Dateline NBC - The Match

Episode Date: July 3, 2019

In this Dateline classic, a high school girl, who was nearly beaten to death in her own home, goes under hypnosis in an attempt to identify her attacker. Andrea Canning reports. Originally aired on NBC on September 7, 2018.Andrea Canning sits down with Brittani Marcell and her mother to catch up on Brittani’s journey to recovery and her hopes for the future. After the Verdict available now only by subscription to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts. LINK: https://apple.co/3WpVyMu

I see her laying there on the floor and I see a person who I've never seen before in my house and I'm looking at him he tells me I'm next while he's reaching for a butcher knife. Terrified. I just walked in, I saw blood everywhere. Her daughter's laying there. A young girl coming home for lunch, getting brutally attacked. Blood on the floor, the shovel, duct tape, also a knife. I truly thought Brittany would die. You wake up from your coma.

I'm just like trying to communicate. She didn't give up. It was a struggle. You're not only the victim in this, you're the witness. It's almost like a nightmare. The detective wanted you to do hypnosis? Your mind is in a completely different phase. Tell me what's happening. It is hurting me.

It's hurting me. The details that she gave... It was unbelievable. She said, you did it. I said, no, you did. Route 66 once stretched across the Southwest from one horizon to the next, going from what America was to what it wanted to be. Cities like Albuquerque, New Mexico, were celebrated stops along the journey. Today, buildings that once lined this part of the iconic highway

have faded and closed as the Cottonwood Mall became the new downtown. The mall was kind of the big hangout. I met my husband at the mall, so absolutely. Yes, so did Catherine. So did I. It's played a pivotal part in our lives. For the Marcel sisters, all six of them, along with their brother Jonathan, the Cottonwood Mall in

Albuquerque was the center of their social lives. And it was people that we went to school with, and so everybody kind of knew everybody. Sister number five, 17-year-old Brittany, worked at a sunglasses kiosk in the atrium. And she's this beautiful blonde girl

with striking blue eyes and a big smile. You were just drawn to her. Life was simple, good. Until Wednesday, September 11, 2008. Brittany, just starting her senior year of high school, made plans to meet her mom, a credit union teller, at home for lunch. I open the door and

I walk in and I saw her favorite pair of red sunglasses down on the floor. Did that mean anything to you? I thought that was really weird. A seemingly trivial detail now burned into Diane's memory because of what she saw next. I see her laying there on the floor. Lying on the floor? On the floor. And she's just bleeding profusely. Then what do you see? I see a person who I've never seen before in my house. And he's holding a shovel. And he walks through my living room, drops the shovel, and walks through the dining room and around to the kitchen.

And I'm looking at him, and he tells me I'm next while he's reaching for a butcher knife. He's going to kill you? Yes. What do you do? I ran out. I'm screaming and yelling. Diane's screams got the attention of a passerby who was brave enough to help. He ran into the house and he yelled back and he said, you need to get those paramedics here real quick. She's going to die. Diane called 911 but stayed outside, certain the attacker was still in her home. I just walked in.

I saw blood everywhere. I'm afraid to go in. I walked in and he was coming after me. He ran to the kitchen. Police and the paramedics were there in minutes. Brittany was taken to the hospital as Diane called her other children. Someone was calling me and saying Brittany got stabbed.

Kat had thought she was in a car accident. We didn't realize what had happened. Yeah, and so I rushed home to my mom. She told me what happened, and I truly thought Brittany would die. The sisters rushed to the hospital, but once there, were met with confused looks. They were like, we don't have a Brittany Marcel here. rushed to the hospital, but once there, were met with confused looks. They were like, we don't have a Brittany Marcel here. Minutes later, detectives arrived and told the Marcel family, for her safety, Brittany was admitted under an assumed name.

We still hadn't understood what happened. I mean, she's under an alias. The police officers rushed us into this private room in the hospital. Putting Brittany under an assumed name may have been a smart move because the family was later told about a mysterious visitor who was trying to get in to see Brittany. While we were in the waiting room, one of the nurses came out and said, do you know that some man just came in to see her?

Who was it? We don't know who it was. You never? We don't know. The man left came in to see her. Who was it? We don't know who it was. You never... We don't know. The man left before he could be identified. Diane had a terrifying thought. Maybe it was Brittany's attacker. I didn't know if this person was watching us from afar.

Did he follow the ambulance? I went into the restroom. I would look at every stall on the back of the doors to make sure nobody was in there or standing on the on the actual commode fear took over fear as brittany teetered on the edge of death her family could only guess as to who attacked her and why we started looking like who's in our lives what strange person is it any of the boyfriends everybody in our family is a natural problem solver and so everybody's trying to formulate ideas of who, how, what, when.

The Marcells were raised to be close and self-sufficient. Their dad, a truck driver, was often away. When he and Diane divorced, she had to go to work. The children looked out for each other. How do you think it shaped Brittany being number five in this big family. She looked up to Kathleen and Kristen and Alicia.

Remind me again, who's the oldest? I am. I think I was kind of like her mom, too. I mean, that's the way it goes in a big family, right? The littlest one has the most moms. Like her older sisters, Brittany was disciplined and hardworking. She was an excellent student. She had a good circle of friends. I think she kind of set herself apart from the popular crowd

rather than was inside it. And I think most of that is because she's very genuine in everything that she does. Brittany was headed for college and hoped one day to be a local TV reporter covering Albuquerque. Very, very driven. She was scheduled to graduate high school early. She wanted to

study journalism. But her mom, Diane, said Brittany hit a rough patch during her junior year in high school. How was Brittany acting? Just rebellious. Normal 17-year-old, how they, you know, get confrontational if you ask them something. Things got so tense for a while, Brittany moved in with her dad. And he wasn't there all the time. So it was perfect for her. This was her sort of mild way of running away from home. A little bit. Right.

But by the start of her senior year, Brittany wanted to come back. That's why she and her mom were meeting for lunch to discuss Brittany's return. Instead, Brittany was attacked. What did the doctors tell you when Brittany was brought to the hospital? They didn't think she would survive. Are you able to see her? We can see her, but she doesn't know we're there. The moment we all walked into the room, everything stopped. Brittany's head was

the size of a basketball, if not bigger. And I don't think any of us really thought, that's Brittany. What goes through your mind when you realize you may never have any moments with your sister again? Like, this could be it. All the moments you missed. You know, like, I didn't tell her I loved her enough. I didn't hold her enough.

She didn't know how much she meant to me. I didn't tell her I appreciated her. My son's not going to see her again. You're having a dress rehearsal for a death that hasn't happened. Who was Brittany's attacker? This just seems so personal. This person seemed like they were

full of rage. Who was Brittany hanging around with? Who might be a suspect? And would he return? The alarm was set constantly. We just never experienced that kind of imminent danger. While the Marcells tried to grasp what happened to Brittany, the police were trying to find out who did it. Albuquerque police detective Jason Morales was the lead investigator.

You've seen a lot of murders in your career. How brutal was this attack in this house? It was very brutal. Morales said Brittany had been hit repeatedly with a shovel so hard it crushed the left part of her skull. So when I got here, the crime van was already parked out front. They had been here for a little while. They're waiting on the condition of the victim, Brittany, to see if she was going to survive or if she's going to die. Morales said the fact that Brittany's purse and sunglasses were found right in the entryway

led him to believe the attacker came up behind her as she entered the house. Did you get the sense that maybe this was a burglary in progress and Brittany just happened to come home? Or did you feel like the perpetrator was someone that Brittany knew? This just seems so personal. It seemed to me at the time that we're looking at somebody that either knew Brittany or knew somebody in the family, or there was something, there was more of a connection to there. The brutal nature of the attack, did that tell you anything? I mean, this person seemed like they were full of rage. It does. We started trying to figure out who was Brittany hanging around with, who might be a suspect, because then really at this point we had no suspect at all, so everybody is.

Morales believed the attack had just started when Brittany's mom arrived. I don't think he was anticipating Diane showing up. The pattern of blood at the scene indicated the attacker actually chased Diane when she fled the house. But stopped for some reason. Maybe, Morales thought, when Diane started screaming. And he panicked. So instead of going out a sliding glass door, whether it was locked or unlocked, he jumps out of a dining room window. And he not through the screen, he jumps through the glass to get out.

Inside the house, Morales found a room full of evidence. So once we were able to go inside, you could see it was pretty violent. There was blood on the floor, the shovel, there was duct tape, and then there was also a knife. A lot of clues. Yes, absolutely. Enough, Morales thought, to solve the case. That is, until he got the lab results. The fingerprints found on the shovel, knife and tape were incomplete.

DNA from a male was found on the shovel and the knife, but it was so intermingled with Brittany's blood, it was impossible to develop an individual profile. But on a shard of broken glass, police found a drop of blood that looked promising because it was pristine. When he jumped out of the window, he cut himself. The blood drop was analyzed and a complete male DNA profile was generated, which Morales uploaded to the National Criminal Database, called CODIS. To see if it would match anybody that's already in the database.

Did you get a match? No. No match? Morales couldn't believe it. He was convinced Brittany's attacker had to be a repeat offender. You'd have to figure that somebody that's done something that, in that extreme, has done something like that before. Brittany's attacker basically vanished into thin air. Yes. So now, Morales' investigation went from the lab to the street. He'd heard Brittany was seeing someone, kind of a boyfriend. Was he a potential suspect? Absolutely. Did you do a DNA test on her sort of boyfriend? Yes, he was cleared. His DNA did not match that. Police didn't have to rely on just hard evidence

though. They had an eyewitness to the attack. I could see his height. Brittany's mom had actually seen the guy. I saw he had jeans on. He had a long-sleeved shirt on. And what does he look like? Either a dark Caucasian man or a light Hispanic with brown hair, kind of spiky. Police created a composite sketch and spread the word across the Rio Grande Valley. There was both billboards, rewards, Crimestoppers rewards. Names just start pouring in. So we were talking to a bunch of people. But to no avail. The billboard campaign didn't produce any workable suspects, witnesses, or leads. Meanwhile, the Marcel family was on edge. In the days following the attack,

Brittany remained on life support, close to death. We really didn't know what to do, and they said, she's probably not going to make it. Their home, once a safe and sacred place, was now marred by evil. Walking in was like someone died there. It was just morbid. It was just dark, very dark. Brittany's mom soon found a rental house, but changing addresses didn't help with the lingering unease.

Wherever in the house, the alarm was set constantly. No open windows, no open doors until we go out. Our whole lifestyle changed. The Marcells were terrified Brittany had been attacked by someone who knew them and their routines. Someone who might strike again. We just never experienced that kind of imminent danger. I think it was unsettling for everybody, and I think they had every reason to be worried. They worked out a schedule, taking turns standing vigil at the hospital with Brittany.

They tried to be hopeful, but they also knew the doctors and the police all thought Brittany was going to die. And all the reports at the hospital were looking like the trajectory was for Brittany to pass. But somehow, Brittany held on. And six weeks after the attack, against all odds, she finally opened her eyes. When Brittany came to and she woke up, her eyes were blue like the ocean before. And they were gray. And I kept thinking, he took your light. Oh my God, he took your light. And in Brittany's new gray eyes, her family saw something else.

Fear. Who is this guy that hurt me? Why did he hurt me? Brittany and her family still haunted. Your friends, your teachers, your boyfriend. Everybody's a possible suspect. It sounds crazy, but it could be anybody. Brittany's beating was so horrific, we created sketches of her time in the ICU rather than show you the actual photos. Part of her brain was removed. Then she contracted meningitis, which nearly killed her.

One surgery after another, but Brittany held on. And by Christmas, three months after the attack, the family was told Brittany would survive. But what would her new life be like? We talked to her, and she'd blink her eyes and smile, but we knew at that point there was a lot of paralysis. And that's when they told us her ear canal is crushed, she's going to be deaf.

They also told us that her optic nerve is probably atrophied, which it's severed just from the hitting of the head, the jolting of it. Despite her extensive injuries, Brittany's family started taking her on short outings. And we put her in the wheelchair and she still couldn't hold her head up and she's drooling. And I was like, please don't let this be it. The family knew this might be all they could hope for. And there was so much dead tissue in the front temporal lobe. They removed pieces of that. And they, with the brain, they were saying it's so unpredictable. That could be any, that could be your speech. That could be short term. it could regenerate. As they tended to Brittany, her sisters continued to wonder who could have done this to her. It's violating because you start questioning relationships you trust.

Exactly. Yes. At school, your friends, your teachers, your boyfriend, your circle of influence, you're like, well, maybe it was you. Right. So everybody's a possible suspect. Everybody. Even going to the gym, going to the grocery store,

you know, standing at the gas station watching people. I mean, it sounds crazy. But when you don't know who it is, it could be anybody. It was all so personal. The attacker had been in their home, possibly stalked them. Maybe Brittany wasn't even his intended target. Maybe it was one of the other sisters. No one could say for sure.

But the family had to put their fears aside when caring for Brittany, who now needed all of their help. It's really taking your baby and raising her all over again. So you're raising a child that you already raised. And that, I think, was the hardest part, watching mom have to go through that again. And you just, you wanted to cry for them. Five months after the attack, her condition had stabilized to the point Brittany could be released from the hospital. But she was far from healed. She didn't realize why she couldn't walk, why she couldn't eat, why she had to learn all these things over again.

As helpless as a child, which meant if the attacker returned, the Marcel family was more vulnerable now than ever. So Diane fled Albuquerque, taking Brittany along with the two youngest children to neighboring Texas. She found a new home, a new job, and most important, a rehabilitation clinic

for Brittany. Her mom was very, very anxious because we didn't know who the assailant was and that they were still very concerned for her safety. Dr. Lori Wright was one of Brittany's therapists. What was your first impression of Brittany when you met her? She just didn't know much beyond where she was, and she was very, very confused. Crying a lot. She had to have somebody shower her. She had to have somebody take her to the bathroom. She had to have all those things done for her all over again. Dr. Wright, a neuropsychologist, practices what's known as cognitive behavioral therapy. We believe with practice, practice, practice, the brain can heal.

Which means teaching a head trauma patient to do one simple task, over and over again, until it becomes reflexive. Because their brain is just not the same brain that it used to be. Is it like rewiring the brain? Absolutely, it is rewiring the brain. And so what do you do? You sit down and you do it with her until she's able to do it herself. Brittany's brain injury was so severe, much of her therapy was almost like a preschool class.

She would read her Dr. Seuss books to me. That was a rehab, and she would have to read. And I'd read, and she'd read. It's like reading to a toddler all over and teaching a child to read. But the attack on Brittany was so brutal, Dr. Wright wasn't sure how far she'd get in her recovery. There was 25% of the brain she wasn't able to access that she used to be able to access.

Did you think she'd ever get her memory back? Getting that memory back, most people don't ever, especially if it's a traumatic brain injury, if you don't usually remember. If Brittany's memory did return, her account of the attack could later be used as evidence. So Dr. Wright didn't give Brittany any of the details. Out of concern it could create false memories. When people come out of this kind of trauma, they're not sure if this is a memory that they're remembering or this is something that somebody's told them. If her memory were to come back, we wanted it to just be her memory.

As she slowly learned to talk again, Brittany seemed stuck in a loop of fear. She would just on repeat, you know, I'm afraid, I'm afraid. Who is this guy that hurt me? Why did he hurt me? And, you know, what am I going to do if he comes to get me? After months of constant repetitive therapy, Brittany's brain did start to rewire itself. And in such a dramatic way, it still brings tears to Dr. Wright's eyes. It took a year, a year of intense therapy, and she didn't give up. It's really hard to explain. Brittany is special. She is definitely special.

She is indeed, as you're about to see for yourself. Brittany speaks out at last. You wake up from your coma. What's the first thing that happens? I'm just like trying to communicate. And she speaks to investigators too. I put that big X through that one picture. I thought it was this guy. I really did. There was a time when doctors gave Brittany Marcel just hours to live. But somehow she held on, almost rising from the dead.

She's permanently deaf in her left ear and blind in her left eye. These days, she no longer struggles to talk. Here, at last, is Brittany in her own words. You wake up from your coma. What's the first thing that happens that you can tell us about? I'm just like trying to communicate, but you can't at that age. I was at that age, say newborn stage per se, because I couldn't walk. Talking was the hard thing, speech in general. I mean, after everything happening, you're kind of like a toddler. You don't understand the language that

you and I are speaking today. And then when I went to rehab, I was more of like a teenager, like a young teenager. And as time went on, I started becoming more like a better, like a stronger teenager, like knowing what to do. So you were rapidly going through all the phases you'd already done once before. Right. Right. And by her side the entire time, her mom. She's been there with me on every medical appointment, every surgery. It's like, she's somebody who I look up to very much. So she's like my best friend now. How well do you remember your high school years? Like nothing. Like I don't remember that, but I remember my childhood very well.

Oh, that's interesting that you remember childhood, but not high school. Or middle school, very little middle school. I remember going to New York in middle school, but when I was in high school, not very much. Brittany's nerve damage is so extensive, she's unable to shed a tear or control many of her facial muscles and is no longer able to smile. How many surgeries have you had so far? Gosh, I've had, I want to say, up to 20. My mom says, I think you're done with surgeries. I'm like, no, I'm not, Mom.

I want my smile. That's what I want, my smile. And she's like, most people don't notice that. I'm like, no, but I do every day. The Brittany you see today is not the same person she was before the attack. As her brain rewired itself, her speech patterns and even aspects of her personality changed.

She became more reserved, more cautious, not as bubbly and outgoing as she once was. Did you still have fears even though you had moved to a new state? I did. Did you still feel like he could come find you? That's why on my social media, I don't put a location as to where I live. I mean, you can put where you live on Facebook now. I don't put that.

Despite her fears, Brittany was improving dramatically, and police hoped she'd eventually help them find her attacker. We asked her to look at the composite sketch, and she said it looks like somebody that she knows, but she just couldn't put all the information together. But I was hoping that she could at least give some information that would lead us in a direction, whether it be, you know, somebody that she remembered being with at a party or somebody that showed up to work, you know, just give us another clue or a lead that we could follow up. And it didn't.

Another dead end? Yes. Very frustrating. Meanwhile, the Marcel sisters, still working with Brittany, did what they could to help with the investigation by going over Facebook and old yearbook photos. And just flipped through to see if she recognized anybody or had any idea who it could be. And anything? Were you getting anywhere?

She would point to some pictures, but I think she was still processing what we were having her do. But there was one picture in what would have been her senior yearbook that got their attention. This guy just looks so sketchy. Like, it's kind of like you get that vibe, like this guy doesn't, he looks kind of guilty almost, like a criminal, like somebody that's going to go out there and do something or harm somebody.

So that's why we put that big X through that one picture. She did more than draw an X through it. She drew an inverted pentagram, the mark of the beast, the devil. I thought it was this guy. I really did. But it wasn't the guy. Police investigated him and found out he was just a random classmate who did nothing worse than take a bad picture. So the family kept up their armchair sleuthing.

Were you passing along names? I was. Of friends, co-workers, anybody that would be in Brittany's world. Right. Even people in my kids' worlds and my world. I mean, at that point, I didn't trust anybody not to have done this. They were always calling in. Like I said, they would see somebody at the bank, and it looked like them. And they didn't know who it was, but they'd give me a license plate.

And we'd follow up that information. But still, it didn't lead to the identity of the suspect. Did you feel like you had started to exhaust everyone kind of in Brittany's world? Yes. And how many names of potential suspects or people of interest did the family give you? I would say somewhere in the area of about 30. The frustrating part is the fact that we have the key right there. It's Brittany.

You're not only the victim in this, you're the key witness. That's the scary part. It's almost like a nightmare. Enter a new detective. Could she find a new lead? I thought, wow, maybe this is the guy. Everything about the Brittany Marcel case was inside out. Police had the suspect's DNA, but not his name.

Fingerprints, but too smeared to read. And two eyewitnesses who couldn't identify the attacker. You're not only the victim in this, you're the key witness. Right. I mean, you know who did this to you. You may not know his name, but you saw him. It's like, that's kind of the scary part. It's almost like a nightmare. Ironically for investigators, the fact that Brittany didn't die posed a problem. There's

no statute of limitations for murder, but attempted murder is a different story. And two years into the case, Morales worried he was running out of time. I wouldn't want something like that to be the technicality that gets this individual off in the future is the fact that the statute of limitations ran. For help, Morales turned to cold case prosecutor David Wehmeyer. Even if the defendant was ultimately identified through DNA, even if he admitted their crimes, statute of limitations, once it hits, it's an absolute bar to prosecution. But Wehmeyer had an idea as to how they could get around that hard deadline. Indict the DNA profile as a John Doe.

A creative legal maneuver, but one that had never been tested in state court. Although we felt like we were on solid ground to do it, we didn't know for sure that it would be upheld by the New Mexico courts. With no other options, Wehmeyer went ahead with the unusual indictment. A good thing, because the investigation was at a standstill. Morales was afraid the only way he'd catch Brittany's attacker was if he struck again. I cannot believe that somebody that would commit a crime

of this nature would not mess up again. Brittany's sisters were afraid they might be the next victims. I mean, over the years, we will all sit around a table

and we will go into hours of the night trying to come up with possibilities of why and who. But the Marcel family, like Detective Morales, had no workable leads. By the fifth anniversary of the attack, the case was no closer to being solved. I really hate calling cases cold.

It's just that you just haven't found that right person. Sergeant Liz Thompson, head of the homicide unit and Detective Morales' boss, was optimistic something would break. You know, that one person hadn't talked or that one piece of evidence hadn't matched up. And it just took persistence. That's what it needed. But that optimism was lost on the Marcel family. They were still living in constant fear Brittany's attacker would one day return, possibly for them. It was a scary thought because we don't know if we're being followed still. And we're all scared. And that's when, in 2012, Brittany's mom placed an uncomfortable call to

Sergeant Thompson. I finally said, you know what, I think we need new eyes on the case. And so we had to have some hard discussions about what are the next steps? How can we move this case forward? Sergeant Thompson decided the best way to accomplish that was to reassign the case. To veteran homicide detective Jody Gaunterman. I read through the case. I briefed with Detective Morales. I spoke with the family. Brittany didn't remember what happened at all.

Describe her for us. Your first impression, what you thought of her. She's a go-getter. She's stubborn. She doesn't give up. She's just fascinating. She's cute, vivacious. She's a mom. She has kids. When she got her hands on the case, she would call my mom almost every day. You finally had hope? Did. I did. That they would find your attacker? I did. She goes out and she goes after the evidence she's got. She goes after every tip. Gonterman immersed herself in Brittany's world prior to the attack.

Who she was friends with, what those relationships were, who was in her phone, who the photos were, who she hung around with, what did she like to do. She was a very social girl. She was a very good girl. Now, five years after the attack, Gaunterman worked the case like it happened yesterday, searching for new leads, new witnesses. Talk to neighbors. I would look at every house to see, is there anybody at this house who has a criminal history that would fit this type of crime? Because the case had been out of the public eye for so long, Gonterman and Thompson began drumming up local press coverage, hoping it would shake loose a new lead. So I did a piece on local media. We reissued the sketch,

and then Detective Gonterman started taking in tips. And right off the bat, they got a good one. I thought, wow, maybe this is the guy. One name, then two, then three, then four? A suspect was developed, and then another suspect would be developed, and over and over they were excluded. What is it that we're missing? I didn't give up. In just a couple of weeks, Detective Gaunterman and Sergeant Thompson

had already scared up a hot lead on a potential suspect who had somehow slipped through the cracks years earlier. What was his criminal history? Stalking his girlfriend. There was duct tape. He lived across the street behind Brittany. Also suspicious, the suspect left New Mexico after the attack. Where was he? I think he was in Colorado, if I'm not mistaken. So Gaunterman called local police who tracked him down and surprisingly convinced the suspect to give them a DNA swab.

Albuquerque Police Department forensic scientist Alana Williams took over from there. How long does it take you to see if there's a match? Is it instant? No, so it takes several days to look at the item of evidence, swab the sample, extract the DNA, see how much you have, and then once it's placed on the instrument, you get a DNA profile. At the end of all that, did you think it was him? I thought it was a possibility. Got my hopes up and then I was very disappointed when it wasn't. The DNA didn't match. A big letdown. One of many to come. Then another tip. Gonterman took it seriously because of who it was from. A parent saying, I think it's my son who did this. Wow. My son would visit the house right across from Brittany's home, and he looks like the sketch.

And this was, considering that this would be very difficult for a parent, I thought, wow, okay. But when Gaunterman got the man's DNA sample... He was excluded. Another letdown. Yes. So Gaunterman and Thompson tried a different strategy, focusing on cases that bore some similarity to Brittany's attack. They found one that was eerily similar. Oh my gosh, that same part of town. It was at her own home.

It was a shovel. They knew her. And I just thought, how could it not be? But his DNA didn't match either. He wasn't John Doe. The old-school approach of working tips, leads, and hunches just wasn't paying off for Gonterman. So she went back through the case files again and came across a report about Brittany's cell phone. Back in 2008, during the initial investigation,

police didn't have the technology to break into the phone without erasing the data. So when it was first processed, there were only so many tools to get in it, and Brittany couldn't remember her PIN. So years later, I took it down to the forensics

laboratory for computers. You tried it again? Tried it again. Because there's new, there's advancement in technology? This time, technicians were able to get into Brittany's phone. And right off the bat, Gonterman found an intriguing clue. A text message from a male who texted Brittany the day it happened and wanted to meet her for lunch. Wow. And I was like, wow, okay, we didn't know about this guy.

And Brittany didn't remember him. Did he have a name and everything? It was like right there for you? Name, phone number, I figured out who he was. So at the time, he had gone to high school with Brittany. So Gaunterman did an online search and easily found Brittany's old high school friend. To her surprise, he was a police officer. Did that kind of rattle you a little bit? Of course it did. What a better way to just not get caught and, you know, cover it up. Gonterman contacted the officer, broke the news to

him that he was a person of interest in the Brittany Marcel case. She also collected a sample of his DNA. Two weeks later, their results came back. They were negative. Once again, it wasn't John Doe. Somewhat relieved that it wasn't him? Was I relieved that I was? But if it was him and he was a law enforcement officer, then, you know, good, we got him. About how many men, approximately, would you say that you got your hopes up for that this could be the one? I think those four were the most significant.

But many more were tested. A suspect was developed, and then the DNA profile did not match. And then another suspect would be developed and no match. And every time it seemed like over and over, suspects by suspect, they were excluded. We tested and tested and tested and no matches. What's that like up and down, up and down? You get your hopes up and then it's not a match. Oh, it's really hard. And we have to remind each other all the time, okay, how do we move forward? What is it that we're missing? It's an emotional roller coaster.

As the years slip by and you have all these false leads, false hope, are you starting to wonder if maybe we're never going to solve this and this is, you know, maybe it's all for nothing what we're doing. I didn't give up. We need to get an answer for Brittany and her family to give them closure. Her determination gave the Marcells strength. She's like, I will not retire until this case is solved. She said that to all of us. Like Detective Morales before her, Gaunterman found herself circling back to Brittany.

But each visit was as frustrating as the last. She didn't have a lot of memory. You know, it was like talking to a little girl, finding a sweet little girl, trying to remember. Gaunterman and Thompson now believed if they were ever going to solve this case, they had to do something radical, possibly even traumatic. Find a way to get Brittany to relive the attack that nearly killed her. Brittany Marcel under a doctor's spell. Tell me what's happening. He's hurting me. He's hurting me.

Can he jog her memory and help solve this mystery? One, two, three. By 2014, six years after the assault on Brittany Marcel, Detective Jody Gonterman was out of leads, suspects, and witnesses. The scientific way of working the case through fingerprints and DNA was a bust. And so was Gonterman's old-school knocking-on-doors approach. Did you ever say to Jody, you know what, I think maybe we need to stop focusing on this case so much. We're running in all the wrong directions. Oh, good heavens, no. We just hadn't found this person or this person was deceased and we just needed to figure

out who they were and get their DNA and solve it that way. But no, we just had to keep plugging away at it. Were you losing hope? No, because now I think it got to a point, what can we do differently? There was no doubt Brittany was improving dramatically, but she still had no recollection of the attack. No one knew if her memory of that day was gone forever or would eventually emerge

from the haze. We didn't know if Brittany had brain damage that was interfering with her ability to remember the attack or if they were repressed memories that could be recovered from using hypnosis. Putting a witness under hypnosis is legally controversial. Many states won't allow it out of concern the recovered memories could be nothing more than made-up stories. Putting Brittany, a brain-damaged crime victim under hypnosis, had its own unique set of concerns. Because then your memories start falling back and I'm afraid if I do be hypnotized, more is going to come back than expected. If you had the choice to remember the entire incident, would you want to remember it? I want to remember the beating. That's something I would not want to remember.

I would just want to remember the guy's face. Just enough to say, this is him. Despite her fears, on August 14th, 2014, Brittany agreed to go under hypnosis. I'm recording. Okay. Dr. Leon Morris was the clinical psychologist chosen to work with Brittany. It would be his first criminal case using hypnosis, and he was confident there were memories to recover. Have we met before?

I don't believe so. Dr. Morris was well aware, though, that what memories Brittany did have of the attack could be wrong. There's something called confabulation. A person doesn't remember something, they kind of fill in the blanks with things that may not be accurate. Before starting, Dr. Morris made sure she was still a willing subject. If you have reservations about re-experiencing what happened to you, if it might be too traumatic for you, I would recommend that you not do it. I leave a part of me once you get it done.

I think it might help a little bit because maybe that little clue could solve the case. Do I have your permission to hypnotize you? Yes, sir. You sure you're ready to hypnotize you? Yes, sir. You're sure you're ready? I believe so, yes, sir. At first, the session seemed to be going in slow motion. First, I want you just to hold your hands out in front of you like this. Dr. Morris calmly instructs Brittany to slowly bring her hands together. Brittany will be fully in a trance the moment her hands touch her forehead. Watch the clock in the upper left-hand side of the screen.

Your eyes will close and relax. It takes Brittany almost 10 minutes to go under Dr. Morris' spell. I want you to open that door. And that's a door to your memory. A passage which led to another time and place. And that's a door to your memory. A passage which led to another time and place. Brittany's home on September the 11th, 2008.

Brittany recalls walking inside. It's empty. No, no one's. No one's home. Then she sees someone. Who is he? Who is he? No. Then she sees someone. Her body shakes as she relives the beating.

Eerily, Brittany describes this fight for her life in an almost flat monotone. Tell me what's happening. He's hurting me. He's hurting me. I'm bleeding. Bad. Bad. Can you describe him? He's tall. Hair.

Like spiked hair. Yeah, like spiked hair. Muscle. Light skin tone. Mexican. Hispanic. brown eyes. You remember seeing this man? Did I see him at my work? I don't know.

Did you see him at your work, you said? Maybe he bought glasses, maybe. Brittany is apparently talking about a possible customer of hers at the Cottonwood Mall sunglasses kiosk where she worked. So you made it look familiar to you? Mm-hmm. He's tall. Mm-hmm. He's tall and square.

Face was square? He's tall and square. Mm-hmm. He has big nose some weird eyes. What were those eyes? Weird eyes. Weird eyes. Brittany had been in a trance for just 36 minutes

and had apparently provided more details about the attack than had been uncovered over the last six years. According to Brittany, her attacker was tall, muscular, with brown eyes, a square jaw, big nose, light-skinned, and possibly Latino. And this was important. He may have been a customer of hers at the Cottonwood Mall sunglasses kiosk, someone she knew and whose name she'd hopefully remember. I'm going to bring you out of hypnosis.

Once she came out of her trance... You will remember everything that has occurred. Would she remember the name of her attacker? One, two, three. I knew what she told me, but I didn't know whether it was accurate or not. New information from Brittany and cutting-edge new technology. Oh, wow! If I was a suspect in a criminal case, this would give me away.

Yeah, I think so. Could it lead to a break in the case? One, two, three. As soon as Brittany Marcel emerged from hypnosis, she had a question for Dr. Leon Morris. Who is he? Who is he? Who is he? Brittany was hoping she'd blurted out her attacker's name while in a trance, but that didn't happen.

The identity of her attacker was still a mystery. So I'm just like, hmm. I was like, well, that wasn't really helpful. Did you get upset during the session? Mm-hmm. I was just, like, angry, like the reconstruction I've had on my face. I was like, you can't tell when I'm happy or sad, unfortunately. But it's like, I was like getting

that like mad face when I was being hypnotized, just because it's like you're feeling the pain of what's happening. It wasn't totally in vain though. Yeah, like a spike tear. Brittany's mom also said the same thing. But Brittany was able to provide new details of her attacker's face and physique. With those descriptors, what we did was we sent her to our sketch artist and had another sketch done with what Brittany remembered from those characteristics. The two sketches, Brittany's and her mom's six years earlier, had some similarities and some differences.

While both said the attacker had brown eyes and light skin, the facial structure, nose, and hair didn't match. Dr. Leon Morris had a possible explanation. A lot of eyewitness identification is wrong. At the end of the hypnosis, I knew what she told me, but I didn't know whether it was accurate or not. No one knew if what Brittany said while under hypnosis was accurate or not. The composite sketch based on her description failed to produce any usable leads. Once again, the job of pushing the case forward fell to Detective Jodi Gaunterman.

She's probably the best detective I could ever ask for. Did you find yourself getting emotionally invested in the case with so many years going by and your connection to Brittany and Diane? I did. I went in her office crying once before just because I was so disappointed. It's rough.

I mean, you try not to get emotionally involved, but you do. As the investigation languished, Brittany continued on with her life. And in May of 2016, eight years after being nearly beaten to death, she graduated from college. I didn't think I'd be graduating from college by now. I didn't think I'd be graduating from college by now. I didn't think I'd be doing that. To go to college and to come this far, it's just incredible. I mean, how do you do it?

You gotta be strong in yourself. You gotta believe in yourself. And it was around the time of Brittany's graduation that Gonterman got another one of her out-of-the-box ideas. She heard about a new way to make a sketch, not from an eyewitness account, but from a DNA sample. They do a different type of testing that gives hair color, eye color, skin tone, ancestry.

This is an incredible tool. It's amazing. The company behind this new crime fighting tool is Parabon, where they do something called DNA phenotyping. It's essentially a genetic witness. Dr. Ellen Greytak is Parabon's director of bioinformatics. How does it work? In layman's terms, how can you take DNA and make a sketch? Well, you focus on those traits that are passed down from parent to child. So if you think about when you say, oh, you have your mother's eyes. Well, you have your mother's eyes because you have your mother's DNA.

And we can figure out, well, this piece of DNA we see in blue-eyed people, but not in brown-eyed people. So all your features are connected to your DNA. Absolutely. Parabon started off by helping the U.S. military create DNA profiles from the remains of insurgent bomb makers during the Iraq War. It wasn't long before cold case detectives were sending them emails looking for help as well. These investigations that we're working on, sometimes they've been cold for decades. In these cold cases, they're cold because there are no leads. And in a lot of cases, that's because there's no witness description. And we're able to give

them that just with the DNA. From a single DNA sample, Parabon can make an estimation of someone's hair color, eye color, and complexion. We hired Parabon to test a sample of my DNA, but we didn't tell them it was from me until this interview. I sent in my DNA as a blind sample. You did not know whose DNA we were sending in? No, did not. Parabon built a profile of me, as if I were a random criminal suspect. So all we received was a DNA vial labeled TR19411.

And so these are the predictions that we produced just from that DNA. This actually was a pretty interesting eye color prediction, one that we don't see very often. It will either come from people with fairly dark, bluish-green eyes, or it will come from people who actually have very light eyes, but with a dark ring and a gold center. Okay, so I have the gold center. I see it. I see it now.

The pigment that's in your eyes is a yellowish color. That's why as you get more, it turns green and then brown. And so you've got that pigment, but it's only in the middle, which is pretty interesting. That's fascinating. Your ancestry came out as a mix of Northern European and Southeast European. My grandparents on my mother's side are from Czechoslovakia, and then my father's family from London.

That is perfectly how it came out. Well, you nailed that. Good. So we predicted that she would have wider cheekbones and wider eyes, larger eyes, and then a wider jaw and a narrower chin, a fairly petite nose, but a little bit wider at the nostrils. And so the next page is going to include your composite. Okay. Oh, wow.

The eyes look very much like mine. These light eyes, but with a golden center and a dark ring, medium blonde hair. If I was a suspect in a criminal case, this would give me away. Yeah, I think so. Putting together a profile like this is labor-intensive and costly, up to $3,600, a lot of money for cash-strapped homicide units like Albuquerque's. But after months of dogged persistence, Gaunterman wrangled up the funds and shipped a sample of the John Doe DNA to Parabon and settled in to wait. The process would take several months. Meanwhile, Gaunterman set Brittany's file aside and focused on other cases.

And it was at this time, in October 2016, when a name suddenly emerged from Brittany's memory. She said the name Justin kept coming up. I asked my mom, hey, did you know this person? And she goes, no. I was like, well, for some reason, that name keeps coming back to mind. She's like, how often? I was like, like every day.

I was like, I don't know why. Every day? Every day. This was the first time a name had just popped into her head. Brittany called her sisters to see if they remembered a guy named Justin. This was the first time a name had just popped into her head. Brittany called her sisters to see if they remembered a guy named Justin. I'm like, oh, that's Hanson.

And she said, yeah, Justin Hanson that keeps coming to me. All the sisters remembered Justin Hanson. He was a fixture at the Cottonwood Mall. Where did he work at the mall? Hollister. I think that was kind of a big deal back then, right? Yeah, it was. Like cute guys?

Yeah. Oh yeah, if you knew you were going into Abercrombie or Hollister, you're like, there's definitely cute guys there. The question was, why was Brittany suddenly remembering him now? Were you getting an eerie feeling when you would think of Justin, or just his name was popping into your head? Just his name was popping up. Nothing more? Nothing more. Just like, why does this keep happening?

Right. He worked at Hollister and he'd come down over to my kiosk and all and he'd, you know, sit there and chat and all or be on the outside kiosk and talk and all. And it was what I thought was just a mutual relationship. Did he seem interested in you? I don't remember that at all. I was like, I'm... Flirty? Flirty.

Brittany called Detective Gaunterman with this latest memory. And she says, a name popped into my head. I don't know why, but this guy's name is Justin Hansen. And I worked at the Sunglass Kiosk and he would come and he would visit me. She's like, it was nothing bad. She goes, but he would just, I remember him hanging out with me for about an hour at a time and it happened maybe about three months before the attack um he would come by and just talk to me gaunterman knew that while under hypnosis britney said she may have met her attacker at the sunglasses kiosk

did i see him at my work? I don't know. Did you see him at your work, you said? Maybe he bought glasses with me. Over the previous nine years, the Marcells had asked police to investigate 75 different men, none of whom turned out to be the attacker. This was the first time, though, Brittany had ever come up with a name. So maybe this new memory was important.

On the other hand, maybe it wasn't. Hi, how are you? Are you Justin? I am Justin. Detectives pay a visit to Justin Hansen. He seems helpful, but is his story truthful? Can I think about this and then come back and see you? Just because it seems kind of...

What's your concerns? Yeah, what's your concerns? For Sergeant Liz Thompson and Detective Jody Gaunterman, calling Brittany's case cold was an admission of defeat. But eight years after the attack, the investigation had clearly stalled. So this new name from Brittany, Justin Hansen, didn't look to be any kind of case changer. She gave me so many names of people, but nothing was really significant to her. And all along, Justin's name never came up. Did she have any reason why his name, of all people, was popping into her head?

She didn't know. It just popped into her head one day. Hansen didn't match the description Brittany gave while under hypnosis. He's hurting me. That person was tall, muscular, and had brown eyes. Hansen, on the other hand, is average height, thin, and has green eyes. Hansen was also a married father of four with no criminal convictions other than a DUI. Was this immediate for you? I have to run this down right now? Or was it like, okay, I'll get to it? I said, okay, I'm going to set it aside, put him in a wait to contact him.

Because the more I had, when I do an interview, the more information I have behind me is going to be more helpful. Justin Hansen just didn't seem like a high priority. Until three months later, January 3rd, 2017, when Detective Gaunterman and Sergeant Thompson finally got the Parabon DNA report. Dr. Ellen Greytak of Parabon walked us through her DNA analysis. This is the DNA from the person who attacked Brittany. Yes, so this is from blood that was found at the crime scene. And so we find that this person has fairly fair skin. So this is a white male.

It's a fair-skinned male. Fairly confident in that. That this person has sort of light brown hair, so we say blonde to brown. It's fairly fair-skinned male. Fairly confident in that. This person has sort of light brown hair, so we say blonde to brown. It's fairly equally likely blonde to brown, so sort of on the lighter brown side. And most likely doesn't have a lot of freckles. There was one detail in John Doe's profile that turned out to be crucial information. The color of his eyes. Remember Brittany's description of John Doe? Well, it turns out she was wrong. John Doe's eyes weren't brown. We found that this person has green to hazel eyes. Which is unique. It's fairly unusual, yes. Green eyes, the same color as Justin Hansen's. And the sketch itself,

here it is. When we saw that composite, I was like, oh my God. It was that close. Oh, it was. We think it's, yeah. Yeah. But I still didn't want to get my hopes up because I didn't want to get disappointed again. Ready? Still not convinced this man was the guy she'd spent years hunting,

Gonterman, along with a fellow detective wearing a body cam, paid Justin a visit. Yeah, hi, how are you? You're Justin? I am Justin. Okay, cool. I'm Jody. We're detectives with APD. Right from the start, Justin was calm and cooperative. I'm investing in a case. It's an older case, and I'm just going back to talk to the friends or people that knew Brittany Marcel. Okay. It's from 08. Okay. Hanson invited the detectives into his home, where Gonterman started off with the basics. Do you remember hanging out with her at her sunglass place ever? No, not hanging out with her.

I'd walk by maybe and kind of just, hey, how you doing? What's new? How's your family? How's your sisters? That kind of stuff. On a regular basis, or do you just remember? No, no, no. Just when I was, I think when I was working at the mall, I just happened to walk by and say hi. It wasn't like a hangout, regular-based type scene.

Because Brittany actually remembers you coming in and visiting her and hanging out and talking with her like twice a week. No. No. After a few minutes of this, Gonterman told Hansen what she was really after, a DNA sample.

And then just to compare with the DNA at the scene so we can exclude everyone because then it narrows down the field. Expecting or hoping Hansen would agree, Gonterman put on a pair of latex gloves as she continued to talk.

Not that you're a suspect at all anyway, because you're not. But Hansen hesitated. Can I think about this and then come back and see you? Just because it seems kind of... What's your concerns? Yeah, what's your concerns? I don't know. Me and my wife watch a bunch of shows and we hear people, you know, oh, I've been in trouble or I got in trouble for something that I never did. And then 10, 15 years later they come back and, oh, it wasn't you or that kind of thing.

And then they've been in trouble for it for a long time. Yeah. Could I get your card though and come back and, you know, just so I think about everything, talk to my mom or whatever. If they're like, yeah, this is what they normally do type thing and then just come to see you guys absolutely is that okay yeah what did you make of his demeanor that first time when you went to to go see him well i mean he was he was friendly he was you know he was acting like he was concerned but it was almost an act um but then he wouldn't give his dna and we all thought how odd for a man of that age to say they wanted to talk to their mom. His wife is right there.

He's, what, in his 30s, and suddenly he's wanting to talk to his mom. So we're like, is his mom a lawyer? The whole thing seemed suddenly very odd and a big red flag. He seemed like a bad actor. Yeah. When I spoke with him, it seemed like he was putting on an act. It wasn't genuine to me. Before she left Hansen's house, Gaunterman decided to rattle his cage

by telling him Brittany's memory was finally starting to return. Your statement doesn't match what she remembers. She remembers very well that you used to visit her when she was bored. You would come in about twice a week and just hang out. She remembers that you used to wear tight amber crumbly shirts and your pants a little bit saggy, you know, with your underwear hanging down. Hansen said he'd come by Gaunterman's office after speaking with his mom, but he never showed up. So Gaunterman gave him a call to see what was going on. Hello. Hi, Justin. Hello. Hi, it's Detective Jody Gonterman with APD. How are you? I'm doing okay. How are yourself? Good. The call started off well enough, but the tone quickly changed. Hansen said he felt targeted

and outright refused to give a DNA sample. I felt like the way you guys were coming at me was like, no matter what I said, I was the person you were looking for, and no one wants to be that. Hansen ended the call demanding an apology. I'd appreciate a call to let me know that you're sorry. I'll apologize after I get your direct DNA. Detective Gaunterman had been investigating Justin Hansen for five months now, yet there was still a question mark next to his name. So time again for Gonterman to get creative. An undercover mission to McDonald's. They followed him and they watched him eat.

A hunt for treasure in the trash. I said, I can't believe this. If Justin Hansen really was the guy who'd assaulted Brittany Marcel, he'd done a masterful job getting away with it. Over the course of a nine-year investigation, not once had police considered him a suspect. It's pretty unique that his name had never been mentioned by any of the family, the friends. And now that he'd come to the attention of Prosecutor David Wehmeyer

and Detective Jody Gaunterman, after Brittany remembered his name, Hansen was able to keep them at bay by simply refusing a DNA test. So our district attorney suggested having him followed and getting his DNA. And one of the main ways that that can be done is through things that a subject throws away. On April 3rd, 2017, six months after Brittany told police about Hansen, Detective Gonterman requested a couple of undercover officers to tail him. But by the time the request was approved, two months later, Hansen had both moved and quit his job.

Police didn't know where he was. Two more months passed before the surveillance team tracked Hansen to his new job at this body shop in North Albuquerque. And they followed him to a McDonald's. And they watched him eat. And he took the lid off of his McDonald's cup, and he drank it directly out of the cup. And when he walked out, the trash was pretty full, like to the top. And he wrapped his own meal, his own trash, nicely in the placemat that comes on your tray. So it was all separated from everything else.

And so the undercover detective just walked right behind him and picked it up. And the detectives took that trash straight to Albuquerque police criminalist Alana Williams. I really did not have high hopes that this would be the individual that might match to our unknown person. She'd already processed the DNA of 17 potential suspects without a match. No reason to think number 18 would be any different. What was the results from this suspect, Justin Hansen? It was a complete match.

After a nine-year investigation and 18 DNA tests, John Doe had finally been identified. It was Justin Hansen. Did you keep checking it over and over again, just like a lottery ticket? I actually checked it twice. I did it once and then I went back through and I checked it again and I said I can't believe this. Williams wanted to deliver news this big in person. And Alana told her and I wish I had it on video because Jodi, I think she jumped about four feet off the ground. Through my keys. Yeah, it was very, very exciting. It was such good news. And then I broke down crying. All just in tears. And then we all started crying.

And I said, I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Oh, my God, I got to call Diane. I'm at work, and she says, Diane, hey, how are you doing? I said, I'm fine. And I'm thinking, great, more bad news. Because every phone call had been kind of like, yeah, it's not him. She goes, we've got a match. I'm like just blown over, and I'm overwhelmed. And I could hear the emotions in her voice.

And she says, yeah, we've in her voice. And she says, yeah, we've got a match. And she said, this is how it happened. I'm going, just like on TV, huh? She goes, yeah, it does happen. Diane then called Brittany, who was in Boston with sister Jennifer. I said, Jodi called and she's got a match. She's like, they know who the guy is. I'm like, what? She goes, it's a DNA match, 100%. I'm like, who is it? She goes, Justin Hansen. You remember giving that tip to her?

I'm like, yeah. She says, it's a 100% match. I'm like, holy crap. I was like, my prayers are answered. So I called Jodi. And I was like, you have no idea how thankful I am for you solving this, Jodi. She was, no, you did it. I said, no, you did.

She was, you gave me the name. I was like, but you acted on it. Hansen was arrested while out shopping. For the Marcel sisters, it was hard to believe the monster who'd haunted them for the past nine years may have been just a guy they knew from the mall. And I thought, this guy? This little skinny guy? Like, he's charming, but how could he have done something so horrible?

This guy looks great. It messes with your mind. It's so frustrating. Because it's not black and white. Right. Because we want to put our criminals or our violent offenders in this, and they look like this. And he doesn't look like that.

He's the cute guy who worked at the yeah right store in the mall yeah people liked him and wanted to date him like you did that the next hurdle would be the trial britney would have to testify and relive the emotional trauma of the attack normally people don't look forward to trials like this are you actually looking forward to it to get it done and to see justice? Very much so. I can finally kind of close that chapter finally after nine years. What Brittany didn't know at the time of this interview was that there were problems with the case.

Believe it or not, there were serious doubts Justin Hansen would ever go on trial. I was pretty mad. Okay, to be honest, I was really mad. A stunning setback. The case against Justin Hansen takes another dramatic turn. There's a lot of evidence that doesn't make sense. It's hard to try to prove your innocence after a certain amount of time. Police found a mountain of evidence at the Marcel house following the attack on Brittany. There was the shovel, the knife, the duct tape, even the clothes Brittany was wearing, all collected and carefully stored away.

And of course, when Detective Gonterman started working Brittany's case, she wanted to see it all firsthand. So when I went to pull evidence and view it myself, it wasn't there. Where was it? It had been destroyed. All of it gone due to a simple

clerical error. When anyone retires, you get a list of evidence on cases. There's a box. You either check, dispose, or retain. And the box was checked, disposed for this case. I mean, what's that moment like when you're trying to solve this case only to find out that physical evidence has been destroyed by your own police department. Well, I was pretty upset. I was pretty mad. Okay. To be honest, I was really mad.

The most important piece of evidence, though, was that blood drop, which was stored separately. The defense would want their own experts to test it. So if it was missing too, the case against Hansen might well be over. Was that kind of a, oh my gosh, what if this has been destroyed too? Yes. Because then you're kind of done.

I was stressed. I met with Alana Williams, the forensic scientist. She went to look for it and she found it. It was in the freezer. So, thank God. Still, Prosecutor David Wehmeyer knew the case had taken a serious hit. Proving a case beyond a reasonable doubt to unanimously to 12 jurors would be difficult when we had evidentiary problems. Justin Hansen's defense attorney could now claim the Albuquerque Police Department had mishandled evidence.

Evidence that may have pointed to another suspect. A judge and a jury might very well hold that against us, and that could make it more difficult to get a conviction. While awaiting trial, the judge allowed Hansen to be placed under house arrest. We tried for months to get him to sit down with Dayline, but he put us off. He finally agreed to talk when we dropped in on the farmhouse where he was living outside of Albuquerque. Overcome with emotion, Justin Hansen fought back tears

as his family looked on. This case, I mean, it's unreal, all the twists and turns that have happened. What do you make of everything? I mean, you're at the center of it. It's hard. It's hard to try to take everything in. Lots of nights of not sleeping,

lots of nights of trying to figure things out. What do you say to people who say that there is irrefutable evidence in this case that you did this? I kind of realized who counts and who matters, and those people, they don't matter. They're looking at the evidence that they feel points to you. Mm-hmm.

And there's no way to get around that. I don't have a way to convince them otherwise. That's not for me to try to do. Do you think about what Brittany's lost? Of course. She's lost a lot. And I'm glad she has a good support system. You know, her mom and her sisters and everybody standing by her side. That's great that she has that. And I'm glad that she has that. They see you as a monster. They do. They see me as what APD's put me in there to be.

They see me as what the media's put me to be. How do you explain the drop of blood at the scene? I don't. I don't. That's the one thing I think that people have a hard time getting around. They do. And there's a lot of evidence that doesn't make sense. Did you attack Brittany Marcel? No. Besides the missing evidence, Hansen's lawyer had another plan to get the case tossed out.

Simply put, the statute of limitations had run out. Sure, Prosecutor Wehmeyer filed an indictment in 2010, but the name on that indictment was John Doe, not Justin Hansen. You know, they have a statute of limitations set up for a reason. It's not to let people get away with things. It's just because it's hard to try to prove your innocence after a certain amount of time. It's like phone records go back seven years. Bank statements, I think, are six or seven years. So, like, you can't even try to go back to try to, you know, prove your innocence or to prove things differently,

and that's hard. Hansen's lawyer argued the John Doe indictment should be dismissed, and the judge ruled an appellate court could hear that motion before the trial even got underway. A huge victory for Justin Hansen and a major setback for prosecutor David Wehmeyer, who knew the John

Doe indictment was uncharted legal territory. Although that had been done once before in New Mexico in a different case, it had never actually gone up and been reviewed by the appellate courts to ensure that it was legally allowed. Wehmeyer had been concerned about the strength of the case all along. He'd even offered Hansen a plea deal. But now, apparently emboldened by the judge's ruling, Hansen rejected the plea offer, hoping instead to have the entire case against him tossed out. Brittany was robbed of the life that we all have. We want him to pay dearly. Would he? The final scene in this nine-year mystery is about to play out in court. Justin Hansen insisted to us he was an innocent family man,

accused of a crime he didn't commit. But the Marcel family wasn't buying any of it. They were certain Hansen was the one who attacked Brittany, and they wanted justice. You know, Brittany has to deal with this for her whole entire life. She was robbed of the life that it appears that we all have. She doesn't get that. And everything that she has today, she's worked hard for with the support of my mom. They've sacrificed daily. And I think it's kind of the same way. We want him to pay dearly. But there might not be a

trial, let alone a conviction, if Hansen's attorney could get the John Doe indictment that was filed in 2010 tossed out. It was a tense time for both families, the Marcells and the Hansons, as they waited weeks on the appellate court's decision. Just 12 days before the start of the trial, the court issued its ruling. Hanson's motion was denied. The John Doe indictment was upheld and the case was going to trial. That's when prosecutor David Wehmeyer got a very unexpected phone call from Hansen's attorney. They wanted to revisit plea negotiations. Wanting to spare Brittany the stress and anxiety of a trial, the Marcel family gave their blessing to Waymire's decision to move

ahead with a plea offer of no contest to attempted murder in the first degree, which Hansen accepted. And just like that, it all came to an end. The alternate suspects, the John Doe indictment, the hypnosis, the Parabon sketch, the DNA tests, over. A case that took nine years to get to court was resolved in a matter of hours. You had a really tough decision to make in this case to to go to trial or to take this deal. How did you ultimately come up with your decision? I mean I wanted to go to trial. I wanted to declare my name but I just felt like the odds were against me and I I didn't want a chance you, 58 to 60 years away from my kids. And that was kind of what pushed me into the plea. So the plea was not about an admission of guilt necessarily, but for you it was more about being there someday for your children.

Exactly what it was for. It was like 60 years or 18 years with a chance of being out nine or less my youngest will only be 11 and i can still be there for her and try to help guide her through stuff it's like like i'm dying like i'm not coming back and it's hard and i know it's a goodbye because we don't know what what what the outcome is going to be but at the same time, it still feels like I'm not going to be here anymore. And you don't know what to say. The day after our interview, Hansen went to court for sentencing, and the stakes were high. Under the terms of the plea agreement, he could be released on probation or sent to prison for up to 18 years.

Prosecutor David Wehmeyer argued for the longest possible sentence, telling the judge three other women in the past had accused Hansen of assault. The alleged victim, the girlfriend, was 17 at the time and was four months pregnant. Next, for two pain-filled hours, the Marcells testified about what the attack did to Brittany and their family. Her life is a mere flicker of what it had the potential to be. She struggles with friendships, creating social circles, reading social cues, and understanding her emotions. Her life is a shell of what it had the potential to be. I want my sister back. I miss her so much.

And I'm starting to forget who she was before the attack. Last to speak was Brittany, who with her back to Justin Hansen, faced the judge and told her about the severity of her wounds, the 22 surgeries she'd endured, and of the injuries that may never heal. On September 11th, my dreams and goals were beaten out of me. For 10 years, I've been struggling to rebuild some semblance of the life I had once planned. I'm fearful that I won't get married. I'm worried that I won't have children.

I'm worried that I'll never be able to live alone again. Afterwards, it was Justin Hansen's turn to speak. First of all, Your Honor, I want to apologize to Brittany and Diane and their family for everything they've been through. But that was all he had to say to the Marcells. He spent the rest of his time telling his children how much he loved them. Then, everyone waited for Judge Cindy Leos to tell Hansen just how long he'd be away from those children. I am going to impose the full 18 years in the Department of Corrections. I think that that is the only sentence that makes

sense under the circumstances of this case. Thank you. And with those words, Justin Hansen was handcuffed and led away to prison, while Brittany, her mom and siblings, hugged and wept. Detective Gaunterman and Sergeant Thompson were there as well. How did it feel hearing Justin Hansen get the maximum 18 years as part of this plea deal? It felt amazing. I was so happy. I mean, I was overwhelmed with emotion, just so relieved, so happy for the family. It was truly one of the highlights of my career.

Did you get justice today? Justice. 100% justice. Yes. He finally got caught. He played with fire and he messed with the wrong ladies. For the siblings, there was, more than anything, an overwhelming sense of relief and gratitude. I looked at my sisters before it started and I said, no matter what happens today, it's over. We have to let this be over today. And this was a good way for this to be over. I feel very grateful for Judge Leos and I feel even more immensely grateful for Detective Gonterman.

While Thompson, Gonterman and the Marcells got justice, what they didn't get was an explanation. One of the biggest mysteries in this has been the motive. What is your working theory? So many people describe Justin as being very friendly and social, and they think he's good looking and charming, and he's that older guy that I don't think he was ever turned down. And it's possible that maybe Brittany was just the one person that said no and turned him down. Brittany agrees. I think I was attacked because Justin Hansen had some jealousy. Because he had probably asked me out to be like going on a date, be his girlfriend.

And I had a different boyfriend at the time and it wasn't him at all. So I think it was struck out of jealousy. And since he didn't have me, nobody else could. Brittany now lives in rural Texas and spends much of her time tending to the animals. She has one college degree, but would like to return to campus to get the degree she's wanted since high school. I am definitely thinking about going back to school for journalism. It takes, I mean, my major was communication.

I can communicate quite well. But she had one more big hurdle to get over, another surgery, her 23rd, an operation that took hours with a recovery period of months. Brittany could have opted not to go through such torment, but for her, there was no choice. The surgery was to get her smile back.

I had the biggest smile you could dream of. I was like, that's something, that's what I want back. I'm going to go for it.