget the final text message she received from her daughter Amanda. She sent me a text. I said, Mom, can you give me a ride to work?

And I said, I can't. And she said, okay, she'd find a ride. No one could have imagined that just hours later, 20-year-old Amanda Pless would be gone forever. Homicides happen all the time, but when it happens to you, I would have never thought that my sister was going to be murdered. What you stumbled upon when you went to Amanda's house, how does that compare to a lot of other homicides you've covered? In this particular case, there's droplets of blood all around the room, and that's indicative. This was a very, very brutal and harsh fight. Well, when we were finally able to get into her apartment, they had covered the floor with paper,

so we didn't have to see all the blood. So when you're trying to clean out her apartment as I'm walking. taken across paper to cover my daughter's bladder blood. And then who do you ask to help? My theory is that the attacker came through the back door. When we found Amanda, she's actually in her work pants, her work clothes. There was no evidence of a sexual assault. She was found on the kitchen floor, and they do believe she was killed there.

So not in a bedroom, not in the living room. And that suggests perhaps an element of surprise. She just didn't lay down and die. She actually fought back. And when she fought back, underneath her fingernails was possibly DNA. And we're going to have to match this DNA to someone. The first person investigators test? Amanda's boyfriend, Seth Green.

I'm going to do a couple tests. We're just going to swipe the inside of your cheek. The interesting thing, we stepped out of the room, but we still observed him. And he'd cry a little bit and then just wondered why he was there. I can't believe that. So happy with her. He had only been dating her for a week. And he was so caught up, but this is the best thing that ever happened to his life.

But detectives also receive information. that points to someone other than Seth. Amanda had recently told her family that someone had been sneaking into her apartment. She said, my apartment got broken into again, and I said, well, what did they take? You need to call the police. And she says, no, Mom, all they took was a glass bowl,

like a marijuana bowl. I said, well, you still need to call the police. And she said, no, what am I going to do, tell them my pack got stolen? Amanda's friends say she suspected an unidentified male was watching her. She saw him peeking at her back window at her apartment. The window is actually broken, and we surmise that the person possibly had tried to make it look like a break-in. So on that same window, you end up with a palm print.

If we can identify the palm print, we can also identify the person that would have been there, that particular day. But among the most important piece of evidence found at the crime scene, a bloody sneaker print. That footprint showed a sneaker print in blood. You can actually see the Nike impression in that footprint. We had it measured. We had it analyzed. That was very important because of a smaller shoe, maybe a female, maybe a male.

we were looking for a Nike size 7.5th airmax shoe. I remember a couple days after she was murdered, everybody had like went to her apartment in Chigabee Center and just held like a memorial. The whole front of her building was just a sea of sunflowers. That was a really intense, emotional time

to be in front of the apartment of where she was murdered and just comforting each other, just shocked, not understanding how or why. And then, a few days after Amanda's murder, there was a funeral. I just remember just being beautiful and intense and very heartbreaking. in a lot of sunflowers. Meanwhile, beliefs aren't giving up on the idea of Amanda's boyfriend Seth as a suspect.

Within hours of Amanda's murder, they even go as far as to ask him for the shoes on his feet. Would you give us permission and look at your shoes? Yeah, you can take them up now. Let's put it up. Finally, after almost 15 grueling hours, investigators reach a conclusion. Seth Green is not their killer. His DNA did not match. His shoe print didn't match.

His boots were a size 12. It was too large to be the person at the scene. Clearly, there's some other shoes there that were not mine. And that's the thing that got me released, honestly. What did that moment feel like for you? Well, it's definitely a big relief, you know, honestly. Yeah, when they were walking me out was definitely in a moment, like, you know, finally, like I told you guys a million times, it wasn't me.

What is that like to go through that, to experience the loss, and then have to face that questioning? I mean, it's unbearable, honestly. It's like, I just called you guys, like, you know, why are you, you know, trying to blame me for this? Like, you know, I, like, I love this girl. Seth is officially cleared as a suspect and tells cops, there's someone else they should be looking at. She said she had a lot of bad relationships in the past. Detectives also want to learn about an ex-boyfriend who was allegedly upset after seeing a public display of affection between Seth and Amanda at Friendlies.

While she was working, he had showed up at work, and they started making out. And detectives say that ex's reaction wasn't very friendly at all. So at the very least, you had to consider that he could have had something to do with this. Very much so. motive of revenge is in our mind. What surprised you most about the conversations police we're having with you? It was hard for me to hear them kind of making me feel

like they're, you know, asking me questions, like if I, as if I were the one that did it. Not something I'd ever want anyone to have to go through. It's just horrible. Can you problem class you at all? That's so happy. It's just never been able. She said she had a lot of bad relationships in the past.

Amanda's boyfriend, Seth Green, is fully cleared. But now investigators wonder if one of those previous relationships could be a factor in Amanda's murder. They discover that before Seth, Amanda had been seeing a man named Jesse. He was a boyfriend of Amanda, basically a week before Seth was. And he also worked at Friendlies. So at the very least, you had to consider that he could have had something to do with this. Very much so. Jesse wanted a serious relationship. Amanda didn't. And she finds a new boyfriend.

Police learn of an alleged incident at Friendly's involving Jesse and Amanda's new boyfriend, Seth, that raises alarm bells for authorities. Friday was a murder Thursday night. When Jesse's working, Seth shows up at the Friendlies. Amanda's boss at Friendly's tells police, Seth came in and kissed Amanda openly. Jesse saw it, and he looked uncomfortable afterwards. Jesse asked to go home a little later. Jesse moves up the chain as a very likely suspect. A motive of revenge is in our mind about Jesse. I want to play some of your interrogation from speaking to Jesse. So you both worked at Friendlies on that Thursday, right?

Correct. You left work early, right? Correct. You told us that you left because they over-schedged you, right? Yeah. Okay. Well, that's not what we heard. We heard that Seth went in there, gave her a kiss that made you uncomfortable.

Seth was in there for like... A while. And he did kiss, he did kiss Amanda in front of you and it made you uncomfortable. Not that I'd seen. I seen them talking. It didn't bother me. I was talking to Seth. But I never physically seen them kiss.

Not once. You knew that Amanda was dating. Seth. How'd that make you feel? It sucked, but... After he left work, Jesse says he texted Amanda about some items they wanted back from each other, now that their relationship was over. over. But investigators press him about the nature of those messages.

Was there any anger in the text? Not in that text. I don't believe so. But there was some anger and some other texts, aren't they? Yeah. I was just angry at the fact that she just didn't talk to me for a few days and I was just wondering what was going on. I was just pissed that she went to tell me. And this is the time that she's now with Seth? I don't know if I knew about it yet, but she'd probably talking about that. At this point you're trying to figure out who might have been involved.

How does this information fit into your investigation? We're looking at the fact of who could have done this, who was angry at her. Because as we look at the scene, there's a lot of blood, there's a lot of anger going on. It's not a one and done out the door. Can we also look at your phone? What'd you do with those text messages that you text there? Do you delete them off? Text is hard to leave.

Because you thought they were uncounted before. First of all, it is a phone. I didn't want to look at any conversation me and her, just because it made me sad to even think about her. Why is that? Because she's murdered. So you deleted him after you found out she was killed? I didn't even want to have to look at him.

Everything reminds me of her. As an investigator, what do you make about? He's trying to hide something. So now there's obviously text that he doesn't want investigators to see. Did you delete him because she's dead, or if you parted something to happen to her? Deleting text messages, certainly. Seems out of the ordinary.

Yes, it does. Now investigators want to know if Jesse was doing anything out of the ordinary, the day of Amanda's murder. Does you stay home all day? Most of the day. The only time I really left was to go to Friendlies. What way to go to day for it? For my check.

Did you cash it? No. Actually, yeah, I did cash it at Generals. How did you get there? I got a ride. For who? Kyle. He says he goes to Genrose.

We check a tape. To verify his story, we learned that Kyle did not drive him there. So Jesse had lied. Jesse, we interviewed you twice already. And were you telling us the truth? Everything except for about me taking my car, in general. Why weren't you telling the truth about that? Because I told you guys that I didn't drive my car,

and then when we got it in the story, I remember I took my car to general. I just didn't want to go back from my word. I was scared. What am I regret it at the second like I did? You were scared? And what were you scared about? Just nervous. I've never been interrogated before or anything like that.

I never had to deal with anything like this. Basically, his story is he didn't want to tell his parents he wasn't supposed to be driving. So he's more afraid of his parents than he was of the police. Jesse has lied about who he is with from Friendlies, quite possibly, if he's in the car. By himself, he could have went by a man. and then went to Generals. With questions lingering over Jesse's account, investigators decide to compare his shoes

to the bloody shoe prints left of the crime scene. You know, what are those? Vance? Yeah. I have like two pairs of use. Yeah. That's it. One out on the bottom.

Yeah, that was right. Ultimately, Jesse's shoes are not a match, and his alibi checks out. We talk to people at Generals. He's not bloody. He's cashed his check. Che. Those close to Jesse never thought for a second that he was capable of such a heinous crime. Tell me about Jesse. Jesse's a great kid. When his name was brought up, that was a absolutely not moment.

I've never seen Jesse angry. Sweetest. Sweetest kid. And I know that was really intense for Jesse. Yeah. I know that was, you know, to be put in that spotlight and to have the whispers, I think that was really hard for him. With Jesse now fully cleared by authorities, Investigators follow another lead, a mysterious vehicle that a witness says she saw speeding away from Amanda's apartment right around the time of the murder. So to us, it's like, wow, that's big. We're going to look out for a white sedan. And a 911 call comes in that might just turn the entire case on its head. I'm like to call to turn myself in. I have to know what you're turning yourself in for a learner. Jesse, there's a couple things that are bothering me here on your statements.

Amanda's ex-boyfriend Jesse raised eyebrows when detectives say he was less than forthcoming with information. You said you still don't know how she died. You don't? You don't. I find that very hard to believe that you have no idea how she died when everybody's talking about it. It's been on the news. But after determining Jesse had a solid alibi, he was cleared. and investigators with the Chikipi Police and the state police quickly move on.

Still unclear who exactly they're searching for. One of the best clues that investigators find is a shoe print, a sneaker that is a size 7.5 men's shoe, which is very small for men. It's the smallest size you can get in men's shoes. Or it could be a woman size 9. Investigators get a new lead from a neighbor of Amanda, a witness who told police she saw a woman. suspicious car the day of the murder outside Amanda's apartment and so afterwards as

you're learning more about the scene you learn about this white sedan that's here that peels away at one point right not a common thing to do not a common thing to do and we actually got that information from the neighbor next door they remember a white car here and they just remember a female single female in a car pulling away at a high rate of speed around the 430 hours And then we identify who that white car was, end up being a girl from East Hampton named Mercedes-Benz. That's right. Her name is Mercedes-Benz. Another friend of Amanda's who works at Friendlies.

Mercedes was a really nice girl. She was a waitress here also. And she was friends with Amanda. And we used to talk to her all the time also. Now it was police who wanted to talk to Mercedes-Benz. Mercedes tells detectives that Amanda had texted her earlier that day, asking for a ride to work. She said it was a little after 5 p.m. when she arrived at Amanda's building. This is right around the time police believed Amanda was murdered. Mercedes said she called and texted Amanda to let her know that she'd arrived. But after waiting five or six minutes, she said she left.

We talked to Mercedes-Benz, and she says, well, the reason I had to leave was I had to go to Walmart. Does that add up for you? It doesn't add up because her purpose of coming here all the way from East Hampton was to give a ride to Amanda to work to friendlies, which is basically five to ten minutes down the road. So it doesn't make sense if you pull up here to get her, why would you just leave without even going upstairs? But what seems like a promising lead fizzles out. That neighbor who saw Mercedes speed away confirmed she never got out of her car. And police obtained surveillance footage from Walmart that backs up her time. That's her in the white sedan pulling into Walmart, and more footage shows her shopping inside the store.

Mercedes was basically cleared once we were able to get the tape from Walmart. Frustrated, investigators pushed forward, now casting a very wide net. I mean, they were taking DNA from everybody and anybody. We made a point for the medical examiner to make fingernail clippings of her fingernails. On this particular case, it was entered in a database, and, there was no convictions for a felony that would have matched it. With no matches to the DNA collected at the crime scene and no viable suspects, the case stalls. What surprised you most about this time?

I think how tight-lipped they were, whether it was Ronnie Gibbons or Chikibbon's detectives. Nobody was talking, even to me. Nobody was talking. They were very tight-lipped about certain things. How did that make you feel? It was very frustrating at first because I wanted answers. And I would call every Sunday night.

I would call down a Chigabee Police Department, looking for the detectives. What's the update? What's the update? What's the update? Got nothing to tell you, Michelle. Got nothing to tell you, Michelle. It's just at what point is I never gave up, but you just think, is this, going to be a cold case will I ever know that fear of never getting justice for

Amanda was fuel for a fire that was now burning inside Michelle my mom made it very clear that she wasn't just gonna let the case go cold I didn't give up hope because Michelle never gave up hope she never gave up she didn't let anybody else either tell me about how after this time it passed that you said I got to take matters into my own hands I was driving home from work and I saw a billboard and underneath it was Lamar and company. And I said, you know what? Mom ain't playing around no more.

I called them and emailed them. And next thing I knew, Amanda's billboard went up. And that's just the beginning, right? You did flyers. Balloon releases. I even had cards made up, business cards with the taxa tip number on it. And we attached them to the balloons. When we did the balloon releases, one of the balloons ended up three hours away Cape Cod.

Wow. It's been 18 months and five days since Amanda was murdered. So today, I'm hoping with the release of these balloons that somebody will come forward. Somebody knows something that happened that day. It was a busy Friday afternoon. We're just looking for that one missing piece of the puzzle. She was just in your face. She really was, like, you would be as a mother.

We want to find out what happened to your child. to find out what happened to your child. And she was out there, she was going to find out. Michelle's a force. Despite Michelle's efforts to publicize Amanda's case, the investigation continues to languish. Then a dramatic development. More than a year after the murder,

a 911 call comes in that initially stuns police. A man confesses to Amanda's murder. I like to turn myself in. I live in for me. Spell your last name. Do I really have to? I'm turning myself in. Right, but I have to know what you're turning yourself in for. From murder.

From where, sir? From chickapie. I'm from Amanda Plath and I just can't handle it anymore. Cops tracked down the caller, but just like hundreds of other promising leads, the confession is a dead end. The caller was impersonating another man trying to get him in trouble. Neither had any involvement in the murder. They had read it online, facts about the murder, and once you got through the facts, there was no factual basis to the confession. This was a very frustrating investigation.

And then a discovery that blows the investigation wide open. And I still remember the night. It was probably 10 o'clock at night. I get a call from Ronnie Gibbons. Michelle, you got that whiteboard from the apartment. A clue that had been hiding in plain sight all along. I never heard his name. Had you ever heard Amanda mentions? Nope.

Never. Not once. Can you spot the clue on this whiteboard? Nobody could wrap their head around the fact that Amanda was killed to begin with, let alone trying to think of who could do it. We had a billboard on 391, a huge billboard with this beautiful picture that she took of herself. That day she was murdered. That day she was murdered. Somebody knew something and nobody was talking.

I kept saying there's no way that there is no DNA. There's just no way. There has to be something. There was a white boy way in the back. On a white boy, there was wording in it. Dennis was W.A.Z here. Who's done this? I got goosebumps right now.

I was on the way to the hospital. They had told me 12 hours before I had her that I was having a boy. And Amanda by Boston was on the radio. Lazare Mother and I drove to the hospital. And when she was born, the nurse looked at me and said, it's not a boy. I named her Amanda after the song by Boston. She was just always bubbly and fun.

And she had this big curly hair. And she just, you know, she was a light. But on that tragic Friday in August, Amanda's bright light was extinguished. when she was found brutally murdered in her apartment. She was lying on the kitchen floor right when I opened the door. She was in a pool of blood. It's down to death. I got the call to say that we have a homicide and respond to the scene.

So I actually responded to the scene initially. People in the neighborhood were worried. Is someone going to come to my door and kill me? You don't even think it's real at first, you know? You're numb to it. Then you're like, oh, okay, maybe something's like a miss. Like, maybe this isn't true. Nobody could wrap their head around the fact that Amanda was killed to begin with,

let alone trying to think of who could do it. At the crime scene, police discover a partial palm print on the broken window and a bloody shoe print in the kitchen near Amanda's body. But with lead after lead coming up empty, the investigation is losing momentum. They interview hundreds of people who knew her friends, relatives, co-workers, and there is nothing new under the sun. Unless somebody comes forward with new information, this case is going to grow cold. I think there's this impression sometimes that the murder happens, police will solve it in months.

Some cases, they take time, they linger. Was that frustrating for you? It was very frustrating, very frustrating because, you know, as time goes on, and you have to realize that in 2011, when this occurred, time didn't stop. Investigation didn't stop. Crime didn't stop. So we were working other cases as well. I was getting nervous that her case was going cold. Somebody knows something that happened that day.

We're just looking for that one missing piece of the puzzle. Amanda's mother, Michelle, takes matters into her own hands, organizing benefits, balloon releases. She even got a massive billboard with Amanda's picture put up on the highway. I wanted people driving down the highway and seeing my daughter's face. Somebody knew something and nobody was talking. But then, a little more than a year after the murder, the story takes a strange turn. Rumors are swirling in Chickapie about graphic crime scene photos seen at a high school football game. New details on the Chickapie police officers accused of taking pictures of murder victim Amanda Plas' body.

It was June 10th of 2013. I will never forget. There was a news conference. It was the then-Mayer. who was appointing a new chief of police and said that they were investigating a crime scene photo leak by two of the Chikabee police officers.

My heart just sank. What do you mean police officers were taking pictures of the crime scene? And sharing them? Two Chiquipee police officers who had been assigned to protect the crime scene took photos of Amanda's body with their personal phones, and adding insult to injury,

they forwarded the pictures to other officers, and it was shown to coaches at a high school football game. Everyone, the whole newsroom, was, how could anyone do this? How could an officer do this? Michelle sued the police department and the city, claiming emotional abuse suffered at the hands of the Chickapie PD. They sued them for $10 million. I sued the city, the police department. I sued them all.

It wasn't about the money. It was about proven a point. An internal affairs investigation called the behavior an affront to the professionalism otherwise demonstrated by Chikopee and the state investigators in this case. The officers responsible were disciplined by the police department.

They were there to protect the scene and at my daughter's most vulnerable moment, you disrespect her in the worst way ever and think that's okay. I just... Oh, I was mad. At the same time, Michelle's dealing with the photo controversy. She's campaigning tirelessly

to keep Amanda's murder case front and center. What was it like for you to have to handle questions about that controversy? While at the same time, what you're really focused on is finding your daughter's killed. Yeah, and I think that's the hard part of it all. I didn't want the controversy to overshadow the fact that we still did not have justice for Amanda.

We were still looking and begging for that end to be closed. Investigators working on Amanda's case had no involvement in the alleged scandal. Frustrated by the lack of progress, they go back to square one, reviewing everything from scratch. We would try to keep saying what do we miss, what do we miss, what do we miss?

And then a breakthrough. While reviewing photos of the crime scene, investigators spot a potentially critical clue that had been overlooked, hiding in plain sight in Amanda's bedroom. We come upon in a scene where the table was at, there was a whiteboard way in the back.

On a whiteboard, there was wording in it. Dennis was W.A.Z. Here, 81111. The Grizzly murder took place in the kitchen. But the whiteboard was in Amanda's bedroom, which appeared undisturbed. And they missed the clue. I get a call from Ronnie Gibbons. And it was like quarter to 10 at night. Michelle, you got that whiteboard from the apartment?

I said, yeah, it's in the closet. He said, I'll be over in five minutes. I gotta grab it. After more than two years, investigators finally had a name, but the answer to the question, who is Dennis, only brings more mystery. This Dennis was here on this whiteboard. This is a huge clue for your case. This is a big clue. Why? Because Dennis' name had never come up the investigation. Now we're scrolling through Amanda's Facebook going, who's Dennis? She didn't know. Amy Lay didn't know. Her friends were calling me going, nobody knew who Dennis was. For 100 days, I'm going to cross. I'm going,

the seven continents because the answers to everything important are out there at the edges of our world. I'm stepping into the unknown. Where are we going to see our planet? This is amazing. As it's never been seen before. From pole to pole. Poll to Pole with Will Smith from National Geographic, now streaming on Disney Plus and Hulu. Show me the way. Amanda's Van Desiree said, Through force of sheer will, you kept her name out there. How difficult was that? It was difficult. It takes a toll. And there are some nights where you just, again, you don't want to be that mom.

But then something else would pop up and you'd be like, okay, let me call to forgive-ins. It was tough. It was very tough. I have Michelle that was calling me 11 o'clock at night, 12 o'clock a night, mad and angry. You got to do something. You got to do something. There was never a time where Ronnie did not show up at my house without a smile on his face. The only side that I saw was the compassionate side. The side that said, I'm here to the end. It was a Wednesday night in October, more than two years after the murder.

when Detective Gibbons was the one making a late-night phone call to Michelle. It was October 30th, 2013, quarter to 10 at night. I get a call from Ronnie Gibbons. Hey, you still got that whiteboard from Amanda's apartment? I said, yeah, it's in the closet. He said, I'll be over in five minutes.

I got to grab it. The discovery of a name hiding in plain sight on a whiteboard in Amanda's apartment kickstarts an investigation that, frankly, have been on life support. Now the question everyone is asking, who's Dennis? No one knew Dennis. Had you ever heard Amanda mentioned someone named Dennis?

Never, not once. I never heard his name. The detectives told me right when they found it. Asking me if I knew the name. Like, no idea. It is such a long shot, but they zone in on that and they decide they need to find out who Dennis is. One of the things I was missing was her cell phone. We went back to her cell phone records.

We came out that there was phone calls. For a number, they came back to a Dennis Rosa Roman. I immediately recognized the name because about a year before, I had actually arrested Dennis Rosa Roman. Gibbons had arrested Rosa Roman on a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. Rosa Roman pled guilty and paid a fine. But now Gibbons knew exactly who Dennis Rosa Roman was. The question, was this the same Dennis whose name was

on that whiteboard? You know anything Freddy wanted to us? A possible answer could lie in one of the police interviews with Amanda's ex-boyfriend Jesse. While Jesse was still dating Amanda, Amanda had told him that she thinks her apartment had been broken into while she was at work. She thought it was some kid that she had met about weed off. Jesse described them as being shorter.

Jesse is probably like five, ten, six feet. He's got to live like somewhere within like two second walk. I remember he used to see him walking around like that area all the time. Jesse said Amanda told him she had hung out with the person once before, but he had no idea where. Now Detective Gibbons is wondering if the man Jesse had been describing in that interview could have been Dennis Rosa Roman. Amanda lives about a half a block away from this park.

She used to hang out here, right? Yeah, this was like a hangout for the neighborhood. And we learned later on this is kind of like with Dennis would hangout during the daytime because he just didn't work. He just didn't work. So they might have come across each other in this park just in passing in the neighborhood. Exactly, exactly. In the time since Amanda's murder, Dennis Rosa Roman had moved from Chikopee to nearby Westfield, Massachusetts.

Gibbons decides to pay him a visit. So now we're headed to Westfield, Massachusetts. Why is that significant? That's very significant because once we found the Dennis was here on the whiteboard and his number is on the field. phone. We want to locate Dennis. What's your expectation going there? What are you trying to achieve? The plan was to knock on his door and talk to him. Just like we had talked to over 50 other people in the case, as well as to get his shoe size, as well as to get his DNA. Now go to the apartment, ring the doorbell, no answer. And next thing you know, I see from a side alleyway that's between the building, Dennis come out. And what happens next? Beautiful timing. But here he is,

he comes right around the corner. Just walking right to you. Walking right to us. So I stop him in and say, hey Dennis, you got a moment? We want to talk about Chickabee. We want to talk about a girl named Amanda Plas. Yeah. His first thing is, he kind of chuckles.

He says, oh, no, I don't go to Chickabee. It's too dangerous there. And I say, well, how about this girl, Amanda Plast? And he says, I don't know he and Amanda at all. So I know that from the phone records, yes, he does know Amanda Plast. In fact, Gibbons knew from those phone records that there were nine calls between Dennis and Amanda. Dennis had called Amanda five times, just a month before the murder.

I said, hey, can we go to a police station? He said, no, no, I got something I got to do. I noticed him light up a cigarette, and he's smoking on a cigarette. And now I'm thinking, wow, maybe I can get DNA off the cigarette that he's smoking. Although Gibbons had arrested Rosa Roman a year prior, Because he had never been convicted of a felony, his DNA was never entered into the national database. Gibbon says Rosa Roman didn't want to talk to him that day and began to walk away, but not before he tossed the cigarette he was smoking on the sidewalk.

Meanwhile, I told my partners, go to my cart, get a paper bag, give me some rubber gloves. Then it sees that because he keeps looking back. My partners come back with rubber gloves, he sees me put him on, he sees that paper bag, He sees me reach down and put that inside that bag. Two days later, Dennis Rosa Roman is sitting in an interview room at the Westfield Police Department. So your first name is Dennis, right? Engaging in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse with investigators. I'm going to go right doing this at all, but I'm going to understand.

I'm trying to save my life here. Outside his home, Dennis Rosa Roman appears to be acting cool and calm with detectives. until he sees them pick up his cigarette butt off the street. Clearly he's concerned because not long after they leave, he calls Lieutenant Ronald Gibbons. After seeing me take that cigarette butt, he's now blowing my phone up, hey, you and I got to talk.

You say you really need to talk to today? Yeah, am I seriously? Where they want him to start when they meet with the cameras rolling is very simple. Does he know Amanda Plas? You knew her. I met her. I didn't know her that long, but I knew her of her.

You know her first name? Amanda. How much before? About a week or two before she got killed. Yeah. He didn't know Amanda at all, and then he comes around to say that, okay, I did know Amanda, but I would sell her weed. I met her by Amy Dada and Tennessee and Jamie.

Okay. You know what I was that? So I've seen her, you know, I can get some blood. Throughout party. I've never said, I've never said. As Dennis is talking, he notices detectives checking out his sneakers. What in my shoes? What he wears into the station that particular day is this black AirMax shoe.

And we took the aha moment to say, you know what, can you take off your shoe and I'm going to take a picture of your shoe? I'm sorry. Because the crime scene itself has imprint, in blood. The print that you found on the seam, what size was that? What size was that? That was a size 7.5 Nike shoe. And what size is the shoe that we're looking at? This is a size 7.5 Nike shoe.

Remember, detectives have had no luck matching those bloody shoe prints to previous suspects. So according to Gibbons, this is potentially damning if confirmed. But still not as conclusive as a DNA match to what was found under Amanda's fingernails. So Gibbons says they get Rosa Roman to agree to a DNA. mouth swab. Just, you know, your mouth, you can rub that inside of your lip. It's going to do the other side. Gibbon says he wants Rosa Roman directly tested in case that cigarette butt sample might somehow be contaminated.

Doing great. There's a really big difference between you thinking, hey, I think we got our guy and you lining it up with the evidence. This is a matter of facts. So the day that just all happened, what happened that day? So Rosa Roman starts telling detectives his version of what happened the day Amanda was killed. I brought her some maid. Did she call you like that thing?

Yeah, she called me that day. She said, yo, he didn't need me a dime bag. She was not the one that came to the door. The guy over the door, he just said, yo, give me that, and that's it. And I, what about my way? What Dennis says is that this other guy was at the apartment.

I didn't bother saying anything to the guy. The guy looked a suspect. Like, he looked suspicious. He answers detectives questions about what he says the man look like. I'm six feet, so what you say? Five. 10 maybe.

He's tall than you. He's taller than me. He has like dirty bondage hair, which is white. He has 70, 1, 190 the most, almost 100 pounds. And goes on to describe what he claims he heard while outside the apartment. I'm listening to this guy's like, I want my money. I didn't need you this for no reason.

Why would you do this to me? That was the guy's voice. Yeah. You're asking him questions about the description of the man who made these comments from inside the apartment. Why are you asking him about that? Because I want to lock him into a story. Will you be consistent with that story or you go on another tangent? So the guy says something to her like, I want my money.

I didn't do this. I want my money. I didn't do this for nothing. For nothing. Great. Did you hear her voice? No, I didn't. I didn't hear nothing.

Rosa Roman is consistent. Even though Gibbon says he is convinced Rosa Roman is making up his story. That's all about everything I know and I can't say no more or no less. I'm saying? You're very helpful. You know what? Not too many people have told us that he saw the guy there, you know? So that's you, you, you're aces with me, you know?

I didn't have enough to arrest him at this point. I had to allow him to leave. Thank you very much. One interview ends. But Rosa Roman isn't done answering questions. Two days later, this picture is inside our apartment. You ever seen this?

It's a photo of that whiteboard. What will Rosa Roman have to say when he's shown his name is on it? And she right here that says Dennis was here. Dennis, thank you very much for coming in. All right, I'm just. And you've been very cooperative with it. We appreciate that.

Dennis Rosa Roman agrees to another interview. I wish I do more to help you guys. Repeating the story, detectives say they don't believe that he never entered Amanda Plas's apartment the day of her murder after he claimed some man answered her door. I'm going to hear recently. They're like, well, she's busy right now, and I guess him, he shuts the door dumb hard on my face, and that's it.

It's like, okay, this guy's mad, and I'm about to leave. Like, do-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And I laugh. You know what I'm saying? But Rosa Roman says that was long enough for the man to recognize him. I feel like this guy is just going to run into me one day and just like trying to stay done me or hurt me or something. And that's what I'm going to peel my ass to the police station.

Like, yeah, is that because he saw you that day? Like, this guy knows what I look like. But what Rosa Roman doesn't know is that Gibbons is expecting critical evidence to the case to come back at any moment, the results from his DNA swab. You were asking about this picture right now. I want to see. So before that happens, Gibbons confronts Rosa Roman for the first time about that all-important whiteboard where it says Dennis was here. This picture is inside our apartment.

You ever seen this? I'm seeing it. We said the first time I'm seeing it. And then, well, how about this? This white boy that's in the back room. And she right here that says Dennis was here. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do remember that.

I wrote your name on that. You wrote your name with that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I wrote my name on that. So he's admitting to you that that's his name on the whiteboard. You've told me all this time you've never been in an apartment, and now I got you in there. So you signed Dennis was here, right? You didn't know for the date, no, I didn't, I don't know.

I don't know. Yeah. But you remember this dry waste board? Yeah, I do. Remember? Where was the dry race board? That was, um, and the back of, you know, the, you know, the, door right when you come in.

Yeah. I'm right there. As he is confronted with the evidence, he shapeshifts. He manages to keep changing his story to try to ameliorate the facts in front of him. There are certain kind of people who can make up things on the fly and change their narrative based on the clues that are being given to them. You say you never been inside a place. Well, I have been in her house, but like, I just don't want people to, like, look at me like if I'm a murder.

So now this is a first thing. first time that he actually puts himself in the apartment. But you wouldn't have a part of it. How many other times did you've been inside? Twice. Two times, that's it. And we're waiting. To bring her weed and smoke the ball and sign this.

So the room that you were in were that back room, the kitchen and the back room, that's about it. The back room, who's where the whiteboard was. So what are you putting together at this point? I'm putting together at this point that he, in fact, had not only been in that back room, he'd also been in the kitchen at some point where the crime occurred. Remember, Amanda had told friends she suspected someone had broken into her apartment.

And Dennis says she had asked him about that. You said that Amanda approached you brought somebody break into her place yet. She asked me like, oh, somebody came into my house. Do you guys know? And I was like, well, I really don't know. Like, I don't know what to tell you. Now Gibbon suspects that someone was Rosa Roman. Then, a few minutes later, a huge development.

The detectives get called to leave the interrogation room. How much longer is this going to take? Five minutes. Outside, they get the news the DNA results are in. Rosa Roman is a match for what was found under Amanda's fingernails. They soon drop that bombshell on him directly. The DNA that was found under her fingernails connects you to her. You know what? It doesn't just get there.

Dennis is now thinking in his mind, how do I get out of this? And what he tells them next totally flips the story on its head. He now claims he tried to save Amanda. I know the . And I try to save her life. What's he trying to do here? He's trying to create a situation of why we have his DNA, why his DNA is possibly on her.

He's casting himself almost as the hero in this. Yes, he is. But why don't you tell us everything to happen? I know the murder. That's all I know. I can't give you no more. I'm sorry. That's me. I want a lawyer. I want a lawyer. Okay. Gibbon says asking for a lawyer stops the interrogation room recording immediately. So you don't see the scuffle that he says breaks out when detectives handcuff Rosa Roman and place him under arrest. You don't have to be aggressive with me. You didn't have to be that.

And then they have him booked. He's charged with first-degree murder. This is over two years after Amanda was killed. They tell you we are making an arrest. Yep. What did you think? Finally. Finally. You know, you always wonder why, why, why.

Dennis, though, is admitting nothing. What are you trying to pin me for this murder too? My DNA may be on her body, my DNA may be the house, but you guys really don't know what went down. But after he's transported from the Westfield Police Department to Chickapie, He's about to explain. He demanded to speak to myself and Watson again. So you, he didn't come the door.

You actually went inside. I went inside. I barged it. Was the door open? The door was locked. As Rosa Ruman tells them the newest version of his story, he now claims when he hears the commotion inside a man his apartment, he rushes in and fights the man he says was trying to kill her.

What do you see when you get to the kitchen? I see the guy on top of her. When you say he, he says, he says, He was on top of her. Where was she at? She was on the floor. What are you doing? I'm tussing with the guy trying to get the knife out of his hand and he's just like thrusting

it, thrusting it and thrusting it forward towards me. And I'm like trying to back up and I try to like grab Amanda and she scratched me. She scratched me. She scratched me. Yeah, she got some skin off with me. But that's because I was trying to save her. That's right. Rosa Roman now claims he tried to save Amanda's life.

This is the key to his new story, his explanation for why his DNA is under Amanda's fingernails even though he says he didn't kill her. And after that, me and him were tussling and the guy punches me in the jaw and I run out the door. And that's what his story was, that this guy is now following him around town. He's now being threatened by this guy because this guy doesn't want the truth to come out. What do you tell you? You snitch on me, I'm gonna kill you.

Just like that, like I know I killed her and that's it. It's done. But now Rosa Roman has to tell that story in court. The trial of the man accused of killing 20-year-old Amanda Plas getting underway today in Springfield. And he says he can identify who Amanda's killer is. Amanda Plas' parents sat hand in hand with justice for Amanda bracelets on as they waited for the murder trial of their 20-year-old daughter to begin. I think I broke down more so in the court. just looking at him.

It's kind of hard to describe how it felt to see him for the first time. It's like a fever dream. Like, is this really happening? But my mind was not on him. My mind is on my sister. When I was selected for the jury, it was surreal. It was definitely a bit of,

oh my God, what am I in for? The home that Amanda lived in was two houses from where my mother grew up and my grandmother lived. It just became very personal. The evidence in this case will show that on Friday, August 26, 2011, Amanda Plas was brutally murdered in her home. Ms. Plas was getting ready to go to work when the defendant came into her apartment while she was getting ready and stabbed her six times.

Prosecutors lay out their case against Dennis Rosa Roman. There are the bloody footprints in his shoe size, his palm print on the broken window, and his DNA under Amanda's fingernails. They argue that Dennis, and only Dennis, committed this crime. One set of bloody footprints. One major male DNA profile under the both her right hand and left hand fingernails. One killer. One defendant. They literally took us from A to B to C to D.

They laid out every single piece of evidence. They correlated every piece of evidence to him. In addition to the physical evidence, prosecutors also use Dennis' own words against him. Oh, yeah, I do remember that. I wrote my name on that. Each time he's confronted with evidence, he changes his story to fit the evidence.

I think it was important for them to see the three interviews because it showed Dennis as agreeing to some of the facts, denying some of the facts, and then coming around and changing the stories repeatedly. But while the prosecution says the evidence proves Dennis's guilt, the defense argues that it isn't what it seems. He was in her apartment when Amanda Plask was killed. He did not do it a tough. He knows the guy who did that. The last story he told was that he was there with another man, and he saw the other man kill Amanda, but he will never give the name

because he was afraid the killer would kill his family. And he tells him how many times he's afraid for himself. He's afraid for his family. Charge me, I'm not giving up his name. My name pops up, meaning if they capture him, if my name pops up, he's going to kill me. Dennis' version of events kept changing over those three police interviews. In his final one, Dennis had a new detail for detectives, that the alleged killer was none other than his own drug dealer.

Your dealer went to her house? Yeah. Your dealer? My dealer. Do two of you walking out us together? Yeah. He had said he was there because he had given Amanda pot and she had not paid. So he said that the drug dealer killed Amanda, and he sawed.

I'm like, yo, why are you doing this? I'm going to get you your money. And I try to grab her, and she, like, grabs my arm, and he just keep going and going and going and going. What do you mean he's going and going? He's stabbing her? He keeps continuously stabbing her. She's just clashing the floor after I separated her.

Think she was dead? I know she was dead. I was just thinking to myself like, how do I get myself out of this? The defense strategy was basically that the police should look further. They continually brought up other people to say, well, it could have been them, or it was them, or it was this, or just to try to have a sense of doubt. After eight days of testimony, the fate of Dennis Rosa Roman now rests with the jury. When we retired to the jury room to deliberate, we took a photo of Amanda. It was a close-up of her face with her smile, and we hung that in the jury room just so we could remember why we were there and what this was all about.

It was hard. You don't ever want to think of your best friend going through something that awful, and that was her final moments. And then bringing that into the trial, it was just... It's terrible. It's terrible. Until this day, it's just, there's no words. After only five hours of deliberation, the jury reaches a verdict. We were sitting in the DA's office in the break room,

and next thing you know, you're here running down the hall. That the jury came back. Breaking news this hour, a guilty verdict today in the Amanda Plas murder trial. The jury today found Dennis Rosa Romand guilty of first-degree murder. We had a couple jurors who weren't quite sure. One of them wanted to review a bunch of evidence again, and his commentary the whole time was, look at him, he's lying, he keeps changing his answers. And we very quickly came to a unanimous decision that Dennis was guilty.

When that moment you felt relief, definite relief. Now I can put an end to this chapter. Despite a guilty verdict, there's still the unanswered question hanging over this case. And that's why did Dennis Rosa Roman kill a man? in the first place. Dennis Rosa Roman has been found guilty of the murder of Amanda Plas. But the one mystery that still remains is motive. I don't know why.

There's only one person who knows why. And he never spoke, so that's definitely the hardest of it. There wasn't a bad bone in that child's body. She never did anything wrong to anybody. Lieutenant Gibbons has developed his own theory as to why he believes Dennis Rosa Roman murdered Amanda. He says he learned during the investigation that there was a bag of marijuana

inside Amanda's apartment left behind by someone else. Gibbon says investigators were never able to find that bag and suspects Dennis broke in looking to steal it. Dennis is a low-level dealer in the neighborhood. My theory is that he wanted to steal that weed that was in the apartment.

And Amanda just was a victim of circumstances that she happened to be there when he arrived. Before Rosa Roman is sentenced, a man's mother, surrounded by family, tearfully addresses the court. In August 26, 2011, my world was forever changed. My change does not end here, but my hearing begins.

I think at that point, it was finally my time to tell him, you took something precious from this world, and I hope you never see the light of it. again. There is no amount of time that will ever bring Amanda back. I would like to ask for to hand out the highest sentence possible of life without parole. It's the justice Michelle Penna has spent more than five years fighting for. Ork is here by sentence you to the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction

for the term of your natural life without the possibility of parole. As you look at him and you see that he's getting life without parole, what emotions are going to through you at that time. It was a relief knowing that we were finally at another closing point. Did you feel like justice had been served? No, justice will never be served because she's dead and he's not. As for those officers who snapped those photos of Amanda's body at her most vulnerable moment, the mayor of Chiquipee released a written apology. Michelle also reached a resolution in the lawsuit she filed. Plas's family sued the city of Chiquipay and the police department. The lawsuit was settled for $110,000.

Michelle continued her fight and helped pass Amanda's law. The bill bans first responders from taking and sharing unauthorized pictures of crime victims. For an officer to want in that moment to take a picture of a scene like that, it makes my stomach turn. My mom wanted to make it known that you're never doing that again. Today, Michelle keeps Amanda's memory alive by sharing her story with college students. This is about the path that I have taken. The path that has helped me to my healing process. I want people to know that.

The grief never goes away. But dealing with it or trying to deal with it or put a band-aid on it enough to get you through every day is what you have to do. Thank you again. Thank you so much. Oh, these are great. That's her and Brandon. Brandon is my son. See just how the happiness on his face and her big smile.

I have always said that Amanda passing kind of saved my life because I knew that I wanted to make her proud. She really helped me become the woman who I am today. who I am today. She was just a very kind person and wanted to help the world be better. And that's just something I hope everyone can try to do, you know. Do you feel like she's with you now? Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. All the time.

If you could have one more minute with her, one more second to say something to her. What she always said and what she always did. Keep your face to the sun, never look back at your shadows, just like her precious sunflowers. Dennis Rosa Roman appealed his conviction, but it was denied. And David, even though he was sentenced to life without parole, there's still a chance he could walk free one day as early as 2028. A Massachusetts court has ruled that it's unconstitutional to sentence offenders under the age of 21 to life without parole.

Rosa Roman was 20 at the time of Amanda's murder. Her family tells 2020 they plan to fight this new ruling. That's our program for tonight. I'm David Muir. And I'm Deborah Roberts. From all of us here at ABC News and 2020, good night.