- 4 months ago
Can police piece together the puzzling clues found at the murder scene of a beloved school teacher?
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00:00What did police discover when they arrived at the scene?
00:15Sandra dead on the floor, her face badly bruised.
00:19The entire body was covered with green liquid.
00:23It was very brutal.
00:25We didn't have anything to go on right away.
00:30It's difficult to see kids crying over somebody that they admired.
00:38Why would this happen to somebody as wonderful as her?
00:42I lost a friend.
00:44Most importantly, I lost my person.
00:52How do you think he got inside her apartment?
00:55I don't know, but I was shaken up.
00:57What if this person is still out there?
01:01No one saw or heard anything.
01:04We don't have a viable suspect.
01:06She had taken a ride down to the store.
01:10You could see that she purchased a six-pack and some scratch tickets.
01:13She gets into this green Honda and they drive off.
01:17That was going to be the smoking gun.
01:18I remember saying, here we go.
01:21Now we have something.
01:22Hi, I'm Paula Zahn, and tonight we're on the case in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 50 miles west of Boston.
01:43The city known as the heart of the commonwealth became the backdrop for a terrifying mystery when Sandra Hare was found murdered in her own home.
01:55As police studied the crime scene, a puzzling trail of evidence slowly began to emerge.
02:00What detectives discovered allowed them to retrace the respected teaching assistants' final hours alive.
02:09But even after piecing together the witness account and studying the videotape,
02:14it was an unexpected clue that ultimately led investigators to Sandra's killer.
02:20February 5th, 2017, it was a frosty Sunday morning, and the town of Worcester was gearing up to watch its beloved Patriots in the NFL's biggest game.
02:38When dispatchers received a call from a distraught man who had made a shocking discovery.
02:46Now, what is emergency?
02:47The man on the line said he had looked in on 49-year-old Sandra Hare after his mother asked him to check on the single woman.
03:04He was living with his mother at the time, below Sandra's apartment.
03:09His mother noticed that her apartment door was open, which was very odd.
03:13He went to investigate and called out to her, no answer.
03:18So he proceeded into her apartment and found the body on the kitchen floor.
03:27Over the phone, emergency workers tried to get more information.
03:32Worcester police arrived at the multifamily home within minutes and were let upstairs.
03:57What did police discover when they arrived at the scene?
04:03Sandra, deceased, face down on the kitchen floor.
04:09Sandra was wearing what looked like blue pajama pants, along with a pink fleece.
04:16Tightly wrapped around her head was a black and gray sweater.
04:19When investigators saw clothing wrapped around her neck, did they suspect death by strangulation?
04:31It was a high likelihood.
04:33We weren't sure, though, because we weren't able to truly examine the body until she was brought to the medical examiner's office.
04:41The victim's cause of death wasn't the only thing investigators struggled with.
04:47It was definitely an odd scene, something that you don't really come across very often.
04:54What was so unusual about this crime scene?
04:58The entire body is covered with a bluish-green liquid dish detergent and also a powder.
05:07That trail of cleaning supplies led from the body out the front door.
05:18Did you find the fluid and the powder anywhere else?
05:22Yes, in the bathroom sink.
05:25There were two bottles.
05:26One was a bottle of Ajax and the other was a bottle of Fabuloso.
05:30Everybody assumed that that was the liquid and the powder that we found around Sandra.
05:41And there were more puzzling clues.
05:44They also found bedding and clothing on the floor of the shower.
05:48You could see that the white powder had been sprinkled all over those clothes inside of the tub.
05:56What were your theories as to why these substances were at the scene?
06:03My thoughts were that it was an attempt for whoever the suspect was to cover up their tracks
06:08and to try to clean up whatever they may have left behind.
06:11What was there to be cleaned up?
06:15Was there any blood at the scene?
06:16No.
06:17There was no visible blood.
06:18What we were thinking initially was maybe they were concerned about their DNA being left behind,
06:23hairs, fibers, anything of that sort.
06:29So far, it appeared that plan had worked.
06:35Investigators scoured the apartment for something that might link the killer to the crime.
06:41We had discovered a white wallet that was located in the kitchen sink.
06:45Was there anything significant in the wallet?
06:48As soon as you opened it, you saw Sandra's school identification.
06:53We found a bank card, but no cash.
06:56What did you make of her wallet that was found in the sink?
07:01It was interesting that it was found in the sink.
07:02It looked like maybe the killer was trying to contaminate the wallet to throw off any DNA.
07:11Besides the missing cash, police couldn't find any other evidence that the murder had been a robbery gone wrong.
07:21It didn't look like anything had been rummaged through.
07:23From what we could see, everything appeared to be in its place.
07:27Were there any signs of forced entry into the apartment?
07:31No, there were no signs.
07:32Where do you think the killer entered the apartment?
07:36I believe he came right through the front door.
07:41In fact, it looked like Sandra may have been hosting a guest at the time she was attacked.
07:47They were able to collect a can of beer that was on the kitchen table that was full and then a can of beer that was in the sink opened.
07:59Whoever this person was, she was familiar enough to feel comfortable with this person in her own home.
08:04Police studied the location of Sandra's belongings and theorized she had been assaulted shortly after returning to her apartment.
08:18It seems reasonable that somebody would come into their home and place their belongings down.
08:24What did you find on her bed?
08:26We found some lottery tickets as well as her cell phone.
08:28Police hoped once they were able to unlock Sandra's phone and study its GPS data, it might help them determine where Sandra had been.
08:39And even more importantly, they would see the call log and text that might reveal if someone had returned to the apartment with her.
08:52But for now, they could only focus on piecing together what they saw at the crime scene.
08:58You have the empty beer can in the kitchen sink.
09:01You have the full one on the kitchen table.
09:04In my mind, it seemed reasonable that they were going to have a beer together.
09:10Was there any evidence of sexual assault?
09:12No, there was not.
09:14Her clothing was all there.
09:16And our crime scene unit didn't locate any trace evidence.
09:19In fact, police didn't find any evidence that pointed to a motive for the crime.
09:29Did it look like to you that it was a planned attack?
09:33No.
09:33All we knew was that we have Sandra dead on the floor.
09:40Was it personal?
09:41Could it have been an ex-lover?
09:43Have you ever investigated a murder that was as confusing as this one?
09:53No, I'd say that this definitely takes the cake.
09:56The whole thing was bizarre.
09:59And we didn't have anything to go on right away.
10:02As investigators tried to make sense of the confusing clues at the crime scene,
10:23Sandra Hare's loved ones were trying to process the devastating news.
10:28How did you find out your aunt had been murdered?
10:33We were watching the Super Bowl, and my aunt called me crying, and she couldn't catch her breath.
10:39She was like, they found Auntie Buffy in her apartment.
10:42Then she said she had passed away.
10:46I think at first I was in shock.
10:48My legs went a little numb, and I thought, this can't be true.
10:52They said foul play was involved, but they didn't really give us any other information besides that.
10:58For Mackenzie, who was just 21 at the time, her sense of grief ran deep.
11:09Her aunt Sandra had been a huge part of her life.
11:13I lost a friend, but most importantly, she was just my person.
11:20Supportive, encouraging.
11:22Sandra's murder resonated with the community as well.
11:33Everyone just loved and adored her.
11:36She was a lot of people's glue.
11:39She was strong.
11:41She had unbelievable courage.
11:43And most of all, she was just so lovable.
11:45Sandra had grown up in Worcester, was a star athlete, and had become an educator at a local high school, hoping to guide young people in the right direction.
11:59What was she like around students and children?
12:04She was the student's safe place.
12:06Students felt very safe when they were with her.
12:08Her best friend, Kareen, and her colleagues at school told police that Sandra had been a role model her whole life.
12:22We played basketball together.
12:24That's where we first started hanging out.
12:26She was a fighter.
12:27She was a go-getter.
12:28She became that leader that everybody admired.
12:32What did you see as some of her strengths as a teacher?
12:37Her strengths was that she listened to what students had to say.
12:41She would try to help them to find a solution to the challenges that they were experiencing.
12:49And the outpouring of grief from everyone who Sandra had touched was on display at her funeral.
12:56What did it mean to you to see all of those students at Sandra's memorial service?
13:02It was an honor to see those kids there, but it was very difficult to see kids cry over somebody they admired and loved.
13:11Because she was a beloved teacher.
13:13The kids loved her.
13:13It affected her students and also every staff member there.
13:19Because obviously there was no answer as to why this would ever happen to somebody as giving and as wonderful as her.
13:32As detectives pondered that question, they could only hope that Sandra's autopsy would give their investigation a focus.
13:41What appeared to be the cause of her death?
13:44There was obvious signs of deep bruising to her neck.
13:49Also, she had a broken hyoid bone, which is common in strangulation.
13:55And that's ultimately what they said was the cause of her death.
13:59It was very brutal.
14:08Were any defensive wounds discovered?
14:10Yes, it was apparent that she had been assaulted.
14:13Her face was badly bruised.
14:15She had bruises on her arms, her legs, really all over her body.
14:19But in the end, the autopsy didn't reveal any physical evidence that could be directly connected to Sandra's killer.
14:32Detectives hope a closer examination of the 49-year-old's relationships might provide a lead.
14:38And what they discovered was troubling.
14:41It turned out that Sandra had issues with her downstairs neighbor, Gino, the man who had first reported her death.
14:52After speaking to the other neighbors, it was clear that Sandra had a contentious relationship with him.
14:58What did Sandra's friends tell police about Gino that made them suspicious of him?
15:12She had told her friends, if I ever end up dead, it's the guy downstairs.
15:16If I end up dead, Gino had something to do with it?
15:21That's a pretty extreme thing to say, isn't it?
15:24Absolutely.
15:25He's the one that found her dead.
15:27So, of course, the alarm bells went off.
15:29We're going to look at him.
15:31We need to take a deeper look and see what he has to say about this.
15:34The investigation into Sandra Hare's murder suddenly had its first suspect.
15:55Investigators trying to solve the murder of Sandra Hare had zeroed in on their first suspect.
16:01Her downstairs neighbor, Gino.
16:05Based on what Sandra's friends and family said, it seemed possible that the man who had discovered her lifeless body was also her killer.
16:17You talk with Gino the day Sandra's body was discovered.
16:21Did he seem at all traumatized by her murder?
16:26No. Gino seemed annoyed.
16:31When you say annoyed, annoyed by their relationship or annoyed that someone had been murdered?
16:41I think he was annoyed.
16:43His building has become a crime scene.
16:45He was being questioned and didn't want to be bothered.
16:49You had been told by a friend of Sandra's that Sandra told her, if I end up dead, my downstairs neighbor will have had something to do with it.
17:01How did he explain why Sandra would have said that?
17:06He said that they didn't have a good relationship.
17:09She was a noisy neighbor.
17:11Those words and Gino's combative attitude raised serious concerns for police.
17:27It definitely raised eyebrows.
17:29It's a whodunit at this point.
17:31So we have to take a serious look at it.
17:36Both of Sandra's downstairs neighbors, Gino and his mother, were brought in for questioning.
17:43Did the neighbors remember hearing anything suspicious the night before?
17:49Yes. Gino and his mother recalled hearing loud noises coming from Sandra's apartment.
17:53They had heard what sounded like her arguing with somebody.
18:02In fact, Gino and his mother provided police with text messages documenting that they had asked Sandra to quiet down that night.
18:13We knew based on the cell phone downloads that they had reached out to Sandra.
18:18Gino and his mom texted Sandra complaining about the noise.
18:23It was shortly before midnight.
18:26Is it true that Gino actually started pounding the ceiling to indicate to her to stop making the noise?
18:32He did take a broom and pounded it up against his own ceiling to try to send her a message that the noise was bothering him.
18:41Gino claimed that at the time, he never thought that Sandra might be in danger.
18:46But now that he knew what had happened, he reconsidered.
18:54He relayed to me that he heard a thud.
18:59And he heard what he thought was someone pacing.
19:04And he didn't think it was Sandra.
19:06There was a loud thump right around midnight, and then everything stopped.
19:16Gino then added an odd detail.
19:19He told detectives he also heard movement in Sandra's apartment early the next morning, while his mother walked their dog.
19:28Gino actually reported that while his mother was out of the apartment, he could hear footsteps in Sandra's apartment.
19:37Could he remember when he heard those footsteps?
19:40He believed it was sometime between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.
19:43According to Gino, his mother returned from her walk shortly after those footsteps stopped.
19:52That's when she asked him to go upstairs, and he found Sandra's body.
20:01Investigators went to work, verifying the timeline Gino and his mother provided.
20:07And getting access to Sandra's cell phone records was a major help.
20:13We knew that at about 11.23 p.m., Sandra was texting friends while going to a Super Bowl party the next day.
20:22That was the last time Sandra used her phone to make a call or respond to texts.
20:28The evidence supported Gino's account that the attack began just minutes later.
20:35You questioned Gino twice.
20:38Did his stories remain consistent?
20:41A hundred percent, yes.
20:44Nevertheless, did you believe him?
20:46I did.
20:47He's brutally honest about their relationship and that she was a noisy neighbor.
20:53He wasn't trying to direct us away from or mislead us.
20:56He said that he thought that maybe he should have called the police that night.
21:00So I didn't feel from those interviews that this was our guy.
21:04Detectives carefully considered what it meant if everything Gino and his mother had told them was true.
21:17Whose footsteps had he heard in Sandra's apartment after midnight and again the next morning?
21:24Could they have been the sounds of her killer covering his tracks?
21:28There was two very plausible theories.
21:33Had he remained up there, it's possible.
21:35But I believed more likely than not that he had left the apartment in return to try to clean up.
21:39Detectives canvassed the neighborhood looking for a witness or surveillance video from the area.
21:50It was tough.
21:51We didn't have any witnesses.
21:53No one saw or heard anything that would alarm them.
21:58We don't have a viable suspect here.
22:00We had zero.
22:01Until Sandra's best friend, Kareem, remembered a chilling call she had received from Sandra just a week before her murder.
22:16She's just like, I need you to stay on the phone with me.
22:19This big guy, he's following me and I don't know who he is.
22:23And I'm like, hang up with me, call 911 and I'm on my way to meet you.
22:27She's like, no, I'll be okay.
22:28I'm almost home.
22:29Based on what she said, she was able to run away.
22:37It wasn't that she just told one friend.
22:39She told several friends.
22:41And through her cell phone, we were able to determine that this had occurred on January 31st.
22:45Did her friend say she was pretty shaken up by what had happened?
22:48Yes, it certainly shook her.
22:50And she was nervous as a result of it.
22:53No one knew who the mysterious man was nor why he was following Sandra.
22:59What did you think the chances were that whoever it was that night might have been involved in the murder?
23:05That was definitely interesting to us.
23:09Anything was on the table.
23:10We couldn't rule anything out.
23:17While investigators now had a lot of puzzle pieces, they still had no clue how they would put them together.
23:23But they were about to get a tip that would bring Sandra's final hours into terrifying focus.
23:31Based on the accounts of her friends and neighbors, investigators believe that Sandra Hare had been attacked in her apartment between 11.25 and midnight.
23:55Perhaps by a man who had been stalking her in the days leading up to her murder.
24:02But so far, they had no potential suspects.
24:06We were trying to reach out and talk to whoever we can, track down who she was with, and try to create a timeline.
24:18And Sandra's cell phone records allowed police to formulate a picture of her final hours, starting with a trip she had made to the store earlier that night.
24:28After looking through her text messages, we were able to determine that she had met up with a friend and had taken a ride down to Santiago's Liquors.
24:40Police spoke with the friend who had given her the ride.
24:43Did her friend indicate that Sandra seemed to be okay that night?
24:47Yes.
24:47Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
24:49She wasn't in any distress.
24:50As we understood it, the friend and his girlfriend dropped her off, and they believed that she was just going to walk home after that.
25:01Surveillance video picked up Sandra getting out of the couple's SUV in front of the store just before 10 p.m.
25:09You see her arrive.
25:11She goes into the store.
25:13Next, police reviewed what the cameras captured inside the store.
25:20What did the surveillance video reveal?
25:23We were able to identify Sandra in the store and what she was purchasing.
25:28You can see that she purchased a six-pack of naturalized beer and some scratch tickets as well.
25:36Police believe those tickets were the ones they discovered in her apartment, and the beer was the same brand as the cans found at the crime scene.
25:45As she paid for the item, Sandra didn't look worried nor frightened.
25:52It looked like she was friendly with everybody.
25:54She was talkative.
25:58Investigators really focused on what happened next.
26:03Sandra began talking with a man she seemed to know, and they left the store together.
26:09Here's surveillance footage of Sandra coming outside the liquor store at around 10.07 p.m.
26:17She gets into this green Honda that we have on surveillance footage.
26:21He then comes outside, and they drive off.
26:25Can you actually tell where the green Honda is going in the video?
26:29As it leaves the parking lot, you're able to see that the vehicle exits and travels east,
26:35which would have been in the direction of Sandra's house.
26:38But that's the last time investigators saw Sandra in the green Honda.
26:46There really were no surveillance systems in the area.
26:52And that made identifying the man seen in the store with Sandra a top priority.
27:00Did you think that this was the break that you had been waiting for?
27:04Absolutely.
27:04You see her getting into the backseat of a car hours before she was murdered.
27:11We want to track down this person and find out exactly what had transpired.
27:16And there was more important information on that surveillance video.
27:21The camera recorded an image of the Honda's plates.
27:25From that, we immediately did a registration check on the vehicle.
27:29And we determined that the registered owner lived right in the neighborhood.
27:34Still, investigators had more work to do.
27:38The owner of the car was not the man in the video.
27:43It was registered to a female.
27:44We wanted to talk to her.
27:46We wanted to find out who that male was that was in the vehicle.
27:48Police were surprised that the car's owner immediately supplied an answer.
27:58She spoke to police.
27:59She was cooperative.
28:01And her brother was actually the one inside the store talking to Sandra.
28:05The woman told detectives that she and her brother, Ismael, were friends of Sandra's.
28:10And that they had given her a ride home that night.
28:13Did she say she actually dropped Sandra off at her apartment?
28:18She did.
28:19She was a really good witness.
28:20She talked about that her brother interacted with her inside of the liquor store.
28:26Came outside, said, we're going to give Sandra a ride.
28:29When she got out of the car, she was happy.
28:32Went to the door of her building.
28:34They actually waited for her to go in.
28:37And the door closed behind her before she drove away.
28:43Police wondered if Ismael would tell them the same story.
28:48Did he admit to talking with Sandra in the store that night?
28:52He did.
28:55He admitted to talking to her, told us about how he knew her, how he grew up with her, and that they gave her a ride home.
29:02What we saw on video was consistent with what he was telling us.
29:06Did you say if Sandra mentioned anything about her plans for the rest of the night, after they dropped her off?
29:14No.
29:14They had exchanged phone numbers, but through the phone records, we saw that they never communicated again.
29:27Police believe that Ismael and his sister were probably telling the truth.
29:31But they didn't accept their account at face value.
29:36How was law enforcement able to corroborate their stories?
29:41Primarily through a license plate reader.
29:45She drove her brother home to a different section of the city and then came back home to her residence, which was nearby.
29:54Those license plate cameras, which photograph every car that passed them, verified her story almost to the minute.
30:02Once we were able to confirm all of that, we were confident that they had nothing to do with it.
30:13The once promising lead had gone nowhere.
30:17Now, police knew that the attack had begun at least an hour after Sandra was dropped off at her home.
30:24Where did that leave this case?
30:26We still were trying to figure out who could have been in her apartment.
30:32We were still talking to people, re-interviewing people.
30:36It was tough.
30:37We were having a hard time figuring out who she was with.
30:41Did it ever get to the point where you doubted that you would be able to solve the case?
30:48Certainly, the thought crossed my mind, I don't know if we're going to be able to crack this one.
30:53But that was about to change in a way no one on the case could have expected.
30:58When a brand new suspect suddenly entered the crosshairs of the investigation.
31:04Police still had nothing that linked a suspect to Sandra Hare's murder.
31:26When they got a stunning break.
31:28What happened that ended up moving the case forward?
31:34We were notified that the crime lab was able to identify DNA on the bear can and the clothing that was found wrapped around Sandra's face.
31:46It was pretty exciting.
31:48Especially because police had video evidence that proved that bear had been purchased a little more than an hour before Sandra's murder.
31:56We were really banking on that DNA evidence.
32:00That was the smoking gun.
32:03Investigators hoped that uploading the unknown profile into the national database would reveal Sandra's killer.
32:13Instead, it deepened the mystery.
32:17What happened when that DNA profile was uploaded into CODIS?
32:22It came back to a match to a crime here in Worcester in the early 2000s.
32:28In that case, a young woman had been sexually assaulted by three men.
32:34DNA had been collected from the victim.
32:36They were able to obtain three separate DNA profiles of the suspects.
32:41Two of the three suspects had been arrested and their DNA profiles were in CODIS.
32:47Only one had not been identified, and that was the one that was also attached to our murder.
32:54I remember saying to other members on the team, here we go, now we have something.
33:02Investigators dug deep into the case file from the sexual attack, searching for a lead on the uncharged suspect.
33:09Through the police reports and the names that were in those old reports, we were able to come up with Jose Melendez.
33:20Investigators discovered that although Melendez had a long history of criminal activity,
33:26he had managed to stay one step ahead of the law through the use of aliases.
33:31As the investigation progressed, we found that Melendez had outstanding arrest warrants.
33:40Police knew they could use those warrants to get their suspect's DNA.
33:44But they believed that finding him would be challenging.
33:48Officers hit the streets, and during a routine neighborhood canvass,
33:59Fortune smiled on the investigation once again.
34:03Some anonymous said, by the way, he lives right around the corner here.
34:06He was here in Worcester, living directly across from Santiago's liquor store.
34:13Police were stunned.
34:15We began to conduct surveillance in the area by Santiago's liquors.
34:21We were only on surveillance for maybe 30 minutes, and he walked out of the building.
34:29What happened once he walked out?
34:32We were able to take him into custody without any incident at all.
34:36He was surprised.
34:39And Melendez still seemed confused in the interrogation room.
34:43How would you describe his demeanor?
34:46He was calm.
34:47He was inquisitive.
34:50Why am I here?
34:54Jose Melendez initially denied he was the man police were looking for.
35:00Hello, me?
35:01Yes.
35:03Let me see.
35:03Once Melendez confirmed his identity, police switched gears.
35:16We asked him, have you heard about something happening in the neighborhood recently where someone was killed?
35:23And eventually I show him a picture of Sandra to gauge his reaction.
35:27She was the teacher.
35:29I don't know.
35:31Was it adamant denial?
35:33I don't know her.
35:34I've never seen her.
35:36Detective Tarquini pressed Melendez.
35:39The teacher.
35:41Did you ever have a beer with her?
35:42Did you ever drink with her?
35:43Never been in her apartment?
35:44No.
35:45No.
35:45As soon as he said I had never been in her apartment, we knew that was a good thing for us.
35:54That's because Melendez's denial destroyed any reasonable explanation he might have had for his DNA being found at the crime scene.
36:05And investigators believe they knew the reason Melendez was willing to take that risk.
36:11He was confident he had already destroyed any physical evidence.
36:16People who commit these crimes, they think, I cleaned up.
36:19They're not going to get me.
36:20He knew that he had put Ajax all over the body.
36:23He thought that the science wasn't going to get him.
36:26But Melendez was wrong.
36:28His DNA profile was a match to the evidence discovered on the beer can and on Sandra's sweater.
36:42What was your reaction to those lab results?
36:47It was incredible.
36:48Finally, we got him.
36:50And the science is spot on.
36:52This is 100% our guy.
36:58At what point was Melendez confronted with the DNA evidence proving that he had been inside Sandra's apartment?
37:07My second conversation with him, he became silent.
37:12When he went silent, what was going through your mind?
37:16Melendez was a very well-educated criminal.
37:20He had circumvented the system for a very, very long time for someone to go quiet.
37:26When they know they're done, it didn't surprise me.
37:28Okay.
37:33With Melendez in custody for murder, police were able to share the news with Sandra's loved ones.
37:40But their long journey to justice wasn't over just yet.
37:45His attorneys were able to keep his case stalled in the justice system for years.
37:51The process was one of the hardest parts for me, waiting for this guy to be convicted.
37:58I was scared.
37:59I was shaken up.
38:00I was nervous because there's so much that goes on behind the scenes.
38:04And any little thing could throw everything off.
38:09You think it's over, and it's not over.
38:11In fact, there was one more twist to the story.
38:20Prosecutors' concerns about proving all the elements of the murder led them to offer Melendez a plea deal.
38:29Ultimately, he pled to manslaughter, which carries a sentence of 17 to 19 years.
38:35The decision was disappointing for those closest to Sandra and to the investigators on the case.
38:47Did he ever tell law enforcement what happened that night?
38:52No.
38:53We did try to re-interview him.
38:55He refused to speak with investigators.
38:58Do you think he ever will talk?
39:00No.
39:01I don't think he will.
39:02I don't think we'll ever know exactly what had happened in that apartment.
39:07He's going to take that incident to his grave.
39:12That's frustrating for everybody, because no one really knows why he did that to Sandra.
39:22The lack of answers and the sentence Melendez received remain difficult for Sandra's loved ones to accept to this day.
39:30Do you think justice was served?
39:33That's a tricky one, because the family had to make the choice, and I know some of the family members wanted life in prison.
39:39But my fear was that some of that evidence could backfire, and he may be set free.
39:44I think it was a good choice.
39:54Corinne has chosen to put Jose Melendez out of her mind and focus instead on her best friend Sandra.
40:01What do you think her legacy is?
40:05Her students, they'll never forget her.
40:07There's so many students that graduated because of her.
40:10If she had to drag them across the stage for graduation, she would get them there.
40:14Her legacy does live on.
40:16A legacy that also includes her niece Mackenzie, now a nurse who credits her career to the passionate advice of her Aunt Sandra.
40:32She would always say, everyone needs a little help.
40:34Don't ever hold back, and don't take life for granted.
40:38And she never had excuses.
40:42She always told me, you know, if you have courage, you can do amazing things in this world.
40:49Following Melendez's sentencing, Sandra's loved ones released a statement.
40:53In it, they thanked police and prosecutors for their tireless work,
40:58and remembered Sandra as someone who never gave up on her family or her students.
41:04I'm Paula Zahn.
41:06Please join us again next time when we're back on The Case.
41:11On the next On The Case.
41:13What did the first officer see when he arrived at the home?
41:16Donna Sue, naked from the waist down, beaten severely.
41:20Just a gruesome scene.
41:22She had been murdered by some deranged person.
41:25It rocked this community to its very core.
41:27This person may be lurking in the shadows.
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