Dateline NBC - Lost in Sin City

Episode Date: July 28, 2021

Theresa Insana was smart, fashionable and full of faith. But life took a fatal turn when the girl who grew up in Niagara Falls moved to Las Vegas to pursue a career as a casino sales executive. Josh Mankiewicz reports in this Dateline classic. Originally aired on NBC on June 17, 2011.

I just knew something horrible happened. She was a small-town girl with big-time dreams, and they were all coming true in Vegas. A career at a casino and a fiancé. Then, she vanished. I remember going to church every day and saying, please let us find her. Days later, police did.

Murdered. Blood on her car. A struggle at her house. And clues from a camisole. What had happened? We can't rest until it's solved. Her friends will not quit. Her parents will not stop. I am a pain. And I am a nuisance. But I am a mother. Can Dateline's own team of investigators help? Nothing is missing from this house. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Josh Mankiewicz with Lost in Sin City.

Las Vegas. Every year, the bright lights draw millions. Some go looking for the promise of an easy fortune, or for those secrets that supposedly always stay there. And some people go to get lost. If you want to disappear in America, the shadows thrown by those bright lights can hide you. And then there are those who do not want to disappear, but they do anyway. Those are people like Teresa Insana.

There one day, and gone the next. She was going to make the big time. Teresa's parents, Joe and Anne-Marie. You guys ever worry about this little girl so far from home? Me and my sister were very worried about her. Sure I was worried, but I also knew she was going to do good things. Doing good things. It was a lesson Teresa Insana had learned well as the second of three children in a deeply religious, tightly knit family in Niagara Falls, New York.

And from those earliest days of childhood, Teresa's best friend was always her doting father. Their love was deliciously obvious, spelled out in whipped cream and icing on the extravagant birthday cakes he made for her nearly every year of her life. Teresa loved it. She was, of course, my sweetheart. He was her friend. I was her friend, but I was the disciplinarian. Not that she was bad. So she was the disciplinarian and you were what, her co-conspirator? No. I was her enabler. No. Put it that way. The enabler fed Teresa's love of beauty and fashion, giving Daddy's little girl everything that she could want and that he could afford. And then more.

She loved shopping and I think probably spent a lot of money buying clothes. Teresa's friends from childhood, Jennifer Civilletto and Grace Carducci. She never left her house without looking perfect. Had the nicest clothes and she always looked great. Teresa bought many of those clothes herself, working several jobs as a teen. And beauty and fashion were but small facets of a much larger and meaningful life. She was friendly, loving, kind, incredibly smart. An A student, she studied psychology in college, but she was also an excellent dancer.

And coupled with her size, she was barely five feet tall. That skill made her perfect for another of her passions. We tried out for the cheerleading team together, and Theresa felt so bad that she made the team, and I didn't. She told me that she wasn't going to partake in the team. She was a loyal friend. Yes, she was. Volunteered to give up something like that. Yes. She was not going to be a cheerleader because I couldn't be one, so very loyal.

After college, Teresa returned to Niagara Falls and a postgraduate life of leisure. She was home and she was living with me, but she was going out at night, coming home real late, sleep until noon. I says, honey, it's not gonna happen. You're gonna do something. So Teresa did. She packed her bags and headed for Las Vegas. And along with her went Melissa Madge, who'd grown up next door to the Insanas and remained the best of friends with Teresa. We both fell in love with it as soon as we got there. So we immediately started on the job hunt when we got there.

Within days, Teresa had a job in the Electric City, not dancing on a chorus line, but working in sales at the Rio. Melissa soon found work at Harrah's. The two girls from Niagara Falls got their own two-bedroom apartment. Teresa's parents came to visit. Did she like Las Vegas? She loved it. She loved it.

It was excitement. He says, wow. I'll never forget it because Teresa was so, so Teresa. And here she is with a cigarette in her ear and her Starbucks coffee. And she's running down the hallways at the Rio. And I says, oh my God, she was so happy. Teresa's career at the Rio was off and running, and soon she met a guy named Jeff. He bought her a dog, and they moved into a house together. They got engaged, but then Jeff broke it off just before the wedding. Teresa was crushed, but she had moved on, reuniting with her best friends in the summer of 2004 and standing up for her friend Grace at Grace's wedding.

We just really were so happy to be all together, and it was a good day. But a couple of months after, by the fall of 2004, Vegas seemed to have lost some of its luster. Teresa was thinking hard about moving back home to Niagara Falls and maybe going to grad school. Then the Rio offered Teresa a bigger job with better pay. It absolutely changed the course of her life. I was really, really upset because I wanted her to come back home and I thought it was going to be the best thing for her. And going home might have been.

Staying in Vegas, clearly, was not. Because a month after her promotion, on October 27, 2004, Teresa Insana failed to report for work at the Rio. She was gone for a day, then for another. So co-workers, including her childhood friend Melissa, went over to her house. Inside, no Teresa, just her dog and her keys, her cell phone, her purse, and her car. And on the car's bumper, an unmistakable spot of blood. I think at that point is when I became panic-stricken and was like, something is wrong. Something is definitely wrong.

Where was Teresa? What had happened? And was she still alive? Coming up, the investigation begins. Police find more blood in the bathroom. Not Teresa and Sam. Not Teresa and Sam. When Dateline continues.

In a quiet suburb less than 10 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, concern and confusion suddenly ruled. For two days, 26-year-old Teresa Insana hadn't shown up at her job as a sales executive at the Rio. Back home in Niagara Falls, New York, her father, with whom Teresa spoke nearly every day, hadn't been able to reach her. I just call and get the message machine, you know. She didn't call you back? Didn't call me back, and I says, what the heck's happening? Coworkers, including her friend Melissa Madge, had finally gone to Teresa's house to check on her and found Teresa's dog, cell phone, purse, and car. And that frightening spot of blood on the bumper of Teresa's car. You've known her all your life and you show up at her house and

she's gone, but all her stuff's still there. I think at that point it was like incomplete shock. You know, where was she? Las Vegas Metro Police responded, and patrol quickly made a call that reached Vegas Homicide. A squad that included Detective Marty Wildman and Detective Sergeant Mike McGrath was soon on the scene. We looked at the blood smear on the rear bumper of the car, and then we said, everybody're taking this and we start go through the house methodically processing it as a homicide scene basically it looked to detectives as if Teresa had been attacked and the clues found throughout the house supported that on the stairs a footprint too large to be Teresa's. And this.

We saw a small little brass or metal ring. Steps away in a half bath, detectives found a towel rack missing from the wall. And two more spots of blood. One near the baseboard. Another on the mirror. Analysis of those two blood droplets from the same person? Same person, full male profile. So not Teresa and Sam?

Not Teresa and Sam. Then there was that blood on the bumper of Teresa's car. That would later turn out to be Teresa's blood, not an assailant's. Detectives prepared themselves for what might be in the car's trunk. But when it was opened, they found only a bit more blood and mud. Then, inside the car, police found the driver's seat in an unusual position. The seat is pushed all the way to the back. And she's like barely five feet tall. She's a very small woman. Based on this evidence, a theory was beginning to take shape.

A theory that involved an attacker entering the home, possibly through the unlocked backsliding door. Some kind of struggle on the stairs. A struggle that then spilled into that half-bathroom where a towel rack was torn from the wall. And where Teresa's attacker lost blood. But no matter what exactly had happened in the bathroom, detectives believed the struggle had ended with Teresa's murder. Then the loading of Teresa's body into the trunk of her own car, the body's disposal somewhere, and then in a bizarre twist, the killer returning Teresa's car to her own house.

It's extremely unusual, is it not, for a killer to return to a crime scene like that? Yes. Because usually people commit the crime and then they want to get away. Absolutely. You obviously had thorough knowledge of what she was doing, who was living there,

and then the fact that you'd be safe to come back. By removing her body by some time. So that's the time that we believe that he can do all the things that he needed to do in the house. And what he apparently did in the house was to start cleaning up, as evidenced by paper towels, trash bags, and spray bottles left in Teresa's kitchen. How often are you at the scene of a homicide where the killer tried to clean up after himself or herself? It's not that often, and when it does occur, it's very bush league. This was different?

This was different. It was methodical. It was slow. It was thorough. He spent a long time cleaning up. So who would know so much about Teresa that they would also know they wouldn't be discovered if they took the time to clean the house? And when had all this occurred? Detectives learned that Teresa had last been seen at work at the Rio on Tuesday. That was two days before friends had gone looking for her. She was a good citizen, and she'd gone to vote at a church just a few blocks from her house at about 5.30 p.m. Then

she made some phone calls, speaking to her mom back in Niagara Falls around 6.30 p.m. And what'd she say to you in that conversation? She said, I'm tired, and I'm going to have my macaroni and cheese, and I'm going to rest. And I'll talk to you tomorrow. But an hour later, at 7.30 p.m., when Teresa's cousin Angela called, the phone went unanswered. So we had basically an hour window between the mother's phone call and Angela trying to call her and not getting her. So there really wasn't an explanation other than she'd already been attacked for why Angela's phone calls weren't being answered. So police believe Teresa Insana was attacked between 6 30 and 7 30 Tuesday evening. It was now Thursday. Her attacker had a nearly 48-hour head start.

As word spread, Teresa's best friends couldn't believe what they were hearing. I think at that moment, I just knew something horrible happened. Friends talked with police, hoping to provide clues in Teresa's disappearance. Investigators started reading Teresa's diary, which was found in the house. And Grace Carducci remembered something Teresa had told her when Grace was visiting six months prior. One morning we got up and we were drinking coffee and she was like, I can't put my finger on it, but sometimes Grace, I'll go to work and I'll come home and my DVD player will be on, or there'll be a different station on the television then from what I left it on. Did she say anything was taken?

Nothing was taken. And she was like, I just have this feeling that somebody's in my house. Do you know if she had her locks changed? I don't believe that she did. Detectives followed up every lead. Canine units were called in. As police put it, the whole zip code was turned upside down. But experience told the detectives that any news they received about

Teresa was unlikely to be good news. We were just waiting for the call. That someone had found a body? Yes. Days dragged by. I remember going to church every day and saying, please let us find her. I don't know what I was hoping for, but I just wanted us to find her. And then, nearly a week after detectives believed Teresa Insana was killed, came the news police were waiting for, and that Teresa's family and friends were dreading. Coming up, Dateline's unsolved case squad with a dramatic theory of the crime. When Dateline continues. Six days after Teresa Insana failed to show up for work at the Rio in Las Vegas, her father Joe was reciting Catholic prayers, marking All Saints Day.

I'll never forget it, because I'm sitting there praying this litany of the saints. And I turned to Amory and I said, Teresa's going to be found today because today she became a saint too. And that very day, Teresa's parents and her best friends received a call from Las Vegas Metro Homicide Detective Marty Wildman. He called me and said, Grace, we have Teresa. I know it's sad news, but we have her body, and I just didn't want you to suffer anymore.

It was just awful, the most awful thing. Teresa Insana's body had been found just three and a half miles from her home, near a golf course. Her killer had wrapped her body in towels and blankets, carried Teresa down a steep, rocky embankment, and left her in a large culvert in standing water. An autopsy showed Teresa Insana had died by strangulation, and possibly she'd been sexually assaulted,

although the medical examiner said the evidence was not conclusive. We thought that, hey, maybe this is, you know, it's an act of anger by someone that was mad at Teresa. Was it staged? Was somebody trying to make it look like a rape, even though the point of it was something else? Very good possibility. And with the discovery of Teresa's body, three things were immediately clear to detectives.

First, that tiny piece of metal found on the stairs of Teresa's apartment. It was apparently torn from the camisole she was wearing at the time of her murder. Secondly, the blankets around her body came from her home. But police believe the rope and duct tape used to bind the body did not. It had been brought to the house by her killer. And finally, that blood in the bathroom matched a new spot of blood found on Teresa's camisole. It also came, police believed, from the killer. Well, we've got a bad guy and we've got a bad guy that, you know, left a print.

This has to be left by the person who attacked Teresa. Absolutely. But whose blood was it? With the backlog at the Vegas crime lab, DNA test results were still months away. So in those first days after Teresa's body was found, detectives began looking at what they could learn from other evidence, like where her body was dumped and whether they were looking for a killer or killers. How many people committed this crime? I believed it just from our investigation that it was a one-person crime. Where we found Teresa makes that a little bit iffy, only because it was rough terrain.

And I believe that it was more than one person. I think that based upon where the body was found, 25 feet of rocks walking down, that... You'd have to have some help. I would think, because we walked down there to view the body, and it was iffy walking down there with a notebook in our hand during the day. And this is the nighttime. And carrying a body.

Carrying a body. Teresa Insana had been dead for several years when Las Vegas Metro Homicide granted unprecedented access to Dateline's unsolved case squad. Sharing information from the files of an open case with our experts. Dwayne Stanton, retired homicide detective from Washington, D.C., investigated Chandra Levy's murder. Yolanda McCleary,

then a crime scene investigator in Las Vegas and a model for the character on the hit series CSI. And John Lewin, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney, specializing in cold case murders. How many people do you think committed this murder? I think by where the body was located in the ravine with all the rocks, I'm going to support two. I think it's one person committing the murder, and then I agree clearly someone had help. What happened inside that house?

One possibility. We know for a fact that Teresa at some point was on these steps. I think what Teresa attempted to do was to secrete herself inside of the bathroom away from her attacker or attackers. Once inside of the bathroom, there was a towel rack that's been removed, and as you can see, the bracket is missing as well. Yolanda, turn around if you don't mind. I'd like the towel rack that's on this wall.

Then I attempt to grab you, and you're holding on to that towel rack, and then I think when the towel rack probably came out of the wall, the person that was behind her, pulling on her, gets hit in the face. Or in the head or someplace on their body. Thus causing the blood splatter on the mirror and on the baseball. And our team agrees.

The elements of the crime, as well as moving Teresa's body out of her home, using her car for transport, and returning to clean up the crime scene, together strongly suggest this was no random murder by a stranger. Has this person ever committed murder before? Because clearly some of the things that they do show some sophistication. I don't think that the person has committed murders before. I think they watch a lot

of murder movies and they think they know how to do it. And unfortunately for them, they thought of things that were much more advanced. Let's move the car. Let's make sure that we get the body out of the house. But they forget the basics. Her purse and cell phone are sitting there. Well, and we know that there's not another crime involved, for instance, let's say robbery, because nothing is missing from this house. Nothing is missing other than Teresa. It really limits your pool of potential suspects. You have to look at who has a grudge, who stands to benefit.

Who doesn't like her. Who doesn't like her. Coming up, police have a date with the ex, Teresa's former fiancé. Did you have something to do with this? When Dateline continues. Four days before Teresa Insana's body was found on that terrible Monday morning in November 2004, it was her co-workers from the Rio who first went to her home to check on Teresa. And then, when they couldn't find her, alerted police.

Among them, Teresa's lifelong friend and former roommate, Melissa Madge. I couldn't wrap my mind around who would really want to hurt her. Police ask you if she was involved in anything illegal. Right, no. They ask about boyfriends. They did. And in fact, Teresa's former fiancé was one of those co-workers who were the first to enter the home that day. His name is Jeff Fenton, and he once lived in that house with Teresa. But he also broke her heart just months earlier by breaking off their engagement right before the wedding. I want to do everything I can so that, you know, you guys know that I had nothing to do with this. When questioned by Las Vegas police, Jeff Fenton said he had played no part in Teresa's murder.

He said he tried not to touch anything in the house or garage, where Teresa's car was still parked. I said, I don't even want to open the trunk. I mean, the whole, I was so completely freaked out about the whole thing. I mean, I was really scared that I was going to find something. Police needed to know as much as possible about Jeff, a man who seemed to be a bit of a mystery to most, a then 30-year-old divorced market analyst for Caesars Entertainment Properties, which included the Rio.

He and Teresa had gotten engaged just two months after they started dating in 2002. Shocking to many of her friends and family members. Does Jeff seem like a good guy to you? I really believe at first he was quite a nice, wonderful man. It's who she wanted. He asked for my blessing. I gave it to him. But those closest to the couple saw something odd in Jeff.

He seemed to be constantly under the weather. He came for a week, and every day he had an ailment. God, God can strike me dead. He had always complained a lot of headaches and that he was stressed. And he had suffered panic attacks a couple of times. He stayed around home a lot. And Teresa, who'd been very social, would stay around home to take care of him. She's certainly not going to go out socially if her fiancé is homesick.

Jeff and Teresa were engaged for a year. Then, just five weeks before the wedding was set to be held back in Niagara Falls, Jeff had abruptly called it off. He basically came to her on one Sunday morning and said, I can't do this. And Teresa was very taken aback and completely devastated at that time. Teresa was heartbroken, as evidenced by this entry in her diary. I have never felt so crushed in all of my life. My life is in uproar. I still wish that this is all a horrible dream, and one day I'll wake up and everything will be okay. I have no real answers, nothing to go on, just my new white dress hanging in the closet for me to stare at and wonder.

I think she was just so sad. And, you know, that was when she shared that maybe there were some signs that she should have seen before. What did she say the signs were? She said that there was a girl's name on her caller ID, someone that she had worked with. And I think there was some thought there that maybe there was something going on. And apparently there was some thought there that maybe there was something going on. And apparently there was. Shortly after Jeff Fenton broke up with Teresa, he began dating that very woman whose name had been found on the caller ID.

Another co-worker at the Rio named Melissa Ball. Teresa ever expressed how uncomfortable it was to work with both her ex-boyfriend and her sort of romantic rival in the same office? It wasn't an easy situation for her. Every day she had to go into work and see the man that broke her heart and then have to look at Melissa. She always would say to me, I'm trying to be a better person and not allow it to bother me. And as the months passed, Jeff and Teresa were at least civil to one another. One weekend, just two weeks before the murder, Jeff agreed to take care of Teresa's dog,

and he slept over at her house when Teresa had to work overnight at the hotel. But on the day police believed Teresa was murdered, she did tell her friend something that made investigators pay close attention. She had come to my office that day and we were chatting and she had mentioned that she had exchanged some words with Jeff. Like I confronted him and, you know, I said this to him and that was really it. What was the argument about? I honestly, I don't really recall. I just sort of, you know, tried to be the supporting friend and say, you know, don't worry about him, just ignore him, just move on with your day. Did you have something to do with this? When he was questioned by police, Jeff said that tiff never actually happened. We had a fight on Monday. No verbal argument with another co-worker says, oh, they had an argument on Monday. No, no argument Monday.

There was another reason detectives were suspicious. Teresa's body had been found just two miles from Jeff Fenton's apartment. But police soon learned he had an airtight alibi. That evening, Jeff and his new girlfriend were buying a car, and police believe they were at the car dealership during the exact hour when Teresa was murdered. This whole process just seems so unreal to me. Still, detectives thought Jeff Fenton, the man who'd had panic attacks and was described as highly stressed, didn't seem stressed at all by the murder of his former fiancée. It's just really upsetting. I mean, I'm upset. Well, here's the thing that I don't understand.

I mean, I get upset. I'm upset. Yeah. Okay? You, right now, to me me don't appear upset. You're like this, flatline. Okay, and you're saying, watch me, I'm really upset. You know, why is that that I'm getting that from you is just nothing's bothering you?

I just don't think I've been able to process everything that's happened. One possible reason for Jeff Fenton's flat affect? He was taking anxiety medication. Another? He had just lost his former fiancée and was confused by all the questions because he was not involved in her murder. Still, police kept looking

at those close to Teresa as they searched for answers. Coming up... There's no way in hell he would ever hurt that woman. The new girlfriend makes an entrance and a dramatic exit.

How many people have you seen get up in the middle of the polygraph and run out of the room? It's unusual to do what she did. What will the unsolved case squad make of this when Dateline continues? November 2004, Teresa Insana came home to rest in Niagara Falls, New York. Her friends and family were living with equal measures of agony and bewilderment.

Who had killed Teresa? And why? Teresa was such a good person. She didn't do anything bad to anybody. There would be no reason to kill her. And as their grief settled in, Teresa's former fiancé, Jeff Fenton, was being questioned about the murder. Also questioned was Fenton's new girlfriend, Melissa Ball. She was 23 and worked with Jeff and Teresa at the Rio. I mean, I don't want to scare you or anything, but your name has come up as just a person that we need to talk to. First, Melissa Ball confirmed Jeff's alibi,

saying they were both at that car dealership the evening Teresa was murdered. He was with me all day Tuesday and Tuesday night. He was with his little sister and me Wednesday night. And there's no way in hell he would ever hurt that woman. But Melissa Ball also admitted to police that she did not exactly favor Jeff's decision, just two weeks before the murder, to sleep over at Teresa's house to watch the dog while Teresa stayed at work. It upset me because in their relationship, she made him feel guilty for a

lot of stuff. And I felt like that's what she was doing again. I think the fact that Jeff came over and watched the dog and stayed and slept at Teresa's house was definitely upsetting to Melissa. Even though she's not there at the time? I mean, that's what she's told. You think maybe she thought Teresa really is there? Or she's used an excuse to get Jeff back in the picture, you know, stay over at the house, here's the key. It's just still a tie between Jeff and Teresa that we believe Melissa didn't want.

Especially, thought detectives, a new girlfriend who, as Melissa had days before, learned she was pregnant with Jeff's child. If most murders involve love or money, detectives thought Melissa Ball had reason to worry. After all, Jeff's first marriage ended in divorce. He'd left Teresa just weeks before their wedding, and now Melissa was pregnant and wanted to get married. What woman wouldn't worry? But when Melissa talked to police, they felt her demeanor was not that of someone who was shocked by the apparently random and senseless killing of a co-worker. Did you and this Teresa have some sort of argument or words exchanged on Monday at work? Never?

Never. Here's a woman that she sees every day at work, and she's unconcerned at all. Generally, people are pretty upset. Yes. I mean, you can't imagine the amount of people from the Rio that were calling, wondering if it was someone that was stalking her at the hotel. And she had none of that. She wasn't worried about that.

She wasn't worried about anything. Four months later, Jeff and Melissa would return to Vegas Homicide for polygraph tests. Although the tests are not admissible in court and do not prove that someone committed a crime, here are the findings. When asked if they caused Teresa's death and if they knew Teresa was dead before her body was found, the examiner found both Jeff and Melissa showed deception. But just as interesting was what Melissa did toward the end of the test. She got upset and grabbed her stuff

and she was crying and was out of there. How many people have you seen get up in the middle of a polygraph and run out of the room? Most people stay. It's unusual to do what she did. Tell me if I'm wrong, but generally innocent people want to stay and answer every question.

They want to clear up all the answers. Whatever it takes to convince you, I didn't do it. Though Melissa did at one point seem to sympathize with Teresa's having been jilted by Jeff. I know how I reacted when, you know, boyfriend broke up with me

after a couple months, and I couldn't imagine what she was going through, so I let her go through it. Our team was also interested in how, at another point, Melissa referred to Teresa not by name, but as that woman. There's no way in hell he would ever hurt that woman. This is somebody who worked with Teresa. And obviously, they were both romantic rivals at points in time for Jeff's affections. And okay, she didn't like her. Doesn't mean she killed her.

But what's fascinating, you don't say that woman. It shows a level of detachment and, to me, of anger and hostility that we would think might have existed while she was living. But this woman's been brutally murdered. And yet it still exists. Yeah, that's your response. Of course, people do react in different ways to polygraphs and to news as stunning as that of a murder. Now, as for Jeff, it's what happened after the interview that got our

attention. There's a point during Jeff's interview with police when they leave the room. And so Jeff is just kind of sitting there with his head in his hands. I love it. What's that say to you? I love it. The ending. What it says is, oh my gosh. What have I gotten myself into?

Exactly. Actually, it's the first sense of emotion out of him. It's like 45 minutes, 50 minutes, nothing. That's not necessarily a sign of guilt. Maybe what he's concerned about is he's saying, you know what? I didn't commit this murder, but the more I'm hearing, I got a terrible feeling who might be involved. Right. Coming up, a new development from the crime lab.

Will it mean a new theory about the case? Could this be a murder for hire? Absolutely. Very well. Absolutely could be. Very well could be. A crucial piece of the puzzle when Dateline continues. Because of a backlog of cases, it took more than a year after Teresa Insana's murder for clothes she was wearing at the time of her murder did not come from her former fiancé, Jeff Fenton. It also did not come from the woman who, a month after Teresa's death, became Fenton's wife, Melissa Ball.

When you got the DNA results back, were you guys surprised? I don't think we were necessarily surprised. We thought it was a possibility that it wouldn't be him. It kind of made us lean towards more that Melissa was calling the shots and Jeff might have found out after the fact. You believe Jeff Fenton has something to do with this? I do. I do. That's not his blood. That's a saying. He knows something and his new wife knows something and we just need to find that one person that they know or somebody else knows. Maybe he's not involved. It's a possibility. Just the actions, the interviews, we have a harder time really swallowing that, that he's not involved. It may well be that neither Jeff nor Melissa had any involvement, and to this day, neither has been

charged with any crime. Through his attorney, Jeff Fenton declined our repeated requests for an on-camera interview, and Melissa Ball Fenton did not respond to Dateline's requests for comment. The one thing we know is that there's no prosecutable case right now against Jeff or Melissa. They had an alibi and somebody else's DNA is at the crime scene and on the victim's body. There's not enough probable cause at this junction. You have a very interesting case with a lot of evidence that points certain ways and then a giant missing piece.

I completely buy that there was some tension between Melissa, Jeff, Teresa. There's a big jump from that to murder. Been on enough homicide cases, Josh, that there is no real good reason for any of them. I think the mistake sometimes that people make is when they try to look at motive as being always reasonable, always apparent, always apparent,

always clear. It's not. Could this be a murder for hire? Absolutely. Very well. Absolutely. Could be. Very well could be. Most obvious scenario here is this is somebody that either knew her or was employed by somebody who knew her and wanted her dead. What's it going to take to solve this murder? It's going to take probably a DNA hit on this profile or if somebody actually starts talking. I think Duane will tell you, as a homicide investigator, you want to be good, you want to be thorough. Sometimes your best friend isn't hard work, it's luck. Luck, someone coming forward with information, someone making a mistake. Detectives have run the DNA through the national database. No matches yet, but detectives are still waiting.

You guys fantasize about the moment that you're going to be able to call the Insana family and say, we've made an arrest. That'll be a tremendous day. It would be a day that I hope is before I retire. We'll get what we call a full loaf. That means a full confession out of this guy. He'll have no reason that his blood should have been there. He'll confess. We just need to know who he is.

Detective Wildman retired in 2017, and the question of who killed Teresa Insana remains a mystery. When we sat down with her, Anne Marie Insana was still faithfully placing calls to investigators, refusing to let her daughter's murder be forgotten. How often do you talk to police? About every couple weeks, and I am a pain, and I am a nuisance, but I am a mother. I don't know if it's going to happen in my lifetime or Joe's, but I believe it will happen. High school graduation. Teresa's friends, too, live for the day when an answer will come. And until then, they'll remain as loyal to her memory as she always was to them.

We know that it's not in our hands at this point. It's in God's hands to bring this person to justice, but I will never give up, and I truly believe in my heart of hearts that this case will be solved. Teresa's best friend, her father, died in 2021, never having received those answers. It was clear when we last spoke that there would always be a hole in his heart. God, she was my lifeline.

I loved her so much. I love her now. I feel her essence and presence was so strong. She's still with us today. But I can't talk to her. I can't hold her, I can't kiss her. That's what saddens me the most. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.