00:00:00
[INTENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Sacramento, California-- October 26, 1970.
00:00:16
Police respond to
an emergency call to discover the mutilated
body of 28-year-old Nancy
00:00:23
Bennallack. ANNE MARIE SCHUBERT: To have a
woman home alone in her bed who was basically butchered to
death, stabbed over 30 times,
00:00:32
and virtually
decapitated, speaks volumes to the horrific
nature of that crime scene.
00:00:38
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
The brutality of Nancy's murder astounds
neighbors and even law
00:00:43
enforcement. Many simply want revenge. I wanted to meet this guy,
but for all the wrong reasons--
00:00:52
slit his throat, just
like he did hers. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Who is the killer?
00:00:56
Why did he target
this young woman? Will he strike again? I hate to say
it, but you suspect
00:01:03
everybody because who would
want to do something like that? NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): 50
years later, investigators
00:01:11
turn to new groundbreaking
forensic technology-- investigative genetic genealogy.
00:01:18
ANNE MARIE SCHUBERT:
If we did not have this tool, forensic
investigative genetic
00:01:22
genealogy, this
case would not have been solved, no doubt about it. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Now criminals
00:01:28
who have hidden in
the shadows for years discover there's
no way to escape a powerful forensic science.
00:01:36
I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC] [PLACID MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Sacramento, California, 1970--
00:02:09
Nancy Bennallack, 28, is
a young court reporter working at the State Capitol. It's a great stable
job, and she also
00:02:19
enjoys spending time
with her friends, her family, and her fiancé. That group includes
her sister, Linda,
00:02:27
Linda's husband, Tom,
and a fellow court reporter, Jack Moncrief. LINDA COX: My
sister and I rented
00:02:35
the apartment on Bell Street. And Tom was in the army. And then when he came home from
Vietnam, he and I got married.
00:02:45
Tom and Nancy were a lot alike. They watched "Perry Mason"
and solved all the mysteries.
00:02:51
And we lived there for
probably a year or two. TOM COX: It was a package
deal because Nancy
00:02:58
and I just hit it off
instantly when we met. And I played tennis with her. She showed me how
to play tennis.
00:03:05
I went to law school
because of Nancy. She thought I should be a lawyer
because I argued too much.
00:03:12
So I went to law school
for a couple of years. And so the loss of
Nancy still haunts me.
00:03:20
I met her through my mother. And my mother worked with Nancy. They were both court reporters.
00:03:31
And I happened to just really
like Nancy's personality. She was very vivacious
and very attentive.
00:03:42
You know, she looked you in
the eye when she talked to you. She didn't look over your head.
00:03:47
And we became
really good friends. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Nancy is engaged to a courthouse lawyer,
a public defender, Farris
00:03:56
Salamy. LINDA COX: Nancy was dating
Farris at the time when we had the apartment there.
00:04:03
The four of us went
together a lot of places, and we were just
pretty inseparable.
00:04:11
NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): October 25, the night before
Nancy is murdered, she and fiancé Farris go on a date.
00:04:18
They had gone out for
your typical evening. They went to dinner. They came home.
00:04:23
Nancy was in an
upstairs apartment. And then he left, and
he left the slider open,
00:04:28
I'm assuming because it
was probably a nice night. And so then he left, and
everything seemed to be fine.
00:04:35
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
The next morning, Nancy doesn't show up for work. My mother called.
00:04:42
And I looked out the window. And I said, well, Nancy's
car is still here. So let me go up there
and see what's going on.
00:04:52
And went and got the
apartment manager and explained the situation. So he got his master key, and
we both went up there together.
00:05:04
I went in and obviously
called her name out. And there was no response,
so I went down the hallway.
00:05:13
Nancy's bedroom was
off to the left, so I just sort of
turned the corner and knew immediately it was bad.
00:05:25
There was blood on the ceiling,
and there was blood everywhere. And then I looked
down, and there
00:05:36
was Nancy lying face down,
with just ghastly injuries. It's funny-- your body goes
into sort of a fixed state.
00:05:48
And I just simply turned
around, and I walked back to the apartment manager. And I simply said, go call the
police, Nancy's been murdered.
00:06:01
When the police first
arrived at Nancy's apartment, this is a very
brutal crime scene.
00:06:07
They're going to want to be very
careful to preserve the scene to make sure that photographs
are taken of the apartment,
00:06:16
of the body, collect any
potential evidence that is on the body, near the body. But in Nancy's case,
this was a really
00:06:25
brutal crime scene for first
responders to walk into. There were some
clothing lying around,
00:06:31
probably clothes
that she took off. But she was found
dressed as her fiancé had said when he left her, just
in a pair of white panties.
00:06:39
But she wasn't on the bed. She was found on the floor
right next to the bed. One of the detectives--
00:06:46
and I'm not sure who it
was, but I recognized him from the courthouse. So he and I, we went out
into the back sliding door.
00:06:56
And we could see a blood trail
leading from her back porch. She was on the
second floor, but we
00:07:05
could see the blood
trail through her porch and over the banister. And then a trail of blood
leading out the back
00:07:12
of the apartment complex. A trail of blood? That's highly significant, and
it could be an important clue
00:07:22
to identify the killer. When a victim is stabbed as many
times as Nancy Bennallack is,
00:07:29
the killer can often be injured
as well during the stabbing. Therefore police hope this trail
of blood is from the killer,
00:07:39
and they take
samples for testing. MICKI LINKS: There
were two prints found in the area where
it looked like he
00:07:46
probably got up to the balcony. They did casts of those
to save the print itself.
00:07:51
I did tell Nancy
that I was disappointed with her leaving
her back sliding door open ajar for her cat.
00:08:02
And I did tell her. I said, Nancy, I know you
live on the second floor, but I don't think
it's that safe.
00:08:09
And I think he got
the best of her before she could really
put a defense up. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Nancy's
body is sent for autopsy.
00:08:19
The medical examiner
theorized that Nancy was murdered sometime between
1:00 and 5:00 that morning.
00:08:26
She had been stabbed
in excess of 30 times. Many of the stab wounds were
around her head and neck area.
00:08:34
Some of them were so
severe and deep that she had been nearly decapitated. This was a very,
very brutal killing.
00:08:41
MICKI LINKS: Nancy
was a fighter, and we could tell that. The pathologist
during the autopsy
00:08:46
found several defensive wounds
on her hands from the knife and also on her
leg, like possibly
00:08:53
she was kicking at the suspect. It doesn't appear that
Nancy was sexually assaulted
00:08:59
by the person that killed her. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Nancy Bennallack's family
00:09:04
learns the terrible news. Tom came home, and he
told me what had happened. And so he drove to Grass
Valley to tell my mom,
00:09:15
who never got over it ever. I couldn't probably tell
you what we even said or what was said.
00:09:21
I just wanted to get
through the day to help my mom get through that day. She was the best big sister.
00:09:30
She loved her family. She did everything for me. She was just such
a great person.
00:09:38
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Some
of Nancy Bennallack's friends are convinced her
fiancé is the killer.
00:09:44
Investigators suspect him,
but they keep an open mind. That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives."
00:09:52
[INTENSE MUSIC] [INTENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Sacramento, California, October 25, 1970--
00:10:04
a young court reporter,
28-year-old Nancy Bennallack and her fiancé,
Farris Salamy, finish
00:10:11
a date night at Nancy's home. Some time after Farris
leaves, Nancy is brutally attacked and murdered.
00:10:20
Police immediately
suspect the boyfriend, Farris, since he's the last
person to see her alive.
00:10:28
Naturally the first
person that police are going to consider as a
suspect is the fiancé,
00:10:34
those that are closest
to the victims. But then there was
sort of another element
00:10:39
or another layer to
it, because her fiancé worked as a public defender. And his responsibility
as a public defender
00:10:48
is to represent some of the
worst of the worst criminals. He was an attorney for people
that did not-so-great things.
00:10:57
So naturally, people
had to wonder, was this somehow connected? Was his work as a public
defender somehow connected
00:11:06
to what happened to her? A lot of people did
ask us about Farris. I couldn't believe that he--
00:11:14
I couldn't believe why
he would want to do that and that he would do that, but
we had a few people that really
00:11:22
suspected him,
which a lot of times you watch stories on
television and, you know,
00:11:27
it ends up being
something like that. All that nonsense that
they were talking about,
00:11:32
but it was just nonsense. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Police clear the fiancé, Farris Salamy.
00:11:38
He is no longer a POI,
Person Of Interest. They now focus on the evidence
found at the crime scene.
00:11:46
Some of the evidence
included several pieces of tape that law enforcement
later discovered
00:11:53
was used by the perpetrator
to conceal his fingerprints. We are in the era
that fingerprints
00:11:59
were probably one of the best
methods of identifying people. So it tells me that
this person premeditated
00:12:06
this crime, that
he prepared himself to try not to be identified. I think what it spoke to
them is this is somebody
00:12:12
that didn't want to get caught. The tape was
wrapped around itself and, number one,
our main concern
00:12:18
was trying to get
fingerprints from those. There was some ridge detail,
but not enough to get a print,
00:12:25
so that was
unfortunately not useful. Evidence at the
crime scene does not directly point to a suspect.
00:12:33
So investigators must
try another strategy. They now look for
similarities in other cases.
00:12:41
One in particular
rings bells of alarm-- the murder of another young
woman a few months earlier.
00:12:50
Judith Hakari
had been murdered just a few months before Nancy. And both victims shared a lot
of similarities to one another.
00:12:59
They were both young females,
working professionals. Judith worked as a nurse. Nancy worked as
a court reporter.
00:13:07
They were both last seen
near their apartment complex. They also lived
within only a few
00:13:13
hundred yards from one another. MICKI LINKS: If you
stood on Nancy's balcony where the suspect entered, you
could look across the field
00:13:20
and see the apartment complex
where Judith Hakari lived. So the investigators at
that time, with good reason,
00:13:28
started to assume that
those two cases were linked. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Detectives
00:13:32
canvassed the apartment block
where Nancy Bennallack lives. The way Nancy was
found and the ensuing
00:13:44
trail of blood, you would think
someone would hear something. And I never heard anyone
mention the fact that, you know,
00:13:53
they heard screams or anything. That was surprising,
I have to admit. That was surprising.
00:14:01
There were only, I believe,
25 units in this complex. So they canvassed
the complex and spoke
00:14:09
with everybody that lived
there that they could talk to. They also canvassed a lot of the
other apartments in that area,
00:14:15
more so because of
the Hakari connection. And during that canvas,
they spoke with a woman who
00:14:23
told them that she had noticed
a guy, you know, hanging around, loitering in the complex.
00:14:29
It made her a little nervous. COURTNEY FRETWELL: They
described him about 5 foot
00:14:35
9, weighing 170 pounds,
seen in the area. So the cops decided to have a
sketch made of this individual
00:14:44
seen in the complex to see if
anyone else had seen the man or possibly even recognized him.
00:14:51
But when the sketch
was created, it didn't really bring any new
information to Nancy's case.
00:14:57
NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Detectives keep the family
informed, but they don't have much progress to report.
00:15:03
LINDA COX: They contacted us
often to ask us some questions. And you go over
everybody and everything.
00:15:09
I mean, you think,
where did we eat? You know, where did we do this? Where did we do that?
00:15:14
And we just went over
and over and over. TOM COX: I had to go through
all the interrogation
00:15:19
and everything because the
guy was pretty athletic. They thought he was ex-military.
00:15:25
I was retired from the Army,
so I was built in such a way that I probably could have
climbed up on a balcony
00:15:31
without a problem. So they just-- first
I was a suspect. And then I became an ally.
00:15:37
And they became allies of me. After they vetted me and they
found out what was going on,
00:15:43
they suggested that we get
a protection dog because I didn't want Lynn to be trained.
00:15:49
I could be coming home late. I was going to law school. I was coming home late. And if she got frightened,
they said, she could shoot me.
00:15:57
I said, well, let's
go with your plan, because I don't want
her to shoot me. And so we just lived with it.
00:16:02
It was an adjustment. We just kept throwing
adjustment after adjustment after adjustment.
00:16:07
And we were in touch with-- the police was terrific with us. As a matter of fact, they found
our protection dog for us.
00:16:12
And we went through
training so that the dog was trained to protect Lynn. And that's the way it was.
00:16:20
I-- I think I was trying
to just put it behind me, because I had a very
responsible job.
00:16:32
As a court reporter,
that required a lot of concentration. And I just could not dwell on
anything of that magnitude.
00:16:46
COURTNEY FRETWELL: The case
eventually into Nancy's murder went cold as soon as the
tips and information seemed
00:16:52
to have dried up,
which was about five years after her murder. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
In time, Farris Salamy
00:17:00
moves on with his life. He forms a new relationship. He marries. He raises a family.
00:17:07
We stayed in touch
with Farris and his kids, and we tried to just
make a transition.
00:17:15
We tried to do what
we thought Nancy would have wanted us
to do, because she was a very forgiving person.
00:17:22
In 2004, over 30 years after
Nancy Bennallack is viciously murdered, a new cold case
unit revisits the case,
00:17:31
hoping forensic science
can zero in on DNA samples found at the murder scene. When I was the supervisor
of the sexual assault unit,
00:17:42
we started a cold case unit. And one of my duties was finding
cases, reviewing case files,
00:17:49
to see if we still
had the evidence and if the evidence was
eligible to be tested for DNA.
00:17:55
It started a lot
with the older ones, because as you work these
cases, the older they are,
00:18:00
the more difficult
they are, number one, to solve-- but
also to prosecute, because most of your
witnesses have passed away,
00:18:08
or your CSI officers
who have collected evidence may not be around. And so you need all of those
people to prosecute a case.
00:18:17
In 2004, when we
were really beginning to use DNA in our
cases, the blood trail from the balcony around
to the parking lot, one
00:18:27
of those samples collected
during the crime scene investigation was
analyzed for DNA.
00:18:32
And the lab did get a
male DNA profile, which was uploaded at that
time into the state
00:18:40
and national CODIS databases. Detectives pinning
their hopes on an emerging investigative tool.
00:18:49
Can remarkable advances
in forensic science provide new hope
for investigators tracking down Nancy's killer?
00:18:58
We find out next on
"Bloodline Detectives." [INTENSE MUSIC] Sacramento, California, 2004--
00:19:13
34 years after 28-year-old
Nancy Bennallack, brutally murdered in her
own home, a cold case unit
00:19:22
from the Sacramento County
Sheriff's takes over the case. Investigators sent a sample
of blood left at the crime
00:19:31
to CODIS, a national database
of DNA, DNA belonging to convicted criminals. Law enforcement was able
to determine that the DNA
00:19:44
belonged to an unknown male. So finally, after a
good amount of years, they had a usable DNA profile.
00:19:53
CODIS is our national
DNA database, and it is a system that is
incredibly important for law
00:20:00
enforcement because
it stores thousands of DNA profiles from individuals
all across the country.
00:20:09
So when law enforcement
collects DNA at a crime scene, they're able to take that
DNA, upload it into CODIS,
00:20:17
and essentially compare it
to all of the known profiles in the system, potentially
looking for a match.
00:20:25
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
This DNA profile is unique to the suspect. But unfortunately, it
does not match any names
00:20:33
in the CODIS database. Four more years go by. Then investigators take a
look at that profile again.
00:20:42
Well, in 2008,
in California, we started what's called a
Familial Search Program
00:20:48
at the California Department of
Justice, which would then allow you to look for
any family member
00:20:53
in the convicted offender
database that might be related to your killer. In a familial search, you're
looking at very, very close
00:21:00
relatives of convicted
offenders, so a father-son, maybe, maybe a first cousin,
maybe an uncle-nephew,
00:21:08
but it's got to be a very,
very close relationship. And that's limited. I mean, there have
been cases that
00:21:14
have been solved through
it, and it's a great tool for law enforcement. The fact that four
searches were done
00:21:19
speaks volumes to the importance
of this particular case. And ultimately there
was no matches from
00:21:25
that familial search as well. So that's where we
were at that time. Once again, Nancy Bennallack's
murder case goes cold.
00:21:33
Remember how investigators
all the way back in 1970 looked for similar homicides
to garner possible clues?
00:21:42
Well, now it's 2019. Investigators apply
the same strategy. This time they look at
the forensic science
00:21:51
used to catch the
infamous Golden State Killer a year before. During the middle of
the Golden State Killer
00:22:01
investigation, when forensic
investigative genetic genealogy was being done, when I realized
that this could potentially
00:22:08
work in solving the
biggest serial killing case in California perhaps, my
brain and other people's brains
00:22:15
were like, what's next? What other case-- if
it works, what's next? And we had a list because
we knew all the cold cases.
00:22:22
We had the Norcal Rapist,
we had the John Doe rapist, we had Robin Brooks, we
had Nancy Bennallack.
00:22:29
So that thought process
really pretty much started in early 2018. MICKI LINKS: I think we'd had
success with forensic genealogy
00:22:37
on other cases, big cases. So we thought this
would be a perfect case, as long as our DNA was
probative for a SNP profile.
00:22:47
You have to remember,
this is a 1970 case. And although they
preserved evidence as
00:22:53
well as they could back then-- you know, it's going to
deteriorate after time-- but we were lucky enough
to find a couple samples
00:23:00
that they could use to
do forensic genealogy and get us a profile. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Gene By Gene
00:23:07
is one of several
labs specializing in investigative
genetic genealogy. They work with law
enforcement by combining
00:23:16
old DNA samples with new
family heritage databases. Gene by Gene was a
critical part of this team
00:23:24
because the DNA sample
from Nancy's case was sent to them to do
this specialized kind
00:23:29
of testing called SNP testing. So they played a crucial
role in developing the profile that we
needed to be able to do
00:23:36
family tree building. DR. CONNIE BORMANS:
Gene by Gene is a private biotechnology company
located in Houston, Texas.
00:23:44
Right now the
majority of our work is primarily in the genetic
genealogy and research space.
00:23:51
And we do smaller amounts
of clinical testing. Initially we got a call
from law enforcement,
00:23:59
and they were describing
the case to us. They said it was a sexual
assault and homicide.
00:24:04
So Nancy Bennallack was found in
her home stabbed over 30 times. So this was a very violent,
very horrific crime.
00:24:15
We reviewed all of the
evidence that they had, the DNA evidence. And we decided that it was a
good candidate to move forward
00:24:22
with microarray testing. Microarray testing has been
around for a very long time.
00:24:31
Think of it as, if you
have a book, a full book, we're not trying to
read the entire book.
00:24:36
We're only taking maybe the
20th word from every sentence in that book. And that creates a snapshot
of the entire book.
00:24:47
And using that snapshot, we can
kind of find out what books are more similar to other books.
00:24:55
When we completed the testing
for the Nancy Bennallack case, we got a very good SNP
profile that was able to be
00:25:03
uploaded into the database. What you're doing
with that DNA sample is you are identifying
somewhere in the neighborhood
00:25:12
of 700,000 to 1 million
sites on the DNA chromosome. And what that allows you to do
is to then take that profile
00:25:22
and you have so much
more data in that profile because it's 700,000
to 1 million.
00:25:27
That's what allows you, then,
to get more and more relatives when you upload that to
a genealogy site, such
00:25:34
as GEDmatch or Family Tree DNA. DR. CONNIE BORMANS:
After you get that list of genetic relatives,
what the genealogists do
00:25:42
is they use a combination of
the predicted relationships-- because all of the genetic
relatives based on the amount
00:25:51
of DNA that they match
with the SNP profile will get what's called an
estimated relationship.
00:25:58
Obviously the closer related
you are, the more DNA that you will have in common.
00:26:03
And as you go further out,
it gets less and less. And we have ranges for
all of the relatives
00:26:10
that you can have based on
the amount of shared DNA. The amount of DNA that you
share is given by a number,
00:26:17
and the unit is
called a centimorgan. For example, a parent-child
relationship, on average,
00:26:24
will have shared DNA at the
3,500 centimorgan range. And it decreases
as the relationship
00:26:33
gets further and further apart. That team was critical
because they spent, I think,
00:26:40
close to almost three years or
so developing this family tree and ultimately
providing the answer
00:26:47
to who killed Nancy Bennallack. For this case, we
provided the access to the Family Tree
DNA account, and law
00:26:56
enforcement took it from there. And they did the genealogy,
and they built the family tree.
00:27:01
And occasionally, especially
with cases that take so long, we will touch base with them.
00:27:07
Hey, have you had any progress? Is there anything
we can do to help? And I believe we heard
still working on it,
00:27:15
still working on it,
still working on it. And we didn't hear otherwise
until they let us know.
00:27:22
They sent us an email
saying, we notice, we got it. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
The genealogists
00:27:28
come up with a name. It's a huge breakthrough. But now police must
establish whether that name
00:27:35
has any links to the murder
victim, Nancy Bennallack. MICKI LINKS: We
identified a person
00:27:42
named Richard John
Davis who lived in Sacramento at the time. We did some research
on him and figured out
00:27:50
where he worked, was he
married, did he have children? And while we're gathering up all
this intel, I've always heard,
00:27:57
you know, go back
to the case file and see if the guy's in there. And the first thing
I did was went
00:28:03
to the roster of the
people that lived in that apartment complex,
and he lived in apartment 23.
00:28:12
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Next
on "Bloodline Detectives," who is Richard John Davis?
00:28:17
Is he the killer of
Nancy Bennallack? [INTENSE MUSIC] Sacramento, California,
2019-- almost 50 years
00:28:35
after the horrible murder of
28-year-old Nancy Bennallack, new forensic science
has given investigators
00:28:43
a name, the name of a
suspect, Richard John Davis. He had been interviewed. We looked and saw that
he had been interviewed
00:28:53
a day or two after the murder. But it was very vague. You know, reports are
a lot different now
00:29:01
than they were back in 1970. But it didn't have identifying
information for Richard Davis.
00:29:07
It didn't have his middle name. It didn't have a date of birth. It just had an age--
00:29:10
which matched, but
we had to confirm, is this the guy that we think? But he lived with
another guy at that time.
00:29:21
And I was able to actually
find that guy and talk to him. I asked him a few things
about his roommate,
00:29:26
and he had been arrested
a couple of times for driving while
under the influence.
00:29:32
We figured out where he worked. He worked at a grocery store. He was a clerk. He had been in the military,
married a couple of times,
00:29:41
had a child. But during the time
that he lived there, he just lived with
this roommate.
00:29:46
I kind of look at him
as a line-of-sight killer. He's somebody that probably
lived within just a line
00:29:51
of sight of Nancy Bennallack. I believe he was 28 years old. He didn't have much
of a criminal record.
00:29:58
I think he had a
drunk driving arrest. And ultimately, he
died in, I believe, 1997 from something
related to alcoholism.
00:30:08
MICKI LINKS: Very disappointed
that he was deceased. One of the things
that bothers me
00:30:12
is that these murderers get
to go on and live their life. And they've taken that
away from somebody.
00:30:19
And they live their
life for years. Unfortunately we
weren't able to arrest him and bring him to justice.
00:30:29
But we still wanted to confirm
that we had the right guy, so we found a close
relative of his
00:30:36
that was willing to help us. And that person was
gracious enough. Didn't want to be involved,
obviously, to find out
00:30:42
that their relative was
involved in a crime like this, but thought of the victim
and their family and said,
00:30:48
I'll help you. And that person
gave us their DNA, and we were able to confirm
that he is our suspect.
00:30:54
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Once Richard John Davis is absolutely confirmed as
Nancy Bennallack's killer,
00:31:00
retired detective Micki Links
must contact her family. MICKI LINKS: You just don't
want to give them false hope.
00:31:09
So we waited till we
had the confirmation, and then I was able to call
Linda and Tom, who are--
00:31:16
Nancy's parents are deceased,
but they're the closest relatives and have always
been a champion for finding
00:31:22
out who did this to her sister. Tom and I had just
pulled into Auburn and made a stop
in a parking lot.
00:31:31
And the phone rang in the car. We hadn't even got
out of the car. And that's when Mickey told
me, right then and there,
00:31:39
that it's all figured out. We solved it. I'm so grateful to her. We had no clue who did it.
00:31:51
We never had seen this guy. He moved into the complex
after we had moved out-- I think after I moved out.
00:31:57
I'd never seen him. We knew a lot of the people
in the apartment complex. From what little I
found out about him,
00:32:04
he was obviously a
very troubled man. Do I think he's a bad guy? I think what he did to my
sister-in-law was horrendous.
00:32:13
And anybody that knew
Nancy, I couldn't imagine anybody wanting to hurt her. DR. CONNIE BORMANS:
As a company,
00:32:21
we are extremely proud of
the work that we're doing. We believe it's the right thing.
00:32:25
And just to hear the stories
from either the victims or the victims' families about
how relieved they are that they
00:32:36
know who did this, they
know that if they are alive still they're going to pay
for this, they get justice,
00:32:44
and they have told us
through the investigators multiple times, they feel
that they never have to look
00:32:51
over their shoulders anymore. They know that their
nightmare is over, and they know that
it's not going
00:32:56
to happen again by this person. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Now
investigators suspect Richard
00:33:01
John Davis also
murdered Judith Hakari, a young nurse murdered
in Sacramento in 1970.
00:33:12
Even though they
try so hard, they struggle to find
definitive proof linking Davis to the
murder of the young nurse.
00:33:21
There is a great
chance that Nancy is not Richard Davis's only victim. Based on how brutal
the murder was,
00:33:31
there's a real good
chance that there might be other victims out there. We'll only know is if there
was DNA left behind perhaps,
00:33:39
or some other
conclusive evidence that he committed more crimes. The fact that he put
tape on his fingers
00:33:45
in an era when fingerprints
were the most significant piece of evidence tells
me that he went
00:33:50
in there to do what
he wanted to do in an effort to not be caught. The best way to describe him
is vicious, violent killer.
00:34:00
Richard John Davis's death
leaves so many questions unanswered for Nancy
Bennallack's relatives,
00:34:08
for police, and
for those who were so much a part of her life. That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives."
00:34:21
[INTENSE MUSIC] Sacramento, California,
August 2022-- sheriffs announce the
killer of 28-year-old Nancy
00:34:33
Bennallack, 52 years before, is
Richard John Davis, now dead. The news is too late for her
former fiancé Farris Salamy.
00:34:45
Once a suspect,
this innocent man was the last person to see the
victim alive beside the killer.
00:34:54
Farris Salamy, Nancy's
fiancé, had unfortunately passed away from cancer in 2014.
00:35:02
And he died without knowing
what happened to the person that he was supposed to marry.
00:35:08
As any case like this
where a woman is killed and she has a boyfriend
or a fiancé or a husband,
00:35:15
usually that's the first person
that investigators look at. And so he was looked at.
00:35:21
I think that was sad that
he wasn't alive to know that we solved this. I know he went on
and got married.
00:35:29
But he had children
from before, and they know that it was solved. But knowing that you're
probably under suspicion
00:35:36
all the time but you
know you didn't do it, that had to be tough. It was never resolved.
00:35:42
I think in a lot
of people's minds that he was not implicated. I think he had to live with
that the rest of his life.
00:35:52
It would have
really helped Farris if the perpetrator had
been caught when Farris
00:36:00
was alive, that's for sure. It would have absolved him
of a very heinous situation.
00:36:09
It would have
really absolved him. And I think it may have
cut his life short, because he lived with it.
00:36:19
You know, this case,
like all of them, you get so involved in the case. And you feel like
you know the victim,
00:36:25
and then you learn-- you
get to know their families. And so that was good to know
that we can still go back
00:36:31
and solve some of these cases. I think it's good for our
department and the community
00:36:36
to know that we're investing
time and money and effort into these cases. You know, I always say
that the case that happened
00:36:46
40 or 50 years ago is not any
less important than the one that happened yesterday.
00:36:52
And that's kind of how
I feel about staying working with these cases. I think that's one of the
greatest things Sacramento has,
00:37:00
is seeking to resolve these
cold cases for the simple reason that it gives the families,
the grieving families,
00:37:16
some peace of mind. And it's very effective. And I'm so glad we have it. And Micki-- you
know, she's retired.
00:37:28
And she looks upon
this as her assignment. This is my assignment. I'm going to hunt these
people until I find them.
00:37:40
And she's that type of woman. She's going to keep hunting. ANNE MARIE SCHUBERT:
I think perhaps what
00:37:48
I'm most proud of is the fact
that even though it was 50-plus years old, even though many
people probably suspected
00:37:55
the killer was dead, as a
prosecutor or a public safety official, we owe it to families.
00:38:04
We just owe it to them. Golden State Killer
may have been dead. I had so many people say,
quit wasting your time.
00:38:10
To me, the answer is the answer. And it's our obligation to find
it, no matter what the outcome.
00:38:19
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The
tragic murder of young Nancy Bennallack is finally solved.
00:38:25
She will always be remembered
by people who knew her and loved her, and of course the
investigators who worked
00:38:34
tirelessly to crack the case. TOM COX: Nothing can remove
Nancy from our heart. She's there forever.
00:38:42
Everybody that I knew
that knew her loved her. I loved her. I used to tell
Lynn, if she didn't
00:38:49
quit misbehaving
and being Linda, I'm going to marry your sister. So we used to tease
each other about that.
00:38:58
She was just a super gal. Lynn is adjusted as well as
she's ever going to adjust.
00:39:03
She will never, ever, ever
forget what she's gone through. We've been good for one
another for a lot of reasons.
00:39:09
We've been through tragedies,
losses of parents and friends. And so we just
lean on one another
00:39:19
anytime there's a problem. And that's golden, as
far as I'm concerned. If I didn't have her, I don't
know what I would have done.
00:39:29
We got a little girl named
Nancy that reminds us, though. She was having a great time
in her life, 28 years old,
00:39:39
going to get married,
had a great job. She had traveled and had fun
early on in her younger years
00:39:48
and was ready to settle down. Had great friends and
had amazing family. Her sister and
brother-in-law were amazing.
00:39:57
So she was in a good place, and
that's what makes it so sad. LINDA COX: She
would love it here.
00:40:04
We say that almost every day. She would be out there
with those horses and the cows and the dogs.
00:40:14
Her favorite song when
she and I would drive to Grass Valley or someplace,
she'd say, let's sing
00:40:20
"Don't Fence Me In." And we'd sing that song. And it's about, give me a lot
of land and don't fence me in.
00:40:27
Breakthroughs like
investigative genetic genealogy are amazing. But they're only as good as
the dedication and hard work
00:40:38
of investigators who carry
on tirelessly, sometimes for years, to catch a killer.
00:40:45
They even continue their
work after they're retired. It's a real inspiration to
everyone seeking justice.
00:40:56
I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here
on "Bloodline Detectives." [INTENSE MUSIC]