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20/20 - Season 49 - Episode 05: What the Killer Left Behind
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00:00:06It was almost like Amanda talking from the grave.
00:00:11Is it a crime of passion? Is it a crime of revenge?
00:00:17What's going on?
00:00:19When you walk in this apartment,
00:00:24you see Amanda Plass lying there on the floor.
00:00:29She's spread out on her back and there's blood all around her.
00:00:33There was no doubt that she was already dead.
00:00:35It wasn't even like she needs help, it was she's dead.
00:00:39My worst enemy, I wouldn't want to have to go through that.
00:00:41It's just horrible.
00:00:46Not knowing how to even comprehend what had happened,
00:00:54but then still knowing that, okay, I need to put my child to rest.
00:01:02Every single person in her life was a suspect. Everybody.
00:01:07She said she had a lot of bad relationships in the past.
00:01:10Oh, my God.
00:01:16You know what?
00:01:17Mom ain't playing around no more.
00:01:20Somebody knew something.
00:01:21...
00:01:41Our story begins here, in Chicopee, Massachusetts.
00:01:45A small city nestled alongside the Connecticut River.
00:01:50Chicopee is a suburb of Springfield, Mass.
00:01:53It's about 90 miles outside of Boston.
00:01:56Here on Bustling Memorial Drive is this busy Friendly's restaurant.
00:02:00It's a place for ice cream celebrations and familiar faces.
00:02:05One of those familiar faces, 20-year-old Amanda Plass.
00:02:10More than a waitress, really.
00:02:11Those who knew her said she was the heart of this place.
00:02:20Amanda really connected with the customers there.
00:02:29She had a child that used to come in and only liked red gummy bears on a sundae.
00:02:33So she made his sundae with just the red gummy bears.
00:02:39That's just how Amanda was. Everybody loved her.
00:02:45We would come here and we would ask for her because she just brightened our day.
00:02:50She was just a sweetheart.
00:02:56It was a warm evening in August, right around 5 o'clock, and Malene Holmes sat right here in this
00:03:02Friendly's waiting for Amanda.
00:03:05Malene was a customer and she and Amanda had become friends.
00:03:08They were supposed to meet right before Amanda's shift for dinner.
00:03:13She used to come here and have dinner with us before she'd start her shift.
00:03:18We had been waiting for her and then she didn't show.
00:03:22Everybody was concerned. They were trying to call her and there was no response.
00:03:28Everybody was like, where is she?
00:03:32It was just very strange. It was very, very strange.
00:03:37Even more strange was when minutes turned to hours and the ever reliable Amanda Plass never arrived for her shift
00:03:45at Friendly's.
00:03:49Not long after Amanda fails to show up for work, a frantic 911 call comes into the Chicopee Police Department.
00:03:55The caller is a 22-year-old named Seth Green.
00:03:59And Seth tells dispatchers that when he went to visit his girlfriend Amanda, he stepped into a scene of unimaginable
00:04:05horror.
00:04:07She was laying on the kitchen floor right when I opened the door.
00:04:11She was in a pool of blood, stabbed to death.
00:04:15Called 911. I was still holding her when I called 911.
00:04:21There was no doubt that she was already dead.
00:04:23It wasn't even like she needs help, it was she's dead.
00:04:27She was slit, throat was slit, you know, multiple stab wounds to the chest right in the heart.
00:04:34I was the on-call state police detective for that particular day.
00:04:39I got a call to say that there was a homicide occurred in Chicopee.
00:04:44Ronald Gibbons, who at the time was a detective with the Massachusetts State Police, raced to the crime scene.
00:04:51What's the scene like? You arrive, what are you taking in?
00:04:56This is the building itself.
00:04:59The Chicopee Police officers had a cordon off this area, had put the yellow tape around it.
00:05:03Right.
00:05:04To block anyone from going to the back.
00:05:07When the first detectives arrived at the scene, Lieutenant Gibbons says Seth was in distress and sitting on the back
00:05:13porch.
00:05:14He was frantic, he was erratic, he was just a range of emotions.
00:05:21What was that like for you, to see her on the floor?
00:05:26It's just something that I would never wish upon anybody.
00:05:29Like, you know, my worst enemy, I wouldn't want to have to go through that.
00:05:32Honestly, it's just horrible.
00:05:38When you walk in this apartment, you see Amanda Plass lying there on the floor.
00:05:47Describe the position she was in and what you're taking in as you see her.
00:05:51She's like, spread out on her back and there's blood all around her.
00:05:58Death by stabbing is very often a personal attack on behalf of the perpetrator.
00:06:03You have to be up on top of somebody when you plunge that knife into them.
00:06:08It was almost like Amanda talking from the grave.
00:06:12Is it a crime of passion? Is it a crime of revenge?
00:06:16There's a lot of slashes here.
00:06:19This was very violent. It looked like she fought.
00:06:22I knelt down right next to her. I wanted to, you know, imagine or think that she was, you know,
00:06:27breathing or something.
00:06:28And I literally, I tried to give her CPR, like, blow into her mouth and it literally blew out of
00:06:34her.
00:06:35She was pretty butchered up and, yeah, it was just horrible.
00:06:41She's lying on the floor in a pool of blood with multiple wounds, partially dressed.
00:06:51And very dead.
00:06:54It's around the same time that Amanda's sister, Amy Lee, receives an unexpected visit from her aunt.
00:07:00And she told me, you know, your sister's dead.
00:07:04Your sister's been murdered.
00:07:06And, um, I remember just, um, crying instantly.
00:07:16I remember screaming.
00:07:19And my aunt is like, we need to find out who did this.
00:07:22We need to find out right now.
00:07:28And as we're in route to go tell her, my mom's calling me.
00:07:35And she's saying, Amy, what's going on?
00:07:38My mom's begging me to tell her on the phone what's wrong.
00:07:42So I went outside and there were the Chigaby detectives and the state, my daughter, my husband, to let me
00:07:55know that she had been stabbed to death.
00:08:00So in real time, you're learning that your daughter was stabbed to death.
00:08:04How difficult is it to process all of this that's going on in that moment?
00:08:09Oh my gosh, how am I going to bury this kid?
00:08:12Or what, you know, 19, 20 year old has a, has a life insurance policy.
00:08:16Where do you get the money?
00:08:17Just that whole process of not knowing how to even comprehend what had happened, but then still knowing that, okay,
00:08:32I need to, I need to put my child to rest.
00:08:36It's something you can never be prepared for.
00:08:39No, never in a million years.
00:08:45You see your friend and they're happy, they're vibrant, they're excited for life.
00:08:50And then all of a sudden they're gone.
00:08:52And it didn't make sense.
00:08:54It still doesn't make sense.
00:08:57I had this heavy gut feeling that something, something really bad was going to happen to Amanda.
00:09:03I was like, oh my God, did I manifest this?
00:09:06Like, did I put that thought out there?
00:09:11And it came true.
00:09:15Nobody could understand why it happened because Amanda was just friends with everybody.
00:09:20I don't remember Amanda having any enemies.
00:09:25Every single person in her life was a suspect.
00:09:28Everybody.
00:09:31Any detective or criminologist is going to tell you that our money is on Seth Green, the most recent boyfriend.
00:09:37My captain is now saying, head to the station.
00:09:40They got a possible suspect.
00:09:41He's down at the station.
00:09:42They're going to interview him.
00:09:43Need you there right now.
00:09:44It's a race against time.
00:09:46I think my knife may have been at her house.
00:09:49So you have a knife at her house?
00:09:51That knife was not found.
00:09:53Seth was the perfect suspect.
00:10:08To truly understand Amanda Plass, all you needed to do was look into her eyes.
00:10:16She can see her soul, the love that she had for everybody and anybody.
00:10:23Her eyes changed colors.
00:10:25When she was really happy, her eyes would literally turn green.
00:10:30What stands out to you when you think about her?
00:10:33Her spirit.
00:10:35Yeah, her energy.
00:10:37Amanda grew up in Chicopee, once a bustling mill town, now a quiet, working-class community known for the rambling
00:10:45Chicopee River.
00:10:48Chicopee is a small place.
00:10:50Everybody knows everybody.
00:10:52The neighborhood itself is a very close-knit neighborhood.
00:10:56The houses are pretty adjacent to each other.
00:10:59Very urban, residential neighborhood.
00:11:03How often does it happen that you have a random murder?
00:11:07A lot of times you have a gang murder.
00:11:09And this was different because this is truly a victim in her own apartment.
00:11:15A young girl, 20 years old, brutally murdered.
00:11:20Amanda was the middle child raised by her mom, Michelle.
00:11:24She attended a local high school, but left before graduating and instead earned her GED.
00:11:31She was a hippie child.
00:11:33I often find her barefooted outside, painting or taking pictures of the neighbor's dog, playing her guitar.
00:11:42Growing up, we were like best friends.
00:11:45My mom used to dress us up like we were twins.
00:11:49My mom was a single mother for most of our childhood, and we moved around a lot.
00:11:55I've always raised my children to be, you know, independent, and you get what you earn.
00:12:04I used to call Amanda the bigger sister.
00:12:08She had a job, an apartment.
00:12:11Her work ethic was nonstop.
00:12:14Amanda was always dancing around and painting and splashing colors everywhere.
00:12:21Anything that had to do with being artsy, she would make feather earrings.
00:12:26When you see a sunflower, you think of Amanda.
00:12:29It became her trademark.
00:12:32When she found the music festival scene, that really is where she started to blossom.
00:12:37She's in her early 20s, and she just found herself right before she passed.
00:12:43A butterfly coming out of a cocoon.
00:12:47Just the brightness.
00:12:49That was her.
00:12:53On that tragic Friday in Chicopee, Amanda's boyfriend, Seth, whom she had only been dating for about a week,
00:12:59tells police he stopped by Amanda's apartment and immediately noticed a broken window.
00:13:04I pounded on the door if I remember this.
00:13:06And then, did you try to pull a silver apartment door?
00:13:08Yeah.
00:13:08Turned the handle on the hot.
00:13:10I went to her door and let myself in.
00:13:12And she was laid on the floor in a pool of blood.
00:13:18She got off immediately and called.
00:13:22You have the right to remain silent.
00:13:24Do you understand that?
00:13:26Seth had only been dating Amanda for a week.
00:13:29But he said he had moved his things in, and it was a serious relationship.
00:13:36I've been hanging out every single day for a week now.
00:13:40I've been hanging out every single day for a week now.
00:13:40I've been hanging out every single day for a week now.
00:13:42And the relationship was moving fast, right?
00:13:44Yeah, it was moving fast.
00:13:45You know, she had that go-getter attitude and just a fun, caring person.
00:13:49What were you doing for a living at the time?
00:13:51I'm a carpenter, but roofing is where the money's at.
00:13:54So roofing was my main go-to usually for the construction field.
00:13:59Seth tells police he spent the night at Amanda's, left for work around 9 a.m., and returned to find
00:14:04her dead.
00:14:06He also tells investigators he was working on a roof that day and left the job site multiple times to
00:14:12purchase supplies.
00:14:16What time did you leave to get the materials?
00:14:19They had left, like, three lines.
00:14:21It was later in the day.
00:14:22Three to four.
00:14:23Like, three to four.
00:14:25Seth says he and Amanda had kind of fallen into a routine.
00:14:28Every day after he finished working, Seth would drive Amanda to her job at Friendly's.
00:14:33However, the day she was murdered, Seth tells detectives that routine was broken because he had to work late.
00:14:40He was there every day that week to take her to work, but this is the one day that he
00:14:47had to work late.
00:14:48That kind of was suspicious to us.
00:14:52How important was Seth's timeline?
00:14:54His timeline is very important.
00:14:56He leaves the job site several times, and he's on his own.
00:14:59So where exactly did he go or what exactly did he do?
00:15:04Text her, I said, where are you?
00:15:05She didn't answer.
00:15:07My first thought was, like, oh, she just stayed home.
00:15:09Maybe she couldn't find a ride.
00:15:11So you weren't, like, concerned or anything at that point?
00:15:13No, not at all.
00:15:14I went, I went, I drove straight to her house, expecting to see her there waiting for me, you know?
00:15:20Oh, my God.
00:15:21Here I go.
00:15:23Oh.
00:15:24Oh.
00:15:26Oh.
00:15:28Oh.
00:15:28She deserves so much.
00:15:30Oh.
00:15:32I think you give it all to her.
00:15:35This range of motions does not add up.
00:15:37He's, uh, rising to the occasion of being a suspect.
00:15:43The interrogators zone in immediately on the fact that Seth Green is a carpenter and a roofer.
00:15:48In other words, he uses sharp objects and utility knives all the time.
00:15:54Then comes a chilling detail that ratchets up the suspicion on Seth.
00:15:58He tells detectives the knife he used at work, the sharp M-Tech blade, has gone missing.
00:16:04I think my knife might have been at her house.
00:16:07So you have a knife at her house?
00:16:09Yeah.
00:16:09I think it might be at her house.
00:16:10Knife in my car as well, I'm sure.
00:16:12He was missing his M-Tech knife that he didn't take to work that day.
00:16:16That knife was not found.
00:16:19Seth was the perfect suspect.
00:16:21My girlfriend just got murdered and you're blaming me for it.
00:16:25Dude, are you kidding me?
00:16:28Ugh.
00:16:29And now police want to know if the telltale piece of evidence left behind at the crime scene
00:16:33will implicate or exonerate Seth Green.
00:16:49Michelle Penna will never forget the final text message she received from her daughter Amanda.
00:16:56She sent me a text and said, Mom, can you give me a ride to work?
00:17:01And I said, I can't.
00:17:03And she said, okay, she'd find a ride.
00:17:08No one could have imagined that just hours later, 20-year-old Amanda Plass would be gone forever.
00:17:16Homicides happen all the time.
00:17:18But when it happens to you, I would have never thought that my sister was going to be murdered.
00:17:26What you stumbled upon when you went to Amanda's house, how does that compare to a lot of other homicides
00:17:30you've covered?
00:17:31In this particular case, there's droplets of blood all around the room.
00:17:35And that's indicative of that this was a very, very brutal and harsh fight.
00:17:45Well, when we were finally able to get into her apartment, they had covered the floor with paper.
00:17:54So we didn't have to see all the blood.
00:18:00So you're trying to clean out her apartment as I'm walking across paper to cover my daughter's bladder blood.
00:18:15And then who do you ask to help?
00:18:18My theory is that the attacker came through the back door.
00:18:23When we found Amanda, she's actually in her work pants, her work clothes.
00:18:29There was no evidence of a sexual assault.
00:18:33She was found on the kitchen floor, and they do believe she was killed there.
00:18:38So not in a bedroom, not in the living room.
00:18:40And that suggests perhaps an element of surprise.
00:18:43She just didn't lay down and die.
00:18:45She actually fought back.
00:18:48And when she fought back, underneath her fingernails was possibly DNA.
00:18:54And we were going to have to match this DNA to someone.
00:18:57The first person investigator's test?
00:19:00Amanda's boyfriend, Seth Green.
00:19:04I'm going to do a couple tests.
00:19:05We're just going to swipe the inside of your cheek, OK?
00:19:09The interesting thing, we stepped out of the room, but we still observed him.
00:19:14And he'd cry a little bit, and then just wonder why he was there.
00:19:22I can't believe that.
00:19:24I'm so happy with her.
00:19:27I'm happy with her, at least.
00:19:31He had only been dating her for a week.
00:19:34And he was so caught up that this is the best thing that ever happened to his life.
00:19:41But detectives also receive information that points to someone other than Seth.
00:19:46Amanda had recently told her family that someone had been sneaking into her apartment.
00:19:53She said, my apartment got broken into again.
00:19:56And I said, well, what did they take?
00:19:58You need to call the police.
00:19:59And she says, no, Mom, all they took was a glass bowl, like a marijuana bowl.
00:20:05I said, well, you still need to call the police.
00:20:08And she said, no, what am I going to do?
00:20:09Tell them my pocket stolen?
00:20:15Amanda's friends say she suspected an unidentified male was watching her.
00:20:22She saw him peeking into her back window at her apartment.
00:20:28The window is actually broken.
00:20:30And we surmised that the person possibly had tried to make it look like a break-in.
00:20:36So on that same window, you end up with a palm print.
00:20:40If we can identify the palm print, we can also identify the person that would have been there that particular
00:20:46day.
00:20:46But among the most important piece of evidence found at the crime scene, a bloody sneaker print.
00:20:54That footprint showed a sneaker print in blood.
00:21:00You can actually see the Nike impression in that footprint.
00:21:07We had it measured. We had it analyzed.
00:21:10That was very important because of the smaller shoe.
00:21:13Maybe a female, maybe a male.
00:21:16We were looking for a Nike size 7 1⁄2 Air Max shoe.
00:21:27I remember a couple days after she was murdered, everybody had, like, went to her apartment in Chicopee Center and
00:21:36just held, like, a memorial.
00:21:39The whole front of her building was just a sea of sunflowers.
00:21:45That was a really intense, emotional time to be in front of the apartment of where she was murdered and
00:21:57just comforting each other.
00:21:59Just shocked, not understanding how or why.
00:22:06And then, a few days after Amanda's murder, there was a funeral.
00:22:12I just remember it just being beautiful and intense and very heartbreaking.
00:22:20And a lot of sunflowers.
00:22:25Meanwhile, police aren't giving up on the idea of Amanda's boyfriend, Seth, as a suspect.
00:22:29Within hours of Amanda's murder, they even go as far as to ask him for the shoes on his feet.
00:22:36Would you give us permission to look at your shoes?
00:22:38Yeah, you can take them. Let me take them off now.
00:22:40Let's put it up.
00:22:45Finally, after almost 15 grueling hours, investigators reach a conclusion.
00:22:50Seth Green is not their killer.
00:22:53His DNA did not match.
00:22:55His shoe print didn't match.
00:22:57His boots were a size 12.
00:22:59It was too large to be the person at the scene.
00:23:06Clearly, there's some other shoes there that were not mine.
00:23:09And that's the thing that got me released, honestly.
00:23:14What did that moment feel like for you?
00:23:16Well, it's definitely a big relief, you know, honestly.
00:23:19Yeah, when they were walking me out, it was definitely in awe moment.
00:23:24Like, you know, finally, like I told you guys a million times, it wasn't me.
00:23:28What is that like to go through that, to experience the loss and then have to face that questioning?
00:23:33I mean, it's unbearable, honestly.
00:23:35It's like, I just called you guys, like, you know, why are you, you know, trying to blame me for
00:23:40this?
00:23:40Like, you know, like, I love this girl.
00:23:45Seth is officially cleared as a suspect and tells cops there's someone else they should be looking at.
00:23:51She said she had a lot of bad relationships in the past.
00:23:55Detectives also want to learn about an ex-boyfriend who was allegedly upset after seeing a public display of affection
00:24:01between Seth and Amanda at Friendly's.
00:24:04While she was working, he had showed up at work and they started making out.
00:24:09And detectives say that ex's reaction wasn't very friendly at all.
00:24:14So at the very least, you had to consider that he could have had something to do with this.
00:24:18Very much so.
00:24:19The motive of revenge is in our mind.
00:24:43What surprised you most about the conversations police were having with you?
00:24:47It was hard for me to hear them kind of making me feel like they're, you know, asking me questions,
00:24:52like, if I, as if I were the one that did it.
00:24:55Not something I'd ever want anyone to have to go through.
00:24:58It's just horrible.
00:24:59Any problem last night at all?
00:25:02I'm so happy.
00:25:06She said she had a lot of bad relationships in the past.
00:25:10Amanda's boyfriend, Seth Green, is fully cleared.
00:25:13But now investigators wonder if one of those previous relationships could be a factor in Amanda's murder.
00:25:19They discovered that before Seth, Amanda had been seeing a man named Jesse.
00:25:24He was a boyfriend of Amanda basically a week before Seth was.
00:25:30And he also worked at Friendly's.
00:25:32So, at the very least, you had to consider that he could have had something to do with this.
00:25:37Very much so.
00:25:38Jesse wanted a serious relationship.
00:25:40Amanda didn't.
00:25:41And, uh, she finds a new boyfriend.
00:25:43Police learn of an alleged incident at Friendly's involving Jesse and Amanda's new boyfriend, Seth, that raises alarm bells for
00:25:50authorities.
00:25:51Friday was a murder.
00:25:52Thursday night, when Jesse's working, Seth shows up at the Friendly's.
00:25:58Amanda's boss at Friendly's tells police, Seth came in and kissed Amanda openly.
00:26:03Jesse saw it, and he looked uncomfortable afterwards.
00:26:06Jesse asked to go home a little later.
00:26:08Jesse moves up the chain as a very likely suspect.
00:26:11A motive of revenge is on our mind about Jesse.
00:26:14I want to play some of your interrogation from speaking to Jesse.
00:26:18So, you both worked at Friendly's on that Thursday, right?
00:26:21Correct.
00:26:22You left work early, right?
00:26:24Correct.
00:26:25You told us that you left because they overscheduled you, right?
00:26:28Yeah.
00:26:29Okay.
00:26:30Well, that's not what we heard.
00:26:32We heard that Seth went in there, gave her a kiss that made you uncomfortable.
00:26:36Seth was in there for, like, a while.
00:26:39And he did kiss a man in front of you and it made you uncomfortable.
00:26:42Not that I'd seen.
00:26:43I'd seen them talking.
00:26:44It didn't bother me.
00:26:45I was talking to Seth.
00:26:46But I'd never physically seen them kids.
00:26:50Not once.
00:26:51You knew that Amanda was dating Seth?
00:26:56Yeah.
00:26:58How'd that make you feel?
00:27:03It sucked, but what are you gonna do?
00:27:09After he left work, Jesse says he texted Amanda about some items they wanted back from each other now that
00:27:15their relationship was over.
00:27:16But investigators press him about the nature of those messages.
00:27:20Was there any anger in the text?
00:27:22Was there any anger in the text?
00:27:22Not in that text.
00:27:23I don't believe so.
00:27:24But there was some anger in some other text, weren't there?
00:27:26Yeah.
00:27:27I was just angry at the fact that she just didn't talk to me for a few days and I
00:27:31was just wondering what was going on.
00:27:33I was just pissed that she wouldn't tell me.
00:27:35And this is the time that she's now with Seth?
00:27:39I don't know if I knew about it yet, but I should try talking to him then.
00:27:44At this point, you're trying to figure out who might have been involved.
00:27:49How does this information fit into your investigation?
00:27:52We're looking at the fact of who could have done this, who was angry at her.
00:27:57Because as we look at the scene, there's a lot of blood, there's a lot of anger going on.
00:28:01It's not a one and done out the door.
00:28:04Can we also look at your phone?
00:28:06What?
00:28:07What'd you do with those text messages that you texted her?
00:28:10Do you delete them all?
00:28:11No.
00:28:11Texts are deleted.
00:28:12Because you felt they were uncomfortable or?
00:28:15First of all, I didn't want to look at any conversation of me and her.
00:28:18Just because it made me sad to even think about her.
00:28:22Why is that?
00:28:24Because she's murdered.
00:28:26So you deleted them after you found out she was killed?
00:28:29I didn't even want to have to look at them. Everything reminds me of her.
00:28:32As an investigator, what do you make of that?
00:28:34He's trying to hide something.
00:28:36So now there's obviously texts that he doesn't want investigators to see.
00:28:39Did he delete them because she's dead or is he part of something that happened to her?
00:28:44Deleting text messages certainly seems out of the ordinary.
00:28:47Yes, it does.
00:28:48Now investigators want to know if Jesse was doing anything out of the ordinary the day of Amanda's murder.
00:28:54Did you stay home all day?
00:28:56Most of the day.
00:28:57The only time I really left was to go to Friendly's.
00:28:59What did you go there for?
00:29:01For my check, Kyle.
00:29:03Did you cash it?
00:29:04No.
00:29:04Oh, actually, yeah, I did cash it at General's.
00:29:06How did you get there?
00:29:08I got a ride.
00:29:10For who?
00:29:11Kyle.
00:29:12He says he goes to General's.
00:29:15We check a tape to verify his story.
00:29:17We learned that Kyle did not drive him there.
00:29:20So Jesse had lied.
00:29:22Jesse, we interviewed you twice already.
00:29:26And were you telling us the truth?
00:29:29Everything except for about me taking my car to General.
00:29:35Why weren't you telling the truth about that?
00:29:37Because I told you guys that I didn't drive my car.
00:29:40And then when we got into the story, I remember I took my car to General.
00:29:43I just didn't want to go back for my word.
00:29:45I was scared.
00:29:46I don't know.
00:29:48Blimey, I regretted it at the second.
00:29:51You were scared?
00:29:53Yeah.
00:29:55What were you scared about?
00:29:57Just nervous.
00:29:58I've never been interrogated before or anything like that.
00:30:02Never had a deal with anything like this.
00:30:04Basically, his story is he didn't want to tell his parents he wasn't supposed to be driving.
00:30:09So he's more afraid of his parents than he was of the police.
00:30:13Jesse has lied about who he is with from Friendly's, quite possibly, if he's in the car by himself.
00:30:20He could have went by Amanda's and then went to General's.
00:30:24With questions lingering over Jesse's account, investigators decide to compare his shoes to the bloody shoe prints left of the
00:30:31crime scene.
00:30:32You know, what are those, Vans?
00:30:34Yeah.
00:30:35That have like two pairs of these.
00:30:37Yeah, that's it.
00:30:38One on the bottom.
00:30:39Yeah, the other side.
00:30:43Ultimately, Jesse's shoes are not a match.
00:30:46And his alibi checks out.
00:30:48We talked to people at General's.
00:30:50He's not bloody.
00:30:51He's cashing his check.
00:30:53Those close to Jesse never thought for a second that he was capable of such a heinous crime.
00:30:58Tell me about Jesse.
00:30:59Jesse's a great kid.
00:31:01When his name was brought up, that was an absolutely not moment.
00:31:05I've never seen Jesse angry.
00:31:08Sweetest kid.
00:31:09And I know that was really intense for Jesse.
00:31:11Yeah.
00:31:12I know that was, you know, to be put in that spotlight and to have the whispers, I think that
00:31:17was really hard for him.
00:31:19With Jesse now fully cleared by authorities, investigators follow another lead.
00:31:23A mysterious vehicle that a witness says she saw speeding away from Amanda's apartment right around the time of the
00:31:29murder.
00:31:30So to us, it's like, wow, that's, that's big.
00:31:33We're going to look out for a white sedan.
00:31:34And a 911 call comes in that might just turn the entire case on its head.
00:31:40Police, quarter by dispatch, data speeding.
00:31:43I'd like to call to turn myself in.
00:31:46Ask to know what you're turning yourself in for.
00:31:48A learner.
00:31:59Jesse, there's a couple of things that are bothering me here on your statements.
00:32:04Amanda's ex-boyfriend Jesse raised eyebrows when detectives say he was less than forthcoming with information.
00:32:12Now you said you still don't know how she died.
00:32:15I don't.
00:32:15You don't.
00:32:16I find that very hard to believe that you have no idea how she died when everybody's talking about it.
00:32:22It's been on the news.
00:32:23But after determining Jesse had a solid alibi, he was cleared.
00:32:27And investigators with the Chicopee police and the state police quickly move on.
00:32:31Still unclear who exactly they're searching for.
00:32:36One of the best clues that investigators find is a shoe print.
00:32:40A sneaker that is a size seven and a half men's shoe, which is very small for men.
00:32:46It's the smallest size you can get in men's shoes.
00:32:49Or it could be a woman's size nine.
00:32:55Investigators get a new lead from a neighbor of Amanda.
00:32:57A witness who told police she saw a suspicious car the day of the murder outside Amanda's apartment.
00:33:05And so afterwards, as you're learning more about the scene, you learn about this white sedan that's here that peels
00:33:12away at one point.
00:33:13Right.
00:33:13Not a common thing to do.
00:33:15Not a common thing to do.
00:33:16And we actually got that information from the neighbor next door.
00:33:20They remember a white car here.
00:33:22And they just remember a female, single female in the car, pulling away at a high rate of speed around
00:33:29the 430 hour.
00:33:31And then we identify who that white car was.
00:33:34Ended up being a girl from East Hampton named Mercedes Benz.
00:33:38That's right.
00:33:39Her name is Mercedes Benz.
00:33:43Another friend of Amanda's who works at Friendly's.
00:33:46Mercedes was a really nice girl.
00:33:48She was a waitress here also.
00:33:49And she was friends with Amanda.
00:33:51And we used to talk to her all the time also.
00:33:56Now it was police who wanted to talk to Mercedes Benz.
00:34:01Mercedes tells detectives that Amanda had texted her earlier that day asking for a ride to work.
00:34:07She said it was a little after 5pm when she arrived at Amanda's building.
00:34:10This is right around the time police believed Amanda was murdered.
00:34:16Mercedes said she called and texted Amanda to let her know that she'd arrived.
00:34:20But after waiting 5 or 6 minutes, she said she left.
00:34:26We talked to Mercedes Benz and she says, well, the reason I had to leave was I had to go
00:34:32to Walmart.
00:34:32Does that add up for you?
00:34:33It doesn't add up because her purpose of coming here all the way from East Hampton was to give a
00:34:38ride to Amanda to work to Friendly's, which is basically 5 to 10 minutes down the road.
00:34:42So it doesn't make sense.
00:34:44If you pull up here to get her, why would you just leave without even going upstairs?
00:34:51But what seems like a promising lead fizzles out.
00:34:54That neighbor who saw Mercedes speed away confirms she never got out of her car.
00:34:59And police obtained surveillance footage from Walmart that backs up her timeline.
00:35:03That's her in the white sedan pulling into Walmart.
00:35:06And more footage shows her shopping inside the store.
00:35:10Mercedes was basically cleared once we were able to get the tape from Walmart.
00:35:17Frustrated, investigators pushed forward, now casting a very wide net.
00:35:21I mean, they were taking DNA from everybody and anybody.
00:35:26We made a point for the medical examiner to make fingernail clippings of her fingernails.
00:35:31On this particular case, it was entered in a database and there was no convictions for a felony that would
00:35:37have matched it.
00:35:39With no matches to the DNA collected at the crime scene and no viable suspects,
00:35:43the case stalls.
00:35:47What surprised you most about this time?
00:35:49I think how tight-lipped they were, whether it was Ronnie Gibbons or Chickabee detectives.
00:35:57Nobody was talking, even to me.
00:36:03Nobody was talking.
00:36:05They were very tight-lipped about certain things.
00:36:08How did that make you feel?
00:36:09It was very frustrating at first because I wanted answers.
00:36:14And I would call every Sunday night.
00:36:16I would call down to Chickabee Police Department, looking for the detectives.
00:36:21What's the update?
00:36:22What's the update?
00:36:22What's the update?
00:36:23Nothing to tell you, Michelle.
00:36:25Got nothing to tell you, Michelle.
00:36:26But it's just, at what point is, I never gave up.
00:36:31But you just think, is this going to be a cold case?
00:36:36Will I ever know?
00:36:41That fear of never getting justice for Amanda was fuel for a fire that was now burning inside Michelle.
00:36:49My mom made it very clear that she wasn't just going to let the case go cold.
00:36:54I didn't give up hope because Michelle never gave up hope.
00:36:57She never gave up.
00:36:58She didn't let anybody else either.
00:37:01Tell me about how, after this time had passed, that you said, I've got to take matters into my own
00:37:06hands.
00:37:06I was driving home from work and I saw a billboard.
00:37:10And underneath it was Lamar and Company.
00:37:13And I said, you know what?
00:37:16Mom ain't playing around no more.
00:37:20I called them and emailed them.
00:37:22And next thing I knew, Amanda's billboard went up.
00:37:28And that's just the beginning, right?
00:37:30You did flyers.
00:37:31Balloon releases.
00:37:32I even had cards made up.
00:37:34Business cards with the text-a-tip number on it.
00:37:37And we attached them to the balloons.
00:37:39When we did the balloon releases, one of the balloons ended up three hours away.
00:37:43Cape Cod.
00:37:44Wow.
00:37:46It's been 18 months and five days since Amanda was murdered.
00:37:49So today, I'm hoping, with the release of these balloons, that somebody will come forward.
00:37:55Somebody knows something that happened that day.
00:37:57It was a busy Friday afternoon.
00:38:00We're just looking for that one missing piece of the puzzle.
00:38:02She was just in your face.
00:38:05She really was like you would be as a mother.
00:38:07We want to find out what happened to your child.
00:38:09And she was out there.
00:38:10She was going to find out.
00:38:13Michelle's a force.
00:38:15Despite Michelle's efforts to publicize Amanda's case, the investigation continues to languish.
00:38:23Then, a dramatic development.
00:38:25More than a year after the murder, a 911 call comes in that initially stuns police.
00:38:31A man confesses to Amanda's murder.
00:38:35I like to turn myself in.
00:38:37I live in Plymouth.
00:38:38Spell your last name.
00:38:41Do I really have to?
00:38:43I'm turning myself in.
00:38:45Right.
00:38:45But I have to know what you're turning yourself in for.
00:38:48A murder.
00:38:50From where, sir?
00:38:52From chickpeas.
00:38:54From Amanda Plath, and I just can't handle it anymore.
00:38:59Cops track down the caller.
00:39:01But just like hundreds of other promising leads, the confession is a dead end.
00:39:06The caller was impersonating another man trying to get him in trouble.
00:39:11Neither had any involvement in the murder.
00:39:14They had read it online, facts about the murder.
00:39:18And once you got through the facts, there was no factual basis to their, to the confession.
00:39:25This is a very frustrating investigation.
00:39:31And then, a discovery that blows the investigation wide open.
00:39:36And I still remember the night.
00:39:37It was probably at 10 o'clock at night.
00:39:39I get a call from Ronnie Gibbons.
00:39:40Michelle, you got that whiteboard from the apartment?
00:39:44A clue that had been hiding in plain sight all along.
00:39:49I never heard his name.
00:39:51Had you ever heard Amanda mention something, Dennis?
00:39:54Never, not once.
00:39:56Can you spot the clue on this whiteboard?
00:40:10Where do you guys want me to start?
00:40:13Nobody could wrap their head around the fact that Amanda was killed to begin with.
00:40:17Let alone trying to think of who could do it.
00:40:21We had a billboard on 391, a huge billboard with this beautiful picture that she took of herself.
00:40:27That day she was murdered.
00:40:31Somebody knew something, and nobody was talking.
00:40:35I kept saying, there's no way that there's no DNA.
00:40:40There's, there's just no way.
00:40:42There has to be something.
00:40:45There was a whiteboard way in the back.
00:40:48On a whiteboard, there was wording in it, Dennis was, W-A-Z, here.
00:40:54Who's Dennis?
00:40:55I got goosebumps right now.
00:41:08I was on the way to the hospital.
00:41:10They had told me 12 hours before I had her that I was having a boy.
00:41:15And Amanda by Boston was on the radio.
00:41:18Lazar Godmother and I drove to the hospital.
00:41:21And when she was born, the nurse looked at me and said, it's not a boy.
00:41:25I named her Amanda after the song by Boston.
00:41:28I'm gonna take you by surprise and make you realize, Amanda, I love you.
00:41:43She was just always bubbly and fun, and she had this big curly hair, and she just, you know, she
00:41:50was a light.
00:41:57But on that tragic Friday in August, Amanda's bright light was extinguished, and she was found brutally murdered in her
00:42:04apartment.
00:42:05She was lying on the kitchen floor right when I opened the door.
00:42:08She was in a pool of blood, stabbed her to death.
00:42:11I got the call to say that we have a homicide in response to the scene, so I actually responded
00:42:16to the scene initially.
00:42:22People in the neighborhood were worried, is someone gonna come to my door and kill me?
00:42:29You don't even think it's real at first, you know?
00:42:31You're numb to it.
00:42:32Then you're like, oh, okay, maybe something's, like, amiss.
00:42:35Like, maybe this isn't true.
00:42:38Nobody could wrap their head around the fact that Amanda was killed to begin with, let alone trying to think
00:42:44of who could do it.
00:42:48At the crime scene, police discover a partial palm print on the broken window, and a bloody shoe print in
00:42:54the kitchen near Amanda's body.
00:42:57But with lead after lead coming up empty, the investigation is losing momentum.
00:43:02They interview hundreds of people who knew her, friends, relatives, co-workers, and there is nothing new under the sun.
00:43:09Unless somebody comes forward with new information, this case is going to grow cold.
00:43:14I think there's this impression sometimes that a murder happens, police will solve it in months.
00:43:20Some cases, they take time, they linger.
00:43:23Was that frustrating for you?
00:43:25It was very frustrating.
00:43:27Very frustrating because, you know, as time goes on, and you have to realize that in 2011, when this occurred,
00:43:36time didn't stop.
00:43:37Investigations didn't stop. Crime didn't stop.
00:43:39So we were working on other cases as well.
00:43:42I was getting nervous that her case was going cold.
00:43:44Somebody knows something that happened that day.
00:43:46We're just looking for that one missing piece of the puzzle.
00:43:50Amanda's mother, Michelle, takes matters into her own hands, organizing benefits, balloon releases.
00:43:55She even got a massive billboard with Amanda's picture put up on the highway.
00:44:00I wanted people driving down the highway and seeing my daughter's face.
00:44:07Somebody knew something and nobody was talking.
00:44:13But then, a little more than a year after the murder, the story takes a strange turn.
00:44:18Rumors are swirling in Chicopee about graphic crime scene photos seen at a high school football game.
00:44:25New details on the Chicopee police officers accused of taking pictures of murder victim Amanda Plass' body.
00:44:33It was June 10th of 2013. I will never forget. There was a news conference.
00:44:41It was the then mayor who was appointing a new chief of police and said that they were investigating a
00:44:50crime scene photo leak by two of the Chicopee police officers.
00:44:55My heart just sank. What do you mean police officers were taking pictures of the crime scene? And sharing them?
00:45:04Two Chicopee police officers, who had been assigned to protect the crime scene, took photos of Amanda's body with their
00:45:10personal phones.
00:45:11And adding insult to injury, they forwarded the pictures to other officers and it was shown to coaches at a
00:45:16high school football game.
00:45:18Everyone in the whole newsroom was, how could anyone do this? How could an officer do this?
00:45:23Michelle sued the police department and the city, claiming emotional abuse suffered at the hands of the Chicopee PD.
00:45:30They sued them for $10 million. I sued the city, the police department. I sued them all.
00:45:36It wasn't about the money. It was about proving a point.
00:45:40An internal affairs investigation called the behavior an affront to the professionalism otherwise demonstrated by Chicopee and the state investigators
00:45:48in this case.
00:45:50The officers responsible were disciplined by the police department.
00:45:54They were there to protect the scene and at my daughter's most vulnerable moment, you disrespect her in the worst
00:46:07way ever and think that's okay.
00:46:19At the same time Michelle's dealing with the photo controversy, she's campaigning tirelessly to keep Amanda's murder case front and
00:46:26center.
00:46:28What was it like for you to have to handle questions about that controversy while at the same time, what
00:46:38you're really focused on is finding your daughter's killer?
00:46:40Yeah, and I think that's the hard part of it all. I didn't want the controversy to overshadow the fact
00:46:48that we still did not have justice for Amanda.
00:46:51We were still looking and begging for that end to be closed.
00:46:58Investigators working on Amanda's case had no involvement in the alleged scandal.
00:47:02Frustrated by the lack of progress, they go back to square one, reviewing everything from scratch.
00:47:08We would try to keep saying, what did we miss? What did we miss? What did we miss?
00:47:14And then, a breakthrough. While reviewing photos of the crime scene, investigators spot a potentially critical clue that had been
00:47:21overlooked, hiding in plain sight in Amanda's bedroom.
00:47:27We come upon, in a scene where the table was at, there was a whiteboard way in the back.
00:47:33On a whiteboard, there was wording in it, Dennis was, W-A-Z, here, 8-11-11.
00:47:42The grisly murder took place in the kitchen, but the whiteboard was in Amanda's bedroom, which appeared undisturbed, and they
00:47:49missed the clue.
00:47:51I get a call from Ronnie Gibbons, and it was like quarter to 10 at night.
00:47:56Michelle, you got that whiteboard from the apartment?
00:47:58I said, yeah, it's in the closet. He said, I'll be over in five minutes, I got to grab it.
00:48:04After more than two years, investigators finally had a name.
00:48:07But the answer to the question, who is Dennis, only brings more mystery.
00:48:13This Dennis was here on this whiteboard. This is a huge clue for your case.
00:48:17This is a big clue. Why?
00:48:19Because Dennis' name had never come up in the investigation.
00:48:22Now we're scrolling through Amanda's Facebook going, who's Dennis?
00:48:26She didn't know. Amy Lay didn't know.
00:48:29Her friends were calling me going, Dennis. Nobody knew who Dennis was.
00:48:45Amanda's friend, Desiree, said, through force of sheer will, you kept her name out there.
00:48:51How difficult was that?
00:48:52It was difficult. It takes a toll.
00:48:54And there are some nights where you just, again, you don't want to be that mom.
00:49:02But then something else would pop up and you'd be like, okay, let me call Trooper Gibbons.
00:49:10It was tough. It was very tough.
00:49:15I had Michelle that was calling me at 11 o'clock at night, 12 o'clock at night, mad and
00:49:19angry.
00:49:19You got to do something. You got to do something.
00:49:22There was never a time where Ronnie did not show up at my house without a smile on his face.
00:49:29The only side that I saw was the compassionate side.
00:49:36The side that said, I'm here to the end.
00:49:46It was a Wednesday night in October, more than two years after the murder, when Detective Gibbons was the one
00:49:52making a late night phone call to Michelle.
00:49:55It was October 30th, 2013, quarter to 10 at night. I get a call from Ronnie Gibbons.
00:50:01Hey, you still got that whiteboard from Amanda's apartment?
00:50:05I said, yeah, it's in the closet.
00:50:08He said, I'll be over in five minutes. I got to grab it.
00:50:12The discovery of a name hiding in plain sight on a whiteboard in Amanda's apartment kickstarts an investigation that, frankly,
00:50:18had been on life support.
00:50:20Now the question everyone is asking, who's Dennis?
00:50:23No one knew Dennis.
00:50:25Had you ever heard Amanda mention someone named Dennis?
00:50:27Nope. Never. Not once.
00:50:29I never heard his name.
00:50:30The detectives told me right when they found it.
00:50:32Asking me if I knew the name. Like, no idea.
00:50:35It is such a long shot, but they zone in on that and they decide they need to find out
00:50:41who Dennis is.
00:50:43One of the things I was missing was her cell phone. We went back to her cell phone records. We
00:50:50came out that there was phone calls. For a number, they came back to a Dennis Rosa Roman.
00:50:56I immediately recognized the name because, about a year before, I had actually arrested Dennis Rosa Roman.
00:51:05Gibbons had arrested Rosa Roman on a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. Rosa Roman pled guilty and paid a fine.
00:51:12But now Gibbons knew exactly who Dennis Rosa Roman was. The question? Was this the same Dennis whose name was
00:51:20on that whiteboard?
00:51:21You have anything further you want to ask?
00:51:23A possible answer could lie in one of the police interviews with Amanda's ex-boyfriend Jesse.
00:51:28While Jesse was still dating Amanda, Amanda had told him that she thinks her apartment had been broken into while
00:51:36she was at work.
00:51:37She thought it was some kid that she had met and bought weed off or something.
00:51:40Jesse described him as being shorter. Jesse's probably like five, ten, six feet.
00:51:44He's got to live, like, somewhere within, like, a two-second walk.
00:51:50I remember I used to see him walking around, like, that area all the time.
00:51:54Jesse said Amanda told him she had hung out with the person once before, but he had no idea where.
00:52:00Now Detective Gibbons is wondering if the man Jesse had been describing in that interview could have been Dennis Rosa
00:52:06Roman.
00:52:12Amanda lives about a half a block away from this park. She used to hang out here, right?
00:52:16Yeah, this is like a hangout for the neighborhood. And we learned later on this is kind of like where
00:52:21Dennis would hang out during the daytime because it just didn't work.
00:52:24So they might have come across each other in this park just in passing in the neighborhood.
00:52:28Exactly, exactly.
00:52:31In the time since Amanda's murder, Dennis Rosa Roman had moved from Chicopee to nearby Westfield, Massachusetts.
00:52:39Gibbons decides to pay him a visit.
00:52:41So now we're headed to Westfield, Massachusetts. Why is that significant?
00:52:45That's very significant because once we found that Dennis was here on the whiteboard and his number is on the
00:52:53phone, we want to locate Dennis.
00:52:56What's your expectation going there? What are you trying to achieve?
00:52:59The plan was to knock on his door and talk to him, just like we had talked to over 50
00:53:04other people in the case, as well as to get his shoe size, as well as to get his DNA.
00:53:13I go to the apartment, ring the doorbell, no answer. And next thing you know, I see from a side
00:53:18alleyway that's between the building, Dennis come out.
00:53:21And what happens next?
00:53:23Beautiful timing. But here he is, he comes right around the corner.
00:53:27Just walking right to you.
00:53:28Walking right to us.
00:53:30So I stop him and say, hey Dennis, you got a moment? We want to talk to you about Chicopee.
00:53:35We want to talk about a girl named Amanda Plass.
00:53:37Yeah.
00:53:37His first thing is, he kind of chuckles. He says, oh no, I don't go to Chicopee. It's too dangerous
00:53:42there.
00:53:42And I say, well, how about this girl Amanda Plass? And he says, I don't know Amanda at all.
00:53:48So I know that from the phone records, yes, he does know Amanda Plass.
00:53:54In fact, Gibbons knew from those phone records that there were nine calls between Dennis and Amanda.
00:54:01Dennis had called Amanda five times, just a month before the murder.
00:54:05I said, hey, can we go to the police station? He said, no, no, I got something I got to
00:54:08do.
00:54:09I noticed him light up a cigarette and he's smoking on a cigarette.
00:54:12And now I'm thinking, wow, maybe I can get DNA off this cigarette that he's smoking.
00:54:17Although Gibbons had arrested Rosa Roman a year prior, because he had never been convicted of a felony,
00:54:22his DNA was never entered into the national database.
00:54:27Gibbons says Rosa Roman didn't want to talk to him that day.
00:54:30He began to walk away, but not before he tossed the cigarette he was smoking on the sidewalk.
00:54:36Meanwhile, I told my partners, go to my car, get a paper bag, give me some rubber gloves.
00:54:42Dennis sees that because he keeps looking back.
00:54:44My partner's come back with rubber gloves.
00:54:47He sees me put them on.
00:54:48He sees that paper bag.
00:54:49He sees me reach down and put that inside that bag.
00:54:58Two days later, Dennis Rosa Roman is sitting in an interview room at the Westfield Police Department.
00:55:05So your first name is Dennis, right?
00:55:07D-S-D-N-N-I-S.
00:55:09Engaging in a high stakes game of cat and mouse with investigators.
00:55:13I don't feel right doing this at all, but I have to do.
00:55:17You want me to understand?
00:55:19I'm trying to save my life here.
00:55:30Outside his home, Dennis Rosa Roman appears to be acting cool and calm with detectives.
00:55:37Until he sees them pick up his cigarette butt off the street.
00:55:44Clearly he's concerned, because not long after they leave, he calls Lieutenant Ronald Gibbons.
00:55:49After seeing me take that cigarette butt, he's now blowing my phone up.
00:55:54Hey, you and I gotta talk.
00:56:02Where they want him to start, when they meet with the cameras rolling, is very simple.
00:56:08Does he know Amanda Plass?
00:56:13You knew her?
00:56:15I met her, I didn't know her that long, but I knew her of her.
00:56:19Do you know her first name?
00:56:21Amanda.
00:56:24How much before did you meet her and that she passed?
00:56:28Right.
00:56:29So like a week or two?
00:56:30Okay.
00:56:31Two weeks at most.
00:56:32So you know her about a week or two before she got killed?
00:56:34Yeah.
00:56:36He didn't know Amanda at all.
00:56:38And then he comes around to say that, okay, I did know Amanda, but I would sell her weed.
00:56:52How many times previously did you get weed for her?
00:56:56Like three times, the most.
00:56:59You ever been to her apartment?
00:57:00Uh, like up the stairs and that's about it.
00:57:04I've never, I've never stepped in her house.
00:57:06I've never seen the inside of her house.
00:57:08As Dennis is talking, he notices detectives checking out his sneakers.
00:57:13What are my shoes?
00:57:15Yeah, Nike's.
00:57:18Air Max's.
00:57:18What he wears into the station that particular day is this black Air Max shoe.
00:57:25And we took the aha moment to say, you know what?
00:57:28Can you take off your shoe?
00:57:29And I'm going to take a picture of your shoe.
00:57:36Because the crime scene itself has in print, in blood.
00:57:40The print that you found on the scene, what size was that?
00:57:44That was a size seven and a half Nike shoe.
00:57:47And what size is the shoe that we're looking at?
00:57:49This is a size seven and a half Nike shoe.
00:57:53Remember, detectives have had no luck matching those bloody shoe prints to previous suspects.
00:57:59So according to Gibbons, this is potentially damning if confirmed.
00:58:03But still not as conclusive as a DNA match to what was found under Amanda's fingernails.
00:58:09So Gibbons says they get Rosa Roman to agree to a DNA mouth swab.
00:58:13Just, you know, your mouth is going to rub that inside of your lip.
00:58:17And sort of to the other side.
00:58:19Gibbons says he wants Rosa Roman directly tested,
00:58:22in case that cigarette butt sample might somehow be contaminated.
00:58:27Doing great.
00:58:29Under your tongue.
00:58:31There's a really big difference between you thinking,
00:58:34hey, I think we got our guy, and you lining it up with the evidence.
00:58:37This is a matter of facts.
00:58:39So, the day that this all happened, what happened that day?
00:58:42So, Rosa Roman starts telling detectives his version of what happened the day Amanda was killed.
00:58:49Did she call you, like, that day?
00:58:51Yeah, she called me that day.
00:58:53She said, yo, give me a dime bag.
00:58:55She was not the one that came to the door.
00:58:57Like, the guy opened the door, he just said, yo, give me that, and that's it.
00:59:01And I went about my way.
00:59:04What Dennis says is that this other guy was at the apartment.
00:59:09I didn't bother saying anything to the guy.
00:59:11The guy looked suspect.
00:59:12Like, he looked suspicious as .
00:59:15He answers detectives' questions about what he says the man looked like.
00:59:20I'm six feet, so what do you think?
00:59:21Five, ten, maybe.
00:59:23So, he's taller than you.
00:59:24Taller than me.
00:59:24Obviously.
00:59:25Yeah.
00:59:26Um, he has, like, dirty, longish hair.
00:59:29Mutually white.
00:59:30Yeah, he's white.
00:59:31So, he weighed, like, about 170, 190 the most.
00:59:38Almost 200 pounds.
00:59:39And goes on to describe what he claims he heard while outside the apartment.
00:59:44I'm listening to this guy.
00:59:45He's like, I want my money.
00:59:47I didn't give you this for no reason.
00:59:50Why would you do this to me?
00:59:52That was the guy's voice?
00:59:53Yeah.
00:59:53You're asking him questions about the description of the man who made these comments from inside the apartment.
00:59:59Why are you asking him about that?
01:00:00Because I want to lock him into a story.
01:00:02Will you be consistent with that story, or you go on another tangent?
01:00:06So, the guy said something to her, like, I want my money.
01:00:09I didn't do this.
01:00:09I want my money.
01:00:11I didn't do this for nothing.
01:00:13For nothing?
01:00:13Great.
01:00:14Did you hear her voice?
01:00:15No, I didn't.
01:00:16I didn't hear nothing.
01:00:17Rosa Roman is consistent.
01:00:20Even though Gibbons says he is convinced, Rosa Roman is making up his story.
01:00:25That's all about everything I know.
01:00:27And I can't say no more, no less.
01:00:29You know what I'm saying?
01:00:31It's really, I'm sorry guys.
01:00:32I'm actually helping you guys.
01:00:34You know what I mean?
01:00:34You're very helpful.
01:00:35Because you know what?
01:00:36Not too many people have told us that he saw the guy there.
01:00:39You know?
01:00:39So that's you.
01:00:40You're aces with me, you know?
01:00:43I didn't have enough to arrest him at this point.
01:00:46I had to allow him to leave.
01:00:48Thank you very much.
01:00:50One interview ends.
01:00:52But Rosa Roman isn't done answering questions.
01:00:56Two days later...
01:00:58This picture is inside our apartment.
01:01:00You ever, you ever seen this room?
01:01:02It's a photo of that whiteboard.
01:01:04What will Rosa Roman have to say when he's shown his name is on it?
01:01:09And see right here, it says Dennis was here.
01:01:20Dennis, thank you very much for coming in.
01:01:22All right, Dennis.
01:01:23And you've been very cooperative with us.
01:01:25We appreciate that.
01:01:28Dennis Rosa Roman agrees to another interview.
01:01:31I wish I could do more to help you guys.
01:01:33Repeating the story, detectives say they don't believe.
01:01:35That he never entered Amanda Plass' apartment the day of her murder.
01:01:40After he claimed some man answered her door.
01:01:43He's like, well, she's busy right now.
01:01:46And I give it to him.
01:01:47He shuts the door a damn heart in my face and that's it.
01:01:49I was like, okay.
01:01:50This guy's mad and I'm about to leave.
01:01:52Like...
01:01:52And I laugh.
01:01:55You know what I'm saying?
01:01:58But Rosa Roman says that was long enough for the man to recognize him.
01:02:02I feel like this guy is just gonna run into me one day.
01:02:06And just, like, try to face on me or hurt me or something.
01:02:10And that's when I'm gonna peel my ass to the police station.
01:02:13Like, yeah.
01:02:14Is that because he saw you that day?
01:02:15Like, this guy knows what I look like.
01:02:19But what Rosa Roman doesn't know is that Gibbons is expecting critical evidence to the case to come back at
01:02:25any moment.
01:02:26The results from his DNA swab.
01:02:28You were asking about this picture, right?
01:02:30Yeah, yeah.
01:02:30I wanna see it.
01:02:31So before that happens, Gibbons confronts Rosa Roman for the first time about that all-important whiteboard where it says
01:02:39Dennis was here.
01:02:42This picture is inside our apartment.
01:02:44You ever seen this?
01:02:45I have.
01:02:49First time I'm seeing it.
01:02:51We said, first time I'm seeing it.
01:02:53And then, well, how about this?
01:02:56This whiteboard that's in the back room.
01:02:58And see right here, it says Dennis was here.
01:03:01Oh, yeah.
01:03:02I do remember that.
01:03:02I wrote my name on that.
01:03:04You wrote your name on that?
01:03:04Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:03:06I remember that.
01:03:06I wrote my name on that.
01:03:08So he's admitting to you that that's his name on the whiteboard.
01:03:12You've told me all this time you've never been in an apartment.
01:03:15And now I got you in there.
01:03:17So you signed Dennis was here.
01:03:19Right.
01:03:20You didn't put the date?
01:03:21No, I didn't.
01:03:21I don't even know why that's there.
01:03:23I don't, yeah.
01:03:24But you remember this dry erase board?
01:03:25Yeah, I do remember.
01:03:27Where was the dry erase board?
01:03:28That was, um, in the back of, you know, the door, right when you come in?
01:03:33Yeah.
01:03:33It was right there.
01:03:34Yeah.
01:03:34As he is confronted with the evidence, he shapeshifts.
01:03:38He manages to keep changing his story to try to ameliorate the facts in front of him.
01:03:43There are certain kind of people who can make up things on the fly and change their narrative
01:03:48based on the clues that are being given to them.
01:03:51You say you've never been inside a place.
01:03:53Well, I have been in her house, but, like, I just don't want people to, like, look at me
01:03:59like if I'm a murderer.
01:04:00So now this is the first time that he actually puts himself in the apartment.
01:04:21The back room was where the whiteboard was.
01:04:24So what are you putting together at this point?
01:04:26I'm putting together at this point that he, in fact, had not only been in that back room,
01:04:32he'd also been in the kitchen at some point where the crime occurred.
01:04:38Remember, Amanda had told friends she suspected someone had broken into her apartment.
01:04:43And Dennis says she had asked him about that.
01:04:46You said that Amanda approached you, about somebody breaking into her place?
01:04:50She asked me, like, oh, somebody came into my house. Do you guys know?
01:04:54And I was like, well, I really don't know. Like, I don't know what to tell you.
01:04:59Now Gibbons suspects that someone was Rosa Roman.
01:05:02Then, a few minutes later, a huge development.
01:05:06The detectives get called to leave the interrogation room.
01:05:13How much longer is this going to take? Five minutes.
01:05:15All right.
01:05:16Outside, they get the news the DNA results are in.
01:05:20Rosa Roman is a match for what was found under Amanda's fingernails.
01:05:24They soon drop that bombshell on him directly.
01:05:27The DNA that was found under her fingernails connects you to her.
01:05:32You know what? It doesn't just get there.
01:05:35Dennis is now thinking in his mind, how do I get out of this?
01:05:39And what he tells them next totally flips the story on its head.
01:05:43He now claims he tried to save Amanda.
01:05:46I know the better. And I tried to save her life.
01:05:49What's he trying to do here?
01:05:50He's trying to create a situation of why we have his DNA.
01:05:53Why his DNA is possibly on her.
01:05:56He's casting himself almost as the hero in this.
01:05:59Yes, he is.
01:06:00Well, why don't you tell us everything that happened in the apartment?
01:06:02I know the f***ing murderer. That's all I know.
01:06:04I can't give you no more. I'm sorry.
01:06:06You said he tried.
01:06:07I want a lawyer. I want a lawyer.
01:06:09Okay.
01:06:11Gibbons says asking for a lawyer stops the interrogation room recording immediately.
01:06:15So you don't see the scuffle that he says breaks out when detectives handcuff Rosa Roman and place him under
01:06:21arrest.
01:06:22You don't have to be aggressive with me, dude.
01:06:24You didn't have to be that aggressive.
01:06:27And then they have him booked.
01:06:29He's charged with first degree murder.
01:06:31This is over two years after Amanda was killed.
01:06:35They tell you we are making an arrest.
01:06:37Yep.
01:06:38What did you think?
01:06:40Finally.
01:06:41Finally.
01:06:43You know, you always wonder why.
01:06:45Why?
01:06:46Why?
01:06:47Dennis, though, is admitting nothing.
01:06:49Were you guys trying to pin me for this f***ing murder, too?
01:06:52My DNA may be on her body.
01:06:53My DNA may be in the house.
01:06:55But you guys really don't know what the f***ing went down.
01:06:58But after he's transported from the Westfield Police Department to Chicopee, he's about to explain.
01:07:03He demanded to speak to myself and Watson again.
01:07:09So you, he didn't come to the door.
01:07:11You actually went inside.
01:07:12I went inside.
01:07:13I barged in.
01:07:14Was the door open?
01:07:15The door wasn't locked.
01:07:18As Rosa Roman tells them the newest version of his story, he now claims when he hears the commotion inside
01:07:23Amanda's apartment, he rushes in and fights the man he says was trying to kill her.
01:07:28What do you see when you get to the kitchen?
01:07:30I see the guy on top of her.
01:07:31When you say he was on top of her, where was she at?
01:07:33She was on the floor.
01:07:34What are you doing?
01:07:35I'm f***ing hustling with the guy, f***ing trying to get the knife out of his hand.
01:07:38And he's just, like, thrusting it, thrusting it, and thrusting it forward towards me.
01:07:42And I'm, like, trying to back up and f***ing, and I try to, like, grab Amanda.
01:07:46And she scratched me.
01:07:48She scratched me.
01:07:48Yeah, she got some skin off of me.
01:07:51But that was because I was trying to save her.
01:07:53That's right.
01:07:54Rosa Roman now claims he tried to save Amanda's life.
01:07:57This is the key to his new story, his explanation for why his DNA is under Amanda's fingernails, even though
01:08:04he says he didn't kill her.
01:08:05And after that, me and him were tussling, and the guy punches me in the f***ing jaw, and I f***ing
01:08:10run out the door.
01:08:11And that's what his story was, that this guy is now following him around town.
01:08:16He's now being threatened by this guy because this guy doesn't want the truth to come out.
01:08:22What did he tell you?
01:08:24Yo, you snitch on me, I'm going to f***ing kill you.
01:08:27Just like that.
01:08:27Like, I know I killed her, and that's it.
01:08:29It's done.
01:08:31But now, Rosa Roman has to tell that story in court.
01:08:37The trial of the man accused of killing 20-year-old Amanda Plass is getting underway today in Springfield.
01:08:44And he says he can identify who Amanda's killer is.
01:09:02Amanda Plass' parents sat hand-in-hand with Justice for Amanda bracelets on as they waited for the murder trial
01:09:09of their 20-year-old daughter to begin.
01:09:13I think I broke down more so in the courtroom, just looking at him.
01:09:20It's kind of hard to describe how it felt to see him for the first time.
01:09:26It's like a fever dream.
01:09:27Like, is this really happening?
01:09:29But my mind was not on him.
01:09:31My mind is on my sister.
01:09:35When I was selected for the jury, it was surreal.
01:09:39It was definitely a bit of a, oh, my God, what am I in for?
01:09:43The home that Amanda lived in was two houses from where my mother grew up and my grandmother lived.
01:09:51It just became very personal.
01:09:54The evidence in this case will show that on Friday, August 26, 2011, Amanda Plass was brutally murdered in her
01:10:03home.
01:10:05Ms. Plass was getting ready to go to work when the defendant came into her apartment while she was getting
01:10:11ready and stabbed her six times.
01:10:17Prosecutors lay out their case against Dennis Rosa Roman.
01:10:19There are the bloody footprints in his shoe size, his palm print on the broken window, and his DNA under
01:10:26Amanda's fingernails.
01:10:29They argue that Dennis, and only Dennis, committed this crime.
01:10:33One set of bloody footprints.
01:10:36One major male DNA profile under me, both her right hand and left hand fingernails.
01:10:45One killer.
01:10:47One defendant.
01:10:50They literally took us from A to B to C to D.
01:10:55They laid out every single piece of evidence.
01:10:58They correlated every piece of evidence to him.
01:11:02In addition to the physical evidence, prosecutors also used Dennis' own words against him.
01:11:08There's a seat right here that says Dennis was here.
01:11:11Oh, yeah, I do remember that. I wrote my name on that.
01:11:16Each time he's confronted with evidence, he changes his story to fit the evidence.
01:11:23I think it was important for them to see the three interviews because it showed Dennis as agreeing to some
01:11:30of the facts, denying some of the facts, and then coming around and changing the stories repeatedly.
01:11:36But while the prosecution says the evidence proves Dennis' guilt, the defense argues that it isn't what it seems.
01:11:53The last story he told was that he was there with another man, and he saw the other man kill
01:12:01Amanda.
01:12:02But he will never give the name because he was afraid the killer would kill his family.
01:12:08And he tells you how many times. He's afraid for himself. He's afraid for his family.
01:12:14Charge me. I'm not giving up his name.
01:12:17My name pops up, meaning if they capture him and my name pops up, he's going to kill me.
01:12:25Dennis' version of events kept changing over those three police interviews.
01:12:29In his final one, Dennis had a new detail for detectives, that the alleged killer was none other than his
01:12:36own drug dealer.
01:12:44He had said he was there because he had given Amanda pot, and she had not paid.
01:12:53So he said that the drug dealer killed Amanda, and he saw it.
01:13:04I'm yelling, like, yo, why are you doing this? I'm going to get you your money.
01:13:08And I try to grab her, and she, like, grabs my arm, and he just keeps going and going and
01:13:13going and going.
01:13:14What do you mean he's going and going? He's stabbing her?
01:13:16He keeps continuously stabbing her, and she just collapsed on the floor after I separated her.
01:13:21Think she was dead?
01:13:22I know she was dead. I was just thinking to myself, like, how do I get myself out of this?
01:13:29The defense strategy was basically that the police should look further.
01:13:37They continually brought up other people to say, well, it could have been them, or it was them, or it
01:13:42was this, or just to try to have a sense of doubt.
01:13:48After eight days of testimony, the fate of Dennis Rosa Roman now rests with the jury.
01:13:54When we retired to the jury room to deliberate, we took a photo of Amanda.
01:14:00It was a close-up of her face with her smile, and we hung that in the jury room just
01:14:05so we could remember why we were there and what this was all about.
01:14:10It was hard. You don't ever want to think of your best friend going through something that awful, and that
01:14:18was her final moments, and then bringing that into the trial, it was just...
01:14:22It's terrible.
01:14:23It's terrible. To this day, it's just... There's no words.
01:14:29After only five hours of deliberation, the jury reaches a verdict.
01:14:33We were sitting in the DA's office, in the break room, and next thing you know, you hear running down
01:14:39the hall that the jury came back.
01:14:42Breaking news this hour. A guilty verdict today in the Amanda Plass murder trial.
01:14:46The jury today found Dennis Rosa Roman guilty of first-degree murder.
01:14:50We had a couple jurors who weren't quite sure. One of them wanted to review a bunch of evidence again,
01:14:56and his commentary the whole time was, look at him, he's lying, he keeps changing his answers.
01:15:00And we very quickly came to a unanimous decision that Dennis was guilty.
01:15:06In that moment, you felt?
01:15:08Relief. Definite relief. Now I can put an end to this chapter.
01:15:16Despite a guilty verdict, there's still the unanswered question hanging over this case.
01:15:21And that's, why did Dennis Rosa Roman kill Amanda Plass in the first place?
01:15:35Dennis Rosa Roman has been found guilty of the murder of Amanda Plass.
01:15:39But the one mystery that still remains is motive.
01:15:43I don't know why. There's only one person who knows why.
01:15:46And he never spoke, so that's definitely the hardest of it.
01:15:51There wasn't a bad bone in that child's body.
01:15:53She never did anything wrong to anybody.
01:15:59Lieutenant Gibbons has developed his own theory as to why he believes Dennis Rosa Roman murdered Amanda.
01:16:07He says he learned during the investigation that there was a bag of marijuana inside Amanda's apartment left behind by
01:16:13someone else.
01:16:14Gibbons says investigators were never able to find that bag and suspects Dennis broke in looking to steal it.
01:16:21Dennis is a low-level dealer in the neighborhood.
01:16:25My theory is that he wanted to steal that weed that was in the apartment.
01:16:30And Amanda just was a victim of circumstances that she happened to be there when he arrived.
01:16:37Before Rosa Roman is sentenced, Amanda's mother, surrounded by family, tearfully addresses the court.
01:16:43In August 26, 2011, my world was forever changed.
01:16:51My pain does not end here, but my healing begins.
01:16:56I think at that point, it was finally my time to tell him,
01:17:00you took something precious from this world, and I hope you never see the light of day again.
01:17:06There is no amount of time that will ever bring Amanda back.
01:17:09I would like to ask the court to hand out the highest sentence possible of life without parole.
01:17:17It's the justice Michelle Penna has spent more than five years fighting for.
01:17:22Court is hereby sent to you to the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction
01:17:27for the term of your natural life without the possibility of parole.
01:17:30As you look at him and you see that he's getting life without parole,
01:17:34what emotions are going through you at that time?
01:17:36It was a relief knowing that we were finally at another closing point.
01:17:41Did you feel like justice had been served?
01:17:44No, justice will never be served because she's dead and he's not.
01:17:51As for those officers who snapped those photos of Amanda's body at her most vulnerable moment,
01:17:57the mayor of Chicopee released a written apology.
01:18:00Michelle also reached a resolution in the lawsuit she filed.
01:18:04Plas's family sued the city of Chicopee and the police department.
01:18:08The lawsuit was settled for $110,000.
01:18:12Michelle continued her fight and helped pass Amanda's law.
01:18:17The bill bans first responders from taking and sharing unauthorized pictures of crime victims.
01:18:23For an officer to want in that moment to take a picture of a scene like that, it makes my
01:18:30stomach turn.
01:18:31My mom wanted to make it known that you're never doing that again.
01:18:37Today, Michelle keeps Amanda's memory alive by sharing her story with college students.
01:18:44This is about the path that I have taken.
01:18:48The path that has helped me to my healing process.
01:18:52I want people to know that grief never goes away.
01:18:56But dealing with it or trying to deal with it or put a band-aid on it enough to get
01:19:00you through every day is what you have to do.
01:19:04Thank you again.
01:19:06Thank you so much.
01:19:09Oh, these are great.
01:19:11That's her and Brandon.
01:19:13Brandon is my son.
01:19:15See, just have the happiness on his face and her big smile.
01:19:20I have always said that Amanda passing kind of saved my life because I knew that I wanted to make
01:19:31her proud.
01:19:33She really helped me become the woman who I am today.
01:19:37She was just a very kind person and wanted to help the world be better.
01:19:42And that's just something I hope everyone can try to do.
01:19:47Do you feel like she's with you now?
01:19:48Oh, absolutely.
01:19:50All the time.
01:19:51If you could have one more minute with her, one more second to say something to her, what would you
01:19:57say?
01:19:57What she always said and what she always did.
01:19:59Keep your face to the sun and never look back at your shadows.
01:20:02Just like her precious sunflowers.
01:20:10Dennis Rosa Roman appealed his conviction, but it was denied.
01:20:14And David, even though he was sentenced to life without parole, there's still a chance he could walk free one
01:20:19day as early as 2028.
01:20:20A Massachusetts court has ruled that it's unconstitutional to sentence offenders under the age of 21 to life without parole.
01:20:27Rosa Roman was 20 at the time of Amanda's murder.
01:20:29Her family tells 2020 they plan to fight this new ruling.
01:20:33That's our program for tonight.
01:20:34I'm David Muir.
01:20:35And I'm Deborah Roberts.
01:20:36From all of us here at ABC News and 2020, good night.
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