All language subtitles for Dateline.Secrets.Uncovered.S11E02.720p.WEB.h264-BAE.[eng]

Melvin,

And this is "dateline:
Secrets uncovered".

- I'd lay in bed
with my imagination,

And I would
play out possibilities

Of what happened
that night.

I thought about how scared
she must have been.

It was hard to go
to sleep some nights.

- A young woman
living on her own,

Murdered in the middle
of the night.

- She was at
her most vulnerable,

Alone and in bed.

- A crime that jolted
a sleepy seaside community.

A killer walking
among them.

- I don't think it really
sets in that we're all

A little more in danger
at that point.

- Young, fun, and pretty,
corey had plenty of admirers.

Had one of them liked her
too much?

A strange coworker.

- That's scary stuff
right there.

- Exactly.

- An adoring friend.

- Her statements about
how much she loved corey,

It piqued our interest.

- And, a young man who made
some people very uncomfortable.

- She called him
the night creeper.

- A gallery of
potential suspects.

Piles of evidence.

But the truth would
only be revealed

By a tiny telltale clue.

- Did everyone's jaws drop?

- My eyes filled up
with tears.

I couldn't believe it.

♪♪

- Hello, and welcome to
"dateline: Secrets uncovered".

A beach town,
plenty of leisure,

And an exciting nightlife.

It all seemed ideal.

But for corey parker,
a fun night with friends

Turned out to be
her last one alive.

Police put together
a wide ranging list

Of potential suspects,

But a tip about someone
with a secret obsession

Would blow the investigation
wide open.

Here's andrea canning
with "rear window".

- Maybe it was
the hypnotic hum of night

Coming to life.

Then again, maybe it was
just the booze,

Or the talk of
some easy money.

- We're all just sitting there
having a couple of beers,

Fishing, relaxing,
and enjoying.

- Somehow, three friends
kicking back on a lakeside dock

Found their evening
sliding into the past.

A brutal, unsolved murder,
an investigation stalled,

An old name resurrected.

As they remembered,
their eyes grew wide.

- What is your gut telling you
as you're sitting on that dock?

- We're probably
on to something.

- And someone who'd prefer
to stay hidden.

Strange how the night can shine
a light into the darkest places.

Like so many others,
corey parker came to florida

For the waves and weather,
but she stayed for the people,

Like amy laden.

- Do you remember the first time
you met corey parker?

- I do.

- Corey,
a young twentysomething

When she and amy
became fast friends.

- We were at pete's bar
on the beach,

And we were actually in
the bathroom waiting in line.

- And what did you
say to her?

- I think she started
the conversation and just said,

"hey, I see you
around all the time.

"you know,
we should hang out."

And I said,
"all right."

- Did you two get
into a lot of trouble?

- Um, we didn't get
caught doing things,

But we probably
would have.

- Corey was a transplant
from upstate new york,

Towering and sweet
like a sugar maple.

- Corey was 5'11",
and she would wear heels.

So she was so tall
and I'm very short.

So I think every time
she walked into a room,

People looked at her.

And she was so beautiful.

- Did she kind of looked
like a model being 5'11"?

- Yeah.

- She could model.

She could
definitely model.

- Instead, she chose
a humbler route,

Taking classes
at the local college

And waiting tables
at ragtime tavern

Near jacksonville beach.

Amy says that
was pure corey.

- Did she like
being a waitress?

- She loved it.

'cause she could talk to people,
and she was super friendly.

- She was a people person?
- Yes.

- Another reason
she loved corey,

Both were
fiercely independent.

Corey, in particular,
had just moved

Into her own apartment.

- This was absolutely
an exciting moment

For her moving
into this place,

Because she was finally being
able to do it on her own.

- This was a big, kind of,
independence day for her,

Then, moving into
this apartment?

- It was a really
big deal, yeah.

- I was excited
that somebody else

Was gonna be moving in,

That I might be able
to-to talk with.

- Ashley burg remembers
corey's move-in day

That September of 1998.

Ashley, then eighteen,
lived next door with her mom

And older brother, joe.

Corey, at twenty-five,
seemed like a big sister.

- We would sit outside,
she would do her laundry,

We'd have a little glass
of wine, um,

And just-just talk.

- About work, school,
and corey's new boyfriend,

A young man she'd only met
three weeks earlier

At one of her favorite
late night haunts, the ritz.

Ashley sensed her neighbor
was falling in love.

- It started gettin'
pretty close for them.

I really feel like that.

- But there was
something troubling, too.

Corey was feeling uneasy about
her ground floor apartment.

Her bedroom and front door were
across from another building.

- It was someone else
in our building

That saw a peeping tom,
um, and saw that someone

Was looking
into her windows.

- Ashley says for that reason,
corey preferred hanging out

In the back of the apartment
in the kitchen.

That's where they were
the day before thanksgiving.

Corey was making dessert
to bring to a friend's house

For the next day's feast.

- So we drank a beer,
started making some pies,

And, um, she was telling
me about thanksgiving.

She was telling me
where she was going.

And I didn't even
know she could bake.

- When she finished,
corey went out for the evening.

Amy, who'd left town
for thanksgiving,

Remembers being tempted to stick
around jacksonville beach

So she could party
with her best friend.

- Looking back,
I wish I had.

But I opted to go down to
my mom's the night before

And spend the night.

- Photos from that night show
corey inside her hangout,

The ritz.

She's seen looking
back at the camera.

One of the women there
was a new friend,

Her name was
tiffany zienta.

- We were young and all
in college and felt that,

You know, we'd just
all go hang out.

- You and corey
went out a lot.

- We did.

- Your relationship kept
getting closer and closer?

- Yes.

Well, on my part, I guess.
I can't answer for corey,

But yes,
from my vantage point.

- That night,
tiffany says, corey,

Usually the bubbliest
in the room,

Had fizzled out early,
around 1:30 a.M.

- We left
at the same time.

- And how do you
part ways?

- She got in her car,

And I got a ride
from a coworker.

- She says corey promised to
stop by her place the next day.

But thanksgiving came,
and corey was a no show.

- I didn't think much about it,
but I did tell my mom

That I was a little bummed out
that she didn't call

And didn't come by.

- Was that like corey did
not call and say--

- No. Not at all.

- Is she the type
who would have said,

"hey, you know what?

"I'm gonna bow out
for tonight."

- Correct.

It wasn't until the day
after thanksgiving,

Black Friday, that someone
finally noticed corey missing.

She didn't show up
for her morning shift

At the restaurant.

No one had heard from her
in more than a day.

- So one of the cooks who
was a friend of ours said,

"I'll go check on her".

'cause she didn't live far
from where she worked.

- The man returned to the
restaurant to report

That corey hadn't
answered her door.

Alarmed, the manager
sent him back.

- He walked around
the back of her apartment

And her blinds
were closed

In the back,
her bedroom,

But there was a little opening
and he could see her foot

And there was blood
on her foot.

- The coworker immediately
raced back to work in a panic.

Police were called.

Corey parker had
just been found.

- What had happened
to corey?

Chilling clues are
about to be discovered.

A gruesome scene
inside her apartment.

- You could tell that she had
fought for her life.

- And why detectives are sure
her attacker was no stranger.

- That speaks to some sort
of a relationship.

- When "dateline:
Secrets uncovered" continues.

- It was just before noon
on black Friday.

Ashley burg woke up to
banging at her front door.

It was the police.

- They're like,
"are you corey parker?"

And I said, "no, I'm not."

I said, I point at
the-the, kind of, like,

The window next to me,
which is her house,

And I said,
"she lives right there."

- Moments later, officers
were in corey's apartment.

- And I heard what,
you know, they had said,

"there she is."

And I just fell
to my knees.

- Twenty-five-year-old
corey parker was dead.

It was clear
she'd been murdered.

Investigators called
former state attorney

Angela corey,
then an assistant prosecutor.

- The police were
all there when I arrived.

Um, and so they walked me
through the scene.

- How hard was it seeing
corey parker in that way?

- This was brutal,
because you could tell

That she had fought
for her life.

You could tell that she
was at her most vulnerable,

Alone and in bed,
and that she had been,

You know, brutally
and viciously stabbed

In the middle
of the night.

- Stabbed more than
a hundred times.

- This was a sick individual
who did this.

- Very. Very.

- It didn't take long
for word of corey's death

To spread from
the tiny apartment.

Amy laden, still visiting
her mother out of town,

Got a call from
corey's boyfriend.

- He was crying and he said,
"did you hear?

"what's going on?
I'm so confused."

I said, "no, what's wrong?
Everything's fine."

And he said, "corey.

"there's something wrong
with corey.

"somebody found her
in blood."

And I said,
"no, no, she's fine.

"I talked to her yesterday.
Everything's fine."

- Still, she drove back
to jacksonville beach,

Straight to
the police station,

Just to make sure.

- Did it finally register at
the police station, eventually?

- Um, I went into a room
with a detective.

They did confirm that she was
found in her home dead.

I kept thinking something
happened to her heart.

I don't know why I kept
going back to that in my mind.

I don't know why.

- Tiffany zienta,

Who'd been out with corey
two nights earlier,

Was finishing
her bartending shift

When a customer broke
the news to her.

- I had this feeling kind
of washed over me

And, um, called amy and, um,
asked her if it was true.

And she said it was.

- Detectives on the scene,
meanwhile, were busy talking

To corey's neighbors
and sizing up the layout

And location
of her apartment.

That in itself
was a red flag.

- My first time
here at first glance,

Doesn't necessarily feel
like the safest situation

For a young woman living
in this ground floor apartment.

- Right.

Um, there's a lot
of transient traffic

That comes through here.

The beach is three blocks
from here.

- Detectives billy carlyle
and katie kingston,

Both now retired,
worked the case.

- She was
a beautiful woman.

And, uh, whenever she would
walk to and from her apartment,

I'm sure there were,
you know, a lot of guys

That were looking at her.

- There's a lot of
apartments around here.

You must have had to do a
lot of canvasing.

- We did.

- Yes.

- A lot of
individual canvases.

We had to talk to every
one of those people,

Document it all.

- And there's a lot of partying
that goes on at the beach.

And so you have people wandering
up and down the streets here,

Two, three o'clock in
the morning sometimes.

So, you know, yeah,
that's a concern.

- Neighbors told police
there had lately been

A peeping tom creeping
around the area,

So it was possible she was
killed by a complete stranger

Who'd broken into
her apartment.

- It looked like
that the suspect

Had put his hand
on the kitchen counter

Right there at the lip
of the sink

In order to lift himself
up on the cabinet

To be able to extricate
himself from the window.

- You could see what almost
looked like handprints

Coming, like, they lowered
themself out the window.

And those were in blood.

- It was corey's blood.

Traces of her murder left
by the killer.

But the idea that
this was a random killing

Didn't sit well
with detectives.

- Was your gut telling you
that this was someone she knew?

- Yes. Yes.
- What was it?

Why were you
thinking that?

- Because the-the extensive,
um, stab wounds, uh,

She was stabbed
101 times.

And that speaks to
some sort of a relationship.

- They hoped to find
traces of her killer

In the mess left behind.

There was plenty
of evidence to test.

Fingerprints on wine glasses
and cigarette lighters,

Hair and blood everywhere.

- You just never know
what's valuable.

So you try
and photograph everything,

And then you try
and examine everything

That you can that you think's
potentially involved in it.

- And everyone.

The first person
they needed to talk to

Was the new man
in corey's life.

- You all wanted to talk
to the boyfriend.

A logical place to start.

Any red flags
there with him?

- No.

We determined through
plane flight tickets

That he was, um,
out of town at the time.

He wasn't even here in
jacksonville beach.

- Was it a solid alibi?
- Yes.

Solid confirmation.

- But these were early days
in the investigation,

And there were many people
in corey's world

For police to rule
in or out,

Including a man who lived
right next door,

Ashley burg's brother.

Police had a reason
to talk to him.

- Did he have
a solid alibi?

- No.

- Questions about
a neighbor's whereabouts.

And then, suspicions about
a co-worker's feelings

For corey.

When "dateline:
Secrets uncovered" continues.

♪♪

- This was low-key
jacksonville beach, florida,

Where the main concern
of the day was how high

The waves were riding.

A young, single woman attacked
in the night in her bed

Just didn't
happen here.

- I think this case illustrates
every woman's nightmare.

That as-as hard as
corey parker tried to be safe

And she had all
her doors locked,

She still was
the most vulnerable

In the sanctity
of her own home.

- Women who lived alone
were scared.

- Melissa nelson,
then an assistant prosecutor

Who joined the case,
recalls the fear.

- Neighbors were scared.

People she worked
with were alarmed.

So it was a very scary time
for that community.

- Tiffany zienta,
raised in jacksonville beach,

Couldn't believe
this had happened

To someone she knew.

- I mean, they kept calling
it the bloodiest crime scene

In jacksonville beach
in twenty-five years.

That's not really comforting
to feel or to hear.

- Ashley burg was also
frightened for another reason.

Detectives thought
her brother, joe,

Had been too vague
about where he'd been

In the hours surrounding
corey's death.

- Did he have
a solid alibi?

- Not really, no.

- What was he doing?

- Well he, you know,
he was at the apartment,

Just hanging around.

And, you know,
he comes-comes and goes.

So we really couldn't establish
that he had a solid alibi

At the time
of the crime.

- Their interest grew when they
found a hair on a sock

In corey's bedroom.

The hair looked like it
could have come from joe.

- I know we did
a microscopic comparison

And, um, that
the microscopic comparison

Developed that likeness.

- The test they used back
then wasn't definitive,

But it was enough to
make police suspicious

And for joe to worry.

- So they would ask, "well,
why is your hair on her sock?"

He couldn't answer that.

He was petrified.

Petrified.

He didn't know, you know,
what they were gonna do next.

- What police did was take
a sample of joe's dna

For testing and press on.

Meanwhile, there was
another young man

They were interested in,
a dishwasher named eric ely.

- Eric was a, um, coworker
that worked with corey at,

Uh, ragtime tavern.

- And everyone knew
he really liked corey.

- Had come on to her
on multiple occasions

And had also, um,
done that to several

Of the other waitresses
up there.

They just thought
he was a creepy guy.

- Who'd grown stranger
by the day.

Police found out he'd
been pestering corey

To have thanksgiving dinner
with him alone.

Each time she
turned him down.

Detectives brought the young man
in for questioning.

- But to the detectives,
what the dishwasher did next

Was a move straight out
of a norman bates playbook.

- He made this really
nice thanksgiving dinner

In hopes that he could
call her and say,

"I've made
thanksgiving dinner.

"I'd like for you
to come over

"and enjoy thanksgiving dinner
with me."

- So he made
the dinner first?

- Yes.
- And then called?

- Right.

- That's a tiny bit
on the creepy side.

- Yeah, it was-it was
a little strange.

- It was clear
he was infatuated.

- From there, the interview
took an even darker turn.

The young man admitted
to violent fantasies.

- He's talking about rape.

I mean, that's scary stuff
right there.

- Exactly.

- That paled in comparison
to what he said next.

He described how he thought
corey had been killed.

- In fact, that's how
corey was killed.

- Did you think about
the scenario that he might

Have felt really rejected
by corey and he snapped?

- Anything's possible.

Yes, I mean, that comes
into your mind.

You know, he asked her multiple
times to go out with him,

And although
she was cordial to him,

She just never went there.

- He sounded like
an obvious suspect.

- Despite all
his incriminating descriptions,

The dishwasher was adamant
he hadn't killed corey,

And police didn't have
any hard evidence

That put him
inside her bedroom.

- He's got a denial,
and you've got nothing

To put him there.

- For the time being,
police had to let the man go.

And just when it
seemed their case

Couldn't get more complicated,
it did.

Corey's friend had been talking
around town about the murder,

And she was saying
all the things that catch

A detective's attention.

- Are you ready for
another potential suspect?

This close girlfriend,
of corey's,

Was she a little
too close?

- Tiffany was infatuated
with corey?

- Yes.

Her statements about how
much she loved corey,

It piqued our interest.

- When "dateline:
Secrets uncovered" continues.

- Welcome back to
"dateline: Secrets uncovered".

I'm craig melvin.

Twenty-five-year-old
corey parker

Had been brutally murdered
in her bedroom,

And the list
of possible suspects

Was getting longer.

Detectives were about
to focus on

A close friend of corey's

Who seemed cooperative
at first, but they wondered,

Was she hiding something?

Back to andrea canning
with "rear window".

- In the months
after corey parker's murder,

Police had several
potential suspects,

Including a next door neighbor
with a vague alibi

And an obsessed dishwasher.

But they didn't have enough
to make an arrest.

Corey's family even offered
a reward for information.

Prosecutor melissa nelson.

- And to that end,
everybody who presented

As a potential suspect,

They were running that
to ground.

Could it be this person?
Is it this person?

- Amy laden found herself
looking around

At corey's other friends
and wondering,

Could it be one of them?

- Everybody was
an actual suspect.

So that became
a little bit scary to me.

- Her killer could have been
right under your nose.

- Yeah.

- Tiffany zienta remembers
just wanting to be helpful.

Like most of corey's friends,
she met with the detectives.

- They wanna talk to you,
detectives?

- We all write a statement.

- Well, they wanted to
talk to you.

- Absolutely.

- Tiffany told the detectives
she had been with corey

At the ritz bar Wednesday night
into the early morning hours

Of thanksgiving.

She said they left the bar
at the same time,

Around 1:30 am.

Tiffany hitched a ride
with another friend

To go bar hopping.

Corey, she noted,
got into her own car

And headed home.

Later, tiffany said,
she called corey's home phone.

- It was, like, 2:15.

It was right after
we left the original bar.

- Detectives followed up
on what tiffany had told them.

Carlyle says
they quickly noticed

A wrinkle in her story.

- Her phone call was not
on the phone records

Of corey parker's, um,
home residence phone.

- So she's starting to make
some inconsistent statements?

- Exactly.
Inconsistent statements.

- More troubling to police
was what they were hearing

From corey's friends.

They were saying tiffany
had been describing the murder,

The stab wounds to the body,

Details that hadn't
been made public.

They also believed
she harbored deep feelings

For corey that weren't mutual.

- Tiffany was
infatuated with corey?

- Yes.
- What were you told?

- Well, we were
just basically told

That it was bordering on
a little-a little strange.

You know, with what we'd heard
about her statements,

About how much she cared
about corey

And how much she loved corey,

You know, it just,
it piqued our-our curiosity

And interest.

- Now, detectives wanted to
sit down again with tiffany.

But by then,
more than five months had passed

Since corey's murder,
and tiffany had left town...

For new orleans.

The move only made her
look worse to police,

So they tracked her down,
hoping to confront her.

But tiffany wasn't having it.

- She, at some point,
decided she wasn't

Gonna cooperate further and, um,
referred us to her lawyer.

- So detectives decided to get
a warrant for tiffany's dna.

- We had to get a, uh,
a court order

To get her standards, um,
her hair and, um, her blood.

- Are you starting to think
she could be corey's killer?

- Well, you just have to
follow that lead.

We felt like, based on
what we knew to that point,

That she was
of a person of interest,

Definitely, uh,
maybe a viable suspect.

- I'm not the person
that's gonna kill somebody.

- Looking back,
tiffany is convinced

Detectives set
their sights on her

From the moment
she first talked to them.

The fact that she was
the last friend

To see corey alive, she says,

Shaped everything
that followed.

- I never knew that saying
I was the last one with her

Was gonna come back
to haunt me, you know?

The police are like,
"well, killer was the last one."

Well, until you think about it
that way,

You don't think about it
that way.

- First of all, she says,
she never lied

About that call to corey,

No matter
what the phone record said.

- How do you explain that?

- According to my attorney,
he had had other clients

That had called people

That didn't show up
on phone records either.

I don't know.

I don't know why
it didn't show up.

I have no idea.

- As for being
in love with corey...

- Is there any truth to that?

- No, because I'm not gay.
I thought she was beautiful.

I thought she was
a great person.

Have I been
infatuated with corey?

No.

- Everything else she did
in this case, she says,

Was out of innocence or panic.

She learned about
the bloody crime scene

From a friend,
a paramedic who'd been there.

She went to new orleans
to rest, not escape.

She got a lawyer out of fear,
not guilt.

How are you feeling as
this is getting more intense?

I mean, this is
a murder investigation.

- Helpless.

Bullied.
Helpless.

Like there were gonna be
no answers

And this was gonna
be hanging over me

For the rest of my life.

- But before they could make
an arrest,

Detectives needed to
link her dna to the crime scene.

That's when things got
really interesting.

- Coming up, yet another
person of interest,

This one lurking
in the shadows.

- It wouldn't take much
if she had her lights on,

For him to sit up there
in the dark

And be able to watch her.

- And then, detectives
get their hands on

The one thing
that might solve this case.

- We were jumping for joy.

- When "dateline:
Secrets uncovered" continues.

♪♪

- Jacksonville beach had been
home to tiffany zienta,

Now it seemed
home had turned on her.

- Did you think, "there's a
chance I could get arrested?"

- Yes.
For something I didn't do.

- But she wasn't arrested.
And neither was anyone else

In the months following
corey parker's murder.

A year went by.

Former state attorney
angela corey.

- So this wasn't solved
after the commercial break?

- Oh, no.
No, no.

We went into this knowing
we were in for the long haul.

As they, what's that phrase?

We knew it was gonna be
a marathon, not a sprint.

- They had their list of
possible suspects,

But they didn't have
the evidence

Or the science yet
to definitively link

Anyone to the crime.

- Dna testing was actually
in the middle

Of evolving at that time.

- Eventually, the science and
the evidence came together.

Investigators recovered
a strand of foreign hair

From corey's underwear.

They believed that single
strand was rich in dna.

- That had been clearly
ripped out of a head.

- Likely, they believed,
the killer's head.

Now they had to test it
against their possible suspects.

- You essentially had
your killer in your tests.

You just didn't--
- locked in a tube.

- ...Didn't know his name.

- Hairs on slides.
That's right.

- That's when the case took
its most dramatic turn yet.

Thanks to this man.

- Would you call yourself
a bounty hunter?

- I've been called
bounty hunter before,

But I'd prefer
fugitive specialist.

- Fugitive specialist, okay.

- William rentschler
knew about corey's murder,

And he knew there had been
a reward posted

For information
leading to her killer.

- So it was kind of like,
hey, why not take a look?

- Yeah.
- So, on his own,

He started talking to
corey's old neighbors

To see if officers
had missed anything.

- When I came across
the one individual,

Some-some things
struck me as odd.

- The individual was a young man
named robert denney.

He was seventeen years old,
living in a nearby building

When corey was killed.

He'd been questioned and
dismissed by detectives

Early on,
in part because he was so young.

What seemed odd to william
was that the teen disappeared

Not long after the murder.

As memorial day weekend
rolled around,

William found himself on a dock
with two friends.

- We were fishing and then
having a couple of beers

And I was going over my notes.

- Suddenly, he remembered
that robert denney had worked

At the same restaurant
as his friends.

They recognized
the name instantly.

- They felt that
he was an offbeat individual.

- About two months
after the murder,

They said denney
seemed distraught,

Saying he had to go home
to texas,

That his child had
just been killed.

They quickly found out
that he'd made it all up.

So he's a liar.
- Correct.

- He lived near the victim?
- Correct.

- He moved out of town
shortly after the murder?

- Correct.

- What is your gut telling you
as you're sitting on that dock?

- It's highly unusual and
we're probably on to something.

- William shared his suspicions
with detective katie kingston.

She then went over
to check out

Denney's old apartment
for herself.

- You can see how close it is.

- It was apartment number four,
and its back balcony

Was less than three feet
from corey's old kitchen.

When police met with
denney's coworkers,

They said he had talked about
watching a young woman

From his balcony.

- Do you think he'd been
watching her for a while?

- Absolutely.
- Yeah.

- No question about it.
- Yeah.

- It was something
straight out of hitchcock.

A rear window,
a vulnerable young woman,

A man watching,
seeing, but unseen.

Denney didn't match
the description

Police had gotten
earlier in the case

Of that peeping tom,
but that didn't mean

He hadn't been spying on corey,
said detectives.

- Then it wouldn't take much,
if she had her lights on,

For him to sit up there
in the dark

And be able to watch her
as much as he wanted to.

- Kingston didn't know
where the man lived now,

But she found out
he had a sister in the area.

What the woman
told the detective

About her brother
was unsettling,

To say the least.

- She called him
a night creeper.

And she said that he would
creep around the house at night.

Um, she had woken up before
and he was staring at her.

- The sister said kingston
could find her brother

In easton, maryland.

He had moved there to be
with a woman he met online.

Kingston and carlyle
immediately headed north.

They needed to compare
their suspect

To that hair sample
from the crime scene.

- And you need his dna?

- Absolutely.
- Yes.

- With the help
of easton police,

They called up their suspect
and flat out lied.

They made up a story
about a recent assault.

Could he come in
for questioning?

- So he agreed to come in,
and he sat down with us.

- What followed was
vintage cat and mouse.

Police tried to get
denney's dna off a cigarette.

Denney went for the smoke,
but when he was finished...

- He took the cigarette butt
and put it behind his ear,

Um, wouldn't put it
in the cigarette ashtray.

- So they moved on to plan b.

They offered him
a bottle of water.

- Well, he takes the water,

But he doesn't take the top
off of it.

And he sat there the whole time,

Never drank from
the water bottle.

So now you're on to plan c.

- Which was this:

They asked denney to fill out
some forms,

Police procedural stuff,
they said.

- And what we were gonna do
was have him sign those forms,

And then put 'em
in an envelope,

And then seal the envelope.

There was three
different envelopes.

- Denney filled out the forms,
but didn't lick the envelopes.

- And he looks at us and says,
"you guys have tried

Three separate times
to get my dna sample."

He says,
"you can seal 'em yourself.

Is there anything else?"
- the best laid plans.

- The best laid plans
of mice and men.

He didn't fall for it.

- Denney was done,
but carlyle wasn't.

- I wasn't going anywhere
without a dna sample.

- So they staked him out
at the computer store

Where he worked,

And snapped these photos
as their prey came outside

For his cigarette breaks.

Once again,
their mouse was a step ahead.

He was, um,
smoking the cigarette,

And then he would,
when he was finished with it,

He would take it
and put it behind his ear.

- Do you think he knew that
maybe you were watching him?

- I'm sure.

- But on the second day,
denney did something

He had probably done
a thousand times before.

- He starts spitting
on the ground,

Out of the clear blue.

- Spit has dna in it.

- And we were like-we were-we
were jumping for joy

At that point.

- So you've never been so happy
in your life

To see someone spit.

- Never been
so happy to see that.

- When denney left,
carlyle raced over,

Collected the sample,

And drove straight
to the fbi's dna lab.

All there was left to do now

Was wait
just a little bit longer.

- Coming up...

- There's unidentified
fingerprints,

And there is unidentified hairs
in the victim's hands.

- Had someone else
been at corey's?

And then, we sit down
with robert denney.

- Did you murder corey parker?

- When "dateline:
Secrets uncovered" continues.

♪♪

- It had been a year and a half
since corey parker's murder

When police discovered,
or rediscovered,

Robert denney,
her old neighbor.

- We were full bore
on robert denney at that point.

- Here's why.

Denney lived
right behind the victim,

He disappeared
soon after her murder.

And detectives learned this:
Denney had an older brother

In prison for murder.

- You're starting to think
this might run in the family?

- You can't help
but think that.

- Denney's brother
had been convicted

Years earlier in texas,

And his crime was
eerily similar to this case.

- The interesting thing
about the brother

Was that in his case
in el paso,

He stabbed that woman
ninety-six times.

And we're dealing with
a homicide

Where our victim's
been stabbed 101 times.

So the similarity was
just too much to overlook.

- The detectives had to wonder
if denney had killed corey

In a twisted attempt to
outdo his sibling.

One thing detectives
were sure of,

He had become fixated on her.

A coworker recalled being in
robert denney's apartment.

- Robert pointed down to
corey's window and said, uh,

"I watch that girl
down there."

- They were convinced
denney was her killer,

But they needed proof.

So they waited for tests to
compare denney's saliva sample

To that strand of hair
found at the scene.

And wouldn't you know,
denney's dna was a match,

Not just to that hair,

But also to
a tiny speck of blood

Recovered near
her kitchen sink.

All the other possible suspects,

The next door neighbor,
the dishwasher,

And tiffany were cleared
in the case.

- We were jumping up and down.

- We wanted to
go get him then.

- And prosecutor
angela corey said no.

- He could come up with a story
to explain that dna away.

"oh, I carried her groceries
in for her

And I cut my finger."

You can't give anybody
a chance to explain it away.

- The prosecutor wanted him
on the record,

Denying he'd ever set foot
in the victim's apartment.

Then, they'd hit him
with the dna proof,

Trapping him.

So they sent katie kingston
back to maryland,

To robert denney's house.

- Well, I was gonna play like
I didn't know anything, and...

- You were acting.
- ...Just acting kind of dumb.

- She told denney
they had found the man

Who'd killed his old neighbor,
corey parker.

The detective was just here
to tie up loose ends.

He seemed willing to help.

What he didn't know,

The detective
was wearing a wire.

- Then, the detective asked
the crucial question:

Had he ever
been in corey's apartment?

- That was all
the detective needed.

The cat, it seemed,
had finally gotten its mouse.

- When we heard the recording,

I had the arrest warrant
ready to go,

And I finished plugging in
what they told me

Over the phone.

And we were ecstatic.
We knew we had him.

- Corey parker had been dead
almost two years to the day

When police slipped
the handcuffs on robert denney.

At the police station
right after his arrest,

He protested his innocence.

- And when carlyle
mentioned denney's brother,

He again told the detective
he had it all wrong.

- Detectives weren't
buying his tears.

They were convinced
they had enough evidence

To put robert denney
away for life.

And yet,
it took almost five years

To bring him to trial.

It was, after all,
a complicated investigation.

Denney's dna was found
at the crime scene,

But there was also evidence
they couldn't link to him.

- We had alternative suspects.

We had a lot to explain
in the form of the science.

- The defense
seized the opportunity,

Noting there were
any number of people

Who might have killed corey.

- There's still unidentified
pieces of evidence

At this crime scene.

- Robert denney's attorney,
rick sichta.

- There's unidentified
semen stains,

There's unidentified
fingerprints,

And there is unidentified hairs
in the victim's hands.

So, it's a question
of whodunit.

- Not a case of denney did it,
he said.

To underscore that,
denney even took the stand

To show jurors
he was just a boy next door,

Not a monster at the door.

Only it didn't work.

After a three week trial,
the jury needed

Less than an hour
to render a verdict.

Guilty of first degree murder.

- It is the judgement
and sentence of this court---

- Denney was sentenced to
life in prison,

Which is where we met
for this interview.

- Did you murder corey parker?
- No, I did not.

- He believes
the sins of his brother

Made police
quick to zero in on him.

- There has been
a connection made

As far as the theories
of the police,

The prosecutors,
that this was some twisted

Brotherly bond or rivalry.

Is there any truth to that?
- None at all.

Simply because my brother
is convicted of murder

Does not make me a murderer.

- He says the way police
later got his dna,

Shows they were determined to
link him to corey's murder.

- When I first heard
that my spit

Was what they collected
to match to any dna

At the crime scene,
it was just unreal.

I'm thinking to myself,
"how could this be?"

- He's also convinced
that the labs,

Including the one at the fbi,

Didn't follow protocol
when they tested his dna

Against the evidence
from the crime scene.

- There's definitely evidence
that suggests

They may have mixed up samples.

- I think the hardest part
to wrap your head around

Is that there could be
contamination

On both the blood and the hair.
- Right.

I can understand
why you would feel that way.

And maybe that
goes to explaining

What the police might have done
with the evidence.

We don't know.

If I knew,
I wouldn't be here.

- It just seems
a little far fetched

That the police
would randomly pluck you

Out of obscurity years later and
decide to frame you.

- I understand.

And I've thought
about this for years.

And it happened.

Um, police do frame people, um,

We see it all the time now
in america.

- The police have framed you,
and two separate crime labs

Have contaminated
the evidence?

- Yes.
- You can see how that--

- I can see how that is--
- ...Looks very far fetched.

- ...Very far fetched.
Yes, I can understand that.

- The detective in this case
says that he is 1000% certain

He has the right person.
- He's wrong.

He does not have
the right person.

- So who did it then?

- If I knew,
I wouldn't be here now.

I wish I knew.

- Yet, the people who arrested
and prosecuted denney insist

Two independent labs
did follow protocol

Linking his dna to
evidence from the crime scene.

A florida appeals court
denied denney's motion

For a new trial.

- I hope he rots in hell.
I hate robert denney.

- As for tiffany zienta,
she says it took a long time

To get over what he and
the police did to her.

- How did you deal with it?
- Drank more.

Tried to lose who I was.
Tried to change who I was.

Didn't like myself very much.

It's taken me a while
to get back to who I need to be.

- Amy laden has also
struggled with the past.

- I go to that day.

Why didn't I invite her
to thanksgiving with me?

Maybe she would have gone.

So even to this day, you know,

There's a lot of guilt
with that.

- But there's also gratitude.

To investigators
who never gave up,

To three strangers on a dock
playing armchair detective,

And most of all,
to a best friend.

- I definitely feel blessed
to have known her

For the amount of time I did.

You know, I can't imagine

What she would have
accomplished by now.

- Whatever it was,
amy feels certain

It would have been like
the woman herself:

As vibrant as a northern sky,

As unforgettable
as a southern night.

- That's all for this edition of
"dateline: Secrets uncovered".

I'm craig melvin.
Thank you for watching.