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Welcome to "How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

In August of 1990, Gainesville, Florida,

home to the University of Florida,

was named one of the safest places to live

in the United States.

As it turned out, it wasn't.

Just days before college classes were about to begin,

a stranger came to town, and he brought terror with him.

His victims, young and unsuspecting students.

His unthinkable crimes would paralyze the campus

and the entire town with panic and fear.

Who could have brought this kind of violence

to such a sunny place?

It would be more than a year before police could figure out

who was committing the Gainesville student murders.

Here's how it really happened.

♪♪

Sidner: It was bone-chilling 'cause it seemed

like something out of a terror movie.

Fear, complete and utter fear.

Smith: There's not a single parent that lived through that time period

who hasn't said, "Oh, my God, that could have been mine."

♪♪

Reporter: Fear is bracing the small town of Gainesville, Florida,

after the deaths of five students.

Darnell: We were forced to recognize that horrible things can happen

to vibrant and talented individuals

in a beautiful and pristine place such as Gainesville.

♪♪

Browne: Gainesville is a wonderful city.

It's got beautiful trees, great nature,

and then you got the university.

Hicks: Gainesville is the University of Florida.

Large university with fraternities and sororities,

and it was a laid-back sort of atmosphere

with these wonderful oak trees there,

and it was a beautiful campus.

And the sun always shone.

A football town, a college town,

and I went to school there, so beer-drinking town.

It was fun.

Sidner: August of 1990.

It was my first year at the University of Florida.

Like any freshman, you show you,

and you got all the jitters and the excitement

of starting a new school year.

Hoyt: Christa was always happy.

She was always enthusiastic about everything.

She enjoyed life.

She said she wanted to be a crime scene investigator.

Reporter: Manny Taboada and Tracy Paules had known each other

since their days here at American High School.

Taboada: You know, the great thing about my brother

is that he lived life to the fullest.

He was an architecture major.

He was super, super, super happy

about that particular time in his life.

Tracy had this way of just mesmerizing people.

She really did.

She wanted to be a lawyer.

She had one last semester left in her Bachelor's degree.

Browne: Fall 1990 was my last year,

so I was looking forward, you know, to a great year.

Mann: Things were on a real high.

You had a brand-new University of Florida President,

John Lombardi.

You had a brand-new coach named Steve Spurrier,

so people were pumped up.

They were excited about the fall semester taking place.

And so there was a lot of optimism.

There was a lot of hope going into 1990.

And the last thing on your mind is murder.

Powell: I know the University of Florida and Gainesville

were totally shocked that day in 1990.

There was a demonic person roaming loose.

This town, it literally came to life in August.

It was not uncommon, not even unexpected,

that you would have lots and lots of people

walking the streets.

Mann: You could blend into the University

of Florida student population and really not get noticed.

Sullivan: This man had come to Gainesville --

I believe he arrived in -- on August 20th of 1990.

He was pretty much a ne'er-do-well.

He had stayed a couple of days in a hotel, ran out of money,

and he started living in a field off Archer Road.

♪♪

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He was a voyeur.

He was a Peeping Tom.

He would go, and he would sit outside these apartments

and watch for a while.

♪♪

Later at night, that's when he would enter in.

Man: The apartment was number 113

in the Williamsburg Apartment Complex,

which served as the residence of Sojna Larson

and Christina Powell.

Christina Powell and Sojna Larson were freshmen.

They're just good kids.

Their entire lives were stretching out before them.

Reporter: Sojna Larson was 18, a Baptist church volunteer,

descried as a typical, all-American girl.

Sojna Larson wanted to be an elementary school teacher.

Emery: Christy -- nobody ever called her Christina.

Maybe her mom if she was mad.

She was the first in her family to go to college.

She was the youngest of seven children.

She was very proud that she was gonna go to college

and get a four-year degree,

and it was a very big accomplishment for her.

Sullivan: It was around 3:00 a.m.

He carried with him

a Marine Corps combat knife, very sharp.

He made his way up to Christina and Sojna's apartment.

Man: Entered the apartment by breaking in

through the rear door.

He then crept upstairs, where he entered into a bedroom

where Sojna Larson was asleep.

He had stabbed Sojna Larson.

He placed a double strip of duct tape

over Sojna Larson's mouth in order to muffle her cries.

No one heard anything.

When he returned downstairs...

Man: He found Christina Powell asleep.

He pressed a double strip of tape over her mouth

and taped her hands behind her,

stabbing her five times in the back.

♪♪

Emery: Christy's sister was headed to Gainesville

with Christy's belongings to move her into the apartment.

When she got there, nobody answered the door,

and nobody answered the phone.

Sullivan: Christina Powell's parents were coming in the next day.

They hadn't heard from her.

When they got to the apartment complex,

they saw the cars were there.

They knocked on the door, but there was no answer.

They had to get the apartment manager,

and the apartment manager ended up calling the police.

♪♪

The officer was led in,

and it wasn't but just a few seconds

they spotted the first body.

Clifton: You've got two young females that are deceased.

We do think that at this time that they are homicides.

Emery: When we got the news, it was just like time

kind of stood still literally, you know.

And my mom said --

I think exactly her words to me were,

"Honey, it's Christy."

That was it.

When I think of what he did to her, it tears me apart

because I can see her face.

I can see what she went through.

Clifton: It was a horrific time.

I realized when I saw those first two young victims

that there was no telling how many more times

this person was gonna strike.

Sullivan: Before Gainesville was starting to even really understand

and digest the one, there would be a second murder, as well.

♪♪

Reporter: It was late yesterday afternoon the bodies

of two University of Florida students

were found brutally murdered at their apartment

only two blocks away from campus.

Emery: Christy wanted to study architecture.

She was good at graphic design.

She was only 17.

Reporter: Ada Larson takes comfort

in remembering a daughter frozen in time.

Larson: I have her pictured at 18,

and she shall be forever 18 for me.

Smith: And they were at that great moment of their lives,

and it was all cut short.

Sidner: Two students had been killed.

It didn't take long before everyone started to realize

that something really diabolical was going on,

and the fear set in.

Mann: You could tell there was something different

about these particular homicides,

and that's when I knew we had a problem.

Clifton: 3533 Southwest 24th Avenue, apartment M, Gainesville,

which served as the residence of Christa Hoyt.

Hoyt: She was so sweet.

She had the most beautiful violet eyes that you ever saw.

She went through her high school living at my house.

Taught her how to drive a car.

I helped her make prom dresses, and we had lots of fun doing so.

Mann: Christa had an infectious smile.

I knew her when she was a Sheriff's Explorer.

The Explorer program is for young people

that are interested, possibly, in a law enforcement career.

She was also an employee

at the Alachua County Sheriff's Office.

She was a very good employee and a very good Explorer.

Mann: She was working the midnight shift in the records bureau.

She hadn't shown up for work.

Sheriff's office sent a deputy sheriff out to see

if there was any problem.

Hewitt: She was a good employee.

She would either call in, or she would be at work.

And so they became very concerned.

They knew about what had happened

with the first crime scene,

and I think this even intensified their concern.

They knocked on her door several times

trying to find her.

The owner/manager of the apartments lived on scene.

I was there actually early Monday morning, and he said,

"Do you have a key to Christy's apartment?"

A deputy went around to the backside of the apartment,

and there was a sliding glass door back there.

They were met with a shocking crime scene, to say the least.

I followed the sheriff around there

and watched him with his flashlight,

get down on his hands and knees.

And he shined his light up,

and he could see the headless body of Christa

sitting on the edge of her bed.

There's no head.

There's no head.

I said, "She's not all right, is she?"

And he said, "No."

Fraser: I was told by one detective,

it was the most gruesome crime scenes

he had ever seen in his life.

When I walk into this small apartment,

we saw a bookshelf that was out of place

in the middle of her bedroom.

Her head had been placed on the bookshelf.

The killer had chopped off her head,

set it on a bookcase in front of a mirror

so that the officer who opened the door would see it.

It was horrific.

Hoyt: It was my husband's birthday.

The police went to his office

and told him at the time that she had been killed.

He called me, and all I heard was, "Christa's dead."

We found out that apparently somebody had broken

into her apartment and was waiting for her.

He was like a Peeping Tom.

He went and peeped on her nights before.

He actually broke in and waited for her.

He was inside her apartment.

Smith: He surprised her from behind and placed a choke hold upon her.

He then taped her mouth and her hands behind her back.

He then stabbed Christa Hoyt through the back with such force

that her aorta was ruptured, and she died.

And I just could imagine her terror of how hard

that was on those last few hours of her life,

and that is the worst thing that I have to live with.

I'm sorry.

Reporter: The question now facing police is, are these murders related?

Now we had three victims,

and there was the possibility that it could continue.

At this point, we simply don't know.

Clifton: He found Manuel Taboada asleep.

Sullivan: Manny woke up.

Manny was a pretty strong guy, and he started fighting him.

Reporter: A new school year is about to begin

in many parts of the world,

but in Gainesville, Florida, this year will be one

that college students look back on in horror.

♪♪

♪♪

Browne: It was Monday morning, probably around 9:00,

and I was walking to my first class.

And the editor of The Alligator,

our student newspaper,

was handing out individual pieces of paper.

I learned that three students had been murdered.

Reporter: Gainesville police discovered the first

two murder victims Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday, the third victim was found,

reportedly decapitated.

That's when we started to hear the word

that this could be a serial killer,

which just didn't even make sense.

Hewitt: But then on early Tuesday morning,

we learned that there was another crime scene.

What is going on?

Reporter: Every morning brought more unthinkable tragedy.

Hewitt: Manny and Tracy, they were high-school friends,

and they both come to the University of Florida,

and they were roommates here.

Buyer: Tracy and Manny, I met them in high school.

Manny was on the football team, Tracy was a cheerleader.

They were both extremely likeable,

popular, very outgoing.

Lahey: Tracy and I, from day one, very close.

We did look alike, we thought alike,

we kind of spoke for each other in a sense.

It annoyed our friends quite a bit,

the connection that we had.

They wondered why I was always so protective of her.

Manny was very similar to Tracy.

Very big personality, very fun.

You just want to hang out with him and laugh.

I called Tracy on Sunday night after I saw on the news

about the first two murders.

It was Sunday night before school started,

and I called Tracy.

And you know, we both acknowledged thank God

she lives in with Manny, and that that was a safe --

a safe thing for her.

And she felt safe. I felt safe.

My last words to her were,

"Be careful and call me tomorrow.",

And the next day, tomorrow, was her first day of school.

♪♪

♪♪

Hewitt: Tracy, he had been at her window watching her hours

before he actually went back and broke in.

I don't think he knew Manny lived there.

Smith: At approximately 3:00 a.m. on 27 August 1990,

he broke into the apartment by prying open the double glass

sliding door at the rear of the apartment.

He found Manuel Taboada asleep.

When he took the KA-BAR knife, and he stabbed him

the first time in the chest, of course, Manny woke up.

But Manny was a pretty strong guy,

and he started fighting him.

He wouldn't give up.

Manny fought like hell.

I think he was stabbed 31 times.

Smith: The commotion caused Tracy Paules

to come towards Taboada's bedroom.

Tracy Paules fled towards her room

and attempted to lock her door.

He followed, breaking the bedroom door open.

Reporter: Tracy Paules was already terrified

with the discovery of three bodies

when she realized her roommate, Manuel Taboada,

had been attacked.

Tracy Paules said, "You're the one, aren't you?"

And he said, "Yes, I am."

I -- What must have gone through her mind,

you know, at that point?

The next morning, I called Tracy.

No answer.

The whole day, we tried calling her, left voicemails, nothing.

Tuesday morning, nobody's heard from Tracy.

This is not normal.

Something is going on.

I contacted another friend of ours, Tommy.

Tommy got up, drove to Tracy's apartment.

He calls me from the pay phone,

and he said, "Look, Tracy's car is here,

and I don't want to go peering into her windows

because there's a serial killer,

and people are gonna think I'm crazy."

So, we called the office manager,

and the maintenance man came.

Tommy hangs up.

Next call I get, it's Tommy,

and he's just screaming, "It's Tracy.

It's Tracy."

Woman: After going in four or five feet, what happened?

Carroll: We discovered Tracy's body.

Lahey: I'll never forget this for the rest of my life.

Tracy and I talked every other night

when she went back to Gainesville at 11:00

because the rates went down at that time.

And our plan was to talk Tuesday,

and then that Tuesday morning...

Tracy's dead,

and she was murdered.

My life changed forever.

I really honestly at the time did not believe it was Tracy.

I thought Tommy made a mistake, and at the time,

I didn't realize Manny was also inside the apartment.

To the right, I noted a bedroom with a bed in it.

The bed was covered with blood.

To the left, I noted that there was another victim.

Taboada: I'm driving down I-95, and I'm changing the radio stations.

And they were interrupting programming

to give some updated news, and I remember them saying

that they had found two more bodies in Gainesville,

and that there was a South Florida connection.

Reporter: Victims four and five, a young man and a woman,

were found at an off-campus student apartment

complex Tuesday morning.

Taboada: Starting to describe the individuals,

and I knew then that it was Tracy and Manny.

♪♪

It's like a lightning bolt hits your heart and your soul.

The first thing that came to my mind is my mom.

I just could not imagine what this was gonna do to her.

Manny Taboada was an athlete here at American High School,

and afterwards, he continued to lift weights.

He was big, well over 6 feet tall,

not the kind of person, his friends say,

who could easily be overpowered.

Hewitt: I think it heightened our concern

that this person didn't have no fear,

and that he had the physical capability

of overtaking a man and killing him.

Stacy: Everybody came to the realization

that he's not just looking for women.

I mean, it could be anybody.

He could be looking for anybody to kill.

Reporter: Police fear the gruesome nature of the killings

could mean there may be more,

unless they can catch the student killer first.

Lombardi: This is not a moment that any of us would wish

upon any institution, any community,

or any group in the United States.

The senseless violence comes with no reason,

and the loss has no explanation.

♪♪

Welcome back.

In a three-day span at the end of August 1990,

five college students were found

brutally murdered in Gainesville, Florida.

Three were sexually assaulted.

One was decapitated.

The community was terrorized.

No one knew who the killer or killers were

or when they would strike again.

Reporter: The city of Gainesville is in a state of fear and panic,

held hostage by at least one brutal killer.

Late Tuesday, the bodies of a young man and woman --

Tracy Paules and Manny Taboada,

were taken from the apartment complex

where they had been found murdered.

♪♪

Lahey: That summer was the last time I got to see her.

I remember watching her walk into the airport,

and I just stared at her for a while.

But I didn't have that feeling

that I wasn't gonna see her again.

In the past, all the victims had been female.

We did have one male victim today.

Taboada: I think I asked a lot of times, "Are you sure,

you know, that it's my brother?"

And they kept saying, "Yes, unfortunately, it is."

Sidner: When we heard that a man had been killed,

everyone thought, "Okay, nobody's safe."

Etheridge: They were scared.

This guy was somewhere out there.

Reporter: With little new information and the possibility of a killer

still stalking, anxiety in Gainesville is on the rise.

Scary. Because what's gonna happen next?

You didn't know.

The town was in a terror mode.

It was horrible.

They closed all the stores as soon as it got dark.

Nobody wanted to be out on the streets.

After what had happened to Christa,

at night, everybody slept in my house.

We left the outside lights on, all the inside lights.

We were terrified that somebody was after our family.

We had no clue.

Tensions are high right now.

We're trying to keep a level head from our end.

Citizens are calling in just about anything that moves.

People were calling law enforcement

at the drop of a hat on anything

that seemed slightly out of the ordinary.

The people there were helpless.

They didn't know who did this.

Why whoever had done this had picked these people,

were they arbitrary selections?

Were they targeted?

I'm really scared.

-What are you gonna do? -I don't know.

I don't know if there's anything I can do.

You thought about it every time you were alone,

especially when it was dark.

I'll never forget having the switchblade in one hand

and a baseball bat in another hand and kicking doors in.

And I was absolutely at the time

sure there was someone or someones behind those doors.

I'm afraid every night.

Every day, I'm afraid.

We weren't willing to let our guard down at any point.

Reporter: Hundreds of students attended a news conference

held on the University of Florida campus.

All wanted to know how they would be protected.

Beginning at 8:00 tonight, you'll see more police coverage

than you've ever seen in any city you've ever lived in.

We can assure you, we're taking every precaution

to make Gainesville as secure as possible.

It doesn't stop until he stops.

In fact, crime dropped like a rock for the next quarter

because literally, there was a cop on every corner.

Students and parents were going into the hardware stores,

and they were buying locks,

and some people were buying guns.

And people were told unilaterally,

"Don't walk alone, especially at night.

Go with groups."

There was a real panic on campus

with parents taking their children out of school

because they were afraid.

Man: I just can't believe this is happening.

I mean, I'm ready to take my daughter home

until this is cleared up.

And frankly, we were afraid.

Yeah, we're probably going home today.

A girlfriend of ours already went home.

Her parents made her go,

and we're probably gonna do the same.

Reporter: There's been a mass exodus of students

from the university campus.

Usually it's really packed, but now there's hardly anybody.

By this weekend, there'll be nobody basically here.

Hicks: This was a place with fraternities,

sororities, 30,000-plus students.

Something was always going on there,

and there was just -- there was this stillness.

Smith: Gainesville was very different before.

Never quite the same.

There's an innocence lost that was never completely regained.

Etheridge: Just weeks before the killings,

a national magazine voted Gainesville

one of the most liveable cities in the country.

Now the people of this normally placid college town

can only wait and wonder

if life here will ever really be the same.

It appears that the killer may have spent

some time in the apartment.

He stayed after he dismembered people.

He stayed and posed people.

And this is after they died.

Reporter: Fear gripped the small college community of Gainesville

after the bodies of five college students

were found in three days.

All five were stabbed repeatedly.

Clifton: We have every reason to believe

now that all of the five victims found,

beginning last Sunday afternoon about 4:00,

then through this morning,

are probably all connected to one suspect or two suspects.

Hicks: As soon as they realized that they had five

probably related homicides, all the media went up there,

which probably certainly didn't help the tensions

or the concerns at the time.

It was causing the level of anxiety to rise that much more.

Man: You've had five people that have been murdered

over the past five days.

This is a case that's not gonna get solved overnight.

Everything that can be done is being done.

Reporter: About 600 police officers are involved

in the hunt for the killer.

So is the FBI.

Mann: Chief Clifton and Sheriff Hindery,

they decided early on to form a task force.

Approach this thing with a lot of resources.

Immediately flood the area with cops.

There was new developments daily in the case.

Darnell: It appears that the killer may have spent

some time in the apartment.

He did not go, we don't think, right in and out,

which is typical in most violent crime situations.

Hicks: And everyone's head sort of popped up.

Now, that was that new element.

Fraser: There was a crime scene expert.

He said it was one of the cleanest crime scenes

he'd ever seen,

and there wasn't a lot of evidence left behind.

For instance, he poured different types of liquid

solvent, dish soap,

over the lower portion of some of his victims,

and we believe that was in an effort to eliminate evidence.

Sidner: He stayed after he dismembered people.

He stayed and posed people in certain positions.

And this is after they died.

Fraser: He took his time.

This was a despicable SOB

who took his time doing what he was doing.

Reporter: They are revisiting all three of the murder sites,

searching for clues from what they believe

is the work of a deliberate and methodical killer.

There was leads, thousands of leads being called in.

Numerous people called in as suspects.

People were calling in, everything from,

"You know, I dated this guy, and he was just bizarre."

I mean, there are so many individuals, frighteningly so,

out there who could have committed a crime like this.

Smith: We were having terrible leaks.

Every time you read the paper, there's a new suspect.

I think that first week, Edward Humphrey.

I was told, "He looks good to us."

Reporter: Investigators have been very interested

in 18-year-old Edward Humphrey since shortly after the slaying.

He was acting erratically.

He was talking about murder.

He was telling people he was going on recon missions.

Reporter: Dozens of tips came into police about him.

His bizarre behavior attracted a lot of attention

that summer of 1990.

Hicks: It came out that he had been observed walking in the woods

with a knife or things like that and acting aberrant.

Reporter: When Edward Humphrey was a part-time student

in Gainesville,

he used to carry a large hunting knife

and go on what they called a night-time reconnaissance trip.

This week alone, the University of Florida police

were granted two warrants for Humphrey's arrest.

Two students claim he threatened them

with a knife the day before the first bodies were found.

Hoyt: I recognized Edward Humphrey.

I had gone to a doughnut shop

that was not very far from Christa's,

and I had stopped there right before Christa's death

to get some doughnuts to take home.

When I came back out, he followed me,

and he's saying something to me about,

"You have somebody you're taking these doughnuts home to?"

And I turned around and looked at him.

I said, "Yeah.

He's about 6'4", and he'd like to meet you."

I knew he was in that area.

I knew what he had said to me and how he had approached me.

So, yes, I recognized him right away.

Then, of course, everybody here became very suspicious.

Reporter: Humphrey was arrested yesterday morning

for beating his 79-year-old grandmother.

Hicks: The fact that he had assaulted his grandmother

was pretty unnerving, and she -- she was tough.

She was angry, and she was not angry at him.

Get away! Get away, you damn fools!

She was angry at us.

Reporter: Humphrey's entire family has been besieged by the media

ever since he was identified by police last week

as one of several suspects in the Gainesville murders.

Hicks: I also remember how pained his brother

was trying to talk to the media and saying,

"I don't believe he would do this."

My brother did not do these killings.

He's no way connected with Gainesville.

He's not capable of killing anybody, okay?

Hicks: This is not who did this.

Humphrey: Can I say one thing?

Man: You probably don't want to talk about it now

till you get a chance to talk to your attorney first, all right?

No, I just -- innocent until proven guilty.

Okay.

Krop: We start talking.

He said, "I just want to know whether everything

I tell you is confidential."

He then went on to share with me,

word by word, or scene by scene,

and told me about the five homicides.

Lombardi: Thank you very much for joining us here today

at a memorial for Christa Leigh Hoyt,

Sojna Jane Larson, Tracy Inez Paules,

Christina Patricia Powell, and Manuel Ricardo Taboada.

Browne: Your heart goes to the families, even now,

because folks were able to move on

with the rest of their semester, the rest of their lives,

and to know that these families and these very close friends

were not gonna be able to do that,

that was the hardest thing.

Reporter: The five victims of the murder spree

have all been laid to rest.

Emery: Nothing made sense.

A lot of it is a blur.

Buyer: It was very difficult.

I mean, we ended up having --

we're going to two wakes and two funerals of our friends.

I mean, it was just so many questions,

and it was hard to find any type of comfort in not knowing.

Reporter: Also uncertain is whether police are looking for one,

two, or more suspects.

We didn't know that they had any suspects until Ed Humphrey.

Reporter: Investigators from Gainesville questioned Humphrey

for 12 hours.

Stacy: He had scars on his face.

He was acting erratically.

He was just almost an obvious suspect.

Reporter: Edward Humphrey remains one of the prime suspects in the case,

but police caution that he is only one

they are now investigating.

The town was still gripped with fear.

Reporter: A nationwide search is underway,

but the suspect list remains fluid.

And in the words of one authority,

the investigation at this stage is a massive whodunit.

Then there was a robbery at a grocery store 30 miles away.

I was a sergeant in the investigations

on the west side of Ocala.

The robbery call goes out.

Ocala PD officers did a remarkable job

and were right there as he was pulling out.

And we got into a chase.

He actually almost hit my wife, who was pregnant.

Finally took him into custody,

brought him to our district offices,

and I actually interviewed him.

Reporter: Danny Rolling told police

he's a 36-year-old unemployed laborer.

He told them that when he was arrested for holding a gun

to the head of an employee of this Ocala grocery store,

and then leading them on a wild chase through town.

Graham: He was very chatty.

When I talked to him, he confessed to the robbery.

He was incredibly apologetic and genuinely felt bad

about what he did.

He acted like a little kid

who had been caught doing something wrong.

Man: Did you have any mental problems, Mr. Rolling?

♪♪

Reporter: Rolling is also wanted in Louisiana

on an attempted murder charge.

He's accused of shooting his father,

a retired Shreveport police officer.

We learned that he grew up in a very abusive household.

His father was a Shreveport, Louisiana,

police officer who had a terrible temper,

was apparently caustic, abusive to Danny.

He was married for a short time.

He went into the Air Force, you know,

he didn't really do all that well there.

He gets out, and at one point, he took up armed robbery.

And he wasn't really good at that, either.

Reporter: He was convicted of armed robbery, stealing cars,

and spent time in a state penitentiary.

He was the type of person that confessed to what he did.

He always confessed.

♪ What were my words? ♪

♪ All my tears run together, baby ♪

Reporter: Danny Rolling's public defenders believe

he hasn't been competent in quite some time.

Rolling says he hears voices and sees demons.

Krop: I was asked by the --

I believe she was the assistant chief public defender in Ocala

to evaluate his competency and mental state

at the time of the charge.

And we start talking, and he gave me his history

and talked about the armed robbery.

He said, "I just want to know

whether everything I tell you is confidential."

And I assured him.

He then went on to share with me,

word by word, or scene by scene,

and told me about the five homicides.

Christian: Danny Rolling confessed to all five murders in Gainesville.

Danny Rolling wanted to confess.

Once he made his confessions to me,

I started realizing that I couldn't tell anybody.

This was a confidential evaluation.

Christian: It's the equivalent of a parishioner

telling a priest something in confession.

You're just not allowed to break that seal of confidence.

If you make a movie like that, they'd go,

"No, he didn't do that."

It's just surreal.

It's all surreal.

Reporter: Two suspects aren't in jail.

I don't think that they know who it is.

Reporter: Law enforcement officials, though, say be patient.

Hewitt: We brought in the K-9s, and the K-9s tracked him

through the wooded area, tracked to a campsite.

After the DNA was processed, everything fell into place.

Then the question became, was there anybody else

involved with them or not?

That's what we were waiting to find out.

Every time he mentioned her name, it was a jolt.

How he went into the apartments,

told her how he was going to kill her.

To think that this monster was in there

and had done these things.

That's what he wanted.

He wanted to be a superstar among criminals.

There as pin-drop silence and then gasps

because none of us expected what happened in court.

It was months after the murders,

and no one had been charged with the brutal killings.

One possible suspect, Edward Humphrey,

was already serving time on unrelated assault charges.

A second possible suspect, Danny Rolling,

was also behind bars for armed robbery.

Could either of these men be the Gainesville killer?

What would finally lead investigators

to find the madman behind these unthinkable crimes?

Find out on the next "How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

Thanks for watching.