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[Music] up next an apartment complex is the site of a brutal murder she was stabbed multiple times it looked
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like it was sexually motivated how could someone do that why would someone do that police find
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a clue next to the body during that struggle is when the button came off and fell to the ground
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but who killed her it was a sex crime but that didn't limit it just to men a jealous lover
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an exotic dancer and ex-husband all had a possible motive and the button held the key
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35 year old julianne braun worked as a consumer loan officer in fresno california
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helping people get car loans and mortgages but that wasn't the only way she assisted others
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if someone was hitchhiking down the road with the can in their hand for gas she's come on
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let's stop and pick him up i said julia are you crazy i used to tell her you know to just be
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careful she was always positive she never yelled at anybody if you didn't get along with
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her then there was something wrong with you because she was the nicest person in
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the whole world julie was always punctual so when she didn't show up for work one monday
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morning it was cause for alarm julie's boss called and said she didn't come to work
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and she didn't call in and i'm i just started shaking i knew there was something wrong because julie
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was not that kind of a person julie's mother went over to her daughter's apartment
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and found her body just inside the door she had been stabbed to death when my daughter died
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it was like someone took a piece of my heart until it was my whole life the medical examiner estimated that
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julie was murdered the night before her body was discovered she had been stabbed 37 times
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it appeared to be a sexually motivated crime but oddly there was no sexual assault
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she was in her underwear and there was just a massive amount of blood under her around her it was obvious that
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there was a significant amount of physical damage to her body fortunately julie's two children weren't
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home when the crime occurred they were with julie's ex-husband robbery wasn't a motive
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julie's purse with money and credit cards still inside lay untouched on the kitchen counter
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a possible murder weapon a four-inch steak knife was in the kitchen sink but it was clean there were no signs of
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forced entry was it possible julie knew her killer everything pointed to whoever came in
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that apartment came in non-violently was allowed in it wasn't something where they had
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forced their way in and attacked julie police found some bloody shoe prints at the scene
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one on julie's body when i saw that footprint that told me an awful lot about who i was looking for
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he showed exactly what he thought about what he did by just pushing her aside like she was nothing more than a piece
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of meat unfortunately none of the shoe impressions could be used as evidence with carpet you can't tell the pattern
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of the shoe but you could tell the form of a shoe print in the in the blood itself
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in a search for suspects julie's apartment managers told police an unusual story
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three nights before the murder the manager's wife was taking her nightly walk around the apartment grounds
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a new tenant a young man she barely knew told her there was a broken window at the end of
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his hallway and he asked her to check it okay where out is the broken glass it's just it's done a dark walkway he's
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persistent over and over he asked her come over here and take a look at it come over and take a look at it
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she wants nothing to do with it the manager's wife told that person that she would notify her husband
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manager the next day she checked there was no broken window for whatever reason that person had
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that person wanted to take the apartment manager's wife into a very dark very secluded area of
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that apartment complex and that raised a huge flag for us we wanted to talk to that person
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coincidentally the tenant was julie's next door neighbor [Music] in a haunting irony julianne braun
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chose her apartment complex because of its safety features she specifically rented that place
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because of the security they had security gates you couldn't get in without a key to get you know the
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glide key to get in and it was really a nice place the apartment manager's wife told police to question
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julie's next door neighbor a new tenant 23 year old jeremy overstreet jeremy lived with an exotic dancer named
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holly doyle they met at the strip club where she worked overstreet was unemployed and holly said
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she found him articulate and attractive she was kind-hearted you know felt sorry for him you know
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[Music] things of that nature you know she brought him home when questioned by police holly said
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overstreet was home on the night julie was murdered and she saw no blood on his shirt when
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he came in there were witnesses people that had been over at holly's apartment he had gone back to the
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apartment instead of doing what he normally did which was sit down have some drinks and
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continue to talk straight went straight to a room told people not to disturb him he was
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tired a background check revealed overstreet had a criminal record jeremy had just been
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paroled he had been incarcerated for a previous rape but overstreet violated the terms of his
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parole by moving to fresno holly said overstreet took off when he saw all the police around the apartment
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complex investigating julie's murder that by itself would have gotten him picked up by the
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first officer that found him as police searched for overstreet another suspect emerged i had no idea who would
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hurt my daughter my first thought was her ex-husband investigators learned that julie's ex-husband john braun did
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something on the night of julie's murder that he'd never done before he didn't bring the children home to
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julie's apartment as he had always done he said there'd been a change of plan it was strange because he always took
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the boys home at six o'clock that night they had gotten back from the lake too late i'm sure i was the first one
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they wanted to talk to they were wondering why were you late were you circling around did you come in
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and leave the boys somewhere you know why why this night are you late in addition police learned that john
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braun was a few thousand dollars behind in child support payments could this have been a motive for murder
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with no signs of forced entry into julie's apartment john was certainly someone julie would
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have allowed in when we have a homicide investigation we look at everybody everybody could be and as a potential
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suspect anytime you're having a divorce situation where kids are involved and one half of that equation is getting
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on with life and getting into a new relationship that gets volatile and john braun was
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moving forward he was dating someone it was getting serious in fact john's new girlfriend brenda
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stanton was another person police wanted to talk to julie would also have allowed brenda
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into her apartment there's nothing to say that it couldn't have been a female suspect that went in
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and did that brenda a 32 year old school teacher had no criminal record but three days
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before julie's murder brenda and julie got into a fight apparently brenda believed that julie
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was trying to get back together with her ex-husband we used to call his girlfriend alvirah
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and she said elvira and her got into an argument and john and her had gotten into an argument
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and it was just one big mess go question her too well question everyone i wanted to make
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sure that whoever did this got caught then investigators found an important piece of evidence
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in julie's apartment about 18 inches to two feet west of where her head lay i noticed a
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button and it was just there on the cart right close to where her head is the logo on the button eddie bauer
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1920 was clearly visible strands of thread were hanging from the button indicating
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it had been torn from a shirt the button did not come from julie's clothes or any of the blouses in her closet that
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didn't just fall from somebody who might have visited her the day before that was something that the killer left
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behind [Music] according to the eddie bauer company the button found that julianne braun's crime
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scene could have come from a woman's blouse or a man's shirt when questioned by police julie's
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ex-husband john braun and his new girlfriend brenda stanton both denied owning an eddie bauer shirt we had to find out
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who it belonged to where it came from we had to find a specific tie to this button
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why it's there then julie's mother remembered something that julie said to her on the phone
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the night she was killed i'll remember that day forever she said mom let me call you back
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i'm helping a neighbor right now if that neighbor were jeremy overstreet it could account for the lack of forced
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entry so the search for overstreet took on a new significance when questioned overstreet's girlfriend
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holly doyle said she bought overstreet four shirts and one of them was missing she described it as a green tan and a
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red plaid short sleeve shirt holly bought the shirt at an eddie bauer store just a few miles
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away she immediately went to the men's department a particular clothing section she looked around said
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this is it she picked it out of all the other shirts that were this is the one i bought him this is the
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one that's missing and i asked her are you sure about this she said yes i'm sure the buttons on
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this shirt appeared to be identical to the button found at the crime scene everything was
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kind of falling into place everything was going in the direction that we needed to go in order to solve
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solve this case police scoured the inside of julie's apartment for any signs of forensic evidence
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that would link overstreet to the crime unfortunately they couldn't find any they also couldn't find jeremy
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overstreet you could tell by looking at ben and i'm sure he could tell by looking at me that
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our stress level was about it 100 percent one week later because of his credit card activity
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police found overstreet in a san jose hotel 150 miles west of fresno police had nothing concrete to tie him
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to julie's murder but were still able to arrest him we had him in custody for parole
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violation but nothing else we had time on our side to work the julie braun case 100
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in his wallet overstreet had one of julie braun's business cards what he had was a trophy
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it wasn't a business card for business purposes it was a trophy to stamp another victim in his book
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during his interrogation by police overstreet wouldn't say where he put his eddie bauer shirt
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one of those shirts was gone and also a pair of pants were gone jeremy had no explanation for where they
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were why they were missing and that's consistent with somebody who had slashed julie stabbed julie and had blood on
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their clothes and that wasn't going to wash out not with that crime scene he had to get rid
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of on overstreet's right hand investigators noticed a large healing scar across his knuckles
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it sure looked an awful lot like a knife had gone down that knuckle but investigators didn't find
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overstreet's blood or any other forensic evidence at the crime scene investigators needed more than a shirt
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button to charge over street with murder and feared he could walk free the prime suspect in julianne braun's
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murder was her next-door neighbor jeremy overstreet who had a previous conviction
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for rape and robbery investigators didn't find overstreet's blood in julie's apartment
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despite the fact that he had a recent wound on his right hand so investigators decided to look for
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evidence in overstreet's apartment we did notice some items of clothing that belonged to
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mr overstreet those were taken as evidence but none of them were the clothing that
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we were looking for but with so much blood at the crime scene investigators paid particular attention
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to anything that resembled blood in overstreet's apartment we observe these small brownish colored
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specks one on the bathroom door and a couple on the cabinet below the sink and one
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across on the opposite wall a phenolphthalein test showed it was human blood we can work with very very
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small amounts of dna i've always said that if it's sort of pin sized i can see it that i can get a profile
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but scientists didn't find just one dna profile they found a mixture of two female donors one
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was from holly doyle which made sense because she also lived in the apartment which could have
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been simply from her touching the door the other was compared to julie braun's dna
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the dna that i extracted and typed from the bathroom door in my opinion came from julie braun i
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have no doubt about that whatsoever it was a home run if there ever was a home run
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in fact the odds were one in 2.3 trillion that it was anyone but julie braun i was told that the dna belonged to
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julie words can't describe the feeling that came over me that came over us in the unit there's
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only one way her blood got into his his bathroom and that was because he was at the scene at the time
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jeremy overstreet admitted being inside julie's apartment he said she was giving him advice on how to get
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a car loan since she worked in the finance field an unbelievable story you know you have
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no job but you're going to go go talk to this person who's in charge of financing
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to get financing for a car let's be real here overstreet denied any involvement in her
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murder but he couldn't explain the blood in july of 1999 jeremy overstreet was charged with first
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degree murder and attempted rape he gave her the same choice that he gave his victim from southern
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california you can either have sex with me or you can die the choice is yours prosecutors believe overstreet was
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hunting for victims and that the apartment manager's wife may have been a target
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fortunately for her [Music] three nights later prosecutors say overstreet conned his way into julie's apartment
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with a story about financing a car at 7 30 p.m julie's mother called the apartment
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and that's when julie told her mother that she had company one of her neighbors at some point
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overstreet grabbed a steak knife and ordered her to undress instead julie tried to get to the front
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door there was a fight and she ripped the button from his shirt overstreet was much bigger than julie
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and without a weapon she had no chance he stabbed her repeatedly spattering himself with her
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blood [Music] he washed some of it off in the kitchen then grabbed one of her business cards as a
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trophy [Music] he then went back to his own apartment to clean up and some of julie's blood landed on the
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door this cross-transfer of julie's blood and a button from a shirt like one overstreet
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owned led to only one conclusion jeremy overstreet was the killer jeremy didn't need to rape julie braun
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he had an exotic dancer a beautiful woman who he could have had sex with just by
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asking this wasn't about wanting to have sex this was wanting to dominate her to
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use force on her it was a crime of violence how could someone do that why would someone do that
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it's disgusting why would someone want that why would someone try to do that why
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would anyone want to have other people go through what they would go through on march 1 2003
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jeremy overstreet was convicted of first degree murder attempted rape and burglary at his
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sentencing julie's family had some words for her killer i hate you but i'm not gonna let that
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take control of me because i'm not that kind of person i'm stronger than you and my mother was
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stronger than you you know it i felt sick just speaking to him i kept looking at jeremy over street
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then all i could see was his gl glum face smirking then he looked down sometimes a button
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and a speck of blood told the story a jury heard it and sentenced jeremy over street
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to two life sentences with no possibility of parole this guy isn't part of my friends but an evil bastard
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and i'm relieved he's going to go to prison for the rest of his life you can try as hard as you want to to
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cover all your bases but with forensics and what it's becoming on a day-to-day basis
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you better be awful damn good to get rid of everything because that little speck of blood was julie's
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blood and i could prove it they always say that god works in mysterious ways i believe that the button was put there
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was left there for us to find and for us to continue on our investigation and led us in the right direction
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you