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[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: 1985, El Dorado, California-- a woman is discovered brutally murdered.
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MELISSA O'CONNELL: This was a really horrible crime that happened to this woman.
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And there was clear evidence she fought like hell to survive. Ultimately was stabbed and very violently killed.
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NANCY GRACE: Investigators are shocked by the victim's condition. This was a devastating crime scene.
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She had been stabbed 29 times. NANCY GRACE: Police hunt for the killer, but soon the investigation grinds to a halt.
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They didn't have any evidence to charge anybody with this offense. So the case did go cold.
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NANCY GRACE: Years later, a man's convicted of the murder, but later proven innocent.
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He said, "I have been telling people since it happened that I didn't do it and no one believed me."
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If he didn't do it, somebody else did. That's the bottom line. Jane Hylton was a victim of a horrific, violent murder.
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And somebody killed her. And that was the next question to answer. This is the story of Jane Hylton's savage murder,
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how the investigation goes wrong, and how groundbreaking forensic technology frees a man
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wrongly convicted of murder. I'm Nancy Grace. And this is "Bloodline Detectives."
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[THEME MUSIC] July 7, 1985, El Dorado Hills, California-- a bloody body discovered in the early morning hours.
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Connie Dahl and Ricky Davis were boyfriend and girlfriend. They went to a party.
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They came back late. When they came back late, they saw Jane Hylton's daughter outside of the house.
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She was anxious about going into the house because her mother hadn't wanted her to go out
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and she was afraid her mother would be angry with her. Ricky and Connie basically said, well,
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you can tell your mom that you were out with us and come in the house with us. And so all three of them entered the home.
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The three of them proceeded upstairs. Ricky and Connie showed autumn which room she was staying in, because it was her first night there.
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They took her into that room. And when they exited the room, Ricky noticed smears of blood
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on the wall in the hallway. He then noticed that his mom's master bedroom door was closed,
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which he thought was odd, because his mom and her boyfriend had left that morning to go camping.
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Ricky then opened the door, went to turn on the lights. LINDA STARK: Ultimately saw her stabbed body in the bedroom
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where she was staying. He picked up a poker of some kind to arm himself, to be prepared in case he encountered
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anybody while he was looking around to see what he could see. i didn't know if the person was still in the house.
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I didn't know if-- I didn't know what to know. I didn't know what to think. So yes, I was scared.
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MELISSA O'CONNELL: Connie screamed at the sight of the body. And Autumn then reacted to that scream and came in.
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And then she herself became hysterical at the sight. Ricky told Connie to call 911.
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Connie couldn't even get it out when she attempted to call 911. So Ricky had to get on the phone and report what had happened.
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NANCY GRACE: 3:38 AM, the police arrive on the scene. What they find is horrifying.
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MELISSA O'CONNELL: This was a devastating crime scene. Jane was found kind of laying on her side,
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her knees kind of curled up. Her hands were stuck in a position up towards her chest.
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She was gripping hairs at the time that they discovered her body. She had bruises to her face, her nose, a cut inside her lip.
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She had been stabbed 29 times on her chest, her back. She also exhibited defensive wounds to her arms,
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indicating how hard she fought her attacker at the time. She even had cuts on her hands.
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The crime scene was mainly in the master bedroom. There were a lot of signs to indicate that she
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had been attacked in there. There was blood spatter on a end table next to the bed.
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There was blood spatter on the wall above where her head was. And there was blood on the floor and also on the bed
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where Jane's body was found. LINDA STARK: Jane had broken a nail in the course of the struggle.
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VERN PIERSON: The evidence at the scene, as well as the forensic evaluation, determined that this was
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a horrific, violent struggle that she was in, that she fought for her life, it appeared to be for some period of time,
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and ultimately was stabbed and very violently killed. This is a crucial time for local sheriffs.
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They found a bloody victim dead, clearly her murder extremely violent. But what else can they learn?
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Since they think the victim fought back and fought back hard, what else on the scene
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could yield valuable clues? Law enforcement took a video of the crime scene. And there were crime scene investigators
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who came in and started collecting evidence, assessing the body, collecting things from the body
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that might have been helpful. They gathered her clothing. They found her broken fingernail which they gathered.
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There was a lampshade that had been slashed by a knife. So presumably, whoever attacked Jane had also,
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in the course of a struggle, slashed the lamp shade. What's amazing is this is back in 1985.
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The idea of DNA profiling or connecting a piece of crime scene evidence to a particular individual,
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that didn't hit the United States yet. In fact, it was going on in England at the time.
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The fact that law enforcement still collected the evidence that they did based on the technology
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available at the time really was critical. LINDA STARK: There was a spot of blood that was taken
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at the front of the house. NANCY GRACE: Outside the house, detectives begin to question
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people that live there. MELISSA O'CONNELL: They separated Ricky, Connie, and Autumn and talked to them
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separate from each other. All three of them relatively told the same story. LINDA STARK: They had come home.
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Autumn was waiting outside. They had gone in. They had found the body. And they had no idea what had happened.
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MELISSA O'CONNELL: As Ricky and Connie were explaining where they were, they did note
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things outside the crime scene. Ricky's car was actually parked up on a curb facing the wrong direction.
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He had an odor of alcohol about him, a stale odor of alcohol. And they did touch the hood of his car.
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And it was described to be warm. So all of those signs indicated that Connie and Ricky had
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just come home from a party. Law enforcement that night, after talking to all three
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of them, of course, they surveilled the entire home. And they discovered that Ricky had been
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growing marijuana in the house. And so he was arrested that night for growing marijuana,
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which was pretty significant because when he was brought into custody, as they typically do, they examine the body
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and they note any scars, tattoos, and didn't note anything by way of injuries or anything
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to suggest that he might have been involved in this crime. When I got to the county jail, they stripped me.
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They looked for injuries, typical booking. They're trying to figure out who would commit such a crime.
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And I think in many instances, the first thing, based on experience, that law enforcement looks at
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is you try to look for connections in terms of who would do this? And in many cases, it would be somebody that she knows.
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NANCY GRACE: The victim, Jane Hylton, is a well-known figure in the community. And police arrest Ricky Davis, who was present at the scene.
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But can police link him to the murder? That's next on "Bloodline Detectives." July 1985, El Dorado County Sheriffs
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investigating the gruesome murder of Jane Hylton, found stabbed dead. Jane died as a result of having suffered
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several stabbing injuries. And she died as a result of blood loss. She was friendly with the grandmother of Ricky, which
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is why she was staying there. She worked for my grandmother's real estate office.
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Apparently she was scared to death of something. She wanted a safe place for her daughter and her to stay.
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And my grandmother offered the house, said my mom's going to be away camping. NANCY GRACE: The autopsy on Jane's body
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reveals the true horror of the attack. LINDA STARK: Jane had been stabbed something like 29 times.
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So she was extensively wounded. And there was on her left shoulder a bite mark that all who were looking at it saw the bruising
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and what looked like a breaking of the skin from what looked like a human bite mark.
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They certainly would have looked for fingerprints. They would have looked for any blood analysis
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that they might be able to do, either typing or DNA analysis. There was the possibility of DNA analysis,
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but it was not very well developed. And very few agencies were able to use DNA analysis in 1985.
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NANCY GRACE: Hoping to identify a suspect and a motive, investigators began interviewing those closest to Jane,
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including her daughter, Autumn, and ex-husband, Archie. They immediately started thinking about her husband
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from whom she had separated because of allegations of abuse. MELISSA O'CONNELL: Even Autumn had been asked at some point,
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do you think Archie's capable of doing this? And she thought maybe. And so he seemed like a serious suspect to be considered.
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He was arrested on suspicion of murder. And I believe his response was something like,
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who is it I supposedly killed? NANCY GRACE: But after questioning Archie Hylton,
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police are satisfied he did not kill his ex-wife. Archie did cooperate with the investigation
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and provided blood samples and hair samples for comparison. He was ruled out as having contributed to whatever
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was found at the scene. NANCY GRACE: After Mr. Hylton cleared of committing the crime, police receive
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a call from Connie Dahl. So the day after Jane's murder, Ricky was still incarcerated for the marijuana.
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And Connie was on the phone with Ricky. And while she was talking to him, she discovered that there were bloodstained
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towels in the laundry basket. And I believe she was even sitting on one and realized there was bloodstains on them.
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And she said to Ricky, what do we do with this. And as she reports it, Ricky said, call the police.
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Give them that evidence. And so that's what Connie did. Connie called the investigators and said
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I think you should come and pick up this additional evidence that might be related to Jane's murder.
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I don't know that law enforcement knew who would be the next likely suspect except the people that were
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in the house at the time, which is why I think they had considered Rickie at the time.
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Ricky was given a polygraph. And polygraph examinations are not admissible in court
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in California. But they are still a significant investigative tool for law enforcement, and certainly were back in 1985.
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Ricky was asked direct questions, did you kill Jane Hylton, were you involved in Jane's murder,
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to which he responded no. LINDA STARK: When they analyzed the results, they determined that he was being
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truthful when he said he was not responsible for having done it. It was clear that he was being honest when,
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to them, interpreting the polygraph, that he was not responsible. With Ricky Davis cleared on the polygraph, leads run out.
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And the killer remains free. They didn't have any evidence to charge anybody with this offense, not Archie, not
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Ricky, not Connie, not Autumn, and not anybody else unnamed so far. They didn't have anybody to hold responsible for this.
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So the case did go cold. NANCY GRACE: More than a decade after Jane Hylton is murdered, El Dorado County detectives
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reopen the cold case. They push the investigation as hard as they can to prove Ricky Davis is the prime suspect after all.
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El Dorado County had two cold case detectives who had reopened Jane Hylton's murder case investigation.
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And in examining the work done by the previous detectives, they decided that Ricky was the perpetrator.
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LINDA STARK: They felt like the weak link, and I believe that's the word that they used,
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the weak link in the case was Connie Dahl. They decided to go find her and talk to her
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and see what she had to say now, 14 years later about what had happened that night.
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MELISSA O'CONNELL: When the officers go and talk to Connie, she tells law enforcement that it
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had been at least 11 years since she had heard from or talked to Ricky. And they said to her, we want to talk
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to you about Jane's murder. And the first thing Connie says is, I can close my eyes today
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and still see that crime scene. That's how traumatizing it was. And she then proceeded to tell law
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enforcement almost verbatim what she told law enforcement back in 1985. And the two detectives said, that's not what happened.
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They had decided that they thought Ricky was the perpetrator. And that was based on going back and listening
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to an interrogation of Ricky that had been done in the '80s when they found the body, where they interpreted
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something he said as implying that Jane had been on the floor. And when the body was found, it was found on the bed.
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So they decided that that meant he had actually found her on the floor and dragged her
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and put her up on the bed. MELISSA O'CONNELL: The reporter writes the statement in the local paper that said that Connie indicated that when
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they found Jane's body, it was in a position, as if somebody placed her in the position in which she slept.
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And law enforcement, firmly believing that the crime scene evidence indicated that Jane's body had been on the floor
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and then placed on the bed, they saw that as their ticket. Connie knows something because she knows the body was moved.
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And that was their way of demonstrating that Connie knew and Connie was involved.
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And so they approached Connie not to genuinely get information from her, but to extract from her what they
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thought had happened, which was that they wanted her to implicate Ricky. MELISSA O'CONNELL: They, in turn, even threatened her
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in the sense of, look, this could be this misdemeanor type thing. Or you can go down for a felony accessory to murder.
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They showed her crime scene photos and the crime scene video. When she had gaps in her knowledge
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or was inconsistent with their theory of the case, they would either ignore it or they would correct it.
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NANCY GRACE: Detectives cannot get Connie Dahl to change her story. Next, they visit Jane Hylton's daughter, Autumn,
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and they pressure her for evidence that could incriminate Ricky Davis. MELISSA O'CONNELL: And they went to Autumn
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and they say something incredibly cruel at the time, "We're surprised you're not you on the street somewhere
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and using drugs," just not kind words to the family of the victim of this brutal murder.
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LINDA STARK: They told her that there was DNA evidence, that she was going to be implicated.
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They told her that they believed Ricky had done it and that Ricky was a scumbag and a dirtbag.
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And she did not fall for it. Even though they said they had DNA evidence, Autumn continued to say, I don't know what you're talking about.
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Why would I stand there and watch this person who I have no relationship with kill my mother?
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I have no interest in doing that. I did not do that. That is not what happened. NANCY GRACE: Police continue to pressure
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Connie Dahl over the next few years to try and get the answers they want. They told her that she was a mother
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and she could potentially lose her children, that they didn't like the story that she was giving because it didn't really
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felt like it made a lot of sense, which meant to them it didn't match what they thought the story was.
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They suggested to her a narrative that really minimized her involvement in it. And eventually, she said something to the effect of OK,
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you tell me exactly what happened, and that's what I'll say. NANCY GRACE: That was, then, the evidence that they needed,
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which was that Connie was saying Ricky did it. And she was then offered a deal. MELISSA O'CONNELL: Connie was offered a deal
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to plead to manslaughter for her participation because her story had indicated that she was the lookout,
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that she was ordered by Ricky to sit out on the front steps to make sure no one came into the home.
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And manslaughter had a potential sentence of 3, 6, or 11 years. And that's what was indicated to her,
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you could face any one of these things. And that afternoon she pled to manslaughter.
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NANCY GRACE: Ricky Davis goes on trial April 2005 in El Dorado County Superior court.
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But a mistrial is declared to allow his defense attorney more time to prepare. On July 12, he goes on trial again.
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And Connie Dahl takes the stand. MELISSA O'CONNELL: She testified against Ricky, told the jury
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the story that had been created in her mind. What I thought was, wow, she really
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believes what she's saying. I felt like she really believed what those detectives
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convinced her of. The prosecution would present evidence in an effort to corroborate Connie, right?
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They knew she was the linchpin. So they had to present any evidence that could potentially corroborate her.
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And what they presented was there was a little drop of blood on the front step of the house.
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There were several steps leading to the front porch. And then there was a smear of blood by the front doorbell.
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And the forensic analysis of those two bloodstains indicated that it was Ricky's blood.
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It was Ricky's house. And the defense attorney tried to explain that to the jury,
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this was Ricky's house. The closest that a forensic expert could say that that blood could have been deposited
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was one to two months before the murder. But there was testimony from one of the original detectives who
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said he believed the blood was fresh, even though the DOJ said, I can't place it any closer than a month.
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NANCY GRACE: August 2005, Ricky Davis sentenced to life behind bars. Ricky was convicted of second-degree murder
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and an enhancement for using a knife, which is a one-year enhancement. So he was sentenced to 16 years to life in state prison.
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Ricky went to prison. And after that, he was, of course, entitled to an appeal from his conviction.
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His appeal raised a variety of issues about things that had happened at trial. The appellate court affirmed his conviction and sentence
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and found that whatever had been raised did not mean that his conviction should be reversed.
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NANCY GRACE: Ricky Davis swears he's innocent. And as we see next on "Bloodline Detectives,"
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it will take his own determination, a dedicated new team, and the latest forensic technology
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to prove him right. 2005, El Dorado California sheriffs charge and convict Ricky Davis for a horrific murder of 55-year-old Jane
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Hilton July 1985. Now serving a life sentence, Davis maintains his innocence and fights for freedom.
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I'd written over 1,100 letters to everybody you can imagine, every political figure, every law school or law professor.
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And I received approximately 1% response. But 99% of the 1% all suggested the Northern
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California Innocence Project. LINDA STARK: Mr. Davis wrote to us and said that he was innocent, he had been convicted
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of something that he had not done, and he would like our help in trying to demonstrate
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that and obtain his freedom. MELISSA O'CONNELL: Every letter that Ricky had written me for almost a decade
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always said, "I am innocent." And at that time, though, he didn't know what new evidence
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would exist that could support his innocence, because he had presented this alibi defense, they had attacked
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the credibility of Connie Dahl. They didn't know what forensics could be tested at this point.
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We then opened the case and began our investigation. Ricky Davis has a new legal aid defense team.
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Their first move? To convince the court the evidence from his original murder trial should be tested again.
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It's a legal fight they win. RICKY DAVIS: It was a bloody, messy crime scene. And there was all kinds of physical evidence
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that could potentially have been and currently be DNA tested, and that that evidence could, in fact, provide more information
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about the crime scene. MELISSA O'CONNELL: So the first thing we did was contacted the Sheriff's Department to find out what
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evidence do you still have? And they had everything. In all of Connie Dahl's interrogations,
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there was only one piece of physical evidence that could corroborate her. And that she said, "I bit Jane during the attack."
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And that's what we focused on. So we approached it with the DA and said, look, if that bite mark comes back to Connie Dahl,
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we're done. That's it. But if it doesn't come back to Connie Dahl, then that is strong evidence that Ricky and Connie were
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not involved in this murder. LINDA STARK: And so they took the evidence that needed
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to be tested to that crime lab. And there was a crime analyst there named Angel Shaw.
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And she very carefully and meticulously examined all the evidence, and in particular
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looked at the nightgown. When you have a criminalist, particularly one that's a DNA criminalist, they're going to map that piece of evidence
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out. They're going to look really inch-by-inch, perhaps grid-by-grid, and start looking, whether it's using
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various different light sources, taking cuttings from that item, looking to see if there's any trace evidence,
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looking to see if there's any bodily fluids, and then from there making a determination of is there
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a potential here of some DNA? MELISSA O'CONNELL: She does what's called an amylase overlay, and amylase being an enzyme that's
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found in high concentrations in saliva and some other bodily fluids. Amylase eats up starch.
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And it then clears. It forms this white clearing wherever it is. And she did this on various parts of the nightgown,
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the entire upper quadrants of the nightgown, because that's where Jane would have been bit through.
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We all watched the crime scene video together and tried to identify pieces of evidence
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that the lab should test next. And we landed on several items that could be tested now.
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And the fingernail scrapings from under Jane's left and right hand fingernails was significant again.
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NANCY GRACE: Ricky Davis's defense team has the evidence from his first murder trial
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and conviction tested again. They hope to prove their client's innocence. When that evidence is analyzed, the results
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prove far more surprising than anyone could ever expect, next on "Bloodline Detectives."
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2005, an El Dorado California jury convicts Ricky Davis for the brutal murder a 55-year-old Jane
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Hylton 20 years earlier. MELISSA O'CONNELL: She found clearing in two locations, opposite shoulders, opposite sides.
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And DNA tested them and found Jane's DNA on one side and on the other side found a mixture
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of Jane's DNA and an unknown male DNA profile. LINDA STARK: So Angel took swabs from the fingernail,
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tested those swabs, and also found an unknown male profile. And that profile, in fact, was the same profile
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that matched the profile she found at the point of the bite mark. So we now have redundant DNA.
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We have DNA at the bite mark, DNA at the fingernail, the fingernail scraping, which was not Ricky and not Connie,
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as she claimed she was the one that bit. No, her DNA doesn't show up there, not Autumn,
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but an unknown male profile at both the place where she'd been bitten and under the fingernails.
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When we got those results back, we were like, Ricky is innocent. Ricky and Connie were not involved in this crime.
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Connie's testimony was completely false. I mean, we saw the red flags in Connie's interrogations.
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But you don't know until you know, right? We felt, wow, how does that unknown male DNA profile happen
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to get in the area where there's amylase clearing and it's right where she was bit during the attack on her life?
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That's the genetic profile of the killer. And it's not Ricky. NANCY GRACE: Ricky Davis's lawyers
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push the district attorney to exonerate their client. We were at this point interested
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in getting the district attorney to perhaps agree with us that what we already had was enough to say
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Ricky did not do this crime. That is very interesting, but it doesn't necessarily
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prove that Ricky didn't do it. In other words, Ricky could have committed this murder with somebody else.
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MELISSA O'CONNELL: Is there a way that this DNA could have innocently been transferred there?
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And so they had concerns about that. Is this really from the crime? And so then what we decided was, well, then
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let's get the name of any person that would have come in contact with her body or the evidence
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and let's test their DNA. And with the assistance of the DA's office, that's what they did.
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They went. We would provide names of any law enforcement officer that we can link to a police report,
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if they were mentioned with touching the body, handling the body, the handling the items of evidence.
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We gave those names. They obtained a sample from them to compare to the profile.
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All of them were eliminated. LINDA STARK: We went to the elected DA of El Dorado County
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and presented to him the many reasons why we thought the case needed to be reversed
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and that Ricky was innocent. And he expressed concern about the conviction, but remained troubled by the fact
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that there was still no identification of who that profile belonged to. And so we then filed a petition challenging
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his conviction in court. And we were then going to have to litigate this in El Dorado County Superior Court.
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We wrote a habeas petition. And we said, look, the DNA results demonstrate not only
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that Connie's testimony was false, which is a legal claim for a habeas petition,
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but it also demonstrates Ricky's actually innocent, which I'm not using that in lay terms.
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I'm using that in legal terms. We have evidence that suggests that he is actually innocent.
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And we filed a habeas stating all of this and asking that his conviction be reversed.
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The evidence is stacking up to prove Ricky Davis is innocent. But the question remains, if he didn't do it,
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who did murder Jane Hylton one early morning 1985? Can investigators use the same evidence
00:32:55
that could exonerate Ricky Davis to identify her real killer? The question then posed to us, you have Ricky
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Davis not on the nightgown. But the question then became, well, who does it belong to?
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Is it somebody that Ricky knows? Is it somebody that is completely foreign to him?
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So Vern Pierson and I had a number of conversations about, well, we have an obligation.
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And we now have this new tool. I mean, remember, this is not long after the Golden State
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Killer. So we knew. We knew the power of the technology. And I was like, absolutely.
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Why would we not take this next step? Because if he didn't do it, somebody else did.
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That's the bottom line. Jane Hylton was a victim of a horrific violent murder. And somebody killed her.
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And that was the next question to answer. The profile was uploaded into CODIS and there were no hits.
00:33:53
NANCY GRACE: A CODIS search turns up nothing. So the DNA sample was sent for genealogy testing, utilizing
00:33:59
a new forensic technique. You take that evidence. You send it out to a private laboratory.
00:34:07
And you have them develop this highly-sophisticated, what we call a SNP profile.
00:34:12
And then from there, you use those genealogy sites and you upload it. And you see if you have any potential relatives.
00:34:20
And that's where the science and the investigative aspect becomes a marriage, because you can't do one without the other.
00:34:28
You have to have the science and you have to have the investigative tools to build the trees,
00:34:33
to figure out who it potentially belongs to. Do investigators have forensic evidence that could free
00:34:40
one man and implicate another? We'll see the amazing outcome next on "Bloodline Detectives."
00:34:56
2019, a forensic scientist presents evidence she uncovers to exonerate Ricky Davis in the brutal murder
00:35:05
of Jane Hylton in El Dorado Hills, California, 1985. She went through the entire process of what she did.
00:35:16
I mean, the court, I remember, even saying-- it was the Honorable Judge Kenneth Melikian who presided
00:35:21
over these proceedings. And I remember him saying at the end of the evidentiary hearing,
00:35:26
"I learned a lot more about DNA today than I had ever done," right? She was telling him what the evidence showed her.
00:35:34
She wasn't making conclusions. She wasn't saying this is the profile of the perpetrator.
00:35:40
That was our job. But she was talking the science. And once we had that evidentiary hearing,
00:35:47
we then had some additional oral arguments. And then in 2019, the court issued a written opinion
00:35:55
reversing the conviction, finding that the DNA evidence met the new standard for newly-discovered evidence.
00:36:03
NANCY GRACE: Even though the forensic science used cannot name the perpetrator, they pushed
00:36:09
for Ricky Davis to be released. So we couldn't identify that person. But our position was always that was enough.
00:36:17
We gave you the genetic identity of the true perpetrator. We shouldn't have to give you a name.
00:36:23
That should be enough. It should be enough that you know that Ricky didn't do this.
00:36:27
But the state was going to retry Ricky. And what we learned subsequently, and we didn't know this at the time,
00:36:36
but they were pursuing genetic genealogy investigation to try to identify the source of that profile.
00:36:44
LINDA STARK: They found that there was another person who was, in fact, responsible for this murder,
00:36:50
and that that was not Ricky. It was completely unexpected. We had no idea that it was going to happen.
00:36:57
It just came out of the blue. It was quite remarkable. NANCY GRACE: The court grants Ricky
00:37:02
Davis freedom, his years in prison finally coming to an end. I got a call from the El Dorado County District
00:37:13
Attorney, Vern Pierson, and he said, can you get to court in a day? We're doing a press conference.
00:37:22
We're letting Ricky out. We were able to link the DNA to a person. First thing he said to me is, "Ricky, we apologize.
00:37:35
We know you're innocent. We're planning on releasing you." And it was good to hear from that side finally.
00:37:49
They handed us a statement declaring Ricky factually innocent. And then he came up the stairs.
00:37:58
And all you saw were all of these family members just rush him and just embrace them and with balloons.
00:38:07
And, I mean, he's got this cart he's pushing. And they just tackle him and hug him
00:38:15
and just can't believe they'd get to hug him after all these years. And he just wanted some good pizza.
00:38:21
And we went to this really amazing, cute restaurant in El Dorado County. And, I mean, I'm always amazed by our client's ability
00:38:31
to pivot in that moment. This is such a significant moment in their lives. And he came out and went and joined everyone for pizza
00:38:38
and sat down and talked to everyone who was sitting there, thanked any student who had ever touched his case,
00:38:44
sat there and shared dessert with his mom. And he'd been wrongly incarcerated for 15 years.
00:38:52
And when we went outside and we were talking to reporters, he had this moment where he just kept looking around.
00:38:59
And he's like, look how beautiful this is. NANCY GRACE: After being behind bars so long,
00:39:06
Ricky Davis adjusting to freedom. At that point, I felt like, OK, I'm starting another chapter in this book, part of my life.
00:39:16
And let's turn the page. LINDA STARK: Rickie now has been exonerated, but he lost a huge chunk of his life.
00:39:23
And he has to rebuild. And that's not easy. NANCY GRACE: Today, investigators believe they have
00:39:33
identified the real killer. But as we present this episode, he is still awaiting trial.
00:39:39
His identity cannot be disclosed. Despite evading police for so long, this case proves you can't run from bloodline detectives and
00:39:50
the power of genetic genealogy. LINDA STARK: DNA was everything to this case. It was the DNA that showed that it wasn't Ricky.
00:39:59
It was the DNA that showed that Connie was lying. I think it was a significant thing,
00:40:06
they said the first in the world to be exonerated through genealogy. I like that, because I feel that the prosecutor uses genealogy
00:40:13
as a tool for their side, but yet we've never had the opportunity until now. Hopefully I set a precedence.
00:40:20
Justice does not always work without flaws, without mistakes. Sometimes there's a desperate search for answers
00:40:27
at the expense of someone else. In the end, justice strives for truth to prevail.
00:40:35
In this case, justice does finally prevail for Ricky Davis, despite 16 long years behind bars,
00:40:44
years he will never get back. The future might be different for the next Ricky Davis.
00:40:51
As forensic science continues to make incredible advances, it also reduces the chances that an innocent person
00:40:59
like Ricky Davis will ever be found guilty. I'm Nancy Grace. Thanks for being with us for "Bloodline Detectives."
00:41:15
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